In an effort to promote the Wisconsin Idea, the UW-Madison Philosophy Department sponsors a lecture series entitled “UW Philosophers at Work.” Talks in the series are free and are open to everyone interested in attending. If you’d like to read an abstract of a given talk or see a video of the lecture, please see the UW Philosophers at Work Archive. The inaugural lecture was given in February 2012 by Herbert A. Simon and Hilldale Professor Dan Hausman, on the topic of preferential admissions at UW. The second lecture in the series, entitled “Social Justice and Flagship Public Universities,” was given by Prof. Harry Brighouse in October 2012. The third lecture in the series was given by Emma Goldman Professor of Philosophy Claudia Card, on the topic of “Genocide and Social Death,” in April 2013. On November 7th, 2013, former UW Philosophy Department Chair Professor Russ Shafer-Landau continued the series with a lecture titled “On Marriage Equality.”
This year, Professor Michael Titelbaum will present “Ways of Knowing” at 7 pm CDT on Wednesday, October 29, 2025.
How do we come to know about the world? Can different, conflicting ways of knowing be equally valid? If two people draw different conclusions from the same evidence, did one of them make a mistake? Must knowledge be obtained by objective means—and what is objectivity, anyway? Is knowledge based on numerical data necessarily superior?
You can attend the lecture in person in the Gale VandeBerg Auditorium at the Pyle Center. We invite you to join us and to invite others as well! This lecture is open and free to the public.
You can find a recording of this talk here: UW Philosophers at Work: Michael Titelbaum’s “Ways of Knowing” – YouTube