writing
TagPhilosophy’s Most Beautiful Sentence or Paragraph
Conversation Starter: Teaching Philosophy in an Age of Large Language Models (guest post)
Over the past few years we have seen some startling progress from Large Language Models (LLMs) like GPT-3, and some of those paying attention to these developments, such as philosopher John Symons (University of Kansas), believe that they pose an imminent threat to teaching and learning (for those who missed its inclusion in the Heap of Links earlier this summer, yo..
Virtual Dissertation Writing Groups
The Philosophy Guild (guest post)
“Most contemporary philosophy writing is just bad writing… How did things go so wrong? It’s tempting to declare that philosophers are simply terrible writers, but I think that’s a mistake…” (more…)
“Most scholarship is… not going to live forever. Is it therefore not worth doing?”
Writer B.D. McClay was prompted to ask the question in the above headline by remarks from Jason Stanley (Yale), who on Twitter said, “I would regard myself as an abject failure if people are still not reading my philosophical work in 200 years. I have zero intention of being just another Ivy League professor whose work lasts as long as they are alive.” (more…)
Great Opening Lines of Philosophy Articles and Books
What are the best opening lines of philosophy articles and books?
Virtual Dissertation Writing Groups
Book Manuscript Workshops
Wouldn’t it be useful to have a group of people read your book manuscript and have a discussion about it with you?
New Site for Publicly Commenting on Philosophy Papers
A pair of philosophers have developed what they call “the first centralized forum for discussion of all papers uploaded on PhilArchive and PhilPapers.” (more…)
Fraser Wins Sanders Epistemology Prize
The Marc Sanders Foundation has announced that the winner of its 2021 Epistemology Prize is Rachel Fraser, associate professor of philosophy at the University of Oxford. (more…)
New Philosophy Magazine Releases Inaugural Issue
The first issue of The Raven: A Magazine of Philosophy has been published. (more…)
Citations and the Ethics of Credit
A philosopher putting together resources for a professionalization seminar for graduate students in his department writes in with concerns about the “ethics of credit” in philosophy. (more…)
How Much Do Philosophy Professors Grade?
A professor at a liberal arts college writes in because she has seen signs of confusion in her department about “what is manageable or expected” in the number and kind of assignments students have to complete in a course “when the professor does the grading.” (more…)
Which Philosopher Co-Authors Most?
In the wake of last week’s post about trends in co-authoring in philosophy, a discussion has been taking place on Twitter about which philosophers co-author the most. (more…)
Rejection After Positive Referee Reports
When an author gets all fairly positive referee reports (acceptance, conditional acceptance) on a manuscript, but the editors decide not to accept it, what kind of explanation, if any, is it reasonable for the author to expect? (more…)
Levelling the Linguistic Playing Field within Academic Philosophy (guest post)
Stylistic norms for writing affect philosophers’ professional prospects in unfair ways, and what one thinks should be done about this may be tied to one’s conception of what philosophy is supposed to do. (more…)
Virtual Dissertation Writing Groups
Joshua Smart (Southern Illinois University—Edwardsville) is once again organizing virtual dissertation writing groups. (more…)
A Philosopher Helps A Former Prisoner Dig Deep Into His Experiences, Thoughts, and Art
“I realized I couldn’t be what the officials were expecting of me. You got to put that in your head so they can’t break you. They want to break you. If you’re not broken, they say you’re crazy.” (more…)
Types of __________ Papers (updated)
Last week, Randall Munroe, author of the famed webcomic xkcd published a comic about “Types of Scientific Paper“: (more…)
Jargon for Trouble (guest post by Maximilian Noichl)
The following guest post* was prompted by last week’s inquiry about whether philosophy papers with more jargony titles get cited less. Maximilian Noichl (University of Vienna), whose work has been featured at Daily Nous before, turned to the question over the past weekend, and describes his findings below. (more…)
Jargon & Citation in Philosophy
A study of papers published in academic science journals on the topic of “cave science” found that “papers containing higher proportions of jargon in their titles and abstracts were cited less frequently by other researchers.” (more…)
Notably Good Experiences with Philosophy Journals
As stories of philosophy journal horror stories continue to come in, one commenter made a suggestion. (more…)
Philosophy Journal Horror Stories (updated)
By request, here is a post for people to share their journal “horror stories.” (more…)
The Art of Philosophical Writing: An Interview with William Lycan (by Nathan Ballantyne)
“There has to be a balance between the formal and the conversational.” (more…)
“Biting the Bullet”: A Note on Style from Caspar Hare
In his 2013 book, The Limits of Kindness, Caspar Hare (MIT) includes a brief “stylistic note” that gets across an important lesson for academic writers: don’t overestimate the familiarity of your readers with specialist terminology—even when the intended readers are others in your discipline. (more…)
Virtual Dissertation Groups for Spring 2021
Once again, Joshua Smart is organizing workshopping groups for philosophy graduate students currently writing dissertations. (more…)
How to Publish a Journal Article in Philosophy: Advice for Graduate Students and New Assistant Professors (guest post)
In the following guest post,* Eric Schwitzgebel, professor of philosophy at the University of California, Riverside, shares his “possibly quirky advice” about publishing in philosophy journals. (more…)
A Norm for Self-Citation (guest post by Colin Klein)
“How to self-cite without giving away your identity? I’ve seen two ways of doing it over the years. One is great, and one is really frustrating. We should all stop doing the frustrating one.” (more…)