The Selfridge Lectures in Philosophy are made possible by the bequest of the late Charles W. MacFarlane, C.E. 1876, Ph.D. Freiburg 1893, LL.D. Lehigh 1922. Being deeply interested in philosophy and economics, Dr. Macfarlane left his entire estate to Lehigh University, directing that the income should be used to maintain the MacFarlane Professorship or Theoretic Economics and the Selfridge Professorship of Pure Philosophy. William Wilson Selfridge was the father of Mrs. MacFarlane. Beginning in 1984, the Department of Philosophy designated part of the income from the Selfridge Professorship as support for the Selfridge Lecture Series.
2025 Selfridge Lecture
Skepticism Across Borders: Arguments from Animal Difference in Chinese, Greek, and Arabic Philosophy
by Peter Adamson
Professor of Late Ancient & Arabic Philosophy (LMU, Munich)
In this lecture, Professor Adamson focuses on a skeptical argument stating that animals have a different perspective on the world from humans. Since there is no reason to prefer the human perspective on the world to animal perspectives, one should suspend judgment about the veracity of the human perspective. Obviously this argument needs a lot of filling out before it can be evaluated. To undertake this task, the paper begins from a resonant passage in the Taoist classic, the Zhuangzi, before examining in more detail the skeptical mode from animals in Sextus Empiricus and similar material in Montaigne. The paper then turns to an epistle from the Islamic “Brethren of Purity,” who imagined animals bringing a court case against humans.
Past Selfridge Lecturers
- 2024 - Michael Della Rocca
- 2023 - Wendy Brown
- 2022 - Stephen Mulhall
- 2019 - Alan Brudner
- 2018 - Richard Campbell
- 2017 - Moshe Halbertal
- 2016 - Graham Priest
- 2015 - Thomas Hill, Jr.
- 2014 - Eckart Förster
- 2013 - Roger Ames
- 2012 - Scott Soames
- 2011 - William Wimsatt
- 2010 - Claudia Card
- 2009 - Stewart Shapiro
- 2008 - Kwame Anthony Appiah
- 2007 - Susan Wolf
- 2006 - Philip Kitcher
- 2005 - Joseph Margolis
- 2004 - Lucius Outlaw
- 2003 - Stanley Cavell
- 2002 - Jonathan Dollimore
- 2000 - Simon Blackburn
- 1999 - Christine Korsgaard
- 1998 - Edward Said
- 1997 - Elliott Sober
- 1996 - Jerry Fodor
- 1995 - Jean Francois Lyotard
- 1994 - Annette Baier
- 1993 - Lawrence May
- 1992 - Alexander Nehamas
- 1991 - Paul Churchland
- 1990 - WVO Quine
- 1989 - Don Ihde
- 1988 - Alison Jaggar
- 1987 - Daniel Dennett
- 1986 - Donald Davidson
- 1985 - Derek Parfit
- 1984 - Gilbert Harman