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The Class of 2018’s Leadership Experience And Preparation (LEAP) program’s 12th and final meeting took place on Nov. 16. Sixteen Hamilton first-year students along with four LEAP mentors, gathered in a KJ classroom to escape the cold, Clinton November day, and discuss what goes into making an effective leader.

For her Levitt Summer Research Fellowship Grant, Sarah Izzo ’15 is working on a project with Professor of Philosophy Rick Werner titled “Brains on the Stand: The Implications of Emerging Neuroscience Research on our Judicial System.” Izzo is examining new neuroscience research on topics like decision-making and free will as well as associated technological advances (such as improved precision in lie detection). 

Rick Werner, the John Stewart Kennedy Professor of Philosophy, published “Just War Theory: Going To War And Collective Self Deception” in the Routledge Handbook of Ethics and War: Just War Theory in the 21st Century.

Studying the concept of infinity can be a daunting task, particularly because it requires approaching the idea from different perspectives. This summer Austin Heath ’15 is taking on that challenge by studying perceptions of infinity within three distinct fields. In his Emerson Foundation project, “Grasping Infinity: Philosophical, Mathematical, and Spiritual Conceptions of Boundlessness,” he is working with advisor John Stewart Kennedy Professor of Philosophy Richard Werner to trace the development of human analysis of infinity.

Mysticism, or the study of individuals who seek to access a higher-than-sensory reality, is a relatively abstract topic of study, but Sean Fujimori ’14 is hoping to bring the teachings and ancient traditions of the mystics into modern society. Fujimori is pursuing his study on mysticism with an Emerson Foundation Summer Research Grant under the guidance of John Stewart Kennedy Professor of Philosophy Richard Werner.

Rick Werner, the John Stewart Kennedy Professor of Philosophy, spoke at Author Meets Critics: a panel discussion of the newly released 2nd ed. of Duane Cady’s From Warism to Pacifism at "The Obama Years: War, Peace, and Environmental Stability," at McGill University, Montreal, on Oct. 29-30.

Despite the constant quest to live a happy life, people in today’s complicated world are finding happiness increasingly elusive. Past philosophers have proposed how to be happy, but each suggestion is radically different. Advised by John Stewart Kennedy Professor of Philosophy Richard Werner, Jesica Lindor ’12 is analyzing philosophies on happiness through modern psychology through an Emerson grant.

When it comes to the mind and the body, we live immersed in two opposing viewpoints. While many of us believe in the power of science and the firing neurons of the brain that account for many of our actions, we continue attributing our sensations and thoughts to a separate concept of the “mind,” an abstract entity only loosely connected to the physical body. Working with John Stewart Kennedy Professor of Philosophy Richard Werner and through an Emerson grant, Himeka Hagiwara ’11 is exploring the mind-body dichotomy and the conflicting perspectives that are so prominent in our culture.

Richard Werner, the John Stewart Kennedy Professor of Philosophy, has published the lead article "Hope and the Ethics of Belief," in Positive Peace, edited by Andrew Fitz-Gibbon and with an introduction by Arun Gandhi, Mohandas Gandhi's grandson (Rodopi, 2010). Using the reasoning of William James' "Sentiment of Rationality" and recent findings in empirical psychology, Werner argues that we should be hopeful when the facts allow because of the self-fulfillling prophecy that can be contained in hope. Hope is to be preferred to trendy cynicism.

Rick Werner, the John Stewart Kennedy Professor of Philosophy, presented "Pragmatism, Justice, and Sustainability" in August at a conference on Politics, Policy, and Justice at Bern University, Bern, Switzerland. He argues that the consistent underreporting of climate change by recent scientific models, the psychological evidence that our ability to care about others diminishes with both time and space, and the need to look at the whole of justice under conditions of uncertainty present serious challenges to our ability to resolve climate change successfully.