Philosopher to Sue NYC Police for 4th Amendment Violation
Damion Scott, a PhD student in philosophy at SUNY Stony Brook and an adjunct professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, claims his Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable searches was violated, as was a city code against racial-profiling, by two New York City police officers, according to an article in The New York Times (via Shelley Tremain at Discr..
Bias, Subjectivity, and Superficiality in Philosophy
The philosophy profession in the United States is overwhelmingly male and white. What explains this? In an essay in The Los Angeles Times, Myisha Cherry (UI Chicago) and Eric Schwitzgebel (UC Riverside) offer an explanation:
One of the main causes of homogeneity in philosophy, we believe, is subjectivity and bias in the evaluation of philosophical quality.
They ..
Fricker from Sheffield to CUNY
Miranda Fricker, currently professor of philosophy at University of Sheffield, will be taking up a full-time senior position at CUNY Graduate Center this September. Professor Fricker works in social epistemology, ethics, and feminist philosophy. She will maintain an affiliation at Sheffield, where she is co-investigator on a European funded research project into epi..
Crispin Sartwell Removed from Dickinson Campus (updated with responses from Nehamas and Zagzebski)
Crispin Sartwell, associate professor of philosophy at Dickinson College, reports today that he has been “removed from campus” for posting a video of Miranda Lambert’s song, “Time to Get a Gun.”
Over the past several days, Professor Sartwell had launched accusations at his blog that his work had been plagiarized or at least had gone wrongfully uncited by Alexande..
Central APA Open Thread
The Central Division Meeting of the American Philosophical Association (APA) is taking place in Chicago. Are you there? Consider this an open space for comments, reports, news, feedback, etc., about the meeting.
Philosopher’s Guide to Bookstores
Is the best Manhattan bookstore for Nietzsche lovers East Village Books (slogan: so hardcore a bookstore that our website doesn’t work)? That’s what Stephanie Kotsikonas, a journalism student at CUNY reports in a post at her class blog, Journalistic Blogging, along with information about other bookstores in Manhattan with good philosophy sections. (UPDATE: the post ..
Philosophy Tag
Hey, remember Philosophy Tag? It died down in the middle of last year—it’s okay, things happen—but I think it’s a good way to draw attention to interesting or useful philosophical work, so I am reviving it.
For those who don’t recall, here is how it works. Like any game of tag, there’s an it. When you’re it, you have two weeks to do the following: choose an ..
To φ Or Not To φ (Daily Nous Philosophy Comics)
To φ Or Not To φ
by Tanya Kostochka
Talking Philosophy With Your Kids
Philosopher parents: how, if at all, do you talk philosophy with you own children?
I don’t give my children philosophy lessons, nor do we celebrate Socrates’ birthday. There may be a few more books of logic puzzles laying around the house than average, along with many of the children’s books listed here, but I don’t force philosophy on the kids. If the opportunit..
Thanks to This Month’s Advertisers
Daily Nous thanks March’s advertisers. See the ads in right side bar for:
- The Public Discourse Project at the University of Connecticut’s Humanities Institute
- Academic Cross-Training Fellowships at the John Templeton Foundation
- The George Washington University’s Masters Programs in Philosophy
- Eidyn, the Edinburgh Centre for Epistemology, Mind, and Normativ..
Analysis Announces New Editors
Via Ben Colburn (Glasgow):
The Analysis Committee is delighted to announce the new editors of Analysis:
Joint editors: Chris Daly and David Liggins (University of Manchester).
Associate editors:
Sara J. Bernstein (Duke University)
Stephanie Collins (University of Manchester)
Jason Decker (Carleton College)
Debbie Roberts (University of Edinburgh)
Pr..
“Bunny-Drowning” University President Resigns
Simon Newman resigned from his position as president of Mount St. Mary’s University this afternoon, according to a message posted on the university’s website. Newman, you may recall, demoted two philosophers from their administrative posts and tried to fire both a tenured associate professor of philosophy, Thane Naberhaus, and an untenured communications professor, ..
Phones, Minds, States, and Corporations
Matthew Noah Smith (Leeds) has an article at Slate bringing together philosophy of mind and political philosophy to discuss the United States government’s attempts to get Apple to “unlock” the iPhone of a shooting suspect. It’s a great example of public philosophy. Professor Smith lays out the basics of extended cognition in clear but not oversimplified language, go..
Altmetrics in Philosophy
An article on assessing faculty activities in The Chronicle of Higher Education (mainly on the controversy concerning the services of Academic Analytics) notes the question of how schools should calculate and weigh the impact of academics’ research in the news, online contexts and social media:
Some say the next faculty-productivity battlefield might be altmetric..
