The latest links in the Heap…

1. “Philosophers often feel superior on the grounds that they provide arguments. It is surprising, then, that the poets are more likely to provide demonstrations” — AfB’s series of brief reflections by philosophers on art, music, poetry, films, and literature continues, with a recent entry from Errol Lord (U Penn)
2. In July 2020, a dozen philosophers submitted an amicus brief in support of legal personhood status for an elephant at the Bronx Zoo — yesterday, the New York Court of Appeals agreed to hear the case (via Spencer Lo)
3. “Constructor theory puts counterfactuals at the very foundation of physics, so that the most fundamental laws can be formulated in these terms” — Chiara Marletto (Oxford) is interviewed about an approach to physics based on possibility and impossibility
4. Philosopher, artist, and now education activist — Adrian Piper, who moved to Berlin 16 years ago, is planning a demonstration calling for smaller school class sizes in Germany
5. “Philosophy is about acquiring wisdom and developing the virtues… with proper instruction, boxing can be fertile ground for those two endeavors” — a profile of philosophy professor and boxing coach Gordon Marino (St. Olaf)
6. Criticisms of Howard University’s decision to shut its classics department “overlook a deeper and more urgent problem” — Brandon Hogan & Jacoby Adeshei Carter, “philosophy professors at Howard who have reverence for the classics”
7. “My diet is emphatically not the product of an effective-altruist calculus, but rather a strange blend of Kafka-like hunger artistry, neo-Stylitism, deep visceral horror at the very thought of factory farming…” — Justin E.H. Smith (Paris) on eating animals, converting convictions into an identity, and the aesthetics of moral life

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

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. Thanks!