January 2016
Philosophy Student Arrested in Turkey (updated)
JĂĽlide Yazıcı, a student in the Philosophy Department in BoÄźaziçi University who was active on social media supporting academics threatened by the Turkish government, was arrested two days ago. According to one source, she was charged with “being a member of an armed terrorist organisation” and “spreading terrorist propaganda.” The specifics of the accusations are u..
Letter from Philosophers Supporting Ă–ymen
The actions of the present government to persecute Professor Ă–ymen, using an ill-conceived law, applied inappropriately, endangers the standing Turkey now enjoys with the international philosophical community…
 are accustomed to offering and receiving blunt criticism. The freedom to do so is a necessary condition for philosophical activity, and even more, part ..
Reply from Jean-Yves Beziau re: Synthese Controversy
Jean-Yves Beziau has written asking me to share a link to his reply to criticisms of his article, “The Relativity and Universality of Logic,” and the controversy regarding Synthese’s publishing of it. The editors-in-chief of Synthese explained earlier this week that Beziau’s article was published without having gone through the proper editorial process.
Beziau’s ..
Pay to Be Recommended at Academia.edu?
We’ve discussed issues with Academia.edu here before. Now there’s a new development. A number of academics have been receiving messages like the following:
Hi Dr. ________,My name is Adnan, I’m the Product Director here at Academia. I noticed you had received a few recommendations on your papers. Would you be open to paying a small fee to submit any upcoming pape..
Free Resources for Philosophy Teachers
TeachPhilosophy101 is an open-source compendium of resources helpful for teaching philosophy. It’s mission is “to enhance undergraduate student learning in introductory philosophy courses by providing free, user-friendly strategies and resources to the academic community.”
The site covers everything from planning a course (including things like syllabi constructi..
Statement from Synthese Editors / Moratorium on Special Issues
Philosophy Professor To Stand Trial in Turkey (Updated with Statement from Professor Ă–ymen and Additional News)
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — A philosophy professor says he will stand trial next week on charges of insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for suggesting in an article that the Turkish leader should go on trial over a range of claims, including alleged corruption and the violation of the constitution.
Orsan Oymen said Wednesday he fac..
Death and Progress
A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it. Â — Max Planck
In a recent paper, “Does Science Advance One Funeral at a Time?“, Pierre Azoulay (MIT), Christian Fons-Rosen (Universitat Pompeu Fabra), and Josh..
Philosophers Called “Brilliant” More Than Other Profs (On Stupid Website)
The Economist analysed 1,289,407 RateMyProfessor.com reviews of 1,066 professors and lecturers in New York and has reported on some of its findings. Among them is the nugget that instructors of philosophy, compared with other disciplines, are most often described as “brilliant” by their students. According to the article, “an adoring student termed her teacher ‘a ph..
Mind Chunks (Daily Nous Philosophy Comics)
Mind Chunks
by Pete Mandik
Interview Catch-22?
In the latest installment in his APAblog advice series on applying for jobs in philosophy, Allen Wood (Indiana University Bloomington) takes up the job interview, writing about what he sees as a dilemma for applicants:
Much could be written about the current circumstances, in which many very talented and well-trained young philosophers are applying for jobs at pl..
Virtual Dissertation Groups
Working on a dissertation? The latest round of the Virtual Dissertation Groups, organized by Joshua Smart of the University of Missouri, will be up and running soon. He writes:
While advisors and committees are important, it can be incredibly helpful to discuss one’s work with peers in a lower-stakes environment, and it can be particularly enlightening to do so w..
APA Endorses Letter of Concern for Scholars & Universities in Turkey
In response to the recent persecution of academics in Turkey who had objected to the Turkish government’s treatment of its Kurdish population (previously here and here), a “coalition of 20 higher education networks and associations from around the world” issued a letter to Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip ErdoÄźan, calling for an end to the persecution, for protectio..
SEP, IEP, NDPR, Wi-Phi Weekly Update
What’s new at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (SEP), the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (IEP), Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews (NDPR), and Wi-Phi Wireless Philosophy? The weekly update for these sites is below, courtesy of Philosophical Percolations. As usual, they were first posted in PhilPercs’ “Saturday Linkorama” along with many other links worth c..
