philosopher
TagHopes For Your Philosophy Book — Its Sensible Ideas And Its Mistakes
Joseph Raz, professor of philosophy and law at Columbia University and Kings College, London, has written reflections on his well-known and nearly 30 year-old  The Morality of Freedom for a collection of critical essays by others on it, forthcoming in the Jersualem Review of Legal Studies. Rather than engage point-by-point with the criticisms the other contributors ..
The Ghost of Senator Joe McCarthy Haunts a Philosophy Graduate Student (guest post)
The following is a guest post* by Charles H. Seibert, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of Cincinnati. It is about his experiences as a politically-minded graduate student in the 1960s—and the professional consequences that followed. (more…)
Fabian Dorsch (1974-2017)
Fabian Dorsch, associate research professor of philosophy at the University of Fribourg, died unexpectedly last week. He was 42. (more…)
Tom Regan (1938-2017)
Tom Regan, professor emeritus of philosophy at North Carolina State University, died this morning. Professor Regan was known largely for his work on ethical questions regarding the treatment of animals. He developed a theory of animal rights which he put forward in his well-known book, The Case for Animal Rights. He was also a specialist on the philosophy of G.E. Mo..
Philosopher’s Comments On Immigration Cause Stir On Campus
Remarks on immigration by Dan Demetriou, associate professor of philosophy at the University of Minnesota, Morris, have been a subject of controversy at the school recently, according to Inside Higher Ed. (more…)
Raymond Smullyan (1919-2017)
Raymond Smullyan, Oscar R. Ewing Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Indiana University, Bloomington, and before that professor of math and philosophy at Lehman College (CUNY), died last week. (more…)
For The First Time, A Philosopher Is Named “University Professor” In The UC System
Forty-one professors hold the title of “University Professor” across the ten-school University of California system. The title is “reserved for scholars of international distinction who are also recognized as teachers of exceptional ability.” The latest scholar to be named a University Professor is also the first philosopher to be given the honor: John Martin Fische..
$2 Million in Fellowships for Improving Public Discourse
Humility and Conviction in Public Life, an interdisciplinary endeavor at the University of Connecticut directed by philosopher Michael P. Lynch and funded by the John Templeton Foundation, has awarded a total of $2 million to ten scholars engaged in various projects to improve public discourse. (more…)
Audio Recordings of J.L. Austin Lecture
Via Eric Johnson-DeBaufre, librarian at the Robbins Library of Philosophy at Harvard University, come a pair of audio recordings of J.L. Austin discussing performatives. (more…)
David Lewis “Letter of the Month” Series (updated)
“The Age of Metaphysical Revolution,” is a project at the University of Manchester whose aim is “to give an account of how the age of metaphysical revolution arose at the end of the twentieth century through a systematic exploration of David Lewis’ philosophy in its historical context.” (more…)
Ben Caplan from Ohio State to University of Kansas
Ben Caplan, currently professor of philosophy at Ohio State University, will become professor of philosophy at the University of Kansas, starting in Fall 2017. Professor Caplan works mainly in metaphysics and philosophy of language, and also has interests in philosophy of art and the metaphysics of gender. You can learn more about his work here. (more…)
Nussbaum Receives The “Highest Honor” Federal Gov’t Bestows for Humanities
Martha Nussbaum, the Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics at the University of Chicago, will be delivering the 2017 Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities. The Jefferson Lecture is a program of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and is “the highest honor the federal government bestows for distinguished intellectual achievement in ..
Self-Doubt and “Publish or Perish”
It took a while for Jonathan Dancy (University of Texas, University of Reading) to come around to the idea that he had any philosophical talent, he says, in an interview with Clifford Sosis (Coastal Carolina) at What Is It Like To Be A Philosopher? As a result, he did not publish much in the early part of his career.
He received his BPhil from Oxford in 1971, for w..
