methodology
TagPhilosophy: More Empirical Than Ever
“In the early 1970s, fewer than 10% of articles cited any empirical sources. However, by the 2020s, this grew to over 50%.” (more…)
Discussion Arcs for Topics and Philosophers (guest post)
When over the past 85 years have certain terms and persons been more or less frequently discussed in the philosophical literature? (more…)
When Philosophy Enters the Criminal Court: Black Male Studies as Expert Testimony (guest post)
To what extent should theoretical approaches to understanding the world offered up by the humanities be sensitive to empirical evidence? And how might the humanities be different if its scholars took the demands of evidence more seriously? The emergence of Black Male Studies provides one lens through which to look at these questions. (more…)
Philosophy Facts
Philosophy is a “fact-based discipline” that makes progress, says Bryan Frances, and to prove it he offers up “200 straightforward facts directly about philosophical matters that virtually all philosophers know and non-philosophers don’t know.” (more…)
A Brief Appreciation of Rawls
If you appreciate Rawls, you should read this brief essay by Joseph Heath. If you don’t appreciate Rawls, you should read this brief essay by Joseph Heath. (more…)
Calling Dibs in Philosophy
Barry Lam (UC Riverside) wrote recently about the practice of “calling dibs.” (more…)
Argument Isn’t Everything: On Creativity in Philosophy
“I don’t believe that arguing is usually the way we come up with good ideas. Argument might be an effective way of deciding which ideas to believe in. But adjudication is not creation. Safety inspections are important for deciding whether a building is sound. But safety inspections on their own don’t erect the building to be inspected.”
How “Originality” and “Interdisciplinarity” Can Mislead Philosophy Students (guest post)
Clarifying these expectations is not a minor pedagogical matter. It is essential to helping students succeed, avoid wasted effort, and stay motivated.
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What Can Professional Philosophers Learn from Philosophy for Children? (guest post)
“I should have presented my topic using the p4c method,” said a philosopher about about his talk at a conference on Plato’s theory of forms, after taking part in a demonstration of it. (more…)
On Social Metaphysics
“What do we want the theory for?” (more…)
A Taxonomy of “Philosophy Moves” (updated)
There is joy, and sometimes perverse satisfaction, in the work of philosophy—a rush that can be difficult to relate to those not already bitten by the bug. Philosophers find reward in deducing surprises by revealing unforeseen entailments, deriving implications of views one already holds, and delighting in the buzzy squirms that come with the resulting cognitive d..
Is Epistemology Guilty of “Institutional Neglect of Science”?
Standard Analytic Epistemology (SAE) is the name Michael Bishop (Florida State) and J.D. Trout (Illinois Institute of Technology) give to “the dominant approach to the theory of knowledge in the English-speaking world.” (more…)
What Aren’t We Philosophizing About, But Should?
“The singular magic of philosophy lies in its pairing of imaginative liberty with analytic clarity, but the field has come to privilege the latter at the expense of the former” (more…)
Academic Philosophy on “Contingent Current Affairs”
“According to one founding myth, philosophy begins in Ancient Greece with Socrates abstracting from concrete examples of just activity in order to determine the timeless and eternal essence of justice. To this day, few philosophy journals are dedicated to the analysis of historically contingent current affairs, let alone a specific event of historical significance.”..
Where Should Moral Philosophy Begin? (guest post) (updated)
“In thinking about trolley problems, to what extent have you put yourself in the shoes of the person at the switch… and to what extent have you put yourself into the shoes of those tied to the tracks?” (more…)
Royal Institute of Philosophy Essay Prizes Awarded
The Royal Institute of Philosophy has announced the winners of essay prizes for its publications Philosophy and Think. (more…)
Moral Progress & Moral Philosophers
A post by Eric Schliesser (Amsterdam) at Digressions & Impressions, responding to an essay by Daniel Kelly and Evan Westra (Purdue) at Aeon that was mentioned recently in the Heap of Links, raises questions about moral progress and the role that the work of moral philosophers plays in it. (more…)
Ethical Evidence, Ethical Experience, and Shamelessness (guest post)
“A kind of science-envy is often visible in much of what analytic philosophers have had to say about the question of evidence in ethics… In some cases, however, what deprives us of the truth is not scientism, but other forms of prejudice.”
The Curious-ers?
There are the “View X-ers” and “the Curious-ers”.
Moral Philosophy as War Propaganda (guest post)
“The hellish reality of this war is transfigured by philosophers into abstract thought experiments and technical prose.” (more…)
Is There A Sound Philosophical Method? (guest post)
“Is there a sound method for constructing and assessing philosophical theories—one capable of generating theories, in diverse subfields, that deliver philosophy’s ultimate goal?” (more…)
Team Philosophy (guest post)
“There are clear advantages to team science… Would this model work for philosophy?” (more…)
Does Studying Philosophy Develop Special Skills That Improve One’s Intuitions?
A new study suggests the answer to that question is “no.” Rather, according to the study’s authors, what explains why the intuitions about particular cases of those who’ve studied philosophy differ from others is simply that they’ve been taught the standard interpretation of those specific cases, while the others have not. (more…)
The Social Turn in Analytic Philosophy: Promises and Perils (guest post)
“The linguistic turn is over. We partied hard, got hungover, and now we’re trying to live as respectable adults… Today, a new revolution is brewing. Analytic philosophy is in the midst of a social turn.” (more…)
Some Remarks on Form in Philosophy (guest post)
“When my younger self complained angrily in the margins with scrawls of ‘where is this going?’, he missed the sights and insights that the journey itself provided.” (more…)
In Defense of Boring and Derivative Philosophy (guest post)
“Even if you prefer the sexiness of radicalism or the glory of revolution: you need boring, work-a-day normal conservative philosophy.” (more…)
Moral Dumbfounding and Philosophical Humility (guest post)
“I need to have the humility to recognize that, in this case, I have not found that truth, and that I may not ever find it. And it has also shown me that I need to be more generous to people who are dumbfounded by cases where I happen to have clear and consistent intuitions.” (more…)
Philosophers, Concepts, and Cognitive Biases
“We found some evidence of differences in conceptual competence between philosophers and laypeople, and documented a difference in linguistic diet; but these differences did not translate into different susceptibility to even the most pertinent cognitive bias, or render philosophers’ judgments appreciably more accurate.” (more…)