2026 Conference Program

                                                The Creighton Club

New York State Philosophical Association

The 171st Conference Program

Saturday October 3rd, 2026

Life Sciences Complex/Building, Room 105

Syracuse University (Syracuse, NY)

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

8:45 AM	Coffee & snacks
9:15 AM	Sanggu Lee (Syracuse University): “In Defense of Neutralism about Quantification” (winner of the Graduate Student Presentation Award) Commentator: Harold Hodes (Cornell University)
10:30 AM	Coffee break
10:45 AM	Aatif Abbas (Colgate University): “Contractualism and Respect” Commentator: Anthony (Tony) Reeves (Binghamton University)
Noon	Lunch break (catered on site)
1:05pm	Business meeting for the Club
1:15 PM	David Dudrick (Colgate University) “Why Tolerate Religion? A Nietzschean Answer to Leiter’s Question” Commentator: Robert (Bob) Guay (Binghamton University)
2:30 PM	Coffee break
2:40 PM	Jens Kipper and Zeynep Soysal (University of Rochester): “Mediated Deliberation Should Aggregate” Commentator: Phyllis Pearson (Hamilton College)

KEYNOTE ADDRESS

The Curious Case of the Complex Numbers

Jill North (Rutgers University)

4 PM

The abstract for this talk can be found below.

MEETING DETAILS: The 2026 meeting will be held on the campus of Syracuse University, in Life Sciences room 105, “Breed Lecture Hall” (within the Life Sciences Complex).

Parking: Much campus parking is open to guests on weekends. The most conveniently located lots are the College Place Lot (called “Quad Lot 4” on google maps), Lyman Hinds Lot (behind Smith Hall) and the Quad Lot.  See the campus parking map linked here.

Lodging: Nearby hotels include the Collegian, Parkview, and Hotel Skyler.

RSVP for Dinner: there will be an informal dinner held after the conference (location TBD).  Please email us at thecreightonclub@gmail.com (cc jhunt11@syr.edu) if you plan to attend, so that we can make a more accurate reservation.

For more details, see: http://creightonclub.blogspot.com

Abstract for Professor North’s talk:

We use mathematical objects and structures to formulate our best physical theories and to represent physical reality.  This gives rise to a host of philosophical questions surrounding the use of mathematics in physics, brought to the fore by a particular case.  

Physicists frequently remark that whereas in classical physics complex numbers are used as merely a dispensable calculational tool, in quantum mechanics complex numbers are truly necessary or essential.  Less often do physicists explain why this is, and among those who do, there is no clear or agreed-upon answer, despite the long history of physicists pondering it.  This remains an outstanding puzzle.  

In this talk, I discuss several interrelated issues brought out by this curious situation.  I argue that complex numbers are not truly necessary for quantum mechanics, against conventional wisdom, although they do yield a perspicuous formulation, for reasons I will mention.  Yet the main focus of the talk concerns neither complex numbers nor quantum mechanics per se.  Rather, I use this case as a springboard for elucidating aspects of the nature and use of mathematical structures in physics in general.  Getting clear on these things is crucial to the foundational project of figuring out what our best physical theories are saying about the nature of physical reality.  It further unearths a phenomenon of significance to the philosophy of mathematics, which tells against a thoroughgoing structuralism about mathematics, even of the relatively minimal methodological kind. 

We thank the Central New York Humanities Corridor as a primary sponsor for this event, along with the Syracuse University Department of Philosophy. 

Call for Papers: 171st Meeting of the Creighton Club

                            Call for Papers

The 171st Meeting of the Creighton Club

The New York State Philosophical Society

Saturday, October 3, 2026

Syracuse University

Syracuse, NY

Keynote speaker:

Jill North

Rutgers University

The Creighton Club, founded in 1921, is the principal historic meeting ground for philosophers in upstate, central, and western New York. Our annual meeting consists of an invited keynote address and four papers, including one graduate student paper selected for the Graduate Student Presentation Award. All of the papers except for the keynote address will have a commentator.

                                                         

Guidelines for paper submission:

·      Papers in any philosophical area are welcome.

·      Membership in our club is not required for consideration or acceptance.

·      Papers should be no more than 5000 words (for a presentation time of 30 minutes) and must include an abstract of up to 150 words. The maximum word count excludes words in your reference list. 