John Deely (1942-2017)
John Deely, Professor in Residence in philosophy at St. Vincent College, died this past Saturday. Professor Deely worked in semiotics. Prior to his appointment at St. Vincent College, he taught at the University of St. Thomas (Houston, Texas) and Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa. (more…)
From Prison in Illinois to Publication in The New Yorker with Help from a Philosophy Professor
Fifteen inmates at Statesville Correctional Center in Illinois took a course on mass incarceration with Northwestern University philosophy professor Jennifer Lackey. It was an interdisciplinary course with a range of guest lecturers, including Alex Kotlowitz, a writer and a senior lecturer in journalism at Northwestern. He gave them an assignment to write about thei..
Philosopher Wins 2 Million Euros to Study “Seeing Things You Don’t See”
Bence Nanay, professor of philosophy at the Centre for Philosophical Psychology at the University of Antwerp and Senior Research Associate at Peterhouse College at Cambridge University, has won a 2 million euro grant for his project, “Seeing Things You Don’t See.” (more…)
Derek Parfit (1942-2017) (updated)
Philosopher Derek Parfit died last night, according to several sources. He was emeritus fellow of All Souls College at Oxford University, Global Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at New York University, and also had held appointments at Harvard University and Rutgers University.
Parfit was an ingenious philosopher, by all reports a kind colleague, and an espe..
Was A Philosophy Instructor Fired To Retaliate For His Wife’s Complaint of Sexual Harassment?
English Professor Michelle Karnes claims that Stanford University did not renew the contract of her husband, philosophy instructor Shane Duarte, in order to retaliate against her for filing a sexual harassment complaint against a senior faculty member. Karnes is now associate professor of English at Notre Dame, and her husband has secured a position there as well. ..
SUNY Stony Brook’s “Alt-Right” Philosophy PhD
SUNY Stony Brook philosophy PhD Jason Reza Jorjani, who is now a lecturer in humanities at the New Jersey Institute of Technology and editor-in-chief of what appears to be an alt-right (white supremacist) publishing firm, Arktos Media, is demanding an apology from the philosophy faculty at Stony Brook, according to Inside Higher Ed.
The apology demand is prompted b..
Ann Johnson (1965-2016) (updated)
Ann Johnson, associate professor of science and technology studies at Cornell University, and prior to that associate professor of philosophy and history at the University of South Carolina, has died. She was 51. (more…)
A Broad Conception of Philosophical Skills (guest post by David Wallace)
The following is a guest post* by David Wallace, professor of philosophy at the University of Southern California, on the skills an academic philosopher needs.
Jerome A. Shaffer (1929-2016)
Jerome A. Shaffer, emeritus professor of philosophy at the University of Connecticut, died on November 17th, 2016. (more…)
Philosophy: “Not A Meritocracy”
The latest edition of What Is It Like To Be A Philosopher? is out, with Clifford Sosis (Coastal Carolina) interviewing Sally Haslanger (MIT). (more…)
Dominic Balestra (1947-2016)
Dominic Balestra, professor and chair of philosophy at Fordham University, died on November 8th, 2016. (more…)
Philosopher Refuses to Hand Over Passport; His Talks Cancelled
The other day, Jonathan Webber, a philosopher at Cardiff University, sent out a series of tweets detailing how the University of Hertfordshire, at which he was supposed to give a pair of talks, required he provide a scan of his passport in advance. (more…)
Conant Wins Humboldt Professorship
Philosopher James Conant of the University of Chicago has been named as one of three winners of this year’s prestigious Alexander von Humboldt Professorships. (more…)
Was A Philosophy Professor Fired For Refusing To Lower His Standards?
Colleges in Colorado have the option of offering “guaranteed transfer” (GT) courses. Standards for these courses are set by statewide requirements called the “GT Pathways Requirements”. The idea is that students taking GT courses at, say, a community college, are getting the kind of quality education that students at the state’s major universities are receiving, so ..
Philosopher Shirt Poll / Collaboration with Hirsute History
Daily Nous readers, here’s something cool. We’re going to help designer Jeremy Kalgreen decide who to add to his portfolio of philosopher portraits at Hirsute History. While we tend to focus on the strands of thought of the great philosophers, Kalgreen focuses on the strands of hair, and then puts the images on shirts. (more…)