Contact: Sasha Steinberg

STARKVILLE, Miss.—Mississippi State’s Department of Philosophy and Religion is hosting the Mississippi Philosophical Association’s annual conference Friday-Saturday [Feb. 9-10] on the Starkville campus.

Valerie Tiberius, the Paul W. Frenzel Chair in Liberal Arts and philosophy department chair at the University of Minnesota, is keynote speaker for this year’s event. Taking place from 4:30-6 p.m. Friday, Tiberius’s “Fulfillment and Failure” talk is free to the public and will be held in Room 111, McCool Hall.

In addition to MSU and the University of Minnesota, visiting scholars represent Arizona State, Binghamton, Florida State, Northeastern, Rice, Saint Louis, Southern Methodist and Southern New Hampshire universities, along with the University of Colorado at Boulder, University of Connecticut, University of Memphis, University of Missouri-St. Louis, Virginia Tech and West Chester University.

Through her work, Tiberius explores the ways in which philosophy and psychology can both contribute to the study of well-being and virtue. She is the author of the book “The Reflective Life: Living Wisely With Our Limits” (Oxford University Press, 2008) and textbook “Moral Psychology: A Contemporary Introduction” (Routledge, 2015). Her latest work “Well-Being as Value Fulfillment: How We Can Help Others to Live Well” is forthcoming from Oxford University Press.

Tiberius also has published numerous articles on practical reasoning, prudential virtues, well-being and the relationship between positive psychology and ethics. She has received grants from the Templeton Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities. 

John Bickle, professor and head of MSU’s Department of Philosophy and Religion, said the conference is a major academic event for the College of Arts and Sciences because it will bring together scholars from around the nation for engaging philosophical discussions on well-being.

“Dr. Tiberius is an international star in this area of philosophy and is currently serving as past president of the Central Division of the American Philosophical Association,” Bickle said. “MSU Assistant Professor of Philosophy Alicia Hall, whose funded research focuses on measures of well-being in public policy and healthcare, organized the program and invited Dr. Tiberius to be the keynote speaker.”

Anthony Neal, MSU assistant professor of philosophy and this year’s Mississippi Philosophical Association president, will give his presidential address on Friday from 1-1:40 p.m. in Mitchell Memorial Library’s third-floor John Grisham Room. Titled “Deepening the Hunger: Philosophical and Theological Poetics,” his presentation is free to all.

Administered by the University of Mississippi, the Mississippi Philosophical Association works to increase the understanding and appreciation of philosophy, encourage research and advance the standards and ideals of the teaching of philosophy, and cultivate an interest in the study of philosophy in Mississippi institutions of higher learning.

For more conference information, contact Alicia Hall, MPA vice president and program chair, at 662-325-2382 or ahall@philrel.msstate.edu.

Learn more about MSU’s College of Arts and Sciences at www.cas.msstate.edu; its Department of Philosophy and Religion at www.philosophyandreligion.msstate.edu.

MSU is Mississippi’s leading university, available online at www.msstate.edu.