News Archive

  • Jiyuan Yu's philosophical legacy is examined in two new books
    11/1/23
    The philosophical legacy of Jiyuan Yu is examined in two new books. Published in 2023, both books are written in Chinese. The first, Between Ancient and Modern China and the West: Academic Anthology of Jiyuan Yu, is a collection of his important articles and of responses by other scholars. The second, Lecture on Aristotle's Metaphysics, contains a series of lectures delivered in 2011 by Professor Yu at Shandong University that were later compiled by Professor Yu’s doctoral students.
  • PHI 485 students deliver new areas for reading at Buffalo City Mission
    10/31/24
    When the student team in the PPE course, PHI 485, identified a need for places to read inside the Buffalo City Mission, they proceeded to develop three areas, and built bookshelves for over 1,000 donated books for the residents. Their capstone project is the subject of an article by Charles Anzalone, UB News.
  • Philosophy graduate students selected as Social Impact Fellows
    5/16/23
    The Department of Philosophy is pleased to announce that three graduate students have been selected as Social Impact Fellows for Summer 2023. Botan Dolun, Katrina Johnson, and Noah Kim are among ten graduate students selected for this program. They’ll each receive a $5,000 stipend and spend the summer interning with a local, Buffalo non-profit organization. Learn more about the program.
  • David Emmanuel Gray recognized for promoting academic integrity
    5/3/23
    In conjunction with National Honesty Day, UB's Office of Academic Integrity recognized David E. Gray as one of five individuals who promoted a culture of integrity at UB during the 2022-2023 academic year. The award cites Dr. Gray's proactive approach to ensuring academic integrity in his classes through clear communication of expectations, Honor Agreements, and the use of “philosopher’s stones” when students need coursework extensions. He approaches policy violations in a compassionate and educational manner, always with an eye on character development for the student. Dr. Gray’s PHI 485 course challenges students to “make the world a better place”. Read more.
  • PHI 485 students aim to make the world a better place, Spring 23 Edition
    10/31/24
    David Gray's course, PHI 485 Integrating PPE, challenges students to find a way to concretely make a social improvement, and then do it. For the Spring 2023 Edition, students organized into three teams: Team Traffic Cones is collecting items that will populate a reading room in the women’s shelter at the Buffalo City Mission; Team Gift of Thrift is collecting lightly used items from students’ dorms as the inventory for pop-up sales, with proceeds going to charity; and, Team Buffalo Soup is orchestrating a crowdfunding event to raise support for local non-profit organizations. Read news story by Bert Gambini.
  • Oxford publishes Jake Monaghan's book: Just Policing
    4/24/23
    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.
  • Does (mis)communication mitigate the upshot of diversity?
    3/27/23
    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.
  • Muldoon: Reimagining the Civic Commons
    3/14/23
    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.
  • PHI 485 inspires student initiative: UB Homework Helpers
    1/20/23
    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.
  • Routledge publishes book by Barry Smith and Jobst Landgrebe
    8/12/22
    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.
  • UB Philosophy PhD Leo Zaibert appointed to Hirsch Professorship in Cambridge University
    7/11/22
    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.
  • Integrating PPE (PHI 485) has students combining theory with practice to make the world a better place
    10/31/24
    When David Gray set up the course, Integrating PPE (PHI 485), he issued a challenge to students: Find a way to concretely make a social improvement, and then do it  “Our students are taking this really seriously,” says Gray, interim director of undergraduate studies in UB’s Department of Philosophy, College of Arts and Sciences. “They are getting out there in the community and trying to make a difference. To me, that is really impressive. " Read the news article by Charles Anzalone.
  • ISO/IEC recognizes Basic Formal Ontology (BFO) as a top level ontology for supporting global information technology
    10/31/24
    The ISO/IEC standard establishes Basic Formal Ontology (BFO) as the first Top Level Ontology for describing complex processes, objects and functions in ways that will allow scientists to proceed with greater confidence that their data will be reusable by others. Barry Smith, SUNY Distinguished Professor in the Department of Philosophy and director of the UB National Center for Ontological Research (NCOR) led the UB team behind the effort, which included Werner Ceusters, division chief, Biomedical Ontology, Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, and Alan H. Ruttenberg, former director of clinical and translational data exchange, UB School of Dental Medicine. Read the news article by Bert Gambini.
