The Titus-Hepp Lecture Series welcomes Graham Harman, distinguished professor of philosophy at the Southern California Institute of Architecture in Los Angeles, discussing object-oriented philosophy. In this lecture, Harman explains the basic principles of his new theory and discusses how it has proven useful already in a number of fields, including art, architecture, and social theory. No prior knowledge is assumed. Harman is the author of 16 books and more than 200 articles and book...

John Byrne’s run on “The Sensational She-Hulk” involves complex and subtle interactions between the city in which the comics take place and the city in which the comics are produced — New York City, in both cases. In this talk, Cook will examine the unique metafictional effects that these interactions afford, and the lessons that can be learned about the nature of storytelling in comics by attending to these unique self-referential effects. Cook is the John M. Dolan Professor of Philosophy...

The Titus-Hepp Lecture Series welcomes Otavio Bueno, professor of philosophy at the University of Miami, presenting “Contingent Abstract Objects.” According to the received view of mathematical objects, if they exist, they necessarily exist, and statements about them, if true, are necessarily true. This provides a particular conception of abstract objects that supports platonism, a view that asserts the antecedents of both conditionals above. In this talk, Bueno resists the received view, and...

The Titus-Hepp Lecture Series welcomes Eileen Nutting, assistant professor of philosophy at the University of Kansas, presenting “Field’s Challenge and Mathematical Practice.” Hartry Field raises an epistemological challenge for mathematical platonism: roughly, if mathematics is about causally inert mathematical objects, how could mathematicians so reliably get mathematical truths right? But Field’s challenge presupposes a deeply misguided picture of mathematical practice. Once this picture...