List of Shibboleth Names
The blog “454 W 23rd St New York, NY 10011-2157” provides a “list of shibboleth names”—mispronounced names of cultural VIPs “by which the privileged judge their inferiors.”
It reminded me of a conversation I had a long time ago with a rather distinguished professor of philosophy, in her office, that went something like this:
Me: So I was wondering if you could..
Networking and Merit in Philosophical Success
Critiquing the Philosophy Tag game, commenter “Aspasia,” a tenure-track professor, worries about it “perpetuating the status quo of getting somewhere by networking rather than on the basis of merit in philosophy.” Leave aside Philosophy Tag. Let’s look at the broader issue about the role of networking in philosophy. It crops up in a lot of places such as publishing ..
Irving Singer (1926-2015) (updated)
Irving Singer, professor emeritus of philosophy at MIT, has died. He had been at MIT since 1958. The following is from an obituary posted by MIT:
Singer was an eminent philosopher whose academic career spanned 65 years — with more than half a century as a professor at MIT. Singer was the author of 21 books in the field of humanistic philosophy, focusing on topic..
Update from Abbate on McAdams (updated)
Cheryl Abbate, the former Marquette University philosophy graduate student who had become the target of a smear campaign by associate professor of political science John McAdams, has responded to some of the claims being made in various articles since it was announced that Marquette is seeking to fire McAdams. She writes:
It should be noted that there are a numb..
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 Intellectual Costs of Misconduct (guest post)
The following is a guest post* from a woman graduate student in philosophy who wishes to remain anonymous.
Lately, I’ve been reflecting on the complicated ways issues of equity connect with intellectual and professional respect. On philosophy blogs there has been extensive discussion regarding the climate for women in philosophy, issues of sexual misconduct, ..
Philosophy Tag
In our previous edition of Philosophy Tag, my attempts to get Sarah Conly (Bowdoin) to tag someone’s article failed. She instead tagged someone’s book. Ok, fine. Michael Bishop (Florida State) had tagged her book, and I allowed it, so how could I deny her the opportunity to do the same? She tagged When The State Speaks, What Should It Say? by Corey Brettschneider (B..
Turing Manuscript to be Auctioned (updated)
Bonhams, an auction house, is selling an Alan Turing manuscript in New York on April 13th. From the Bonham’s site:
A key handwritten scientific document by Alan Turing, in which he works on the foundations of mathematical notation and computer science, is to be sold in the Fine Books & Manuscripts sale at Bonhams New York on 13 April. The manuscript is expected t..
APA Looking for Blog Editor (updated)
The American Philosophical Association (APA) will be starting a blog and is conducting a search for its editor:
Ha ha ha, APA. Thanks for the invitation.
According to an email from APA Executive Director Amy Ferrer:
The blog will give the APA a major presence in the blogosphere, while helping to serve the mission of the association and providing a forum..
Online Conferences: Pros, Cons, Tips
“I am about to be involved in organizing an online conference and I am interested in how the group mind of philosophy thinks about it,” writes a regular Daily Nous reader in an email. Reasons to make your conference an online conference? Reasons not to? Reports on how they’ve gone from both organizer and participant points of view? Technical suggestions? Organizing ..
Peter Menzies (1953-2015) (updated)
Peter Menzies, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy, Macquarie University, has died. Before his appointment at Macquarie, he held positions at the University of Sydney and Australia National University. He had also been a visiting scholar at several institutions, including MIT, Stanford, and Cambridge.
Huw Price and Philip Pettit write (over the PHILOS-L list):
Pe..
Thoughts on Academic Freedom
It seems to me we need some clarification of the idea of academic freedom, so I am throwing out these thoughts, rather tentatively, to get the ball rolling. I welcome discussion on this, though keep in mind this is a blog post and not an academic paper. Links to helpful resources as well as discussions elsewhere are also welcome. Ok, so here goes:
Academic freedo..
PhilWiki News
Shawn Miller (UC Davis) writes in with some news about the good work being done at PhilWiki:
- Benedict Eastaugh (Bristol) has created PhilMath.net, which is a wiki that tracks Ph.D. and terminal M.A. programs with strengths in the philosophy of mathematics. He has listed nearly 70 Ph.D. programs. His wiki joins Ted Shear’s Formal Epistemology wiki, Shawn Standefe..
Ludlow’s Lawsuit Against Northwestern Dismissed
Peter Ludlow’s legal claims against Northwestern University (previously), which included a Title IX claim, defamation and false light publicity claims, and a civil conspiracy claim, have all been dismissed, according to a ruling from Judge Sara L. Ellis of the US District Court (Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division). From the ruling:
Northwestern Unive..
