Tag: philosophy

Philosophy and Culture

“Motivational” Posters from Philosophers

February 18, 2015

Flavorwire posts a set of (de)motivational posters featuring quotes “from your favorite depressing philosophers.” Philosophers, I think we can do better. My attempts: These…
Awards Grants Honors

Arizona’s Freedom Center Wins $2.9m Grant

February 17, 2015

The John Templeton Foundation has awarded a $2.9 million grant to the University of Arizona’s Center for the Philosophy of Freedom, which is directed…
Conferences

Invite-Only and Cliquey Conferences

February 16, 2015

In the discussion of the “Networking and Merit” post last week there were a number of comments (including a few that did not get…
Issues in the Philosophy Profession

Networking and Merit in Philosophical Success

February 12, 2015

Critiquing the Philosophy Tag game, commenter “Aspasia,” a tenure-track professor, worries about it “perpetuating the status quo of getting somewhere by networking rather than…
Graduate Programs

PhilWiki News

February 6, 2015

Shawn Miller (UC Davis) writes in with some news about the good work being done at PhilWiki: Benedict Eastaugh (Bristol) has created PhilMath.net, which…
Philosophy and the Sciences

More on Innate Talent and Philosophy (updated)

February 5, 2015

Alison Gopnik (Berkeley) has written a piece for the Wall Street Journal about the study by Sarah Jane Leslie et al that we discussed last…
Events

Summer Programs for Philosophy Undergraduates

February 4, 2015

Here’s some information about two summer programs for undergraduates thinking about continuing their studies in philosophy. First, there’s the 2015 Summer Program for Women in Philosophy:…
Philosophy Job Market

Posting About New Hires

February 4, 2015

I’ve received a couple of inquiries as to whether I’ll be hosting a thread for people to post hires, and the answer is no. Instead,…
Daily Nous Features, Lives of Philosophers

Hobbies of Philosophers: Meg Wallace

February 3, 2015

For the second installment of our Hobbies of Philosophers series, I talked with Meg Wallace (Kentucky). Meg works on metaphysics and philosophy of language,…
Publishing

Guarding the Guardians (or Editors) (3 updates)

February 2, 2015

The reason your paper is listed as ‘editor assigned’ is that I’m going to review it myself. In the wake of the recent discussion here…
Issues in the Philosophy Profession

Banning the Guilty?

February 2, 2015

A philosophy professor who wishes to remain anonymous writes in with the following question: If a member of the philosophical profession has been found…
Philosopher Demographics

Why Are So Many Philosophers of Religion Theists?

January 30, 2015

72.8% of the 3226 philosophers who took the PhilPapers survey in 2009 said that they accept or lean towards atheism. Among philosophers of religion,…
Philosophy and Culture

Philosophers Talk Football

January 30, 2015

Hey, so, uh, the Superbowl…. That’s all I got, but feel free, folks. (images from Academic Coach Taylor)
Philosophy Websites

New Site for Discussions of Discrimination & Disadvantage

January 26, 2015

Discrimination and Disadvantage is a new blog developed by Thomas Nadelhoffer (College of Charleston) and Kevin Timpe (Northwest Nazarene U.) for discussions about the philosophy of discrimination and…
Philosophy and the Sciences

Philosopher Launches Global Health Impact Initiative

January 26, 2015

The Global Health Impact is an initiative created by Nicole Hassoun, associate professor of philosophy at SUNY Binghamton, that evaluates and compares the health…
Lives of Philosophers

Life as a Philosophy Student in North Korea

January 22, 2015

A philosophy student who defected from North Korea provides some information about life as a philosophy student there in a recent interview (part of…
Philosophical Resources

Ancient Scrolls of Philodemus, Carbonized by Vesuvius, Now Readable

January 20, 2015

Using a technique known as x-ray phase-contrast tomography (XPCT), a research team in Italy has figured out a way to read the text of…
Philosophy and Culture

A “Nonproblematic” Black Philosopher

January 16, 2015

Mabogo More, who was recently awarded the Frantz Fanon Lifetime Achievement award by the Caribbean Philosophical Association, is profiled in the Mail & Guardian. More held…
Philosophy and Culture, Public Philosophy and Outreach

The Philosophy of Philosophical Institutions

January 13, 2015

Robert Frodeman and Adam Briggle (both of the University of North Texas) have published an essay, “Socrates Untenured,” at Inside Higher Ed that makes a case…
Teaching

Mapping Philosophical Arguments

January 12, 2015

The students sit in pairs at a computer terminal, and after reading Cullen’s synopsis of a particular argument, they try to map it. The…

