The Relevance of Analytic Philosophy
This paper holds that philosophy is and has always been relevant to life. The history on this matter is against the likes of Kripke and Soames who claim otherwise, even when it comes to the recent Analytic tradition. But, even more importantly, we argue that even if this history is not quite right, that philosophers have both moral and instrumental reasons for makin..
No Idea Whether Americans Want Philosophy, According to New Survey
A survey based on 115 forums held around the United States brought some seemingly good news about what the public thinks of philosophical education in college:
Nearly 9 in 10 of those returning questionnaires strongly or somewhat agreed that college should be “where students learn to develop the ability to think critically by studying a rich curriculum that includes..
The Kinds of Beings We Are: Curing Deafness Edition
“We’re just trying to tweak the mammalian system a little bit to do what a lot of other species do naturally.” Those are the words of Lloyd Klickstein of Novartis, the Swiss drug company collaborating with scientists at the University of Kansas Medical Center who will soon begin injecting deaf study subjects with a “harmless virus containing a gene that should trigg..
Radical Suffering Reduction & Virtual Killings
The Foundational Research Institute says that it “brings together researchers from diverse fields to examine how humanity can best reduce suffering in the future. We draw on insights from artificial intelligence, technology, anthropic reasoning, international relations, sociology, public policy, ethics, and many other disciplines.” Its website seems to be mainly the..
4.5 Million Rea$ons for Optimism
Andrew Chignell (Cornell) and Samuel Newlands (Notre Dame) are the recipients of a $4.5 million grant from the John Templeton Foundation for their project, “Hope and Optimism: Conceptual and Empirical Investigations.”
What will they do with these funds?
The three-year interdisciplinary effort will explore the theoretical, empirical and practical dimensions of hope..
Winners of the 2014 “World Thinker” Competition
You may recall that 14 philosophers were among the candidates in Prospect Magazine’s 2014 World Thinker competition. The competition is over and the results are in. Amartya Sen comes in at the top spot! Other philosophers in the top 20 include Mary Beard (7), Jürgen Habermas (12), Slavoj Žižek (14), Nick Bostrom (15), Daniel Dennett (17), Rae Langton (18), Elizabeth..
Louis CK on Avoiding the Perfectionism Trap
It’s one thing to be told “don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good,” and another thing to, well, actually not let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Whether it is writing a paper or working through some task at a departmental meeting, there is the temptation to not move forward unless everything is just right, or until one knows everything is going to be j..
Five Philosophers Elected to Membership of AAAS
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences has elected its 2014 class and it includes five philosophers: John Broome (Oxford), Arthur Fine (University of Washington), Ruth Millikan (University of Connecticut), David Velleman (NYU), and Gary Watson (Southern California). The full list of new members is here. “As one of the nation’s oldest learned societies and indepen..
A Library of Well-Reasoned Arguments
Joshua Frankel wrote in to share a new collaborative opensource website project he and others are developing called Whysaurus. The idea is to
create a repository of the best arguments for any idea, where emotional manipulation and flowery rhetoric are removed, leaving only the core statements, arranged in a network. So the next time a discussion touches a difficult i..
Inside Higher Ed Reports on the Stubblefield Story
Inside Higher Ed has an article on Anna Stubblefield, the Rutgers-Newark philosophy professor accused of sexually assaulting a man (referred to in various accounts as “D.J.” or “John Roe”) with cerebral palsy.
In 2011, Stubblefield allegedly met with the man’s parents to inform them that the relationship had become sexual. The parents… say Stubblefield molested th..
The “art” in Sartre
Open Culture has posted the doodles of Jean-Paul Sartre (via Peter Gratton). While not as skillful as those of Jorge Luis Borges or as striking as those of Franz Kafka, they do have a certain whimsical air to them. Some research suggests that doodling enhances one’s concentration and memory, so if you see people doodling while you are giving a talk, don’t assume the..
What’s the Deal with NewAPPS and Other Blogs?
Some of you may have noticed that NewAPPS, 3 Quarks Daily, and some other blogs are down. What’s up with that? Contrary to the rumors, Daily Nous has not launched distributed denial of service attacks against its competitors in an attempt to achieve complete and total domination of the philosophy blogosphere. Rather, we are doing it for ONE MILLION DOLLARS.
Joking ..
Recent Work on Animals by Philosophers and Others
Today’s Omnivore Blog features links to recent work on the treatment of animals, including pieces by philosophers Nathan Nobis (Morehouse), Daniel Hooley (Toronto), Ian Werkheiser (Michigan State), Jonathan Anomaly (UNC & Duke), William Edmundson (Georgia State), and Brian Berkey (Stanford).
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.