Rob Rupert (philosophy of mind and cognitive science), Professor of Philosophy at the University of Colorado at Boulder, has accepted a three-year part-time appointment as Professorial Fellow in Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh. He writes: "I will be in...
Philosophy
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Most Topular Stories
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Colorado's Rupert to take up .20 appointment at Edinburgh for next three years
Leiter Reports: A Philosophy Blog17 Jun 2013 | 6:52 am -
New listserv for philosophers with psychological disabilities
Feminist Philosophers18 Jun 2013 | 3:18 amPhilosopher Joan Callahan writes: I have managed (after a few false starts) to get up and running a listserv for discussion of inclusion in professional philosophy WITH SPECIAL ATTENTION TO PSYCHOLOGICAL DISABILITY. If you want to subscribe to this list, just send a note to listserv@lsv.uky.edu with the message ” subscribe Inclusion ” in the body of your message. Now, this will subscribe you under the personal name and address of the email account you are using. Since the topic of this list is in many ways a delicate one, if you want to maintain complete confidentiality, I suggest… -
Philosophers: philosophical, proper, and professional
Talking PhilosophyTalking Philosophy14 Jun 2013 | 5:48 pmPhilosophy is a big tent kind of thing. There is a world of difference between being philosophical, being a proper philosopher, and being a professional philosopher. As far as I can tell, the practice of doing philosophy is intimately related to the state of being philosophical. To do philosophy is to be philosophical about some characteristically general subjects, for the purpose of increasing understanding and reducing confusion. In the ideal case, being philosophical involves manifesting certain virtues: you must have the right intentions (insightful belief, humble commitments), and… -
Nigella Lawson and Domestic Violence
Feminist Philosophers17 Jun 2013 | 3:22 amSo Charles Saatchi attacked Nigella Lawson at a posh restaurant. And though lots of people took photos, and some apparently contacted the police, nobody intervened. [Expletives deleted] It is, however, provoking some useful discussion (yes, amazingly, from the Telegraph): So class or status is irrelevant, but we persist in our naivety. It’s a defence mechanism, of course; we’re desperate to find a cast-iron reason that will distance us from the miserable fate suffered by someone unnervingly similar to our comfortable little selves – because we don’t want to believe that it could… -
On David Publishing, Once Again--and the Philosopher's Index
Leiter Reports: A Philosophy Blog18 Jun 2013 | 4:43 amA propos our earlier item, philosopher Christopher Pynes (Western Illinois) writes: I want to bring to your attention, and the broader philosophical community, a scam journal Philosophy Study and predatory publisher David Publishing: http://www.davidpublishing.org/. In July of 2011, I was...
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Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
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Leibniz's Exoteric Philosophy
18 Jun 2013 | 4:36 pm[New Entry by John Whipple on June 18, 2013.] It is no secret that G. W. Leibniz is a difficult philosopher to study. One central reason for this is that the content of his philosophy is extremely challenging. It involves a range of subtle distinctions and paradoxical theses, such as the denial of causal interaction between substances and the thesis that each substance expresses every other substance in the universe. Just... -
The St. Petersburg Paradox
17 Jun 2013 | 5:30 pm[Revised entry by Robert Martin on June 17, 2013. Changes to: Main text, Bibliography, Petersburg-Paradox-tp.png] The St. Petersburg game is played by flipping a fair coin until it comes up tails, and the total number of flips, n, determines the prize, which equals $2n. Thus if the coin comes up tails the first time, the prize is $21 = $2, and the game ends. If the coin comes up heads the first time, it is flipped again. If it comes up tails the second time, the prize is $22 = $4,... -
Galileo Galilei
13 Jun 2013 | 5:55 pm[Revised entry by Peter Machamer on June 13, 2013. Changes to: Main text, Bibliography] Galileo Galilei (1564 - 1642) has always played a key role in any history of science and, in many histories of philosophy, he is a, if not the, central figure of the scientific revolution of the 17th Century. His work in physics or natural philosophy, astronomy, and the methodology of science still evoke debate after over 360 years. His role in promoting the Copernican theory and his... -
David Hartley
13 Jun 2013 | 5:37 pm[Revised entry by Richard Allen on June 13, 2013. Changes to: Bibliography] David Hartley (1705 - 57) is the author of Observations on Man, his Frame, his Duty, and his Expectations (1749) - a wide-ranging synthesis of neurology, moral psychology, and spirituality (i.e., our "frame," "duty," and "expectations"). The Observations gained dedicated advocates in Britain, America, and Continental Europe, who... -
Collective Intentionality
13 Jun 2013 | 4:35 pm[New Entry by David P. Schweikard and Hans Bernhard Schmid on June 13, 2013.] Collective intentionality is the power of minds to be jointly directed at objects, matters of fact, states of affairs, goals, or values. Collective intentionality comes in a variety of modes, including shared intention, joint attention, shared belief, collective acceptance, and collective emotion. Collective intentional attitudes permeate our everyday lives, for instance when two or more agents look...
