Lots of interesting stuff lately…

1. Did Socrates get his ideas from his girlfriend? — an argument that the Symposium’s “Diotima” is a thinly-disguised Aspasia, with whom Socrates appears to have had a relationship early in his life.
2. 17 black women philosophers — an unprecedented philosophical event
3. “We have plenty of reasons to think that antidepressants have no clinically meaningful benefits for those suffering from depression.” — philosopher of science Jacob Stegenga (Cambridge) looks at the evidence
4. “Success at something difficult is one thing we can rightly care about. It’s present in a pure form in games, which can enrich our lives in a way that more passive forms of entertainment cannot.” — Thomas Hurka (Toronto) revisits a classic philosophical work on games
5. If the brilliant philosopher or artist was a bad person, use that to help understand their work, not as a reason to ignore it — especially if they’re dead, argued Les Green (Oxford)
6. The ethics of Instagram’s new slider emoji — thoughts from philosopher Evan Selinger (RIT) and his 7th grade daughter, Rory
7. We aren’t playing a ‘language game,’ Wittgenstein, we are playing Scrabble! (EC)

Mini-Heap posts appear when 7 or so new items accumulate in the Heap of Links, the ever-growing collection of items from around the web that may be of interest to philosophers.

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