professionalism Archives

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Apps & Other Methods for Organizing Your Academic Life

It’s the beginning of a new academic year, and a new set of graduate students are learning about all that will be expected of them as they earn their degrees. (more…)

APA Publishes “Good Practices Guide”

The American Philosophical Association (APA) has published its Good Practices Guide, “a set of recommendations to help philosophers create and maintain an academic community based on mutual respect, fairness, inclusivity, and a commitment to scholarship and learning.”

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Philosophers and Petitions

Numbers generate a pressure to believe that isn’t grounded in explanatory force, because having more and more adherents to a view doesn’t give rise to better and better accounts of why the view is correct… (more…)

Luck and Precursive Belief (guest post by Amy Olberding)

“I was lucky. There were multiple joints in this path where things could well have gone sideways. Indeed, sideways was my more natural trajectory and temperament. But my luck, I hasten to say, was not just dumb luck. Instead, much of my luck was given to me by others.” (more…)

Fawning Sycophancy Is Unprofessional, Gross, and if Ongoing, the Professor’s Fault

“I only now your beautiful and exquisite message… I thank you for your infinite understanding and sensitivities which are always beyond measure.” (more…)

Room for Uncertainty in Online Philosophical Communities

“Uncertainty, I once thought, is what philosophers do. Now I have doubts.” (more…)

APA Releases Draft of “Good Practices Guide” for Comment (reposting)

The American Philosophical Association (APA) has published a 77-page document, the “Good Practices Guide.” While some parts of the guide overlap with the recently issued APA Code of Conduct, it is “not intended to play the same role in regulating the conduct of academic life.” Rather, the guide is

a set of recommendations based upon the accumulated experi..

Reporting of Sexual Assault and Harassment in Philosophy (updated)

I recently saw a post on social media comparing the current deluge of accusations of sexual harassment and assault being made and taken seriously in entertainment, news media, and politics, with how little of that seems to be happening in philosophy. (more…)

Mentoring Workshop for Early-Career Women in Philosophy

The Mentoring Project for Early-Career Women in Philosophy, “an ongoing effort to foster mentoring relationships between senior women in the field and women just beginning their careers,” is once again offering its Mentoring Workshop. (more…)

Symbolic Conscription, Part II (guest post by Amy Olberding)

The following is a guest post * by Amy Olberding, professor of philosophy at the University of Oklahoma, in response to the discussion of Sam Liao’s post here, “How Is This Course Intro to Philosophy?” A version of it first appeared at Feminist Philosophers. (more…)

When To Say Yes & When To Say No in Academia

An assistant professor of philosophy writes in with an important question that I imagine a lot of academics spend time pondering: (more…)

Not Legally Actionable, But…

A tenure-track woman professor at a private U.S. university writes:

In light of a situation that recently came up in my department, I’ve been thinking quite a lot about the following question… I’m honestly at a loss for how to deal with this, and I’d love to hear some (sensible) thoughts of others on the issue.

The issue is this: Take it as a given that ther..

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..

Virtues of Philosophers: Humility, Curiosity, Charity, Courage, and Grace

What are the virtues of a philosopher?

I won’t pretend this is an uncontroversial question, but I leave aside the tasks of defending it and arguing for particular specifications of its concepts. What I have in mind are aspects of character in virtue of which philosophers are able to do whatever it is they are supposed to do, well—especially in light of the fact..

The Point and Practices of Conferences

Christy Wampole (Princeton) lays out a series of complaints and concerns about conferences in the humanities, including:

We have sat patiently and politely through talks read line by line in a monotone voice by a speaker who doesn’t look up once, wondering why we couldn’t have read the paper ourselves in advance with a much greater level of absorption.

We have..

Marquette Update: McAdams Sues, University Releases Report

John McAdams, the associate professor of political science at Marquette University who, in the fall of 2014, launched a political attack on philosophy graduate student Cheryl Abbate based on falsehoods, misleading claims, and a surreptitious recording of her, and who was later suspended from his position for it, is suing Marquette. The Milwaukee Wisconsin Journal Se..

A Response to Brian Leiter from the Margins (guest post by Christopher Lebron)

The following is a guest post * by Christopher Lebron, assistant professor of philosophy and African American studies at Yale University.

A Response to Brian Leiter from the Margins
by Christopher Lebron

Take a look around you. It’s a new day. Campuses around the country have put the world on notice that there is no last place of refuge for marginalization. Ap..

Hypatia Controversy Updates (updated)

Below is a list of assorted commentaries on the ongoing Hypatia controversy, mostly lifted from one of the updates on the original post on the story. Recent additions at time of posting include: (more…)

Should Professional Philosophy Be More Like Grad School?

Graduate student Nick Byrd (Florida State) sends in an interesting thought to ponder: maybe professional philosophy would be improved in certain respects if it were more like graduate school. He writes:

If grad students were paid better, I’d be a serial PhD student. Grad school seems more fun than many of the post-grad experiences I hear about. Now I am beginnin..

APA Creates Code of Conduct Task Force

In response to a petition received earlier in the year asking it to develop a professional code of conduct for philosophers, the American Philosophical Association has created a task force the aim of which is to “explore whether such a code of conduct is warranted and, if so, to develop one for board approval.” The task force was appointed by Chesire Calhoun (Arizon..

The Internet: Good for Philosophy

On a recent trip I was introduced to a senior philosopher who soon turned the conversation away from the standard opening pleasantries with this: “If it were up to me, the internet—especially blogs and social media—would go out of existence. It is just a place philosophers go to do terrible philosophy and act thoughtlessly. It’s embarrassing.”

Naturally, I aske..

Should the Philosophical Gourmet Report Continue? (Several Updates Added)

Brian Leiter (Chicago), who created and organizes a reputational survey of philosophy graduate programs known as the Philosophical Gourmet Report, is asking whether he should continue producing it. He opened a poll on the matter on his blog Tuesday evening, twice stopping and replacing the poll with new versions. The current poll is accessible through a link at the ..