questions
TagThe Questions Today’s Philosophers Are Asking (for World Philosophy Day 2022)
Happy World Philosophy Day! (more…)
Why the History of Philosophy Matters to Philosophy (guest post)
“Studying the history of philosophy can help us see ourselves from the outside and that can help us inhabit philosophy from the inside.” (more…)
Organizing for Answers
Suppose the main aim of the enterprise of academic philosophy is to generate philosophical knowledge, and that said knowledge is mainly answers to big philosophical questions. How should the discipline be organized so as to best achieve this aim? (more…)
Analytic Philosophy and the Big Questions of Life
At the start of each term, Helena de Bres (Wellesley) holds “get to know you” office hours with her students. “So what made you sign up for a philosophy class?” she asks. (more…)
Kershnar Cycle Reactivated (several updates)
Every few years, it seems, someone new will learn of the work of philosopher Stephen Kershnar (SUNY Fredonia), share their shock, amusement, or outrage about it on social media, and cause a brief spike in amazed, angry, or humorous commentary about it. Then people move on and tend to forget about it… until someone new learns of it and just has to share it. Call it..
In Defense of the Details (guest post)
Are today’s younger philosophers “focusing too much on detailed investigations of individual things and not enough on the big picture”? (more…)
Good & Bad Ways to Run a Question-&-Answer Session
Over at the Blog of the American Philosophical Association, Muhammad Ali Khalidi (CUNY) raises objections to “the finger,” that is, the convention at philosophy talks “whereby a member of the audience, instead of raising a hand to ask a question, raises a finger to indicate that they have a follow-up question to the one that’s just been asked.” (more…)
Specialization, Technicality, and the Production of Philosophy
Adrian Moore, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Oxford and Tutorial Fellow at St Hugh’s College, Oxford, as well as co-editor of the journal Mind, makes some observations about academic philosophy today. (more…)
If You Could Ask A Dead Philosopher…
Suppose you could ask a dead philosopher one question. Who would you ask, and what would you ask them? (more…)
Philosophers as Discoverers of the Unknown (Questions for World Philosophy Day)
“I didn’t even know that was a question I could ask.” (more…)
Input Sought on New Questions for Upcoming PhilPapers Survey of Philosophers
A draft of the follow-up to the 2009 Philpapers survey of philosophical positions held by academic philosophers on various topics includes about 70 new questions. (more…)
Teaching Students How To Ask Philosophical Questions
“Question asking… is a skill all-too-often undervalued in philosophy pedagogy and philosophy pedagogy research”
PhilPapers Planning to Conduct 2nd Survey of Philosophers in December
David Bourget (Western University) and David Chalmers (NYU), the creators of PhilPapers and related sites, are planning a sequel to their 2009 survey of the philosophical views of professional philosophers for this December. (more…)
Should contemporary philosophers read Ockham? Or: what did history ever do for us? (guest post by Martin Lenz)
“Although we like to think that the pursuit of truth is central, it’s by far not the only reason why debates arise and certain concepts are coined and stick around, while others are forgotten.” (more…)
Why I Don’t Usually Respond to Professor Leiter: An Example
In my recent post, “It’s Complicated,” I responded to a criticism of me published by Brian Leiter at his blog, Leiter Reports.
In my post, I wrote that “I usually don’t respond to Professor Leiter’s remarks about me,” though I did not say why. One reason is that to respond adequately to them here would divert Daily Nous away from its purpose. DN is supposed to be..
Convergence as Progress in Philosophy
One type of evidence that some claim is relevant to determining whether there has been progress in philosophy is whether philosophers have converged on answers to philosophical questions. (more…)
Room for Uncertainty in Online Philosophical Communities
“Uncertainty, I once thought, is what philosophers do. Now I have doubts.” (more…)
Teaching Philosophy as the Search for Complication
Most students in philosophy classrooms in the United States are taking their first and only philosophy course. Why is it their only one? (more…)
The “New Questions of Philosophy”
“What subjects are now being confronted at the frontiers of philosophical inquiry, breaking from the familiar philosophical concerns of canonical figures like Plato, Locke, and Descartes?” That was a question raised recently by the editors of “The Masthead,” a new member-based media program at The Atlantic.
Trolley Problems: You’re Doing It All Wrong
As philosophy comes to occupy more and more of the public’s attention—which is good news—it is not surprising that a lot of that attention is directed at ideas and examples that are dramatic and easy to describe. Chief among these, it seems, is the trolley problem (it it has even shown up on a network sitcom). The trolley problem is so popular, though, that disc..
Philosophy’s Progress, If You Don’t Care Whether It’s Called Philosophy
Over at Marginal Revolution, Tyler Cowen (GMU) asks, “has there been progress in philosophy?” His answer: “there is significant and ongoing progress in philosophy, we just don’t always name it as such.” (more…)
Whether Philosophical Questions Can Be Answered
“How do you respond to those who wonder whether philosophy questions can ever be really answered once and for all and who therefore conclude it’s a waste of time?” (more…)
Syria and Misconceptions about Philosophy
In the wake of suspected recent chemical weapons attack on Syrian civilians by their own government, The Atlantic reached out to a few philosophers to learn what the “moral course of action” is for the United States. The collection of answers suggests a problem with public philosophy. (more…)
On the Usefulness of Refutation in Philosophy
“To put something forward is an act of courage, and especially when you know people are going to tear it down. But I think tearing it down is the right response.” (more…)
What Philosophers Are Asking Today (for World Philosophy Day 2017)
“What is the meaning of life?” That’s probably the question that springs to mind when a non-philosopher is asked what philosophers study. And while some philosophers do in fact work on that question, like any single question it does not capture the extraordinary range and diversity of subjects philosophers are thinking and writing about. (more…)
How Philosophy Makes Progress (guest post by Daniel Stoljar)
Does philosophy make progress? Daniel Stoljar, professor of philosophy at Australia National University, thinks it does, and he defends that idea in his new book, Philosophical Progress: In Defence of a Reasonable Optimism. In the following guest post,* he presents one kind of argument for his view. (more…)
Asking Questions at Talks and in Seminars
“It is better to remain silent at the risk of being thought a fool, than to talk and remove all doubt of it” (Maurice Switzer). Thoughts like that have inhibited many a young academic from asking questions in seminars or at talks. (more…)
The Intellectual Achievement of Creating Questions
A commonly recognized form of intellectual achievement is the correct answering of questions. This kind of achievement is not a matter of mere quantity—one doesn’t get much credit for answering easy questions or trivial ones—but also quality. What counts is providing answers that add to the store of human understanding, understood broadly. (more…)