New philosophy-related links…

1. “Lol… the audacity”: when the Society for the Social Studies of Science tried to school MC Hammer — and what can be learned from this episode, from Joshua Earle (Virginia Tech)
2. “There was no Renaissance. It is an invention by historians, a fiction made in order to tell a story… about the development of philosophy”” — Henrik Lagerlund (Stockholm) makes the case for historiographical nihilism
3. Is this art? — an Italian artist sells his latest invisible sculpture
4. “It seems we want to let money in to further research and philosophical excellence and improve and strengthen departments even if it moves a dept in a direction it would not have itself chosen, so long as that path is one of the paths the dept deems a reasonable direction” — David Sobel (Syracuse) on outside funding for academic hires
5. Kant’s Copernican Revolution — Fiona Hughes (Esssex), Anil Gomes (Oxford), and John Callanan (KCL) talk about Kant on the BBC’s In Our Time
6. “We need advocates to work out all the options, after all” — Richard Chappell (Miami) on why disagreement between philosophers should not be seen as evidence of philosophy’s failure
7. “Human beings are who we are: we’re walking disasters, we’re walking wonders at the same time” — Cornel West (Union Theological Seminary) in conversation with Robert Talisse (Vanderbilt)

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!