Open Syllabus Project
Colleen Cressman (MIT) draws our attention to the Open Syllabus Project. The project is a work in progress aimed at creating “the first large-scale online database of university course syllabi as a platform for the development of new research, teaching, and administrative tools.” It has a collection of over a million syllabi culled from the internet and other source..
Summer Workshops Supporting Diversity in Philosophy
Athena in Action, a networking and mentoring workshop for graduate student women in philosophy, has posted a call for applicants to its 2016 workshop.  Helpfully, the workshop website has a page that lists other summer diversity initiatives for philosophy:
For graduate women interested in mathematical philosophy:
Help With Philosophy Teaching
The editors of the Blog of the American Philosophical Association have begun a new series to help members of the profession with questions, challenges, and problems, about teaching philosophy. Jennifer Morton (CUNY) writes:
The Teaching Workshop is a new, regular feature on the Blog of the APA, run by the APA’s committee on the teaching of philosophy. Every other..
Hey Did You Know Logical Pluralism Is “Connected to Homosexuality”? (updated with a statement from the editors of Synthese)
Or that it is like a “sexy young woman that 1 day will be a not so attractive old lady?” Neither did I. But that is what Jean-Yves Beziau (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) claims in “The relativity and universality of logic,” a paper published in Synthese that is currently making the rounds on social media (and discussed here). The passage is so incredi..
When Not to Help a Student (Ought Experiment)
Welcome back to Ought Experiment! A professor has written in with a question about navigating a set of incredibly vague, but incredibly important, boundaries. When students trust you, they sometimes come to you with their problems. But we can’t always help. And sometimes we shouldn’t even try…
Dear Louie,
On occasion students come to my office and confess vari..
King Award Recipient: “Neither thrilled nor honored”
The Chronicle of Higher Education reports (may be paywalled) this morning that Naomi Zack, professor of philosophy at the University of Oregon, is the recipient of an award from her university in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. The story made the Chronicle for Zack’s reaction, in which she expresses gratitude for the award but is “neither thrilled nor honored” to r..
Ten Projects Receive APA Grants
The American Philosophical Association (APA) has announced the winners of ten grants—eight from its Small Grant Program and 2 from its Diversity and Inclusiveness Grants Program. What follows is from the APA’s press release:
Small Grant Program
Each year, the APA Eastern Division provides $25,000 for the APA’s Small Grant Program. This year’s grant applicati..
Ad Hoc (Daily Nous Philosophy Comics)
Ad Hoc
by Rachel Katler
Most Important Philosophy Poll Poll
Just thought Daily Nous should up its poll game…
Vote here.
NEH Grants Supporting Public Philosophy
At the recent Eastern Division Meeting of the American Philosophical Association (APA), in a session organized by the APA’s Committee on Public Philosophy, Peter Fristedt and Mark Silver of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) described various grant programs available to philosophers interested in obtaining support for work in public philosophy. Mr. Fris..
Publications by U.S. Black Authors in Top Philosophy Journals: The Numbers
Liam Kofi Bright, a graduate student at Carnegie Mellon University, has produced a study on the number of publications by black philosophers in the U.S. (“US BIPs”) that have appeared in highly regarded philosophy journals from 2003-2012. The results appear in a guest post at The Splintered Mind:
In total there were 30 publications by US BIPs for all journals dur..
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. As usual, they were first posted in PhilPercs’ “Saturday Linkorama” along with ..
“American Society for the Protection of Philosophers” Proposed
In a comment in the ongoing discussion regarding the reaction to George Yancy’s “Dear White America,” University of Oregon professor of philosophy Naomi Zack puts forward the idea of an “American Society for the Protection of Philosophers.” She volunteers herself for it and asks interested others to contact her:
The American Philosophical Association should expre..
Philosophers Detained in Turkey (updated)
As reported the other day, academics in Turkey are at risk of investigation and prosecution by the Turkish government for signing a petition calling for “the state to abandon its deliberate massacre and deportation of Kurdish and other peoples.” There were several dozen philosophers among the signatories.
According to one source, two philosophers from one univers..