Having trouble figuring out what to get the philosopher in your life? How about a trendy yard sign customized with their philosophical views? You seem skeptical, but Douglas Portmore (ASU) was the recipient of one of these from an (as-of-yet) unidentified gift-giving genius. Check it out:

It’s what every academic wants: evidence that someone is paying attention to what they’ve written.

Portmore, who has written several books articulating his views (including Opting for the Best: Oughts and Options and Commonsense Consequentialism: Wherein Morality Meets Rationality) may have made things easier for his anonymous benefactor by compiling a list of his views on his website. He notes, though, that there is a small error in the banner: in the second line, “directed fact” should be “determinate fact”.

It’s a real yard sign, but it’s not known whether Portmore will actually put it out in his yard. Apparently some of his neighbors disagree with his view about interpersonal aggregation and would be disturbed by such a bold endorsement of it, but he hasn’t yet figured out how many of them would feel that way.

Do you have a philosofriend you’d like to make one of these for? Such customizable signs are available at Banners.com and Amazon, among other places.

Perhaps these would be fun to make for figures in the history of philosophy, too. Give it try. If you want, you can make an online version here, copy or save the image, and share it in the comments here (or you could just type it out in the comments, I suppose).