June 2015
APA Issues Letter on Sexual Harassment
The Board of Officers of the American Philosophical Association (APA) has published an open letter on sexual harassment. It is addressed ” first and foremost to victims of sexual harassment within the profession of philosophy, and secondly, to all members of the APA.”
We are committed, both personally and as the primary governing body of the association, to comba..
Philosophers on Rachel Dolezal (updated)
Rachel Dolezal, “in recent years… has portrayed herself physically, and on social media platforms, as a woman of black African-American heritage. However, her parents, Ruthanne and Larry Dolezal, who are both white and live in the Troy/Libby area in Montana, their daughter is not African-American. They backed up the claim with a copy of their daughter’s birth cer..
Adam Pautz from Texas to Brown
Adam Pautz, currently associate professor of philosophy at the University of Texas at Austin, has accepted an offer from Brown University and will be full professor there starting this fall. Professor Pautz works in philosophy of mind and metaphysics.
The Philosophy of Passing
The story of Rachel Dolezal’s outing as a white woman (insert whatever scare quotes you think appropriate there) is being widely discussed all over the place, including, now, the philosophy blogosphere. I’ll be putting up a post comprised of contributions from several philosophers here by the end of the weekend, but in the meanwhile, Daniel Silvermint (Connecticut) ..
Recent and Ongoing Discussions
While there’s always something new to talk about, there are some recent posts here at Daily Nous that would benefit from further comments, including:
Moratorium and New Editors at Mind
Thomas Baldwin (York), the current editor of Mind, writes that the journal will cease accepting new submissions for several months, starting in July, so as to ease the transfer of the editorship to Adrian Moore (Oxford) and Lucy O’Brien (UCL):
At the end of September 2015 the editorship of Mind will move from Thomas Baldwin (York) to Adrian Moore (Oxford) and Luc..
Over $1m for the Philosophy of Quantum Gravity
Nick Huggett (UIC) and Christian Wüthrich (Geneva) have won a $1.1 million grant from the John Templeton Foundation to support their project, “Space and Time after Quantum Gravity,” on the philosophical implications of theories of quantum gravity (a continuation of their “Beyond Spacetime” project).
Professor Wüthrich writes:
The premise of the project is that..
What Kinds of Things Count as Philosophy?
Academic philosophers in Anglophone Ph.D.-granting departments tend to have a narrow conception of what counts as valuable philosophical work. Hiring, tenure, promotion, and prestige turn mainly on one’s ability to write an essay in a particular theoretical, abstract style, normally in reaction to the work of a small group of canonical historical and 20th century fi..
Training Graduate Students in Academic Writing
The kind of research and writing experience received up until the moment of candidacy does not train students to a writing practice where months of research lead into months of writing lead into months of revision — where a good, finished, ‘in the bag’ chapter will reasonably take two semesters to complete, if not more. The structure of the system has set us up to ..
Philosophers’ Break-Up Letters
For our entire relationship, I was absolutely and irrevocably miserable. I can see now that you used me purely as a means to an end. Don’t you know how that makes me feel? It is imperative that you reflect on the meaning of universal law, and stop doing that thing you did with your tongue. I hated that.—Immanuel Kant
Julia Edelman collates excerpts from philosopher..
APA Names Blog Editor
The American Philosophical Association is starting a new blog later this year and has named Lewis Powell, assistant professor of philosophy at the University of Buffalo, as its lead editor. In the press release, Powell says:
My goal for the APA blog is to create a forum for issues of importance to APA members, whether those issues relate to service, teaching and..
Crash Course: Causation
A few weeks ago we started a new series of “crash course” posts here at Daily Nous. The idea is borrowed from Natalia Cecire (Sussex): to come up with a “one-week self education program” for “students who suddenly need to get up to speed in a field, and don’t have time to take a course or immerse themselves in it for a year,” or for professors seeking to learn about..
Applying Philosophy to Our Prison Problem
How did the United States go from a country that incarcerated roughly 500,000 citizens in 1980 to one that incarcerates roughly 2.3 million today? Civil unrest and rising crime were used to focus public debate on ideals of law and order. Those ideals were then employed to justify a criminal-justice system that, given social conditions, runs counter to race-neutral, ..
One Philosopher Among New Ford Foundation Fellows
The 2015 Ford Foundation Fellowships have been announced. Among the winners is Lori Gallegos de Castillo, who received one of the Dissertation Fellowships. Ms. Gallegos de Castillo is a PhD student in the Philosophy Department at Stony Brook. According to the department’s web site, “her dissertation work explores the role of empathy in how we acquire ethical knowled..
