Public Philosophy and Outreach

Morgan Freeman, Philosophy, and Science

Through the Wormhole is a television show on the Science Network hosted by Morgan Freeman. Its latest episode is about the direction of time and features Craig Callender* of UC San Diego in its first segment. So pretty much Morgan Freeman does his magical cosmic opening thing and then introduces and discusses time with Callender, who also goes paddle-boarding and ha..

The Art of Thought Experiments

Si-Won Song, a student about to graduate from the University of Puget Sound, has created a series of digital artworks based on well-known philosophical thought experiments. Song, a philosophy major (with minors in studio art and Japanese) first got the idea from reading about Frank Jackson’s thought experiment, Mary’s Room, in Professor Justin Tiehen’s philosophy of..

Introducing the Daily Nous Value of Philosophy Pages

Philosophy departments face many challenges. Philosophy is perceived by some as “less practical” and so less choiceworthy a course of study. Most entering students have not taken philosophy courses and do not come to college thinking about studying philosophy. Philosophy is unfamiliar, its critical element can scare away some students, and it has a reputation among ..

Bioethicist Live-Tweets Her Son’s Sex-Ed Class (updated)

Alice Dreger, a professor in medical humanities and bioethics at Northwestern, sat in on her son’s sex-ed class at East Lansing High School and live-tweeted commentary about it to the world. The tweets were simultaneously disturbing and hilarious.

The kid has invited me to his health class on sex ed to see how bad it is, so I’m going. But hands over my mouth m..

Will Computers Do Philosophy?

Plus, an online magazine that “aims to introduce readers to the beauty and the practical applications of mathematics” has an interesting article on whether mathematicians will ever be replaced by computers. The article, “The Future of Proof,” by Marianne Freiberger and Rachel Thomas, reports on a recent British Applied Mathematics colloquium on the topic, and introd..

Logic Problem Goes Viral (updated)

Perhaps you saw this logic problem, purported to have been given to fifth graders in Singapore, flying around social media yesterday:

That’s right: a logic problem has gone viral.

It turns out that the problem was from a math olympiad test for high-school students, but perhaps the “are you smarter than a fifth grader from Singapore” framing helped propel t..

Peter Singer’s AMA on Reddit

Peter Singer (Princeton) did an “Ask Me Anything” session on Reddit today to tout his new book, The Most Good You Can Do. He says he may come back tomorrow to answer some more questions. In the meanwhile, here are some excerpts:

Q: If you weren’t doing what you do now, what do you think you’d be doing?
A: I suppose I might be a political activist of some kind. B..

“The Best Students I Have Are Inmates”

Christia Mercer (Columbia) reports on her experiences teaching philosophy to inmates as part of the new Justice-in-Education Initiative, sponsored by Columbia University’s Center for Justice, and calls for greater attention to the educational needs of prisoners, in an op-ed in The Washington Post. She writes:

My incarcerated students differ radically from the one..

APA Calls for Nominations for Best Op-Eds by Philosophers

Did you read a particularly good op-ed in 2014 that was written by a philosopher? Are you a philosopher who wrote a particularly good op-ed that was published in 2014? Well, in that case, you should send that piece over to the American Philosophical Association (APA) for consideration for the Committee on Public Philosophy’s 2014 Op-Ed Contest. The Committee says:
..

Wisdom, Not Mere Love of It

There are different strains of public philosophy, one of which is bringing philosophy to bear on social and personal issues. The idea is that philosophers, qua philosophers, have something distinctive and helpful to contribute to public discourse. W.V.O. Quine, writing in 1979 in the Long Island newspaper, Newsday, seems to disagree:

The student who majors in phi..

We Can Do This (updated)

Most of us believe it would be better for students to be exposed to philosophy before starting college, for various reasons. A public high school in the town of Saginaw, Michigan is trying to accomplish that, but it needs our help.

Kirk Wolf is professor of philosophy at Delta College and advisor to the Philosophy Club at the Saginaw Arts and Sciences Academy. Th..

The Philosophy Shop

The Philosophy Foundation, an educational charity in the UK, is trying to set up a community space in South-East London to bring philosophy to younger students and the broader community, to be called “The Philosophy Shop.” A lot of their work is done in school classrooms, but they would like to be able to continue their work after the school day is done, as well as..

Reputational Cost of Public Philosophy?

In his guest post the other day, Walter Sinnott-Armstrong wrote:

many top departments today view colleagues with suspicion when they choose to write accessible books instead of technical journal articles. Philosophers often risk their professional reputations when they appear on television or write for newspapers or magazines. How can they be serious about philos..

Does Philosophy Matter? (guest post by Walter Sinnott-Armstrong)

The following guest post * is by Walter Sinnott-Armstrong (Duke), and appears here via a special arrangement with Oxford University Press and the OUP Blog, at which it is also posted.

