Author: Justin Weinberg

Lives of Philosophers

Frithjof Bergmann (1930-2021)

June 2, 2021

Frithjof Bergmann, emeritus professor of philosophy at the University of Michigan, has died.
Daily Nous Features

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June 2, 2021

The latest links…
Lives of Philosophers

Robert Ammerman (1927-2021)

June 2, 2021

Robert R. Ammerman, emeritus professor of philosophy at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, has died.
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Virtual Archive of Logical Empiricism

June 1, 2021

This Daily Nous item is temporarily unavailable while its historical content completes a security review. The title and publication record are preserved; the original…
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Results of the Philosophy of Science Association’s Climate Change Survey (guest post)

June 1, 2021

“There is a clear signal in these results that very many professional philosophers of science want to be working in a more online environment…
Site Issues

Sunlight

May 28, 2021

“Sunlight is the best disinfectant,” the saying goes. It also causes sunburns.
Daily Nous Features

Mini-Heap

May 28, 2021

New additions to the Heap of Links…
Philosophy and Law

A Philosopher Helps A Former Prisoner Dig Deep Into His Experiences, Thoughts, and Art

May 26, 2021

“I realized I couldn’t be what the officials were expecting of me. You got to put that in your head so they can’t break…
Funding

Koch Use Causes Rift in Philosophy Department

May 26, 2021

“The depth of the conflict in the Department is troubling.”
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Ad Hoc

May 25, 2021
Public Philosophy and Outreach

The New York Times Eliminates Dedicated Philosophy Column

May 25, 2021

The New York Times has instituted several changes to its publication of opinion pieces, and one of them is the discontinuation of The Stone,…
Daily Nous Features

Mini-Heap

May 25, 2021

New links for the Heap…
philosophy

Analytic Philosophy’s “Triple Failure of Confidence”

May 24, 2021

“Analytic philosophy suffers from a triple failure of confidence, especially among younger philosophers.”
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Online Philosophy Resources Weekly Update

May 24, 2021

The weekly report on new and revised entries at online philosophy resources and new reviews of philosophy books…
Daily Nous Features

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May 21, 2021

The latest links in the Heap…
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APA Announces Prizes and Honors

May 21, 2021

The American Philosophical Association (APA) has announced the winners of several prizes and honors.
Awards Grants Honors

Heath Wins Donner Prize for Best Public Policy Book

May 20, 2021

Joseph Heath, professor of philosophy at the University of Toronto, has won the 2020 Donner Prize for Best Public Policy Book.
Awards Grants Honors

Plutynski Wins 2021 Lakatos Award

May 20, 2021

The London School of Economics and Political Science has announced that the winner of the 2021 Lakatos Award is Anya Plutynski (Washington University in…
Publishing

OUP’s Prestige Monopoly (guest post)

May 19, 2021

Oxford University Press (OUP) has an excellent reputation in philosophy and publishes a lot of philosophy books. That seems like a good thing, but…
Reminder: Open, Live, Online Philosophy Events

May 19, 2021

This post is a reminder about the existence of the Open, Live, Online Philosophy Events Spreadsheet.

