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.
Fall 2024
Stephen Engelmann, Ph.d.:
“Doing Oligarchy Better: On the Politics of Effective Altruism”
3:00-4:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 13
Bernard Brommel Hall Room 102
Utilitarianism began as a philosophically inspired anti-aristocratic movement for radical democratic reform. Following a quick survey of Effective Altruism’s roots in Bentham, Sidgwick, Singer, and Parfit, I argue that its mix of consequentialist morals and neoclassical economics abandons this classical legacy: its political orientation is by contrast well suited to the needs of today’s transnational billionaire class.
is Professor of Political Science at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He is the author of Imagining Interest in Political Thought (Duke, 2003), Economic Rationality (Polity, 2022), and the editor of Jeremy Bentham: Selected Writings (Yale, 2011).
Upcoming Talks
- Coming Soon!
Past Talks
2024-2025
- 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
