Month: June 2014
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Jeff McMahan (Rutgers) to Oxford
Jeff McMahan, currently Professor of Philosophy at Rutgers University, has accepted Oxford University’s offer of the White’s Chair in Moral Philosophy. He will take…
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Heap of Links
1. Tonight, some PBS television stations will be airing a documentary on Grace Lee Boggs, a 98-year-old social activist who holds a PhD in philosophy from Bryn…
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World Cup Philosophy
Existential Comics covers the Germany v. France game. The goal by Sokratis in the soccer game between Greece and Costa Rica is sort of…
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Philosophy in Figures
Ryan Reece, a post-doc in experimental particle physics at UC Santa Cruz, likes “carving out philosophical positions with diagrams.” It’s an interesting project, which…
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Pasnau on Critiques of Philosophy
In dismissing philosophy as an antiquated relic of our prescientific past, the scientist is making a very large and dubious assumption: that the abstract…
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Philosophy Tag
Last week, Sara Bernstein (Duke) made Roberta Ballarin (University of British Columbia) it. Who’s Ballarin going to tag? Let’s find out… Atomicity is the thesis that…
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Heap of Links
1. Charts and graphs may have their place in philosophy, but this is taking things too far. 2. An angel comes to the APA…
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Eulogy for Sidney Morgenbesser
Wittgenstein once remarked that you could write a book of philosophy consisting entirely of jokes. We all know who could have authored that book.…
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“What’s a well-intentioned single guy to do?”
Feminist Philosophers has posted an anonymous “open letter” about sexual harassment in philosophy. Part 1 of the letter lists “34 things NOT to say…
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Varieties of Understanding – Grant Winners
“Varieties of Understanding: Perspectives from Psychology, Philosophy, and Theology” is a project funded with $4.2 million from the Templeton Foundation, and which is lead by…
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Science News of Interest
1. Cosmological study concludes that there should be nothing, rather than something. 2. Those with episodic amnesia are not “stuck in time“, says Carl Craver (Washington…
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New (?) Corollary of Frankfurt’s Conception of Bullshit
“The amount of energy necessary to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude bigger than to produce it.” (Seen here but apparently owed to Alberto…
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Mentoring Project for Pre-Tenure Women
Louise Antony (UMass) and Ann Cudd (Kansas) are co-directing the 3rd Biennial Workshop for “The Mentoring Project for Pre-trenure Women Faculty in Philosophy”, to…
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Heap of Links
1. Heather Douglas (Waterloo) and others on how to fix Canadian science policy (audio here). 2. “Good luck idiots. I hope you enjoy your new…
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Best Philosophy Book Covers
I saw this very clever cover for a book on set theory and it got me wondering about good book design in philosophy. Let’s take…
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Robert Parris Moses Interview (Famous Philosophy Majors)
Robert Parris Moses “became one of the most influential leaders of the black civil rights movement in the 1960s and afterwards. Martin Luther King called…
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Philosophers Outside Academia
Helen De Cruz has begun a series of posts at NewAPPS collating responses to her interviews of several philosophers who left the academy to…
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A Physicist on Physicists’ Criticisms of Philosophy
“Philosophers care too much about deep-sounding meta-questions, instead of sticking to what can be observed and calculated.” Finally, the deeply depressing critique. Here we…
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Why Philosophy is Worthwhile / Rule-Following
“On occasion, someone will ask you why you’re a philosopher and not a scientist or some other, more obviously respectable, intellectual.” I don’t know…
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Ludlow’s Future at Rutgers
Peter Ludlow, who is currently engaged in legal disputes with Northwestern University and its officials regarding alleged sexual misconduct, had been offered a position at…