A new Mini-Heap…

1. “The concept of knowledge is a hangover from a stone-age way of thinking that has long outlived its usefulness” — so argues David Papineau (KCL), who notes, “this needn’t mean anything goes”
2. A newly hired philosophy professor on their good luck — “For all of the success I’ve had due to my hard work and ‘talent”’, there are people who were equally ‘talented’ and worked just as hard… but haven’t been recognized or rewarded”
3. “We found that people were more likely to judge that God could make logical contradictions true than that God could change foundational moral facts” — an empirical study on beliefs relevant to divine command theory, metaethics, and the relationship between normative and non-normative cognition
4. “Perhaps we should presume that U.S. forces obey the law of war as DoD understands it. But we cannot presume that U.S. forces obey the law of war, since DoD misunderstands it” — Adil Haque (Rutgers) responds to Paul Ney, Jr. (General Counsel to the U.S. Department of Defense) on civilian deaths and urban warfare
5. “Sound must be experienced as moving in order to be experienced as music… But once we experience sounds as moving, I don’t think we could stop experiencing them as expressive” — Jennifer Church (Vassar) on how imagining contributes to our ability to hear sounds as music
6. The science and ethics of transplanting uteruses into transgender women — in the British Journal of Obstetrics & Gynaecology (via Kathleen Stock)
7. “I had serious misconceptions about the job of philosophers. I thought you change the world through your thoughts and writings. Ha!” — an interview with Saba Fatima (SIU-Edwardsville) on her life, education, religion, and philosophical work

Mini-Heap posts appear when 7 or so new items accumulate in the Heap of Links, the ever-growing collection of items from around the web that may be of interest to philosophers.

The Heap of Links consists partly of suggestions from readers; if you find something online that you think would be of interest to the philosophical community, please send it in for consideration for the Heap. Thanks!

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