A Philosopher’s Role in the Texas A&M Debacle (updated)
Texas A&M University will be paying Kathleen McElroy $1 million as part of legal settlement over the university’s botched efforts at trying to hire her, and then trying to not hire her. (more…)
Policing Is Not Pedagogy: On the Supposed Threat of ChatGPT (guest post)
“ChatGPT has just woken many of us up to the fact that we need to be better teachers, not better cops.” (more…)
Online Philosophy Resources Summer Update
The usual weekly report on new and revised entries at online philosophy resources and new reviews of philosophy books is an occasional report this summer. (more…)
What We Assume Undergraduates Know
As teachers, we have certain basic expectations of our students, and from our own perspectives, some of these expectations may be so basic that we may not think to tell the students about them. (more…)
Desperate Honesty (guest post)
“I abandoned classics for philosophy in large part because that was where the refuters were. Now people can’t stop telling me I am wrong.”
Free Online Philosophy Teaching Workshop
Cogtweeto and the American Association of Philosophy Teachers (AAPT) and are putting on a free, two-day workshop on the teaching of philosophy. (more…)
The Best Worst Feedback You’ve Received from a Teacher
As we saw in the discussion of last week’s post about Harry Frankfurt’s recollections of Max Black, some of you recall hard-ass professors you had as being among your most effective teachers and you think of them with appreciation and fondness—and some of you, not so much. Despite this difference, one thing seems to be certain: many of you have been poked with the..
Personal, Practical, Public Philosophy
“Starting around 2010, however, there was a striking change, surprising to someone trained in the 1980s. Some philosophy professors began to write a lot more personally; they tried to show how philosophical ideas had affected and might affect their own lives.” (more…)
An Accessible and User-Friendly Argument Mapping App (guest post)
“Argument mapping is about twice as effective at improving student critical thinking as other methods,” writes Jonathan Surovell (Texas State University). However, “there are obstacles preventing philosophy teachers from adopting it.” (more…)
How To Alleviate the Referee Crisis: A Proposal (guest post)
“There are just too many papers for which editors are seeking reviews.” What can be done about that? (more…)
Philosophy Through Comics (guest post)
Can you do philosophy with comics? “Yeah, sure, easy.” But why do it? (more…)
The Hard-Ass Philosophy Professor: an “Inestimably Valuable Educational Experience”
Last week, following Harry Frankfurt’s death, Katrien Schaubroeck (Antwerp) circulated an intellectual autobiography Frankfurt had written for a 2011 volume she co-edited on his work. (more…)
Philosophy News Summary
Recent philosophy-related news.* (more…)
Job Market Report, 2023 Secondary Cycle (guest post)
How did the academic philosophy job market look between January and June, 2023? (more…)
Learning How to Get Your Philosophical Ideas on the Air
Suppose you’re a philosopher, and suppose you have an idea for a philosophical story or segment for a show you listen to or watch. How do you get that idea from inside your head to actually on the show? How do you get on the show? (more…)
Do the Thing: Philosophy Teaching with Practical Workshops (guest post)
“There is such an enormous and useful energy in bouncing back and forth between the theoretical and the practical.”
Harry Frankfurt (1929-2023)
Harry Frankfurt, emeritus professor of philosophy at Princeton University, whose work on free will has been highly influential, has died. (more…)
Future of Templeton Philosophy Funding Uncertain (updated with replies from Templeton, Dennett)
The John Templeton Foundation, the largest single funder of philosophical projects in the United States, has eliminated its “Philosophy and Theology” department. (more…)
How Do You Use Various Social Media Platforms? How Should You?
The proliferation of social media platforms raises questions about how, if at all, we should use them. (more…)
James F. Drane (1930-2023)
James F. Drane, emeritus professor of philosophy and clinical bioethics at Pennsylvania Western University, Edinboro, died this past April. (more…)
Philosophy as Glial Cell (guest post)
Glial cell? “Commonly described as the ‘glue’ that holds the nervous system together, they’re better thought of as infrastructure, the ductwork and insulation that give heft to comparatively sparse neurons. But even this metaphor turns out to be incomplete…”
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Logic Courseware, Surveyed (guest post)
What materials exist for teaching large introductory logic courses, and how do they compare? (more…)
Gary Varner (1957-2023)
Gary Varner, professor emeritus of philosophy at Texas A&M University, has died. (more…)
Allen and Roskies to Santa Barbara
Colin Allen, recently Distinguished Professor in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh,and Adina Roskies, currently Helman Family Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Dartmouth College, have both accepted senior offers from the Department of Philosophy at the University of California, Santa Barbara. (more…)
Philosophy News Summary
Recent philosophy-related news.* (more…)
A Case for AI Wellbeing (guest post)
“There are good reasons to think that some AIs today have wellbeing.” (more…)
Florio from Birmingham to Oslo
Salvatore Florio, currently reader in philosophy at the University of Birmingham, will be moving to the University of Oslo, where he will be associate professor of philosophy. (more…)
Statement from Philosophy Professors & Graduate Students on University of Waterloo Attack
A statement from philosophers in response to the knife attack on the professor and students in a philosophy of gender course at the University of Waterloo this week, in which they “affirm our commitment to academic freedom, and condemn all uses of violence, intimidation, or derogation that attempt to undermine philosophical examinations of gender and sexuality” has ..