Jon Altschul (2016)
Jon Alstchul, associate professor of philosophy at Loyola University New Orleans, has died. Professor Altschul worked mainly in epistemology and philosophy of mind, and received his Ph.D. from University of California, Santa Barbara, in 2009. A brief article in Loyola’s newpaper, The Maroon, reports university president Kevin Wildes saying, “All who knew Jon remembe..
José Benardete (1928-2016) (updated)
José Benardete, professor emeritus of philosophy at Syracuse University, has died. The author of three books—the latest was Greatness of Soul: In Hume, Aristotle and Hobbes, As Shadowed by Milton’s Satan (Cambridge)—Professor Benardete was known for his work in metaphysics and, I am told, his dedication to a philosophical life. For years, numerous interesting a..
Needed: A Philosophy Cheat Sheet for Scientists
What is the name of the phenomenon by which someone who is an acknowledged expert in one area is led to be overconfident about his or her knowledge in other areas? It’s a specific version of illusory superiority, and it may be related to the Dunning-Kruger effect (a product of the correlation of overconfidence and lack of skill), but I’m wondering if it has its own ..
Philosophers in Fictional Works
James Andow (Reading) has been compiling a list of philosophers in fiction, including novels, films, plays, etc. He says:
For no reason in particular, I thought it would be nice to have a list of fictional works in which one of the main characters is an academic philosopher. The rules are somewhat arbitrary. I am prepared to be flexible as to what counts as ficti..
Departmental Alumni Pages
Does your philosophy department have an alumni page on its website? I’m not referring to a page limited to PhD placements, but rather one that includes bachelors and masters degree holders. It’s a great way to advertise the value of studying philosophy to prospective majors and graduate students, and to help them gain a sense of the career possibilities open to them..
Philosophy: Top Paid Humanities Major of 2016
Philosophy majors are predicted to have higher average starting salaries than graduates in any other humanities major, reports the National Association of Colleges and Employers in its 2016 Salary Survey:
Philosophy majors are projected to earn an average starting salary of $49,000 (See Figure 1). This is up from last year, when projected salaries for philosophy ..
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Philosophers (Ought Experiment)
Welcome back to Ought Experiment! This week’s question is from a grad student looking for advice on the habits that make one a better philosopher. After googling “how to be a better philosopher”, I’m prepared to fake my way through a half-decent answer:
Dear Louie,
I’m curious about what habits philosophers have cultivated that are specifically geared at being..
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 greater knowledge of the individual empirical sciences plus the attempt to use them in approaching philosophical problems
- Much greater knowledge and use of formal sciences such as math, logic, formal semantic..
Mind Chunks (Daily Nous Philosophy Comics)
Mind Chunks
by Pete Mandik
Philosophy Talk Wins Templeton for “Philosophical Guide to the Cosmos”
John Perry and Ken Taylor, professors of philosophy at Stanford University and hosts of the radio program Philosophy Talk, have won a grant from the John Templeton Foundation to produce an eight-episode series called “A Philosophical Guide to the Cosmos.”
The series seems motivated by recent dismissals of philosophy by well-known scientists (see, for example here..
Interdisciplinarity “Takes Hard Work”
Don Howard (Notre Dame) has a post up at his Science Matters blog called “On the Pseudoproblem of Interdisciplinarity.” It begins by recounting some of the familiar complaints about the obstacles to interdisciplinary work that he has heard over the years:
From the beginning of my life in the academy, back in the 1960s, I have heard again, and again, and again the..
$1 Million Philosophy Prize: Nominations Open
The Berggruen Institute’s Philosophy and Culture Center (previously) is now accepting nominations for its one million dollar philosophy prize, to be awarded to “a living thinker whose ideas have deeply influenced society and our way of life.” The prize is “intended as a life time achievement award for a modern day Socrates.” Nominations are due by May 31st, 2016, a..
A Movement Against For-Profit Journals
Is there a burgeoning movement in philosophy to avoid for-profit journals?
A professor of philosophy writes:
I’ve now met over twenty-five junior and/or rising senior (e.g., assistant to early associate) faculty around the globe who are adopting a new policy towards journal refereeing. I don’t know whether there’s some sort of “movement” along these lines, but..
Tyron Goldschmidt Has Written Nothing To Deserve A Drink
…so make sure you buy him one next time you see him. Goldschmidt, a visiting assistant professor of philosophy at Wake Forest University, has just published, in Dialectica, “A Demonstration of the Causal Power of Absences.” I’ve taken the liberty of reproducing the article in whole, below, to save folks who lack institutional access to Dialectica the $38 PDF downl..