humanities
TagHumanities Myth-Busting
A new website offers free posters, postcards, and handouts that dispel misconceptions about humanities majors. (more…)
What the Public Thinks of Philosophy and Other Humanities Fields
A new report from Humanities Indicators (a part of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences), based on a survey of over 5,000 U.S. adults, reveals and discusses various beliefs and attitudes the American public has towards the humanities, and includes information specifically about the public’s perception of and engagement with philosophy. (more…)
The Philosophy Major Is (Kind of) Back on the Rise (guest post by Eric Schwitzgebel)
New data shows a recent slight uptick in the percentage of undergraduates earning philosophy degrees. (more…)
Zena Hitz Wins 2020 Hiett Prize
Philosopher Zena Hitz, tutor at St. John’s College, is the winner of the 2020 Hiett Prize in the Humanities. (more…)
ACLS Fellowships & Philosophers
The American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) has announced the winners of some of its fellowships and grants, and there are some philosophers among them. But not many. (more…)
Faculty Non-Renewals, Staff Layoffs, and Threats to Philosophy at Ohio University
Ohio University (Athens, Ohio) has told at least 140 of its staff they will be laid off and has begun issuing non-renewal notices to both non-tenure and tenure-track faculty in an attempt to “grapple with a budget crisis that started even before the current coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.” (more…)
Two Philosophers Win National Humanities Center Fellowships
The National Humanities Center has announced its 2020-2021 residential fellows, and there are two philosophers among them. (more…)
A Way Philosophy Differs from the Other Humanities, or a Caricature of the Humanities?
Professors of the humanities make judgments about value. Art historians, literary scholars, musicologists, and classicists say to our students: These works are powerful, beautiful, surprising, strange, insightful. They are more worth your time and attention than others… Yet such judgment violates the principle of equality. So humanists have to pretend we’re not do..
Oxford Receives $189 Million Gift to Support the Humanities
Oxford University announced it has received a £150 million (approximately $189 million) “transformational investment in the way Oxford teaches, researches, and shares the Humanities.” (more…)
“The problem is not that humanities jobs are disappearing”
In an interview at Inside Higher Education, Jason Brennan (Georgetown) and Phillip Magness (American Institute for Economic Research), answer a question from interviewer Scott Jaschik about their view that universities are admitting too many PhD students. (more…)
A White Paper on Publication Ethics in Philosophy
A project that “seeks to foster greater awareness among humanities scholars and editors about ethical issues in publishing, with a focus on the discipline of philosophy” (previously) last week published a white paper with its initial findings and recommendations. (more…)
Don’t Roll Your Eyes at the Guy Who Recently “Invented Philosophy”
Philosophers may be forgiven for doing a double take at this headline at The Atlantic: “The New Science of How to Argue—Constructively“. New??? Hello there? Perhaps you’ve heard of… philosophy?
PROSE Award Winners in the Philosophy Category (Updated)
The American Association of Publishers (AAP) bestows awards on publishers for books that “demonstrate exceptional scholarship and have made make a significant contribution to a field of study.” Known as the PROSE Awards, they are given for books in various disciplinary categories, including philosophy. (more…)
Philosophy Majors Make More Money Than Majors in any other Humanities Field
Among those with bachelors degrees, the median earnings of those who majored in philosophy exceed those of majors in any other humanities field, and are the 16th highest in a study comparing salaries across 50 majors in the United States. (more…)
Has the Sharp Decline in Philosophy Majors Hit Bottom? (guest post by Eric Schwitzgebel)
The following is a guest post by Eric Schwitzgebel (University of California, Riverside), on trends in the numbers of philosophy majors, following up on previous posts on the subject), with some interesting speculation at the end about possible causes. A version of it originally appeared at his blog, The Splintered Mind.
Political Interference in Humanities Grants in Australia
The previous Australian Minister of Education, Senator Simon Birmingham, quietly vetoed Australian Research Council (ARC) funding recommendations over the past two years, denying 11 peer-reviewed humanities projects AU$4.2 million in funding, according to reports. (more…)
What Is the Best Type of Open Access for Philosophy and Other Humanities Disciplines? (guest post by Roberta Millstein)
The following is a guest post* by Roberta L. Millstein, professor of philosophy at the University of California, Davis. (more…)
“We’re Going to Get More, and More Interesting, Kinds of Philosophy”
That’s, uh, me, from a conversation with Daniel Kaufman (Missouri State) on his Sophia program on MeaningOfLife.tv. (more…)
Philanthropy for Philosophy: Fleeting Fad or Fertile Future?
“Are we on the cusp of a philosophy giving golden age?”
Claremont Graduate University Closes Philosophy Department
Claremont Graduate University has closed its philosophy department and fired its two tenured philosophy professors, according to a report at Inside Higher Ed.
Lebron Wins Hiett Prize in the Humanities
Chris Lebron, associate professor of philosophy at Johns Hopkins University, is the winner of the 2018 Hiett Prize in the Humanities. (more…)
AAUP and AAC&U Issue Statement in Defense of Liberal Arts Education
“We believe that institutions of higher education, if they are truly to serve as institutions of higher education, should provide more than narrow vocational training and should seek to enhance students’ capacities for lifelong learning” (more…)
APA, Others, Issue Statement Opposing Program Cuts at UW Stevens Point
The American Philosophical Association (APA) and 22 other academic organizations issued a statement today opposing the plans of administrators at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point (UWSP) to cease offering degrees in the humanities and social sciences. (more…)
University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point Plans To Discontinue Philosophy Program, Being a University
The University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point has announced plans to eliminate the philosophy major at its school, along with majors in American Studies, Art, English, French, Geography, Geoscience, German, History, Music Literature, Political Science, Sociology, and Spanish. (more…)
New Earnings and Employment Data on Philosophy and other Humanities Majors
Humanities Indicators, a project of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, has issued a new report concerning earnings and employment data for those with degrees in the humanities, including philosophy.
Nominations Open for $1 Million Berggruen Prize
Nominations are now open for the $1 million Berggruen Prize, which “that recognizes humanistic thinkers whose ideas have helped us find direction, wisdom, and improved self-understanding in a world being rapidly transformed by profound social, technological, political, cultural, and economic change.” (more…)
Philosophers and the Humanities
By exerting their imaginations and their talent for coming up with pesky counterexamples, probe away at the conceptual boundaries of God, free will, morality, etc, and try to determine, by the power of thought experiments alone, just what is and isn’t possible, and what conclusions are the most reasonable. (more…)
Philosophy’s Fit With The Sciences and The Humanities
“My aim has been to remind philosophers that their subject, whether or not ‘handmaiden to the sciences’, ought to be handmaiden also to the humanities”