Professor Suspended for Photo of Daughter’s T-Shirt
This is a very different kind of Game of Thrones spoiler. Francis Schmidt, associate professor of art and animation at Bergen Community College in New Jersey, was suspended without pay for a photo he shared on Google+, where it was seen by several colleagues. The photo? A picture of his daughter wearing a Game of Thrones t-shirt with the words “I will take what is m..
Philosopher as Administrator
I believe it is good for academics to take a turn in administration. It helps them to see how institutions function, and to befriend the people in the offices; it helps them to gain a broader picture of how universities operate, and where they fail; it helps them as individuals work more efficiently, given firmer pressures on schedules. And I think it is good for th..
Jean Harvey (1955-2014)
Jean Harvey, a philosopher at the University of Guelph, has died. Harvey worked mainly in political philosophy, ethics, and feminist philosophy. There is a more detailed remembrance of her at Feminist Philosophers.
In Vino Veritas
Since it is inevitable that cheesy colleagues and well-meaning friends will be regularly bringing these to all future parties and dinners, let’s hope that they are good. Feel free to post your tasting notes.
One Amazing Fake Barn
A new kind of fake barn may be hard to spot. Not because it’s a fake, but because it’s sort of invisible. Of course it is located in Socrates Sculpture Park. Story here.
Markosian (Western Washington) Offered Senior Position at University of Illinois
The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has made a senior offer to Ned Markosian, currently professor of philosophy at Western Washington University. Markosian works in metaphysics.
100 Philosophers / 100 Artworks / 100 Words
What a great idea! Aesthetics for Birds has begun a series in which 100 philosophers will each discuss one work of art in 100 words.
More on the Stubblefield Sexual Assault Case
As reported yesterday, owing to accusations of repeatedly sexually molesting a man with cerebral-palsy, Anna Stubblefield has been placed on administrative leave without pay from her position as chair of the Department of Philosophy at Rutgers-Newark (Rafaella De Rosa is the acting chair of the department; Stubblefield does not appear on the list of faculty in the d..
Cognitive Decline and the Peak Age for Philosophy
Speaking of video games, Starcraft 2 is a “military science fiction real-time video game” that is used in at least one classroom to teach “critical thinking, problem solving, resource management, and adaptive decision making.” It also has been used by researchers at Simon Fraser University to demonstrate that “measurable declines in cognitive performance begin to oc..
Graphing the History of Philosophical Influences
To cut a long story very short I’ve extracted the information in the “influenced by” section for every philosopher on Wikipedia and used it to construct a network which I’ve then visualised.
The result is this incredible graph:
Its creator, Simon Raper, explains how he did it, and how you can do it, in an accompanying blog post.
Brendan Griffen ran with this ..
Five Years In Philosophy
Massimo Pigliucci, currently professor at CUNY and soon to be holder of the K.D. Irani Professorship in Philosophy there, takes the occasion of his 50th birthday to reflect on his first five years as a professor of philosophy (following 26 years as a biologist) and on the discipline as a whole, particularly the relationship between philosophy and science.
Recent Developments in the Colorado Stories
Inside Higher Ed has a fairly detailed article on recent developments on the goings-on in the department of philosophy at the University of Colorado, including the AAUP’s response to the release of the climate report by the APA’s Committee on the Status of Women, and the university’s treatment of philosopher Dan Kaufman.
Sexual Assault Charges Against Rutgers-Newark Philosophy Chair
Anna Stubblefield, the chair of the philosophy department at Rutgers-Newark, has been placed on administrative leave while she fights criminal charges that she repeatedly sexually assaulted a man with cerebral palsy over several years. One issue is whether the man was able to effectively consent. Details here.
Women of Philosophy
Women of Philosophy is a site “devoted to collecting information about women currently working in philosophy around the globe.” One goal of the site “is to make their work easily accessible so that the large number of women working in this profession will be recognized and appreciated.” If you are a woman working in philosophy, you can add yourself to the site’s dat..
