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Plenty Of Woe To Go Around: A Post About A Philosophy Journal

What the hell is going on? You might occasionally ask yourself that question when confronted with the problems, missteps, malfunctions, and other obstacles that seem to be part of the normal experience of academic life—for example, when you send in an article to a journal and it, and the journal’s staff, seem to vanish. A reader of Daily Nous recently wrote in: (m..

Philosophy at University of Wyoming Threatened

The philosophy program at the University of Wyoming has been targeted for “elimination” by its administration in the face of impending budget cuts. Word of this came in a letter to the editor of the Laramie Boomerang from Renée M. Laegreid, a professor of history at the school (and brought to my attention by Matthew Weiner). Laegreid writes:

Governor Mead announc..

Most Cited Philosophy Books in the Social Sciences

Elliott Green, a professor in the International Development Department at the London School of Economics, looked at which works from anthropology, economics, education, geography, linguistics, management, philosophy, political science, and psychology are cited most by social scientists. At the top of the list of the 50 most cited books, he reports, is Thomas Kuhn’s ..

Philosophical Diversity in U.S. Philosophy Departments (Updated)

The vast majority of philosophy departments in the United States offer courses only on philosophy derived from Europe and the English-speaking world. For example, of the 118 doctoral programs in philosophy in the United States and Canada, only 10 percent have a specialist in Chinese philosophy as part of their regular faculty. Most philosophy departments also offer ..

Philosophy Professor Sues College for Retaliation (updated)

Lauren Barthold, associate professor of philosophy at Gordon College, a Christian liberal arts college in Massachusetts, has filed a lawsuit against the college for retaliating against her for her public statements (such as a letter to the editor of a newspaper) disagreeing with college president Michael Lindsay over whether federal contractors, on the basis of reli..

Prominent Philosophy Journal Broadens Scope

Mind, a longstanding leading journal of philosophy known for publishing high quality work in the analytic tradition, has a new editorial staff and has announced in an editorial its plans to broaden its scope and appeal:

The sole criterion for publication in the journal is quality. No area of philosophy, no style of philosophy, and no school of philosophy is to be..

What Does “Engaged” Philosophy Look Like? (Guest Post)

The following is a guest post * by Ben Baker, Louise Daoust, and Rob Willison (University of Pennsylvania) on a recent attempt at publicly engaged philosophy at the University Pennsylvania—one that others might be interested in trying out elsewhere.

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Continuous Publication Model for Journals — Input Sought

A philosopher who will be taking over a well-known specialty journal in philosophy writes in seeking feedback on a possible change to the journal’s practices:

I am going to be taking the helm of a journal in 2017 and the publisher wants my editorial team to consider moving to the continuous publication model pioneered by the Royal Society Journals. On this mode..

More On Whether Philosophy Has Lost Its Way

Social Epistemology Review and Reply Collective, the digital wing of the journal Social Epistemology, has featured an exchange of short articles in the wake of “When Philosophy Lost Its Way” by Robert Frodeman and Adam Briggle (both of University of North Texas), an article we previously discussed a couple of times. The exchange is between Luke Maring (Northern Ariz..

Philosophy Needs Better Marketing

The plans for growing and diversifying philosophy can’t be a shotgun approach. We need to find places every year where we can advocate and promote philosophical growth with precision because of our limited resources. We can do this through a robust development and advocacy process along with PR and advertising campaigns. There are lots of ways to grow and diversify ..

$5.75 Million for Philosopher-Led Interdisciplinary Project on Public Discourse

Michael Lynch, professor of philosophy at the University of Connecticut, has been awarded a $5.75 million grant from the John Templeton Foundation for The Public Discourse Project: Balancing Humility and Conviction in Public Life, an interdisciplinary research and engagement project. Historian Brendan Kane is the co-principal investigator on the grant. It is the sin..

Student Faces Tribunal for Calling Philosophy Professor “Racist”

Busi Mkhumbuzi, an undergraduate at the University of Cape Town (UCT), reports that she has been “summoned by the Student Tribunal” (part of the university’s apparatus for addressing offenses committed by students) for spreading “racist and defamatory remarks” about UCT philosophy professor David Benatar. Mkhumbuzi says she has called Benatar “racist, ableist and se..

Philosophy in the University: A Defense

“Far from being years of ‘enduring failure,’ the last 150 years have been philosophy’s best.”

So argues Scott Soames (University of Southern California) in an essay on the influence of academic philosophy in The New York Times column, The Stone. Framed as a response to “When Philosophy Lost Its Way,” by Robert Frodeman and Adam Briggle (University of North Texas), ..