Heap of Links

“Proportional to student body size,” the number of students majoring in philosophy at Harvard is “about 10 times the national average” — why is philosophy doing so well there?
A philosophy prof’s mission statement: “reproducing the foundations of Western civilization, one lecture at a time” — one challenge, says Joseph Heath, is that "the two sets of governing principles in our society—liberalism… and capitalism—are second-best arrangements"
“Philosophy: head and heart” — Stephen Darwall's 2024 Dewey Lecture
Is there anything to the concept of “intrinsic human dignity”? — yes, says Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, and "it names a burden as much as a distinction"
“Intuition is the cognitive means by which the conceptual structure of a situation is revealed to us” — whether that situation is a stylized thought experiment or a real world experience, says Marc A. Moffett
“Professors can’t fix the problem on their own” — Victor Kumar on what university administrators need to do address AI's threat to higher education
“The wall between jus ad bellum and jus in bello, which had sustained his theory for almost half a century, was no longer sturdy” — a profile of Michael Walzer, focusing on his thoughts about just war theory and the Israeli-Palestine conflict
We may think that we lose something significant when AI beats us to a discovery — if we do, Daniel Greco says, that seems to imply we gained something significant, too
“Once upon a time there were a couple of handsome naturalistic philosophers working in and around the philosophy of fiction” — thoughts on new directions in philosophy of fiction, from several philosophers
What is the debate over whether trans women are women even about? — Katie Zhou argues that it's about which facts are granted "the cross-contextual significance and stickiness characteristic of gender"
We’re putting human brain cells into mice brains — One moral risk of this, says Mackenzie Graham, is a decrease in our ability to interpret what mice behavior tells us about their experiences and welfare
The Rawls Game — with instructions, background, advice, and downloadable character cards
“The central question would shift from ‘How do we maximize shareholder value?’ to ‘How do different forms of organization distribute power, risk and reward — and which should we strengthen?'” — Chris Marquis on the case for abolishing, or at least radically changing, business schools
Asking “How did I get here?” may help us reflect on the nature of personal identity in ways that asking “Who am I?” cannot — Marya Schechtman's 2024 Central Division Meeting Presidential Address
“Collecting is a game, but what kind of game? It is an imperfect information game of acquisition” — a theory of collecting, from Steven Hales
“A general human tendency: to overestimate how far we have come in the progress of human knowledge” — a lengthy interview with Thomas Nagel
“Many couples do not survive trauma like this” — A profile of Susan Brison—who was brutally attacked in 1990, and who wrote about it in Aftermath—and her husband, Thomas Trezise, who has now written his own book stemming from those events
“Bad AI Consciousness Takes” Bingo Card — Henry Shevlin's area of specialization is becoming a popular topic in popular discourse, and he can't stand the "cavalcade of terrible takes"
Does the principle of sufficient reason imply panpsychism? If it does, do we then ponens or tollens? — Sam Kimpton-Nye on these questions and the "demand for intelligibility"
PTSD flashbacks may be harmful, but they may also be helpfully “resupplying phenomenal experience” to those who, owing to trauma, are “grasp alienated” — Michaela McSweeney on trauma and "madness-as-strategy"

All Links →

Latest Comments

Felix on The Vanderbilt Report’s Sub-Report on Philosophy
Authorship of pseudoscience does indeed seem to count as "subversion of scholarly norms for political purposes," and anti-trans philosophers (yourself included) are very much guilty of that. On…
Felix on The Vanderbilt Report’s Sub-Report on Philosophy
The sub-report acknowledges the increasingly hostile environment that queer and trans people find themselves in (pages 10-11), but fails to make mention of the active role that anti-trans…
Meme on The Vanderbilt Report’s Sub-Report on Philosophy
This example makes it hard for me to generalize beyond your experience. Are there other examples you had in mind, perhaps from your engagements with other scholars in…
Moti Gorin on The Vanderbilt Report’s Sub-Report on Philosophy
Weinberg writes: "People who have been called deluded perverts or transphobic Nazis by each other in political discourse online are unlikely to convince themselves of their opponent’s ability…
Nick Laskowski on The Vanderbilt Report’s Sub-Report on Philosophy
I'm a metaethicist by training but I've been actively contributing to the social philosophy research community (i.e. publishing, refereeing, conferencing, mentoring, etc.) for about six or so years…
norms are not cheap explanations! on The Vanderbilt Report’s Sub-Report on Philosophy
I'll take your point on the behaviors by (social media active) *philosophers* of science, but "the philosophy of science applied to covid-related topics had none of this" suggests…
Felix on The Vanderbilt Report’s Sub-Report on Philosophy
I think pointing out that anti-trans commentary is correlated "with power in a generic national sense" is indeed relevant if one wants to claim that such commentary is…
Eric winsberg on The Vanderbilt Report’s Sub-Report on Philosophy
Omg. I was accused of being a eugenics supporter. Of agreeing with lt governor of Texas that old people should just die. People i never engaged with blocked…
Meme on The Vanderbilt Report’s Sub-Report on Philosophy
I’m not mocking anyone, and no, I don’t agree with the tacit implication that every comment on a blog post has to contribute to discussion. Sometimes it’s okay…
On the Market Too on The Vanderbilt Report’s Sub-Report on Philosophy
Correlations with power can vary across different contexts. A correlation with power in a generic national sense does not entail that the correlation holds within the academy or…
norms are not cheap explanations! on The Vanderbilt Report’s Sub-Report on Philosophy
Why? (A genuine question. I don't see why the hypothesized social mechanism would be expected to manifest in a population the way you describe, as opposed to many…
norms are not cheap explanations! on The Vanderbilt Report’s Sub-Report on Philosophy
Diogenes also contributed to the actual discussion
Moti Gorin on The Vanderbilt Report’s Sub-Report on Philosophy
"Rather, I am just saying that Fine and Rosen overlooked one source of what they characterize as a “distorted” scholarly ecosystem which they find “surprising” and “puzzling”." If…
Dr. M. An adjunct on The Vanderbilt Report’s Sub-Report on Philosophy
The report concerns specifically politicization of teaching and research, not the overall state of academic philosophy. Dunking with memes is nice and all, but perhaps we should aim…
CMP on The Vanderbilt Report’s Sub-Report on Philosophy
Thanks! My language is a clear indication of being disconnected – and being Spanish-English bilingual might be informing my word choices as well. I counted the syllabi -…