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Talking PhilosophyTalking Philosophy
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De-Extinction
17 Jun 2013 | 5:00 am(Photo credit: Wikipedia) Pausing in her grazing, a mother mammoth casts a wary eye for signs of danger to herself and her offspring. Hidden from her view, a saber-toothed cat assesses his chances of getting a meal…or getting stomped. The cat is startled by movement behind it and whirls about to confront a vehicle full of people. Digital photos are snapped, then uploaded to Facebook. “Damn tourists”, thinks the cat, as it saunters away. While this scene is not yet a reality, there are people who hope to make it so through de-extinction. De-extinction is the restoration of a… -
Philosophers: philosophical, proper, and professional
14 Jun 2013 | 5:48 pmPhilosophy is a big tent kind of thing. There is a world of difference between being philosophical, being a proper philosopher, and being a professional philosopher. As far as I can tell, the practice of doing philosophy is intimately related to the state of being philosophical. To do philosophy is to be philosophical about some characteristically general subjects, for the purpose of increasing understanding and reducing confusion. In the ideal case, being philosophical involves manifesting certain virtues: you must have the right intentions (insightful belief, humble commitments), and… -
Philosopher’s Carnival at Siris
14 Jun 2013 | 11:50 amHey all, this month’s Philosopher’s Carnival (#152) is now online! This month it is hosted over at Siris, one of the better philosophy blogs out there. Brandon has come up with something quite special this month, and it’s well worth a gander. -
Leaking
12 Jun 2013 | 5:00 amInformation about the United States’ Prism program was leaked by Edward Snowden to the Washington Post and the Guardian. Some people are casting Snowden as a traitor while others are lauding him as a hero. Some are presenting him as motivated by pure narcissism. People have a tendency to present their actions in the most favorable light, so it is hardly surprising that Snowden claims that his motivation was ethical in nature: The N.S.A. has built an infrastructure that allows it to intercept almost everything. With this capability, the vast majority of human communications are… -
Prism
10 Jun 2013 | 5:00 am(Photo credit: Wikipedia) Revelations of the United States government’s Prism Program have brought the matter of privacy into the spotlight. While it should be no surprise that the United State’s government is scooping up vast quantities of information from communication systems ranging from phones to the internet, the scope and nature of the collection has disturbed many people. Not surprisingly, the Obama administration has defended Prism on two main grounds. The first is that the program is legal. That is, it went through all the proper secret processes in the dark places of…
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AskPhilosophers.org | "All"
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Question about Ethics - Charles Taliaferro responds
15 Jun 2013 | 3:23 pmIs it unethical to avoid watching or reading the news? Response from: Charles Taliaferro What a great question! Though (fair warning): I may not be the most impartial panelist to reply as I come from a family that helped start a modest, and yet municipal newspaper, and I was brought up with being instructed by parents that, no matter what my politics, I should read at least one daily paper, and one weekly magazine! Moreover, I have actually sought to follow this practice, but I shall do my best in the following reply. As my goal is to offer an interesting reply, let me set aside some perhaps… -
Question about Mathematics - William Rapaport responds
15 Jun 2013 | 8:28 amIs 0 really a fraction? Because some do not agree that it is not a fraction. But I have a thought Fraction=no. of equal parts considered/total no. of parts So if I divide a chocolate in 4 parts and eat no parts then I can associate with no part the no. zero and so 0/4 a fraction. Am I right? Response from: William Rapaport I don't know anybody who claims that 0 is not a fraction. But I suppose it depends on what you mean by "fraction". If you mean a numeral (that is, a name or description of a number) that is normally written in the format: (integer numeral)/(integer numeral), e.g., 3/4,… -
Question about Logic - Stephen Maitzen responds
13 Jun 2013 | 11:42 amCan paradoxes actually happen? Response from: Stephen Maitzen Yes! But bear in mind that a paradox is an apparent contradiction, an apparent inconsistency, that we're tasked with trying to resolve in a consistent way. For example, a particular argument implies that the Liar sentence ("This sentence is false") is both true and false, and a similar argument implies that the Strengthened Liar sentence ("This sentence is not true") is both true and not true. Usually it's our conviction that those arguments can't be sound that impels us to seek out the flaw in each argument. So too for other… -
Question about Ethics - Allen Stairs responds
13 Jun 2013 | 9:38 amWhy is murder (irrespective of special circumstances such as war or self-defense) immoral? Many people consider abortion, euthanasia, and suicide to not be immoral. This would indicate that "the good life" is moral, making "good" an ideal greater than life. What's to stop a murderer deciding that eliminating someone would result in greater "good?" Response from: Allen Stairs First, a quibble: "murder" usually is taken to mean wrongful killing. But we can set the quibble aside.I'm inclined to turn your question around. I take it to be as plausible as any moral claim gets to be that in general… -
Question about Language - Gabriel Segal responds
13 Jun 2013 | 7:32 amOne can say something mixing words from two languages (say, English and Ukrainian), and make good, clear and exact sense. One can even mix parts of words, or structures, and make perfect sense. My problem is that such an invented sentence wouldn't be meaningful according to any one of the "previously existing" languages. But, since it has linguistic meaning, it seems that it should have meaning according to some language. What language is that? The "sum" (what is that?) of the two used languages? The sum of all the existing languages in the world (since we can mix words from whatever…
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Leiter Reports: A Philosophy Blog
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The BBC on high school philosophy in France
18 Jun 2013 | 7:51 amHere. -
On David Publishing, Once Again--and the Philosopher's Index
18 Jun 2013 | 4:43 amA propos our earlier item, philosopher Christopher Pynes (Western Illinois) writes: I want to bring to your attention, and the broader philosophical community, a scam journal Philosophy Study and predatory publisher David Publishing: http://www.davidpublishing.org/. In July of 2011, I was... -
Women in philosophy: when do they get 'driven' out?
18 Jun 2013 | 3:05 amAn NPR piece reporting on research by two MA students at Georgia State University working with Eddy Nahmias. (Thanks to the many readers who sent this along.) -
Colorado's Rupert to take up .20 appointment at Edinburgh for next three years
17 Jun 2013 | 6:52 amRob Rupert (philosophy of mind and cognitive science), Professor of Philosophy at the University of Colorado at Boulder, has accepted a three-year part-time appointment as Professorial Fellow in Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh. He writes: "I will be in... -
Video interview with USC's Scott Soames...
17 Jun 2013 | 3:59 am...conducted by Professor Eduardo Villanueva of the Catholic University of Peru.
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Ethics Etc
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Merton Workshop on Applied Formal Ethics
17 Jun 2013 | 10:09 pmMerton College, Oxford Hawkins room 12th July 2013 10am – 5.30pm ‘How to Defend the Asymmetry Intuition in Population Ethics’ - Johann Frick (Harvard) ‘Justice and Private Education’ - Daniel Halliday (Melbourne) ‘The Asymmetry’ - Ralf M. Bader (Oxford) ‘Measuring Unfairness and Lotteries’ - Gerard Vong (Fordham) Please note that this is a pre-read workshop. [...] -
10th Annual Metaethics Workshop in Wisconsin
17 Jun 2013 | 9:55 pmMadison, Wisconsin September 27-29, 2013 All Sessions in 325 Pyle Center(702 Langdon Street) Below is the program for the 10th Annual Metaethics Workshop in Wisconsin. You can get more details about the workshop here. FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 27 9am – 10:15am BARRY MAGUIRE (Princeton) Grounding the Autonomy of Ethics Chair: Eric Wiland (UMSL) 10:45am – Noon [...] -
References for Experimental Political Philosophy
6 Jun 2013 | 3:49 pmNicole Hassoun is interested in finding recent work on experimental political philosophy that might be worth mentioning in a review article on the topic. If you have any such references, please email her directly at: nhassoun at binghamton.edu. Thanks! -
CF: Moral Rationalism
23 May 2013 | 9:56 amMelbourne University will host an international conference on Moral Rationalism, on July 15-17 2013. Speakers will include: Garett Cullity (Adelaide), David Enoch (Jerusalem), Karen Jones (Melbourne), Jeanette Kennett (Macquarie), Rae Langton (MIT / Cambridge), Julia Markovits (MIT), Tristram McPherson (Melbourne / Virginia Tech), Karl Schafer (Pittsburgh), Francois Schroeter (Melbourne), Laura Schroeter (Melbourne), Michael Smith (Princeton), [...] -
Punishment book launch
10 May 2013 | 7:17 amPunishment book launch The Houses of Parliament Date: Tuesday, 14 May 2013 Time: 17:00-19:00 Place: Committee Room 3, the Houses of Parliament, London Punishment is a topic of increasing importance for citizens and policymakers. Why should we punish criminals? What purposes should punishment serve? These questions and many others will be addressed in this roundtable [...]