Needed: A Philosophy Cheat Sheet for Scientists

What is the name of the phenomenon by which someone who is an acknowledged expert in one area is led to be overconfident about his or her knowledge in other areas? It’s a specific version of illusory superiority, and it may be related to the Dunning-Kruger effect (a product of the correlation of overconfidence and lack of skill), but I’m wondering if it has its own ..

Philosophy Talk Wins Templeton for “Philosophical Guide to the Cosmos”

John Perry and Ken Taylor, professors of philosophy at Stanford University and hosts of the radio program Philosophy Talk, have won a grant from the John Templeton Foundation to produce an eight-episode series called “A Philosophical Guide to the Cosmos.”

The series seems motivated by recent dismissals of philosophy by well-known scientists (see, for example here..

Philosophy and the Digital Humanities

The above image is a detail from the famous “The Garden of Earthly Delights” by Hieronymus Bosch. “Enormously sized, lavishly detailed, and compellingly grotesque,” the work is now available to explore in an “online interactive adventure.” Viewers can take a “15 step” tour of the image, or go their own route, clicking on the flags placed on the image to listen to or..

Philosophy Data from the Open Syllabus Project (Guest Post by Andrew Higgins)

The following is a guest post * from Andrew Higgins, who recently received his PhD in philosophy from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He spent some time combing through data at the Open Syllabus Project (previously) and in the post presents some information that should be of interest to fellow philosophers. Thanks, Dr. Higgins!

Philosophy Data from..

The Most Popular Philosophy Videos

Kelly Truelove compiles data about the online activities of philosophers, astronomers, physicists, and others, under the handle @TrueSciPhi. Recently, at his site, he posted about the most popular online philosophy videos.

In the “Under 20 Minutes” category, the most popular items over the past year have been offerings from 8-Bit Philosophy and The School of Life..

Philosophy Professor To Stand Trial in Turkey (Updated with Statement from Professor Öymen and Additional News)

The Associated Press reports:

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — A philosophy professor says he will stand trial next week on charges of insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for suggesting in an article that the Turkish leader should go on trial over a range of claims, including alleged corruption and the violation of the constitution.

Orsan Oymen said Wednesday he fac..

Help With Philosophy Teaching

The editors of the Blog of the American Philosophical Association have begun a new series to help members of the profession with questions, challenges, and problems, about teaching philosophy. Jennifer Morton (CUNY) writes:

The Teaching Workshop is a new, regular feature on the Blog of the APA, run by the APA’s committee on the teaching of philosophy. Every other..

Percentages of U.S. Doctorates in Philosophy Given to Women and to Minorities, 1973-2014 (guest post by Eric Schwitzgebel)

The following is a guest post * from Eric Schwitzgebel (UC Riverside). It also appears on his blog, The Splintered Mind.

Percentages of U.S. Doctorates in Philosophy Given to Women and to Minorities, 1973-2014
by Eric Schwitzgebel

The Survey of Earned Doctorates is a questionnaire distributed by the U.S. National Science Foundation to doctorate recipients at a..

Philosophy Travel & Tourism

Guy Crain, professor of philosophy at Rose State College, writes in with the following inquiry:

I’m wondering if there is a resource with collected information about philosophy-related travel/site-seeing. For instance, is it possible to visit John Stuart Mill’s birthplace? What libraries or museums (if any) have first editions of philosophical works on display?..

A Modest Proposal: Slow Philosophy (guest post by Jennifer Whiting)

The following is a guest post * by Jennifer Whiting (Pittsburgh).

A Modest Proposal: Slow Philosophy
by Jennifer Whiting

In his review of Moral Prejudices by Annette Baier, Colin McGinn claimed that Baier had proposed that universities accommodate the demands of women’s reproductive clocks by allowing women to postpone tenure decisions until the age of 50 ..

New Heights (Lows?) in Philosophy Job Application Requirements

A correspondent who prefers to remain anonymous brought to my attention the job advertisement of California State Sacramento, and sent along the following commentary:

As those on the market all know, the application process can be a hassle. In addition to all the intellectual investment and tedious editing that goes into putting together a decent portfolio, depar..

Best Philosophy Blog Post Winners Announced

3 Quarks Daily has announced the winners of its 2015 prize for best philosophy blog post:

Top Quark, $500: Vidar Halgunset, Slow Corruption
Strange Quark, $200: Daniel Silvermint, On How We Talk About Passing
Charm Quark, $100: Lisa Herzog, (One of) Effective Altruism’s blind spot(s)

Of the top two posts, Judge John Collins (Columbia) writes: “they w..

Rethink: A Philosophy Community Outreach Program at Columbia University, has been awarded the 2015 APA/PDC Prize for Excellence and Innovation in Philosophy Programs. The aim of the prize, which has been jointly sponsored by the American Philosophical Association and the Philosophy Documentation Center since 1999, is “to recognize philosophy departments, research ce..

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