November 2015
Paris Attacked
France has declared a national state of emergency and tightened borders after at least 120 people were killed in a night of gun and bomb attacks in Paris. Eighty people were reported killed after gunmen burst into the Bataclan concert hall and took dozens hostage. The siege ended when security forces stormed the building. People were shot dead at bars and restaurant..
Georgetown Philosophy Dept Supports Student Protestors (Updated)
Students at Georgetown University have staged a sit-in at University President John (“Jack”) DeGioia’s office, calling for, among other things, a frank discussion of how Georgetown benefited from slavery, as well as the renaming of a building currently called Mulledy Hall. Christina Cauterucci at Slate writes:
At the center of the students’ grievances is Mulledy ..
Philosophy’s Public Relations Moment — Were We Ready?
The Republican Presidential Primary Debate earlier this week led to a spike in public attention to the study of philosophy. Various news outlets covered Marco Rubio’s claim that the United States needs “more welders and less philosophers,” as well as other disparaging comments about philosophy by John Kasich and Ted Cruz (see previous post), along with responses by ..
Univ. of Illinois Settles with Salaita / Update: Statement from UIUC Philosophy
The University of Illinois will pay $875,000 to settle the Steven Salaita case. From the press release from Salaita’s lawyers:
Today, the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and co-counsel Loevy & Loevy announced the settlement of Professor Steven Salaita’s case against the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) for firing him from his tenured posit..
Ad Hoc (Daily Nous Philosophy Comics)
Ad Hoc
by Rachel Katler
Philosophy Citation Practices Revisited
You may recall that earlier this year, in a guest post, Marcus Arvan decried philosophers’ reading and citation habits. Now, Moti Mizrahi has a post up at The Philosophers’ Cocoon with data showing that philosophy articles, on average, contain fewer than five cites per article are cited less than five times:
Additionally, Mizrahi says that other data suggest..
Philosophers and Welders and Politicians (updated)
Oh my.
In last night’s Republican primary debate, Florida Senator and presidential candidate Marco Rubio criticized U.S. higher education for being “outdated.” It is too expensive, he said, and too hard to access. Additionally, “it doesn’t teach 21st century skills.” Like welding.
I don’t know why we have stigmatized vocational education. Welders make more mo..
Chaospet (Daily Nous Philosophy Comics)
Chaospet
by Ryan Lake
Copyrights and Quotes in Academic Work
So here’s yet another case of over-the-top copyright restrictions involving something I wrote. In December 2014, the Whitehead Research Project held an excellent conference on Whitehead’s short book Symbolism (which Amazon also sells as an ebook for 99 cents). I was one of the speakers at the conference; I posted an uncorrected version of my talk, “Whitehead on Caus..
What Do Philosophers Make?
I mean, besides arguments?
Other possible answers:
- a virtue of ignorance
- faculty meetings longer
- headaches
- …?
What about when they’re not at work? That’s what the new site Things Philosophers Make is about. (via Samantha Brennan)
(Pie by Kate Norlock)
Missouri Philosophy Issues Statement on Controversy over Racist Incidents (two updates)
The University of Missouri’s governing board is holding a meeting this morning to decide how to respond to calls by students and others for its president, Tim Wolfe, to resign. The calls for Wolfe’s resignation follow a number of racist incidents at the university over the past few months and are a response to the perceived lack of a satisfactory response to these i..
SEP, IEP, NDPR, Wi-Phi Weekly Update
Below are last week’s additions and updates to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (SEP), the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (IEP), Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews (NDPR), and Wi-Phi Wireless Philosophy, appearing here via special arrangement with Philosophical Percolations. They were first posted in PhilPercs’ “Saturday Linkorama” along with lots of other..
Philosophy: Not Just for Elites
Why should all of us have some access to philosophy?
Philosophy has traditionally been studied by the elites in a society, I suppose for a few reasons. One is that elites will want to be able to think for themselves. They want to be able to make decisions; they want to have leadership positions in society. Also, the elites in society want to enjoy the best of hum..
Philosophy Jobs Wiki Is Up
The Phylo Job Wiki is up and running. From the site:
A job wiki is a space for philosophy job seekers to post unofficial information about the status of various job openings in philosophy. Job seekers traditionally share information about when hiring departments schedule interviews, make offers, and so forth. Although job seekers provide this information as a ser..
A Call for the Humanities to Unite
There is a different unifying principle for most non-STEM disciplines—among them English, history, politics and civics, languages and literatures, education, the arts, philosophy, psychology and sociology—which I call the human disciplines. All of the subjects within human disciplines are fundamentally interested in people and with subjectivity. Our disciplines ..
To φ Or Not To φ (Daily Nous Philosophy Comics)
To φ Or Not To φ
by Tanya Kostochka
Philosophers Among The Browser’s Nominees for Best Writing
You don’t often hear praise in popular culture for the writing of contemporary philosophers, yet The Browser, a popular aggregator of online writing, has included several among their nominees for their 2015 “Golden Giraffes” writing award.
They include:
- David Benatar, “We Are Creatures That Should Not Exist”
- Alain de Botton, “We Hate Cheap Things”
- Les Gre..
Not Legally Actionable, But…
A tenure-track woman professor at a private U.S. university writes:
In light of a situation that recently came up in my department, I’ve been thinking quite a lot about the following question… I’m honestly at a loss for how to deal with this, and I’d love to hear some (sensible) thoughts of others on the issue.
The issue is this: Take it as a given that ther..
Disability Studies Quarterly Is Reviewing Stubblefield’s Articles
A philosophy professor who wishes to remain anonymous wrote to the editor of Disability Studies Quarterly in the wake Anna Stubblefield’s conviction for aggravated sexual assault of a severely disabled man requesting that the journal issue a retraction of an article purportedly co-authored by Stubblefield and her victim. From that letter:
Earlier this month, phi..
Mind Chunks (Daily Nous Philosophy Comics)
Mind Chunks
by Pete Mandik
Ludlow Resigns
Northwestern University’s Vice President for University Relations, Alan K. Cubbage, has released the following statement:
Peter Ludlow, a Northwestern University professor of philosophy, resigned his position effective Monday, Nov. 2, 2015, and he is no longer employed by the University.
Northwestern University had initiated proceedings to terminate Ludlow’s e..
The Ludlow Hearing: Some Questions
The hearing to determine whether Peter Ludlow will be fired from Northwestern University (previous posts) has been underway over the past month or so but is currently on hold. According to documents related to the hearing provided to Daily Nous, a number of complaints about whether the hearing is being conducted fairly and in accordance with Title IX guidelines have..
Four Philosophers of Biology Win $2.1m
Alan Love (Minnesota), C. Kenneth Waters (Calgary), Marcel Weber (Geneva), and William Wimsatt (Minnesota, Chicago) have won a $2.1 million grant from the Templeton Foundation for their project “From Biological Practice to Scientific Metaphysics”. The funding will support, among other things, summer institutes, lectures, post-docs, and graduate students. More infor..
What Should Academics Do About Journal Prices?
All six editors and all 31 editorial board members of Lingua, one of the top journals in linguistics, last week resigned to protest Elsevier’s policies on pricing and its refusal to convert the journal to an open-access publication that would be free online. As soon as January, when the departing editors’ noncompete contracts expire, they plan to start a new open-ac..
SEP, IEP, NDPR, Wi-Phi Weekly Update
Here are last week’s additions and updates to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (SEP), the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (IEP), Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews (NDPR), and Wi-Phi Wireless Philosophy, appearing here via special arrangement with Philosophical Percolations. They were first posted in PhilPercs’ “Saturday Linkorama” along with lots of other ..