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Philosophia Mathematica - Advance Access
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On the Application of the Honeycomb Conjecture to the Bee's Honeycomb
14 Jun 2013 | 9:40 pmIn a recent paper, Aidan Lyon and Mark Colyvan have proposed an explanation of the structure of the bee's honeycomb based on the mathematical Honeycomb Conjecture. This explanation has instantly become one of the standard examples in the philosophical debate on mathematical explanations of physical phenomena. In this critical note, I argue that the explanation is not scientifically adequate. The reason for this is that the explanation fails to do justice to the essentially three-dimensional structure of the bee's honeycomb. -
Should Philosophers of Mathematics Make Use of Sociology?
12 Jun 2013 | 10:38 pmThis paper considers whether philosophy of mathematics could benefit by the introduction of some sociology. It begins by considering Lakatos's arguments that philosophy of science should be kept free of any sociology. An attempt is made to criticize these arguments, and then a positive argument is given for introducing a sociological dimension into the philosophy of mathematics. This argument is illustrated by considering Brouwer's account of numbers as mental constructions. The paper concludes with a critical discussion of Azzouni's view that mathematics differs fundamentally from other… -
ALBERT LAUTMAN. Mathematics, Ideas and the Physical Real. Simon B. Duffy, trans. London and New York: Continuum, 2011. 978-1-4411-2344-2 (pbk); 978-1-44114656-4 (hbk); 978-1-44114433-1 (pdf e-bk); 978-1-44114654-0 (epub e-bk). Pp. xlii + 310
30 May 2013 | 9:21 pm -
PENELOPE MADDY. Defending the Axioms: On the Philosophical Foundations of Set Theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011. ISBN 978-0-19-959618-8 (hbk); 978-0-19-967148-9 (pbk). Pp. x + 150
20 May 2013 | 2:28 am -
WILLIAM DEMOPOULOS. Logicism and its Philosophical Legacy
14 May 2013 | 11:47 pm
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Philosophical Review current issue
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Globalizing Justice: The Ethics of Poverty and Power
10 Jun 2013 | 7:38 am -
Making a Difference in a Deterministic World
10 Jun 2013 | 7:38 amSome philosophers have claimed that causally determined agents are not morally responsible because they cannot make a difference in the world. A recent response by philosophers who defend the compatibility of determinism and responsibility has been to concede that causally determined agents are incapable of making a difference, but to argue that responsibility is not grounded in difference making. These compatibilists have rested such a claim on Frankfurt cases—cases where agents are intuitively responsible for acts that they couldn’t have failed to perform. This essay argues,… -
Leibniz and the Ground of Possibility
10 Jun 2013 | 7:38 amLeibniz’s views on modality are among the most discussed by his interpreters. Although most of the discussion has focused on Leibniz’s analyses of modality, this essay explores Leibniz’s grounding of modality. Leibniz holds that possibilities and possibilia are grounded in the intellect of God. Although other early moderns agreed that modal truths are in some way dependent on God, there were sharp disagreements surrounding two distinct questions: (1) On what in God do modal truths and modal truth-makers depend? (2) What is the manner(s) of dependence by which modal truths… -
Beyond Resemblance
10 Jun 2013 | 7:38 amWhat is it for a picture to depict a scene? The most orthodox philosophical theory of pictorial representation holds that depiction is grounded in resemblance. A picture represents a scene in virtue of being similar to that scene in certain ways. This essay presents evidence against this claim: curvilinear perspective is one common style of depiction in which successful pictorial representation depends as much on a picture’s systematic differences with the scene depicted as on the similarities; it cannot be analyzed in terms of similarity alone. The same problem arises for many other… -
Thomas Aquinas on the Passions: A Study of "Summa theologiae IaIIae 22-48"
10 Jun 2013 | 7:38 am
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Experimental Philosophy
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CFP: Buffalo Annual Experimental Philosophy Conference
18 Jun 2013 | 12:15 pmDEADLINE APPROACHING! CALL FOR PAPERS Buffalo Experimental Philosophy Conference October 11th & 12th, 2013 Keynote speaker: Edouard Machery (Pitt) UPDATE: Extended abstracts are acceptable submissions. Submissions are invited on any topic pertaining to experimental philosophy. Authors can report new experimental results or contribute to broader philosophical or methodological debates over existing results. Both XPhi-friendly and XPhi-critical papers are welcomed. Authors are encouraged to talk through their papers rather than read them verbatim. Organizers: Neil Otte, Paul Poenicke, &… -
Vacancy for PhD students: Measuring Moral Relativism
10 Jun 2013 | 12:47 pmThe research group The Moral Brain (www.themoralbrain.be) at Ghent University (Belgium) is looking for a PhD student (m/f) for a period of four years for the FWO-project “Measuring Moral Relativism”. Job description Project Both among philosophers and among lay people, moral relativism is often met with skepticism. Its alleged flaws are that moral relativism is incoherent and that endorsing moral relativism would have undesirable consequences – such as tolerating everything. However, at present, different conceptions of moral relativism prevail and some are more coherent than others. -
The Lesson of Bypassing
1 Jun 2013 | 1:15 pmIn a recent paper (forthcoming in PPR), Dylan Murray and Eddy Nahmias present striking results, using mediation analysis, which seem to suggest that people mistakenly think that under determinism, mental states are bypassed, and this mistake leads to the (apparently) incompatibilist judgments about free will and moral responsibility. But in a new paper, Shaun Nichols and I reexamine the issue using causal modeling. We argue that the causal relationship between incompatibilist judgments and bypassing runs in exactly the opposite direction: incompatibilist judgments about free… -
Measuring Moral Judgment
26 May 2013 | 5:48 amI've been thinking a great deal lately about how best to study moral judgment. Let me say a few things myself, but I hope others will be able to chime in and share ideas, especially since I'm in the process of designing some studies. What's best to measure? So far it seems most researchers focus on measuring something other than what we might call purely "evaluative judgments," such as whether someone did something good or bad. This seems right to me since these don't necessarily constitute judgments about whether an action is right or wrong, which is… -
On the Horizon at Brains
21 May 2013 | 11:29 amJohn Schwenkler asked me to post something about some of the exciting new developments over at Brains (the philosophy of mind blog)--which I am happy to do. See here for details!
