Dear Alumni and Friends of the Department of Philosophy:

We are delighted to announce an extraordinarily generous gift from Jordan and Christine Kaplan and Jordan’s longtime business partner Ken Panzer. The newly created Kaplan Panzer Philosophy Endowment will have a profound impact on our ability to  generate leading philosophical research and to offer a world-class education to both our undergraduates and graduate students. It will also allow us to present richer offerings of talks, colloquia, and conferences, and to host a wide array of distinguished visitors throughout the year.

I want to call special attention to one forthcoming event. This winter, we will inaugurate the UCLA Distinguished Lecture in Philosophy. Professor Rae Langton, the Knightbridge Professor of Philosophy at Cambridge University, is a world-renowned scholar who writes about Kant, metaphysics, ethics, and political philosophy. We are delighted that she will deliver our first Distinguished Lecture on February 1, 2019 on the topic “Reimagining Free Speech,” and cordially invite you to attend.

This issue includes further details about the gift as well as interviews with our alumni, faculty, and students. Featured faculty include Tyler Burge, a long-time member of the faculty whose expertise ranges from philosophy of mind, philosophy of perception, and philosophy oflanguage, to Frege and Kant; Pamela Hieronymi, who works in ethics, moral responsibility and free will, and philosophy of action; and Adam Crager, a scholar of ancient Greek philosophy, philosophical logic, and metaphysics. We get the perspective of a current graduate student, Kim Johnston, who won the prestigious Charles E. and Sue K. Young Graduate Student Fellowship Award. Also included are interviews with recent undergraduate alumni Kartik Raj and Amanda Hust.

The generosity of our alumni and friends helps to enrich the philosophical education we offer. Thank you for your support and for the inspiration you provide to our students. We hope to see you at our colloquia, conferences, and special lectures in the coming year. Also, please consider joining our Alumni Network where you can post a profile: philosophy.ucla.edu/alumni- friends. We look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Seana Valentine Shiffrin
Chair, Department of Philosophy