Heap of Links

“Professors can’t fix the problem on their own” — Victor Kumar on what university administrators need to do address AI's threat to higher education
“The wall between jus ad bellum and jus in bello, which had sustained his theory for almost half a century, was no longer sturdy” — a profile of Michael Walzer, focusing on his thoughts about just war theory and the Israeli-Palestine conflict
We may think that we lose something significant when AI beats us to a discovery — if we do, Daniel Greco says, that seems to imply we gained something significant, too
“Once upon a time there were a couple of handsome naturalistic philosophers working in and around the philosophy of fiction” — thoughts on new directions in philosophy of fiction, from several philosophers
What is the debate over whether transwomen are women even about? — Katie Zhou argues that it's about which facts are granted "the cross-contextual significance and stickiness characteristic of gender"
We’re putting human brain cells into mice brains — One moral risk of this, says Mackenzie Graham, is a decrease in our ability to interpret what mice behavior tells us about their experiences and welfare
The Rawls Game — with instructions, background, advice, and downloadable character cards
“The central question would shift from ‘How do we maximize shareholder value?’ to ‘How do different forms of organization distribute power, risk and reward — and which should we strengthen?'” — Chris Marquis on the case for abolishing, or at least radically changing, business schools
Asking “How did I get here?” may help us reflect on the nature of personal identity in ways that asking “Who am I?” cannot — Marya Schechtman's 2024 Central Division Meeting Presidential Address
“Collecting is a game, but what kind of game? It is an imperfect information game of acquisition” — a theory of collecting, from Steven Hales
“A general human tendency: to overestimate how far we have come in the progress of human knowledge” — a lengthy interview with Thomas Nagel
“Many couples do not survive trauma like this” — A profile of Susan Brison—who was brutally attacked in 1990, and who wrote about it in Aftermath—and her husband, Thomas Trezise, who has now written his own book stemming from those events
“Bad AI Consciousness Takes” Bingo Card — Henry Shevlin's area of specialization is becoming a popular topic in popular discourse, and he can't stand the "cavalcade of terrible takes"
Does the principle of sufficient reason imply panpsychism? If it does, do we then ponens or tollens? — Sam Kimpton-Nye on these questions and the "demand for intelligibility"
PTSD flashbacks may be harmful, but they may also be helpfully “resupplying phenomenal experience” to those who, owing to trauma, are “grasp alienated” — Michaela McSweeney on trauma and "madness-as-strategy"
A look at the very first issue of Mind — Brett Mullins surveys its articles on the occasion of the journal's 150th anniversary
The most bizarre plagiarism-related story ever — featuring: a death, an investigator, a dissertation, a mysterious red book, and more
New data on earnings by major and university — though not all universities
“AI poses two different existential threats to [our] valuing practices” — Jordan MacKenzie offers an account of why negative judgments about AI taking over our creative and caring activities are justified
“Submission” is a humorous clicker-style game about starting a career in academic philosophy (or not) — created by Nat Hansen

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Latest Comments

Paul Wilson on Putting the Pub in Public Philosophy
While theology is not (usually) philosophy, a remarkably successful pub-centric public initiative is "Theology on Tap". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theology_on_Tap RENEW International
Paul Wilson on Death Just Got Out of This Truck (guest post)
I often get in deep discussions with barflys, as did Aristotle. Their perspectives – far distanced from academic philosophy – homelessness, addiction, alienation from family, friends, romantic and…
Student Philosopher on Death Just Got Out of This Truck (guest post)
You seem like you would enjoy Hemingway
Paul Taborsky on Death Just Got Out of This Truck (guest post)
I hope it is not too impolite to point out that for anyone who is a professional philosopher, (especially the tenured kind) philosophy has quite obviously the ability…
Student Philosopher on Death Just Got Out of This Truck (guest post)
This was wonderful to read. To me, the best philosophy is literary.
Paul Wilson on Putting the Pub in Public Philosophy
While managing a used bookshop a couple of decades ago, I hosted a weekly "Socrates Cafe" with free coffee (and also wine and beer (this being New Orleans),…
John Bengson on Where Intuitions Conflict
Edit! "argued for *alternatives to* the no-conflicting-intuitions explanation"
Jason Aleksander on Death Just Got Out of This Truck (guest post)
To each their own. I have always admired Olberding's writing style. The tension you seem to find off putting isn't arbitrary, though. This is a philosopher who is…
Non-classical? on Where Intuitions Conflict
"Independent of anything that could be settled through further empirical work on ordinary intuitions, we need to know whether there is some way of working out a philosophical…
BCB on Death Just Got Out of This Truck (guest post)
My rule is: if I wouldn’t say something _like that_ to a stranger in a bar or a cab driver, I shouldn’t write it either. This is a…
Marketeer on Death Just Got Out of This Truck (guest post)
I think the point of this piece is interesting. I'll give it some thought. But I actually don't appreciate the writing. Since part of the point of sharing…
John Bengson on Where Intuitions Conflict
Glad to see attention to this issue, though I’ll note that back in 2013 ("Experimental Attacks on Intuitions and Answers”, PPR) I argued for no-conflicting-intuitions explanations of the…
P D Van Pelt on Death Just Got Out of This Truck (guest post)
There are things philosophy helps us think better about. That is the one thing philosophy does.
Apologist on Death Just Got Out of This Truck (guest post)
> (I had Albert Camus’ *The Myth of Sisyphus* in my hip pocket for a year at 17 years old – 50 years ago.) For me it was…
Darren on Putting the Pub in Public Philosophy
The Practical Philosophy Club in Toronto gets over 100 people at their Madison Avenue Pub nights each week – https://www.meetup.com/practical-philosophy-club-ontario/