philosophy
TagNew Podcast: Doing Philosophy (plus: Confidence in Philosophy)
“You shouldn’t be super confident in philosophy.” (more…)
Journalists and Philosophy
“Why is that philosophy is glaringly absent in Indian newspaper journalism that otherwise seamlessly synthesises ideas from numerous disciplines while discussing a topic?” (more…)
Maley Wins Herbert A. Simon Award
The executive board of the International Association for Computing and Philosophy (IACAP) has selected Corey J. Maley, associate professor of philosophy at Purdue University, as the winner of its 2024 Herbert A. Simon Award for Outstanding Research in Computing and Philosophy. (more…)
Philosophers: the Original “Dishabituation Entrepreneurs”
“We have come to believe that it is not possible to understand the current period—and the shifts in what counts as normal—without appreciating why and how people do not notice so much of what we live with.” (more…)
The Influence of Translations in Philosophy: The Case of the Tractatus
You know that famous last line of Wittgenstein’s Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, “Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent”? That’s not quite what he said, according to Damion Searls, whose new translation of the book comes out this month. It was more like, “We mustn’t try to say what cannot be said.” (more…)
Philosophy’s Digital Future (guest post)
“The crucial question for any academic system is how filtering works. Information is cheap. What we want is some way to identify the most valuable information.” (more…)
Philosophy, Creativity, and AI
“I sincerely believe that to save the humanities, within which I include philosophy, we are going to have to reconceive what we do as at least in part a creative endeavor—literary, artistic, imaginative, playful, in short, all those things of which a human spirit is capable, and a machine never will be.” (more…)
Philosophical Norms & Cancel Culture
There are “certain norms that prevail in the discipline of philosophy that are threatened by the new communication environment,” according to Joseph Heath (Toronto). (more…)
Notably Good Experiences with Philosophy Journals
As stories of philosophy journal horror stories continue to come in, one commenter made a suggestion.
How To Write A Philosophy Paper: Online Guides
Some philosophy professors, realizing that many of their students are unfamiliar with writing philosophy papers, provide them with “how-to” guides to the task.
Is There A Sound Philosophical Method? (guest post)
“Is there a sound method for constructing and assessing philosophical theories—one capable of generating theories, in diverse subfields, that deliver philosophy’s ultimate goal?” (more…)
Philosophy You Liked Published in 2023
The year is coming to a close, and so it’s a good time for year-end lists, and Daily Nous is a good place for a year-end list about good philosophy.
What the Evidence Says about whether Studying Philosophy Makes People Better Thinkers
It says: “we need more evidence.”
Philosophical Uses for LLMs: Modeling Philosophers
Now that OpenAI has made it possible for members of the (paying) public to customize its large language model (LLM), ChatGPT, with special instructions, extra knowledge, and particular combinations of skills, the prospects of using it to create useful, interesting, and maybe even insightful “model philosophers” have improved. (more…)
The Rise of English as the Global Lingua Franca of Academic Philosophy (guest post)
“We think it is more or less inevitable at this point that English will be the global lingua franca of academic philosophy for the foreseeable future. We also think it is for the most part a good thing. But it has also produced some problems…” (more…)
What Are Some of Your Sayings? (for World Philosophy Day)
Philosopher Chosen to Lead Center on “Computation and Just Communities”
Dartmouth University earlier this fall launched its Susan and James Wright Center for the Study of Computation and Just Communities, and named philosophy professor Susan Brison as its inaugural director. (more…)
NeuroDiving: a Show about Neurodivergence and Philosophy
NeuroDiving is a new philosophy podcast, radio-quality in its production, about neurodivergence. (more…)
Philosophy Is Not In Charge of Itself (and other points worth remembering when writing about the state of philosophy)
Are you thinking about writing about the state of philosophy today?
Philosophy, Science, and Religion
“What began to feel frustrating instead was a growing sense of the marginal place of philosophy more generally in UK culture… it is arguable that philosophy has drifted away, partly due to its own fault and partly due to the fault of the wider culture.” (more…)
Team Philosophy (guest post)
“There are clear advantages to team science… Would this model work for philosophy?” (more…)
Philosophy as Sustaining Faith in our Cognitive Agency
“What are the practices that sustain our faith in ourselves as the agents of our thinking?” (more…)
Philosophers Awarded ERC Starting Grants
The European Research Council (ERC) has announced the winners of its substantial Starting Grants, including several philosophers.
Philosophy as Art
“I view the philosophical essay as an art form whose medium is ideas.” (more…)
New Resource: Database of Philosophical Research on Policing (guest post)
Ben Jones (Penn State) and some of his colleagues have launched a Policing, Policy, and Philosophy Initiative. (more…)
Does Studying Philosophy Develop Special Skills That Improve One’s Intuitions?
A new study suggests the answer to that question is “no.” Rather, according to the study’s authors, what explains why the intuitions about particular cases of those who’ve studied philosophy differ from others is simply that they’ve been taught the standard interpretation of those specific cases, while the others have not. (more…)
What’s the Point of Philosophy (as an academic discipline)?
I’m curious about what academic philosophers take to be the point of academic philosophy. Just a little question, that’s all. (more…)
Philosophy Departments Under Threat: Information, Pro-Active Strategies, Defense
Many philosophy departments and programs have been targeted for cuts or elimination over the past several years, and many currently are undergoing reviews by administrators looking to make budget cuts or other changes that may end up negatively affecting philosophy departments. (more…)