October 2016

Monthly Archives:

Chaospet (Daily Nous Philosophy Comics)

Chaospet
by Ryan Lake

What Philosophical Idea Or Position Do You Find The Scariest?

It’s Halloween, and philosophers everywhere are dressing up as obscure ideas and concepts that they’ll have to spend too much time explaining. Costumes are fun, but let’s not forget the horror, shall we? (more…)

Kamtekar from Arizona to Cornell

Rachana Kamtekar, currently professor of philosophy at the University of Arizona, will become professor of philosophy at the Sage School of Philosophy at Cornell University, starting in Fall of 2017. (more…)

Tough Enough: Resilience in Academia

Part of what’s behind the disagreements over freedom and security in academia that we’ve been seeing a lot of lately (over things like political correctness, trigger warnings, safe spaces, etc.) are two different attitudes. (more…)

U. Miami Settles Lawsuit With Grad Student Over Its Handling Of McGinn Case

A philosophy graduate student who last year sued the University of Miami for failing to properly investigate her allegations that (now former) professor of philosophy Colin McGinn sexually harassed and then retaliated against her has now settled that lawsuit with the university, according to her attorney. (more…)

Criticism of the APA’s Code of Conduct

Last week, the American Philosophical Association (APA) issued a Code of Conduct. The document was produced by a volunteer task force headed by Nancy Holland (Hamline University), in response to a petition. (more…)

Sandra Bartky (1935-2016)

Sandra Lee Bartky, Professor Emerita of Philosophy at the University of Illinois at Chicago, died earlier today. (more…)

Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Writing a Tenure Letter But Were Afraid to Ask (guest post by David Boonin)

The following is a guest post * by David Boonin. He is currently professor of philosophy at the University of Colorado, Boulder, where he has also been department chair and associate dean. He noticed that there did not appear to be much in the way of guidance when it came to writing external review letters for people under consideration for tenure, and sought to reme..

Pick One Book for One Person to Read

Making its way around the internet is the question, “If you could get everybody to read one book, which would it be?” That’s an interesting question, but there are a lot of unspecified variables that will drive philosophers nuts. For example:

(more…)

That Philosophy Is A “Cushy Gig” Explains Some Of The Profession’s Problems

Philosophy is largely male, white, cis, straight, able-bodied—why? Well, maybe it has little or nothing to do with philosophy.

That appears to be the view of philosopher Albert Atkin (Macquarie), in response to Richard Marshall when he raises the topic of diversity in philosophy in an interview at 3:AM Magazine. (more…)

Glasgow Hires Six New Philosophers

The Department of Philosophy at the University of Glasgow made six new permanent appointments this summer. That’s an unusually large number of hires at one time for one department. (more…)

Online Philosophy Resources Weekly Update

Greetings and Happy Halloween! Here’s the usual report on what’s new at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy(SEP), Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (IEP), Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews (NDPR), and Wi-Phi. (more…)

Philosophers On Bob Dylan’s Words, Ideas, and His Nobel Prize Win

Yesterday, Bob Dylan was selected as the 2016 winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, “for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition.” Dylan is the first musician to win the award, and there has been controversy over the boundary redefining move, as well as reflection on the significance of his work. (more…)

Anglo-American Philosophy: “A Site of White Supremacy”

“A perverse feature of American life is that calling a white person racist is allegedly a very wounding insult.”

That’s Lionel McPherson (Tufts), in a post currently up at Philosopher. I start with that quote because reflection on it might forestall some knee-jerk reactions to some of the other things McPherson says. It is worth noting the relative seriousness wi..

Data on Diversity in (mostly) US Philosophy

The American Philosophical Association (APA) has released a new report on its membership demographics over the past three years. Has philosophy become more demographically diverse during this period? It’s not easy to tell from the data.

(more…)

IPFW Faculty Declares No Confidence in Chancellor

The faculty at Indiana University – Purdue University, Fort Wayne (IPFW) have published a notice of no confidence in the university’s chancellor, Vicky Carwein, following Carwein’s decision to close several departments, including the Philosophy Department. (more…)

Preparing Teaching Assistants

Many graduate programs in philosophy provide funding for their students in exchange for their labor as teaching assistants (TAs). The job of a TA varies across institutions and courses, but typically involves grading assignments, running weekly discussion sections of a larger course, and providing guidance to students. (more…)

Why Policy Needs Philosophers As Much As It Needs Science (guest post)

The following is a guest post * by Adam Briggle and Robert Frodeman, both professors of Philosophy at the University of North Texas and co-authors of Socrates Tenured: The Institutions of 21st Century Philosophy. This essay originally appeared in The Guardian and is reposted here with permission of the authors.

(more…)

Philosophy, History, and the Environment

There’s another fascinating philosophical interview at 3:AM Magazine, this time with NYU’s Dale Jamieson. Once again there is an abundance of interesting material. Two passages stood out. (more…)

Philosopher Shirt Poll / Collaboration with Hirsute History

Daily Nous readers, here’s something cool. We’re going to help designer Jeremy Kalgreen decide who to add to his portfolio of philosopher portraits at Hirsute History. While we tend to focus on the strands of thought of the great philosophers, Kalgreen focuses on the strands of hair, and then puts the images on shirts. (more…)

How Academics Can Protect Themselves From Online Harassment

Data & Society, a research institute focusing on “social, cultural, and ethical issues arising from data-centric technological development” has issued a guide for those conducting “risky research” about how to protect themselves from online harassment. (more…)

Advice for a Philosopher Being Used By a Scam

As reported last week, there is a phony version of the International Journal of Philosophy and Theology in existence, tricking authors into submitting to it rather than to the legitimate one.

(more…)

Joseph Boyle (1942-2016)

Joseph Boyle, professor emeritus of philosophy at the University of Toronto, died on September 24th. Professor Boyle worked mainly in ethics, including ethical theory and applied ethics (especially bioethics), as well as natural law theory. He received his doctorate in philosophy from Georgetown University, and prior to the University of Toronto, held appointments a..

To φ Or Not To φ (Daily Nous Philosophy Comics)

To φ Or Not To φ
by Tanya Kostochka

(more…)

Mary Hesse (1924-2016)

Mary Hesse, professor emeritus of philosophy at University of Cambridge, died this past Sunday. Professor Hesse worked in philosophy of science. She had been at Cambridge since 1960 in its Department of History and Philosophy of Science, becoming a fellow of Cambridge’s Wolfson College in 1965. (more…)