December 2014
T-Shirt Update and Charity Poll (updated)
The first ever Daily Nous t-shirt sale is over. An elite group of 38 people with apparently really good taste were lucky enough to secure their shirts during the limited sale period, raising $190 for charity. While the shirts are being made, we have a decision to make: which charity? I’ve selected a few of the suggestions from the previous thread for us to choose am..
UK’s Research Excellence Framework (REF) & Philosophy
A few days ago, the results from the UK government’s 2014 Research Excellence Framework (REF) exercise were released. I suspect that a lot of non-UK readers are largely unfamiliar with the REF, so first some basics:
The REF is used by the government to assess the quality of research in UK higher education institutions. It replaced the earlier Research Assesment E..
APA 2014 Guide to Graduate Programs
The American Philosophical Association (APA) has released its 2014 Guide to Graduate Programs in Philosophy. The guide provides information on faculty, program strengths, placement, financial aid, and demographics. The APA notes: “All data in the guide are self-reported by representatives of the institutions, and data are included only for institutions that complete..
UNC Trying to Fire Jan Boxill
The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, is trying to fire philosopher Jan Boxill for her role in widespread academic fraud at UNC, according to an Associated Press report:
Steps to terminate University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill philosophy professor and former faculty leader Jeanette Boxill started on Oct. 22, the same day that a scathing report into..
Drop in Graduate Applications?
A philosopher who prefers to remain anonymous has noticed a marked drop in applications to his graduate program and is wondering whether this is part of a general trend. As such information might be useful to the profession as a whole, please consider sharing any knowledge you have regarding increases or decreases in the recent volume of applications to the PhD and ..
Overheard at the 2014 APA Eastern / Open Thread
This could be a terrible idea. Let’s find out!
Any and all attendees of the 2014 APA Eastern are welcome to post their observations, news, comments, complaints, quips, etc., about stuff going on there, here.
Creativity, Hierarchy, and Authenticity in Professional Philosophy
What would motivate a person to write a dissertation prospectus in the manner of Wittgenstein’s Investigations? And what happens when one does? Bharath Vallabha tells us. Here’s an excerpt:
One of the key ideas of Cavell’s, and Goldfarb’s, interpretation of Wittgenstein is that key moves in philosophy are often the ones made at the very beginning, in the very w..
Marquette: An Update (several updates)
The Marquette University administration continues to figure out what to do in response to associate professor of political science John McAdams’s unprofessional and harassing conduct towards philosophy graduate student Cheryl Abbate (previously), the abusive hate mail and commenting it led to, the media attention it generated, the visit by Westboro Baptist Church, a..
T-Shirt Charity Fundraiser!
Available to order now through Friday: the first (and possibly last) Daily Nous t-shirt! It’s a black shirt, all-cotton, that features a design with a quote from Socrates — one that captures the heart of the philosophical disposition — along with some of the surrounding text. I am selling it to raise funds for a charitable cause. No, the charitable cause is not ..
Bye, 2014
I wasn’t quite sure how to wrap up the year. A parody of Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off”? Too cheesy. A video montage of action sequences from a year of blogging (me, staring at phone; me, sitting in front of laptop; etc.)? Too boring. An ironic play in which an enormous baby keeps whining about infantilism? Too realistic. A grandiose statement about progress in the p..
The Most Impressive Philosopher You’ve Met
Philosophy Bites has compiled the answers philosophers have given to the question, “Who is the most impressive philosopher you’ve ever met?” I am listening to it now. It is delightful to hear the admiration and smiles and warmth in the voices of these philosophers as they name and explain their choices. Feel free to discuss their choices, or add your own, in the com..
The Ethics of Friending in Academia
In a column at The Chronicle of Higher Education, David Perry discusses some of the complications for people in academic organizations using social media like Facebook. How should we engage with others on social media? Here are his suggestions:
Be aware of workplace hierarchies and your position in them.
You get to choose whether to “friend up” to people more..
Leiter Threatens Jenkins & Ichikawa with Legal Action (updated)
Jonathan Ichikawa (UBC) reports that he and his wife, Carrie Jenkins (UBC), have received from a Toronto lawyer a notification that Brian Leiter (Chicago) is prepared to take legal action against them in the Courts of Canada over “various Internet postings which he alleges defame him.”
Leiter claims to have been attacked or defamed by:
- Carrie’s pledge on her ..
