August 2014

Monthly Archives:

New Open Access Journal

Symposion has been relaunched as an open access, multilingual, quarterly, philosophy-centric interdisciplinary journal. Its first issue in its new format has just been published.

1. Hindu philosophy of religion.
2. A series of posts on Cusa and Hegel.
3. Artificial wombs are already being tested and developed, and according to some, will be widely used in a few decades. They’re a little controversial.
4. Physicist Lawrence Krauss squares off against philosophers Angie Hobbs and Mary Midgley on the relationship between philosophy and scienc..

Philosophers Propose Boycott

Related to the earlier post of links to philosophers writing about the current conflict in Gaza and associated issues, some philosophers and political theorists are supporting “a principled refusal to associate with Israeli academic institutions that have not explicitly condemned the occupation.” They lay out their reasons here. (via Katharine Jenkins)

(Note: for ..

When Is Philosophical Agreement Suspicious?

Last week, in the post about philosophy of religion, I wrote:

For a few reasons, it is not a sociologically surprising fact that most philosophy of religion in the West today is conducted by Christian theists. But it is certainly philosophically surprising (bordering on philosophically suspect) that, of all the possible options for religious belief (which include n..

What Are Professional Philosophers For?

Most academic philosophy departments see themselves primarily as housing a specialized academic discipline, and contributing only incidentally here or there to a university’s general education curriculum. The priority needs to be reversed. Frankly, there is little or no need for specialized academic philosophy; if it disappeared overnight, the only ones who would no..

Loeb Classical Library — Online Soon

Harvard University Press is digitizing the entirety of The Loeb Classical Library and putting it online. While a free trial will be available, permanent access to the collection will be through paid individual and institutional subscriptions. For book lovers, the familiar little red and green hard copies will remain in print. There is an article about the online ver..

Dennett on Brains and Blame

“Of course my brain made me do it! What would you want, your stomach to make you do it?”

That’s from the text of a brief interview with Daniel Dennett at WBUR’s site.

Civic Engagement in Philosophy Classes

Ramona Ilea (Pacific University) shares news of an online resource for philosophy professors she has helped create called Engaged Philosophy. The site is a repository of information about incorporating projects of civic engagement into philosophy courses.

When students do civic engagement projects in our philosophy classes, they commit to making changes in their com..

More on the Homogeneity of Philosophy

Continuing on the theme of the homogeneity of philosophy:

I strongly believe that it is central to a thorough education in the human sciences that we be compelled to learn in detail about traditions that precisely and obstinately do not speak to us…. I want to move myself somewhere other than where I started out. I agree that it is most urgent for the ‘white men’ w..

In the Overlap between Logic, Fun, and Information

John Venn, an English philosopher who spent much of his career at Cambridge, died in 1923, but if he were alive today he would totally be dead, as it is his 180th birthday. Venn was named after the Venn diagram, owing to the fact that as a child he was terrible at math but good at drawing circles, and so was not held back in 5th grade. In celebration of this philoso..

#APSAOnFire

Way back in the 2000s, at the Eastern APA’s conference hotel in DC, the fire alarms went off in the middle of the night. The hotel was briefly evacuated, but, because it was winter, rather than keep everyone outside, the hotel let people take shelter in the ballroom—the very ballroom at which the Smoker had taken place earlier that night. The tables were still in ..

What’s Wrong with Oxford Scholarship Online?

Oxford Scholarship Online (OSO) is the digital imprint for Oxford University Press, making available electronic versions of OUP books. According to Bob Pasnau (Colorado), they are terrible. His library started an OSO subscription and stopped purchasing hard copies of OUP books, and he has not been very happy.

For a great many purposes, I prefer to read material on s..

Heap of Links

1. What should we think about the ice bucket challenge?
2. Al Mele (Florida State) and Eddy Nahmias (Georgia State) talk about free will and science at Philosophy TV.
3. The challenges for an analytic feminist philosopher of religion.
4. Free for you to use: a Prezi tour through the history of Western philosophy, by Mark Alfano (University of Oregon).
5. Why a philo..

Ignorance “Justifies” Ignorance (More on Non-Western Philosophy)

It is… worth inquiring why classical Chinese philosophers are not especially influential in contemporary U.S. philosophy. One possibility is historical accident: Because the dominant culture in the United States traces back to Europe, the classical Chinese philosophers were not taught to, and thus not read by, the succeeding generations. Ignorance thus apparently ..

