metaphilosophy
TagToward a More Expansive Conception of Philosophy (guest post by Angela Potochnik)
To whom are we as philosophers speaking and responding; whom do we judge as being worthy of dialogue and, hopefully, our intellectual contributions? (more…)
No Escape from Metaphysics
I think the contemporary scene is thriving. But you still run into critics of metaphysics. I find these critics genuinely puzzling. Let me try to explain why. (more…)
To Identify as a Philosopher and ‘Insane’
To identify as a philosopher and “insane” isn’t quite oxymoronic, but it is certainly something that I didn’t want to risk until very recently. (more…)
The Margins of Philosophy (guest post by Peter Adamson)
“We need to understand the ‘minor figures’ to understand the ‘major figures’ adequately. But that’s not the only reason to be interested in minor figures, or to bring them to the attention of a wider audience. There is also the fact that apparently minor figures are sometimes major figures.” (more…)
Rigor in Math
Sometimes progress requires rigor, and sometimes progress can’t wait for rigor—at least in math. (more…)
Shapiro Wins C$2.78 Million Grant for New Narratives in the History of Philosophy
Lisa Shapiro, professor of philosophy at Simon Fraser University, has won a C$2.78 million (approximately $2.04 million) grant to support her project, “Extending New Narratives in the History of Philosophy.” (more…)
Public Philosophy and the Civic Duty of Universities (guest post by Angie Hobbs)
“Like Plato’s Academy, the majority of modern universities should be civic institutions that engage with, learn from, and enhance the well-being of their local communities…. Each philosophy department should contain at least one member engaged in public interaction.” (more…)
Popular Philosophy and Populist Philosophy (guest post by Timothy Williamson)
“Philosophy is even harder than it seems; the right response to its difficulty is not to trash all the work already done by thousands of highly gifted and knowledgeable men and women.”
The Philosophy of Popular Philosophy: A Miniseries (guest post by Aaron Wendland)
The following is the first installment of a miniseries on “The Philosophy of Popular Philosophy.” The series is being guest-edited by Aaron James Wendland, assistant professor of philosophy at National Research University Higher School of Economics in Moscow, Russia, and philosophy editor at The New Statesman. In the following post, he discusses the relationship bet..
Fast Science and the Philosophy of Science (guest post by Jacob Stegenga)
“So much science having so much impact, yet philosophers of science have been relatively quiet…” (more…)
The Origins of Analytic Philosophy
“I find the usual story exaggerated, incomplete, and mistaken in various ways.” (more…)
“There is no philosophical essence”
“The question I regularly encountered, and still do, is: Is that still Philosophy?” (more…)
Intuitions, Common Sense, and “Earning the Right” to Judgments about Philosophy
“Intuitions and common sense are not, I claim, a good basis on which to reach philosophical conclusions.” (more…)
Improvement in Philosophy over Time
“If Aristotle lived today, there is no way that he would be an Aristotelian.” That winning line is from a recent critique of the history of philosophy by Michael Huemer (Colorado). (more…)
“As science advances, there is more, not less, for philosophy to do”
In a recent interview, Scott Soames, distinguished professor of philosophy at the University of Southern California, offers up a description of philosophy. It’s a version of one in his recent book, The World Philosophy Made. (more…)
Philosophical Intuitions and Demographic Differences
Philosophers are disagreeing over what lessons should be learned from the growing body of work on the interplay between demographics and philosophical intuitions. (more…)
Philosophy and “The Empirically Tractable”
I think you are right to be suspicious of the tendency of this institutional paradigm to postulate truths that are ‘basic’, ‘ultimate’ or ‘fundamental’ just at the point where things begin to look interesting or problematic from the point of view of those we in the profession pretentiously refer to as ‘non-philosophers’. (more…)
Philosophers as Discoverers of the Unknown (Questions for World Philosophy Day)
“I didn’t even know that was a question I could ask.” (more…)
Common Sense and Philosophical Method
What’s the relationship between common sense and philosophy?
How Do I Figure Out What To Think? (guest post by Martin Lenz)
“Picking a side helps you to play the game. But it doesn’t help you in figuring out what you should think. In other words, in order to work out what to think, you don’t have to pick a side at all.” (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..
The Current State of Early Modern Philosophy
“While no one was looking, contextualism replaced rational reconstructionism (also known as ‘appropriationism,’ ‘presentism,’ and ‘collegialism’) as the dominant methodology among English-speaking early modern historians of philosophy.” (more…)
Agnes Callard’s List of “views that are considered controversial that shouldn’t be”
“There’s no such thing as being good or bad at philosophy.” (more…)
Contemporary Philosophy Is “Only the Most Recent Part of the History of Philosophy”
Why study the history of philosophy? That’s a question Clifford Sosis (Coastal Carolina) asks Peter Adamson (LMU) in a new interview at What Is It Like To Be A Philosopher? (more…)
Study on the Personality and Reasoning of Philosophers
A new study is underway to learn about the relationship between personality and reasoning among philosophers. (more…)
A Map of Philosophical Ideas, Works, and Figures
A new visualization of the world of philosophy has been released. Pitched as Google Maps meets PhilPapers, philosophies.space maps philosophy with reference points to subject areas and publications. (more…)
A Map of Correlated Philosophical Positions
Using data from the PhilPapers Surveys, Quentin Ruyant, a post-doc at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, has created a map showing the correlation of positions held by philosophers on different philosophical topics. (more…)
Naturalism, Science, and the Possibility of Philosophy
“It is perfectly possible to do philosophy (even metaphysics or epistemology) if you do not believe that your views about mind, language, and reality can be used to ground (or dismiss) science.” (more…)