New Hires at Western Ontario
New Political Philosophy Prize
David Sobel (Syracuse) announces the creation of the Marc Sanders Prize in Political Philosophy:
The Marc Sanders Prize in Political Philosophy is a biennial essay competition open to scholars who, at the time of submission deadline, are within fifteen (15) years of receiving a Ph.D. or are students currently enrolled in a graduate program. Independent scholars may..
Westboro Baptist Church to Picket Marquette (updated)
The Westboro Baptist Church, a bizarre anti-gay cult comprised largely of the extended family of its late founder, is planning to picket on the campus of Marquette University this Sunday (correction: next Monday) morning, citing Fox News’ misleading account of Marquette graduate student Cheryl Abbate’s handling of an undergraduate’s desire to discuss same-sex marri..
Statement from Colorado’s Tenured Women Philosophers
The tenured women philosophy professors at the University of Colorado—Carol Cleland, Alison Jaggar, Mi-Kyoung “Mitzi” Lee, and Claudia Mills (emeritus)—have jointly authored a statement about the recent events involving their department. The statement, published in The Daily Camera, expresses their intention to “repudiate a secret culture of misbehavior and to w..
Colorful Fallacies Chart
The website Information Is Beautiful has put together a colorful chart of over 50 fallacies, sorted into six different categories. Created by David McCandless, it’s also available to purchase as a poster in multiple languages. Online versions are available in Chinese, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, and Spanish.
UPDATE: Some of the entri..
Philosophy To Be Taught In Ireland’s Secondary Schools
Philosophy will become a part of the secondary school curriculum in Ireland, according to an announcement by Minister of Education Jan O’Sullivan, reported in the Irish Times. The country’s National Council for Curriculum and Assessment will develop a “short course” in philosophy that will be taught to students in the early years of secondary school (approximately a..
Brandom Wins Prize
Robert Brandom (Pittsburgh) has been awarded the Anneliese Maier Forschungspreis by the Humboldt Foundation. The Foundation awards the prize each year to three or four people working in the Humanities and the Social Sciences. The prize amount is €250 000 (about $320 000). (via Anil Gupta)
Woody Allen, Please, No
On a small town college campus, a philosophy professor in existential crisis gives his life new purpose when he enters into a relationship with his student.
That is the description of Woody Allen’s currently untitled 2015 movie. It is in post-production and stars Emma Stone, Joaquin Phoenix, Jamie Blackley, and Parker Posey. More information here and here.
(vi..
Philosophers on Torture
The Report on the C.I.A.’s Use of Torture from the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence was released several days ago. As we have occasionally done in the past for other events, I would like to open a spot here at Daily Nous for comment on the report, for collecting links to commentary elsewhere from philosophers on this report, for suggestions of philosophical o..
Oregon Philosophy Faculty Removed from Courses (Updated)
“One by one, objecting faculty members are being removed as instructors of record for classes that they teach with graduate teaching fellows or classes taught by GTFs that the department supervises” reports The Register Guard. As Oregon University’s graduate student teaching fellows strike (previously) continues, the university’s administration is now engaging in a..
University of Tehran Statement on Khatami
The University of Tehran has issued a statement on the plagiarism allegations against Mahmoud Khatami (reported earlier here and here). I have been provided with two translations of the statement. One is by someone who prefers to remain anonymous. It is reprinted below. The other is by Shirzad Peik Herfeh, assistant professor of philosophy at Imam Khomeini Internat..
Oregon Grad Students Warned of Deportation (see updates)
The University of Oregon administration has told international graduate students that they will be deported if they join the Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation strike, according to UO assistant professor of philosophy Mark Alfano. Additionally, the administration is attempting to undermine the strike by decreeing that undergraduates taking courses that use teachin..
Philosophers from Poverty
The announcement of the UPDirectory has prompted a number of comments about a category not included among its underrepresented groups: philosophers who grew up in poverty. One theme in many of these comments is a sense of isolation and difference that comes from having that kind of background. The point of this post is just to open up a space for philosophers to dis..
CU Boulder’s “Reckless” Treatment of Philosophy Department
Wes Morriston, University of Colorado philosophy professor emeritus, has written an opinion piece in The Daily Camera in which he excoriates the university administration’s handling of the various problematic events and revelations there over the past year or so, including what he says was “an explicit threat to dissolve the department by invoking Regent Policy 4H (..
Theory of Jerks
The jerk himself is both intellectually and emotionally defective, and what he defectively fails to appreciate is both the intellectual and emotional perspectives of the people around him. He can’t appreciate how he might be wrong and others right about some matter of fact; and what other people want or value doesn’t register as of interest to him, except derivative..