December 2015
A Modest Proposal: Slow Philosophy (guest post by Jennifer Whiting)
The following is a guest post* by Jennifer Whiting (Pittsburgh).
A Modest Proposal: Slow Philosophy
by Jennifer Whiting
In his review of Moral Prejudices by Annette Baier, Colin McGinn claimed that Baier had proposed that universities accommodate the demands of women’s reproductive clocks by allowing women to postpone tenure decisions until the age of 50 ..
New Heights (Lows?) in Philosophy Job Application Requirements
A correspondent who prefers to remain anonymous brought to my attention the job advertisement of California State Sacramento, and sent along the following commentary:
As those on the market all know, the application process can be a hassle. In addition to all the intellectual investment and tedious editing that goes into putting together a decent portfolio, depar..
Mind Chunks (Daily Nous Philosophy Comics)
Mind Chunks
by Pete Mandik
Favorite Philosophy of the Year 2015
A reader asks:
Was wondering if you could write a post asking for people’s favorite philosophy articles/books of the year.
Sure!
People, what were your favorite philosophy articles or books published in or around 2015?
Done.
Now it’s your turn, people…
Best Philosophy Blog Post Winners Announced
3 Quarks Daily has announced the winners of its 2015 prize for best philosophy blog post:
- Top Quark, $500: Vidar Halgunset, Slow Corruption
- Strange Quark, $200: Daniel Silvermint, On How We Talk About Passing
- Charm Quark, $100: Lisa Herzog, (One of) Effective Altruism’s blind spot(s)
Of the top two posts, Judge John Collins (Columbia) writes: “they w..
Daily Nous Year In Review
2015 is drawing to a close. I hope you had a good year.
The year saw Daily Nous’s first birthday (in March) and a number of new features, including:
- Philosophers On Series: group posts consisting of brief remarks by several philosophers on topics of current interest.
- Ought Experiment: the column doling out “personal advice for your academic life,” written b..
SEP, IEP, NDPR, Wi-Phi Weekly Update
This is where I’d normally post the past 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, yet, owing to winter break and Christmas, there isn’t anything to report except for some changes at the SEP. They were first pos..
NEH & APA Collaboration on Public Philosophy
The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the American Philosophical Association (APA) are collaborating for two events at the APA’s upcoming Eastern Division Meeting next month in Washington, DC. The first is a plenary address by the chairman of the NEH, William “Bro” Adams, at noon on January 7th. Following that, there will be a session “Philosophy for t..
Ad Hoc (Daily Nous Philosophy Comics)
Ad Hoc
by Rachel Katler
“Reputation Traps” in Philosophy
In an essay at Aeon, Huw Price (Cambridge) writes about “reputation traps.”
His example of this is scientific research on cold fusion, or low-energy nuclear reaction (LENR), “the controversial idea that nuclear reactions similar to those in the Sun could, under certain conditions, also occur close to room temperature.” Cold fusion held out the promise of clean an..
Chaospet (Daily Nous Philosophy Comics)
Chaospet
by Ryan Lake
Philosophers On Star Wars: The Force Awakens (Spoilers)
The latest Star Wars movie, The Force Awakens, opened at the end of last week. It’s a fun movie. But is it more than just that? I asked a few philosophers who are Star Wars fans to write brief reviews of the movie for Daily Nous. Be warned, there are spoilers in these reviews.
I know what you’re thinking: “philosophers writing about Star Wars? Does it get any ner..
SEP, IEP, NDPR, Wi-Phi Weekly Update
Here are the past 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 many other..
New Comments Policy And How The Comments Now Work
The comments system change is in progress, with most of the features in place. Since the system works differently than the old one in some important respects, I’ve updated the comments policy. Here’s the new version. The beginning is similar to the old one, but there are a number of additions.
Before you comment, imagine the following. You are seated in a com..
Comments Changeover This Weekend
As the new commenting system (described here) is put into place this weekend, piece by piece, the commenting on Daily Nous may be a bit buggy. This may mean some comments getting lost, some going right through on the new system without my moderation, and some being queued for moderation as on the old system. Please bear with us.
The ‘reply’ function and comment ‘..
