University of Kentucky Philosophy Department

Introducing...Dr. Paradise Stanford🌟🎓 Congratulations on this milestone in your life. We are more than pleased to call you a colleague in philosophy!

"Paradise Stanford has defended her dissertation entitled "Beyond the Veil: Critical Black Kantianism and the Ethics of Structural (In)Visibility”. Paradise defends the thesis that Kant, Freud, Du Bois, Ellison, Anna Julia Cooper, and contemporary Black feminist theorists can help us understand the situated nature of the Black (female) subject diagnosed in the writings of Critical Race Theory and intersectionality theory. The discussion was lively and, as any defense should, offered further insight into this important topic." - from Dr. Bird-Pollan

Congratulations, Dr. Paradise Stanford!

(Pictured with Dr. Stefan Bird-Pollan and Dr. Julia Bursten at UK's Spring 2026 Commencement Ceremony)

Congratulations to our Philosophy majors and minors who graduated this past weekend 🎉 We are so proud of you! Wherever you go next, keep up your lifelong love of questioning.

A special conGRADulations to Calli Zeron, Camilo Hernandez, and our graduating Senior Award Winners!

Do you have daunting religious questions that keep you up at night? Ever wonder how to tackle deep disagreements about religion? 🤔

Philosophy of Religion is BACK this fall! Take PHI 245 with Dr. Willard-Kyle on TR 11a-12:15p

Calling all intermediate philosophy undergrads 📢

Take PHI 520 - Logic II with Dr. Meg Wallace next fall! You don't want to miss this course opportunity

Thinking about AI? 🤖Having moral dilemmas with AI? Go ahead and enroll in AI Ethics with Dr. Bursten this Fall 2026!

PHI 300-005 AI Ethics
TR 3:30p-4:45p

🎉 UK Philosophy Department Awards Ceremony and Banquet🎉

We were proud to recognize outstanding achievements across our philosophy community at this year’s awards banquet on April 24th, 2026:

Undergraduate Awards:

• Sophomore Award (Kuiper–DeBoer Award): Will Waechter
• Junior Award (Franklin J. Matchette Foundation Scholarship): Luke Williams
• Senior Achievement Awards:
Owen Meyer
Sara Clark
Miles Wilson
Will Moreno
Michael Yeager

Graduate Awards:

• Philosophy Department Essay Award: Nanda Harish
• Philosophy Department Teaching Award: Hyomeen Keem
• College of A&S Outstanding TA Award (Humanities): Jaime McCaffrey

Faculty Honors:

• Dr. Clare Batty — Finalist, 2026 Outstanding Teaching Awards (University‑wide)
• Dr. James Sares — Arts & Sciences Outstanding Lecturer Award

Congratulations to all of our honorees, and thank you to our donors, faculty, students, and supporters for making this celebration possible! 🎓✨

We are overwhelmed with gratitude. 💙

Because of YOU, the Philosophy Department had an incredible One Day for UK. Your generosity is a direct investment in our students, our community, and the future of the University of Kentucky.

Thank you for being part of something bigger.

Today is the day! 🎉 One Day for UK is HERE.

For the next 24 hours, we're rallying our community around the Philosophy Department — and we'd love for you to be part of it. Your gift today helps create opportunities that last a lifetime.

Make your gift here: https://bit.ly/47SSAre

Please join us TOMORROW for a talk from Dr. James Sares entitled "Reason is Still Real, and Reality is Still Rational" this Friday April 17th from 3-5pm in POT 1243.

Small refreshments will be provided. We'd love to see you there!


Abstract: This paper deconstructs the binary between actuality and appearance in Hegel’s account of the Doppelsatz (“What is rational is actual; and what is actual is rational”). I argue that Hegel’s attempt to distinguish actuality from appearance, thus the rational from the non-rational in the world, falls apart. I argue instead that the dictum should be read as affirming the rationality of all reality as such, including its contingent and defective appearances, in the sense that nothing lies beyond the universal and necessary determinations of reason. In the first section, I trace Hegel’s efforts to restrict rationality to what is substantial and eternal in the world (“the Idea”) in contrast to transient appearances. I show how this distinction breaks down on both causal and non-causal interpretations of the Idea. In the second section, I offer an alternative reading of the Doppelsatz that collapses the opposition between actuality and appearance. I also respond to the skeptical worry that reason is bounded by an unknowable reality beyond it, to which our rational determinations do not apply. I claim that reality may always exceed what we currently know, and our concepts may indeed change, but whatever exists will be rationally accessible in some minimal form. As such, this reading of the Doppelsatz does not endorse irrationalism. It is instead a statement about the essential rationality of the world, one that affirms the openness of how reason manifests itself in history. This means that deconstructing the opposition between actuality and appearance reimagines the fundamental insight of Hegel’s claim: reality is rational, not despite its contingencies, but precisely in and through them.

Less than 36 hours left to purchase your UK Philosophy Swag here - https://undergroundshirts.com/groups/uk-philosophy-merch

Website closes at MIDNIGHT on Friday! Get your Swag while you still can 💙🖤