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Just One-Third of Published Psychology is Reliable

A team of 270 researchers have now published the findings from their “Reproducibility Project”—an attempt to replicate the findings in published psychology papers—in Science, and the results are dismal. Nina Strohminger (Yale) and Elizabeth Gilbert (Virginia) discuss the findings in an essay at The Conversation:

Almost all of the original published studies (9..

Political Bias in Philosophy

Philosophers may be lovers of truth, but that doesn’t mean they are exempt from the cognitive biases that bedevil humans generally. Given that philosophers often have strongly-held political opinions, it’s worth asking: To what extent are their opinions conveyed in their academic writings? If political bias is present, then how does it influence the discipline? To t..

Virtual Dissertation Writing Groups

Joshua Smart at the University of Missouri writes to let graduate students know about Virtual Dissertation Groups (previously):

Virtual Dissertation Groups

While advisors and committees are important, it can be incredibly helpful to discuss one’s work with peers in a lower-stakes environment, and it can be particularly enlightening to do so with those who take..

New Journal: Australasian Philosophical Review

The Australasian Association of Philosophy (AAP) has announced that they are starting a new journal, Australasian Philosophical Review, to be launched in March, 2017. The journal will be adopting a version of an interesting format (similar to that of Ethics, Policy, & Environment):

Each issue of the *Australasian Philosophical Review* will consist of a curatorial..

What Kind of Jerk Are You?

Henry Shevlin, a PhD student at CUNY, has posted about the philosophy of jerks:

What makes someone a jerk? Is it merely being rude, or selfish, or is there something more subtle that underlies the behavior of the jerk? And just as important, how do you know if you’re a jerk yourself?

Following up on Eric Schwitzgebel’s prolific jerk work, Shevlin offers a situ..

Last Minute Course Prep Exchange

The fall term has begun at several schools and is about to begin at others, and for at least some professors that means putting the finishing touches on syllabi. Need readings suggested on Subject S? Need a piece which argues for Position P? Need a complement to Canonical Character C? Need a you get the idea and didn’t really require all of those Examples E? Fine. P..

Not Technically a Philosopher, But

Philosophers seem pretty territorial about their discipline. Whether that’s owed to high standards, insecurity, or something else, I don’t know. But we tend to be on guard when non-philosophers take up philosophical questions, cautious about assigning work in our classes that is by non-philosophers, and seemingly comfortable with deploying the phrase “not technicall..

Philosophy of Sex and Gender Course Suggestions

Jessica Wolfendale (West Virginia) writes in:

I am putting together a course proposal for an introductory Philosophy of Sex & Gender course, and I would appreciate any suggestions regarding how best to structure the course and what content to include, as well as advice about what did/didn’t work in similar courses.

Readers?

Trolls in the Philosophical Blogosphere (Ought Experiment)

Welcome back to Ought Experiment! We had ourselves quite the weekend, didn’t we? Well hang on to your armchairs, folks, because apparently it’s time for a Very Special Episode. After the heated conversation about professional cliques, a certain blog editor wrote in with a question about the role and consequences of anonymity in online philosophical discussion:

De..

Philosophy Cliques Revisited

A graduate student who prefers to remain anonymous writes in:

Is it a step in the right direction towards abolishing white male supremacy when the mansions of Hollywood are opened to millionaire actors from minority groups or when the children of the global elite are allowed behind the gates of the Ivy League? Some say we have to start somewhere and we might as w..

Back To School Supplies

As the end of summer break is in sight, it is time to get ready for school to start. The following are some back-to-school ideas, for yourself or for the other academics in your life…

Replenish your supply of pens. These write very well, especially for the price, and they take refills.

If you need a suitable way to keep track of the minutes ticking by as you..

The Job Market in the Post-APA Eastern Era

Over the past several years we have seen an increased use of video calls (e.g., Skype) as a replacement for in-person first-round interviews at the Eastern Division meeting of the APA. Though there may be some holdouts (for various reasons), the trend seems likely to continue. What have been the effects of this change, so far, on the job market? And are they saluta..

What’s Wrong? (A New Blog)

What’s Wrong? is the “not quite official” blog of the University of Colorado, Boulder’s Center for Values and Social Policy. The blog is edited by Colorado’s David Boonin, and its purpose is to provide “a forum for discussing and reporting on topics in applied normative philosophy, broadly understood to include applied ethics as well as practical subjects in social,..

Ought Experiment

Welcome to Ought Experiment! For our first advice column, an ABD grad student writes:

Over the last several years, I have repeatedly noticed a trend among professional philosophers in the blogosphere: they speak frequently of a deep, passionate love of philosophy and believe that their love of the discipline justifies the choice to pursue graduate study despite ..

