Monday, April 24, 2017

365 days, 114 talks


I left Singapore for Hong Kong on April 24, 2016 for a talk at Lingnan University. Today on April 24, 2017, I’m on the bonnie banks of Loch Lomond after a talk at St. Andrews. In these 365 days, I’ve given 114 talks. Thanks to everyone who organized events for me, and to everyone who came! It’s been a wonderful year of discussing exciting stuff with smart people around the world.

I return to the National University of Singapore in August. NUS made this possible with a post-tenure sabbatical, combined with other kinds of leave that I could piece together for 15 months of travel and something like $15K-20K USD in total travel grant money. I started with the crazy idea of giving over 100 talks in 365 days, and it's sort of amazing how well things went.

 Loch Lomond at sunset last night. I was listening to
the Loch Tay Boat Song and Wild Mountain Thyme a lot.
This post has some statistical information about the 114 talks I’ve given so far, to answer questions people asked me on the road.

Talks to departmental colloquia and topic-specific groups: 107

Talks at conferences and workshops: 4

Presentations for students and public: 3

Number of distinct articles: 14-18. The exact number depends on questions of article-individuation, and on how to count a conference response and two more popular presentations. I presented various parts of my recently published Humean Nature, as well as a forthcoming book tentatively titled Moral Value is Pleasure that makes metaethical arguments for hedonic utilitarianism.

Number of countries: 17 – Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, USA, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Canada, Ireland, UK, Switzerland, Norway, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia.

Number of universities: 111, with Yonsei/Underwood, Boise State, and Duke inviting me to multiple venues.

Biggest month: August 2016, when I gave 16 talks in 31 days.

Most intense period: August 16 to September 2, 2016. I gave 12 talks in 18 days, covering 8 paper ideas on 3 continents and a different paper in a different city for each of the last 5 days. Things looked bad when I came down with the flu on August 16th after the first of the 12 talks. Fortunately, my fever broke that night as I slept on friend and colleague Ben Blumson's couch. I was a little weak for the next 3 days as I gave talks at Sydney, Wollongong, and Brisbane before an overnight flight to Singapore where I would bounce to the US, but I recovered quickly.

Least intense period: December 10, 2016 to January 10, 2016, when I stayed with family, apart from a few nights visiting the Bay Area. Apart from that and my June visit home, my longest period with one home base was for two weeks in Melbourne, with overnight visits to Adelaide and Wagga Wagga.

Talks missed: 0, thanks largely to excellent luck with transportation and my resistance to disease and exhaustion.

Talks I was seriously late for: 2. In April 2016 at Hong Kong University, I had the cab drop me off next to the department just in time, and then realized that the department was at the top of a four story cliff. In April 2017 on the way to University of Zagreb, my bus was stopped an hour at the border, where extra border controls had been initiated in the preceding week. I thank my audience at both places for sticking around and being very friendly about the situation.

Total list of dates, venues, and titles:



