Metaphysical Mayhem is a week-long, bi-annual graduate student workshop in metaphysics, which consists of a mix of professor and student presentations, and is hosted by the Rutgers Philosophy Department.

Our next Mayhem will take place May 21–25, 2018 in the Rutgers Philosophy seminar room, on the fifth floor of the Gateway Transit Building, at 106 Somerset Street, New Brunswick, NJ. Our participating professors will be Sara Bernstein, Cian Dorr, Daniel Nolan, Ted Sider, and Jessica Wilson.

Mayhem is open to all local graduate students (those enrolled in a philosophy Ph.D. program located in New Jersey or New York City), and to those non-local graduate students who have applied and been admitted to the conference. Here is our schedule, with links to recommended readings:

Monday, May 21st       

9:30-10: Breakfast

10-1: Cian Dorr, "Learn Conversational Higher-Orderese in Just Three Hours!" (read: Dorr, sec. 1-7)

1-2: Lunch

2-5: Presentations by David Builes, Lu Chen, and Jack Himelright

Tuesday, May 22nd      
9:30-10: Breakfast

10-1: Jessica Wilson, "Fundamentality and Metaphysical Dependence" (read: J. Wilson, Bennett, Raven)

1-2: Lunch

2-5: Presentations by Zachary Blaesi, Byron Simmons, and Alison Springle

Wednesday, May 23rd
9:30-10: Breakfast

10-1: Ted Sider, "Determinism and Comparativism about Quantity" (read: Baker)

1-2: Lunch

2-5: Presentations by Carolyn Garland, Patrick Grafton-Cardwell, and Hannah Kim

Thursday, May 24th   
9:30-10: Breakfast

10-1: Daniel Nolan "Hyperintensionality and Impossible Worlds" (read: Nolan, Ripley, Soames)

1-2: Lunch

2-5: Presentations by Allison Koslow, Vivek Mathew, Carlos Romero

Friday, May 25th
9:30-10: Breakfast

10-1: Sara Bernstein, "Causation and Grounding" (read: Bernstein, A. Wilson, Bennett)

1-2: Lunch

2-5: Presentations by Pablo Carnino, Samuele Chilovi, Augie Faller

6-? Farewell dinner at Sahara's

Who is behind Mayhem? Mayhem was originally created by Dean Zimmerman. Our organizers for this round are Christopher Hauser, Jonathan Schaffer, and Nicholas Tourville. Website credit to Peter van Elswyk.