Department News

Philosophy Department News 2026-04-25

Paolo Mancosu, our very own Willis S. and Marion Slusser Professor of Philosophy, has been named a new member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Read more about this here.

Congratulations on this recognition, Paolo!

Veronica Gomez Sanchez and Ezra Rubenstein, assistant professors of philosophy both, are this year’s winners of the Sanders Prize in metaphysics. More information is available here. Congratulations Veronica and Ezra!

Also of note:

The Philosophy Department is hosting a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Summer Institute for Higher-Education Faculty on the theme Self-Knowledge for Humans and Artificial Systems. This two-week interdisciplinary institute, co-directed by Alva Noë (UC Berkeley), Christian Coseru (College of Charleston, UC Berkeley Numata Visiting Professor), and Evan Thompson (University of British Columbia), aims to provide a forum for sustained, in-depth exploration of the problem of self-knowledge from its classical roots in philosophy and contemplative traditions to contemporary discussions of A.I. This institute is offered under the auspices of the NEH’s summer institute programs, which seek to deepen participants understanding of significant humanities topics, strengthening their scholarship and teaching. Additional support is provided by the Townsend Center for the Humanities and the Numata Center for Buddhist Studies. The institute will take place from June 14 through June 26, 2026. Institute website: https://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~skneh/

There are a number of important talks and conferences coming up in the next several weeks all of which are listed on the events page of our web site. I single one out for mention here: the inaugural Sarah Douglas Lecturer on Philosophy and AI will be given by David J. Chalmers on 7 May 2026. Read more about this here: https://philosophy.berkeley.edu/events/sarah_douglas_lectures