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Feminist Philosophers
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New listserv for philosophers with psychological disabilities
18 Jun 2013 | 3:18 amPhilosopher Joan Callahan writes: I have managed (after a few false starts) to get up and running a listserv for discussion of inclusion in professional philosophy WITH SPECIAL ATTENTION TO PSYCHOLOGICAL DISABILITY. If you want to subscribe to this list, just send a note to listserv@lsv.uky.edu with the message ” subscribe Inclusion ” in the body of your message. Now, this will subscribe you under the personal name and address of the email account you are using. Since the topic of this list is in many ways a delicate one, if you want to maintain complete confidentiality, I suggest… -
I Guess We Need to Explicitly Say That Suicide is Not a Fashion Statement
17 Jun 2013 | 9:27 pmI can’t add much else to the observation that, “this seems like some distinctive pinnacle of awfulness.” (Thanks to RK for the heads up) “Vice Published a Fashion Spread of Female Writer Suicides” (Heads up: there are pictures of models depicting suicides.) Okay, I can add this. For all I know, inside a moral vacuum maybe implying that suicide is beautiful isn’t immoral. But I feel confident in the assertion that in a social context where a segment of the population is encouraged to believe that they are only valuable members of society insofar… -
Philosophy 101 and the underrepresentation of women in philosophy
17 Jun 2013 | 11:28 amTania Lombrozo has a great post at NPR about the underrepresentation of women in philosophy. She focuses on recent work by Toni Adleburg, Morgan Thompson, and Eddy Nahmias that surveys the affect of gender on responses to intro philosophy courses (since, statistically, the biggest drop off in women’s participation in philosophy comes between intro-level courses and declaring a philosophy major – at least in the US). Overall, female students found the course less enjoyable and the material less interesting and relevant to their lives than male students. Compared to male students,… -
Nigella Lawson and Domestic Violence
17 Jun 2013 | 3:22 amSo Charles Saatchi attacked Nigella Lawson at a posh restaurant. And though lots of people took photos, and some apparently contacted the police, nobody intervened. [Expletives deleted] It is, however, provoking some useful discussion (yes, amazingly, from the Telegraph): So class or status is irrelevant, but we persist in our naivety. It’s a defence mechanism, of course; we’re desperate to find a cast-iron reason that will distance us from the miserable fate suffered by someone unnervingly similar to our comfortable little selves – because we don’t want to believe that it could… -
What do course evaluations evaluate?
16 Jun 2013 | 2:55 pmIt would be interesting if course evaluations evaluated teaching effectiveness. A low evaluation would mean the students did not learn much, while a high one indicated a very good teacher. For this to happen, it seems students need to be able to tell if they learned much. Given what we know now about self-knowledge,** we shouldn’t expect students to be able to tell how effective some teaching really is. And though the evidence is early and fairly small, it looks as though students are NOT very good at assessing how well they are taught. See the CHE Article:…
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Gender, Race and Philosophy: The Blog
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Spring 2013 Symposium: Al-Saji on Veiling published
15 Jun 2013 | 5:31 amFind the Spring 2013 symposium here. Alia Al-Saji. 2010. "The Racialization of Muslim Veils: A Philosophical Analysis." Philosophy and Social Criticism 36(8): 875–902. Paper abstract: This article goes behind stereotypes of Muslim veiling to ask after the representational structure underlying these images. I examine the public debate leading to the 2004 French law banning conspicuous religious signs in schools and French colonial attitudes to veiling in Algeria, in conjunction with discourses on the veil that have arisen in other western contexts. My argument is that western… -
Hypatia Crossing Borders Issue
5 May 2013 | 12:15 pmThe Crossing Borders issue of Hypatia is now available at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/hypa.2013.28.issue-2/issuetoc This issue includes many essays from our 2011 FEAST conference. Wiley Blackwell is currently offering the articles for free. Please visit the site and advertise it widely! -
Call for Nominations: Distinguished Woman Philosopher 2013
24 Mar 2013 | 11:12 amCall for Nominations: Distinguished Woman Philosopher 2013 Each year the Eastern Division of the Society for Women in Philosophy comes together to honor a woman philosopher whose contributions to the support of women in philosophy and to philosophy itself are outstanding and merit special recognition. A panel and reception celebrating the honoree's accomplishments will be organized for the Eastern Division meeting of the American Philosophical Association, December 27-30, 2013. Nominations should include a copy of the nominee's curriculum vitae and a minimum of two supporting… -
PIKSI 2013
20 Mar 2013 | 6:23 pmPIKSI 2013 Philosophy in an Inclusive Key: A Summer Institute for Undergraduates Philosophy: Experience, Reflection, Transformation ROCK ETHICS INSTITUTE, THE PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY August 3–August 10, 2013 Ellen K. Feder, Director Associate Professor of Philosophy, American University Guest Faculty: Linda Alcoff, Professor of Philosophy, CUNY Brad Elliott Stone, Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy, Chair, African American Studies, Loyola Marymount University Mariana Ortega, Professor, Department of Philosophy, John Carroll University Along with works in feminist,… -
PIKSI 2013
23 Jan 2013 | 11:34 amPIKSI 2013 FEAST/APA Philosophy in an Inclusive Key A Summer Institute for Undergraduates ROCK ETHICS INSTITUTE, THE PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY August 3–August 10, 2013 Philosophy: Experience, Reflection, Transformation Ellen K. Feder, Director, Associate Professor of Philosophy, American University Guest Faculty: Linda Alcoff, Professor of Philosophy, CUNY Brad Elliott Stone, Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy, Chair, African American Studies, Loyola Marymount University Mariana Ortega, Professor, Department of Philosophy, John Carroll University Along with works in…
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The Prosblogion
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Fully funded PhD position in Philosophy - VU University Amsterdam
18 Jun 2013 | 8:27 pmLink: http://www.vu.nl/nl/werken-bij-de-vu/vacatures/2013/118.asp For 1.0 fte Vacancy number 13184 VU unit: Faculty of Philosophy The PhD student will work in the research project "Science Beyond Scientism" which investigates how scientism influences our thinking about rationality, free will, morality and religious belief and explores the way in which science can be taken seriously without succumbing to scientism. A description of the project, as well as of the PhD project can be found at www.abrahamkuypercenter.vu.nl/phdposition. Tasks The PhD student is expected to: write a PhD thesis;… -
Theism and the just-world hypothesis: would it be unreasonable for a Game of Thrones character to believe in an all-good, omnipotent creator?
