Four Philosophers Win Guggenheim Fellowships
The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation recently announced the winners of its United States and Canada fellowship competition, and included among the 178 awardees are four philosophers: (more…)
Should Philosophers Train Graduate Students to Teach? How? (Guest Post by David W. Concepción)
The following is a guest post* by David W. Concepción, professor of philosophy at Ball State University, which summarizes some of the findings presented in “The State of Teacher Training in Philosophy” (Teaching Philosophy 2016), a systematic look at the training in teaching graduate students in philosophy get (alternative link). In the paper, authors Concepción, Me..
Public Philosophy Award Update
As reported in December, the Marc Sanders Foundation, which offers several philosophy essay prizes, has created a new award for public philosophy. Barry Maguire (UNC), who has played a large role in creating this prize and in other public philosophy initiatives, informs me that submissions for the award are now welcome, and has more details at his site, including:
..
Chaospet (Daily Nous Philosophy Comics)
Chaospet
by Ryan Lake
Norms of Address at Conferences
A philosopher wrote into Daily Nous saying that at the Pacific Division Meeting of the American Philosophical Association (APA) she witnessed several instances of a speaker or chair addressing a woman in the audience they didn’t know the name of as “young lady.”
She suggested it might be a good idea to discuss the question of how we should address each other at c..
New Philosophy Journal Aims to Publish “Creative Philosophical Work”
S.Ph. Essays and Explorations is a new, open-access biannual journal seeking to publish “creative philosophical work” in “the neglected middle-ground between the cultural-literary essay and the traditional academic article.” It is the project of S.Ph. Press, which
intends to provide a platform for philosophically imaginative works of nonfiction and fiction, writt..
Online Philosophy Resources Weekly Update
Below are the past week’s updates to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (SEP), Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews (NDPR), and Wi-Phi Open Access Philosophy Videos. (We hope to add the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy back into the mix, too, in future weeks. If you have suggestions for other sites you’d like to see included in this weekly update, please say so ..
Continuous Publication Model for Journals — Input Sought
I am going to be taking the helm of a journal in 2017 and the publisher wants my editorial team to consider moving to the continuous publication model pioneered by the Royal Society Journals. On this mode..
The Status of Philosophy of Science in the Profession (guest post by C. Kenneth Waters)
The following is a guest post* by C. Kenneth Waters, professor of philosophy at the University of Calgary and Canada Research Chair in Logic and Philosophy of Science.
The Status of Philosophy of Science in the Profession
by C. Kenneth Waters
Has philosophy of science been given a backseat at American Philosophical Association (APA) and Canadian Philosophic..
Data on PhDs Across the Disciplines
The National Science Foundation (NSF) has released a new edition of its Survey of Earned Doctorates, according Inside Higher Ed, including data through 2014. According to the survey, 54,070 PhDs were bestowed in 2014,with 5,486 of them in humanities fields. Of those, only 54.3% had “job or post-doc commitments.” For 2004, these figures were 5,210 and 63.4%, respecti..
Thanks to This Month’s Advertisers
Daily Nous thanks April’s advertisers. See the ads in right side bar for:
- The Public Discourse Project at the University of Connecticut’s Humanities Institute
- George Mason University’s MA in Ethics and Public Affairs
- The George Washington University’s Masters Programs in Philosophy
- Eidyn, the Edinburgh Centre for Epistemology, Mind, and Normativity, at the..
Hilary Putnam Donates Brain To Harvard
I was going to make an April Fool’s post titled “Putnam Changes Mind About Dying” but sometimes the news gets in the way of a good joke. According to a report from The Boston Globe, the will of Hilary Putnam, who died last month, included the provision that his brain be donated to Harvard University and displayed in a large glass container on the second floor of Eme..
Why Do Undergraduate Women Stop Studying Philosophy? (guest post by Morgan Thompson)
The following is a guest post* by Morgan Thompson (Pittsburgh), who, along with Toni Adleburg (UCSD), Sam Sims (Florida State), and Eddy Nahmias (Georgia State), authored the newly published “Why Do Women Leave Philosophy: Surveying Students at the Introductory Level” (Philosophers’ Imprint). Below, Thompson covers some of the main points of the paper for the purpos..
Famous Philosophers In The Styles of Famous Artists
Renee Jorgensen Bolinger, a graduate student in philosophy at the University of Southern California, paints portraits of famous philosophers in her spare time. For each one, she chooses the style of an artist who thematically links up with the philosopher. For example:
See the whole collection. Some are even for sale as prints, and on shirts, mugs, pillow..
