January 2009
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The “real life” of academic philosophers
Many of the comments on this thread are fascinating and sobering, and certainly make me regret my too casual endorsement of Professor Pence’s article (which is worth reading, to be sure, but ought to be read in conjunction with many of the comments, above).
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Israel, Hamas, and the Law
Two perspectives: here and here. It is puzzling that the former blog would not permit the latter observations to appear in its comments section. UPDATE: Puzzlement resolved: the comment moderator, Prawfs Emperor Markel, was at the AALS this weekend!
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Yale Makes Bid for Knobe at North Carolina (UPDATED)
MOVING TO FRON FROM DECEMBER 24: KNOBE HAS ACCEPTED THE OFFER The Department of Philosophy and Cognitive Science Program at Yale University have made a tenure-track offer to Joshua Knobe, Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, who has already established himself as a leading figure in ‘experimental philosophy.’ …
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U of Illinois Legal Historian Bruce Smith Named Dean
The Illinois press release is here.
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PGR Surveys End in 2 Hours and 30 Minutes!
Over 250 philosophers have now participated in the ‘overall’ and specialty evaluations, and at least another two dozen in just the specialty evaluations. All the specialty areas noted in prior posts that had had low response rates have had significant increments in the total number of evaluators over the last couple of days, for which…
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In Memoriam: Edward P. Mahoney (1932-2009)
There is a memorial notice on the Duke Philosophy Department’s homepage. UPDATE: A nice remembrance of Professor Mahoney from a former student, Richard Garnett, who is now a law professor at Notre Dame.
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Philosophy Wiki at York
The University of York maintains a philosophy wiki as a research tool for philosophers–I’ve only just browsed it, but there is some useful content.
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Do Young Philosophers Have a “Sense of Entitlement” or Are They Just Internalizing the Expectations of Their Teachers?
A tenured philosopher writes: I read with interest the piece by Gregory Pence you excerpted on your blog. I think that he may be misinterpreting the data. That is, he takes the dissatisfaction of young scholars as evidence of their sense of entitlement. But it may just be that their expectations were mis- set by…
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PGR Surveys End Tomorrow (Friday, January 9) at Noon (Central Standard Time in the U.S.)
As of this morning, 214 philosophers have completed the "overall" evaluations plus one or more specialties, while an additional two to three dozen (I haven’t tallied it precisely) philosophers have completed evaluations in their areas of specialization only. Thanks to everyone for their time and conscientious efforts. I will begin posting some previews of the…
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Sunstein from Harvard/Chicago to the Obama Administration
Cass Sunstein, professor at Harvard and regular visiting professor at Chicago, will now be teaching at neither institution as he prepares to join the Obama Administration as administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. I have not spoken to Cass, but I assume he is taking a leave of absence, and I'm sure…
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Four Finalists for the Deanship at U of Washington/Seattle
They are: Jim Chen, current Dean at Louisville; Lawrence Gostin, Associate Dean and a leading health law scholar at Georgetown; Patricia White, the former (and very successful) Dean at Arizona State; and Kellye Testy, current Dean at Seattle University.
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Speaking of Careers in Philosophy,
this essay by bioethicist Gregory Pence (Alabama) is both wise and timely. An excerpt from the end: [A]s I look back, my major feeling, after teaching for years as an adjunct and working 80-hour weeks in real estate, is great satisfaction in having any job at all in philosophy. Because for many years, I never…
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It’s Offical: Philosophy is the 12st Best Job Anyone Can Have!
Several readers have sent me links to this curious item from The Wall Street Journal. As philosopher Brandon Look (Kentucky) wrote: I will grant that being either a mathematician (#1) or an historian (#7) would be OK, too; but that actuary (#2) and accountant (#10) come out higher is a clear slap in the face…
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Get to Work! And Keep Your Trousers On!
Jonathan Wolff (UCL) comments on the working habits of philosophers.
Let us agree to disagree about Dennett. I still maintain that it really does matter that we try to understand…