February 2017
Ethics Professors and Ethical Standards
Should ethics professors be held to higher ethical standards in their personal behavior? A post on that topic by Eric Schwitzgebel (UCR) at The Splintered Mind (which I had put in the Heap of Links last week) asks that question. (more…)
Peter Carruthers to Deliver the 2017-18 Romanell Lecture
Peter Carruthers, professor of philosophy at the University of Maryland, has been awarded the honor of delivering the 2017–2018 Patrick Romanell Lecture at the American Philosophical Association’s 2018 Pacific Division meeting in San Diego, CA, according to an announcement from the APA. (more…)
Dennett on Politics, Philosophy, and Post-Modernism
Daniel Dennett (Tufts) is visiting the UK to promote his new book, but most of this interview with The Guardian is about US politics.
Some excerpts, including a bit about how some philosophy might be responsible for our current political predicament: (more…)
New Philosophy Conversation Video Series / Conference Norms
Scott Aikin and Robert Talisse, both professors of philosophy at Vanderbilt and co-authors of Why We Argue (and How We Should): A Guide to Political Disagreement, have a new series of short videos of the two of them discussing philosophy. The series is called Philosophy 15. (more…)
Online Philosophy Resources Weekly Update
Forthwith, 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). (more…)
Raymond Smullyan (1919-2017)
Raymond Smullyan, Oscar R. Ewing Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Indiana University, Bloomington, and before that professor of math and philosophy at Lehman College (CUNY), died last week. (more…)
New Philosophy Teaching Prize from the APA, AAPT, and TPA
The American Philosophical Association (APA), the American Association of Philosophy Teachers (AAPT), and the Teaching Philosophy Association (TPA) have announced the creation of the Prize for Excellence in Philosophy Teaching. (more…)
Prestige Segregation by Gender in Philosophy
The distribution of genders in graduate education in the United States vary by field. Does that distribution change at all when the focus is just on the most prestigious graduate programs? A new study by Kim A. Weeden (Cornell), Sarah Thébaud (UC Santa Barbara), and Dafna Gelbgiser (Cornell), “Degrees of Difference: Gender Segregation of U.S. Doctorates by Field and..
For The First Time, A Philosopher Is Named “University Professor” In The UC System
Forty-one professors hold the title of “University Professor” across the ten-school University of California system. The title is “reserved for scholars of international distinction who are also recognized as teachers of exceptional ability.” The latest scholar to be named a University Professor is also the first philosopher to be given the honor: John Martin Fische..
Online Philosophy Materials for High School Students
A philosopher writes in seeking good materials online for high school age students who’d like to get more exposure to philosophy. Here are some suggestions: (more…)
“On The Brink of Collapse”: The Philosophical Society of South Africa
The Philosophical Society of South Africa (PSSA), a professional association of philosophers “representing the interests of the academic philosophical community in Southern Africa,” is “on the brink of collapse over allegations of racism,” according to the Mail & Guardian. At its annual meeting last month, the organization’s president, Vasti Roodt (Stellenbosch), an..
$2 Million in Fellowships for Improving Public Discourse
Humility and Conviction in Public Life, an interdisciplinary endeavor at the University of Connecticut directed by philosopher Michael P. Lynch and funded by the John Templeton Foundation, has awarded a total of $2 million to ten scholars engaged in various projects to improve public discourse. (more…)
Ruth Millikan Wins 2017 Rescher Prize
Ruth Millikan, Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Connecticut, is the winner of the 2017 Nicholas Rescher Prize for Systematic Philosophy. The prize “is intended to counter present-day tendencies to narrow specialization by rewarding and showcasing the work of philosophers who have addressed the historical ‘big questions’ of the ..
Innovations in Philosophical Events: The Dance Dialog
The Logos Dance Collective is
a fluctuating assemblage comprised of dancers, choreographers, musicians, composers, designers, cartographers, and philosophers, rebels against disciplinary constraints as it investigates how ideas that are typically relegated to the ivory tower—ideas about the limits of human knowledge, the nature of consciousness, the moral and ..
