Author: Justin Weinberg

Uncategorized

Gertrude Ezorsky (1926-2019)

June 10, 2019

Gertrude Ezorsky, professor emerita of philosophy at Brooklyn College and the City University of New York (CUNY) Graduate Center, died this past April. The…
Awards Grants Honors

Winners of Sanders Prize in Metaethics Announced

June 10, 2019

The Marc Sanders Foundation has named the authors of two papers the winners of its 2019 Metaethics Prize.
Daily Nous Features

Online Philosophy Resources Weekly Update

June 10, 2019

Here’s the weekly report on new entries in online philosophical resources and new reviews of philosophy books.
Lives of Philosophers

Joan Callahan (1946-2019)

June 7, 2019

Joan Callahan, professor emerita of philosophy at the University of Kentucky, has died.
Daily Nous Features

Mini-Heap

June 7, 2019

Another Mini-Heap…
News

APA Election Results

June 6, 2019

The results of the 2019 American Philosophical Association (APA) elections have now been announced.
Daily Nous Features

Mini-Heap

June 6, 2019

A new Mini-Heap…
Uncategorized

Trans Women and Philosophy: Learning from Recent Events

June 5, 2019

“I am a trans woman and a philosophy grad student, and I have decided to leave the discipline and seek a non-academic job because…
Daily Nous Features

To φ Or Not To φ

June 4, 2019
Awards Grants Honors

Scruton Honored by Polish Government

June 4, 2019

English philosopher Roger Scruton was awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland by Polish President Andrzej Duda earlier today.
Uncategorized

“Philosophers for Future” – Focusing Philosophical Work on Climate Change

June 4, 2019

There is now a call for philosophers to join with others who have been protesting the lack of action on climate change.
Research

The Cute Dog Project

June 3, 2019

A group of undergraduates at Northeastern University studying philosophy, political science, computer science, data science, economics, and other subjects teamed up on a surprisingly…
journals

Australasian Journal of Philosophy Reaches Out to Historians

June 3, 2019

The Australasian Journal of Philosophy (AJP) has been making efforts to publish more history of philosophy.
Faculty Moves

Schoubye from Edinburgh to Stockholm

June 3, 2019

Andres Schoubye, currently lecturer in the School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences at the University of Edinburgh, has accepted an offer of a senior lectureship in the…
Daily Nous Features

Online Philosophy Resources Weekly Update

June 3, 2019

Here’s the weekly report on new entries in online philosophical resources and new reviews of philosophy books.
philosophy

Visualization of Gender Distribution in Philosophy Research Topics

May 30, 2019

Maximilian Noichl, whose visualizations we’ve discussed previously (here and here) has produced one depicting the gender distribution in philosophy research topics.
Uncategorized

The Logic of Mueller’s Statement

May 30, 2019

This Daily Nous item is temporarily unavailable while its historical content completes a security review. The title and publication record are preserved; the original…
Uncategorized

Mini-Heap

May 29, 2019

Time for a new Mini-Heap.
Faculty Moves

Jenkins from Nottingham to Glasgow

May 29, 2019

Katharine Jenkins, currently an assistant professor of philosophy at the University of Nottingham, has accepted an appointment as a lecturer in the Department of…
Philosophy and Law

Philosophers: Consider Signing Amicus Brief on Insanity Defense

May 29, 2019

“Does a state’s abolition of the insanity defense comport with fundamental principles of justice and pluralist toleration?” That is the question taken up in…

Heap of Links

Is there anything to the concept of “intrinsic human dignity”? — yes, says Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, and "it names a burden as much as a distinction"
“Intuition is the cognitive means by which the conceptual structure of a situation is revealed to us” — whether that situation is a stylized thought experiment or a real world experience, says Marc A. Moffett
“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 trans women 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

All Links →

Latest Comments

Kenny Easwaran on Coordinating the Philosophy Profession’s Response to the Use of AI in Research
I am skeptical that coordination on something like this is either possible or desirable for an entity as large and diverse as the philosophical community. But I do…
Rollo Burgess on Linguistic and Conceptual Justice in AI
I saw a great lecture from some researcher one of the labs about this: it's much more interesting. The LLM isn't fundamentally working in any language; the patterns…
Patrick Lin on Linguistic and Conceptual Justice in AI
Signed! The Conversation had published several articles that speak to or are related to this important but hidden concern, e.g.: https://theconversation.com/large-language-models-often-prioritize-western-moral-values-overlooking-other-cultures-285660 https://theconversation.com/ais-fluency-in-other-languages-hides-a-western-worldview-that-can-mislead-users-a-scholar-of-indonesian-society-explains-276865 https://theconversation.com/ai-systems-are-built-on-english-but-not-the-kind-most-of-the-world-speaks-249710 https://theconversation.com/how-generative-ai-could-change-how-we-think-and-speak-267118
Patrick Lin on Coordinating the Philosophy Profession’s Response to the Use of AI in Research
Very timely. Best of luck, Barry and team!
Filippo Contesi on Linguistic and Conceptual Justice in AI
Not English-only but English is superdominant and so most LLMs default to English. China's LLMs might be different…
philatetelist on Linguistic and Conceptual Justice in AI
This is all news to me. So, is it true that most LLM's are trained on a corpus that is English-only, and then generate non-English output only at…
Matthew Duncombe on Timothy Smiley (1930-2026)
Very sorry to read about this. I only met Tim Smiley a handful of times, but his erudition, intelligence and kindness, and interest in ancient logic made a…
James Mackay on Calls for Papers / Grants / Etc.
Byung-Chul Han and Contemporary Culture. Online (hosted by European University Cyprus). 19 March 2027. Abstracts due 18 January 2027. https://byungchulhanstudies.org/call-for-papers/An online symposium putting Byung-Chul Han’s concepts – burnout,…
Student Philosopher on Where Intuitions Conflict
But the history of philosophy shows us no cases in which adept questioners left their interlocutors in aporia Mad Max – That's Bait
Vinicius Rodrigues on Where Intuitions Conflict
One of my main concerns with your answer to x-phi studies is that it makes having an intuition a difficult thing to pick out in the stream of…
philatetelist on Where Intuitions Conflict
This is a startling hypothesis, because if one and the same individual can have conflicting intuitions about cases, then a philosophically adept questioner should be able to elicit…
Patrick Lin on Death Just Got Out of This Truck (guest post)
“You can be the ripest, juiciest peach in the world, and there's still going to be somebody who hates peaches.”— Dita Von Teese, American philosopher
Non-classical? on Where Intuitions Conflict
I guess I can see that reading of the call, but then I just know even less what to do with the call. Consider that, at least as…
PhilCon Ed on Death Just Got Out of This Truck (guest post)
That which makes plainspoken language more accessible and meaningful to you is the same mechanism which makes flowery, emotive language more meaningful and accessible to others.
Jason Aleksander on Death Just Got Out of This Truck (guest post)
it is disingenuous to claim that the academic life is somehow purely a life of the mind It's not impolite, but I'm not sure if you thought I…