News for & about the philosophy profession

  • Wide-Ranging Interview with Michael Ruse (FSU)

    At his new site, What Is It Like To Be A Philosopher, Clifford Sosis (Coastal Carolina) has posted a long and wide-ranging interview with…

  • The Point and Practices of Conferences

    Christy Wampole (Princeton) lays out a series of complaints and concerns about conferences in the humanities, including: We have sat patiently and politely through…

  • Philosophers’ TV Guide

    No, no one has created one yet, but it would be useful. Something close to it is the philosophy page at TV Tropes, which lists…

  • Course Evals from Prisoners and Princetonians

    Sukaina Hirji and Daniel Wodak, two graduate students at Princeton, are currently teaching a class of fourteen prisoners at the Albert C. Wagner Youth Correctional…

  • Confidence & Performance in Philosophy

    There’s an interesting post at Show and Tell about the speaking styles of philosophers. It begins with this: There is a telling anecdote about G.E.M. Anscombe and…

  • Philosophy’s Exclusion of Literary Writings

    Chiara Bottici (New School) was one of the opening speakers at the Night of Philosophy held at the French Embassy in New York City…

  • Update on Changes to US Census Question

    You may recall that this past December, Kathleen Wallace (Hofstra) brought to our attention that the U.S. Census Bureau was considering eliminating from its…

  • Analytic & Continental in Political Philosophy & Theory

    A forthcoming special issue of the European Journal of Political Theory will take up the topic of analytic and Continental approaches in political philosophy and…

  • Conference Fees and Non-TT Faculty (updated)

    Many philosophy conferences charge fees, with one rate for faculty and a lower rate for students. A philosopher who is an adjunct at a…

  • Trouble in Baltimore

    On April 12th, 2015, Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old black man, allegedly ran away from a Baltimore police officer on a bicycle who had made eye…

  • A Detailed Account of the McGinn Affair (updated)

    The Miami New Times has a long and detailed account of the events leading up to Colin McGinn’s resignation from the University of Miami. It is based…

  • Philosophers: Disappointingly Normal

    Philosophers are sometimes thought of as expert thinkers, more rational and less prone to errors in reasoning than others. Whether this is true, though, is…

  • Michael Theunissen (1932-2015)

    The philosopher Michael Theunissen died on April 18, 2015.  He studied in Bonn and Freiburg and defended his much-cited habilitation thesis Der Andere: Studien zur Sozialontologie…

  • Introducing the Daily Nous Value of Philosophy Pages

    Philosophy departments face many challenges. Philosophy is perceived by some as “less practical” and so less choiceworthy a course of study. Most entering students have not…

  • Is There A Philosophical Version Of This Course?

    Stanford University’s most popular class is called “Designing Your Life,” according to an article at Fast Company. Its aim is to get students to…

  • Boxill Denies Teaching 160 Independent Studies

    Jan Boxill, who recently resigned from her position as member of the philosophy faculty at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill following allegations…

  • Suspect Reasons Behind Professor’s Firing

    Thomas Jay Oord is tenured full professor of theology and philosophy at Northwest Nazarene University (as well as an ordained minister in the Church of the…

  • Florida Gulf Coast U. May Lose Philosophy

    Florida governor Rick Scott and the Florida board of governors, is calling for universities in the state to “examine their academic offerings, seeing if…

  • 2015 Lebowitz Awards to Alvin Goldman & Jennifer Lackey

    Phi Beta Kappa, the honor society, announces: Alvin Goldman [Rutgers] and Jennifer Lackey [Northwestern] are the 2015 recipients of the Martin R. Lebowitz and…

  • Iowa Bill Proposes Faculty Play “Survivor” (updated)

    A bill (Senate File 64) under consideration in the Iowa legislature, proposed by State Senator Mark Chelgren, would turn faculty positions into something like Survivor.…