Philosophers On “Irrational Man”

Irrational Man is a current movie about a despondent philosophy professor who moves to a small-town college, his relationships with a student and a fellow professor, and his commission of what the film’s press materials describe as “an existential act” which allows him to “find the will to live.” It is one of the few depictions in recent mainstream films of a philos..

Philosophy May Come to Schools in Wales

Wales is poised to scrap Religious Education lessons in its schools, it has been revealed. Instead, the Welsh Government’s Minister for Education and Skills, Huw Lewis, argued it should be renamed to focus on the teaching of “religion, philosophy and ethics”.

The Independent reports that the idea is intended both to “combat extremism” in the religious educati..

Philosopher and Activist

Lisa Guenther (Vanderbilt) is profiled in The Chronicle of Higher Education (paywalled) for both her teaching of philosophy in prisons and her activism regarding “the carceral state.”

She had been researching “the politics of confinement and the ethics of torture,” and their connection to academia, when “suddenly I realized that I really can’t do this work by sim..

Journal Rankings — Useful? (guest post by Thom Brooks)

The following is a guest post * by Thom Brooks, Professor of Law and Government at Durham University’s Law School, founding editor of the Journal of Moral Philosophy and blogger at The Brooks Blog.

Journal Rankings — Useful?
by Thom Brooks

I’ve benefited enormously from much invaluable advice over the years that has fed directly into my Publishing Advice for..

Thought Experiments and Philosophical Method

In an interview at 3:am Magazine, Richard Marshall presses Philip Kitcher (Columbia) on his criticism of a priori, thought-experiment-driven approaches to philosophy. Marshall says that a criticism of Kitcher’s view is that it “would end much typical philosophical investigation.” Kitcher replies:

Thought experiments work when, and only when, they call into action..

The SEP Turns 20!

Philosofriends, we are very fortunate to have the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. It is a tremendously useful resource, and apparently it is 20 years old, which seems impossible because I remember the internet being invented only five years ago. Stanford has put out a press release about the anniversary:

Launched two decades ago, years before Wikipedia exist..

Philosophers Win NEH Grants

Earlier this week the National Endowment for the Humanities announced funding of $36.6 million for more than 200 humanities projects. How did philosophers do? By my count, there were seven projects led by persons affiliated with philosophy departments, with their funding totaling $1.1 million. (If I missed any, please let me know.) Let’s congratulate the winners.

Keeping it Real in Philosophy: an Exchange

This summer has seen a series of guest posts by Elijah Millgram (Utah) on his new book, The Great Endarkenment: Philosophy for an Age of Hyperspecialization. One theme of the book is that there has been a steep increase in specialization that in some ways threatens knowledge. In the following post*, Millgram starts an exchange with Jerome Ravetz, author of Scientif..

Listing MA Program Placements

A student has written with a question about how MA programs should list their placements: should the program list all of the PhD programs (or other programs) to which their students were admitted, or should the program list only those PhD programs which their students ended up enrolling?

My sense is that so long as the information is very clearly labeled, either ..

Philosophy Snobbery and Communication

Scientists came to realise the media had an important role to play in communicating science. The media could not only inform the public of new discoveries, but it could educate them about the scientific method, and it could boost the visibility, esteem and trust of science as an institution. Then came the advent of “science communication” as a profession unto itself..

What Contemporary Philosophy Should the “Greats” Read? (Updated)

Suppose you could go back in time to hand a relatively recent work in philosophy to a pre-20th Century philosopher. Who would you visit, and what philosophical work would you deliver?

To put some parameters on the question:

Which philosophical work published after 1950 do you wish would have been read by which philosopher who died in 1900 or earlier?

Note: ..

The Dualism of Philosophy’s Purpose

Professional philosophers don’t present themselves as particularly wise or as people to turn to for advice about how to live. And why should we? That’s not what we were trained for when we were students and it’s not what we promise in the prospectus. I remember, as a student, asking a philosophy professor something about what I should do the following year—whether I..

A Database of Philosophical Ideas

PhilosophyIdeas is a searchable database of philosophical ideas compiled by Peter Gibson and built by Martin Berry. Users can search and sort ideas by theme, author, and text. The site has been around for years, but somehow escaped my attention until recently when I saw a tweet from Gibson: “Latest upload. Now over 17,000 philosophical ideas in the catalogue, each o..

We Are Not Human Individuals

Unbeknownst to many people, our emotions, cognition, behavior, and mental health are influenced by a large number of entities that reside in our bodies while pursuing their own interests, which need not coincide with ours. Such selfish entities include microbes, viruses, foreign human cells, and imprinted genes regulated by viruslike elements. This article provides ..