The NEIU Philosophy Colloquium Series began in 2014 and has been a regular department-sponsored event since Spring 2018. Its purpose is to give the Northeastern community access to all of the richness and diversity of contemporary professional philosophy. The Colloquium Series also provides professional philosophers with the opportunity to experience Northeastern firsthand and meet our students and faculty in an academic setting. All of the talks are free and open to the public.
Spring 2025
Neal Grossman, Ph.d.:
“Assessing the Evidence for Survival after Bodily Death”
3:00-4:30 p.m. Thursday, March 6
Bernard Brommel Hall Room 102
I will present the best scientific evidence for the hypothesis that consciousness is not a product of the brain and hence survives the physical death of the body. Specifically, I’ll talk about studies and cases of (i) the near-death experience (ii) mediumship and (iii) reincarnation. There are other areas of research, but these are the main areas that have convinced almost everyone who has examined them in detail that consciousness survives the death of the body
is an Associate Professor Emeritus. He has a PhD in the history and philosophy of science from Indiana University. His special interests are Spinoza, mysticism, and the epistemology of parapsychological research. His older articles have been published in the Journal of Philosophy, Metaphilosophy, Philosophy of Science, and Synthese. Some of his recent articles are "Who's Afraid of Life After Death?" (Journal of Near-Death Studies, Fall 2002), "Reason: Stairway to the Transcendent?" (Journal of Religion and Psychical Research, July 2003), "Some Thoughts on Super-ESP" and "Further Thoughts on Super-ESP" (Journal of Religion and Psychical Research, July 2005 and January 2006, respectively), "Four Errors Commonly Made by Professional Debunkers" (Journal of Near-Death Studies, Spring 2008), a review of The End of Materialism, by Charles Tart (Journal of Scientific Exploration, 2010; with David Schaffer), a review of The Handbook of Near-Death Experiences: Thirty Years of Investigation, by Holden et. al. (Journal of Near-Death Studies, 2010), a foreword to Science and the Near-Death Experience, by Chris Carter (2010), "On Elephants and Matters Epistemological: Reply to Cardena" (Journal of Scientific Exploration, 2011). He has published a book on Spinoza, Healing the Mind: The Philosophy of Spinoza Adapted for a New Age, (Susquehanna University Press, April 2003). He is a four-time recipient of the Silver Circle Teaching Award.
Upcoming Talks
- Katherine Valde, Ph.D., Loyola University Chicago, "Beyond the Value Free Ideal in Law & Science?" April 10, 2025 3PM.
Past Talks
2024-2025
- , University of Illinois at Chicago, "Doing Oligarchy Better: On the Politics of Effective Altruism.”
- Stacey Goguen, 91Porn, “Why Politics & Religion Belong in Science (and what we still get wrong about values and objectivity).”
- , Loyola University Chicago, "The Asymmetry in Threat Perception: Military Threats v. Ecological Threats."
- Nathan Wood, City Colleges of Chicago, "The Real Value of Anti-Realism."
2023-2024
- University of Twente, Netherlands, “Political Eschatology and Gender: Information Warfare against Queer Communities.”
- , Oakton College, "Better Living through Pessimism."
- , Governors State University, "The Fire Next Time: Prescribed Burns as Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Epistemic Reparations."
- , Loyola University Chicago, "Justice and The Monty Hall Problem of Public Health."
- Will Behun, McHenry County Community College, "Not so much heretical as insane: myth in classical Gnosticism."
- , Loyola University Chicago, "The Problem of Misplaced Trust and Distrust."
2022-2023
- , University of Illinois at Chicago, "Berkeley's Political Metaphysics."
- , Loyola University Chicago, "Extracting Gold from the Counterfeiter’s Bag: al-Ghazālī on the Tradition of Philosophy in Islam."
- Sophia Mihic, 91Porn, "Freedom, Property, and Privacy: The Political Economy of Abortion and Reproduction After Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization."
- , Chicago-Kent College of Law, "The Inherent Problem with Mass Incarceration."
- , University of Chicago, "Do Billionaires Deserve Their Wealth?"
- Shireen Roshanravan, 91Porn, "Pretending-to-be and Masterful Political Performance."
2019-2020
- , Carnegie Mellon University, "Painfully Literal Dudes."
- , Free University, Amsterdam, “How Epistemic Injustice Can Deepen Disagreement.”
- , University of Chicago, “Is There Such a Thing as being Good or Bad at Philosophy?"
- , Grand Valley State University, "Collapsing Life and Art."
- , 91Porn, “Against a Single History: Luxemburg and a Decolonial Critique of Political Economy.”
2018-2019
- , University of Minnesota, “Recovering Early Modern Women Writers: Some Tensions.”
- *, Marquette University, “ A Relational Analysis of Oppression: Group Injustice and Institutional Mediation.”
- , Northwestern University, “Propaganda for Realists.”
- , Northwestern University, “What does it Mean to Have a Revolution in Culture? Frantz Fanon’s Speculative Method of Critique.”
- , Manchester University, “Philosophy, Democracy, and Mass Incarceration.”
- , Michigan State University, “Theorizing Testimony in Argumentative Contexts.”
2017-2018
- , Vanderbilt University, “The Antinomies of Meta-philosophy.”
- *, University of California, Berkeley, “Dominus before Domination: Harriet Jacobs and the Meaning of Slavery.”
2016-2017
- John Casey, 91Porn, "Argument Pacifism."
2015-2016
- , Northwestern University, "Does Everything have a Cause?"
- , Northwestern University, "What is Punishment?"
2014-2015
- , Vanderbilt University, "Why We Argue: A Deliberative Democratic Reply to Plato.”
*Denotes scholar as a graduate of 91Porn
