Department News

The UB Department of Philosophy is pleased to announce that Leo Zaibert, one of our most successful PhD students, has been elected to the Hirsch Professorship of Penal Theory and Ethics in Cambridge University, effective September 1 2022. Zaibert’s dissertation, which he completed in 1997 under the joint supervision of UB professors James B. Brady and Barry Smith, is on the topic of “Intentionality and blame: A study on the foundations of culpability” and won the UB Philosophy Department Perry Prize. Zaibert is the author of over 100 publications, including books, edited books and dozens of peer-reviewed articles.

Routledge, a leading publisher that champions the knowledge-maker, has announced the publication of a book by co-authors Jobst Landgrebe and Barry Smith. The book, Why Machines Will Never Rule The World — Artificial Intelligence Without Fear (Routledge 2022),  presents the core argument that an artificial intelligence that could equal or exceed human intelligence—sometimes called artificial general intelligence (AGI)—is for mathematical reasons impossible.

Motivated by grim state data identifying significant educational deficiencies, UB’s Homework Helpers is trying to make a difference for Buffalo public school students who need extra help with their studies.  Founded by five students in spring 2021, UB Homework Helpers is a volunteer-run organization providing free virtual tutoring — from reading to math and beyond — to K-12 students in the Buffalo Public Schools. It is currently managed by four of the five original founders: Julia Dietz, Evan Forti Hong, Gubaz Giorgadze and Shanaz Uddin, all current or former UB political science students. The idea took form in the PHI 485 classroom of David Gray. The course is part of the Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) program designed to help students develop an interdisciplinary toolkit for approaching social and political problems.

Ryan Muldoon discusses "How Diverse Places Build Trust and Support Democracy" in an interview featured on Medium's forum, Reimagining the Civic Commons. Medium is an open platform that has over 100 million readers who visit the site to find insightful and dynamic thinking. In the interview, Muldoon' observes: "Disagreement and debate — in which we are having a kind of democratic back and forth with people who think differently — helps us get a better idea of what the problems actually are in our society. It also helps us see whether we identify as having the same problems and then, what solutions to problems might look like." Read full interview.

PLOS ONE has published to the Creative Commons a research article examining the question, Does (mis)communication mitigate the upshot of diversity? Co-authored by Ryan Muldoon, the study examines diversity’s potential across different structures of cooperation. According to Muldoon, “When we work in groups, communication is crucial. Sometimes we randomly make a communication error, but sometimes miscommunication stems from the group diversity. When miscommunication occurs, it is how we’ve organized ourselves that matters.” He observes that it’s the internal structure that makes a difference when introducing miscommunication. Read the news release by Bert Gambini.

Oxford University Press has announced the publication of Just Policing, a new book by Jake Monaghan, PhD, UB Philosophy Alum. He was recently appointed assistant professor, tenure track, at the University of Southern California (USC). Monaghan states, "My research is concerned with realized, as opposed to abstract, institutions. I am interested in whether and how we can justify the actual institutions we live in on grounds we can all accept. Further, I explore the moral obligations that arise out of, or in response to, the imperfections of realized institutions."  Monaghan's  dissertation, Theory of Consent, was completed in 2019. Professor Ryan Muldoon served as advisor.