Daily Nous - news for & about the philosophy profession

Outrageous Firing of 8 Seminary Faculty (updated)

Eight of the ten full-time faculty teaching at General Theological Seminary, an Episcopal Seminary in Manhattan, have been fired after detailing the highly objectionable behavior of their newly installed Dean/President Kurt Dunkle in a letter to the school’s Board of Trustees. Here are some of their complaints against Dunkle:

“On numerous occasions, he has told t..

Advertising Exploitative Positions

Derek Bowman, a recent philosophy PhD who is currently employed as a part-time lecturer, writes in with a suggestion for addressing the increasingly prevalent practice of hiring part-time or adjunct faculty to meet teaching needs. I present it here for your consideration and discussion.

In recent years, the philosophy blogosphere has done an admirable job mak..

U. of Southern Maine Cuts Affect Philosophy

The University of Maine has announced that it will be eliminating 50 faculty positions and 100 staff positions and restructuring its academic departments so as to make up for a $16 million deficit. Inside Higher Ed reports: “The English, philosophy and history departments would be combined into a single humanities department, Provost Joseph W. McDonnell said in an e..

Sheffield Will Not Cooperate with PGR

The Department of Philosophy at the University of Sheffield has made the following announcement: “Prospective postgraduates should note that the Department is not supplying updates and corrections to the 2014 Philosophy Gourmet Report, and should not assume that this report is based on accurate information.”

Telling Your Students Your Beliefs

Adam See (Brooklyn College) wrote a letter to his philosophy students at the end of the past semester. It begins:

Dear students,
I am no longer your professor. Throughout the semester many of you have asked me what my personal beliefs are on the topics we’ve discussed. As I understand it, the reason that professors are reluctant to discuss their own beliefs come..

How Much Should Graduate Students Publish?

A current graduate student writes in with this sense of what is expected nowadays:

I’m under the general impression that I need to get as many publications in top journals as I can before I go on the job market. Considering how slow this process can be, and the fact that you can’t concurrently submit the same paper to more than one journal, it follows that I need t..

M.A.D. Philosophy: Consensual Incest (Updated)

M.A.D. Philosophy is a new occasional series here at Daily Nous that highlights philosophical work that Makes A Difference to what is going on in the so-called “real world.” If you have a suggestion for this series (self-nominations are welcome), please send it along to [email protected] for a later installment.

First in the series is “The Ethics of I..

Cosmopolitanism and Diversity in Philosophy

“The reason why most Anglo-American philosophers don’t worry about learning non-Western philosophy is that they assume cosmopolitanism is an ideal developed by Western philosophy. This assumption can create an amazing amount of institutional inertia. Western philosophers assume that the tradition of Plato and Spinoza and Russell just is the cosmopolitan tradition, a..

Sci-Phi Faves (Updated)

Eric Schwitzgebel thinks that science fiction and speculative fiction more broadly is “a powerful philosophical tool.” He has been soliciting suggestions of philosophical science fiction from other philosophers this week at The Splintered Mind and you can view the results here and here.

Sort of related (to this and the big story of late).

UPDATE (10/6/14): Mor..

Leiter Responds: Immediate Departure “Unacceptable” (updated)

Brian Leiter has declared that the two of three options presented by the majority of the Philosophical Gourmet Report’s board members which included requests that he step down immediately are “unacceptable.” He explains that he has already put in a significant amount of work towards the production of the 2014 edition of the PGR so he as “at least co-edited” it. He a..

$The PGR’s Technical Problems (updated)$

The PGR’s Technical Problems (updated)

Several recent posts here have discussed questions regarding the leadership of the Philosophical Gourmet Report (PGR), the best known ranking of philosophy graduate programs, with some discussion of what an alternative to the PGR might look like. In the meanwhile, discussions continue between the creator and current editor of the PGR, Brian Leiter (Chicago), and rep..

New Journal In Need of Submissions

I’ve received word of a new generalist philosophy journal that is in need of submissions: Proceedings of the Society of Drinking a Lot of Cough Syrup. You can see what kind of stuff they’re interested in from the abstracts on this page. From one of them: “Physics doesn’t care about location in constitution space. Don’t worry about it; physics doesn’t care about you ..

Open Letter to Professional Philosophical Associations (Guest Post by Alan Richardson)

Alan Richardson is professor of philosophy at the University of British Columbia. He works mainly in the history of philosophy of science and analytic philosophy. He has written an open letter to the leadership of the American Philosophical Association, the Canadian Philosophical Association, the British Philosophical Association, and the Australian Association of P..