11 Jun 2013 | 10:00 pm[X-posted at Newapps] As the third season of Game of Thrones has ended, this interesting reflection, written by Adam Brereton, contends that A Song of Fire and Ice by G.R.R. Martin and the TV series based on it simply don't work, because they do not obey what Chesterton has termed "elfin ethics": according to elfin ethics all virtue is in an 'if'. The note of the fairy utterance always is, 'You may live in a palace of gold and sapphire, if you do not say the word "cow"'; or 'You may live happily with the King's daughter, if you do not show her an onion.' The vision always hangs upon a veto. -
BSPR 2013 Conference Registration Information
7 Jun 2013 | 8:08 amThe British Society for the Philosophy of Religion Tenth Conference: Atheisms 11th-13th September 2013 Oriel College, University of Oxford Registration Information: In order to secure your place at the conference please submit your booking form (http://www.thebspr.org/conferences.html) and payment as soon as possible to the Secretary at the address below. Bookings can be accepted up to the 21st August; however in the event of your cancelling your booking a refund of the services you have booked will be available only until 5th August. Dr Andrew Moore BSPR Regent's Park College Pusey St Oxford… -
Conference on "Faith and Reason: Themes from Swinburne" Sept 25-27, 2014
3 Jun 2013 | 1:28 pmWe are pleased to provide advance notice of a conference to be held at Purdue University in September 2014 (*not* 2013) in honor of and on themes from the work of Richard Swinburne. The main speakers will be: • Marilyn McCord Adams, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill • Paul Draper, Purdue University • Hud Hudson, Western Washington University • Jonathan Kvanvig, Baylor University • Alvin Plantinga, University of Notre Dame and Calvin College • John Schellenberg, Mount Saint Vincent University • Eleonore Stump, Saint Louis University • Peter van Inwagen, University of… -
The Devil and Philosophy
30 May 2013 | 7:40 amRobert Arp has issued a call for abstracts for The Devil and Philosophy: Deliberation, Deduction, Debate, and Details, of Course. This will be in the Open Court pop culture and philosophy series. You can find the call for abstracts here.
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In Socrates' Wake
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Do you teach ....?
12 Jun 2013 | 10:55 amTeaching Philosophy is introducing a new feature to each of its issues. The journal will be publishing articles entitled 'How to Teach...' Each article will be an overview of how to teach one of the standard courses in the philosophy curriculum. The basic motivation for these articles is to help those who have never taught courses in a given area of philosophy prepare to teach such courses, as well as giving those experienced in teaching courses in a given area different models for courses in that area. We already have an article scheduled on how to teach critical thinking. In the next few… -
CFP: Experiential learning in the philosophy classroom
11 Jun 2013 | 2:41 pmThe deadline for submitting abstracts for this most intriguing edited collection is July 19. Details below the fold. Experiential Learning in the Philosophy Classroom Due date for abstracts: July 19, 2013 Edited by Julinna C. Oxley, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Coastal Carolina University The purpose of this edited collection is to articulate and examine pedagogical practices that focus on student engagement, by showcasing different models of experiential learning (such as service learning) in the discipline of Philosophy. While many university administrators praise MOOCs (massive… -
Shaking things up in history of philosophy courses
28 May 2013 | 8:20 amA reader asks: Just yesterday I started teaching a summer course on early modern. We read Descartes, Spinoza, Berkeley, Hume, and Kant (with a few others mixed in here and there). The problem is, there are only six students. And we meet for two hours and fifteen minutes each day, five days a week. My experience with modern has been that the default class is the lecture, with an active back and forth mixed in throughout. I don't think this is ideal generally, but more importantly, I think it could lead to a very dull next four weeks. Do you have any advice on how to make a small history course… -
Employing a student to criticize my teaching
28 May 2013 | 6:11 amWhenever I describe the following experience to colleagues they tell me I should write it up. So. Here it is: In Fall 2007 I taught a freshman seminar for the first time. The topic was Children, Marriage, and the Family, and students also took two, thematically-linked, classes in other departments together. The design is there are 20 students (in fact I've had 21 each time); it might be worth knowing in what follows that nearly all of those students have been women which, I am told, is a result of the subject matter. I had, up till then, very little contact with first or second year… -
American Association of Philosophy Teachers workshop Saturday, June 1 in Atlanta
21 May 2013 | 8:11 amSaturday, June 1, the summer workshop of the American Association of Philosophy teachers is meeting at Morehouse College, Atlanta. Below and here ( SummerAAPT.com ) is a tentative schedule of events. All are welcome! Please pass the word on about this event to your networks. Thanks! The schedule is below. Correction: an earlier version of this post mistakenly said 'this' Saturday, which was incorrect at the time of the initial post. American Association of Philosophy TeachersWorkshop on Teaching and Learning in PhilosophySaturday, June 1, 2013 Morehouse…
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Philosophy by the Way
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Doing and allowing (2): Two cases
16 Jun 2013 | 4:35 pmCase 1. By a car accident John has got a serious brain damage. He is in coma and there is no chance that he’ll recover. After several years the family and the medical staff see it as the best solution for John to turn off the life-support machine and let him die. So the doctor who is responsible for John’s treatment turns off the machine and John dies. Many people will say that this is a case of allowing (that John dies): The doctor lets John die. If there hadn’t existed a life-supporting machine, John would have died anyway.Case 2. By a car accident John has got a serious brain damage. -
“Equality is the soul of equity”
9 Jun 2013 | 3:57 pmA reader of this website kindly commented on the passage in my last blog that said that the quotation from Richardson (“killing one man is seen as wicked while killing ten thousand is seen as glorious”) points to a double morality. I thought that it would be a good idea to say something more on the idea of “double morality” and, of course, there is a lot to say about it but I didn’t find anything that was good enough to use for my blog or – from another point of view – I wasn’t inspired enough to use what I found on the Internet and in my books and what popped up in my mind. -
The downward trend of violence
2 Jun 2013 | 5:05 pmMonument for Roland, commander of the rear guard of Charlemagne’s army in 778 in the Battle of RoncevauxIn my last blog I mentioned Steven Pinker’s thesis that the world is becoming increasingly peaceful. In fact, this remark was only indirectly connected with what I wanted to say there, but at the moment I am reading his The Better Angels of Our Nature. I have almost finished it and I am impressed, so I couldn’t help referring to it. Pinker’s thesis that the world has become safer and less violent through the years is convincing, although this doesn’t imply (and Pinker doesn’t… -
The meaning of the present
26 May 2013 | 4:23 pmA time difference of thousand human livesOf late I read in the science section of a newspaper about the recent discovery that already 25 million years ago apes and monkeys were different species. This means that these creatures have become separated much earlier than thought before. One can wonder then when man became a separate species. I am a layman in paleoanthropology, but one who reads books and articles about it with much interest and I know that at least eight million years ago a kind of “man” existed and, who knows, maybe “man” existed already at least 25 million years ago. -
On quality
19 May 2013 | 5:20 pmThe French musician Paul Dukas (1865-1935) was not only a talented composer, but also a critic, scholar and teacher, who wrote more than 400 articles. When I listened to the radio programme “Composer of the week” on the Dutch Radio 4, which presented the life and music of Dukas, I heard the following quotation from an article that he had written in the 1920s (the quote was in Dutch, which I have translated here into English):“Every day the blasé public is surrounded by the sound of telephones and cars that transport them at top speed from one art manifestation to another. They hog the…
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Knowledge and Experience
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The Tiniest Offenses
13 Jun 2013 | 8:33 amThe recent news about sexual harassment in philosophy has been bringing exposure (so to speak) to the problem--not to mention providing an awful lot of intentional and unintentional amusement.Myself, I have not experienced (prolonged episodes of) sexual harassment at work. Even if common, it's not ubiquitous. Harassment, though, appears with regularity--either of myself or observed harassment of others. Gender is often a component, defining the target, the methods, the vulnerabilities.But sometimes a great long span of time goes by--months, even--when I'm not harassed, and I don't hear… -
Using Facebook for Volunteer Work
5 Jun 2013 | 9:51 amI have a problem, and maybe you can help me--because you know more about facebook than I do.I work with a group to foster conservation and preservation in an urban old-growth forest in Rochester--Washington Grove. You may have seen me write about the work in the Grove before, e.g. here and here.The group has been operating since about 2008, and although we coordinate with the City of Rochester, we are not incorporated as a non-profit. Our grants and fundraising is funneled through other organizations. For instance, the City of Rochester has a fund set aside for reforestation, and donations to… -
What's "Meant" Prior to "Assesment"?
