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The Top 267

Eric Schwitzgebel (Riverside) has combed through the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy to learn the names of the 267 most-cited contemporary philosophers in it. Are you on the list? Anyone you know? There’s also a separate post up at his blog discussing the demographic aspects of the list.

UPDATE: Some further analysis and a post about “Jewish, Non-Anglophone, Quee..

‘Misunderstands’ is not an option

Here at Daily Nous we are committed to using self-selected responses to simple internet polls as a method for investigating the important issues in our profession. In that vein, Matt Smith (Leeds), asked: “Comment, commentate, commenter, commentator?” The only proper response was, of course, “what are you talking about?” Matt then explained.

Which of these terms do..

Philosophy Tag

In our last round, Charlie Kurth (Washington University in St. Louis) was tagged by Gillian Russell (Washington University in St. Louis), a tag that was geographically close but one that boldly shifted the game from the epistemology of logic to moral psychology. Now it’s time for Kurth to make his move:

Practical reflection is having a hard time of it. Wherea..

APA Seeks Chairs and Commentators for 2015 Central

If you are interested in volunteering to chair a session or respond to a paper at the 2015 Central Division Meeting of the American Philosophical Association, now is the time to sign up. The program chair, Janice Dowell, writes, “We’ve got a fantastic program so far. Commenting and chairing are good ways for young folks to meet more established people in their field..

APA Prizes Announced

The American Philosophical Association has announced the winners of a few of its prizes:

2014 Essay Prize in Latin American Thought was won by Philip Mack (Marquette) for his essay, “Should a Concept of Truth be attributed to Nahuatl Thought? Preserving ‘the Colonial Difference’ between Concepts of the West and Nahua Philosophy”. It will be published in the APA’s ..

Philosophy Majors and the GRE 2011-2014

ETS has released data showing how well people perform on the GRE, sorted by intended area of graduate study. Once again, prospective philosophy graduate students do very well, earning the highest mean scores of students heading to any arts and humanities discipline in all three categories of the exam: verbal reasoning, quantitative reasoning, and analytical writing…

Heap of Links

1. Hindu philosophy of religion.
2. A series of posts on Cusa and Hegel.
3. Artificial wombs are already being tested and developed, and according to some, will be widely used in a few decades. They’re a little controversial.
4. Physicist Lawrence Krauss squares off against philosophers Angie Hobbs and Mary Midgley on the relationship between philosophy and scienc..

Philosophers Propose Boycott

Related to the earlier post of links to philosophers writing about the current conflict in Gaza and associated issues, some philosophers and political theorists are supporting “a principled refusal to associate with Israeli academic institutions that have not explicitly condemned the occupation.” They lay out their reasons here. (via Katharine Jenkins)

(Note: for ..

Philosophy Can Help South Africa

So, what would a just South Africa look like, and how do we achieve it? If we’ve inherited a legacy of racial injustice, what does racial justice demand of us now? Different government policies may have radically different impacts on people’s lives. So the issue needs to be discussed as fully as possible in all sections of society. And philosophy can make an importa..

More on the Barnett story

The story about the University of Colorado beginning the steps of firing associate professor of philosophy David Barnett (previously) has been on the radio and television news here in Boulder.

Here is some further info on the story:
· Some philosophy students have come to Barnett’s defense.
· Barnett will be challenging the decision by appealing to the universi..

University of Colorado Moves to Fire David Barnett

The University of Colorado is moving to fire philosophy professor David Barnett:

Boulder campus leaders have begun the process of firing a tenured faculty member after paying a graduate student $825,000 to settle accusations the philosophy professor retaliated against her for reporting a sexual assault by a fellow graduate student… Barnett, who is not the alleged ..

Philosophy Students: A Tumblr

Zac Cogley (Northern Michigan) has created a tumblr featuring links about and pictures of people in the news who have majored in or otherwise studied philosophy. It’s called Philosophy Students. (Submissions welcome.)

Dennett on Brains and Blame

“Of course my brain made me do it! What would you want, your stomach to make you do it?”

That’s from the text of a brief interview with Daniel Dennett at WBUR’s site.

