public philosophy
Internet Abuse of Philosophers (2 updates)
A few weeks ago, George Yancy (Emory) published an essay in The New York Times philosophy column, The Stone, called “Dear White America.” In it, he calls for white Americans to acknowledge their racism and their complicity with racist institutions. Yancy asks his readers to “listen with love” to what he has to say. But he knows that what he is saying is bound to pro..
Are Journal Rejections a Hazing Ritual (Ought Experiment)
Welcome back to Ought Experiment! Today’s question is from a philosopher reeling from yet another journal rejection, and starting to wonder if publishing is an arbitrary (or even intentionally cruel) ordeal:
Dear Louie,
My favorite paper was just rejected for the 7th time. Let’s see, I’ve had desk rejections, rejections without referee comments, rejections..
Nussbaum Wins Quinn Prize (updated)
Martha Nussbaum, Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics at the University of Chicago, has won the American Philosophical Association’s Quinn Prize. The prize, named for Philip L. Quinn, is “awarded in recognition of service to philosophy and philosophers, broadly construed.” The award includes $2500 and an engraved plaque.
UPDATE ..
Who called it “Experimenting with Coffee” instead of “X-phresso”?
A pair of philosophers teamed up with a beautiful food website and a fancy coffee shop to bring some experimental philosophy to the people.
Shen-yi Liao (Leeds, soon Puget Sound) and Aaron Meskin (Leeds) served members of the public coffee at Laynes Espresso to investigate whether first-hand experience is required to judge something’s taste and whether knowledge ..
Ought Experiment
Welcome to Ought Experiment! For our first advice column, an ABD grad student writes:
Over the last several years, I have repeatedly noticed a trend among professional philosophers in the blogosphere: they speak frequently of a deep, passionate love of philosophy and believe that their love of the discipline justifies the choice to pursue graduate study despite ..
Logic Problem Goes Viral (updated)
Perhaps you saw this logic problem, purported to have been given to fifth graders in Singapore, flying around social media yesterday:
That’s right: a logic problem has gone viral.
It turns out that the problem was from a math olympiad test for high-school students, but perhaps the “are you smarter than a fifth grader from Singapore” framing helped propel t..
No One Is Listening
Up to 1.5 million peer-reviewed articles are published annually. However, many are ignored even within scientific communities — 82 per cent of articles published in humanities are not even cited once. No one ever refers to 32 per cent of the peer-reviewed articles in the social and 27 per cent in the natural sciences. If a paper is cited, this does not imply it has..
APA Calls for Nominations for Best Op-Eds by Philosophers
Did you read a particularly good op-ed in 2014 that was written by a philosopher? Are you a philosopher who wrote a particularly good op-ed that was published in 2014? Well, in that case, you should send that piece over to the American Philosophical Association (APA) for consideration for the Committee on Public Philosophy’s 2014 Op-Ed Contest. The Committee says:
..
Recent APA Prize Winners Announced
The American Philosophical Association (APA) has announced the winners of several competitions. First up are the winners of the 2013 Public Philosophy Op-Ed Contest, which were awarded at the 2014 Eastern APA meeting:
Dale Jamieson (NYU)
“The Right’s New Climate Change Lie”
Salon
Todd May (Clemson)
“The Weight of the Past”
The Stone
Jennifer Morton (City College)..
Wisdom, Not Mere Love of It
There are different strains of public philosophy, one of which is bringing philosophy to bear on social and personal issues. The idea is that philosophers, qua philosophers, have something distinctive and helpful to contribute to public discourse. W.V.O. Quine, writing in 1979 in the Long Island newspaper, Newsday, seems to disagree:
The student who majors in phi..
Philosophical Op-Ed Contest
The American Philosophical Association’s Committee on Public Philosophy is seeking nominations for the best opinion pieces or editorials published by philosophers in 2013.
We will honor up to five standout pieces that successfully blend philosophical argumentation with an op-ed writing style. Winning submissions will call public attention, either directly or indi..
The Case for Diamond Open Access
“As editors of one of our field’s leading journals, we feel a strong responsibility to help build collective momentum towards a better arrangement: a publishing model that no longer wastes massive amounts of public resources feeding profits to private corporations, secures editorial independence against the pressures of profit-making and makes research available to ..
Journal of the APA to Go Open Access
In less than two weeks, the Journal of the American Philosophical Association (JAPA) will transition into an open access journal. (more…)
Misinformation Mistakes (guest post)
“The mistake involves grouping together into an all-or-nothing package entire sets of claims whose epistemological credentials are quite varied. It also often involves collapsing epistemic and moral concerns.” (more…)
AI Generated Content and Academic Journals
What are good policy options for academic journals regarding the detection of AI generated content and publication decisions? (more…)
Mini-Heap
New additions to the Heap of Links… (more…)
An Opportunity for Reforming Peer Review (guest post)
“Current dissatisfaction with peer review is such an opportunity for change, so we call for taking advantage of this opportunity as fully as we can. We build our recommendations on the idea that mutual critical engagement is a skill developed through ongoing practice and actual engagement with each other’s ideas.” (more…)
Stilz Resigns from PPA; Shares Instructions to Authors
Anna Stilz (currently at Princeton, soon to be at Berkeley), editor-in-chief of Philosophy and Public Affairs, has submitted her resignation to the journal’s publisher, Wiley. (more…)
Ethical Evidence, Ethical Experience, and Shamelessness (guest post)
“A kind of science-envy is often visible in much of what analytic philosophers have had to say about the question of evidence in ethics… In some cases, however, what deprives us of the truth is not scientism, but other forms of prejudice.”
A Journal’s Different Standards for White Male Authors*
Suppose you’re the editor-in-chief of an academic philosophy journal that employs double-anonymized peer review. The reports on a manuscript are in, and you’re deciding whether to accept the piece for publication. Should the race or sex of the author make a difference to the criteria you bring to this decision? (more…)
Mini-Heap
New links… (more…)
APA Announces Spring 2024 Awards
The American Philosophical Association (APA) recently announced the winners of nine awards. (more…)
Two Philosophers Named “New Generation Thinkers” by BBC
The BBC and the UK’s Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) have selected “ten of the UK’s most promising arts and humanities early career researchers” as this year’s “New Generation Thinkers,” and two of them are philosophers. (more…)
Nenad Miščević (1950-2024)
Nenad Miščević, professor of philosophy at the University of Maribor in Slovenia and one of the most influential Croatian philosophers, has died. (more…)
Srinivasan on Open Letters, Protests, Free Speech, and Academic Freedom
Amia Srinivasan’s specialty, it seems to me, is making sense of moral ambivalence: detecting, dissecting, and sometimes defending its reasonability, even in the face of unavoidable and urgent decisions. (more…)
Lee Wins Sanders Metaphysics Prize
Andrew Y. Lee, assistant professor at the University of Toronto, is the winner of the 2024 Sanders Prize in Metaphysics. (more…)
Should Universities Protect Protest Speech?
“It is important to insist that, contrary to the Chicago Principles, deliberation and protest are fundamental forms of free expression.” (more…)
Stilz from Princeton to Berkeley
Anna B. Stilz, professor in the Department of Politics and the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University, will be moving to the University of California, Berkeley, where she will professor in the Department of Political Science, with a courtesy appointment in the Department of Philosophy. (more…)