May 2014
Socratic Circles with Backchannel
The students come to class having read a passage from a text and having prepared some questions or points for discussion about it. The teacher arranges the classroom seating into two concentric circles. The students in the inner circle discuss and analyse the text while the students in the outer circle remain silent, observing and commenting on the discussion via sh..
“That Can Really Mess You Up”
That’s Neil deGrasse Tyson on majoring in philosophy. Chris Hardwick, over at Nerdist, interviews the famed astrophysicist and host of Cosmos, and one of the topics is philosophy (starting at 20:19). deGrasse Tyson thinks there is too much questioning in philosophy. Still, he has one question for philosophers: “Why are you wasting your time?” Sigh. There’s no one li..
Is Your School Facing Federal Investigation?
The U.S. Department of Education released the names of colleges and universities “under investigation for possible violations of federal law over the handling of sexual violence and harassment complaints.” You can check to see which institutions are on the list here and read an article about the investigations here. (via Jennifer Frey)
UPDATE: Though the official D..
Blog for Philosophy Journal Editors
Jonathan Jacobs (Saint Louis University), editor of Res Philosophica, has created a blog, Letters from the Editors: Philosophy Journal Editors’ Perspectives on Academic Publishing.
He writes, “We welcome other contributors who are editors (of any rank) of a philosophy journal. We’d welcome nominations, including self-nomination, for contributors. And we’d certainly..
Women in Philosophy: Undergraduate Edition
Undergraduates at SUNY Buffalo State have formed a Women in Philosophy organization that is credited with increasing women philosophy majors at the school. You can read about the group in this article or at their website.
Philosopher Meets Philanthropist
William MacAskill, Oxford philosophy graduate student and soon-to-be fellow at Emmanuel College at Cambridge University, sits down with Peter Buffett (son of Warren Buffett) to hash out their differences over philanthropy.
Nietzsche and the Suburbs
The suburbs.
How deeply we are lost! So deep that we do not know we are lost. How derelict we are! So great that we do not know our dereliction.– – – – – – – –
In an infinite universe, there will be a faraway planet with a suburb just like this one. And there will be you and I talking, looking up at the stars.
– – – – – – – –
The madness of..
Department of Defense Gives Philosopher $7.5m
Steve Awodey, a professor of philosophy at Carnegie Mellon University, has received a $7.5 million grant from the Department of Defense to “reshape the foundations of mathematics by developing a new approach that allows for large-scale formalization and computer verification” and to build on his earlier work showing “a deep and surprising connection between abstract..