Philosophy Day 2025

The annual UNESCO World Philosophy Day will take place on the campus of the City College of New York, featuring Prof. Barry Lam from the University of California-Riverside as the keynote speaker. Barry's talk will be on “Finding Philosophical Conflicts in the Real World.”

The world is replete with conflicts that raise philosophical questions. A woman was fired from an evangelical Christian college for posting that Christians and Muslims worship the same God. A doctor is brought up on murder charges for euthanizing a patient who asked for it in an advanced medical directive. A man is drowned at sea for proving that the square root of 2 cannot be a whole number. People who do not otherwise study philosophy are interested in these conflicts, and how to think philosophically about them. This is a talk about how to find these conflicts to enhance your philosophical writing and speaking.

Barry received his BA from UC Irvine in 2001 and his PhD from Princeton in 2007. He taught for 16 years at Vassar College where he was Associate Professor and Chair until 2022, when he joined UCR as Professor of Philosophy. He is the Host/Producer of Slate’s Hi-Phi Nation podcast, a show where philosophy and reality meet.

Hi-Phi Nation is a story- and sound-driven philosophy podcast, from Slate. Season 6 finished running May 16, 2023. You can go to each season page to get complete show notes, episodes, transcripts, and links.

The specific room where the talk will be held is yet to be announced, so stay tuned. Please make sure to bring a valid ID in order to be able to access the building.