Criticism of the Philosophical Gourmet Report
Over the past week, Daily Nous has hosted a discussion of criticisms of the Philosophical Gourmet Report (PGR), a ranking of PhD programs in philosophy. This latest round of criticism began with a post excerpting from “Appearance and Reality in the Philosophical Gourmet Report: Why the Discrepancy Matters to the Profession of Philosophy” by Brian Bruya (Eastern Mich..
Some Upcoming Changes to Daily Nous
At Daily Nous we toil to provide you, dear readers, with an exceptional philosoblogospheric experience. There have been a number of changes to the site over the course of its existence, and a complete overhaul in October of last year. I bet none of you remembers the site looking like this: (more…)
The Job Market: Shifts in the Schedule?
With the increased use of video calls in place of first-round conference interviews, as well as the inauguration of the January scheduling of the Eastern Division meeting of the American Philosophical Association, some philosophers on the market are curious about how this has been affecting the timing of the process. We discussed some aspects of this back in August,..
When To Quit Academia (Ought Experiment)
Welcome back to Ought Experiment! Today’s question is from a full professor that has done everything right, built a successful career, and yet finds her/himself miserable in professional philosophy. S/he wants to know whether it’s just a case of burnout or whether it’s time to go:
Dear Louie,
Help.
I have been a professor for almost 20 years. I’ve worked h..
To φ Or Not To φ (Daily Nous Philosophy Comics)
To φ Or Not To φ
by Tanya Kostochka
The Value of Philosophy in Interdisciplinary Research (guest post by Brian Robinson and Michael O’Rourke)
Brian Robinson and Michael O’Rourke, both at Michigan State University, lead The Toolbox Project, an initiative which provides “philosophical yet practical enhancement to cross-disciplinary, collaborative science.” It is a fascinating and innovative use of philosophy to facilitate interdisciplinary research, and has been up and running for over a decade. I asked the..
Essex Drops Year-End Philosophy Exams
The University of Essex Department of Philosophy will no longer be requiring its second- and final-year undergraduate students to take formal, year-end written exams, as departments at most other British universities still do. In an essay in The Guardian, department head Fabian Freyenhagen writes:
We realised, in response to feedback from students and employers, ..
Appearance and Reality, Take 2 (guest post by Brian Bruya)
Yesterday’s post, “A Detailed Critique of the Philosophical Gourmet Report,” contained excerpts from “Appearance and Reality in The Philosophical Gourmet Report: Why the Discrepancy Matters to the Profession of Philosophy,” an article in Metaphilosophy by Brian Bruya (Eastern Michigan) in which various criticism of the PGR were summarized. As noted in an update to t..
Mind Chunks (Daily Nous Philosophy Comics)
Mind Chunks
by Pete Mandik
Is Anonymous Grading Really Better?
A philosophy professor has written in with some questions about anonymous or “blind” grading, in which the identity of the student whose work is being assessed is not known to the grader. The majority opinion in philosophy appears to be that there are strong moral reasons in support of anonymous grading. Yet, there are questions about evidence for it, as well as abo..
Philosophers Form New “Justice Without Retribution Network”
There’s a new project to bring philosophy to bear on policy issues. In this case it is free will skepticism and criminal justice.
Gregg Caruso (SUNY Corning), Farah Focquaert (Ghent), Derk Pereboom (Cornell), and Elizabeth Shaw (Aberdeen) have formed the Justice Without Retribution Network.
The Justice Without Retribution Network (JWRN) will bring together res..
A Detailed Critique of the Philosophical Gourmet Report (updated)
The latest issue of Metaphilosophy (October 2015) contains “Appearance and Reality in The Philosophical Gourmet Report: Why the Discrepancy Matters to the Profession of Philosophy” by Brian Bruya (Eastern Michigan). It is a “data-driven critique” of the Philosophical Gourmet Report (PGR) that argues that “the actual value of the PGR, in its current form, is not near..
APA’s Best Practices for Interviewing
Interview season is creeping up on us. Interviewers and interviewees may wish to check out the new edition of the American Philosophical Association’s Best Practices for Interviewing. It includes an overview of the typical stages of the interviewing process, along with advice for those hiring.
For example:
Members of the hiring committee should confine themsel..