Philosophy and Science Student Wins $10,000 Essay Prize
The Foundational Questions Institute (FQXi) has awarded a number of prizes in response to its call for essays answering the question, “What is fundamental?”, and the top prize has gone to Emily Adlam, who studied physics and philosophy at Oxford and is now a PhD student in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics at Cambridge. (more…)
Research on Public Attitudes Towards Philosophy & Philosophers
“Science communication is a profession in its own right with journals, higher degrees and careers paths,” notes philosopher Brendan Larvor (Hertfordshire). Yet there does not appear to be much of a “philosophy communication” analog. He notes, “so far as I know there is no research on public attitudes towards philosophy and philosophers.” (more…)
Online Philosophy Resources Weekly Update
Here’s the weekly report of what’s new at some useful online philosophy resources. (more…)
Mini-Heap
Here’s the latest Mini-Heap—10 recent items of interest to philosophers (and others interested in philosophy) from the Daily Nous Heap of Links. (more…)
What Should African Philosophy Be?
“For African philosophy to be taken seriously it has to find some sort of foundation within the African thought-world rather than in the Greek or European thought-world.” (more…)
The First Black African Woman Philosophy PhD in South Africa
Mpho Tshivhase is the first black African woman to earn a doctoral degree in philosophy in South Africa. (more…)
Racism at Yale and Philosophy in Real Life
Lolade Siyonbola, a graduate student in African studies at Yale University, took a break from working on a paper Monday night in a common room in her dorm to take a nap. The next thing she knows, she was awakened by a white student who reportedly flipped on the lights, told her she had no right to be there, and who called the campus police to report her. (more…)..
Untangling the Strings: The Limits of Acceptable Donor Influence in Academia (guest post by Chris Surprenant)
“Our donors are supporting our projects, not the other way around.”
The following is a guest post* by Chris Surprenant, associate professor of philosophy at the University of New Orleans, on the role that those who fund academic programs may have in determining program goals, methods, materials, and staff. (more…)
Mini-Heap
Here’s the latest Mini-Heap—10 recent items of interest to philosophers (and others interested in philosophy) from the Daily Nous Heap of Links. (more…)
Judge Cites Philosophers in Decision on Chimpanzee Case
The State of New York Court of Appeals rendered a verdict yesterday in a case involving the question of whether chimpanzees are persons, and in doing so, cited the work of Tom Regan and an amicus curiae written by several philosophers. (more…)
Mind Chunks (Daily Nous Philosophy Comics)
Bullshit Jobs in Higher Ed
“The degree to which those involved in teaching and academic management spend more and more of their time involved in tasks which they secretly—or not so secretly—believe to be entirely pointless” is a hot topic on academic social media this week, owing to an article about it by anthropologist David Graeber (LSE) in The Chronicle of Higher Education. (more…)..
The Rise and Fall of Philosophical Jargon (guest post by Eric Schwitzgebel)
The following is a guest post* by Eric Schwitzgebel, professor of philosophy at UC Riverside. A version of it first appeared on his blog, The Splintered Mind.
Ivanhoe from City Univ. Hong Kong to Sunkyunkwan
Philip J. Ivanhoe, currently Chair Professor of East Asian and Comparative Philosophy and Religion at City University of Hong Kong, has accepted the position of Distinguished Chair Professor in the College of Confucian Studies and Eastern Philosophy at Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul, South Korea. (more…)
Online Philosophy Resources Weekly Update
Here’s the weekly report of what’s new at some useful online philosophy resources. (more…)
$1.37 Million Grant for Philosophy of Cosmology
Christopher Smeenk, associate professor of philosophy at Western University, and James Weatherall, professor of logic and philosophy of science at the University of California, Irvine (UCI), have been awarded a $1.37 million grant from the John Templeton Foundation for their project, “New Directions in Philosophy of Cosmology.”
The Apologetics Charge Against Philosophy of Religion
Dean Zimmerman (Rutgers) and Paul Draper (Purdue) discuss their views on the relationship between philosophy of religion and religious apologetics in a pair of recent posts at Philosophy of Religion.
Philosophy PhD Student Fired for Tweet Critical of Seminary President
A PhD student in the philosophy program at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary was fired from a $40,000/year food service job and had his $7,000/year tuition benefits taken from him after he endorsed, on Twitter, an article critical of the Seminary’s president. (more…)
Mini-Heap
Here’s the latest Mini-Heap—our occasional collection of 10 recent items of interest to philosophers (and others interested in philosophy) from the Daily Nous Heap of Links. (more…)
Theunissen from Johns Hopkins to Pittsburgh
Nandi Theunissen, currently assistant professor of philosophy at Johns Hopkins University, will be taking up a position as associate professor of philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh.
Kit Fine & Stephen Yablo Win 2018 Lebowitz Prize
Kit Fine, Silver Professor of Philosophy and Mathematics at New York University, and Stephen Yablo, David W. Skinner Professor of Philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, have won the 2018 Dr. Martin R. Lebowitz and Eve Lewellis Lebowitz Prize, awarded jointly by the American Philosophical Association (APA) and the Phi Beta Kappa Society. (more…)..
Resurrecting Brains: Philosophical Questions and New Ethical Territory (guest post)
A team of scientists led by Nenad Sestan (Yale) have “restored circulation to the brains of decapitated pigs and kept the reanimated organs alive for as long as 36 hours,” reports MIT Technology Review. The method used to keep pigs’ brains alive outside the body will work on other animals, including primates, Sestan said. The following is a guest post* by Carolyn Di..
Intellectual Humility, Intellectual Courage, and the Value of Philosophy
Socrates is the favorite ancient philosopher of Stephanie Nordby, a recent philosophy PhD from the University of Oklahoma, because in his role as “gadfly” he represents two virtues of philosophy done well: “intellectual humility and profound intellectual courage.”
Ad Hoc (Daily Nous Philosophy Comics)
Philosophy is what best prepared him for his career in finance & government
I’m asked from time to time which undergraduate courses best prepared me for working at Goldman Sachs and in the government. People assume I’ll list courses in economics or finance, but I always answer that the key was Professor Demos’s philosophy course and the conversations about existentialism in coffee shops around campus.
Mill’s Myriad Marginalia: Mundane, Mysterious, Mocking
A website has been launched to display the handwritten annotations, marginal comments, and doodles made by John Stuart Mill in the approximately 1,700 books in his library.
Lascano and Raibley from CSU Long Beach to University of Kansas
Marcy Lascano and Jason Raibley, currently professors of philosophy at California State University, Long Beach, have both accepted senior positions in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Kansas. (more…)
Philosophers Awarded $1 Million Prizes for Work in Bioethics and History of Science
Lorraine Daston (Max Planck Institute), Ezekiel Emanuel (University of Pennsylvania), Jonathan Glover (Kings College London), Evelyn Fox Keller (MIT), Simon Schaffer (Cambridge), and Mary Warnock (Oxford) are each winners of the 2018 Dan David Prizes, an international award endowed by the Dan David Foundation.