Heap of Links
1. Is Žižek a plagiarist? Update: Newsweek gets on the story. Update 2: Žižek’s response.
2. “Philosophers ought to do their best to find a female captain, not merely a ship’s figurehead,” says Susannah Kate Devitt, reviewing the latest Australian Association of Philosophy (AAP) Conference.
3. The ethics of sex with dead people? Of course, there’s dignity. But maybe, there’s Louis CK.*
(*This is Louis CK talking about sex with dead people; you figure out whether that is NSFW.)
4. A discussion of “liquid democracy,” under which each person is “allowed to delegate the task of voting to someone whom he considers to be superior to himself.”
5. “I don’t think that what is needed is more eye-catching public performances by professional philosophers… What I wish for is better philosophy, and better history of philosophy, from those intellectuals and scientists who are in the public eye already and who wrongly believe they know what they are talking about when they venture into philosophy.” An interview with journalist-philosopher Anthony Gottlieb.
6. How an invention of Leibniz’s anticipated the central idea of modern computing.
7. A wide-ranging interview of Mark Okrent (Bates College) that touches on his entry into philosophy, changes to teaching and to universities, capitalism, phenomenology, pragmatism, and other topics.
8. The lifestyle section ofThe Times of India lists ten “leadership tips” from philosophers, complete with animated gifs. Meanwhile, leadership is the topic of the week at Philosophy Talk.
9. There’s a series of novels by Alexander McCall Smith featuring “insatiably curious philosopher and woman detective” Isabel Dalhousie. I have no idea if they are any good. The first is called The Sunday Philosophy Club.
Friday Fun bonus link:
10. “The front of the palate introduces profound blackcurrant flavour, followed on the middle palate by Maraschino cherry, dark chocolate and mocha coffee fruit elements with savoury oak… Drink with: Wagyu beef sirloin with horseradish and grilled mushrooms” –from a review of “The Philosophy” (cabernet sauvignon – shiraz blend). What a wasted opportunity. Proper reviews of a wine called “The Philosophy” are welcome in the comments.
Re 4, here is a version of delegated voting that I am tempted toward: each person should be able to cast the votes for those who are ineligible to vote on their own and for whom he or she is legal guardian. (Ignore the tidying up you would have to do to deal with shared guardianship, and so forth; that would be trivial.) Why should children’s (etc.) interests be so watered down in terms of influence within a democracy when their guardians could cast votes on their behalf?
Hi, I am not a philosopher, only a librarian at a philosophy library. I am a reader of mysteries and frankly, I think this series by Alexander McCall Smith featuring “insatiably curious philosopher and woman detective” Isabel Dalhousie, is not very good. But, that’s just my opinion.
If one is looking for moral dilemmas, read some Ian Renkin’s Inspector Rebus novels. Of course, it is possible that McCall does deal with moral dilemmas, I just found the character Dalhousie very annoying and could barely finish the first in the series.