Writing Tools

No, this is not a post about jerks who write. Rather, it is spurred by an inquiry from John Schwenkler (Florida State) about which programs philosophers use for writing. I am not very knowledgeable about the alternatives here, but Professor Schwenkler shares his recommendations:

· Lyx, which is a TeX/LaTeX editor that is easy to learn and install, and takes care of ..

It’s Five O’clock Somewhere

“Beer and Trembling” and other bars philosophy professors opened after being denied tenure. (via Mark Alfano)

Suggestions—for other bars or the drinks served at them—welcome in the comments.

Philosophers on the Israeli – Palestinian Conflict

Jason Stanley (Yale) has a piece in today’s Frankfurter Allgemeine, a German newspaper. It is entitled “An Open Letter to the Protestors on the streets of Berlin chanting ‘Jude, Jude, feiges Schwein, komm heraus und kämpf allein’ ”” which looks at the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and reactions to it, as well as the ideas of democracy and pluralism, through the lens ..

New Open Access Journal

Symposion has been relaunched as an open access, multilingual, quarterly, philosophy-centric interdisciplinary journal. Its first issue in its new format has just been published.

When Is Philosophical Agreement Suspicious?

Last week, in the post about philosophy of religion, I wrote:

For a few reasons, it is not a sociologically surprising fact that most philosophy of religion in the West today is conducted by Christian theists. But it is certainly philosophically surprising (bordering on philosophically suspect) that, of all the possible options for religious belief (which include n..

Civic Engagement in Philosophy Classes

Ramona Ilea (Pacific University) shares news of an online resource for philosophy professors she has helped create called Engaged Philosophy. The site is a repository of information about incorporating projects of civic engagement into philosophy courses.

When students do civic engagement projects in our philosophy classes, they commit to making changes in their com..

In the Overlap between Logic, Fun, and Information

John Venn, an English philosopher who spent much of his career at Cambridge, died in 1923, but if he were alive today he would totally be dead, as it is his 180th birthday. Venn was named after the Venn diagram, owing to the fact that as a child he was terrible at math but good at drawing circles, and so was not held back in 5th grade. In celebration of this philoso..

What Are Some Things You’ve Said?

While we’ve been collecting your philosophical sayings here, someone else has been collecting what you might have said in the classroom or in office hours or wherever, when, perhaps, you weren’t being as careful with your words. Check out Philosophy Professor Quotes and have a laugh, perhaps at your own expense. (via Clayton Littlejohn (update: via Jon Cogburn at Ne..

Heap of Links

1. “By insisting that print is a necessary condition for scholarly quality, deans and scholars make it more difficult for university presses to stay in business, thereby making it more difficult for them to publish print books! At the same time, scholars insist on having their own work published in print while they increasingly engage the work of others online. And..

Ketland Reinstated at Oxford

Jeffrey Ketland, who had been dismissed from his position as a philosophy fellow and tutor at Oxford’s Pembroke College following accusations that he had harassed a BPhil student who committed suicide (previously), was successful in his appeal of that decision and has been reinstated, according to this article in The Sunday Times.

Ketland, 50, a philosophy lecturer ..

Philosopher’s Index vs. PhilPapers

Wayne Bivens-Tatum, the philosophy and religion librarian at Princeton University, has published a comparison of Philosopher’s Index and PhilPapers at his blog, Academic Librarian. As he notes, “choosing between the two of them might be a budgetary necessity for librarians who wanted to subscribe to PhilPapers under the new terms.”

Kamm on Israel and Gaza

Frances Kamm (Harvard) brings her analytical prowess to bear on an Israeli Ambassador’s just war-based defense of the killing of Gaza civilians, in a piece at the Boston Review. (via Robert Long)

Heap of Links

1. Jason Stanley (Yale) brings political philosophy to bear on Detroit and the idea of “emergency managers” in The New York Times. Detroit’s Metro Times calls it the “most interesting read on the situation.”
2. “Things you should know before publishing a book.”
3. Looking for a brief, clear, and motivated explanation of likelihoodist, Bayesian, and frequentist meth..

PhilPapers and Philosophy Documentation Center Collaboration

PhilPapers and the Philosophy Documentation Center will be working together to expand the amount of information available via PhilPapers and to better manage PhilPapers’ subscription services. PhilPapers has also upgraded its search system. David Bourget and David Chalmers tell us what’s going on and what to expect: (more…)