Latest links…

1. “The Israeli government has a special duty to protect its citizens… the Israeli government also has a special duty to protect Palestinians” — Saba Bazargan-Forward (UCSD) explains why, and what it implies
2. “Studying convoluted examples of conscious animals to understand consciousness is like reverse-engineering the electric calculator to understand how machines perform addition, rather than starting with the abacus” — Kristin Andrews (York) on how anthropocentrism hampers the study of consciousness
3. “Though the number of papers… in this area is low… the breadth of topics that have already been covered is staggering” — Florian Cova (Geneva) surveys experimental philosophy of aesthetics
4. “Your goal may have been to win a military campaign and to do it as ruthlessly and quickly as possible knowing that your political clock is running out, but the result begins to look more and more like genocide” — Holocaust scholar Omer Bartov (Brown) is interviewed on whether what is happening in Gaza is genocide
5. “What I should look to philosophy to do is to encourage people to act with vigor without complete certainty” — a 1960 interview with Bertrand Russell (video)
6. “Most of the audience of ‘Jaws’ would say that [its] representation of sharks is fictional. In spite of that, the representation had, for many, an impact on their daily life, as it shaped the way in which they perceived real sharks and saw certain actions as justified” — Anaïs Giannuzzo (Geneva) on fiction, feelings, representations, and rationality
7. Two official Guinness World Records for a rock-climbing philosophy professor — ““It’s like puzzle-solving. It’s like this puzzle that involves your body,” say Alex Pruss (Baylor)

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. Thank you.