Mini-Heap
Mini-Heap: recent items from the Heap of Links, collected in groups of 10, here for your perusal and discussion.
If you have suggestions for the Heap of Links, send ’em in.
- “You don’t need to feel like you’re succeeding” — and other ways to figure out whether academia is for you
- A Facebook group for those interested in philosophy of body practices, including yoga, martial arts, qigong, etc. — organized by Lisa Miracchi (Penn) and Steven Geisz (Tampa)
- “A joke is basically syllogistic” — comedians Kenny and Keith Lucas, aka the Lucas Brothers, read a lot of philosophy
- Article attributed to disabled man Anna Stubblefield was found guilty of sexually assaulting is retracted — but not, perhaps, for the reason you might think
- “Machines will become morally much better than we are, or morally much worse. But the point is that we won’t be able to tell which is which” — Regina Rini (NYU) with some fascinating thoughts about the future of morality
- In philosophy of science, will increased scientific specialization crowd out the philosophy? — Celso Neto (Calgary) on the future of philosophy of science
- “I hadn’t even noticed she was being talked over” — a philosophy undergrad reflecting on her professor calling out interruptions
- “One can’t inquire unless one has a target to aim at and that, in turn, requires knowing what one is inquiring into—the very thing [one doesn’t] know. — Gail Fine (Cornell) on the Meno paradox
- Physicists develop a fluid with “negative mass”: the harder you push it away, the faster it accelerates towards you — file under: reality > intuition
- “Just because the jokes you tell never change, doesn’t mean that nothing does” (EC)
“… I will use ideas from Harvard neurologist Steven Pinker, studies of gifted children, and other evidence to demonstrate that people likely use language from the earliest moments of infancy, even before they can talk. Therefore, learning to communicate is not necessary for learning language. If people believe that people who do not talk do not think, they will believe that they have nothing to contribute. This is a part of disability oppression that must be put forth for more study…”
WOW. Those are some pretty bold claims. This should be a fascinating read…Report
Keith and Kenny Lucas were philosophy majors at my school! They were a year ahead of me in undergrad, and they took all of their classes together. I don’t know them well, but I had a couple of classes with them. After graduating with philosophy BAs they then both went on to law school, and ultimately dropped out to (successfully, it looks like) pursue comedy careers. It’s so great to see them doing comedy, and talking about philosophy in such a positive way!Report