February 2017
Ad Hoc (Daily Nous Philosophy Comics)
Ad Hoc
by Rachel Katler (more…)
The Ghost of Senator Joe McCarthy Haunts a Philosophy Graduate Student (guest post)
The following is a guest post* by Charles H. Seibert, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of Cincinnati. It is about his experiences as a politically-minded graduate student in the 1960s—and the professional consequences that followed. (more…)
Ethics and Education Grant Winners
The Center for Ethics & Education at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, has announced the winners of its latest round of grants. The grants include awards of up to $40,000 for research projects in philosophy as it relates to educational policy and practice (see this description of the grant program). (more…)
“Philosophy Is A Great Major” – A New Site
They told you that philosophy majors don’t get jobs.
They told you that you should practice asking “do you want fries with that?”
They told you philosophy wasn’t about real-world skills.
They were wrong.
So says Philosophy Is A Great Major, a new website about the benefits of majoring in philosophy. (more…)
Philosophy’s Use of the Visual Arts
What works of visual art (paintings, sculpture, photography, drawings, etc.) have philosophers made use of in their written works, either as examples, inspiration, or subjects of study? (more…)
Prindle Institute Receives $30,000 Grant to Study Business Ethics
The Prindle Institute of Ethics at DePauw University, whose aim is “to enrich the quality of ethical deliberation and action for DePauw’s students, as well as for its faculty and administration, and to reach out in related ways to the broader academic, geographical, and global community,” has received a $30,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to..
Fabian Dorsch (1974-2017)
Fabian Dorsch, associate research professor of philosophy at the University of Fribourg, died unexpectedly last week. He was 42. (more…)
New Site Interviews Philosophers With Non-Academic Careers
Phil Skills is a new site featuring interviews with people who’ve had graduate training in philosophy and pursued careers outside of academia. The site was created by Eleni Manis, a former philosophy professor who received her PhD at Michigan and who is currently a research analyst and acting director of communications at the Office of the Nassau County Comptrolle..
Online Philosophy Resources Weekly Update
Here is the weekly report of what’s new at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (SEP), Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (IEP), and Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews (NDPR) — plus a few bonus links. (more…)
“Ought Experiment” Returns With New Advice Columnist
Ought Experiment, the Daily Nous feature offering “personalized advice for your academic life,” will be returning soon after having been on hiatus since last May. During this break, Original Ought Experiment columnist Louis Generis stepped down to pursue other interests, such as keeping his day job*. After a hardly exhaustive search I am pleased to announce Ought ..
Nietzsche For Tots
Have you ever interacted with a three year-old and thought, “what this kid needs is some Nietzsche”? Me neither. Those who are before good and evil don’t need to be encouraged to move beyond it, in my experience. (more…)
Christensen to Deliver 2017–2018 Sanders Lecture
David Christensen, professor of philosophy at Brown University, has been selected to deliver the 2017-2018 Sanders Lecture at the 2018 Eastern Division meeting of the American Philosophical Association (APA) in Savannah, Georgia. (more…)
Mentoring Workshop for Pre-tenure Women Faculty in Philosophy
The Mentoring Project For Pre-tenure Women Faculty in Philosophy will be holding its 4th biennial workshop this June. The workshop is an opportunity to “foster mentoring relationships between senior women in the field and women just beginning their careers” by providing pre-tenure women philosophers a forum in which to present and develop papers in the company of a ..
The Quality and Reach of Philosophical Writing
In an epic interview at Emotion Researcher, Martha Nussbaum answers questions about her life and her work and philosophy. At one point, the interviewer says:
Another distinctive aspect of your philosophical work is its ambition to have practical import. In your The Therapy of Desire: Theory and Practice in Hellenistic Ethics, you cite approvingly Epicurus’ claim ..
Chaospet (Daily Nous Philosophy Comics)
Chaospet
by Ryan Lake
The “Self-Valorizing Vanity” of Philosophers
Philosophy professors, is your job (A) just a way to pay the bills, (B), a “fun and challenging” career but certainly not the only thing worth doing, as “there is more to living,” or (C) the best career, and so, properly the overwhelmingly dominant focus of most of your life?
That’s a question Eric Schleisser (Amsterdam) asks at Digressions & Impressions and that..
Philosophy and the Illusion of Explanatory Depth
Virtually everyone in the United States, and indeed throughout the developed world, is familiar with toilets. A typical flush toilet has a ceramic bowl filled with water. When the handle is depressed, or the button pushed, the water—and everything that’s been deposited in it—gets sucked into a pipe and from there into the sewage system. But how does this actuall..
Does Referee Gender Make a Difference?
Once again, Jonathan Weisberg (Toronto), one of the managing editors of Ergo, looks at the journal’s data to see what, if anything, can be learned from it. This time, he focuses on what difference the gender of an article’s referee makes. (more…)
Online Philosophy Resources Weekly Update
Here is this week’s report of what’s new at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (SEP), Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (IEP), and Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews (NDPR). (more…)
Tom Regan (1938-2017)
Tom Regan, professor emeritus of philosophy at North Carolina State University, died this morning. Professor Regan was known largely for his work on ethical questions regarding the treatment of animals. He developed a theory of animal rights which he put forward in his well-known book, The Case for Animal Rights. He was also a specialist on the philosophy of G.E. Mo..
How Applied Ethics Has Changed
Some thoughts on how “applied ethics” has changed over the years:
hen I was in grad school, ‘applied ethics’ was an embarrassment. It basically involved feeding concocted, simplistic, depoliticized case studies mechanistically through static, caricatured versions of ethical theories. It was also completely ghettoized, and no one else in philosophy paid the slight..
Cynicism and Hope about the Philosophy Profession
What Is It Like To Be A Philosopher? has published an interview with Jenny Saul, who is professor of philosophy at the University of Sheffield, blogger at Feminist Philosophers, and 2011 winner of the Distinguished Woman Philosopher Award.
Philosopher’s Comments On Immigration Cause Stir On Campus
Remarks on immigration by Dan Demetriou, associate professor of philosophy at the University of Minnesota, Morris, have been a subject of controversy at the school recently, according to Inside Higher Ed. (more…)
Politically, What Should Philosophers, Qua Philosophers, Do?
A pair of philosophy graduate students write in with a topic for discussion:
Dear Philosophical Community,
Like many of our graduate student and faculty colleagues in philosophy, we are becoming increasingly alarmed by our political situation as the Trump administration has made good on reprehensible campaign promises. (more…)
The Return of The Service Previously Known As Philosopher’s Carnival
Philosopher’s Carnival was a website that aimed to
- to showcase the best philosophical writing in the blogosphere in one convenient location, for the benefit of philosophically-inclined readers
- to provide lesser-known philosophy bloggers with the opportunity to gain some exposure and attract a wider audience
- to foster and promote the free online disseminat..
When Professors Express Intimidating Opinions
We’ve seen the following: the questioning of a professor’s ability to teach well because of the effect on his or her students of the professor’s expression of a controversial opinion. This was one element of the debate surrounding Steven Salaita’s tweets. For example, he wrote on Twitter, “If you’re defending #Israel right now you’re an awful human being.” Concerns ..
To φ Or Not To φ (Daily Nous Philosophy Comics)
To φ Or Not To φ
by Tanya Kostochka
How To Get More From Attending Academic Talks
Some philosophy talks are exciting, others are dull. It’s pretty easy to tune out of the dull ones. But once you tune out of a talk, it is difficult to follow the argument when you tune back in,and so you just end up sitting there wasting your time. As Ravi Vakil, a professor of math at Stanford puts it, “Talks are like horses: once you are thrown off, it is hard to..