advice
TagAdvice for a Philosopher Being Used By a Scam
As reported last week, there is a phony version of the International Journal of Philosophy and Theology in existence, tricking authors into submitting to it rather than to the legitimate one.
Grad Students: What Do You Wish You Knew?
It’s the start of the academic year,and for some people, the start of their graduate education in philosophy. Graduate students are getting oriented in their programs, and graduate programs are orientating their students. Are they doing a good job of it? (more…)
How To ACTUALLY Work During Summer (Ought Experiment)
Welcome back to Ought Experiment! Today’s letter is from a graduate student that’s hoping to break the cycle of unproductive summers… you know, sometime later this summer: (more…)
How To Tell People You’re Leaving Academia (Ought Experiment)
Welcome back to Ought Experiment! Today’s letter is from a philosopher who’s decided to leave the profession after several years of trying to get a tenure-track job, and is wondering how to break the news to academic friends and mentors:
Dear Louie,
After spending several years in NTT positions and failing yet again to get a TT job, I have decided to leave aca..
Getting In Next Time (Ought Experiment)
Welcome back to Ought Experiment! Today’s letter comes from a student who just struck out on all their grad school applications, and wants to know what they can do to improve their chances next time:
Dear Louie,
I have well over a 4.0 GPA, and had great letters of recommendation from my professors. I also have published one paper in an undergrad journal. On to..
Reasons to Reject an Advisee (Ought Experiment)
Welcome back to Ought Experiment! This week, a professor wonders when it’s permissible to reject a grad student’s request to serve on their committee, and how to avoid crushing a student if one does end up having to say no:
Dear Louie,
I hope you don’t think me a monster for this, but I have reason to suspect that a graduate student I’d strongly prefer not to ..
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Philosophers (Ought Experiment)
Welcome back to Ought Experiment! This week’s question is from a grad student looking for advice on the habits that make one a better philosopher. After googling “how to be a better philosopher”, I’m prepared to fake my way through a half-decent answer:
Dear Louie,
I’m curious about what habits philosophers have cultivated that are specifically geared at being..
The Value and Pressure of Academic Closeness (Ought Experiment)
Welcome back to Ought Experiment, which returns after a brief waiting-for-more-emails hiatus! (Hint hint guilt trip hint.) This week’s question is from a woman wondering if the close friendships that many grads seem to have with their professors are necessary for professional success.
Dear Louie,
What kind of relationship should you foster with your professors..
Free Resources for Philosophy Teachers
TeachPhilosophy101 is an open-source compendium of resources helpful for teaching philosophy. It’s mission is “to enhance undergraduate student learning in introductory philosophy courses by providing free, user-friendly strategies and resources to the academic community.”
The site covers everything from planning a course (including things like syllabi constructi..
Help With Philosophy Teaching
The editors of the Blog of the American Philosophical Association have begun a new series to help members of the profession with questions, challenges, and problems, about teaching philosophy. Jennifer Morton (CUNY) writes:
The Teaching Workshop is a new, regular feature on the Blog of the APA, run by the APA’s committee on the teaching of philosophy. Every other..
When Not to Help a Student (Ought Experiment)
Welcome back to Ought Experiment! A professor has written in with a question about navigating a set of incredibly vague, but incredibly important, boundaries. When students trust you, they sometimes come to you with their problems. But we can’t always help. And sometimes we shouldn’t even try…
Dear Louie,
On occasion students come to my office and confess vari..
Why Students Aren’t Reading (Ought Experiment)
Welcome back to Ought Experiment, which sadly is not a comic strip. I think this week’s question is about getting kids to do the assigned readings, but if I’m being totally honest with you here, I kind of skimmed the letter:
Dear Louie,
I can’t get my students to do the readings! Maybe a third of them will be with me for the first few weeks, but term after te..