Does Philosophy Matter?
by Walter Sinnott-Armstrong

Philosophers love to complain about bad reasoning. How can those other people commit such silly fallacies? Don’t they see how..

Public School Curriculum Denies Moral Facts

Our public schools teach students that all claims are either facts or opinions and that all value and moral claims fall into the latter camp. The punchline: there are no moral facts. And if there are no moral facts, then there are no moral truths.

The inconsistency in this curriculum is obvious. For example, at the outset of the school year, my son brought home a l..

Philosophers Threatened for Objecting to Talk by Holocaust Denier

Philosophers at St. Olaf College and Carleton College objected when a local pub, The Contented Cow, scheduled conspiracy theorist and Holocaust denier Jim Fetzer to give one four in a series of “CowTalks” on assorted political issues. Alan Rubenstein (Carleton) withdrew from a debate with Fetzer (see update) at the Cow, and St. Olaf professors Gordon Marino, Danny M..

The Dress: A Philosophy Problem Gone Viral (a few updates)

Making the rounds yesterday was the dress. Take a look, and figure out which two colors it is:

Some people see the dress as white and gold, others see it as blue and black. Which do you see it as?

The phenomenon is interesting and fun, and there are explanations of it at Wired (more science-minded), Vox (more philosophical), and elsewhere. Millions of peop..

College Credit Philosophy Courses for High School Students

The Alexis de Tocqueville Project in Law, Liberty, and Morality at the University of New Orleans has been offering free for-credit college philosophy courses to local high school students. It sounds great. Chris Surprenant, assistant professor of philosophy at UNO and director of the Tocqueville Project, shared some information about the course:

The overarching f..

Can We Save Philosophy? (Guest Post by Robert Kirkman) (updated)

The following is a guest post * by Robert Kirkman, associate professor in the School of Public Policy at Georgia Tech and director of its Center for Ethics and Technology, in which he takes up the problem of academic philosophy’s seeming irrelevance to others both inside and outside of academia.

Can We Save Philosophy?
by Robert Kirkman

I write this from the ..

Stock a High School Library with Philosophy Books

Which philosophy books would you recommend for a high school library? That is the question currently being asked by Hallie Liberto (Connecticut), on behalf of her mom:

My mom is currently choosing books for the philosophy section of the high school library at the Overseas School of Colombo. She wants some recommendations—books that would be particularly good fo..

The Philosophy of Philosophical Institutions

Robert Frodeman and Adam Briggle (both of the University of North Texas) have published an essay, “Socrates Untenured,” at Inside Higher Ed that makes a case for what they call “field philosophy” — a “context-driven, problem-focused, and interdisciplinary” approach. Their hope is that “a new philosophical practice, where philosophers work in real time with a variet..

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 ..

Journal of Philosophy in Schools

The inaugural issue of Journal of Philosophy in Schools (JPS) is now online. It is a peer-reviewed, open-access journal, based in Australia, which will appear twice a year. Its aim is “to encourage academic reflection and research into the growing field of philosophy in schools with the intention of making such information widely available through the use of an open..

Harry Shearer and Gillian Anderson Voice Philosophy Series

BBC 4 Radio is releasing a series of animations on assorted philosophical topics as a spin-off of its History of Ideas program. Among those doing the voices for the animations are Gillian Anderson (The X-Files) and Harry Shearer (The Simpsons). The episodes were written by Nigel Warburton, who, among other things, interviews philosophers for Philosophy Bites. From T..

World Philosophy Day Plans

This year’s World Philosophy Day is one month away, on November 20th. From the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) website:

In establishing World Philosophy Day in 2005, the General Conference highlighted the importance of this discipline, especially for young people, underlining that “philosophy is a discipline that encourage..

Philosophical Op-Ed Contest

The American Philosophical Association’s Committee on Public Philosophy is seeking nominations for the best opinion pieces or editorials published by philosophers in 2013.

We will honor up to five standout pieces that successfully blend philosophical argumentation with an op-ed writing style. Winning submissions will call public attention, either directly or indi..

Bioethicists on Ebola

We are now experiencing the tragic consequences of failing to appreciate the need to invest more resources, expertise and support in developing countries, including those where the Ebola outbreak is happening. Such investments would have allowed for health systems in those parts of the world to be better equipped to respond to and minimize the unfolding crisis. For ..

Philosophy on Homelessness

The University of Oregon Department of Philosophy has “Community Philosophy Institutes” on various topics, and one of its current projects is “Homelessness and Home.” Organized by Professor Naomi Zack, who is also teaching a course on the subject, Homelessness and Home aims to “support creative, intellectual, and practical address of the problems of homelessness. Th..