  • Ryan Muldoon's book selected by “Syndicate” for scholarly analysis
    10/31/24
    “I was delighted hearing the news about my book being chosen,” says Ryan Muldoon, an expert in social and political philosophy. “It’s an exciting opportunity to explore the topics presented in the book and to receive feedback from other scholars that could direct my next steps in this line of research.” Muldoon’s book is a work of political philosophy that offers an interesting departure from conventional thinking about social contracts, theories that center concepts of morality and justice in ways that are generally agreed upon by members of a society. Read the news article by Bert Gambini.
  • William Duncan, PhD, named UFCD's first Artificial Intelligence-focused hire
    10/31/24
    The University at Buffalo Department of Philosophy congratulates our alumnus, William Duncan, PhD, on being named by the University of Florida, College of Dentistry as the college’s first artificial intelligence-focused hire. “I am thrilled to have Dr. Duncan on board to help guide and support UFCD in the development of our vision for Artificial Intelligence (AI) and AI-related research initiatives and goals,” said Dean A. Isabel Garcia. 
  • The Philosophical Legacy of Jorge J. E. Gracia
    10/31/24
    About the book: Fleeing Cuba in 1961, Jorge J. E. Gracia arrived in the USA at the age of nineteen without family and unable to speak English. Ten years later he was assistant professor of philosophy at the State University of New York at Buffalo. Over the next 50 years Gracia published dozens of books and hundreds of articles, making major contributions to numerous areas of philosophy: Latin American philosophy, race and ethnicity, Medieval philosophy, philosophical historiography, metaphysics and ontology, and theory of interpretation. This book is a critical response to Gracia’s work and a tribute to his legacy. It includes a comprehensive bibliography of Gracia’s philosophical works. Learn more.
  • Laura Rivera Salgado wins $5,000. tuition waiver in 2021 poster design contest
    5/12/21
    The University at Buffalo Department of Philosophy is pleased to announce that UB sophomore Laura Rivera Salgado (Psychology) is the winner of the $5,000. tuition waiver in our 2021 poster design contest. Philosophy Department Chair Neil Williams notified Salgado that her poster won the grand prize.
  • NCOR-Brazil 2021
    2/19/21
  • J.J. Sanford named 10th president of University of Dallas
    10/31/24
    The University at Buffalo Department of Philosophy congratulates our alumnus, Jonathan J. Sanford, PhD (Buffalo), on being named by the University of Dallas Board of Trustees as the insitution's 10th president. Sanford's areas of expertise include Ethics, Higher Education, Ancient and Medieval Philosophy, Metaphysics, Virtue Theory, Social and Political Philosophy, and Early Phenomenology. Learn more.
  • Bridges: In Honor of Kah Kyung Cho
    10/31/24
    On the occasion of commemorating service to a Department and a University which ran for almost fifty years, that had its start at a time of the anti-war movement and the student protests of the late 1960s, and ended at the time of digital globalization and economic precarity of the late 2010s, it is worth remembering Professor Kah Kyung Cho’s turbulent beginings. It may well be said that his early life was determined by such a series of rare events, and strokes of good fortune, which one encounters only in the fictional world of a novel. But, at the same time, Prof. Cho’s life tale was the offspring of a different era, an era that seems today a distant past, when hardship, insecurity, danger, and eventually chance, ruled. Read more.
  • Division, Not Diversity, Is What's Dividing Our Society
    10/31/24
  • Muldoon directs new program in Philosophy, Politics, and Economy
    10/31/24
    Philosophy, Politics and Economics begins with a wide-angle view of the inherent tools found in these three disciplines. It considers their strengths and blind spots, and then pulls the various instruments together to create a robust mechanism that can creatively inform, explain and evaluate those systems and forces influencing organizations and societies. UB’s three-dimensional PPE design also includes an early course in model-based reasoning, which has been developed specifically for the program. “The idea is to help students think about the world using models that allow them to consider complicated problems, Ryan Muldoon, associate professor, Department of Philosophy.
  • Oxford University Press names Ryan Muldoon editor of new book series
    7/29/20
    Oxford University Press (OUP) has announced that Dr. Ryan Muldoon is co-editor of its new book series, Philosophy, Politics, and Economics. Dr. Muldoon, Associate Professor and Director of the Undergraduate Program, University at Buffalo Department of Philosophy, is an expert in social political philosophy. As one of five co-editors of the book series, Muldoon enjoys the support and advice of OUP's Editorial Advisory Board. 
