writing
TagThe Various Literary Forms of Philosophy (guest post)
“What are the literary forms philosophy can come in? Judging by contemporary works it seems the best way to express our ideas is in 8000-word journal articles, monographs, the occasional op-ed. But there are so many literary forms to do philosophy in.” (more…)
Failure, Stealth, and Philosophy
“Every success is the tip of an iceberg of failure.”
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Philosophy Books for Alan Lightman
Yesterday, in an interview in The New York Times, physicist and novelist Alan Lightman made a wish—a wish the readers of Daily Nous are well-positioned to grant, or at least point out how it has been granted. (more…)
New Academic Interview Site: “The Workbench”
The Workbench is a new site for “conversations with academic writers on their craft,” created by Nathan Ballantyne, associate professor of philosophy, cognition, and culture at Arizona State University (ASU). (more…)
Dyslexia, Dysgraphia, and Academic Philosophy (guest post)
An undergraduate student in philosophy has been wondering whether their dyslexia gives them a strong reason to avoid pursuing graduate study and a career in academic philosophy. (more…)
Virtual Dissertation Writing Groups
Trade Secrets: From Academic Literature to Trade Books (guest post)
Erik Angner, professor of practical philosophy at Stockholm University, has authored a book intended not mainly for academic readers, but for the general public—a trade book, as they’re known. Switching from writing academic articles and getting them published to writing How Economics Can Save the World and getting it published was a process he found surprisingly ..
How Often Are Philosophy Articles Actually Cited? Encouraging News (guest post)
In the following guest post, Eric Schwitzgebel (UC Riverside) recounts what he found when, prompted by claims about how infrequently academic philosophy articles are cited, he looked at the citation rates of articles published in a few journals a decade ago. (more…)
Philosophical Dialogues: Beyond The Usual Suspects
About five years ago I posted about philosophical dialogues, but I recently received a question about them that wasn’t taken up in that post, or by those responding to it. (more…)
Philosophy’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…)