outreach
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Philosophers Doing “Ask Me Anythings” on Reddit
The folks at Wi-Phi are interested in doing more to bring together philosophers and the public, and one avenue they’re tentatively pursuing is having philosophers take part in “Ask Me Anything” (AMA) sessions on Reddit (you may recall the AMA that Peter Singer did a few months back).
The first one is tomorrow (Tuesday) at 11am Eastern time and will be with Chris ..
The Ethics Centre Invites Contributors
Matthew Beard of The Ethics Centre writes:
The Ethics Centre is an independent not-for-profit organisation that provides an open forum for the promotion and exploration of ethical questions. Part of our work involves producing ethics-related articles for our website. We invite a range of thinkers from various walks of life to write short, conversational pieces ex..
Philosopher and Activist
Lisa Guenther (Vanderbilt) is profiled in The Chronicle of Higher Education (paywalled) for both her teaching of philosophy in prisons and her activism regarding “the carceral state.”
She had been researching “the politics of confinement and the ethics of torture,” and their connection to academia, when “suddenly I realized that I really can’t do this work by sim..
What Would Be in a Philosophy Museum? (updated)
How can we introduce those outside of higher education to philosophy? One little-used means is the museum.
I was not aware of any philosophy museums, but a recent news item on the Empathy Museum, ” the world’s first museum dedicated to helping visitors develop the skill of putting themselves in others’ shoes” put the idea in mind. (The Empathy Museum is the crea..
In-Person Philosophy Courses for the Public
Does your institution offer in-person philosophy courses for the public? The Sydney School of Continental Philosophy (School of the Arts & Media, UNSW Australia) and The Melbourne School of Continental Philosophy (University of Melbourne) do. Courses are run during school breaks and in the evenings, are relatively inexpensive, have no prerequisites and no assessment..
“The Best Students I Have Are Inmates”
Christia Mercer (Columbia) reports on her experiences teaching philosophy to inmates as part of the new Justice-in-Education Initiative, sponsored by Columbia University’s Center for Justice, and calls for greater attention to the educational needs of prisoners, in an op-ed in The Washington Post. She writes:
My incarcerated students differ radically from the one..
We Can Do This (updated)
Most of us believe it would be better for students to be exposed to philosophy before starting college, for various reasons. A public high school in the town of Saginaw, Michigan is trying to accomplish that, but it needs our help.
Kirk Wolf is professor of philosophy at Delta College and advisor to the Philosophy Club at the Saginaw Arts and Sciences Academy. Th..
The Philosophy Shop
The Philosophy Foundation, an educational charity in the UK, is trying to set up a community space in South-East London to bring philosophy to younger students and the broader community, to be called “The Philosophy Shop.” A lot of their work is done in school classrooms, but they would like to be able to continue their work after the school day is done, as well as..
Reputational Cost of Public Philosophy?
In his guest post the other day, Walter Sinnott-Armstrong wrote:
many top departments today view colleagues with suspicion when they choose to write accessible books instead of technical journal articles. Philosophers often risk their professional reputations when they appear on television or write for newspapers or magazines. How can they be serious about philos..
The Dress: A Philosophy Problem Gone Viral (a few updates)
Making the rounds yesterday was the dress. Take a look, and figure out which two colors it is:
Some people see the dress as white and gold, others see it as blue and black. Which do you see it as?
The phenomenon is interesting and fun, and there are explanations of it at Wired (more science-minded), Vox (more philosophical), and elsewhere. Millions of peop..
College Credit Philosophy Courses for High School Students
The Alexis de Tocqueville Project in Law, Liberty, and Morality at the University of New Orleans has been offering free for-credit college philosophy courses to local high school students. It sounds great. Chris Surprenant, assistant professor of philosophy at UNO and director of the Tocqueville Project, shared some information about the course:
The overarching f..
Can We Save Philosophy? (Guest Post by Robert Kirkman) (updated)
The following is a guest post* by Robert Kirkman, associate professor in the School of Public Policy at Georgia Tech and director of its Center for Ethics and Technology, in which he takes up the problem of academic philosophy’s seeming irrelevance to others both inside and outside of academia.
Can We Save Philosophy?
by Robert Kirkman
I write this from the ..
Stock a High School Library with Philosophy Books
Which philosophy books would you recommend for a high school library? That is the question currently being asked by Hallie Liberto (Connecticut), on behalf of her mom:
My mom is currently choosing books for the philosophy section of the high school library at the Overseas School of Colombo. She wants some recommendations—books that would be particularly good fo..
The Philosophy of Philosophical Institutions
Robert Frodeman and Adam Briggle (both of the University of North Texas) have published an essay, “Socrates Untenured,” at Inside Higher Ed that makes a case for what they call “field philosophy” — a “context-driven, problem-focused, and interdisciplinary” approach. Their hope is that “a new philosophical practice, where philosophers work in real time with a variet..
UNC Wins “Excellence and Innovation” Prize
The Outreach Program of Department of Philosophy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has won a prize for “Excellence and Innovation in Philosophy Programs.” The prize is offered by the American Philosophical Association and the Philosophy Documentation Center. “This prize recognizes philosophy departments, research centers, institutes, societies, publ..
Brilliant Combination of Teaching and Outreach (updated)
Mount Holyoke philosophy professor Thomas Wartenberg and College President Lynn Pasquerella co-teach a course called “Philosophy for Children.” An article at masslive.com describes it:
As part of the course, college students are teaching second graders at the Martin Luther King Jr. Charter School of Excellence in Springfield to question their own assumptions, lis..
Philosophy on Homelessness
The University of Oregon Department of Philosophy has “Community Philosophy Institutes” on various topics, and one of its current projects is “Homelessness and Home.” Organized by Professor Naomi Zack, who is also teaching a course on the subject, Homelessness and Home aims to “support creative, intellectual, and practical address of the problems of homelessness. Th..
Alfred Mele’s New Blog
Alfred Mele has announced a new blog project called Free Will for All. He explained on Flickers of Freedom the other day one of its distinctive features: it is dedicated to interaction with any undergraduates who are using either of his two latest books in a course, A Dialogue on Free Will and Science and Free: Why Science Hasn’t Disproved Free Will.
“It’s part o..