The Ethics of Friending in Academia
In a column at The Chronicle of Higher Education, David Perry discusses some of the complications for people in academic organizations using social media like Facebook. How should we engage with others on social media? Here are his suggestions:
Be aware of workplace hierarchies and your position in them.
You get to choose whether to “friend up” to people more..
Oregon Philosophy Faculty Removed from Courses (Updated)
“One by one, objecting faculty members are being removed as instructors of record for classes that they teach with graduate teaching fellows or classes taught by GTFs that the department supervises” reports The Register Guard. As Oregon University’s graduate student teaching fellows strike (previously) continues, the university’s administration is now engaging in a..
Absolutely Gorgias Shirts
Maybe that is overstating it, but regardless, the Daily Nous charity fundraiser shirts are still on sale (until Friday). All the profits from each shirt are going to charity (nominations for which one, discussed here). Get ’em while you can! (And no, I have no idea how Angela Merkel got her hands on one of these.)
2014 Philosophical Gourmet Report Released
The 2014 edition of the Philosophical Gourmet Report (PGR) has been released. The PGR is a reputational survey of a selection of PhD-granting philosophy departments based on questionnaires completed by around 230 philosophers. The release of the PGR was slightly delayed this time around, owing to considerable controversy about its editor-in-chief, Brian Leiter, its ..
Famous Philosophy Majors Poster (updated with new link)
Catherine Nolan, a philosophy graduate student at SUNY Buffalo, has created a great poster featuring names and photos of well-known people who majored in philosophy, called “Who Has A Degree In Philosophy?” UPDATE: new link here.
She writes: “Some people commonly found in lists of philosophy majors (e.g. Woody Allen, David Duchovny) aren’t on this poster because ..
PhD Program Wikis — Information, Not Rankings (updated)
Shawn Standefer has created a wiki of PhD programs in philosophical logic. It “provides an unranked list of PhD (and (eventually) terminal M.A.) programs that have strengths in philosophical logic. Links are provided to the websites, CVs, and PhilPapers profiles of the relevant faculty at each program. Additionally, when known, the specialties and willingness of fac..
Virtual Worlds and Video Games in Philosophy Teaching
Do any of you use virtual worlds or video games in your teaching of philosophy, and if so, how? In conversation the other day a colleague expressed an interest in creating a virtual world in which an epidemic was taking place, and having students immerse themselves in it to learn about addressing some of the various ethical challenges that confront agents in such si..
T-Shirt Charity Fundraiser!
Available to order now through Friday: the first (and possibly last) Daily Nous t-shirt! It’s a black shirt, all-cotton, that features a design with a quote from Socrates — one that captures the heart of the philosophical disposition — along with some of the surrounding text. I am selling it to raise funds for a charitable cause. No, the charitable cause is not ..
Oregon Grad Students Warned of Deportation (see updates)
The University of Oregon administration has told international graduate students that they will be deported if they join the Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation strike, according to UO assistant professor of philosophy Mark Alfano. Additionally, the administration is attempting to undermine the strike by decreeing that undergraduates taking courses that use teachin..
New Hires at University of Oslo
Herman Cappelen, currently Arche Chair at the university of St Andrews and Director of the Arche Philosophical Research Centre, has accepted a position as professor at the University of Oslo, starting August 2015. In Oslo, Cappelen will also be a research director at the Centre for the Study of Mind in Nature (CSMN). He will retain a part-time continuing position at..
Allen Phillips Griffiths (1927-2014)
Allen Phillips Griffiths, emeritus professor of philosophy at—and one of the founders of—the University of Warwick, has died. Professor Griffiths worked in a wide range of philosophical areas, including ethics and political philosophy, epistemology, and philosophy of psychology. There is a brief memorial notice here. Update (12/17/14): a longer obituary is now ..
The Most Disruptive Philosophical Idea
On the occasion of its 85th anniversary, Businessweek put together a list of the 85 “most disruptive” ideas during the past 85 years. Containing some predictable entries like the birth-control pill and email, as well as some odd ones such as kitty litter and name-brand jeans, the list offers not one philosophical idea. It is, of course, a business magazine; no surpr..
Separating Philosophy from Religious Studies and Theology (Updated)
In research on higher education, philosophy majors, religious studies majors, and theology majors are often grouped together. This is because the questionnaires used to create the main data sets on which this research is based group these majors together. This is not merely weird, given how different these fields are, but possibly detrimental to the reputation of ph..
New Center for Ethics and Education
Harry Brighouse (Wisconsin) and Anthony Laden (University of Illinois, Chicago) are launching the Center for Ethics and Education, the chief aim of which is to bring philosophical thinking to bear on educational policies and practices. The Center will be funded by a $3.5 million grant from the Spencer Foundation. In an article at the University of Wisconsin website,..