  • Cuba Before Castro: A Century of Family Memoirs by Jorge J. E. Gracia
    10/31/24
    Although much has been written about Cuba after Castro, relatively little has been written about Cuba before Castro. The political reality of Castro’s Revolution has created a historical void about this period, paying insufficient attention to an important century before 1959. Cuba has become a political punching bag, between supporters and critics of Castro and the Revolution, making it difficult to understand real life in Cuba because of the disproportionate preoccupation with, and monopoly of, the political reality on the island. In spite of some attempts, it continues to be easier and perceived as more pressing, to write about politics rather than the reality that Cubans experienced in their daily lives— their sufferings and celebrations, successes and failures, lives and deaths, and beliefs and disbeliefs. Going for and against the avalanche of information about the political authenticity in and out of Cuba, most Cubans have tended to forget that Cuba is much larger than the perceived reality after Castro’s Revolution. Too many have failed to remember the Cubans who have lived and worked in Cuba in the century before an important period of Cuban history where the nation was forged. Indeed, even limited attention reveals a rich and sophisticated society that calls for study. 
  • The Infectious Disease Ontology in the Age of COVID-19
    10/31/24
    Research at the University at Buffalo’s National Center for Ontological Research (NCOR) is leveraging ontology to assist in the efforts to control the current outbreak, accelerate data discovery in future pandemics, and promote reproducible infectious disease research. Read the news story by Bert Gambini. Also see the related paper, The Coronavirus Infectious Disease Ontology (CIDO), a community-based ontology for coronavirus disease knowledge and data integration, sharing, and analysis, here.
  • James R. Beebe wins $234,000 grant from John Templeton Foundation
    5/18/20
    The University at Buffalo Department of Philosophy is pleased to announce that James R. Beebe,  Professor of Philosophy, has been awarded a $234,000 research grant from the John Templeton Foundation  to study the philosophy and psychology of intellectual autonomy. The three-year project aims to deepen understanding of how to balance a healthy reliance upon our own reasoning and decision making with a robust awareness of the fallibility of our cognitive capacities. On the one hand, overestimating our intellectual abilities and achievements can lead us to dismiss the testimony of peers and experts when they disagree with us, closing us off to potentially valuable information. On the other hand, focusing too much on our intellectual limitations and weaknesses can result in insufficient self-trust and an excessive deference toward the opinions and reasoning of others. Knowing how to balance intellectual self-reliance with intellectual humility can be especially difficult when navigating contentious public debates that are marked by increasing polarization and massive amounts of misinformation that are disguised as fact.
  • Philosophy Course Poster Design Contest
    3/31/20
    The Department of Philosophy is pleased to announce a graphic design contest for UB undergraduate students to create an original poster to advertise one of our selected courses. The top prize is a UB 2021-22 tuition waiver valued at $5,000. The contest is open to all UB Undergraduate students currently enrolled in any program. All undergraduate students at UB are invited to enter the poster design contest. 
  • Research News features Barry Smith and the Industrial Ontologies Foundry (IOF)
    10/31/24
    Barry Smith and the Industrial Ontologies Foundry (IOF) are hosting a global community of scholars, researchers and industry professionals working to create a logically organized set of definitions — known as an ontology — that would allow computer programs to communicate across different operating systems and software programs. The IOF's Third Expert Meeting,  March 5, 2020, is featured by UB Research News.
  • The Powers Metaphysic
    9/14/19
    Systematic metaphysics is defined by its task of solving metaphysical problems through the repeated application of single, fundamental ontology. The dominant contemporary metaphysic is that of neo-Humeanism, built on a static ontology typified by its rejection of basic causal and modal features. This book offers a radically distinct metaphysic, one that turns the status quo on its head. Starting with a foundational ontology of inherently causal properties known as 'powers', Neil E. Williams develops a metaphysic that appeals to powers in explanations of causation, persistence, laws, and modality.