·      Students wishing to be eligible for the Graduate Student Presentation Award should indicate graduate student status in the anonymized submission itself and retitle their file name to begin with "G-"

·      All papers should be anonymized for review.

·      Papers should be uploaded as a PDF attachment by completing the following google form. Note: you'll subsequently be redirected to a page with a link to upload your file. Your submission is not complete until you have actually uploaded your anonymized file! https://forms.gle/j2spQ5h42N4v4m9y5

·  Submission deadline: June 5, 2026 (11:59pm Eastern Time)

Notification will be given by July 18, 2026

Anyone interested in commenting can let us know as soon as possible, indicating your fields of interest.
If you encounter any problems with submission, please alert us at TheCreightonClub@gmail.com, but do not compromise the anonymity of your submission! 

If you plan to be in/around CNY for a while and are interested in joining the executive committee as either Treasurer-Secretary or Vice President, please get in touch with Josh Hunt (jhunt11@syr.edu)

2025 Conference Program

The Creighton Club

New York State Philosophical Association

The 170th Conference Program

Saturday October 4th, 2025

Benton Hall 213

Colgate University (Hamilton, NY)

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

8:30 AM	Breakfast
9:00 AM	David Lambie (SUNY Oswego): “Is Inclusivist Moral Progress Illusory?” Commentator: Zachary Barber (University of Rochester)
10:15 AM	Coffee & Pleasantries
10:30 AM	Jaime Castillo-Gamboa (Hamilton College): “Defending the Linguistic Theory of Vagueness: A New Approach to Borderliness Attributions” Commentator: Jens Kipper (University of Rochester)
11:45 AM	Lunch
1:30 PM	Kevin Gausselin (University of Rochester): “There Is No Epistemic Condition on Evidence Possession” (winner of the Graduate Student Presentation Award) Commentator: Brett Blitch (Syracuse University)
2:45 PM	Coffee & Pleasantries
3:00 PM	Huzeyfe Demirtas (Harvard University): “Explainable AI, Responsibility Gaps, and Liability” Commentator: Alessandra Buccella (University at Albany)
4:15 PM	Business meeting

KEYNOTE ADDRESS

Boltzmannian Skepticism about the Past

Sinan Dogramaci (University of Texas at Austin)

4:30 PM

For more details, see: http://creightonclub.blogspot.com

MEETING DETAILS

Location: The 2025 meeting is located on the campus of Colgate University in Benton Hall 213.

Parking: Parking is available behind Benton Hall, which is the building where the conference will

take place. There is also parking located on Academic Drive behind Lathrop Hall and McGregory

Hall and additional parking in the Campus Safety lot off of Oak Drive. Click here to see these lots

on a map, and click here for an interactive map of the campus. No permit is required to park on

any ordinary lot on campus.

Transportation: There is very little public transit in Hamilton. Thus, we encourage attendees to

carpool. Feel free to get in touch with us if you need a ride (thecreightonclub@gmail.com), and

we can match you up with someone who is driving.

Lodging: Hamilton is a small town and affordable lodging can be somewhat difficult to find.

Colgate maintains a list of local hotels and B&Bs that can be helpful in finding a place to stay.

If you are affiliated with a corridor institution, you may be able to have some of your travel

and, in some cases, your lodging reimbursed. Click here for details.

Lunch: A catered lunch featuring Korean cuisine will be provided.

Dinner RSVP: There will be an informal dinner held after the conference at the expense of

attendees (location TBD).  Please email us at thecreightonclub@gmail.com if you plan to attend

so that we can make a more accurate reservation.

We thank the Central New York Humanities Corridor as a primary sponsor for this event, along

with the Colgate University Department of Philosophy.

Call for Papers: 170th Meeting of the Creighton Club

 

Call for Papers

The 170th Meeting of the Creighton Club

The New York State Philosophical Society

Saturday, October 4, 2025

Colgate University

Hamilton, NY

Keynote speaker

Sinan Dogramaci

University of Texas at Austin

The Creighton Club, founded in 1921, is the principal historic meeting ground for philosophers in upstate and western New York. Our annual meeting consists of an invited keynote address and four papers, including one graduate student paper selected for the Graduate Student Presentation Award. All of the papers except for the keynote address will have a commentator.