April 25, Lingnan University - From Moral Twin Earth to Pleasure in Eden
April 26, University of Macau - Emotional Perception of Morality
April 28, Hong Kong University - Emotional Perception of Morality
May 3, National Yang-Ming University - Credence in Psychological Explanation
May 4, National Chung Cheng University - Nietzschean Pragmatism
May 5, UIC Yonsei (graduate students) - Emotional Perception of Morality
May 6, UIC Yonsei - Humean Nature
May 9, Metropolitan University of Tokyo - Humean Nature
May 10, Kyoto University - Nietzsche's Humean (All-too-Humean!) Theory of Motivation
May 18, Stanford University - Humean Nature (Intention)
May 27, University of Washington - From Moral Twin Earth to Pleasure in Eden
June 3, Portland State University - Humean Nature
July 4, Australasian Association Philosophy - Credence in Psychological Explanation
July 14, University of Waikato - Scalar Consequentialism the Right Way
July 15, Massey University (Palmerston North) - Scalar Consequentialism the Right Way
July 19, University of Canterbury – Desire
July 20, University of Otago - From Moral Twin Earth to Pleasure in Eden
July 21, Victoria University of Wellington - From Moral Twin Earth to Pleasure in Eden
July 22, University of Auckland - The Epistemic Argument for Hedonism
July 25, Massey University (Albany) - The Epistemic Argument for Hedonism
July 29, Australian Catholic University - Divine Fine-Tuning vs. Electrons in Love
August 2, Deakin University - Nietzsche's Humean (All-too-Humean!) Theory of Motivation
August 3, La Trobe University - Nietzsche's Humean (All-too-Humean!) Theory of Motivation
August 4, University of Melbourne - From Moral Twin Earth to Pleasure in Eden
August 5, University of Adelaide - From Moral Twin Earth to Pleasure in Eden
August 9, Charles Sturt University - The Reliable Route from Is to Ought
August 12, Monash University - From Moral Twin Earth to Pleasure in Eden
August 16, Macquarie University – Experientialism about Moral Concepts
August 17, University of Sydney - From Moral Twin Earth to Pleasure in Eden
August 18, University of Wollongong - Nietzsche's Humean (All-too-Humean!) Theory of Motivation
August 19, University of Queensland - Humean Nature
August 22, Nanyang Technological University - From Moral Twin Earth to Pleasure in Eden
August 26, Boise State University (public lecture) - The Value of Philosophy in the Age of Google
August 27, Boise State University - The Epistemic Argument for Hedonism
August 29, University of Colorado - The Epistemic Argument for Hedonism
August 30, Colorado State University - Scalar Consequentialism The Right Way
August 31, Metropolitan State Denver & University of Colorado Denver - Nietzsche's Humean (All-too-Humean!) Theory of Motivation
September 1, Weber State University - The Value of Philosophy in the Age of Google
September 2, University of Utah - The Reliable Route from Is to Ought
September 6, CSBSJU - Emotional Perception of Morality
September 8, Macalester College - Nietzsche's Humean (All-Too-Humean) Theory of Motivation
September 9, University of Minnesota - The Epistemic Argument for Hedonism
September 13, Wayne State University - The Reliable Route from Is to Ought
September 14, University of Michigan EDG - From Moral Twin Earth to Pleasure in Eden
September 16, University of Montreal - From Moral Twin Earth to Pleasure in Eden
September 19, Concordia University – Relativism
September 20, University of Vermont - Humean Nature
September 23, Brown University - Experientialism about Moral Concepts
September 27, University of Connecticut - Humean Nature
September 29, University at Buffalo - Humean Nature
September 30, Boston University - Humean Nature
October 5, Brandeis - Experientialism about Moral Concepts
October 7, Ohio State University - From Moral Twin Earth to Pleasure in Eden
October 10, Kent State University - Nietzsche's Humean (All-Too-Humean) Theory of Motivation
October 11, University of Akron - Scalar Consequentialism the Right Way
October 13, Cleveland State University - Scalar Consequentialism the Right Way
October 14, Duke University Moral Attitudes & Decisions Lab - Emotional Perception of Morality
October 14, Duke University - The Reliable Route from Is to Ought
October 20, UNC Asheville - Scalar Consequentialism the Right Way
October 27, Illinois State University - The Reliable Route from Is to Ought
October 28, University of Illinois - Humean Nature
November 3, University of Missouri St. Louis - Experientialism about Moral Concepts
November 4, Washington University St. Louis - From Moral Twin Earth to Pleasure in Eden
November 9, University of Cincinnati – Epistemic Argument + Moral Twin Earth
November 10, University of Nebraska, Omaha - Experientialism about Moral Concepts
November 11, University of Nebraska, Lincoln - From Moral Twin Earth to Pleasure in Eden
November 14, IUPUI - Scalar Consequentialism the Right Way
November 15, DePauw University - Emotional Perception of Morality
November 18, Northern Illinois University - The Reliable Route from Is to Ought
November 25, University of Manitoba - The Reliable Route from Is to Ought
November 30, University of Houston - Experientialism about Moral Concepts
December 1, University of Mississippi - From Moral Twin Earth to Pleasure in Eden
December 8, University of Toledo - Nietzsche's Humean (All-too-Humean!) Theory of Motivation
December 9, Bowling Green State University - From Moral Twin Earth to Pleasure in Eden
January 10, University of California, Riverside - Emotional Perception of Morality
January 18, Cal State San Bernardino - The Reliable Route from Is to Ought
January 20, University of New Mexico - Nietzsche's Humean (All-too-Humean!) Theory of Motivation
January 24, University of Southern California - Experientialism About Moral Concepts
January 26, Northern Arizona University - Scalar Consequentialism the Right Way
January 27, University of Arizona - From Moral Twin Earth to Pleasure in Eden
January 30, Arizona State University - The Reliable Route from Is to Ought
February 2, Florida International University - Credence in Psychological Explanation
February 3, University of Miami - The Reliable Route from Is to Ought
February 7, Stetson University - Credence in Psychological Explanation
February 10, Florida State University - Experientialism About Moral Concepts
February 13, University of Alabama - Experientialism About Moral Concepts
February 15, University of Alabama at Birmingham - Credence in Psychological Explanation
February 16, Rice University - Experientialism About Moral Concepts
February 17, NOISE Conference, New Orleans - Commentary on "Metanormative Constructivism" by Hille Paakkunainen
February 20, Louisiana State University - Humean Nature
February 23, Texas A&M University - Credence in Psychological Explanation
February 24, Southern Methodist University - From Moral Twin Earth to Pleasure in Eden
February 27, Franklin and Marshall - From Moral Twin Earth to Pleasure in Eden
February 28, University of Pennsylvania - Emotional Perception of Morality
March 1, Drexel University - Nietzsche's Humean (All-too-Humean!) Theory of Motivation
March 3, University of Nevada Las Vegas - Credence in Psychological Explanation
March 6, University of Texas at Austin - The Reliable Route from Is to Ought
March 9, Rutgers University - Humean Nature
March 13, Trinity College Dublin - Humean Nature
March 15, University of Surrey - Scalar Consequentialism the Right Way
March 20-21, University of Nottingham Social Metaphysics Workshop - In Defense of Partisanship
March 23, University of Bristol - Humean Nature
March 28, University of Glasgow - The Reliable Route from Is to Ought
March 29, Cardiff University - Epistemic Akrasia for the Rational Pragmatist
March 30, University of Stirling - From Moral Twin Earth to Pleasure in Eden
April 3, University of Geneva - Experientialism about Moral Concepts
April 5, Open University - The Reliable Route from Is to Ought
April 7, University of Oslo - Scalar Consequentialism the Right Way
April 10, Slovak Academy of Sciences - Ethical Reductionism
April 11, Hungarian Academy of Sciences - Humean Nature
April 12, University of Zagreb - The Reliable Route from Is to Ought
April 13, Zagreb Institute of Philosophy - Ethical Reductionism
April 19, University of Aberdeen - Epistemic Akrasia for the Rational Pragmatist
April 21, University of St. Andrews - From Moral Twin Earth to Pleasure in Eden