Mistaking Criticism for Discrimination (Ought Experiment)
Welcome back to Ought Experiment! This week’s question is a sensitive one, indeed. A professor writes that s/he’s struggling to reach a grad student who apparently interprets any criticism of her work as evidence of gender discrimination:
Dear Louie,
I’m hoping you can help me with a tricky teaching situation. There’s a student in my department who has, in the..
Writers: Love Your Ideas, But Love Your Readers, Too
Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, a philosopher who has written nonfiction for non-philosophers, as well as novels, is interviewed in The Chronicle of Higher Education about writing. Some of her insights about those kinds of writing seem just as relevant to—and helpful for—the kind of writing philosophers typically do.
Chronicle: Is there a way in which writing fi..
Undergrad at Philosophical Crossroads
An undergraduate student in philosophy writes in with a question that I suspect many philosophers confronted at some point in their studies. Perhaps we can provide some assistance:
I am a philosophy student in my last year of undergrad studies in need of some advice. I am about to apply to graduate studies in philosophy but not sure what I should choose to focus ..
Trolls in the Philosophical Blogosphere (Ought Experiment)
Welcome back to Ought Experiment! We had ourselves quite the weekend, didn’t we? Well hang on to your armchairs, folks, because apparently it’s time for a Very Special Episode. After the heated conversation about professional cliques, a certain blog editor wrote in with a question about the role and consequences of anonymity in online philosophical discussion:
De..
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 ..
Introducing “Ought Experiment”
Have you ever had a problem and thought, “I bet a professional philosopher could help”? If so, you are almost certainly a professional philosopher yourself, and if so, you almost certainly do need help. Here it is. Announcing Ought Experiment, a new Daily Nous guest column offering personalized advice for your academic life.
My name is Louie Generis (no it isn’t)..
“Dirty Tricks” for Seminars and Talks (guest post)
The following guest post was authored by Josh Parsons, and originally published here on June 19th, 2015. Parsons died on April 11th, 2017. At the time of this post’s original publication, he was an associate professor of philosophy at Oxford University. He described the post as “a slightly jokey collection of what I called ‘dirty tricks for seminars’ (including some..
Hanti Lin’s “Doing a PhD and Getting a Job in Philosophy”
Check out “Hanti’s Notes on Doing a PhD and Getting a Job in Philosophy” by Hanti Lin, assistant professor of philosophy at UC Davis. It has a lot of good advice. Of particular value is the “When to do what?” section. Also, I appreciate the “Health maintenance” section, the issues under which do not get discussed as frequently as they should. Throughout the guide, L..
How To Fail Philosophy Exams
Bob Hargrave was, I am told, a much-loved lecturer in philosophy at Oxford University (he died in 2012). Among his pedagogical contributions is a document he prepared called “Rodin’s Thinker, or How To Fail Philosophy Exams.” It was written for Oxford students, but much of it is applicable to philosophy exams (and some writing assignments) given anywhere.
One gre..
Grad Traps! (Guest Post by Daniel Silvermint)
Grad students of philosophy! And other relevant parties! Behold! Daniel Silvermint, assistant professor of philosophy and women’s, gender, and sexuality studies at the University of Connecticut, has developed a list of unhelpful thoughts that might occur to you every once in a while. He calls them “grad traps,” and the idea is that if you are able to recognize t..
John Searle Assesses and Advises
Tim Crane interviewed John Searle, and all he got was a lousy t-shirt another dimissal of the state of contemporary philosophy: “It’s in terrible shape!” Searle also talks about his influences, discusses his new book on perception, makes what we can charitably call an “opening move” on the topic of human rights, and offers some advice to young philosophers:
Well, my..
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..
Advice for Grad Students and Other Conference Goers
The Pacific APA is in session and so it might be a good time to share this helpful post about good conference-going behavior (via Hannah Bondurant). From the intro:
I do… have something to say about the unwritten rules that accompany your forays into the Greater Academic World. Because when you attend conferences, colloquiums, workshops, or other group activities ..