February 2016
American Catholic Philosophical Association on Mount St. Mary’s Fiasco
The Executive Committee of the American Catholic Philosophical Association (ACPA)has issued a statement regarding the ongoing controversy at Mount St. Mary’s University of the recent actions of its president, Simon Newman. After intense pressure and horrible publicity, Newman agreed to reinstate the faculty he had fired, attempting to save face by claiming it was an..
Statement from Professor Naberhaus of Mount St. Mary’s University
Thane Naberhaus, the tenured associate professor of philosophy at Mount St. Mary’s University who was one of several recently fired or demoted by the university’s president, Simon Newman, and then, last Friday, reinstated, sent along the following statement Sunday evening:
Having been reinstated as a member of the Mount St. Mary’s faculty, I have decided to retur..
Mount St. Mary Faculty Reinstated / Update: Faculty Ask President To Resign By Monday
This afternoon Mount St. Mary’s University announced that its president, Simon Newman, had agreed to reinstate Thane Naberhaus and Edward Egan, the two faculty members who were fired for “disloyalty” earlier this week, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education. CHE also reports on Naberhaus’s response:
But one of those faculty members—Thane M. Naberhaus, ..
APA Statement on Bullying and Harassment (Update: Coverage from IHE)
The American Philosophical Association (APA) has released a statement on bullying and harassment:
The American Philosophical Association appreciates the work of philosophers who bring their philosophical expertise to the public by way of op-ed essays, public forums, teach-ins, and other venues. We see this increased public engagement by philosophers as important ..
Journal Articles for Free
Do you know about Sci-Hub? Simon Oxenham at Big Think explains:
On September 5th, 2011, Alexandra Elbakyan, a researcher from Kazakhstan, created Sci-Hub, a website that bypasses journal paywalls, illegally providing access to nearly every scientific paper ever published immediately to anyone who wants it. The website works in two stages, firstly by attempting to..
Philosopher Won’t Stand Down
Thane Naberhaus, the associate professor of philosophy who earlier this week was fired from his tenured position at Mount St. Mary’s University by current university president Simon Newman of “drown the bunnies” fame, has received a new letter from Newman, informing him that though he has been “suspended” from his duties, he remains on the payroll “during the notice..
Fund Legal Help for Fired Professors
A GoFundMe site has been created to collect donations for Thane Naberhaus and Edward Egan, the two professors recently fired from Mount Saint Mary’s University by the university’s president, Simon Newman. The story has been summed up well by a fellow philosopher’s comment about Newman: “He wanted to use a fraudulent mental health survey to target students for elimin..
APA Issues Letter In Response to Mount St. Mary’s Firings
The officers of the American Philosophical Association (APA) today sent the following letter to the president and Board of Trustees of Mount St. Mary’s University regarding the recent firing and demotion of faculty there:
Dear President Simon Newman and Members of the Board of Trustees:
The APA board of officers is deeply troubled by reports that two Mount St…
The APA’s Free-Rider Problem
American Philosophical Association (APA) Chairperson Cheshire Calhoun (ASU), at the Blog of the APA, writes:
What the APA does for philosophy and philosophers gets done in virtue of the hard work of hundreds of members. All told, more than 200 individuals graciously volunteer their time and expertise in serving on APA committees and task forces, on divisional pro..
The Value and Pressure of Academic Closeness (Ought Experiment)
Welcome back to Ought Experiment, which returns after a brief waiting-for-more-emails hiatus! (Hint hint guilt trip hint.) This week’s question is from a woman wondering if the close friendships that many grads seem to have with their professors are necessary for professional success.
Dear Louie,
What kind of relationship should you foster with your professors..
Letter of Support for Fired Profs Signed By Thousands (update: President Responds)
The open letter of support for two professors fired for lack of “loyalty” from their positions at Mount St. Mary’s University, authored yesterday by philosopher John Schwenkler (FSU), gained 1500 signatories in its first three hours and now has over 4000. The story is being followed not just by higher education outlets like IHE and The Chronicle, but also The Washin..
