January 2015
Philosopher’s Index Upping Its Game
The Philosopher’s Index, an academic philosophy database available through the libraries of many universities and colleges, is rolling out a service that contains not merely abstracts (which it has long featured), but the full text of its indexed articles, according to a recent press release. Called “The Philosopher’s Index with Full Text,” it provides articles from..
For the Money
Graduates with philosophy degrees have “higher earnings potential than many other arts and humanities-related fields,” said TheRichest. Payscale reports midcareer median salaries are $84,000 for your modern day Kant or Descartes. Why? Well, let’s be logical. Which is exactly what philosophy programs require of students … logic. Thinking is hard, it requires analysis..
Why Are So Many Philosophers of Religion Theists?
72.8% of the 3226 philosophers who took the PhilPapers survey in 2009 said that they accept or lean towards atheism. Among philosophers of religion, though, 72.3% accept or lean towards theism. What explains this difference? Adriano Mannino considers the question in a post at the group blog Crucial Considerations. Of these figures, he writes:
On the face of it, t..
Philosophers Talk Football
Hey, so, uh, the Superbowl….
That’s all I got, but feel free, folks.
(images from Academic Coach Taylor)
Philosophical Delight in the Classroom
One thing that makes us different from most of our undergraduate students is that we really enjoy philosophy and they do not. It may drive us to frustration and despair sometimes, but, generally, we find it interesting and take pleasure in it in a way that is foreign to our students. Yet, every once in a while its possible to get students to catch a glimpse, firstha..
Students Object to Job Candidate for Offensive Views
Graduate students in a philosophy department somewhere in the English-speaking world did some online sleuthing about a job candidate for a position in their department, and learned that the candidate seems to hold views they find offensive. In particular, they found reports (including alleged quotes) that the candidate had expressed in online fora the view that homo..
APA’s Inaugural Joyce Mitchell Cook Award Winner Announced
Kathryn Gines, assistant professor of philosophy at Pennsylvania State University, has been named the inaugural winner of the American Philosophical Association’s Joyce Mitchell Cook Award, presented by the Committee on the Status of Black Philosophers (CSBP). Professor Gines works on Continental philosophy (especially existentialism and phenomenology), African Amer..
A Good Offense (updated)
When it comes to teaching philosophy, how offensive may we be, and in what ways? Recent discussions here, particularly regarding teaching same-sex marriage, have raised this issue, but those conversations have been dominated by discussion of the plausibility of arguments regarding that substantive matter. Though it has cropped up, the issue of the role that offensiv..
Unblock Thyself
Jon Cogburn (LSU) has run a little experiment. For months he and others have been unable to comment at Daily Nous. Long thought to be the result of my tyrannical and heavy-handed moderation, this problem has now been traced by Cogburn to Askimet, a spam-filtering service used by many blogs, including DN. Apparently, in some cases, having one of your comments marked ..
New Site for Discussions of Discrimination & Disadvantage
Discrimination and Disadvantage is a new blog developed by Thomas Nadelhoffer (College of Charleston) and Kevin Timpe (Northwest Nazarene U.) for discussions about the philosophy of discrimination and disadvantage, as well as of discrimination and disadvantage in the philosophy profession. As they put it in their mission statement,
In recent years, philosophers h..
Book Dedication Sale
Jason Brennan and Peter Jaworski (both of Georgetown), have been working on a book entitled Markets Without Limits. You may recall an earlier post which detailed their plans to sell space in the “acknowledgements” section of their book. Not to be outdone—by their earlier selves—the duo are now selling the dedication page of their book to the highest bidder. You ..
Philosopher Launches Global Health Impact Initiative
The Global Health Impact is an initiative created by Nicole Hassoun, associate professor of philosophy at SUNY Binghamton, that evaluates and compares the health impact of medicine. The site assigns “impact scores” to various drugs based on how much good they do (explained here) and presents the information sorted by disease, drug, country, and pharmaceutical compan..
Same-Sex Marriage and Philosophy Revisited
“How Academic Philosophers Are Trying to End the Gay-Marriage Debate—and Getting it Wrong” is the title of a new article in the National Review. Written by University of Colorado Ph.D. student Spencer Case, the article picks up on a discussion had here at Daily Nous about the matter back in November.
Despite their field’s reputation for interminable controversy..
Life as a Philosophy Student in North Korea
A philosophy student who defected from North Korea provides some information about life as a philosophy student there in a recent interview (part of a series of interviews with David A. Caprara, a journalist working with the Global Peace Foundation in Seoul, South Korea). The student now lives in Seoul.
The access to philosophy books in North Korea is quite limit..
Reasons You Rejected a Paper
The discussion of journal practices is continuing, but, at the suggestion of Tom Dougherty, I am posting this as a place to gather “frequent reasons for rejection” of articles. Here is his comment from the other thread:
If many of the papers getting desk-rejected by journals are rejected for common reasons, then I wonder if it might be in everyone’s interests for..
