The Lost Women of Modern Philosophy
A new website aims to provide comprehensive information about women philosophers from the modern era (roughly 1600-1800). Called Project Vox, “the website will be the virtual hub for an international network of scholars to work together in expanding our research and teaching beyond the traditional philosophical ‘canon’ and beyond traditional narratives of modern phi..
Children and the Flexibility of the Job
Professors generally enjoy quite a bit of flexibility regarding when they are on campus or in their office. This flexibility—and the expectation that professors aren’t around all the time—is one of the perks of the job, but what are the limits of the appropriate use of this flexibility? The question is prompted by the following query (by a philosophy professor a..
Promotions 2014-15
It’s that time of the year when many colleges and universities are beginning to announce who has received promotion to associate or full professor, or to a named chair or other special position. If you have received a promotion during the 2014-2015 year, or you are in a position to make announcements about who in your department has done so, please list that informa..
Credit Where Credit is Due
The Campaign for Better Citation and Credit-Giving Practices is a new site aimed at “providing a forum for individuals in academic philosophy to bring to light general instances of work not receiving due credit or citations.” It offers a forum in which to “(A) argue that particular works or authors have been unfairly neglected (i.e. not adequately cited or otherwise..
Daily Nous Turns One
Tomorrow, March 7th, Daily Nous will be one year old. I’m putting this up today as I hope to spend most of tomorrow away from the computer.
“How are things going?” you probably aren’t wondering. I’ll just pretend you asked.
Well, it’s a lot of work, but the site is doing really well. Thanks for asking. And thanks for reading, thanks for taking part in the disc..
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..
Jan Boxill Resigns
Jan Boxill has resigned from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, effective February 28th, 2015. Dr. Boxill, who had been implicated in an academic fraud scheme largely involving student athletes at the school, and whose appointment the university had initiated steps to terminate, had been a teaching professor in the department of philosophy, director of..
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..
Georg Kreisel (1923-2015)
Georg Kreisel, known for his work in philosophy of math, has died. Prior to his retirement in 1985, Kreisel held appointments at Stanford, the University of Paris, the University of Reading, and the Institute for Advanced Study. He was a student of Wittgenstein, who is reported to have said that Kreisel was the “most able philosopher he had ever met who was also a m..
Live Twitter Chat w/ Timothy Williamson
Timothy Williamson’s new book, Tetralogue: I’m Right, You’re Wrong, is a philosophical conversation that takes place on a train between four characters. As Catarina Dutilh Novaes describes in her review of the book in Times Higher Education:
We meet Bob, who represents those who subscribe to “ancestral” modes of thinking, including superstition, belief in witchcr..
“How could someone be so devastatingly exacting and kind?”
If your father is a philosopher, then you should expect to lose many arguments. You will never lose “because life isn’t fair,” or because your dad “says so.” You will always lose on strict logical grounds… If your father is a philosopher, your premises must support your conclusion. Then, maybe once or twice in a childhood filled with lost arguments, you will win. ..
Hilail Gildin (1928-2015)
Hilail Gildin, professor of philosophy at Queens College, has died. Gilden worked in political philosophy, publishing books on Mill, Spinoza, and Rousseau. He was one of the founders, with his teacher, Leo Strauss, of Interpretation: A Journal of Political Philosophy, and served as its editor-in-chief. (via Moti Mizrahi)
Freiburg Ditches “Heidegger” Chair (2 updates)
The University of Freiburg, the academic home of Günter Figal—who recently stepped down from the leadership of the Martin Heidegger Society in the wake of the publication of Heidegger’s Black Notebooks—has decided to convert the faculty chair long dedicated to the Heideggerian tradition to one dedicated to philosophy of language. It has also downgraded the line ..
Creativity and Criticism (guest post by Patricia Marino)
Patricia Marino is associate professor of philosophy at the University of Waterloo. She works in ethics, epistemology, the philosophy of sex and love, and the philosophy of economics. She also has a blog, The Kramer is Now, full of amusing and insightful thoughts about philosophy, culture, economics, politics, and various aspects of life. Below is a guest post* by h..
Research Advice for Non-Native English Speaking Philosophers
A graduate student in philosophy asks:
I really enjoyed the daily habits of routine research post. I am wondering if you could open up a new discussion that addresses the related issues with regards to philosophers who use English as their second language. In my own experiences, doing research in a non-native language often comes with unique challenges that call ..
The Prime Directive & Microbes
In the world of Star Trek, a rule called the “prime directive” prohibits our heroes from interfering in the development of alien cultures. I don’t think they had in mind the kind of “cultures” that could be grown in a Petri dish, but, as it turns out, NASA has predicted that we will find extraterrestrial life within the next 20 years, and that the life in question w..
Shafer-Landau from Wisconsin to UNC (updated)
Russ Shafer-Landau, currently professor of philosophy and chair of the philosophy department at the University of Wisconsin, has accepted an offer from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Starting this summer, he will be professor of philosophy there and director of UNC’s Parr Center for Ethics. Shafer-Landau is known for his work in metaethics.
UPDA..
TAs at York and Toronto Strike
Approximately 6000 teaching assistants (TAs) at the University of Toronto are currently on strike, and around 3700 TAs and adjuncts at York University, also in Toronto, just last night voted to go on strike. The main concerns appear to be pay and job stability for the adjuncts. An article in The Star has more details. The Canadian Union of Public Employees is repres..
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..
Dan Kaufman’s Lawsuit Against CU-Boulder is Filed
After filing four notices of claim last August, Dan Kaufman has now officially filed his lawsuit against CU-Boulder, “alleging the school both discriminated and retaliated against him because he has a disability.”
From an article in the Daily Camera:
Kaufman alleges that by kicking him off campus and taking other actions against him, CU violated his rights und..
New APA Travel Fund for Philosophers of Color (updated)
The American Philosophical Association (APA) has announced that it is creating a travel fund for philosophers of color. According an APA press release, the fund is aimed at supporting “philosophers of color who would otherwise find it challenging to participate in APA divisional meetngs and other APA-sponsored conferences. The fund is supported exclusively by donati..
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 Don’t Read and Cite Enough (guest post by Marcus Arvan)
The following guest post* is by Marcus Arvan (Tampa). Marcus runs The Philosophers’ Cocoon, a helpful blog aimed at early-career philosophers. Last week saw the posting of a report on philosophers’ citation practices by Kieran Healy. Marcus has written on this topic a few times over the years at The Philosophers’ Cocoon (the latest is here), and so I asked him if he..
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..
A Case for Clarity
This stark opposition between analytic clarity and continental obscurity must be qualified. Certainly, analytic philosophers tend to see clarity as a virtue. Yet the very concern to be clear can lead to the creation of precise definitions and fine distinctions marked with technical terms. Especially but not only when logical formalization is used, the resulting writ..
Campus Visit Horror Stories
It’s that time of the year when the interview season for tenure-track jobs is drawing to a close, most of the campus visits are done, and offers are being made (don’t forget to post hires at Appointments in Philosophy), so there should be a fresh crop of amusing or awful or cringe-worthy stories for candidates to share about their experiences visiting campuses, alon..
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..
Grad Programs and Non-Academic Careers
How should graduate programs address the fact that some of their graduates will not find jobs in academia? There was a brief discussion of this here back in the early days of DN, but I am prompted by a reader to revisit the question. He writes:
My department has a terminal MA program. By admitting students into this program, one of the responsibilities that we ta..