Author: Justin Weinberg

Research

The Development of Experimental Philosophy

January 24, 2023

A recent survey of publications in experimental philosophy provides a picture of the field’s growth and range.
Faculty Moves

Kraus from Notre Dame to Johns Hopkins

January 24, 2023

Katharina Kraus, previously associate professor of philosophy at the University of Notre Dame, is now, as of this term, associate professor of philosophy at…
Awards Grants Honors

Sober Wins Inaugural “Philosophy In Biology and Medicine” Award

January 23, 2023

Elliott Sober, professor of philosophy at the University of Wisconsin, is the winner of the first Philosophy in Biology and Medicine (PhilInBioMed) Award.
Uncategorized

Online Philosophy Resources Weekly Update

January 23, 2023

The weekly report on new and revised entries at online philosophy resources and new reviews of philosophy books, including a recently introduced section featuring…
Cuts and Threats to Philosophy Programs

Philosophy Major at Utica Targeted for Elimination

January 20, 2023

The president of Utica University, Laura Casamento, at the prompting of Utica’s Board of Trustees, has recommended that the university no longer offer students…
Daily Nous Features

Mini-Heap

January 20, 2023

Items of interest to people interested in philosophy…
journals

New: Journal of the History of Women Philosophers and Scientists

January 20, 2023

December 2022 saw the publication of the first two issues of the Journal of the History of Women Philosophers and Scientists (JHWP).
Faculty Moves

Fraser from Oxford to ACU/Dianoia

January 19, 2023

Rachel Fraser, currently associate professor of philosophy at Oxford University, has accepted an offer from the Dianoia Institute of Philosophy at Australian Catholic University.
Philosophy Job Market

2022-23 Philosophy Job Market Report (guest post)

January 19, 2023

How has the 2022-23 philosophy job market looked so far?
Teaching

Teaching Philosophy in a World with ChatGPT

January 18, 2023

“It will be difficult to make an entire class completely ChatGPT cheatproof. But we can at least make it harder for students to use…
Uncategorized

€4 Million Grant for Philosophical Research on the Credibility of Science

January 18, 2023

A project led by philosophers Mathias Frisch and Torsten Wilholt (Institut für Philosophie at Leibniz Universität Hannover) on science and trust has received a…
Daily Nous Features

Chaospet

January 17, 2023
Daily Nous Features

Mini-Heap

January 17, 2023

Recent additions to the Heap…
Writing

Virtual Dissertation Writing Groups

January 17, 2023

New virtual writing groups for people working on dissertations in philosophy will be forming soon.
Daily Nous Features

Online Philosophy Resources Weekly Update

January 16, 2023

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

Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Social Philosophy Course

January 16, 2023

Martin Luther King, Jr. was a visiting professor at Morehouse College in the early 1960’s.* While there, he taught a senior seminar in social and…
News

Why a Philosopher’s Racist Email from 26 Years Ago is News Today

January 13, 2023

Influential Oxford philosopher Nick Bostrom, well-known for his work on philosophical questions related to ethics, the future, and technology (existential risk, artificial intelligence, simulation),…
Research

New Network for Philosophers Interested in Emotions and Society

January 13, 2023

“Emotion and Society Lab” is a new “network of collaborators in philosophy across different universities that engage in collaborative learning, research, and public engagement…
Site Issues

Journal Editors: Heads Up About a New Weekly Update Feature

January 12, 2023

The “Online Philosophy Resources Weekly Update” will be adding a new feature: book reviews that appear in academic journals.
Daily Nous Features

Mini-Heap

January 12, 2023

New links…

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…