December 2014
UNC Trying to Fire Jan Boxill
The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, is trying to fire philosopher Jan Boxill for her role in widespread academic fraud at UNC, according to an Associated Press report:
Steps to terminate University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill philosophy professor and former faculty leader Jeanette Boxill started on Oct. 22, the same day that a scathing report into..
Bye, 2014
I wasn’t quite sure how to wrap up the year. A parody of Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off”? Too cheesy. A video montage of action sequences from a year of blogging (me, staring at phone; me, sitting in front of laptop; etc.)? Too boring. An ironic play in which an enormous baby keeps whining about infantilism? Too realistic. A grandiose statement about progress in the p..
Philosophy To Be Taught In Ireland’s Secondary Schools
Philosophy will become a part of the secondary school curriculum in Ireland, according to an announcement by Minister of Education Jan O’Sullivan, reported in the Irish Times. The country’s National Council for Curriculum and Assessment will develop a “short course” in philosophy that will be taught to students in the early years of secondary school (approximately a..
Eduardo Mendieta (Stony Brook) to Penn State
Eduardo Mendieta, currently professor and chair of philosophy at Stony Brook, will take up a position as professor of philosophy at Penn State, starting during the summer of 2015. Professor Mendieta works on critical philosophy of race, Latin American philosophy, the Frankfurt School, and issues relating to religion, globalization, global justice, and animality. The..
Theory of Jerks
The jerk himself is both intellectually and emotionally defective, and what he defectively fails to appreciate is both the intellectual and emotional perspectives of the people around him. He can’t appreciate how he might be wrong and others right about some matter of fact; and what other people want or value doesn’t register as of interest to him, except derivative..
Is Bio-Medical Ethics Failing?
What medical ethics needs is more and better philosophy—and a return to the adventurousness and originality of its pioneering days. There have been successes—euthanasia and better treatment of animals to mention just two. But the field has in many ways dried up or become dominated by moralists bent on protecting privacy and confidentiality at great cost and ‘getting..
Philosopher is State-Level Winner in Professor of the Year Contest
Karen Hornsby, associate professor of philosophy at North Carolina A&T, has been recognized by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching as the North Carolina winner in their Professors of the Year competition. You can read more about Hornsby and her approach to teaching here. She was the only ph..
Overheard at the 2014 APA Eastern / Open Thread
This could be a terrible idea. Let’s find out!
Any and all attendees of the 2014 APA Eastern are welcome to post their observations, news, comments, complaints, quips, etc., about stuff going on there, here.
Leiter Threatens Jenkins & Ichikawa with Legal Action (updated)
Jonathan Ichikawa (UBC) reports that he and his wife, Carrie Jenkins (UBC), have received from a Toronto lawyer a notification that Brian Leiter (Chicago) is prepared to take legal action against them in the Courts of Canada over “various Internet postings which he alleges defame him.”
Leiter claims to have been attacked or defamed by:
- Carrie’s pledge on her ..
Brandom Wins Prize
Robert Brandom (Pittsburgh) has been awarded the Anneliese Maier Forschungspreis by the Humboldt Foundation. The Foundation awards the prize each year to three or four people working in the Humanities and the Social Sciences. The prize amount is €250 000 (about $320 000). (via Anil Gupta)
This Year in Philosophical Intellectual History
This fall, one of the most powerful institutions in the field of philosophy in this country began to collapse…
In “The Rise and Fall of the Philosophical Gourmet Report,” a brief post at the U.S. Intellectual History Blog, historian Ben Alpers takes a look at one of the major stories in the philosophy profession this year. Alpers is cautious about his account o..
New Hires at Western Ontario
Lack of Political Diversity: A Problem?
In a recent paper, a group of social psychologists—Jonathan Haidt (NYU), José L. Duarte (ASU), Jarret T. Crawford (College of New Jersey), Charlotta Stern (Stockholm), Lee Jussim (Rutgers ), and Philip E. Tetlock (UPenn)—argue that political diversity is lacking in academic psychology and that
this lack of political diversity can undermine the validity of so..
20th Century Continental PhD Programs Wiki
The latest addition to the set of informational wikis about the strengths of PhD programs is on 20th Century Continental Philosophy. Developed by Noëlle McAfee (Emory), in consultation with a number of other philosophers, the aim of the wiki is “to provide an unranked yet searchable list of Ph.D. (and terminal M.A.) programs that have strengths in 20th (and early 21..
Philosophers from Poverty 2: Suggestions
The post, “Philosophers from Poverty,” is still growing, with a range of interesting, informative, and often moving accounts of the lives of philosophers from poor and lower class backgrounds. As that discussion continues, it may be useful to expand upon suggestions for how, if at all, we might alter our thinking, behavior, practices, policies, and the like, in ligh..