Chaospet (Daily Nous Philosophy Comics)
Chaospet
by Ryan Lake
Previous Daily Nous Comics / More Info about DN Comics / Ryan Lake on Twitter
“Bunny-Drowning” President Sets Sights on Philosophers (Updated)
Philosophers are under attack at Mount St. Mary’s University in Emmitsburg, Maryland. The reason appears to be that they questioned the university president’s surreptitious attempt to improve his school’s retention rate by culling students ahead of the federal reporting deadline.
Thane Naberhaus, until yesterday a tenured associate professor of philosophy at Moun..
Philosophy References in Pop Music
Checking out Poison Season by Destroyer this past weekend I came across the following lyric in “Sun in the Sky“:
Tender is the night
That sweeps us up in its folly
I left my keys on the kite
And my violin on the trolley
Violin and trolley? That’s no coincidence. I looked up the band and it turns out frontman Dan Bejar was a philosophy major before he drop..
Invitations, Under Review, and other CV Questions
Two questions about what should go on CVs have come in recently. The first is about conference invitations:
I’ve been invited to/accepted to several conferences. However, budget constraints preclude me from attending almost all of them. Here is my question: is it permissible to list these invitations on my CV—I’m an early PhD student—with a proviso that I cou..
SEP, IEP, NDPR, Wi-Phi Weekly Update
Below are the latest changes and additions at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (SEP), the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (IEP), Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews (NDPR), and Wi-Phi Wireless Philosophy, courtesy of Philosophical Percolations. As usual, they were first posted in PhilPercs’ “Saturday Linkorama” along with many other links worth checking out…
Philosophy Data from the Open Syllabus Project (Guest Post by Andrew Higgins)
The following is a guest post* from Andrew Higgins, who recently received his PhD in philosophy from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He spent some time combing through data at the Open Syllabus Project (previously) and in the post presents some information that should be of interest to fellow philosophers. Thanks, Dr. Higgins!
Philosophy Data from..
Deeper Diversity and the Game of Professional Philosophy
On one understanding of diversity—perhaps an understanding that was once the dominant one—making professional philosophy more diverse means making it the case that it is not exclusively the province of just a few kinds of people (with “kind” understood in terms of sex, race, culture, ethnicity, class, sexuality, physical ability, education, experiences). Th..
Enrollment Caps: How High is Too High?
A philosopher on the job market writes in with a question about course size:
A school that may offer me a tenure line position has a 65 student cap for intro courses, and I would be doing all the work (no grad program, no student graders, etc.). It is likely that I would have have to teach 2 such courses at once during either Fall or Spring, in addition to handli..
To φ Or Not To φ (Daily Nous Philosophy Comics)
To φ Or Not To φ
by Tanya Kostochka
The Most Popular Philosophy Videos
Kelly Truelove compiles data about the online activities of philosophers, astronomers, physicists, and others, under the handle @TrueSciPhi. Recently, at his site, he posted about the most popular online philosophy videos.
In the “Under 20 Minutes” category, the most popular items over the past year have been offerings from 8-Bit Philosophy and The School of Life..
Applying for Jobs You Won’t Take
A graduate student in philosophy asks:
“In today’s job market climate is it immoral to apply for a job and go deep in the interview process when one knows (not just reasonably foresees) that one will not take the job if offered it? Or is this practice, common among senior philosophers to increase their salary at their current institution, just a shrewd career str..
New Dog in the Philosoblogosphere
If the weight of Monday morning is crushing you already, here’s a little lightness to help you out: Philosodogs. No, it is not where you’ll find arguments for or against the existence of dog. That is assumed. But it is a place for questioning dogmas—and dogdads, who happen to be philosophers, about their dogs. So far, there are brief interviews with the philosoph..
SEP, IEP, NDPR, Wi-Phi Weekly Update
Below are the latest changes and additions at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (SEP), the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (IEP), Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews (NDPR), and Wi-Phi Wireless Philosophy, courtesy of Philosophical Percolations. As usual, they were first posted in PhilPercs’ “Saturday Linkorama” along with many other links worth checking out…