2021 In Review
This is the end, philosofriends…
…of 2021.
By way of some overall remarks on the year, well, the main one is that it is difficult to make overall remarks on the year. COVID-19 continued to negatively affect our professional and personal lives in various and sometimes devastating ways. Yet it has also continued to familiarize us with technology and practices the usefulness of which may outlast the pandemic. The academic philosophy job market, though perhaps improving relative to recent years, is still rather dreadful. At least there is a greater recognition among philosophy programs of the need for taking non-academic job placement seriously. Several philosophy departments faced threats to their existence, their programs, and their faculty, yet new philosophy programs and projects arose with substantial new funding. Philosophers wrangled over issues related to demographic inclusiveness, but overall the discipline seems to be making progress in that regard. A high-profile public philosophy venue was shuttered, but new public philosophy programs and outlets emerged… So you can see the difficulty with overall remarks.Here at Daily Nous, we saw the introduction of a new commenting platform and some back-end repairs early in the year that improved the operation of the site. There have been a few complaints about the quality of the comments. As before, I’m open to suggestions about that, and, also as before, I invite people to be the commenters they want to see more of at the site. As for site traffic, it continues to grow; according to Google Analytics, DN saw over 7.7 million page views in 2021.
Below, organized by topic, are a selection of the more popular or otherwise noteworthy posts at Daily Nous published in 2021. As usual, discussion is welcome.
I wish you all joy and beauty in the new year.
Justin
COVID-19
- Philosophers On How the Pandemic Has Changed Us
- Philosophy Professor Resigns to Protest University’s COVID-19 Plan
- University to Faculty Concerned about Covid: “Beg”
PHILOSOPHY, METAPHILOSOPHY, METHODS
- What Philosophers Believe: Results from the 2020 PhilPapers Survey
- Evidence for a Probabilistic Turn in Philosophy
- Surprise! There’s Philosophy About That
- In Defense of the Details
- What Predicts Professional Philosophers’ Views?
- Analytic Philosophy’s “Triple Failure of Confidence”
- Optimism about Metaphysics (and Philosophy in General)
- Underappreciated Philosophical Friendships
- Overlooked Originators in Philosophy
- Philosophy Labs: Some Recommendations
- Using “Distant Reading” to Complement Close Reading
PROFESSION ISSUES
- The APA’s New Strategic Plan
- To Help Avert University’s “Hunger Games,” A Philosopher Steps Down
- Philosophy Departments Under Threat: Information, Pro-Active Strategies, Defense
- Philosophy Majors & High Standardized Test Scores: Not Just Correlation
- Analytic Philosophy, Inclusiveness, and the English Language
- Levelling the Linguistic Playing Field within Academic Philosophy (guest post)
- Women in Philosophy: Recent Reports (updated)
- How What It Is Like to Be a Woman in Philosophy has Changed over the Past Decade
- Percentage of Women Graduating with Philosophy Degrees Increases
- The Leaky Pipeline into Academic Philosophy for Black Students in the U.S.
- Pulling in Undergraduate Majors
- How Military Veterans Contribute to Academic Philosophy
- Threats to Philosophy Departments and Programs
PHILOSOPHY JOB MARKET
- The Job Market is Back, Baby! (guest post)
- Recruitment and Hiring Strategies to Make Philosophy More Diverse
- New Site Lists Jobs Outside of Academia for People with Advanced Degrees in the Humanities and Social Sciences
- Data on Philosophy PhDs in Non-Academic Positions
- Job Placement Numbers for the 2020-21 Season
- The Job Market is Back, Baby!
- How Many People Are Applying for Philosophy Jobs?
PUBLISHING & WRITING
- The Different Ways Philosophy Journals May Be Good Journals
- Philosophy Journal Horror Stories
- Notably Good Experiences with Journals
- The Art of Philosophical Writing: An Interview with William Lycan
- “Incompetence”, “Arrogance”, “Misunderstanding”
- Journal of Controversial Ideas Publishes Inaugural Issue
- Types of Contributions to the Philosophical Literature
- Which Philosopher Co-Authors Most?
