Daily Nous

News for & about the philosophy profession

  • Two Philosophers’ Views on the Point of College

    This week, two philosophers—Kwame Anthony Appiah (NYU) in the New York Times Magazine and Gary Gutting (Notre Dame) in The Chronicle of Higher Education—have discussed the point of a college…

  • Philosophical Insights for Good Professorship

    A good professor “will be able to put philosophical insights to practical use,” argues Robert J. Bloomfield, a professor at the School of Management…

  • Are Bans on Faculty-Student Sex Unjust to Students?

    The New Republic has published “Lust for Learning,” by Laura Miller. If it weren’t for the fact that this article is full of references to philosophers past…

  • Plot Philosophy’s Subfields

    Yesterday’s post about interdisciplinary work in philosophy got me curious about how philosophers understand their work in relation to other disciplines. One question we…

  • Philosophy Dissertations More Often Venture Beyond the Humanities

    Among new PhDs in the humanities who described their dissertation research as interdisciplinary, philosophy students reported the largest percentage of dissertations that crossed fields…

  • “Uncomfortable Truths” about Academic Freedom

    We’ve discussed academic freedom at Daily Nous before (for example: Thoughts on Academic Freedom, Are We Being Chilled?, Strategies for Keeping Warm, Microaggressions and Academic Freedom).…

  • Creating a Climate Survey for Faculty and Staff

    A philosophy professor writes in seeking the assistance of Daily Nous readers: I am the chair of my department’s (brand new) committee on the…

  • SEP, IEP, NDPR, Wi-Phi Weekly Update

    Here are last week’s additions and updates to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (SEP), the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy(IEP), Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews (NDPR), and Wi-Phi Wireless Philosophy, courtesy…

  • Salaries of Philosophy Majors Over Time

    Philosophy is the “top humanities bachelors degree” in PayScale’s ranking of majors by salary. The Atlantic reports: Although philosophy majors rank 75th on PayScale’s overall list…

  • A Case for Philosophy in High Schools (updated)

    Back in 1982, Frank Breslin, a New Jersey high school teacher, wrote an article arguing that philosophy should be taught in high school. Huffington Post…

  • Philosopher to Receive 2014 National Humanities Medal

    Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, author of the novels The Mind-Body Problem and 36 Arguments for the Existence of God: A Work of Fiction, as well as books on…

  • Substantive Philosophical Mistakes In Public Discourse

    Public debate is rife with poor reasoning, with certain confused or erroneous claims popping up again and again to affect opinions and policies. Some…

  • Taking Jokes Too Far in the Classroom (Ought Experiment)

    Welcome back to Ought Experiment! It’s a new semester, and that can only mean one thing: fresh opportunities to go home and torture ourselves…

  • Judge Rejects Ludlow’s Amended Claim Against NU

    From the Cook County Record: A federal judge has rejected a Northwestern University professor’s amended claim against the school, ending another chapter in a complex…

  • A Bias Against Simplicity?

    Kieran Healy (Duke) recently presented a paper entitled “Fuck Nuance” at the American Sociological Association’s annual meeting. He writes: Nuance is not a virtue…

  • The One Statement To Best Restart Philosophy

    If all existing philosophical work—and all records and knowledge of it—were to be destroyed in some disaster, and only one sentence could be passed on…

  • Philosophy Job Placement Data Update

    Carolyn Dicey Jennings (UC Merced) posts that the final report for the Academic Placement Data and Analysis project is complete. She’ll eventually be posting more…

  • Public Philosophy Op-Ed Contest Winners

    The American Philosophical Association’s Committee on Public Philosophy has announced the winners of the latest round of its Public Philosophy Op-Ed Contest, for op-eds…

  • $3.9 Million for “Moral Superstars” Search

    The Beacon Project is a new three-year initiative in psychology and philosophy “to find and define the morally exceptional and better understand how to…

  • Philosophically Interesting Books for Young Kids

    A friend is interested in soliciting philosophically-minded books for young children—ones who are reading, but are not at the chapter-book stage. Here are a few…