Reference Management Software Revisited
Back in Fall of 2014 we discussed reference management software and apps. Bibdesk and Zotero seemed to be the most popular options at the time. A reader has written in asking us to revisit the topic, noting that when it comes to information technology, a year and a half is a long time. What new options are out there? Have people’s preferences changed? Let us know. T..
To φ Or Not To φ (Daily Nous Philosophy Comics)
To φ Or Not To φ
by Tanya Kostochka
Modern Universities Have Always Had Safe Spaces
…Academic freedom is the core meaning, the core institutional life, of freedom of debate and freedom of inquiry in the university setting. And one thing that’s notable about academic freedom as I’ve just labeled it is that it creates safe spaces. The people who are doing the work on an ongoing basis be they students, teachers, or researchers, don’t have to spend a..
Penn State’s Efforts at Diversifying Philosophy
Five black women earned Ph.D.s in philosophy from Penn State this year, according to an article at The Chronicle of Higher Education (currently paywalled) that looks at the efforts the philosophy department there has been making to diversify philosophy.
The Chronicle reports that:
According to the latest federal data, of the 370 American citizens and permanent..
Faculty Salary Report
A large determinant in how much faculty earn is the discipline in which they teach, according to a report at Inside Higher Ed on the salaries of tenured and tenure-track faculty at four-year colleges and universities. The best-paying fields for full professors are law, business, and engineering, with humanities fields towards the low end. The article notes:
The l..
Online Philosophy Resources Weekly Update
Below are the past week’s updates to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (SEP), Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews (NDPR), and Wi-Phi Open Access Philosophy Videos. (We hope to add the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy back into the mix, too, in future weeks. If you have suggestions for other sites you’d like to see included in this weekly update, please say so ..
Philosophers Win NEH Grants
The National Endowment for the Humanities has announced $21 million in funding awarded to 248 humanities projects. Among them are ten (if I missed any, please let me know) which are directed by philosophers. Congratulations to the winners:
- Christa Acampora; Mariann Weierich (co-project director), Hunter College
$90,594
Project Title: The Experience of War: ..
Justin Leiber (1938-2016)
Justin F. Leiber, retired professor of philosophy at Florida State University, died earlier this week. Prior to joining Florida State, he taught at Lehman College (CUNY) and the University of Houston. Professor Leiber worked mainly in philosophy of language, and also in philosophy of psychology and cognitive science. In addition to his philosophy work, he had a care..
Prof. Suspended for Mistreatment of Philosophy Grad Student
Marquette University, based on recommendations from a faculty panel, has imposed a punishment on John McAdams, associate professor of political science at Marquette University, for his mistreatment of philosophy graduate student Cheryl Abbate in the Fall of 2014 (see here and here for background), according to a report from Inside Higher Ed. From the article:
A l..
Getting In Next Time (Ought Experiment)
Welcome back to Ought Experiment! Today’s letter comes from a student who just struck out on all their grad school applications, and wants to know what they can do to improve their chances next time:
Dear Louie,
I have well over a 4.0 GPA, and had great letters of recommendation from my professors. I also have published one paper in an undergrad journal. On to..
Do Philosophers’ Personal Lives Influence Their Choice Of Research Topic?
According to the philosophical training that I received, scholars select their research topics on the basis of an impartial assessment of the scholarly potential of these topics. I recognized very early in my career that this is not the case. The reasons that academics choose the topics of their research and teaching are often related to their personal lives; early ..
More On Whether Philosophy Has Lost Its Way
Social Epistemology Review and Reply Collective, the digital wing of the journal Social Epistemology, has featured an exchange of short articles in the wake of “When Philosophy Lost Its Way” by Robert Frodeman and Adam Briggle (both of University of North Texas), an article we previously discussed a couple of times. The exchange is between Luke Maring (Northern Ariz..
Mind Chunks (Daily Nous Philosophy Comics)
Mind Chunks
by Pete Mandik
Irony of the Day: Special Issues and Political Correctness Edition
Jean-Yves Beziau (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), recently in the news for bizarre remarks he made about political correctness, homosexuality, and the attractiveness of an “old lady” in an essay on logical pluralism in a special issues of Synthese (which prompted a moratorium on special issues there, and reconsideration of policies of editorial oversi..