- Co-Authorship in Philosophy over the Past 120 Years
- Citations and the Ethics of Credit
- Your Paper Has Been Accepted. Now What?
- Comparing Three (No, Four) Top 20 Lists in Philosophy
- Asking Authors about Interpretations of & Objections to Their Work
- Jargon for Trouble
- BJPS Launches “Short Reads”
TEACHING
- Unconventional Readings in Undergraduate Philosophy Courses
- The Four-Sentence Philosophy Paper
- What Video Games to Play in a Philosophy Classroom?
- Some Results from the Teaching Philosophy Online Survey
GRADUATE PROGRAMS
- Advice for Applying to PhD Programs in Philosophy
- Guide to Graduate Programs in Philosophy Based on Job Placement and Student Experience
- Enough Ranking
- Grad Students: What Do You Wish You Knew? (Volume 2)
- Grad Students: What Would You Tell Your Professors, But Can’t? (Volume 2)
EVENTS
- Online Conferences: The New Default
- Examining the Future of Academic Events
- “Penned Up and Forced to Listen”: On the Value of In-Person Conferences
- New Workshop Series To Bring More Philosophy to Philosophy Twitter
- Open, Live, Online Philosophy Events
PUBLIC PHILOSOPHY
- Sanders Foundation Announces Philosophy in the Media Initiative
- The New York Times Eliminates Dedicated Philosophy Column
- How Should Departments Credit Faculty for Public Philosophy?
- Building a Better “Which Philosopher Are You Most Similar To?” Quiz
- Understanding Trans-Exclusionary Rhetoric in Philosophy with Help from J.K. Rowling
- Bringing Philosophy to Those in Need
- New Series on David Lewis from Hi-Phi Nation
- An Opportunity for “Serious Conversations on Great Books”
- New Philosophy Magazine Releases Inaugural Issue
TECHNOLOGY
- New Visualization-Based Interface for the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- New Plug-In Improves the SEP Experience
- Free Software for Advanced Logic Courses
- “Hey Sophi”, or How Much Philosophy Will Computers Do?
ACADEMIC FREEDOM & RELATED NEWS
- What a Cancellation Looks Like
- A Tale of Two Resignations
- Kathleen Stock Resigns from Sussex
- Mount St. Mary’s Students Call for Resignation of Philosophy Professor
- Complementing Defenses of Academic Freedom with Understanding & Advice
- Philosopher Launches Anti-Trans Website; Colleagues & Others Object
- Faculty at Rhodes College Urge Cancellation of Online Talk by Peter Singer (updated)
- The Syracuse Strategy
OTHER NEWS ITEMS
- Peter Singer Wins $1 Million Berggruen Prize
- Philosophers On Space Exploration
- Experimenting with Higher Education
- Harvard Declines to Consider Cornel West for Tenure
- Kathleen Stock Receives OBE; Philosophers Sign Letter Opposing the Honor
- CNRS Commission Defends Roques in Response to Plagiarism Accusations
- Amsterdam Synagogue Declares Spinoza Scholar “Persona Non Grata”
- $20 Million Donation for Philosopher-Led Center for Formal Mathematics at CMU
- Posts about Awards and Significant Grants
AMUSEMENTS
- Collective Nouns for Philosophers by Area of Specialization
- Absurdist Video Edits of Philosophers Talking
- Judging Philosophy Books By Their Covers
- Of Philosophy and Dogs
- The Daily Nous Philosophy Comics
DEATHS
A number of philosophers died this past year. You can see posts about them here.
I really can’t imagine how utterly impossible it is to maintain this high-quality contribution to our profession while conducting your other professional duties and having a family, but I think I speak for many how also utterly grateful we are to have you doing this. May we have a year that finally provides some real hope despite all the challenges.
That’s very kind of you, Alan. Thank you. I consider providing this service to my fellow philosophers to be a privilege — and even sometimes a pleasure. Happy New Year!
Thanks for the wrap-up; best wishes to you and your family in 2022!