Doing It All By Yourself (guest post by Elijah Millgram)
This is the third in a series of guest posts* by Elijah Millgram (Utah) based on themes from his new book, The Great Endarkenment: Philosophy for an Age of Hyperspecialization. Earlier posts are here and here. (more…)
From The Censor
One of the benefits of thought experiments and hypothetical examples is that, since the people with which they’re populated aren’t real, you can relentlessly discuss your way through the logical space without having to worry about how they’ll take what you’re saying about them. Your conversation might justifiably sound a bit different, I’d think, if your interlocuto..
SEP, IEP, NDPR Weekly Update
Below are last week’s updates and new additions to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (SEP), the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (IEP), and Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews. They appear here via special arrangement with Philosophical Percolations, where they were first posted, along with many other goodies, by Jon Cogburn, BP Morton, Mark Silcox, Duncan Ric..
A Guide for US Students Applying for UK Jobs
A group of rather successful philosophers currently or formerly employed at universities in the UK have put together a guide for students and other applicants from US universities who are interested in academic jobs in the UK, and kindly offered to allow me to post it here. The authors of the guide wish to remain anonymous because, apparently, human resources depart..
A Response to Daily Nous (guest post by Laura Kipnis)
The following is a guest post* by Laura Kipnis, professor in Northwestern University’s School of Communication. Professor Kipnis wrote an opinion piece for the Chronicle of Higher Education, “Sexual Paranoia Strikes Academe,” in which she argued against certain policies and attitudes regarding sexual relations between faculty and students. In doing so, she referred ..
APA Division Election Winners 2015
The American Philosophical Association (APA) recently conducted its division elections. The newly elected officers are listed below. Unless otherwise noted, terms of service begin on July 1, 2015.
Eastern Division
Vice President (2015-2016)
Eva Feder Kittay
Executive Committee Representatives (2015-2018)
Noëlle McAfee
Amie L. Thomasson
Nominating C..
NCAA’s Report on Academic Fraud at UNC
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) released its report on academic fraud involving student athletes at the University of North Carolina (previously), according to reports at The Chronicle of Higher Education, Inside Higher Ed, and the New York Times. According to the Chronicle, the report focuses “most prominently” on former philosophy professor and..
One of the Kipnis Complainants Speaks Out
The following guest post* is by one of parties who filed a Title IX complaint against Laura Kipnis (Northwestern). The author wishes to remain anonymous.
Thoughts from One of the Title IX Complainants
a guest post by Anonymous
Laura Kipnis is right. Those involved in the Title IX complaints at Northwestern, responding to her essay “Sexual Paranoia Strikes Ac..
Strategies for Keeping Warm in the Classroom
It has happened to all of us. It has happened to someone who someone you know heard about from someone else: a perfectly competent professor disciplined for saying something totally innocuous in class after being reported to the administration by oversensitive students.
We talked about this a bit here. In “Professors Running Scared? A less dramatic rendering of p..
New Blog on the Ethics of War
The Ethical War Blog is a new group blog hosted by the Stockholm Centre for the Ethics of War and Peace. The Centre’s Jonathan Parry writes:
The Ethical War Blog will publish short and timely opinion articles on war-related topics in the news, written by specialists in the field, in an accessible and digestible format. The blog launches with five articles, with n..
Ludlow to Face Hearing; Accuser Regrets Coming Forward
The Chronicle of Higher Education has a new article (paywalled) on the complaints at Northwestern University regarding Peter Ludlow and the recent discussion of those complaints by Laura Kipnis in a pair of articles (for CHE). According to CHE, “Northwestern has banned from the campus, he said, and has scheduled a hearing for next month on whether he should be fire..
Michael Martin (1932-2015)
Michael Martin, professor of philosophy emeritus at Boston University, has died. Martin worked mainly in philosophy of religion, and is known for his defenses of atheism, in such works as Atheism, Morality, and Meaning and various edited collections, including the Cambridge Companion to Atheism. He also wrote a few plays. Following an initial appointment at the Univ..
A Reminder About Comments
Since Daily Nous has been getting a bit more traffic over the past few days I’d like to draw people’s attention to the comments policy. Check it out, please. In general, the idea is to try to keep the comments section worth reading, even for people who haven’t participated in it. For some further thoughts from me about moderating comments here, see this. Thank you f..
Philosopher Named “Global Cities” Fellow
Michael G. Tiboris, currently a lecturer at San Diego State, has been awarded a fellowship from the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS). He will be a “Global Cities Fellow” at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.
The primary responsibility of the Global Cities Fellow is to work with the studies team to develop policy-focused research, writing, and pub..