November 2018
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Rosenberg on the “threat” to our self-understanding posed by neuroscience
An accessible piece; an excerpt: We’ve built our cultural, legal and political institutions on this theory that people’s actions are caused by choices made rational in the light of their beliefs and their desires…. But here’s the problem: the theory of mind we call carry around with us and use every day has no basis…
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“We are witnessing a Fichte renaissance”
There are, indeed, reasons to fear this is true, although it's worth remembering that professionalization breeds specialization (vide Weber), and Kant having been over-written to death, it's unsurprising people are turning to Fichte, the Kant on steroids. But there are lots of "renaissances" going on, given that each generation of PhD students needs to make…
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In Memoriam: Herbert Fingarette (1921-2018)
Emeritus at the University of California, Santa Barbara, Professor Fingarette's interests ranged widely, from Chinese philosophy to philosophy of action and moral responsibility. He was best-known to the public at large for his arguments against the "disease" model of alcoholism. The NYT obituary is here. (Thanks to Bill Edmundson for the pointer.)
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Law & Philosophy Fellowship at University of Chicago, 2019-20
The ad for next year's position is now available. Here is the description (note the Workshop theme!): The University of Chicago Law School seeks a Law and Philosophy Fellow, appointed with the rank of Lecturer, for the academic year 2019-20. This is a twelve month appointment and is expected to begin July 1, 2019. A…
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More thoughts on the idea of a journal with pseudonymous articles
Here, with some interesting historical context and criticisms.
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In Memoriam: Vincent Shen (1949-2018)
An expert in Chinese philosophy and phenomenology, Professor Shen was, at the time of his death, Professor of East Asian Studies and Philosophy at the University of Toronto. The Toronto memorial notice is here.
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Michael Bloomberg gives about 3% of his net worth to guarantee need-blind admissions at Johns Hopkins
That's great for Johns Hopkins, and for those students who will benefit from this gift. Now if the state could seize the remaining 96.9% of Bloomberg's wealth extracted from the labor of others, we could offer need-blind admissions at dozens of other universities. He'd still have enough to live well in Manhattan!
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Great moments in obscure rock ‘n’ roll: Bob Seger System, “Noah,” 1969
Long before he became a 1970s rock icon, Bob Seger was a local Detroit sensation, who earlier in 1969 scored a top 20 hit with this song; this was the title number from his second (and very unsuccessful) album–another song very much of its moment!
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Against the idea of a journal for controversial but anonymous articles
MOVING TO FRONT FROM YESTERDAY: UPDATED This piece makes some good points; an excerpt: There are many ways of describing this new journal; a sanctum away from the pitchforks of the mob; a place of amnesty where ideas can flourish without fear or self-doubt; a thought experiment. But essentially, it is a safe space, one…
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In Memoriam: Adolf Gruenbaum (1923-2018)
Philosopher Edouard Machery (Pitt HPS) shared the following with me: The Center for Philosophy of Science and HPS report with great sadness that our colleague Adolf Gruenbaum died on November 15, 2018. Further information to follow in the coming days. Grunbaum,(1923-2018) was a leading philosopher of physics and he is also famous for his criticism…
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The Zuckerberg hustle
Yup. The state should confiscate his fortune and use it to meet human needs. As noted before, I'm generous: leave him ten million dollars. And pay him an hourly wage, or even a salary, for whatever work he actually does at Facebook.
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Clark from Edinburgh to Sussex
Andy Clark (philosophy of mind and cognitive science), who currently holds the Chair of Logic & Metaphysics at the University of Edinburgh (where he has taught for the last fourteen years), will become Professor of Philosophy and Informatics at the University of Sussex, with an affiliation with the Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science, effective January…
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User-editable spreadsheet listing philosophy jobs
Shaun Wallace, a PhD student in Computer Science at Brown University, asked me to share the following: We at the Brown HCI research lab built a user-editable spreadsheet containing over 150 current Philosophy faculty job postings. We thought it might be useful for graduate students on the job hunt: https://drafty.cs.brown.edu/ajobs/#!data?-?2~Philosophy Anyone can freely edit basic…
Pangram costs $20/month for 300,000 words / month, so a small journal receiving 20-30 10,000 word articles per month would…