Great Mishearings
Originally from here.
(from @rickburin on Twitter)
More on Innate Talent and Philosophy (updated)
Alison Gopnik (Berkeley) has written a piece for the Wall Street Journal about the study by Sarah Jane Leslie et al that we discussed last month on innate or “raw intellectual talent” and academia’s gender and race gaps. In her article, she writes, “From a scientific perspective, the very idea that something as complicated as philosophical success is the result of “..
Marquette Seeks to Fire McAdams
John McAdams, the Marquette University associate professor of political science who posted demonstrably false and damaging statements about philosophy graduate student Cheryl Abbate and her teaching on his blog (see here, here, and here), has been told that the university is starting the process to revoke his tenure and fire him.
The Dean of Marquette’s Klingler ..
Summer Programs for Philosophy Undergraduates
Here’s some information about two summer programs for undergraduates thinking about continuing their studies in philosophy. First, there’s the 2015 Summer Program for Women in Philosophy:
The Philosophy Department at the University of California, San Diego is pleased to announce a call for applications for the 2015 Summer Program for Women in Philosophy, which wi..
Posting About New Hires
I’ve received a couple of inquiries as to whether I’ll be hosting a thread for people to post hires, and the answer is no. Instead, please post your hiring news at the Appointments in Philosophy page at PhilJobs.
Hobbies of Philosophers: Meg Wallace
For the second installment of our Hobbies of Philosophers series, I talked with Meg Wallace (Kentucky). Meg works on metaphysics and philosophy of language, and her philosophy is super bad-ass. But today we are talking about her other life as an equally bad-ass aerialist. I spoke with Meg about what aerialism is all about, how she got involved with it, and how she c..
APA Solicits Code of Conduct Suggestions
Last year, the American Philosophical Association (APA) appointed a task force to determine whether a code of conduct for professional philosophers is warranted. The task force deliberated on the matter and concluded that yes, there should be such a code (previously).
Now, according to a post at the APA website, the task force is soliciting suggestions about what..
Guarding the Guardians (or Editors) (3 updates)
The reason your paper is listed as ‘editor assigned’ is that I’m going to review it myself.
In the wake of the recent discussion here about the editorial practices at philosophy journals, Jonathan Jenkins Ichikawa (UBC) recounts a story, set about five years ago, in which he submitted a paper to a journal with a policy of double-anonymous reviewing—Philosophic..
Philosophy as a Way of Life
Stoicism, of course, may not appeal to or work for everyone. It is a rather demanding philosophy of life, where your moral character is pretty much stipulated to be the only truly worthy thing to cultivate in life (though health, education, and even wealth are considered to be “preferred indifferents”). Then again, it does have a lot of points of contact with other ..
Banning the Guilty?
A philosophy professor who wishes to remain anonymous writes in with the following question:
If a member of the philosophical profession has been found to have violated his or her institution’s sexual harassment and/or sexual assault policies (especially more than once), should there be any restrictions on his or her future participation in professional events, s..
Yik Yak Yuck
Margaret Crouch, a philosophy professor at Eastern Michigan University, was team-teaching a large group of students with two other professors, while, unbeknownst to the three, many of the students were using the class time to post hostile and vulgar remarks about them via Yik Yak. (If you don’t know Yik Yak, think of it as a local anonymous twitter feed in which old..
Philosopher’s Index Upping Its Game
The Philosopher’s Index, an academic philosophy database available through the libraries of many universities and colleges, is rolling out a service that contains not merely abstracts (which it has long featured), but the full text of its indexed articles, according to a recent press release. Called “The Philosopher’s Index with Full Text,” it provides articles from..
For the Money
Graduates with philosophy degrees have “higher earnings potential than many other arts and humanities-related fields,” said TheRichest. Payscale reports midcareer median salaries are $84,000 for your modern day Kant or Descartes. Why? Well, let’s be logical. Which is exactly what philosophy programs require of students … logic. Thinking is hard, it requires analysis..
Why Are So Many Philosophers of Religion Theists?
72.8% of the 3226 philosophers who took the PhilPapers survey in 2009 said that they accept or lean towards atheism. Among philosophers of religion, though, 72.3% accept or lean towards theism. What explains this difference? Adriano Mannino considers the question in a post at the group blog Crucial Considerations. Of these figures, he writes:
On the face of it, t..