Zarathustra for Kids
John Holbo (National University of Singapore) has undertaken a new project: a version of Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra for kids. It’s illustrated, and written in the style of Dr. Seuss. It’s called On Beyond Zarathustra: A Parody for All and None, and samples from it have been posted on his website (and Crooked Timber). Below are images from the first few pages..
“Students Against Pogge” Group Forms
A Facebook group has been created in the wake of allegations against Yale professor Thomas Pogge called “Students Against Pogge.”
The page states: (more…)
Online Philosophy Resources Weekly Update
Here’s where we post the past week’s updates to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (SEP), Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (IEP), Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews (NDPR), and Wi-Phi. Bonus link at the bottom. (more…)
PhD Programs in Philosophy with the most Women Graduates
The philosophy doctoral programs at the University of Memphis, the California Institute of Integral Studies, the University of Oregon, the University of New Mexico, the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are the only ones in the United States which have graduated more women than men during the 2004-2014 period, accord..
Chair in Atheism and Secular Ethics Endowed at Miami
Retired businessman Louis J. Appignani has donated $2.2 million to the University of Miami for an endowed chair in “the study of atheism, humanism and secular ethics,” reports the New York Times. It is the first position of its kind in the United States. (more…)
Thomas Pogge Responds to Accusations (Updated — with emails)
Thomas Pogge, the Leitner Professor of Philosophy & International Affairs and Political Science at Yale University, has published a response to allegations he sexually harassed and retaliated against a student, Fernanda Lopez Aguilar. (more…)
Thomas Pogge, Yale University, and Sexual Harassment (Updated)
When Thomas Pogge travels around the world, he finds eager young fans waiting for him in every lecture hall. The 62-year-old German-born professor, a protégé of the philosopher John Rawls, is bespectacled and slight of stature. But he’s a giant in the field of global ethics, and one of only a small handful of philosophers who have managed to translate prominence wit..
The Unpredictable Progress of Knowledge
The whole thing is predicated on what amounts to a shotgun approach to knowledge: you let people metaphorically fire wherever they wish, and statistically speaking they’ll occasionally hit a worthy target. Crucially, there doesn’t seem to be a way, certainly not a centralized or hierarchically determinable way, to improve the efficacy of the target shooting. If we w..
Philosophers Win $3.6 Million for Conceptual Engineering
Herman Cappelen (primary investigator), Øystein Linnebo, and Camilla Serck-Hanssen, all at the University of Oslo, have won a $3.6 million grant for a 5-year project on Conceptual Engineering. The grant is funded by the Research Council of Norway‘s Toppforsk program, which recently announced roughly $120 million worth of grants to 46 projects. The Conceptual Engine..
Most Cited Philosophy Books in the Social Sciences
Elliott Green, a professor in the International Development Department at the London School of Economics, looked at which works from anthropology, economics, education, geography, linguistics, management, philosophy, political science, and psychology are cited most by social scientists. At the top of the list of the 50 most cited books, he reports, is Thomas Kuhn’s ..
The History of the Past 40 Years of Analytic Philosophy
A new call for papers has been circulating, soliciting work on the history of “Late Analytic Philosophy.” From the CFP:
In the last 25 to 30 years historical attention has been directed toward analytic philosophy: some analytic philosophers have begun reflecting on the philosophical tradition they belong to, while many other scholars have been working on what is ..
Mind Chunks (Daily Nous Philosophy Comics)
Mind Chunks
by Pete Mandik
Academic Bragging
Those who exhibit highly admirable academic characteristics such as caution, refusal to exaggerate, humility, deference to the achievement of others, and support of their colleagues will have a much harder time rising to the top.
True? (more…)
The Salary Boost of Getting an MA in Philosophy
Here’s some mysterious data. According to Emolument, a website that trades in “crowdsourced pay data,” while people with a BA in philosophy earn, on average, £42,000 (roughly $60,000), those with an MA in philosophy earn, on average £61,000 (roughly $88,000). That’s about a 45% salary increase. (more…)
Department of Deviance
Amy Olberding (Oklahoma) has opened up the Department of Deviance. Tagline: “We would have called it Philosophy but that name was already taken.” From various posts at the site:
MISSION STATEMENT: Know more things!
