Daily Nous

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:
..

Students Object to Philosophy Prof’s Facebook Post About Gaza

Andrew Pessin, professor of philosophy at Connecticut College, is at the center of a controversy at Connecticut College regarding offensive speech for a Facebook post he wrote in August, 2014. In the post, reports Inside Higher Ed,

Pessin describes the situation in Gaza as one in which “a rabid pit bull is chained in a cage, regularly making mass efforts to escap..

Grant Ramsey from Notre Dame to KU Leuven

Grant Ramsey, currently Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame, will become BOFZAP Research Professor in the Institute of Philosophy at KU Leuven, starting July 2016. Professor Ramsey works in philosophy of biology and philosophy of science, and runs the Ramsey Philosophy of Biology Lab, which, according to its website, “..

Recent APA Prize Winners Announced

The American Philosophical Association (APA) has announced the winners of several competitions. First up are the winners of the 2013 Public Philosophy Op-Ed Contest, which were awarded at the 2014 Eastern APA meeting:

Dale Jamieson (NYU)
“The Right’s New Climate Change Lie”
Salon

Todd May (Clemson)
“The Weight of the Past”
The Stone

Jennifer Morton (City College)..

Philosophy’s Disunity as Cover for Its Problems

The nature of philosophy is to blame for philosophy’s woman problem, says Zachary Ernst, who left his position as tenured associate professor of philosophy at University of Missouri to work in the private sector, and who occasionally writes about academia and philosophy at his blog, Inklings. But it isn’t what you think. Ernst isn’t blaming philosophy’s combativenes..

Scary Ideas (updated)

People ought to go to college to sharpen their wits and broaden their field of vision. Shield them from unfamiliar ideas, and they’ll never learn the discipline of seeing the world as other people see it. They’ll be unprepared for the social and intellectual headwinds that will hit them as soon as they step off the campuses whose climates they have so carefully cont..

Philosophy, Real People, and the Real World

What are the boundaries of philosophy? Why are they there and what is their nature? How do such boundaries structure the way philosophers approach understanding people, events, relationships, institutions, and so on? A few recent pieces around the Internet explore versions of these questions.

Justin E.H. Smith (Université Paris Diderot) argues at Berfrois that th..

Is Phenomenology Philosophically Unproductive?

Recently, AskPhilosophers received the following question:

Why is so little phenomenology taught and researched in North American philosophy departments? Because it studies the essence of consciousness is it too continental for your analytic minds? Why must philosophy be categorized so strictly?

Jonathan Westphal (Hampshire College) responded:

I think the a..

New Way Trolley Problem Shows We’re Awful

Tiffany Sun, a student at Rosyln High School in New York, was one of 40 finalists in the 2015 Intel Science Talent Search with an experimental philosophy project on the Trolley Problem. That’s the good news. The bad news? What she learned. From an article at Cogito.org:

Tiffany said the first step to conducting her research was coming up with experimental stimuli..

Schliesser Offered Chair at Amsterdam

Eric Schliesser, currently Research Professor in Philosophy and Moral Sciences at Ghent University, has been offered a Chair in Political Theory in the Political Science department at the University of Amsterdam. He reports that he “will almost certainly accept.” Profesor Schliesser works mainly in the history of modern philosophy and philosophy of economics. He als..

New Hires at Ohio State

Tristram McPherson, currently in the Department of Philosophy at Virginia Tech, will be taking up a position as associate professor of philosophy at The Ohio State University starting in September, 2015. Professor McPherson works in ethics and meta-ethics. The university is also hiring Amy Shuster, currently in the Department of Political Science at Virginia Tech, a..

From Ordinary Vandalism to the Philosophical (updated)

By now many of you have heard that Kant’s house was spray-painted with the words meaning something like “Kant is an idiot” (the BBC reports that it says “Kant’s a sucker”). The Moscow Times informs us that Kant’s home, in what was known as Prussia but is now Kalingrad, Russia, “is in ruins and has become a hot spot for drinking and debauchery among local youths.”

How to Review Book Manuscripts

An assistant professor writes in with the following query:

I’ve been asked recently to review some books for major presses, which is great and I love doing it (free books!) But I have no idea how to do it and they really give no guidelines. They just say something like, “tell me what you think.” Obviously I have all sorts of thoughts, and I’d really like to know ..

