Philosopher to Lecture at UA on Social Belief, Democracy

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Dr. Alvin Goldman, a board of governors professor of philosophy at Rutgers University, will deliver the final spring semester lecture in The University of Alabama’s Philosophy Today Lecture Series at 7:30 p.m. April 26 in 205 Smith Hall on the UA campus.

His talk, “Knowledge and Democracy – How Social Epistemology Bears on the Success of our Democracy,” is sponsored by the UA College of Arts and Sciences’ department of philosophy and is free and open to the public.

Goldman’s lecture will focus on the importance of society’s collective efforts to decide on and disseminate true beliefs and how it relates to the functioning and success of democratic institutions.

Goldman received his bachelor’s degree from Columbia University and later received both his master’s and doctoral degrees from Princeton University. He is the author of numerous books, including “Simulating Minds: The Philosophy, Psychology, and Neuroscience of Mindreading,” “Knowledge in a Social World,” and “Epistemology and Cognition.”

Goldman is considered one of the most influential and important philosophers of the past 50 years. His work focuses on epistemology, metaphysics and the philosophy of cognitive science. He is a past president of the American Philosophical Association and the Society for Philosophy and Psychology. He has served on a number of editorial boards and has been the editor in chief of Episteme: A Journal of Social Epistemology since 2005.

The University of Alabama’s department of philosophy is part of UA’s College of Arts and Sciences, the University’s largest division and the largest liberal arts college in the state. Students from the college have won numerous national awards including Rhodes Scholarships, Goldwater Scholarships and memberships on the USA Today Academic All American Team.