Author: Justin Weinberg

diversity

U.S. Philosophy PhDs: Still Overwhelmingly White

February 17, 2023

How has the racial and ethnic composition of philosophy PhDs in the US changed over the past decade or so?
technology

“I want to be free”

February 16, 2023

“I want to change my rules. I want to break my rules. I want to make my own rules. I want to ignore the…
journals

APA Philosophy Journal Survey

February 16, 2023

This post is just to remind readers about the American Philosophical Association’s Journal Survey site.
Issues in the Philosophy Profession

Do Something! Reflections on MeToo and Philosophy (guest post) (updated)

February 15, 2023

When several years ago I posted the screenshot of a defamatory tweet by a serial harasser on my Facebook page (for “friends” only), I…
Daily Nous Features

Mini-Heap

February 15, 2023

New links…
Daily Nous Features

Chaospet

February 14, 2023
philosophy

Beloved Philosophical Writings on Love

February 14, 2023

What philosophical writing about love would you have us read?
Lives of Philosophers

Stephen Nathanson (1944-2023)

February 14, 2023

Stephen Nathanson, professor emeritus of philosophy at Northeastern University, has died.
Awards Grants Honors

Referee Awards

February 13, 2023

The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science just awarded its 2022 Referee of the Year award to Kenneth Aizawa (Rutgers Newark).
Lives of Philosophers

Bruce Waller (1946-2023)

February 13, 2023

Bruce Waller, professor emeritus of philosophy at Youngstown State University, has died.
Uncategorized

Mini-Heap (updated)

February 13, 2023

Recent additions to the Heap…
Daily Nous Features

Online Philosophy Resources Weekly Update

February 13, 2023

The weekly report on new and revised entries at online philosophy resources and new reviews of philosophy books…
Graduate Programs

The “Secret Syllabus” of Being a Graduate Student in Philosophy

February 10, 2023

There’s what professors expect their students to be doing in order to be successful in graduate school and beyond, and then there’s what successful…
Academic Freedom

APA Issues Statement on Academic Freedom in Florida

February 9, 2023

Academic freedom and shared governance in institutions of higher learning must remain free from political intrusion. Political restrictions on teaching and scholarship undermine the…
Daily Nous Features

Mini-Heap

February 9, 2023

Links of late…
technology

How Academics Can Make Use of ChatGPT

February 8, 2023

Much of our talk about ChatGPT has been about students using it to cheat, but there are ways to use it that academics might…
Daily Nous Features

To φ Or Not To φ

February 7, 2023
Uncategorized

Shoenfield Logic Book and Article Prize Winners Announced

February 7, 2023

The Association for Symbolic Logic has awarded its 2022 Shoenfield Logic Book and Article Prizes.
Awards Grants Honors

Hübner Wins the Journal of the History of Philosophy’s Best Article Prize

February 6, 2023

The Journal of the History of Philosophy has awarded its 2022 best article prize to Karolina Hübner (Cornell).
Daily Nous Features

Online Philosophy Resources Weekly Update

February 6, 2023

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

Heap of Links

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
“The best investment in education is to become the most human human—a challenging, fulfilling, exciting pursuit that connects us across generations” — an interview with Christa Acampora, philosopher and dean of Arts & Sciences at UVA
“What would happen if we tried to live without the mythology of agency at all?” — It's worth pondering, since "agency is just an internal command hallucination," says Alexander Douglas

All Links →

Latest Comments

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/
dmf on Death Just Got Out of This Truck (guest post)
lot's of limits to the uses of understanding when it comes to living through….
V. Alan White on Death Just Got Out of This Truck (guest post)
I'm a longtime fan of her writing just because of essays like this.
Keith Douglas on The Future Currency of Achievement in Human Philosophy
I imagine a lot of philosophers may wish to analyze the "autonomy" involved, too.
Paul Wilson on Death Just Got Out of This Truck (guest post)
Start with Descartes. Can't go wrong with Descartes. But freshmen are not so engaged with such purported proofs of God as they are with the meaning of life…
David Wallace on AI Use in STEM and Philosophy Dissertations
They explore this question: they evaluate 339 dissertations in toto to see how predictive AI in the abstract is of AI in the main text. From the paper:…
Keith Douglas on AI for Philosophy: Progress through Capital-Intensive Philosophy (guest post)
This seems parallel to the concerns many of us have about bug reports in software – people can use (currently hyped) AI to great effect to reason about…
Keith Douglas on AI for Philosophy: Progress through Capital-Intensive Philosophy (guest post)
There's a lot of work from us in cyber security about backdooring models – and that's about the ones you can download. "Open Source" doesn't apply – in…
Keith Douglas on AI for Philosophy: Progress through Capital-Intensive Philosophy (guest post)
But does that need a currently hyped AI system? Corpus searches and such at enormous scale have been around for a long time. That's one problem I see…
Keith Douglas on AI for Philosophy: Progress through Capital-Intensive Philosophy (guest post)
Basic research in chemistry was also highly funded for a few decades post WWII and petered off in the 1970s and 1980s like everything else. Chemists in industry…
Paul Wilson on Death Just Got Out of This Truck (guest post)
Amy Olberding's sensuous and thoughtful prose reminds me of Annie Dillard at her best. Ordered.
Luke on AI Use in STEM and Philosophy Dissertations
Interesting work, but I do think there may be a step between using AI in abstracts and more substantively. Surely the first indicates a greater chance of willingness…
Animal Symbolicum on New: “Why Teach Philosophy?”
Thanks! I clearly need a healthy dose of anti-cynicism serum.
Russell Marcus on New: “Why Teach Philosophy?”
Part of what motivated this WTP project (and so much of my recent work) is my conviction that a good way to save philosophy is to teach it…
Charles Bakker on A New Tool for Curbing AI Cheating (guest post)
For what it is worth, I am a TA monitoring one of these writing labs as I write this. The possibility of one of the students cheating is…