Sexual Misconduct at Arizona State’s Honors College
In light of recent discussions of professor-student sexual relations (here, for example), readers might be interested in learning of about what has been happening at Barrett, the Honors College of Arizona State University.
In the past few years, Barrett has terminated the contracts of at least three professors who engaged in sexual relationships with students. Jo..
Heap of Links
Daily Nous readership has grown quite a bit over the past few months and it occurs to me that some new visitors may not know about the Heap of Links. The Heap of Links is located just a little bit down the page in the right sidebar of the site (or, if viewing the site on a phone, below several of the main posts). It contains links, updated as they come in (often a f..
Virtual Dissertation Writers Groups, Round 2
Joshua Smart, a philosophy graduate student at the University of Missouri,is once again coordinating virtual dissertation writers groups (previously). He writes:
While advisors and committees are important, it can be incredibly helpful to discuss one’s work with peers in a lower-stakes environment, and it can be particularly enlightening to do so with those who t..
Ancient Scrolls of Philodemus, Carbonized by Vesuvius, Now Readable
Using a technique known as x-ray phase-contrast tomography (XPCT), a research team in Italy has figured out a way to read the text of ancient rolled-up scrolls that had been blackened, warped, and embrittled in the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 A.D. The scrolls were found in 1752 during excavations in Pompeii. Most of the approximately 1,800 (!) scrolls found so fa..
A Closer Look at Philosophy Journal Practices (two updates)
Considering how important the publication of articles in peer-reviewed journals is to a successful career in philosophy, it is expected that curiosity and questions about the practices at philosophy journals would arise. Additionally, lately it seems as if there has been an increase in concerns about unfairness in access to publication opportunities, including insuf..
Germany’s Heidegger Society Chair Resigns (updated)
Günter Figal (Freiburg) resigned his position this past Thursday as chair of the Martin Heidegger Society in the wake of the publication of Heidegger’s Black Notebooks (Schwarze Hefte), which many believe show that Heidegger’s antisemitism was more central to his thinking than previously thought. Figal, who had held the position since 2003, is reported to have said ..
Lupe Fiasco Hands Off Philosophy Sunday to WiPhi
Rapper Lupe Fiasco has been running a weekly philosophy discussion on Twitter called Philosophy Sunday (#PhilosophySunday). With a new album about to come out, he is handing off responsibility for the discussion over to the folks at Wi-Phi. Their first run at it will be tomorrow, January 18th, starting at 2pm EST. Gaurav Vazirani, a philosophy PhD student at Yale an..
Ruin a Date with a Philosopher in 5 Words
The Chronicle of Higher Education reports on a recent twitter tag: #RuinADateWithAnAcademicInFiveWords. There are a few philosophers chiming in. One of the best so far: @Ethicistforhire with “Doesn’t science make philosophy obsolete?”
I think this calls for a Ruin A Date With A Philosopher in 5 Words thread.
A “Nonproblematic” Black Philosopher
Mabogo More, who was recently awarded the Frantz Fanon Lifetime Achievement award by the Caribbean Philosophical Association, is profiled in the Mail & Guardian. More held appointments at University of the North – Turfloop, the University of KwaZulu-Natal – UKZN, and the University of Durban-Westville, as well as fellowships at Birmingham, University of Illinois, an..
“Raw Intellectual Talent” and Academia’s Gender and Race Gaps
Cultural beliefs and stereotypes that associate men but not women with “raw intellectual talent” can help explain the differing gender gaps across various academic disciplines, according to a new study by Sarah-Jane Leslie (Princeton), Andrei Cimpian (Illinois, Urbana-Champaign), Meredith Meyer (Ottterbein), and Edward Freeland (Princeton) published today in Science..
Philososplainin’ #2: Letting Kids Do Stuff Themselves
Making the rounds this morning is the news of parents who are being investigated for neglect for allowing their children, ages 10 and 6, to walk, by themselves, the one mile from a park to their home in Silver Spring, Maryland. There have been a rash of such stories recently, it seems, most notably one about  a South Carolina mother who was arrested (!) for allowing..
CU Faculty Panel: Barnett Did Not Retaliate Against Student
The faculty panel responsible for reviewing the University of Colorado’s allegations against associate professor of philosophy David Barnett (previously) has concluded that he is not guilty of retaliation. While university administrators had wanted to fire Barnett, the panel voted 4-1 for a one year suspension without pay instead. Barnett had been accused of retalia..
How Do You Want Your Students To Assess You?
Most colleges and universities have students fill out forms to evaluate their instructors’ performance at the end of the term. Semesters are just beginning around now, but it is not too early to start thinking about those evaluations. One study found that “students’ ratings 2 weeks into the semester did not differ from end-of-semester evaluations.”
There are lots..