Category: philosophy
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Philosophy in the University: A Defense
“Far from being years of ‘enduring failure,’ the last 150 years have been philosophy’s best.” So argues Scott Soames (University of Southern California) in…
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Is this the Golden Age of Philosophy?
Bryan Frances thinks that there are several indicators suggesting that we’re at the start of a “golden age of philosophy.” These indicators include: Much…
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Death and Progress
A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die,…
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Summer Workshops Supporting Diversity in Philosophy
Athena in Action, a networking and mentoring workshop for graduate student women in philosophy, has posted a call for applicants to its 2016 workshop. Helpfully,…
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Most Important Philosophy Poll Poll
Just thought Daily Nous should up its poll game… Vote here.
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To Live After, and During, the Reflection
Nakul Krishna, a graduate student at Oxford, has written a beautiful essay at The Point called “Add Your Own Egg.” Go read it, and we can…
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Unsolved Problems in Philosophy
Did you know that Wikipedia has a “List of Unsolved Problems in Philosophy” page? It lists only 20 problems (philosophy’s doing better than I…
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The Purification of Philosophy
[The] institutionalization of philosophy made it into a discipline that could be seriously pursued only in an academic setting. This fact represents one of the…
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The Paradox of Unanimity
Under ancient Jewish law, if a suspect on trial was unanimously found guilty by all judges, then the suspect was acquitted. This reasoning sounds…
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Favorite Philosophy of the Year 2015
A reader asks: Was wondering if you could write a post asking for people’s favorite philosophy articles/books of the year. Sure! People, what were…
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“Reputation Traps” in Philosophy
In an essay at Aeon, Huw Price (Cambridge) writes about “reputation traps.” His example of this is scientific research on cold fusion, or low-energy nuclear reaction…
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Do You Act As You Argue? Or Do You Argue for How You Act? (Guest Post by Rivka Weinberg)
“Everybody is somebody’s fault.” That’s the first line of the introduction to The Risk of A Lifetime, the new book by Rivka Weinberg (Scripps), on “how, when, and…
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Books for the Philosophy Newbie
A Daily Nous reader asks: What books would you recommend to someone who’s new to philosophy? What would be your Philosophy 101 book recommendations?…
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What’s “Core” and What’s “Peripheral” in Philosophy—and Why?
It’s pretty bizarre, when you think about it, that someone who spends their time wondering whether tables are real is considered to be working…
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Progress in Philosophy
Rebecca Newberger Goldstein is becoming the most well-known defender of the idea that philosophy makes progress. Last year, in The Chronicle of Higher Education, she wrote: Philosophy was…
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The Absence of Chinese Philosophy in the U.S.
In the United States, there are about 100 doctorate-granting programs in philosophy. By my count, only seven have a permanent member of the philosophy…
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Plot Philosophy’s Subfields
Yesterday’s post about interdisciplinary work in philosophy got me curious about how philosophers understand their work in relation to other disciplines. One question we…
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A Bias Against Simplicity?
Kieran Healy (Duke) recently presented a paper entitled “Fuck Nuance” at the American Sociological Association’s annual meeting. He writes: Nuance is not a virtue…
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The One Statement To Best Restart Philosophy
If all existing philosophical work—and all records and knowledge of it—were to be destroyed in some disaster, and only one sentence could be passed on…
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Not Technically a Philosopher, But
Philosophers seem pretty territorial about their discipline. Whether that’s owed to high standards, insecurity, or something else, I don’t know. But we tend to…