philosophy
TagPhilosophy Departments Under Threat: Information, Pro-Active Strategies, Defense
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Many philosophy departments and programs have been targeted for cuts or elimination over the past several years, and many currently are undergoing reviews by administrators looking to make budget cuts or other changes that may end up negatively affecting philosophy departments. (more…)
Patriotism, etc.
In light of Donald Trump’s election victory, there are both substantive and strategic reasons to take up questions about what patriotism is and what it asks of us.
What Philosophical Idea Or Position Do You Find The Scariest?
It’s Halloween, and philosophers everywhere are dressing up as obscure ideas and concepts that they’ll have to spend too much time explaining. Costumes are fun, but let’s not forget the horror, shall we? (more…)
Some Very Good Recent Philosophy Articles
Let’s call a philosophy article “recent” if it has been published in the past five years. (more…)
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…)
Mentoring Workshop for Early Career Women in Philosophy
The Mentoring Workshop for Early Career Women in Philosophy is seeking both mentees and mentors for its next installment, which is taking place in June, 2025. (more…)
“The Constraints Imposed by the Discipline”
“When I finished my dissertation, a professor who had served on the admissions committee six years earlier told me that I was more interesting when I arrived. Philosophical training is something to survive, and this professor wasn’t sure I had made it.” (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…)
Philosopher Sara Green Wins Royal Danish Academy’s Silver Medal
Sara Green, a philosopher of science at the University of Copenhagen, is the recipient of this year’s Silver Medal from the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters. (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.”..
New “Human-Centered AI Lab” at Oxford
The Human-Centered AI Lab (HAI Lab) is a new initiative at the University of Oxford that aims to “create a space for technologists and philosophers to collaborate on translating philosophical concepts into open-source software and AI systems, fostering a vibrant community for big-picture thinking about a future of AI that enhances human flourishing.” (more…)
What’s Up With the World Congress of Philosophy?
The World Congress of Philosophy (WCP), which takes place every five years, convened in Rome earlier this month. The WCP typically has a very large program—around 550 pages long this year—and from what I’ve heard, with over 1000 speakers, the conference was somewhat overwhelming. Also underwhelming. (more…)
The 378 Most-Cited Contemporary Authors in the SEP (guest post) (updated)
The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (SEP) is one of the most widely respected online reference works. Many philosophers and students have found it to be invaluable, and even non-philosophers have marveled at it. (more…)
New Master’s Program Brings Together Philosophy & Data Science
A new master’s program offered by the Center for Philosophy, Science, and Policy (CPSP) at the Marche Polytechnic University combines data analysis, machine learning, programming, and philosophy. (more…)
New: an MA Program in Philosophy & Computing
The University of Bayreuth is launching a new interdisciplinary Master’s degree (MA/MSc) in Philosophy & Computer Science. (more…)
Addicted to Philosophy
“I was trapped in the feeling that philosophy was all important and that anything and everything—including my well being—can be sacrificed for it. This is the core of my addiction to philosophy. I couldn’t stop doing philosophy.” (more…)
When the Text Tickles You
Every once in a while it happens. (more…)
The Curious-ers?
There are the “View X-ers” and “the Curious-ers”.
New Podcast: Doing Philosophy (plus: Confidence in Philosophy)
“You shouldn’t be super confident in philosophy.” (more…)
Journalists and Philosophy
“Why is that philosophy is glaringly absent in Indian newspaper journalism that otherwise seamlessly synthesises ideas from numerous disciplines while discussing a topic?” (more…)
Maley Wins Herbert A. Simon Award
The executive board of the International Association for Computing and Philosophy (IACAP) has selected Corey J. Maley, associate professor of philosophy at Purdue University, as the winner of its 2024 Herbert A. Simon Award for Outstanding Research in Computing and Philosophy. (more…)
Philosophers: the Original “Dishabituation Entrepreneurs”
“We have come to believe that it is not possible to understand the current period—and the shifts in what counts as normal—without appreciating why and how people do not notice so much of what we live with.” (more…)
The Influence of Translations in Philosophy: The Case of the Tractatus
You know that famous last line of Wittgenstein’s Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, “Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent”? That’s not quite what he said, according to Damion Searls, whose new translation of the book comes out this month. It was more like, “We mustn’t try to say what cannot be said.” (more…)
Philosophy’s Digital Future (guest post)
“The crucial question for any academic system is how filtering works. Information is cheap. What we want is some way to identify the most valuable information.” (more…)
Philosophy, Creativity, and AI
“I sincerely believe that to save the humanities, within which I include philosophy, we are going to have to reconceive what we do as at least in part a creative endeavor—literary, artistic, imaginative, playful, in short, all those things of which a human spirit is capable, and a machine never will be.” (more…)
Philosophical Norms & Cancel Culture
There are “certain norms that prevail in the discipline of philosophy that are threatened by the new communication environment,” according to Joseph Heath (Toronto). (more…)
Notably Good Experiences with Philosophy Journals
As stories of philosophy journal horror stories continue to come in, one commenter made a suggestion.
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…)