Undergraduate Innovation and Research Awards Conference

Although Bowling Green is well known for the strength of its Graduate Program in Applied Philosophy, it also has its fair share of outstanding undergraduate philosophers. Some of the best of the present group were able to present their work at the Fourth Undergraduate Innovation and Research Awards conference, which was held on Saturday April 23, 2005. For the second year, this conference was as a cooperative effort between the Philosophy Departments of Bowling Green State University and Ohio Northern University.

The keynote speaker was Professor Hilde Lindemann (pictured below left). Her address was entitled "The Power of Parents: Surgically Shaping Children." The unenviable task of being the first student to follow Professor Lindemann fell to Matthew Gray of BGSU, who presented "An Examination of the Moral Community." Nicholas Huelsman of ONU then spoke on "Kierkegaardian Universality," followed by Kellie Drake of BGSU on "Death Systems: Past, Present and Future," and the final morning session was on "Agency, Autonomy and the Ethics of Involuntary Commitment" given by Timothy Underwood of ONU.

After lunch, Benjamin Lucas of BGSU presented "Discovering the Self: A Criminal Case Study." This was followed by a riveting readers' theatre performance by Professor Richard Hyde and Michael H. Metzger, Jr, of Hiram College (See photo above). They presented Caryl Churchill's "A Number" which dealt with some of the personal repercussions relating to cloning of human beings. The final two papers were by Brandon Kyle of ONU on "A Reply to Findlay's Necessary Non-Existence of God" and Bradley Showman of BGSU on "An Argument Against a Retributivist Theory of Punishment."

Thanks go once more to Professors Kathleen Dixon (pictured in typically commanding form below right) of BGSU and Mark Dixon of ONU for organizing this event and to all of the presenters for sharing their work with us.

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