Change the Face of Philosophy — Right Now

Philosophy in an Inclusive Key Summer Institute (PIKSI) is a weeklong summer school that brings undergraduates from underrepresented groups into graduate school for philosophy. It has been operating for nine years, in part with funding from the American Philosophical Association. That funding is no longer assured, and so PIKSI needs your help. Its organizers are run..

Nottingham Pulls Out of PGR (see 2nd Update from Nottingham)

The Department of Philosophy at the University of Nottingham has issued a statement asking to not be included in the Philosophical Gourmet Report while Brian Leiter has a leading or advisory role in it. Here is the statement:

We are concerned, as a department, about the recent behaviour of Professor Brian Leiter, editor of the Philosophical Gourmet Report, towa..

New Huge History of Philosophy Chart

Former philosophy student Merrill Cook has created an enormous and well-designed chart of the history of philosophy. The above is just an excerpt. For the whole thing, go here.

Duke Philosophers Receive $1.8m Grant

Felipe De Brigard and Walter Sinnott-Armstrong, both at Duke University, have received a $1.8 million dollar grant from the John Templeton Foundation to conduct yearly Summer Seminars in Neuroscience and Philosophy (SSNAP) starting in May, 2016. Each SSNAP will be a 15 day long seminar in which neuroscientists and philosophers will learn about each other’s disciplin..

An Advisor’s Extra Help on the Job Market

Placement practices at different graduate programs in philosophy vary, and one difference concerns what advisors do to help their students land jobs. There is, of course, the advising. And also, of course, the letter writing. But then there is a range of activities that go beyond these regular responsibilities—such as calling or emailing members of search committe..

Site Redesign (updated)

If you are reading this then the Daily Nous website is working. Woohoo! As you can see, it looks a little different. (If it doesn’t, try a “hard reload” of the page.) There are still some kinks that need to be smoothed out, so please be patient. If you notice something isn’t working, it would be great if you could send me an email at [email protected] lettin..

Gerhard Øverland (1964 – 2014)

Gerhard Øverland, a professor of philosophy at the University of Oslo, has died. Professor Øverland worked in moral philosophy, particularly applied ethics. There is an obituary here.

Substantive Philosophy Blogs

Brian Weatherson has created a list of substantive philosophy blogs at his own blog, And Another Thing.

The Cutest Guide To Doing Philosophy

Helena De Bres (Wellesley) has created The Pink Guide to Philosophy, a place where students—especially those about to take their first philosophy course—can get acquainted with what philosophy is about and how to do it, all with the guidance of insect instructors Professor F. Lee Pink and Professor Philosa Flea, “your fearless guides to a better, brighter, more ..

Philosophy Tag

In our last game of Philosophy Tag, Valerie Tiberius (Minnesota) tagged Dan Haybron (St. Louis University). Dan has been thinking about well-being lately (haven’t we all?) and that informs his move.

Most theories of well-being are defended entirely by good old-fashioned philosophical reflection. Michael Bishop (Florida State) defends his “network theory” of w..

Heap of Links

1. Martha Nussbaum (Chicago) is interviewed by Russ Roberts at EconTalk.
2. Chris LeBron (Yale) is interviewed at 3am Magazine on philosophy of race and “the struggle of humanity vs. humankind.”
3. Was Sartre indifferent to the slaughter of Jews?
3a. Composer Scott Johnson’s latest work, “Mind Out of Matter,” features the words and voice of Daniel Dennett (Tufts..

Heap of Links

1. Simon Blackburn gives us his version of a “kids, these days, let me tell you” cranky rant about selfies, which he saves only by saying we should respond to the vanity and conceit and narcissism encouraged in today’s society with mockery. Seems to me, though, that only someone completely full of himself would attempt such a sweeping characterization of contemporar..

The September Statement (Guest Post by Simon Cabulea May)

Simon Cabulea May is assistant professor of philosophy at Florida State University. He works on a variety of topics in political philosophy. He is also the creator of the group political philosophy blog, Public Reason. In the guest post*, below, May explains why he thinks philosophers should sign the “September Statement“, declaring in light of recent events their r..

Thoughts on the PGR and the Recent Controversy (Guest Post by Alex Rosenberg)

Alex Rosenberg is the R. Taylor Cole Professor of Philosophy at Duke University. He is known for his work in philosophy of science, particularly philosophy of biology, as well as the philosophy of social science and metaphysics. In the following guest post* he discusses the current controversy regarding the Philosophical Gourmet Report, defending its accuracy, value..