  • Muldoon: Its segregation, not diversity, that divides us.
    10/31/24
    Professor Ryan Muldoon, an expert in social political philosophy, recently worked with the Knight Foundation on its Trust, Media and Democracy initiative. The foundation promotes excellence in journalism and the success of cities where brothers John S. and James L. Knight once published newspapers. Muldoon is part of the foundation’s panel of specialists in various fields committed to creating more informed and engaged communities. UB News featured the following article during the first week of the Fall 2018 semester.
  • McMahon wins 2019 Critical Language Scholarship
    10/31/24
  • Graduate Student Publication: David. G. Limbaugh
    3/17/16
    It has been a good week for David Limbaugh. He had a paper accepted by Ethics, Medicine and Public Health and then won the Evangelical Philosophical Society's prize for the Best Graduate Student Paper at their Mid West regional conference.  
  • Graduate Student Publication: Robert Kelly
    3/17/16
    Robert Kelly's paper "Remembering past lives" is one of the chapters in a volume entitled Advances in Religion, Cognitive Science, and Experimental Philosophy. Bob's co-authors are Claire White and Shaun Nichols.
  • Festschrift honors the work of Barry Smith
    5/27/16
    A festschrift honoring the work of Barry Smith is being published by Palgrave-McMillan. The collection of essays, entitled the The Theory and Practice of Ontology, provides close examination of ontology and the work of Professor Smith, one of the most prolific philosophers of the modern day.
  • Barry Smith wins 2016 IAOA Ontology Competition
    8/18/16
    Together with Niels Grewe and Ludger Jansen from the University of Rostock, Barry Smith has won the 2016 Ontology Competition organized by the International Association for Ontology and Its Applications (IAOA). In all, nine teams were competing for the prize, from which three finalists were invited to present their contributions at the international conference on Formal Ontology in Information Systems (FOIS) held in Annecy, France.
  • Muldoon co-authors World Bank's World Development Report: Mind, Society and Behavior
    7/26/19
    Typically, philosophers don’t have a role in policy making, but this is a great opportunity to do something that is policy relevant and to be actively involved with making people’s lives better.
  • Graduate Careers: William Duncan
    1/13/17
    One of our most successful recent PhD graduates is William Duncan, who has been appointed Associate Director of the Clinical Data Network at Roswell Park Cancer Institute, the first dedicated medical facility for cancer treatment and research in the United States. Dr. Duncan also serves as Assistant Professor of Oncology.
  • Smith leads CHAMP team: UB receives major grant to support ontology-based research in digital manufacturing
    8/23/17
  • Nomikos wins UB Graduate Student Excellence in Teaching Award
    3/22/17
    The Department of Philosophy is pelased to announce Ariane Nomikos has been selected as an award winner through 2017's Graduate Student Excellence in Teaching Awards competition. The university community will honor Nomikos and her fellow award recipients at UB's 13th Annual Celebration of Student Academic Excellence ceremony on Thursday, April 20, and at the Excellence in Teaching awards luncheon on Friday, April 21.
  • Routledge publishes second edition of Why Machines Will Never Rule the World.
    8/12/22
    In the revised second edition of Why Machines Will Never Rule the World, Jobst Landgrebe and Barry Smith argue that Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) is mathematically impossible. Drawing on fields from neuroscience to physics, they explain why the human brain’s complexity can’t be replicated in machines and why even advanced systems like ChatGPT can’t truly think or feel. This edition updates their case for the era of Large Language Models, debunks myths of digital immortality and simulated realities, and reframes “AI ethics” as a matter of how humans use technology—not how machines behave. An essential read for anyone questioning the hype around AI.
INDUSTRIAL ONTOLOGIES: The Open Application Group (OAGi) and the Industrial Ontologies Foundry (IOF) have signed an agreement to produce industrial ontologies. See press release launching the new Industrial Ontologies Foundry.
The Conversation-Science+Technology, Ryan Muldoon: Don’t ban new technologies – experiment with them carefully
Philosopher to argue against an afterlife at Romanell Conference, July 25-27, 2019.
  • Number 23 - Fall 2018
    11/21/18
    The UB Department of Philosophy is pleased to announce the 23rd edition of the Noûsletter.  In this edition you will find interviews with John Kearns and Kah Kyung Cho, along with faculty news, graduate student profiles,  alumni updates, and much more. The 76-page  edition was edited by Robert Kelly. We invite you to download the new edition, plus past editions of the Noûsletter, here.