                                                         

Guidelines for paper submission:

·      Papers in any philosophical area are welcome.

·      Membership is not required for consideration or acceptance.

·      Papers should be no more than 5000 words (for a presentation time of 30 minutes) and must include an abstract of up to 150 words.

·      Students wishing to be eligible for the Graduate Student Presentation Award should indicate graduate student status both in the submission email and the submission itself.

·      Other than graduate students noting their status, papers should be anonymized for review.

·      Papers should be submitted as a PDF attachment to TheCreightonClub@gmail.com

·      Anyone interested in commenting should let us know as soon as possible, with an indication of your fields of interest.

Submission deadline: June 6, 2025

Notification will be given by July 18, 2025

Submissions, offers to comment, and inquiries should be sent to TheCreightonClub@gmail.com

2024 Conference Program

The Creighton Club

New York State Philosophical Association

The 169th Conference Program

Saturday October 5th, 2024

Hall of Languages, Room 500

Syracuse University (Syracuse, NY)

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

8:30 AM	Coffee & snacks
9:00 AM	Leonel Alvarez Ceja (Cornell University): “Chicanx Triangulation: Distinct from Double Consciousness?” (winner of the Graduate Student Presentation Award) Commentator: Çağla Çimendereli (Syracuse University)
10:15 AM	Coffee break
10:30 AM	Nate Powers (University at Albany): “Aristotelian Void” Commentator: Kelsey Ward (Hobart and William Smith Colleges)
11:45 AM	Lunch break
1:30 PM	Andrei Buckareff (Marist) and Yanssel Garcia (University of Rochester), “How Not to Solve the Boundary Problem: Rescuing Russellian Panpsychism from the Quidditist Quagmire” Commentator: Larry Jorgensen (Skidmore College)
2:45 PM	Coffee break
3:00 PM	Elizabeth Cantalamessa (St. Bonaventure): “Pragmatist Feminist Metaphysics” Commentator: Rebecca E. Harrison (Binghamton University)
4:15 PM	Business meeting

KEYNOTE ADDRESS

Social Ontology and the Functions of Social Language

Amie Thomasson (Dartmouth College)

4:30 PM

Abstract: I will argue that work in social ontology (as in other areas of metaphysics) can benefit from engaging with work on the development of language and the functions language serves in human life. For social ontology, as we usually think of it, deals with questions about what (social) entities there are, and what their natures are. But this presupposes a certain way of thinking about the language we use in discussing the social world—that it merely serves to pick out or describe features of the world we can investigate. Before we move from this assumption to ask metaphysical questions, I will argue, we need to step back to ask questions about the functions of the relevant forms of language in human life. We can get help with this project from systemic functional linguistics, which begins from anthropological questions about the functions different aspects of language serve in human life. Beginning from understanding the functions of different forms of language about the social world can help us avoid wasting time on irrelevant metaphysical questions, and re-focus our attention on understanding how social terms of different kinds work—and how they can lead to both important new bureaucratic and theoretic enablements, and sometimes to new and hidden forms of injustice.  

For more details, see: http://creightonclub.blogspot.com

MEETING DETAILS: The 2024 meeting will be held on the campus of Syracuse University. 

Campus parking is open to guests on weekends.  The most conveniently located lots are the Lyman Hinds Lot and the Quad Lot.  See the North Campus parking map here: http://parking.syr.edu/visitors-to-campus/campus-maps/

Nearby hotels include the Collegian, Parkview, Crowne Plaza, and Hotel Skyler.

The location of the conference is Hall of Languages room 500, located on the same floor as the Department of Philosophy. An elevator is available on the ground floor of the building, East wing (enter through the back of the building to avoid all stairs and take the elevator).

Participants and attendees can purchase lunch at one of many places along Marshall St. or S. Crouse Ave. (a five minute walk from the Hall of Languages). For those interested in venturing further afield, there are also many restaurants in downtown Syracuse or the nearby Westcott neighborhood.

RSVP: there will be an informal dinner held after the conference (location TBD).  Please email us at thecreightonclub@gmail.com (cc jhunt11@syr.edu) if you plan to attend, so that we can make a more accurate reservation.

We thank the Central New York Humanities Corridor as a primary sponsor for this event, along with the Syracuse University Department of Philosophy.