What Are Some Things You’ve Said?

While we’ve been collecting your philosophical sayings here, someone else has been collecting what you might have said in the classroom or in office hours or wherever, when, perhaps, you weren’t being as careful with your words. Check out Philosophy Professor Quotes and have a laugh, perhaps at your own expense. (via Clayton Littlejohn (update: via Jon Cogburn at Ne..

Heap of Links

1. Nicholas Kristof, writing in The New York Times, defends the value of the humanities by explaining how he has been affected by the ideas of Isaiah Berlin, John Rawls, and Peter Singer.
2. CBS will be airing a television drama that “centers on a brilliant bioethicist who is called in at crisis moments to solve the most complicated, dynamic, and confounding medica..

APA Seeks Chairs and Commentators for 2015 Central

If you are interested in volunteering to chair a session or respond to a paper at the 2015 Central Division Meeting of the American Philosophical Association, now is the time to sign up. The program chair, Janice Dowell, writes, “We’ve got a fantastic program so far. Commenting and chairing are good ways for young folks to meet more established people in their field..

Philosophy Can Help South Africa

So, what would a just South Africa look like, and how do we achieve it? If we’ve inherited a legacy of racial injustice, what does racial justice demand of us now? Different government policies may have radically different impacts on people’s lives. So the issue needs to be discussed as fully as possible in all sections of society. And philosophy can make an importa..

Heap of Links

1. “By insisting that print is a necessary condition for scholarly quality, deans and scholars make it more difficult for university presses to stay in business, thereby making it more difficult for them to publish print books! At the same time, scholars insist on having their own work published in print while they increasingly engage the work of others online. And..

Philosophers’ Ethical Non-Monogamy Group

Carrie Ichikawa Jenkins (British Columbia) and Rebecca Kukla (Georgetown) have informed me that they have created a new, private, “Philosophers’ Ethical Non-Monogamy Group” on Facebook.

This is a group for the exploration of political, personal, disciplinary, and theoretical issues surrounding ethical non-monogamy. We welcome those who identify as professional phil..

Another Colorado Investigation

An associate professor of philosophy at the University of Colorado, Bradley Monton, is being investigated by the university.

Associate professor Brad Monton is the subject of a report by Denver-based attorney David Fine for university administrators…. CU declined to provide the Camera with the results of Fine’s investigation and would not disclose the nature of the..

Ferguson & Philosophy Class

It is the beginning of the school year. Some professors start off their first class with deep puzzles, or thought experiments, or polls. Others begin with definitions of philosophy or by reciting and discussing inspiring passages from great philosophical works. Still others, strangely, hand out syllabi and read through them. There are those, though, that like to bri..

More on McGinn’s Offer

The Chronicle of Higher Education reports on East Carolina’s offer to McGinn (previously). The article confirms the earlier report, saying “The philosophy department had chosen Colin McGinn for a one-year appointment, but administrators declined to accept the department’s choice, without saying why.”

The appointment was for the “Whichard Distinguished Professorship” ..

Philosophy Students: A Tumblr

Zac Cogley (Northern Michigan) has created a tumblr featuring links about and pictures of people in the news who have majored in or otherwise studied philosophy. It’s called Philosophy Students. (Submissions welcome.)

Philosophers on the Israeli – Palestinian Conflict

Jason Stanley (Yale) has a piece in today’s Frankfurter Allgemeine, a German newspaper. It is entitled “An Open Letter to the Protestors on the streets of Berlin chanting ‘Jude, Jude, feiges Schwein, komm heraus und kämpf allein’ ”” which looks at the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and reactions to it, as well as the ideas of democracy and pluralism, through the lens ..

Ketland Reinstated at Oxford

Jeffrey Ketland, who had been dismissed from his position as a philosophy fellow and tutor at Oxford’s Pembroke College following accusations that he had harassed a BPhil student who committed suicide (previously), was successful in his appeal of that decision and has been reinstated, according to this article in The Sunday Times.

Ketland, 50, a philosophy lecturer ..

Tweets and Woofs

Gerald Dworkin on philosophical one-liners.