Jason Adsit named seventh president of Mount Saint Mary College

Adsit.

In a unanimous vote that followed a national search, the board of Mount Saint Mary College selected Jason Adsit as its seventh full-time president. See the news article. He graduated from UB in 2002 with a PhD in Philosophy. Adsit's dissertation, directed by Peter Hare, is an investigation of Apologies.

What do driverless cars and ontology have in common? Barry Smith.

Published May 26, 2018 This content is archived.

1.

The Society of Automotive Engineers has invited Barry Smith to deliver the keynote for the SAE Automated and Connected Vehicle Systems Testing Symposium, June 20-21, 2018. The event, hosted by Clemson University–International Center for Automotive Research, will bring together key thought leaders from academia, research, industry, government, and the automotive engineering industry to discuss the latest automated vehicle testing programs, data acquisition and analytics approaches, and research that will inevitably drive the industry forward to a fully connected and automated vehicle. Read more about the symposium.

Keynote Abstract: The ontology approach to knowledge integration is much more flexible than approaches based on traditional relational database technology, and is thus ideally suited to achieve results in those areas where we are dealing with a broad spectrum of different sorts of data that is rapidly expanding into new areas. Unfortunately, in almost all cases where ontology technology has been tried, it has produced results which are fragmentary and inconsistent, and have typically enjoyed a short half-life. I will describe the reasons for these failures, and outline a strategy for the creation of interoperable ontology modules that has been used with success in the biomedical and military domains, and is currently being applied in the field of digital manufacturing.

"Capabilities: Human and Machine"

Workshop to address human and machine capabilities
COSMOS +TAXIS — A Festschrift in Honor of Barry Smith On the Occasion of his 65th Birthday
Jerry Gaus picks Ryan Muldoon's book as one of the five books to read
Lewis Powell serves as lead editor of APA Blog
The BMJ features Richard Smith on Medicine's Need for Philosophy
Google Scholar Metrics Citation Data (2009-2013) lists James Beebe's article among top ten most cited academic papers.
Noûsletter No. 22

See the latest edition of the Noûsletter. Alumni are invited to send updates to us for inclusion in the next edition. Contact John Beverley, Managing Editor, Noûsletter.

Clinical and Translational Science Institute, September 14, 2017: Working group seeks to extend the depth and functionality of biomedical ontologies
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