Women in Philosophy: A Case for Optimism

Clara Fisher, Newton International Fellow at the Gender Institute at London School of Economics, makes “the case for a tentatively optimistic reading of women’s contemporary place in philosophy” in an article in the Dublin Review of Books. She writes:

On the one hand, structural inequalities, such as women’s representation and inclusion, seem utterly entrenched, ..

APA / BPA Journal Surveys

Last year, the American Philosophical Association (APA) and the British Philosophical Association (BPA) teamed up to conduct a survey of philosophy journals, and the results are now in. 43 journals were surveyed on submission and acceptance rates, review process, and the percentages of papers submitted and accepted that were written by women and members of minority ..

Gender Discrimination Alleged at Sam Houston (updated)

Diana Buccafurni-Huber, assistant professor of philosophy at Sam Houston State University in Texas, has accused her department chair, Frank Fair, of intimidation and retaliation, resulting in her being denied tenure. From The Houstonian:

An untenured philosophy professor claimed gender discrimination against her department at a recent Board of Regents meeting. As..

Philosopher’s Annual Suggestions

The nominating editors of Philosopher’s Annual, which takes as its goal “to select the ten best articles published in philosophy each year—an attempt as simple to state as it is admittedly impossible to fulfill”, are busy making their selections for 2014. This is hard work! How many philosophy articles are published in journals and edited collections in a given year..

Philosophy, Disability, and Chronic Illnesses

Several weeks back Daily Nous had a post which served as a space for philosophers to discuss their experiences of depression and mental illness. At the time, I was asked by several people to do a like post for disability and chronic illnesses. Here it is. Discussion of the personal and professional challenges confronting those with disabilities and chronic illnesse..

How Much Do Philosophers Earn?

The College and University Professional Association for Human Resources has released the results of its annual survey of faculty salaries. The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that

For the second consecutive year, salary increases for professors at public colleges outpaced those of their peers at private institutions: Their salaries rose by 2.1 percent and 2..

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..

Brian Barry Literary Archive

There is a new site dedicated to archiving the writings of and about the late, great, political philosopher Brian Barry. The Brian Barry Literary Archive, as it is called, is still in development, but already contains some of his unpublished work (books and articles), links to obituaries, and a brief biographical note. There are plans to include on the site a comple..

Let’s Nominate a Philosopher (updated)

The National Endowment for the Humanities is now accepting nominations for the National Humanities Medal, which “honors individuals and organizations whose work has deepened our nation’s understanding of and engagement with history, literature, languages, philosophy, and other humanities subjects.” This particular prize, which goes to up to twelve people each year, ..

Dismissal of Undergrad’s Suit Against Northwestern Upheld

The February 2014 lawsuit filed by a Northwestern University undergraduate claiming that the university “didn’t respond adequately after she reported being sexually assaulted by philosophy Prof. Peter Ludlow,” dismissed in November, had its dismissal upheld this past Thursday in response to a motion by the undergraduate to reconsider the decision. The Daily Northwe..

Karyn Freedman Wins Non-Fiction Award

Karyn Freedman, associate professor of philosophy at the University of Guelph, has won the 2015 British Columbia National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction for her book, One Hour in Paris: A True Story of Rape and Recovery. The award includes a C$40,000 prize. The prize jury said:

Karyn L. Freedman’s One Hour In Paris is a book about rape, but, more than that, it’s ..

Joseph Heath (Toronto) has been awarded the 2014 Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing for his book, Enlightenment 2.0: Restoring Sanity to Our Politics, Our Economy, and Our Lives. The prize, which includes C$25,000, is awarded by the Writers’ Trust of Canada

for a book of literary nonfiction that captures a political subject of relevance to Canadian rea..

Ludlow’s Defamation Suit Dismissed

Judge John P. Callahan of the Cook County, Illinois Circuit Court has dismissed Peter Ludlow’s defamation lawsuit against a Northwestern University undergraduate who had accused him of sexual assault (previously; related material here). Ludlow’s lawsuit claimed that “the student knowingly made false statements to news media and Northwestern professors after rebuffe..