4 Jun 2013 | 10:39 amI'm part of a "faculty team" that is working on assessment of a new general education requirement in ethics education.In principle, I'm not opposed to there being an additional layer of accountability when it comes to course content and teaching effectiveness. I could imagine assessment procedures which could be used to hold faculty accountable against those hobgoblins that threaten higher education--grade inflation, the pedagogy of rote learning, deadbeat professors, arbitrary grading. And I can imagine procedures which faculty could use to gather evidence to make demands against… -
John Stuart Mill and Liberty
3 Jun 2013 | 12:57 pmI've taught the main idea of John Stuart Mill's "On Liberty" before--in introductory level courses. I've taught his separation of cases argument against government suppression of free speech. And I've taught Liberty in a way that incorporates a discussion of freedom of action and specifically victimless crimes.But one of the questions that I had, going into teaching this course, is whether "Liberty" is supportive of the variety of political thought that in the news media gets called libertarianism.I'm far from an expert on contemporary libertarianism. I know that it comes in liberal and… -
My Mill Course: A Recap
2 Jun 2013 | 12:22 pmFor the spring quarter I taught a 10-week course on John Stuart Mill. Time to look back, or as we now say, "to assess." I asked to teach this course because I've admired Mill but am not an expert and was looking for a way to increase my expertise by a notch.Expectations.that Mill would be a clear writer for all that I assigned (most of which I had not read for a decade) and that his positions would be clear.that my students, going into this advanced upper-division course, would be familiar with some version of utilitarianism and that most would be well-disposed towards consequentialism.that…
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The Brooks Blog
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"The 'Life in the United Kingdom' Citizenship Test: Is It Unfit for Purpose?" report
17 Jun 2013 | 3:50 am. . . can be downloaded HERE. This is "a report by Dr Thom Brooks of an independent review of the uses of the test for British immigration policy" published by Durham University. The report's abstract:The 'Life in the United Kingdom' test is an important part of British immigration policy attracting cross-party support. This report is the most comprehensive and rigorous examination of the test available. The report considers how the current edition compares with previous editions and it identifies several problems that should be addressed in a future edition. The report supports 12… -
The "Life in the UK" Citizenship Test: Unfit for Purpose? Report
14 Jun 2013 | 10:29 amMy The "Life in the United Kingdom" Citizenship Test: Unfit for Purpose? report was launched last evening in Durham Castle. This report is the most comprehensive examination available into the test available. It exposes serious problems with the test and provides several recommendations for its reform.I've been delighted by the wide coverage across a spectrum of about 250 newspapers and news agencies worldwide, including several British papers such as Daily Express, Daily Mail, Daily Star, Daily Telegraph, Evening Standard, Guardian, Independent, Mail on Sunday,… -
Punishment book launch, reprise
12 Jun 2013 | 8:10 amA news item is now on our Durham Law School website about my book launch for Punishment in the Houses of Parliament here. -
"The 'Life in the United Kingdom' Citizenship Test: Is It Unfit for Purpose?" Report Launch
10 Jun 2013 | 3:51 pm. . . will take place this Thursday from 8.30pm in the Senate Suite at Durham Castle (known locally as University College, Durham) situated across the Palace Green from Durham Cathedral, a World Heritage Site. Information about the talk can be found here. The event is free -- and there will be free copies of the report for all who attend.The report exposes new, serious problems with the current Life in the United Kingdom citizenship test and offers 12 recommendations for how this test can be improved in a fourth edition. -
HM Government and me - more on the Life in the UK test as "unfit for purpose"
23 May 2013 | 1:04 amLord Roberts of Llandudno, a Liberal Democrat Peer in the House of Lords, submitted a question to the government about my recent work on the new Life in the United Kingdom citizenship test, which I've described as "unfit for purpose" here and here. His Lordship writes:"To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Taylor of Holbeach on 6 February (WA 58), what assessment they have made of Dr Thom Brooks’ recent evaluation of the Life in the UK Test being “unfit for purpose”."(Hansard Citation: HL Deb, 21 May 2013, c43W)Lord Taylor of Holbeach, a Conservative…
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In Search of Enlightenment
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Main Menu (June 2013)
18 Jun 2013 | 2:55 pmRecent posts on this blog include:(1) The Resilient Brain (great example of Positive Biology)(2) The Anti-Science Left (on The Agenda)(3) Upcoming Toronto Conference(4) Ottawa Talk on "Bridging the Gap"(5) Reader's Digest Interview on Aging and Longevity ScienceCheers, Colin -
Ottawa Talk (Video presentation)
6 Jun 2013 | 7:10 pmLast month I gave a talk at this interdisciplinary event in Ottawa. I worked some of the ideas from that talk into the video presentation above. Preparing this talk was very helpful to me as it enabled me to frame a very lengthy project I have been working on for over 13 years. I am in the (what I hope are!) finishing stages of that project and hope to post something about it in the not too distant future. Cheers, Colin -
Social Philosophy and Policy Paper Accepted for Publication
13 May 2013 | 2:00 pmMy paper entitled "Empirical Ethics and the Duty to Extend the "Biological Warranty Period"" has been accepted for publication in the journal Social Philosophy and Policy. This paper represents, at least to date, my most substantive (and I hope significant) publication on the duty to retard human aging. Here is the abstract:The world’s aging populations face novel health challenges never experienced before in human history. The moral landscape thus needs to adapt to reflect this novel empirical reality. In this paper I take for granted one basic moral principle- a principle of preventing… -
Latest Robinson Ted Talk on Education
11 May 2013 | 12:36 pmAbove is another brilliant Ted Talk by Ken Robinson. Enjoy!Cheers, Colin -
Ottawa Talk on "Bridging the Gap"
6 May 2013 | 7:20 pmLast week I was a guest speaker at this interesting event in Ottawa where I gave a 30 minute talk titled "Bridging the Gap: Political Philosophy Meets Biogerontology". Below I summarize the basic points covered in that talk:In 1959 the British scientist and novelist CP Snow gave a lecture in Cambridge titled "Two Cultures". Snow argued that the intellectual life of western societies was polarized between two traditions- that of scientists and that of literary intellectuals who had very little understanding of, and appreciation for, science. Half a century on and many of Snow's concerns are…
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In Living Color
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The Predation Defense
18 Jun 2013 | 9:12 amLately I've been torturing my family with the question: what would the world be like if all animals were herbivores? I'm pretty sure the answer is: not as good. Evolving to hunt makes a species develop all sorts of perceptual and cognitive strengths, and likewise, evolving as another species' prey. I can't see how a world filled with herbivores, and only herbivores, could have minds as -
Why aren't you a vegan? (results)
7 Jun 2013 | 8:08 amHERE are the results of my survey. 88 people took the survey. I asked-- This survey is aimed at people who are not vegans. You qualify as "not a vegan" if you deliberately consume some or all animal products (meat, eggs, milk, cheese, fish, oysters, clams, etc.) Which of the following statements capture your reason(s) for not being a vegan? Select ALL of the answers that express your -
Why aren't you a vegan?
