philosophy
CategoryThe Current State of Early Modern Philosophy
“While no one was looking, contextualism replaced rational reconstructionism (also known as ‘appropriationism,’ ‘presentism,’ and ‘collegialism’) as the dominant methodology among English-speaking early modern historians of philosophy.” (more…)
Agnes Callard’s List of “views that are considered controversial that shouldn’t be”
“There’s no such thing as being good or bad at philosophy.” (more…)
Publishing Philosophy One Doesn’t Believe
“Is there anything wrong with publishing philosophical work which one does not believe?” (more…)
Flourishing with Controversy: How Philosophy of Race Does It
One of the popular narratives about higher education is that the discussion of and disagreement over controversial ideas is imperiled, owing to the dominance of political correctness on college campuses. (more…)
Visualization of Gender Distribution in Philosophy Research Topics
Maximilian Noichl, whose visualizations we’ve discussed previously (here and here) has produced one depicting the gender distribution in philosophy research topics. (more…)
Did a Story about a Computer Made of Humans Scoop Searle’s “Chinese Room” by 20 Years?
A story called “The Game” by Anatoly Petrovich Mickevich (writing under the pseudonym A. Dneprov), published in 1961, tells the story of a fictional event in which people who don’t individually understand Portuguese are successfully arranged into a “computer” that translates a sentence from Portuguese. (more…)
PhilPapers Planning to Conduct 2nd Survey of Philosophers in December
David Bourget (Western University) and David Chalmers (NYU), the creators of PhilPapers and related sites, are planning a sequel to their 2009 survey of the philosophical views of professional philosophers for this December. (more…)
Contemporary Philosophy Is “Only the Most Recent Part of the History of Philosophy”
Why study the history of philosophy? That’s a question Clifford Sosis (Coastal Carolina) asks Peter Adamson (LMU) in a new interview at What Is It Like To Be A Philosopher? (more…)
Explaining the “Outsized Influence” of Australian Philosophers
Local intellectual traditions, the guidance of key people, a strong institutional infrastructure, a straightforward style of writing, and the fruitfulness of a of philosophical outlook, all under the protection of geographical distance and the technological limitations of the time, are part of the complicated story of how Australian philosophers came to have an “out..
A Map of Philosophical Ideas, Works, and Figures
A new visualization of the world of philosophy has been released. Pitched as Google Maps meets PhilPapers, philosophies.space maps philosophy with reference points to subject areas and publications. (more…)
A Map of Correlated Philosophical Positions
Using data from the PhilPapers Surveys, Quentin Ruyant, a post-doc at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, has created a map showing the correlation of positions held by philosophers on different philosophical topics. (more…)
The NSF and the Rise of Value-Free Philosophies of Science (guest post by Joel Katzav & Krist Vaesen)
Why were social, moral and political issues relatively neglected in philosophy of science during the 20th Century? Joel Katzav (Queensland) and Krist Vaesen (Eindhoven) continue their investigation of the institutional and sociological influences on the history and development of analytic philosophy in the following guest post.*
Should contemporary philosophers read Ockham? Or: what did history ever do for us? (guest post by Martin Lenz)
“Although we like to think that the pursuit of truth is central, it’s by far not the only reason why debates arise and certain concepts are coined and stick around, while others are forgotten.” (more…)
Is “American Philosophy” an Endangered Area of Specialization?
Is American Philosophy in jeopardy as an area of study in the profession of philosophy today? Gregory Pappas, professor of philosophy at Texas A & M and president of the Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy (SAAP) is concerned that it is. (more…)
“Refuting someone is the best thing you can do to them”
Those are the words of Agnes Callard (University of Chicago), in an interview with David Wright at Not Unreasonable. (more…)
A New Map of the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
A new visualization of the 2018 edition of the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (SEP) maps its entries according to similarities among their word content. (more…)
Philosophy as Modeling
Is the task of philosophizing appropriately characterized as something like the modeling of phenomenon found in the sciences and social sciences, in which there is (supposed to be) a consciousness of the limitations of the models? (more…)
What You’d Share to Show Non-Philosophers the Value of Philosophy
Happy World Philosophy Day! World Philosophy Day is the creation of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). It’s aims include recognizing the value of philosophy, encouraging philosophical work, and raising awareness of philosophy among the public. (more…)
Challenges Facing Philosophy of Science
What are the most significant challenges facing philosophy of science today? Nick Zautra, a PhD student in the history and philosophy of science at Indiana University Bloomington, interviewed 30 philosophers of science over the past two years, asking them this question, and presented a summary of their answers at the recent 2018 Philosophy of Science Association (PS..
Convergence as Progress in Philosophy
One type of evidence that some claim is relevant to determining whether there has been progress in philosophy is whether philosophers have converged on answers to philosophical questions. (more…)
Demographic Diversity is Good for Philosophy
In light of some recent discussions here and elsewhere about demographic diversity in philosophy, I thought it might be helpful to set out one argument in favor of it that I haven’t seen made explicit. (more…)
Visualizing the Structure of Philosophy from the 1950s to Today
Maximilian Noichl has designed a beautiful visualization of philosophy from the 1950s to today.
Does Philosophy of Math Need a Practical Turn?
When we dig beneath the neatly composed surface we find a great buzzing, blooming confusion of ideas, and we have a lot to learn about how mathematics channels these wellsprings of creativity into rigorous scientific discourse. But that requires doing hard work and getting our hands dirty. (more…)
On the Relevance and Othering of the History of Philosophy (guest post by Martin Lenz)
The following is a guest post* by Martin Lenz (University of Groningen). A version of it first appeared at his blog, Handling Ideas. (more…)
Which X-Phi Studies Replicate?
“Different types of experimental philosophy studies showed radically different rates of replicability,” according to a new analysis by the XPhi Replicability Project. (more…)
Two Models for Expanding The Canon
Progress: the push for academic philosophy to overcome its ethnocentrism and incorporate works from a greater diversity of cultures has reached the point that its advocates are having fruitful public disagreements about how best to do it. (more…)
“We’re Going to Get More, and More Interesting, Kinds of Philosophy”
That’s, uh, me, from a conversation with Daniel Kaufman (Missouri State) on his Sophia program on MeaningOfLife.tv. (more…)
The “New Questions of Philosophy”
“What subjects are now being confronted at the frontiers of philosophical inquiry, breaking from the familiar philosophical concerns of canonical figures like Plato, Locke, and Descartes?” That was a question raised recently by the editors of “The Masthead,” a new member-based media program at The Atlantic.