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..
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