Mind Chunks (Daily Nous Philosophy Comics)
Mind Chunks
by Pete Mandik
How Bad Is Reviewer 2, Actually? Data from a Philosophy Journal
Does Reviewer 2 deserve that terrible reputation? (more…)
Clemson Philosophy Professor, Others, Fast To Pressure University To Condemn Immigration Order
Philosopher Todd May is one of three Clemson University professors who have begun a six-day fast to pressure their school’s administration into speaking out against the Trump administration’s January 27th Executive Order on immigration, according to reports at The Chronicle of Higher Education and Inside Higher Ed. (more…)
Audio Recordings of J.L. Austin Lecture
Via Eric Johnson-DeBaufre, librarian at the Robbins Library of Philosophy at Harvard University, come a pair of audio recordings of J.L. Austin discussing performatives. (more…)
Trump Meets Socrates — They Talk About Women (guest post by Simona Aimar)
The following is a guest post* by Simona Aimar, a lecturer in philosophy at University College London, in which she shares a dialogue between Socrates and Donald Trump on the subject of women. Dr. Aimar also has a blog, and on Twitter she’s @aimar_simona.
Online Philosophy Resources Weekly Update
As usual, here’s the weekly report of what’s new at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (SEP), Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (IEP), Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews (NDPR), and Wi-Phi. (more…)
Protecting The Rule of Law Against Donald Trump
The rule of law is traditionally contrasted to “the rule of men.” The contrast captures the difference between societies in which the awesome power of governments to send men and women with weapons to order their people about is governed by general rules, laid down in advance, and enforceable against government officials who would abuse their power, and societies in..
Indigenous Philosophy and Philosophers in the US
What’s the state of Indigenous philosophy and Indigenous philosophers in the US? Kyle Whyte (Michigan State University), himself an Indigenous philosopher, has an informative post answering that question over at Philosopher, the blog edited by Meena Krishnamurthy (University of Michigan). (more…)
2017 PROSE Awards and Philosophy
The 2017 Winners of the American Publishers Awards for Professional and Scholarly Excellence (PROSE) have been announced, and among them, in the “Best New Journal in Humanities and Social sciences” category, is Cambridge University Press for the Journal of the American Philosophical Association (see here for more information). (more…)
David Lewis “Letter of the Month” Series (updated)
“The Age of Metaphysical Revolution,” is a project at the University of Manchester whose aim is “to give an account of how the age of metaphysical revolution arose at the end of the twentieth century through a systematic exploration of David Lewis’ philosophy in its historical context.” (more…)
US Philosophers Against Trump’s Policies Towards Mexico
Over 200 U.S. philosophers have added their names to a statement repudiating the Trump Administration’s intended policies towards Mexico, a longtime ally of the United States. The statement reads:
We, the undersigned philosophers working at universities in the U.S., acknowledging our different backgrounds, specializations, and political stances, hereby state our ..
Poll: Impact of Academic Boycott of the US on Philosophy Conferences
Over 5000 academics have signed on to a statement “pledging not to attend international conferences in the US” so long as the travel ban (which denies entry to the US by people from Iran, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Sudan, Libya and Somalia) issued by Donald Trump in an executive order on January 27th is in effect. (more…)
What Should Humanities Institutes Do?
What should humanities institutes at universities do? Among other things, “prompt general efforts toward identifying the varied roles that the humanities can play in 21st-century society,” says Robert Frodeman, a philosopher at the University of North Texas, in an essay at Inside Higher Ed. He argues that institutes should focus on the future and relevance of the hu..
Philosophy, Mainstream Media, and the Public
If you are an optimist there is no crisis. Philosophy departments are thriving; even if television isn’t covering philosophical debates Radio 4 is; and the internet offers every kind of philosophy, past and present. Publishers still offer a spectrum of philosophical books. If you are a cultural pessimist, however, the picture looks different. Postwar, we could watch..