UK’s Research Excellence Framework (REF) & Philosophy
A few days ago, the results from the UK government’s 2014 Research Excellence Framework (REF) exercise were released. I suspect that a lot of non-UK readers are largely unfamiliar with the REF, so first some basics:
The REF is used by the government to assess the quality of research in UK higher education institutions. It replaced the earlier Research Assesment E..
The Most Impressive Philosopher You’ve Met
Philosophy Bites has compiled the answers philosophers have given to the question, “Who is the most impressive philosopher you’ve ever met?” I am listening to it now. It is delightful to hear the admiration and smiles and warmth in the voices of these philosophers as they name and explain their choices. Feel free to discuss their choices, or add your own, in the com..
Statement from Colorado’s Tenured Women Philosophers
The tenured women philosophy professors at the University of Colorado—Carol Cleland, Alison Jaggar, Mi-Kyoung “Mitzi” Lee, and Claudia Mills (emeritus)—have jointly authored a statement about the recent events involving their department. The statement, published in The Daily Camera, expresses their intention to “repudiate a secret culture of misbehavior and to w..
Woody Allen, Please, No
On a small town college campus, a philosophy professor in existential crisis gives his life new purpose when he enters into a relationship with his student.
That is the description of Woody Allen’s currently untitled 2015 movie. It is in post-production and stars Emma Stone, Joaquin Phoenix, Jamie Blackley, and Parker Posey. More information here and here.
(vi..
Philosophers from Poverty
The announcement of the UPDirectory has prompted a number of comments about a category not included among its underrepresented groups: philosophers who grew up in poverty. One theme in many of these comments is a sense of isolation and difference that comes from having that kind of background. The point of this post is just to open up a space for philosophers to dis..
Philosophy as Bad Science?
Somewhere along the line many physicists have come to believe that it must be possible to formulate a theory without observational input, based on pure logic and some sense of aesthetics. They must believe their brains have a mystical connection to the universe and pure power of thought will tell them the laws of nature. But the only logical requirement to choose ax..
New App Brings APA Eastern Into 21st Century
The American Philosophical Association (APA) has partnered with Guidebook to make a mobile app for its Eastern Division meeting later this month. The old paper program was clearly the idea of the same sadist who invented books with endnotes; this is clearly an improvement. Download the Guidebook app for your device, enter in the redeem code from your registration em..
Directory of Philosophers from Underrepresented Groups
The UPDirectory is a new website that provides a directory of philosophers from traditionally underrepresented groups in philosophy. From the site:
The purpose of the directory is to provide an easy-to-use resource for anyone who wants to learn more about the work of philosophers who belong to underrepresented groups within the discipline.
The directory includ..
James Murphy (not Tooley) on “The Colorado Sex Scandal” (corrected & updated)
CORRECTION: It appears that, contrary to what I initially posted, Professor Tooley did not write the report mentioned in this post. I was provided a link to the report by a source who prefers to remain anonymous, was told it was by Tooley, and it is hosted on Tooley’s site. However, according to this page, the author of the report is one James Murphy. My apologies t..
Philosophers Gift Guide
I thought Daily Nous should get in on the year end list action. But what would be a good list? Top philosophy blog posts? 3 Quarks Daily has that cornered. Best philosophy books published this year? Like I’ve had time to read enough books this year to make a list (I thought of this one but it turns out it came out last year). Fave pop songs of 2014? A bit outside DN..
T-Shirt Update and Charity Poll (updated)
The first ever Daily Nous t-shirt sale is over. An elite group of 38 people with apparently really good taste were lucky enough to secure their shirts during the limited sale period, raising $190 for charity. While the shirts are being made, we have a decision to make: which charity? I’ve selected a few of the suggestions from the previous thread for us to choose am..
New Political Philosophy Prize
David Sobel (Syracuse) announces the creation of the Marc Sanders Prize in Political Philosophy:
The Marc Sanders Prize in Political Philosophy is a biennial essay competition open to scholars who, at the time of submission deadline, are within fifteen (15) years of receiving a Ph.D. or are students currently enrolled in a graduate program. Independent scholars may..
Creativity, Hierarchy, and Authenticity in Professional Philosophy
What would motivate a person to write a dissertation prospectus in the manner of Wittgenstein’s Investigations? And what happens when one does? Bharath Vallabha tells us. Here’s an excerpt:
One of the key ideas of Cavell’s, and Goldfarb’s, interpretation of Wittgenstein is that key moves in philosophy are often the ones made at the very beginning, in the very way..