Bratman wins 2014 Quinn Prize
Michael Bratman (Stanford) has won the 2014 Philip L. Quinn Prize. The annual prize “is awarded in recognition of service to philosophy and philosophers” and includes $2500 and an engraved plaque.
APA Code of Conduct Interim Report (updated)
The American Philosophical Association’s Code of Conduct Task Force submitted an interim report to the APA’s Board of Officers, and the report was approved by the Board at its recent meeting. The primary agenda item of the task force to date had been the consideration of whether to create a code of conduct, and the task force did conclude that such a code was needed..
Mulhall on Philosophy and Culture
This past October, Stephen Mulhall (Oxford), delivered the Grahame Lock Memorial Lecture, and it contains interesting reflections on philosophy and its significance in the broader culture:
Sometimes philosophy finds that its own continued existence does not matter to anyone else… But philosophers shouldn’t deny their own responsibility for this fate. For how many..
Drop in Graduate Applications?
A philosopher who prefers to remain anonymous has noticed a marked drop in applications to his graduate program and is wondering whether this is part of a general trend. As such information might be useful to the profession as a whole, please consider sharing any knowledge you have regarding increases or decreases in the recent volume of applications to the PhD and ..
University of Tehran Statement on Khatami
The University of Tehran has issued a statement on the plagiarism allegations against Mahmoud Khatami (reported earlier here and here). I have been provided with two translations of the statement. One is by someone who prefers to remain anonymous. It is reprinted below. The other is by Shirzad Peik Herfeh, assistant professor of philosophy at Imam Khomeini Internat..
Open Letter on the Damage to UIUC
More than three dozen scheduled talks and multiple conferences across a variety of disciplines – including, for example, this year’s entire colloquium series in the Department of Philosophy – have already been canceled, and more continue to be canceled, as outside speakers have withdrawn in response to the university’s handling of Dr. Salaita’s case…
An open ra..
Response to McAdams’s Attack on Abbate
The following is a guest post* from a philosopher who has been in communication with Marquette University philosophy graduate student Cheryl Abbate about the events that occurred in her class and that have been at the center of much controversy recently. The post aims to correct several mistaken and misleading elements in associate professor of political science Joh..
Being a Philosopher of Color — a New Blog
A new blog project, What Is It Like to be a Person of Color in Philosophy?, has just launched. From the “about” page:
This blog contains narratives of personal experiences, submitted by readers, of life in philosophy as a person of color. Some of these stories will undoubtedly be accounts of racial bias, whether explicit, unconscious, or institutional. However, o..
Westboro Baptist Church to Picket Marquette (updated)
The Westboro Baptist Church, a bizarre anti-gay cult comprised largely of the extended family of its late founder, is planning to picket on the campus of Marquette University this Sunday (correction: next Monday) morning, citing Fox News’ misleading account of Marquette graduate student Cheryl Abbate’s handling of an undergraduate’s desire to discuss same-sex marri..
The Specialty Rankings
Selections from the 2014 Philosophical Gourmet Report (PGR), a controversial ranking of the reputations of PhD-granting philosophy departments, have been appearing at Leiter Reports recently. Parts of the following specialty rankings, along with the names of those philosophers who did them, have been released: philosophy of physics, Kant, metaethics, 19th Century Co..
A Charmed Circle
The profession runs on reputation — basically the shared perception that you’re a smart guy. But how do you get reputation? Not by having a chair at a major school; that helps your visibility, but doesn’t protect you from being perceived as none too bright…. Nor does having the support of a powerful person do very much; you can be the favorite student of the top p..
Jonathan Trejo-Mathys (1979-2014) (updated)
Jonathan Trejo-Mathys, an assistant professor of philosophy at Boston College, has died. Trejo-Mathys worked mainly in political philosophy and critical social theory. Prior to his appointment at Boston College, he had been a Fulbright Scholar as well as a fellow at the Justitia Amplificata Centre for Advanced Studies in Frankfurt. He received his PhD in 2009 from N..
Colorado Won’t Allow Outside Observer at Barnett’s Hearing (updated)
A faculty group is concerned that David Barnett, the tenured University of Colorado philosophy professor fighting for his job will not be allowed to have an outside observer at his dismissal hearing next week.
Barnett and the Colorado conference of the American Association of University Professors sought to have one of the group’s members watch a closed-door facul..
Update on Khatami Plagiarism Case
University of Tehran philosophy professor Mahmoud Khatami, who has been accused of extensive plagiarism (including his Durham University PhD, several articles, and an allegedly ghost-written book about him) is on sabbatical in Canada and has not yet responded to inquiries about the charges, according to sources in Iran.
The story has been pursued in several Irani..