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..
The Mechanics of Your Research Production
There are many little everyday steps leading up to the production of a philosophical manuscript. Charles Rathkopf (CUNY) writes in asking philosophers about “the daily habits of routine research.”
Do they take notes on paper, then transfer to a computer? Does anyone still try to write anything substantial with pen and paper? What bibliographic system is best? Do ..
Today is National Adjunct Walkout Day
Today is National Adjunct Walkout Day (NAWD). There was some discussion of this here last week. Some information about the day and planned activities is at this Tumblr site, as well as on Facebook. The Chronicle of Higher Education interviews Ellen Schrecker (Yeshiva University), whose research includes academic labor and the broader labor movement, about the day. T..
Do Not “Do Not Cite or Circulate”
Lee Anne Fennell, a professor at the University of Chicago Law School, has written a short and amusing paper entitled “Do Not Cite or Circulate.” It’s directed at legal academics, but applies just as well to philosophers. From the opening paragraph:
Law professors, who are generally quite enamored of their own words and not especially reluctant to toss around the..
Philosophy and Depression
In the wake of Peter Railton’s Dewey Lecture, I have been asked to create a space on Daily Nous for philosophers to share their experiences of depression and other forms of mental illness. Discussion of the personal and professional challenges confronting those afflicted by these conditions, ways in which the behavior of others affected your experiences in this rega..
College Credit Philosophy Courses for High School Students
The Alexis de Tocqueville Project in Law, Liberty, and Morality at the University of New Orleans has been offering free for-credit college philosophy courses to local high school students. It sounds great. Chris Surprenant, assistant professor of philosophy at UNO and director of the Tocqueville Project, shared some information about the course:
The overarching f..
Peter Railton’s Dewey Lecture (updated)
A number of people have remarked (here and elsewhere) on the Dewey Lecture delivered by Peter Railton (Michigan) at the American Philosophical Association’s Central Division Meeting this past week. Professor Railton has been kind enough to provide me with a copy of the lecture, which he emphasizes is a draft. I have posted it here (UPDATE 2/27/15: this is a link to..
Recruitment Weekend & Department Climate
Many graduate programs set aside a time for all prospective students to visit and learn about their departments and universities. Lauren Leydon-Hardy, a philosophy graduate student at Northwestern University, writes in with some information about one aspect of their “recruitment weekend”:
When I visited Northwestern as a prospective student in 2011, I used an opp..
Keith Donnellan (1931-2015)
Keith Donnellan, professor emeritus in the philosophy department at UCLA, has died. Donnellan was known for his work in philosophy of language, particularly on definite descriptors. I will post links to obituaries as they appear.
Can We Save Philosophy? (Guest Post by Robert Kirkman) (updated)
The following is a guest post* by Robert Kirkman, associate professor in the School of Public Policy at Georgia Tech and director of its Center for Ethics and Technology, in which he takes up the problem of academic philosophy’s seeming irrelevance to others both inside and outside of academia.
Can We Save Philosophy?
by Robert Kirkman
I write this from the ..
What’s Going On at the Central?
The Central Division meeting of the American Philosophical Association is underway. Let’s hear about it.
Hanti Lin’s “Doing a PhD and Getting a Job in Philosophy”
Check out “Hanti’s Notes on Doing a PhD and Getting a Job in Philosophy” by Hanti Lin, assistant professor of philosophy at UC Davis. It has a lot of good advice. Of particular value is the “When to do what?” section. Also, I appreciate the “Health maintenance” section, the issues under which do not get discussed as frequently as they should. Throughout the guide, L..
Is this video a test of your rationality or your humanity or what?
Boston Dynamics builds robots. Here’s a video of “Spot,” their robotic dog. Watch until at least the 10-second mark.
Is it wrong to kick the dog? What can we learn from our reactions to this video?
An article here reports on the reactions of others.
Philosophical Non-Academic Jobs
A graduate student writes in asking for suggestions of “careers that might be especially ‘philosophy friendly’. By that I mean careers that either have employers who typically value the skills developed and areas of research explored in the study of philosophy or allow someone who studied philosophy to do something semi-related they might enjoy.”
He adds, “I’m th..
“Motivational” Posters from Philosophers
Flavorwire posts a set of (de)motivational posters featuring quotes “from your favorite depressing philosophers.” Philosophers, I think we can do better. My attempts:
These were pretty easy to make by modifying this blank version of the stereotypical corporate motivational poster, but afterwards (of course) I noticed what looks like an even easier met..
Arizona’s Freedom Center Wins $2.9m Grant
The John Templeton Foundation has awarded a $2.9 million grant to the University of Arizona’s Center for the Philosophy of Freedom, which is directed by David Schmidtz.
According to press release from the university:
The gift to the center, part of the UA’s College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, will be used to help the center to collaborate with the colle..
Adjunct Walkout Day: What are you doing?
Adjuncts sometimes say they make up higher education’s invisible class. So an idea pitched on social media a few months ago struck a chord: What would happen if adjuncts across the country turned that invisibility on its head by all walking out on the same day? National Adjunct Walkout Day, proposed for Feb. 25, immediately gained support, and adjuncts continue to u..
Invite-Only and Cliquey Conferences
In the discussion of the “Networking and Merit” post last week there were a number of comments (including a few that did not get approved) about conferences that are invitation-only or appear to be cliquey, accepting mainly friends of the organizers or those closely connected to them.
Our standards for good journals involve anonymous review, as our recent “journ..