December 2017
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2017: Philosophers who passed away
The passing of the following philosophers was noted on the blog during 2017: Marilyn McCord Adams, Pamela Sue Anderson, Karl-Otto Apel, Lynne Rudder Baker, Robert S. Cohen, William G. Demopoulos, Hubert L. Dreyfus, Delia Graff Fara, Jerry Fodor, William H. Gass, Bob Hale, Kent Johnson, Peter Kivy, István Mészáros, Eileen O'Neill, Derek Parfit, Joshua Parsons,…
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New Books in December
Authors and/or publishers kindly sent me these new books this month: Reputation: What It Is and Why It Matters by Gloria Origgi (Princeton University Press, 2018). The Perception and Cognition of Visual Space by Paul Linton (PalgraveMacMillian, 2017). Taking Back Philosophy: A Multicultural Manifesto by Bryan W. Van Norden (Columbia University Press, 2017). New Essays…
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You can help Esmat Zeerak, lover of philosophy from Afghanistan, go to the “great books” school, St. John’s College in Santa Fe
MOVING TO FRONT FROM DECEMBER 28–THANKS TO THOSE READERS WHO HAVE ALREADY CONTRIBUTED We met Mr. Zeerak in the summer of 2016, when he was a high school student seeking guidance on studying philosophy; a number of readers were kind enough to correspond with him. He has since gotten a scholarship to a private high school in…
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Great moments in obscure rock ‘n’ roll: Twink, “Ten Thousand Words in a Cardboard Box,” 1970
Reader Robert Allen kindly tipped me off to a British psychedelic and proto-punk band I'd never heard of, The Pink Fairies, as well as their occasional drummer Twink, from whose solo album this intriguing psychedelic number comes (it grows on you, try it twice):
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2017 in review, fourth quarter: October, November, December
Here were some of the most popular posts in the final quarter of the year (not quite up to the present): Jobs limiting applicants to just three letters (October) Huemer's polemic against letters of recommendation (October) Placement in PhD-granting Programs in the New Academic Job Placement Report (October) The Internet and the crisis of epistemic…
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On teaching English (and especially reading) at an Australian “university” (a business whose customers are students, that is)
MOVING TO FRONT FROM YESTERDAY–UPDATED This is worth reading; an excerpt: Fisher says that many of his students are in a state that he calls “depressive hedonia … an inability to do anything else except pursue pleasure”. I’m not trying to give my students pleasure, or make them enjoy themselves. I’m trying to show them…
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PhilSkills
A reminder about this interesting site featuring interviews with philosophers with careers outside academia.
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In Memoriam: Lynne Rudder Baker (1944-2017)
Professor Baker, emerita at the University of Massachussetts at Amherst, was well-known for important contributions in metaphysics, philosophy of mind and philosophy of religion. Philosopher Hilary Kornblith at U Mass kindly shared with me the department's memorial notice, which will also appear on its homepage: In Memoriam: Lynne Rudder Baker (1944-2017) It is with great…
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Ryerson on Delia Graff Fara in the New York Times
James Ryerson, who is probably the best journalist writing about philosophy out there, has done a very informative short piece on Graff Fara for the NYT's annual "the lives they lived" feature.
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2017-18 PGR Australasia Top 5
Professor Brogaard and I released the U.S. Top 50 results of the PRG survey, the top 25 programs in the Anglophone word, and the top 15 programs in the U.K. Below the fold we offer the top 5 programs in Australasia. Like before, the overall mean is listed while the median, mode, and confidence intervals,…
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2017 in review: articles posted on SSRN
Over the course of the year, I posted the following articles on SSRN: "Legal Positivism about the Artifact Law: A Retrospective Assessment" "The Roles of Judges in Democracies: A Realistic View" "Justifying Academic Freedom: Mill and Marcuse Revisited" "Nietzsche and Aestheticism" (originally published in 1992, my first peer-refereed publication) "Knowledge and Affect: Perspectivism Revisited" "Introduction: …
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2017 in review, third quarter: July, August, September
Here were some of the most popular posts in the third quarter of the year: Philosophy and standardized test scores: causation or correlation? (July) Is Thomas Friedman the biggest idiot in America? (July) The suspended Associate Editors of Hypatia have apparently learned nothing from their defamatory attack on Rebecca Tuvel (July) On the narcissism of…
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Top Metaethics and Moral Psychology Programs 2017-18 PGR
The full results for the 2017-18 Philosophical Gourmet Report, will appear online soon. Here is a preview of the top eight programs for Metaethics and Moral Psychology. Metaethics and Moral Psychology Group 1 (1-3) (rounded mean of 4.5) (median, mode) Princeton University (4.5, 4.5 & 5)University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (4.5, 4.5) University of Southern California (4.5,…
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How to wrap a cat for Xmas
I'm sorry I didn't come across this useful video in time for this year's holiday, but perhaps it will come in handy for some readers next year. (Although the narrator doesn't say so, I suspect it's very important to use a very tolerant and good-natured cat for this exercise.)
I respond to this report here https://jasonstanleyantifascist.substack.com/p/on-the-philosophical-muddle-that