June 2017
Do Philosophers Care Too Much About Fallacies?
I used to teach a course in critical thinking at Ghent University. As behooves a good skeptic, I first presented my students with the usual laundry list of fallacies, after which I invited them to put the theory into practice. Take a popular piece from the newspaper or watch a political debate, and try to spot the fallacies.
I no longer give that assignment. (m..
Bradford Wins 2017 APA Book Prize, Marušić is Runner-Up
Gwen Bradford, associate professor of philosophy at Rice University, is the winner of the 2017 American Philosophical Association (APA) Book Prize, for her book, Achievement, published by Oxford University Press. Receiving an honorable mention for the award is Berislav Marušić, associate professor of philosophy at Brandeis University, for his book, Evidence and Agen..
Philosophers From Women’s Colleges Oppose Eliminating Philosophy At Mills
Philosophers at Wellesley, Smith, Mount Holyoke, Bryn Mawr, and Barnard—all women’s colleges—have authored a letter opposing the proposed elimination of the philosophy department at Mills College. (more…)
Chaospet (Daily Nous Philosophy Comics)
Is Academic Freedom in Israel Threatened by a Philosopher-Authored Ethics Code? (Updated with English Translation of Proposed Code)
Israel’s Minister of Education has proposed the adoption of a code of ethics for academics that some worry poses a threat to the academic freedom of professors there. The code was authored by Asa Kasher, the Laura Schwarz-Kipp Chair in Professional Ethics and Philosophy of Practice at Tel Aviv University. (more…)
Finding Value in the False Scientific Beliefs of Earlier Philosophers
Anyone who studies the contemporary phenomenon of global warming, or who fears the insidious impact that the smartphone is having on our lives, or who remembers that there are enough nuclear warheads on enough intercontinental ballistic missiles to destroy human civilization with some ease, understands that modern technology threatens, indeed is likely, to overwhelm..
Lakatos Award Winners Announced
The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) has announced the winners of its 2015 and 2016 Lakatos Awards. (more…)
Philosophy Jobs Per AOS, 2016-17
Over at The Philosophers’ Cocoon, Marcus Arvan (Tampa) reports on the number of jobs advertised over the past year per Area of Specialization (AOS). (more…)
Mini-Heap
Mini-Heap: recent items from the frequently updated Heap of Links, collected in groups of 10, here for your perusal and discussion. (more…)
Petition Launched to Preserve Philosophy at Mills College
In the wake of news reported last Wednesday that the administration and Board of Trustees of Mills College plans to eliminate the school’s philosophy department and fire its tenured faculty, a petition has been launched to “Uphold Principles of Academic Freedom and Preserve the Philosophy and Journalism Departments at Mills College.” (more…)
Queen Names Philip Pettit a Companion of the Order of Australia
Philip Pettit, distinguished university professor of philosophy at Australian National University and L.S. Rockefeller University Professor of Politics and Human Values at Princeton University, has been named a Companion of the Order of Australia by Queen Elizabeth II. (more…)
Online Philosophy Resources Weekly Update
Here’s the latest from some key online philosophy resources. We check the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (SEP), Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (IEP), Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews (NDPR), Wi-Phi, and 1000-Word Philosophy for updates weekly and report them right here. (more…)
Stubblefield Convictions Overturned
Anna Stubblefield, the former Rutgers-Newark philosophy professor convicted of sexually assualting a disabled man, has had her convictions overturned by an appellate court, reports NJ.com, on the grounds that she did not get a fair trial. The court determined she should have a new trial, with a new judge.
Learning Through Teaching
Well, given my background I knew virtually no philosophy. So I have taught myself most of the philosophy I know by teaching it. If I wanted to learn about something, I would teach a course on it (keeping a couple of weeks ahead of the students). I have learned a lot of philosophy this way, and it’s been a blast.
That’s Graham Priest (CUNY) in the What Is It Like ..
“Old Barriers Are Coming Down”
There’s another great interview up at What Is It Like To Be a Philosopher?—this time with Graham Priest (CUNY). Interviewer Clifford Sosis (Coastal Carolina) asks Professor Priest about a his life, education, work, and the philosophical world. (more…)
Mini-Heap
Mini-Heap: recent items from the frequently updated Heap of Links, collected in groups of 10, here for your perusal and discussion. (more…)
Unscientific Poll Results: Nearly 40% Of Respondents Take Out Loans To Get PhD In Philosophy
A couple of weeks ago I set up a poll asking about whether philosophy graduate students took out student loans while in their PhD programs. This is, of course, not a scientifically sound way of getting at the actual numbers, as the respondents are self-selecting and there is no way to tell if they are at all representative of the broader population. (more…)
Matthew Smith and Adam Hosein Hired By Northeastern
Matthew Noah Smith, associate professor of philosophy at the University of Leeds, and Adam Omar Hosein, associate professor of philosophy at the University of Colorado, Boulder, have both been hired by the Department of Philosophy and Religion at Northeastern University. (more…)
How To Do First-Class Work
Richard Hamming, a mathematician and scientist who worked on the Manhattan Project at the Los Alamos Laboratory, Bell Labs, and the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, gave a talk, “You and Your Research,” at a Bell Communications Research Colloquium Seminar in 1986, a few years before he died, on the difference between the great scientists who make s..
Tenure Publication Requirements and Pre-Tenure Leave For Philosophers At Liberal Arts Colleges
A philosopher writes in with the hopes that the Daily Nous readership can help with a query: (more…)
Mills College Plans To Eliminate Philosophy Department
Following up on the report about the threat to philosophy at Mills College: the Board of Trustees and administration at Mills announced late yesterday afternoon the details of its “Financial Stabilization Plan” and it includes laying-off both Marc Joseph, a tenured full professor, and Jay Gupta, a tenured associate professor, who together comprise the entire philoso..
To φ Or Not To φ (Daily Nous Philosophy Comics)
To φ Or Not To φ
by Tanya Kostochka
Christopher Howard Wins 2017 Sanders Prize in Metaethics
Christopher Howard, a graduate student at the University of Arizona who will be a research assistant professor at UNC Chapel Hill in the fall, has won the 2017 Metaethics Prize from the Marc Sanders Foundation. (more…)
Trend: Fewer Philosophy Majors
The number of philosophy majors in the United States declined in the years leading up to 2015, part of a general decline in the number of humanities majors. (more…)
Online Philosophy Resources Weekly Update
Here’s the latest from some key online philosophy resources. We check the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (SEP), Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (IEP), Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews (NDPR), Wi-Phi, and 1000-Word Philosophy for updates weekly and report them right here. (more…)
Philosophy Major, Tenured Professors at Risk at Mills College
The Department of Philosophy at Mills College in Oakland, California is one of a few departments that the school’s administration has identified as operating at a “negative net revenue,” and as a result, the administration may eliminate the philosophy major and tenured philosophy faculty at the school may lose their jobs. (more…)
Mini-Heap
Mini-Heap: recent items from the frequently updated Heap of Links, collected in groups of 10, here for your perusal and discussion.
Why Progress Is Slower In Philosophy Than In Science
“Since science took its modern form in the seventeenth century, it has been one long success story.” By contrast, we philosophers “don’t seem to have progressed much in the two and a half millennia since Plato wrote his dialogues.” That’s the conventional wisdom, as described by David Papineau (King’s College London) in The Times Literary Supplement. But if there’s ..