Associate Professor Agnes Callard of the University of Chicago and Professor of Philosophy and Cognitive Science Laurie Paul of Yale University have won the 2020 Martin R. Lebowitz and Eve Lewellis Lebowitz Prize for Philosophical Achievement and Contribution.
Awarded annually by ΦBK in conjunction with the American Philosophical Association (APA), the prize requires that the two recipients hold contrasting views on a topic of current interest in philosophy. They present their views and engage in a dialogue at an annual Lebowitz symposium, held during an APA divisional meeting, and ΦBK sponsors an event featuring both philosophers. Each winner is awarded an honorarium.
Callard received her undergraduate degree from the University of Chicago, and her M.A. in classics and Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of California, Berkeley. Teaching at the University of Chicago since 2008, Callard specializes in ancient philosophy and ethics. She is the author of Aspiration: The Agency of Becoming (2018) and numerous academic articles and publications. Callard is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Loeb Fellowship, among other awards, and writes a monthly philosophy column for The Point magazine.
Paul received her undergraduate degree from Antioch College, and her M.A. and Ph.D. in philosophy from Princeton University. Her specializations include metaphysics, philosophy of mind, philosophy of science, cognitive science, and formal epistemology. She is the author of Transformative Experience (2014) and co-author of Causation: A User’s Guide (2013), which was awarded the APA’s Sanders Book Prize. Paul is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, among many honors and grants, and has given more than a dozen named lectures.
Professors Callard and Paul’s topic for the 2020 Lebowitz Prize is “Personal Transformation and Practical Reason.” The two highly regarded philosophers have given a great deal of thought to what is involved in long-term decision-making, and their proposed dialogue focuses on different conceptions of practical rationality that are from differing philosophical traditions.
Nominations for the 2021 Lebowitz Prize are now open; the deadline is December 1, 2020. For more information, visit pbk.org/awards.
