Department News

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New and Noteworthy

  • Alexandra Oprea's research on compulsory voting published by Cambridge UP
    3/8/24
    Alexandria Oprea's research, published online by Cambridge University Press, strengthens the normative case for compulsory voting by arguing that it could improve democracy by reducing polarization, which existing work suggests can lead to democratic backsliding. Read the news story by Bert Gambini.
  • Katie Johnson and Vi Vonderhaar have been awarded the Adam Smith Fellowship by Mercatus, a highly competitive fellowship in which graduate students gather to discuss classic works in political economy.
    Philosophy graduate students win Mercatus' Adam Smith Fellowships
    6/18/24

    Philosophy graduate students Katie Johnson and Vi Vonderhaar have each been awarded Adam Smith Fellowships by Mercatus, a highly competitive fellowship in which graduate students gather to discuss classic works in political economy.

  • Podcast episodes feature Buffalo philosophers
    6/14/24

    Video Podcast: Dr. David Hershenov, Animalism and its Bioethical Implications in Philosophy of Personal Identity.

    Podcast: Dr. David Gray, Experiential Learning and the Art of Working Together.

  • Cosmos+Taxis publishes symposium on the work of Jobst Landgrebe and Barry Smith
    5/29/24
    The journal Cosmos+Taxis, 12 (5+6), has published a symposium on Jobst Landgrebe and Barry Smith, Why Machines Will Never Rule the World: Artificial Intelligence without Fear. The issue includes papers and reviews by more than eighteen authors.
  • Barry Smith: "Human creativity will never be replaced by artificial intelligence."
    5/9/24
    The Bruno Leoni Institute featured Barry Smith talking with his avatar. His digital alter ego asks questions and he answers them. The physical resemblance to Smith is impressive, but the way the avatar speaks is a little less so. It was one of the most awaited moments of the meeting organized at the Ogr in Turin by the Crt foundation and the Bruno Leoni institute.
  • BFO and CCO adopted as 'baseline standards' by federal agencies
    3/4/24
    Under the leadership of Barry Smith, on-going research by UB ontologists has resulted in the development of Basic Formal Ontology (BFO), an international standard top-level ontology that provides the common starting point for 100s of ontology initiatives throughout the world. Here in Buffalo, BFO has been extended to form the Common Core Ontologies (CCO), which is a family of mid-level ontologies used especially in military and security domains. BFO and CCO allow information to be effectively combined, retrieved and analyzed. In January of this year, the Chief Data Officers in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the DOD, and, the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office defined BFO and CCO as the baseline standards for ontology work in the Department of Defense and Intelligence Community.

NOTEWORTHY: The American Philosophical Association (APA) has awarded a grant to David Emmanuel Gray for the Mentor Observation Program. Over the next two years (2024 to 2025) Dr. Gray will participate in the APA's Mentor Observation Program with Jack Musselman (Associate Professor of Philosophy, St. Edward's University) for the American Association of Philosophy Teachers (AAPT). The program abstract is here.