Events and Reading Groups

Department Colloquium

Every Day an Election Day
Kal H. Kalewold (University of Leeds, UK)
April 25 | 3:30pm | Sensenbrenner 303

Kal Kalewold photoVoting occurs on Election Day. In the history of electoral democracy, this fact has been closely identified with the practice of elections.  However, I argue the temporality of election time generates problems that undermine or disable crucial democratic values such as responsiveness, popular rule, and government accountability, among others. This paper outlines and defends a new electoral system I call Registral Voting. Under this system voters electronically register their votes daily— thereby eliminating the distinction between electoral and non-electoral periods— with the results determined by summing up votes over the whole term of office. In effect, under Registral Voting every day is election day. Registral Voting eliminates the capacity for politicians to manipulate near-election events for their benefit and enhances retrospective voting, allowing voters to make informed choices based on a wide range of salient information as and when they arise. Registral Voting preserves the virtues of electoral democracy while mitigating or eliminating anomalies of election time highlighted by critics of elections and empirical studies of voter behavior.

For more information, contact Grant.Silva@marquette.edu.

The Marquette Midwest Seminar in Ancient and Medieval Philosophy 

Pythagorean Themes in Plato’s Timaeus
Laurence Bloom
(Rhodes University, South Africa)
April 24 | 3:30pm | MH103

“One, two, three… Where’s number four, Timaeus?” So begins Plato’s account of the visible cosmos. The unmistakable reference to the Pythagoreans—for whom the world is, or is composed of, numbers—has been clear to readers since at least Proclus. Less often noted, however, is the emphasis on incompleteness. It is this double reference, and the connectedness of the two referents, that I will be investigating in this talk.

Pythagorean Themes illustration I will suggest that the connection between the rationality of number and the inherent lack of the natural world frames the discourse of the Timaeus. In short, the double reference suggests both a degree of intelligibility to the natural world and an inevitable lack to that intelligibility. I will argue that it is understanding that lack of intelligibility, and how to behave in the face of it, that is central to Plato’s project. Seeing that this is Plato’s concern will both open up and structure the text for us in interesting ways. As we will see, it will also be echoed in Socrates’ request to see his state in motion and in Timaeus’ own εἰκός μῦθος frame.


Department Reading Groups

Indigenous Philosophy Reading Group
Meets every Thursday, 3:30pm, either in-person (MH102) or via Teams. Email Caden Page for the Teams link.

Teaching Philosophy Reading Group
Meets (irregularly) on Tuesdays, 4pm-5:30pm (and occasionally 5pm-6:30pm); focusing on the work of Jennifer Morton in Spring 25. Email Yoon Choi for details or check the Philosophy Events Calendar (link to sign up below). 

  • Feb 25, 4pm-5:30pm, "Molding Conscientious, Hardworking, and Perseverant Students" 
  • Mar 4, 5pm-6:30pm, Morton and Paul, "Grit" 
  • TBA

Gloria Anzaldúa Reading Group
Meets every other week on Tuesdays, 10am-11am, in the downstairs lounge space, with virtual options available upon request. Contact Emily Lange for details. 

Marquette Midwest Seminar in Ancient and Medieval Philosophy
For more information, visit the seminar website or contact Owen Goldin.

Classical German Philosophy Reading Group
Meets Thursdays, 11am-12pm. For more information, contact Michael Olson.

Grad Student Peer Workshop
Usually meets every other Friday, 3:30pm-4:30pm. For more information, contact Emily Lange.

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