Mini-Heap
Here’s the latest edition of Mini-Heap—10 recent items from the Daily Nous Heap of Links, our regularly updated list of material from around the web that philosophers may want to check out.
(The Heap of Links consists partly of suggestions from readers; if you find something online that you think would be of interest to the philosophical community, please send it in for consideration for the Heap.)
- “Humanists: we need to tell deans and legislators—even if they will not listen—that the university can be many things, but without us, a university it will not be” — a thoughtful essay on the value of the humanities by Justin Stover (Oxford)
- Derek Parfit’s photography will exhibited this coming May — at Narrative Projects, an art gallery in London
- What is the silliest claim ever made by philosophers? — Galen Strawson (Texas) tells us
- Philosophy of Art and the PGR — “to get into the top group… it apparently positively helps if you have at most one or two aestheticians (rather than a confusing plethora)”
- Meeting with each of your undergraduate students — philosophy professor Hollace Graff (Oakton) leads a project to improve student retention
- The first in a series of articles on philosophical theories of art and their influence on artists — the philosophy of Plato and the art of Greg Lookerse, from Michael Spicher (BU Met)
- How academics used their research skills and social media to investigate and fight pension cut plans in the UK — Michael Otsuka (LSE) has been one of the most vocal critics
- 41 lectures from Oxford’s “General Philosophy” course — taught by Peter Millican
- Is Plato “one of the most profound liberators” of women? — Emily Wilson (U. Penn) on Mary Townsend (Tulane) on the “woman questions” in The Republic
- Our probabilistic memory systems and our counterfactual imaginations — Felipe de Brigard (Duke) discusses his work on the connection between them
That Galen Strawson article is disappointing. Most “deniers” don’t deny that perception exists or that experience or consciousness exists in some broad sense of the term. Instead, like Dennett in “Quining Qualia”, they look at what properties are normally attributed to qualia or the properties of conscious experience and argue that such a combination of properties is philosophically incoherent. Of course, that’s less eye-grabbing than “some philosophers say you aren’t conscious right now! When you stub your toe, you’re not actually in pain!”.
Re: the “thoughtful essay” — The author writes “We need to tell deans and legislators—even if they will not listen—that the university can be many things, but without us, a university it will not be”. But (a) who cares?; and (b) the author admits that saying this to deans/legislators would not amount to “making a case for” the humanities, so it’s not even clear why the author cares.
Also, we’re told that truth and so-called “ethical training” can’t be the justifications for the humanities, because there’s disagreement what’s true or good.