October 2014
U. of Southern Maine Cuts Affect Philosophy
The University of Maine has announced that it will be eliminating 50 faculty positions and 100 staff positions and restructuring its academic departments so as to make up for a $16 million deficit. Inside Higher Ed reports: “The English, philosophy and history departments would be combined into a single humanities department, Provost Joseph W. McDonnell said in an e..
Sheffield Will Not Cooperate with PGR
The Department of Philosophy at the University of Sheffield has made the following announcement: “Prospective postgraduates should note that the Department is not supplying updates and corrections to the 2014 Philosophy Gourmet Report, and should not assume that this report is based on accurate information.”
Telling Your Students Your Beliefs
Adam See (Brooklyn College) wrote a letter to his philosophy students at the end of the past semester. It begins:
Dear students,
I am no longer your professor. Throughout the semester many of you have asked me what my personal beliefs are on the topics we’ve discussed. As I understand it, the reason that professors are reluctant to discuss their own beliefs come..
How Much Should Graduate Students Publish?
A current graduate student writes in with this sense of what is expected nowadays:
I’m under the general impression that I need to get as many publications in top journals as I can before I go on the job market. Considering how slow this process can be, and the fact that you can’t concurrently submit the same paper to more than one journal, it follows that I need t..
M.A.D. Philosophy: Consensual Incest (Updated)
M.A.D. Philosophy is a new occasional series here at Daily Nous that highlights philosophical work that Makes A Difference to what is going on in the so-called “real world.” If you have a suggestion for this series (self-nominations are welcome), please send it along to [email protected] for a later installment.
First in the series is “The Ethics of I..
Cosmopolitanism and Diversity in Philosophy
“The reason why most Anglo-American philosophers don’t worry about learning non-Western philosophy is that they assume cosmopolitanism is an ideal developed by Western philosophy. This assumption can create an amazing amount of institutional inertia. Western philosophers assume that the tradition of Plato and Spinoza and Russell just is the cosmopolitan tradition, a..
The Most-Followed Philosophy Twits
Tweeters? Twitterers? Anyway, here is a collage of philosophers with over 1000 followers on Twitter, with links to each of their Twitter accounts.
You can follow Daily Nous on Twitter, too: @DailyNousEditor.
Sci-Phi Faves (Updated)
Eric Schwitzgebel thinks that science fiction and speculative fiction more broadly is “a powerful philosophical tool.” He has been soliciting suggestions of philosophical science fiction from other philosophers this week at The Splintered Mind and you can view the results here and here.
Sort of related (to this and the big story of late).
UPDATE (10/6/14): Mor..
Leiter Responds: Immediate Departure “Unacceptable” (updated)
Brian Leiter has declared that the two of three options presented by the majority of the Philosophical Gourmet Report’s board members which included requests that he step down immediately are “unacceptable.” He explains that he has already put in a significant amount of work towards the production of the 2014 edition of the PGR so he as “at least co-edited” it. He a..
The PGR’s Technical Problems (updated)
Several recent posts here have discussed questions regarding the leadership of the Philosophical Gourmet Report (PGR), the best known ranking of philosophy graduate programs, with some discussion of what an alternative to the PGR might look like. In the meanwhile, discussions continue between the creator and current editor of the PGR, Brian Leiter (Chicago), and rep..
New Journal In Need of Submissions
I’ve received word of a new generalist philosophy journal that is in need of submissions: Proceedings of the Society of Drinking a Lot of Cough Syrup. You can see what kind of stuff they’re interested in from the abstracts on this page. From one of them: “Physics doesn’t care about location in constitution space. Don’t worry about it; physics doesn’t care about you ..
Open Letter to Professional Philosophical Associations (Guest Post by Alan Richardson)
Alan Richardson is professor of philosophy at the University of British Columbia. He works mainly in the history of philosophy of science and analytic philosophy. He has written an open letter to the leadership of the American Philosophical Association, the Canadian Philosophical Association, the British Philosophical Association, and the Australian Association of P..
Change the Face of Philosophy — Right Now
Philosophy in an Inclusive Key Summer Institute (PIKSI) is a weeklong summer school that brings undergraduates from underrepresented groups into graduate school for philosophy. It has been operating for nine years, in part with funding from the American Philosophical Association. That funding is no longer assured, and so PIKSI needs your help. Its organizers are run..
Nottingham Pulls Out of PGR (see 2nd Update from Nottingham)
The Department of Philosophy at the University of Nottingham has issued a statement asking to not be included in the Philosophical Gourmet Report while Brian Leiter has a leading or advisory role in it. Here is the statement:
We are concerned, as a department, about the recent behaviour of Professor Brian Leiter, editor of the Philosophical Gourmet Report, towa..
New Huge History of Philosophy Chart
Former philosophy student Merrill Cook has created an enormous and well-designed chart of the history of philosophy. The above is just an excerpt. For the whole thing, go here.
Duke Philosophers Receive $1.8m Grant
Felipe De Brigard and Walter Sinnott-Armstrong, both at Duke University, have received a $1.8 million dollar grant from the John Templeton Foundation to conduct yearly Summer Seminars in Neuroscience and Philosophy (SSNAP) starting in May, 2016. Each SSNAP will be a 15 day long seminar in which neuroscientists and philosophers will learn about each other’s disciplin..
An Advisor’s Extra Help on the Job Market
Placement practices at different graduate programs in philosophy vary, and one difference concerns what advisors do to help their students land jobs. There is, of course, the advising. And also, of course, the letter writing. But then there is a range of activities that go beyond these regular responsibilities—such as calling or emailing members of search committe..
Site Redesign (updated)
If you are reading this then the Daily Nous website is working. Woohoo! As you can see, it looks a little different. (If it doesn’t, try a “hard reload” of the page.) There are still some kinks that need to be smoothed out, so please be patient. If you notice something isn’t working, it would be great if you could send me an email at [email protected] lettin..
Gerhard Øverland (1964 – 2014)
Gerhard Øverland, a professor of philosophy at the University of Oslo, has died. Professor Øverland worked in moral philosophy, particularly applied ethics. There is an obituary here.