Mini-Heap
Recent additions to the Heap of Links…
- “While I’m still on the fence about eyes, I don’t think legs, strictly speaking, exist” — the question of whether there are more eyes or legs in the world “has profound implications for our understanding of certain fundamental matters at the heart of our ongoing debates about scientific realism,” says Justin E.H. Smith
- Possibly the first university philosophy course taught entirely in the metaverse: “Philosophy of Space Exploration” — team taught by Serife Tekin (philosophy & medical humanities ) and Chris Packham (physics & astronomy) at the University of Texas at San Antonio
- Philosopher races to new heights — Alex Pruss (Baylor) has beat the Guinness World Record in greatest vertical distance climbed in one hour on an indoor climbing wall (via Mark Murphy)
- “We should keep a perfect indifference for all opinions, not wish any of them true or try to make them appear so, but, being indifferent, receive and embrace them according as evidence and that alone gives the attestation of truth” — a wide-ranging “interview” with John Locke at 3:16AM
- The Waste Land, Ulysses, and the Tractatus each “wed experimental literary aesthetics with highly abstract intellectual projects” — considering these modernists works together on the centenary of their publication
- “If a deep and general knowledge does not make a man diffident and humble, no human means I believe can do it” — some excerpts from Burke’s little-known “Scattered Hints Concerning Philosophy and Learning,” with a link to the whole piece, recently republished online
- Possibly the world’s second-shortest philosophy paper — by Joshua Habgood-Coote (Leeds), Lani Watson (Oxford), and Dennis Whitcomb (Western Washington)
Discussion welcome.
Mini-Heap posts usually appear when 7 or so new items accumulate in the Heap of Links, a collection of items from around the web that may be of interest to philosophers. 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!
The Winant article is an unfortunate one. While it does cite Karen Zumhagen-Yekplé’s 2020 book, A Different Order of Difficulty, the thesis of Winant’s article is basically identical Zumhagen-Yekplé’s. One of Zumhagen-Yekplé’s major contributions to both the study of literary modernism and Wittgenstein scholarship is linking the difficulty found in (e.g.) Ulysses with “resolute” readings of the Tractatus. Winant very much seems to take such connections as her own original contributions, which is certainly not the case. Given the Winant is clearly familiar with Zumhagen-Yekplé’s book, it’s hard not to see this article as Winant simply lifting Zumhagen-Yekplé’s ideas without adequately attributing them to her.