28 May 2013 | 8:03 amPerhaps you are! But if not, please take this survey and disseminate. I will share the results here in a week. SURVEY -
The Missing Posts
23 May 2013 | 9:50 amI've made six trips since February to visit my father in Pennsylvania. This means my thoughts have been interrupted a lot. I get on the plane, read a book about something I'm working on, keep the topic on my mind for several days, and by the time I'm on the return flight, I've lost the thread. Blogging is further down the list of my priorities, so it's even more difficult to hang on to -
The Badness of Death
9 May 2013 | 6:06 amWhat makes death bad for someone who dies? This is on my mind for lots of different reasons--so here goes, some thinking aloud. The question is puzzling if you even just think about the death of one individual, of one age and species, but let's be masochists and thinking about lots of deaths. Death of a zygote after 2 days development Death of a newborn baby Death of a healthy young adult
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Stephen Law
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Moving the Semantic Goalposts - some theological sleight-of-hand with words
13 Jun 2013 | 8:33 am(apologies for mixed metaphors)This is a chapter from my book Believing Bullshit:How Not To get Sucked Into An Intellectual Black Hole. It may be of use to anyone teaching religious language at A Level (RS or Philosophy).Moving the goalpostsThe expression “moving the goalposts” refers to a certain disreputable strategy in an argument. Suppose I claim Fred has never been to Brazil. It’s pointed out to me that Fred went to Brazil on his honeymoon. My claim has been shown to be false, but rather than admit this I just switch claims: “Well, he’s never been to Brazil on… -
"Why Study Philosophy?" Day, June 28th Manchester - I'm speaking
13 Jun 2013 | 4:35 am'Why study Philosophy?' day Title: Why Study PhilosophyDate: June 28th, 2013, 10.15am-4.00pm (followed by optional campus tour) For: Year 12 students from schools and collegesTo Book: Please click enter your details in the booking form - please note if you are teacher bringing a group of students please complete the bottom section in addition to your details. This event is completely free to any students wanting to find out more about this fascinating subject. Through a series of interactive talks and workshops, participants will gain hands-on experience of this fascinating area, and there… -
Playing drumkit with Heavy Dexters this Friday, Ashmolean Museum
12 Jun 2013 | 10:11 am -
Centre for Inquiry UK event yesterday: Scientism: Can Science Solve Every Mystery?
9 Jun 2013 | 6:16 amAn event I organized for CFI. A good, educational time was had by all. Here's Christian Peter S. Williams (left) with atheist Peter Atkins. Videos to follow. -
We don't have an impartial, truth-seeking BBC. We've got a toothless, neutral BBC
6 Jun 2013 | 1:57 amConsider: "Profligate Labour, unlike the financially responsible Tories, amassed a huge debt prior to the financial crisis, which is the major cause of our current economic problems."This thought is everywhere. Tory and Lib Dem spokespeople drop it into their every other conversation on radio and TV. It's been repeated in the Press, on the internet, etc. to the point where it's become a factoid - something everyone just "knows" to be true. However, Labour reduced the national debt by 22%. It inherited a debt of 42% of GDP from the Tories in 1997. By the start of the banking crisis it had got…
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gonepublic: philosophy, politics, & public life
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A Message from Istanbul
3 Jun 2013 | 1:31 pmI am sharing this with the permission of the author, a colleague in and from Istanbul, who sent this to me this morning…. 6 days ago, a few thousand people started a peaceful protest against an urban development project in Gezi Parki, Taksim, Istanbul. An illegal process to uproot 20-year old trees in the park gave rise to these people camping out in the park all night, reading books, singing together, and protesting the project, which proposed to build a new shopping mall/bazaar/pedestrian walkway, where there is currently a park. There were families and children, young and old people… -
A Bad Year Gone
23 May 2013 | 7:36 pmI can hardly believe the year that has just passed. At the beginning of it I would never have imagined that people would stop and praise me for my mastery of Robert’s Rules of Order or for my leadership on campus. A year ago today I’d never read RRO and I was still very much a newcomer to my campus. But then this past September the dean of Emory’s College of Arts and Sciences announced a roster of cuts to undergraduate and graduate programs and everything for me changed. One of the programs he cut was one that my husband was teaching in as a senior lecturer, so that… -
Be Extreme, Extremely You
15 May 2013 | 6:32 pmMy good friend, the composer Carman Moore, whom I talk with much too rarely, wrote me a little poem many years ago. I keep a copy of it handy wherever I’m writing, and it serves me well. So I offer it to all of you who happen across this blog. It’s sage advice. And note the composer’s riffs: Be extreme, extremely you, Follow the good line all the way. Then maybe it bears repeating. Then maybe it bears variation. Then maybe it bears offspring. When it’s over, you’re changed. You can never go back to where you were. … -
Hugh J. Silverman
13 May 2013 | 5:04 pmThe Stony Brook philosopher and executive director of the International Association for Philosophy and Literature, Hugh Silverman, died last Wednesday after a battle with prostate cancer. I didn’t know him well, but every time I saw him there was a smile and a hug. A good soul and now with his passing a real loss to philosophy. Read this moving tribute from Peter Gratton. -
An Apt Analogy?