More on the Lack of “Significant” Women Philosophers
Noah Berlatsky, writing in The Atlantic, responds to Charles Murray’s claim that there have been no significant women philosophers.
Advice for Grad Students and Other Conference Goers
The Pacific APA is in session and so it might be a good time to share this helpful post about good conference-going behavior (via Hannah Bondurant). From the intro:
I do… have something to say about the unwritten rules that accompany your forays into the Greater Academic World. Because when you attend conferences, colloquiums, workshops, or other group activities ..
Mental Illness in the Academy
Last month The Guardian published a couple of pieces on mental illness in academia. The first was a blog post on the “culture of acceptance” of mental health issues in academia (in which “acceptance” is meant to be understood as something like “neglect”). A follow-up article remarked on a study of 14,000 university employees that showed “growing stress levels among ..
A Philosophy Video Game
The makers of the video game, The Old City, say that it is “philosophically founded,” and this article about the game uses some version of the word “philosophy” about a dozen times. “Think of it like a Lewis and Clark diary to epistemology,” the lead designer says. Still, it is hard to get a grasp of what they are talking about, or whether they know what they are ta..
An “Oh, Yes!” for Continental Philosophy
Last month saw the opening of the Scottish Centre for Continental Philosophy at the University of Dundee. At their inaugural workshop, James Williams (Dundee) delivered a brief address entitled “Continental Philosophy? Oh, Yes!” In it, he describes the areas and topics he thinks are especially fertile ground for future work in continental philosophy, including econo..
More Millions for Mele
Alfred Mele (Florida State) has won another enormous grant from the Templeton Foundation, this time for $4.5 million, for his project on the philosophy and science of self-control. He had previously won, in 2010, an award for $4.4 million from Templeton for the study of free will.
Teaching Philosophy in Prisons
Currently over two million people in the United States are in prison, and about nine million worldwide. There are many questions worth asking about the systems of criminal justice that lead to that result. The focus of this post, though, is quite narrow. It concerns just one thing academic philosophers can do, as academic philosophers, in light of this: teach prison..
Accessing PhilPapers From Campus
PhilPapers announces that starting on July 1st, 2014, full access to the PhilPapers site from an institution of higher education will be by institutional subscription only. You will still be able to access the full site for free while off-campus, but if you want to access it all on campus you’ll need to get your library to subscribe. Given how long that could take, ..
Running Commentary
If there were a pill that could replicate all the benefits of running—heath, looks, even enjoyment—would you keep running? In my experience, the longer a person has been running, the more likely they are to answer ‘yes’: to say they would continue running. That is, I think, because running does something to you that is quite different from, and independent of, its h..
Is This Letter Addressed To You? Or you? Or you?
Dear Ambiguous Commentator,
Hi there. I don’t think we’ve met, but I appreciate your interest in the blog and I’m flattered that you have taken the time to share your thoughts. However, I read your comment and I am sorry to report that I won’t be publishing it. It’s not that I don’t want to hear from you, or that I don’t think your opinion matters. It’s just that I..
Philosopher Gets Google Doodle Treatment
The 888th birthday of Spanish Muslim philosopher Averroes (Ibn Rushd) is celebrated with a Google Doodle today, but not everywhere. Check out Google Spain to see it (today only).
New Report on Adjunct Faculty
A new study on contingent or adjunct faculty has been released. The New York Times comments on it, and then itself comes in for some criticism for being a little late with the news: “The issue isn’t that they’re ‘treated almost like transient workers’ but that they’reactually transient workers. “
The Philosopher-Politician Reflects
We all think we can teach politics, but there is some almost tragic sense in which it can only be learned… by the mistakes you make…. You can go to any number of lectures about what politics is like but it doesn’t survive contact with the enemy…. It’s not a seminar room. It’s not an exercise in persuasion…. Politics is an alternative to war, but you live it ..
What Is Philosophical Progress?
Writing in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Rebecca Newberger Goldstein (previously) argues that philosophy is making progress, and argues for a particular conception of what philosophical progress is: increased coherence.