STRATEGIC PLAN: Find out more things by reading more, listening to more people, and asking about stuff we don’t understand but sure would like to. ..
Formal Methods Training for Philosophy Graduate Students (guest post by Joshua Knobe)
The following is a guest post* by Joshua Knobe, professor of philosophy at Yale University.
Online Philosophy Resources Weekly Update
Below are the past week’s updates to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (SEP), Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews (NDPR), Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (IEP), and Wi-Phi.
SEP
New:
- William of Sherwood, by Sara L. Uckelman
Revised:
- Political Legitimacy, by Fabienne Peter
- Practical Reason and the Structure of Actions, by Elijah Millgram
..
When Someone Suggests Expanding The Canon…
A gem of a comment from Amy Olberding on the post earlier this week about expanding the philosophical canon is worth excerpting:
…let me just explain how these sorts of conversations read to me and how, it seems to me, they repeat endlessly. On my most cynical days, I think we can dispense with any further conversations about including non-western traditions. F..
Happiness and Well-Being Grant Winners
Last summer, Daniel Haybron (St. Louis University) was awarded $5.1 million for a three year project on happiness and well-being, most of it from the John Templeton Foundation. The project launched an interdisciplinary grant competition, the winners of which were just announced. Of three hundred applicants, twenty-one teams received awards together totaling $3.3 mil..
There Is No One Thing Philosophers Should Be Doing
The latest in a series of articles exhorting philosophers to engage with “real world problems” appears at Inside Higher Ed this morning, focusing on philosophy at land grant universities in the United States. The authors, Christopher P. Long and Michael O’Rourke (both of Michigan State), write:
To the extent that philosophy lost its way by turning inward, perhaps..
Philosophical Diversity in U.S. Philosophy Departments (Updated)
The vast majority of philosophy departments in the United States offer courses only on philosophy derived from Europe and the English-speaking world. For example, of the 118 doctoral programs in philosophy in the United States and Canada, only 10 percent have a specialist in Chinese philosophy as part of their regular faculty. Most philosophy departments also offer ..
Toadvine from Oregon to Penn State
Ted Toadvine, currently professor of philosophy and environmental studies at the University of Oregon, will be moving to Penn State University in January 2017, where he will be professor of philosophy and director of the Rock Ethics Institute. (more…)
Ad Hoc (Daily Nous Philosophy Comics)
Ad Hoc
by Rachel Katler
The Job Insecurity of Philosophy Instructors: A Case Study
“I love being a professor. I have been a professor my whole life. I don’t know what I am going to do.” That’s Pamela Ryan, who has been a philosophy instructor at Morehead State University for 15 years. This past Friday she was called into the office of the Dean of the Caudill College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences at Morehead, M. Scott McBride, and told t..
De Warren from KU Leuven to Penn State
Nicolas De Warren, currently Research Professor of Philosophy at KU Leuven and and Director of its Center for Phenomenology and Continental Philosophy/Husserl Archives, will join the Department of Philosophy at Penn State as Associate Professor in August, 2017. Professor de Warren works in phenomenology, neo-Kantianism, and the impact of World War I on European phil..
Jan Boxill’s Side of the Story
In February of 2015, Jan Boxill resigned from her teaching professorship in the Philosophy Department at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, following allegations of her involvement in a massive, 18-year long period of academic fraud in which some student athletes were steered towards phony classes that never met and assigned papers that were graded—whe..
Online Philosophy Resources Weekly Update
Below are the past week’s updates to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (SEP), and Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews (NDPR). Nothing new at the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (IEP) or Wi-Phi last week, so we’ll throw in something else at the end… (more…)
Aristotle’s “On Trolling”
That trolling is a shameful thing, and that no one of sense would accept to be called ‘troll’, all are agreed; but what trolling is, and how many its species are, and whether there is an excellence of the troll, is unclear. And indeed trolling is said in many ways; for some call ‘troll’ anyone who is abusive on the internet, but this is only the disagreeable person,..