23 Feb 2013 | 11:16 amLast September the deans of Emory University’s College of Arts and Sciences and Laney Graduate School announced a fait accompli – cuts to program and curricula in the arts and humanities, among others. This came as a complete surprise to the entire faculty, though a few members subsequently said they saw it coming. College and university bylaws stipulate that the faculty has primary responsibility for the curriculum, but the only faculty consultation was with a small committee sworn to secrecy that only reported to the dean of the college. In a recent fiasco, Emory University…
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Alexander Pruss's Blog
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Blowguns and their darts
17 Jun 2013 | 12:34 pmIn case this heated discussion has made you desire a blowgun, here are my instructions for blowgun and dart making. :-) Stay safe! -
Spoof arguments against the Axiom of Choice
15 Jun 2013 | 9:18 amAs a first year graduate student, I wrote this pseudonymous spoof, inspired by the Sokal affair. It's rather immature in places, but enjoy! -
The Banach-Tarski Paradox and the Axiom of Choice
14 Jun 2013 | 10:46 amThe Banach-Tarski theorem (BTT) says that, given the Axiom of Choice, a continuous ball can be decomposed into a finite number of pieces that can be rearranged to form two balls of equal size. That's weird, and is taken by some to be an argument against the Axiom of Choice.I don't think we should take it as such an argument. Sure, BTT is paradoxical. But when one looks at the proof, one notes that the proof makes use of paradoxical results that do not depend on the Axiom of Choice. For instance, a lemma in standard proofs of BTT is the surprising fact that you can take any circle that's… -
Popper functions and null sets
13 Jun 2013 | 1:48 pmLet's go back to the problem that I keep on thinking about: How to distinguish possibilities that are classically of null probability. For instance, given a uniform choice of a point on some nice set (say, a ball) in Euclidean space, we want to say something like P({x,y})>P({x}), when x and y are distinct: it's more likely that one would hit one of two points than that one would hit a particular point. A series of my blog posts (and at least one article) showed that infinitesimals aren't the way. What about conditional probabilities?For various reasons, instead of taking unconditional… -
Yet another account of omnipotence
12 Jun 2013 | 8:30 amThe following account of omnipotence runs into the McEar objection: x is omnipotent iff x can do anything whose doing is consistent with the nature of x. For suppose McEar has the essential property of doing nothing other than scratching his ear, and suppose he can scratch his ear. Then (1) counts McEar as omnipotent. That's no good. The Pearce-Pruss account of omnipotence escapes this. But so does this minor twist on (1): x is omnipotent iff x can do anything whose doing is consistent with the nature of a perfect being. There are things consistent with the nature of a perfect being that…
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The Splintered Mind
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Portrayals of Dream Coloration in Mid-Twentieth Century Cinema
13 Jun 2013 | 8:22 amFrom the 1930s-1950s, people in the U.S. thought they dreamed mostly in black and white. Nowadays, people think they dream mostly in color. In previous work, I've presented evidence that this change in opinion was driven by people's over-analogizing dreams to movies -- assuming their dreams are colored if the film media around them are colored, assuming their dreams are black and white if the film media around them are black and white. A few days ago, I summarized my research on this at the Velaslavasay Panorama Museum in L.A., and media scholar Ann-Sophie Lehmann, who was in the audience,… -
My Boltzmann Continuants
6 Jun 2013 | 8:10 amLightning strikes me and I die. Fortunately (let's suppose), the universe is infinite and consciousness supervenes on the arrangement of molecules in one's body. So somewhere in my forward light cone -- maybe in about a double-boggle years [note 1], arises an enduring, Earthly, Boltzmann continuant of me. A Boltzmann continuant for Person X at time T is, I stipulate, any being that, at time T-prime, arises suddenly from disorganized chaos, into a entity particle-for-particle identical to Person X at time T, within an error range of a thousandth of a Planck length. [note 2] A Boltzmann… -
Invisible Revisions
3 Jun 2013 | 8:56 amImagine an essay manuscript: Version A. Monday morning, I read through Version A. I'm not satisfied. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, I revise and revise -- cutting some ideas, adding others, tweaking the phrasing, trying to perfect the manuscript. Wednesday night I have the new version, Version B. My labor is complete. I set it aside. Three weeks later, I re-read the manuscript -- Version B, of course. It lacks something. The ideas I had made more complex seem now too complex. They lack vigor. Conversely, what I had simplified for Version B now seems flat and cartoonish. The new sentences are… -
1% Skepticism
29 May 2013 | 11:38 amI find myself, right now, 99% confident that I am who I think I am, living in a broad world of the kind I think I live in. The remaining 1% of my credence I reserve for all radically skeptical scenarios combined. Most of us, I think, don't reserve even 1% of our credence for radically skeptical scenarios. Maybe if you're philosophically inclined and not entirely hostile to skepticism, you'd be willing to say, in certain reflective moments, that there is some chance, maybe about 1%, that some radically skeptical scenario obtains. But such acknowledgements are typically not truly felt and lived… -
Joshua Afire in Canaan
27 May 2013 | 8:43 amToday is Memorial Day in the U.S. I have written a story about war, two pages from the perspective of Joshua from the Old Testament -- a celebration of violence and genocide, in Joshua's hard, sure voice. I hope it's unnecessary to add that Joshua's perspective is not my own. Story here.
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In the Space of Reasons
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Arthur Frank at the 'Research that lets stories breathe' workshop at UCLan
13 Jun 2013 | 6:07 amThe following are my rough notes of Arthur Frank’s presentation this morning at a one day workshop on narrative based social science research (socionarratology). As before, Frank spoke very fluently to written notes and it was hard not to think that, as a narrative theorist, he also rather enjoys telling stories.I was struck by his comments at the end. He has a reasonably restrictive view of what a story is. It must have plot, character, suspense and require imagination of the listener. So the comments part way through the talk that stories play, in effect and not that he put it this way… -
A manifesto for philosophers marking social science PhDs?
6 Jun 2013 | 3:10 pmI had the privilege to act as the internal examiner for my colleague Karen Wright today. Following a unanimous recommendation in the pre-viva reports, the two externals (Michael Coffey (pictured) and Theo Stickley) and I also agreed a recommendation of a PhD award with minor corrections. (Of course, this is just a recommendation to the degree awarding powers of the University, as we emphasised with due correctness.)Now it is a feature of PhDs at my university that the director of studies is often present as a silent witness to proceedings and after today’s happy occasion the DoS, my rather… -
Nature and artifice at Center Parcs
4 Jun 2013 | 12:45 amAgainst my expectations – my wildest expectations, perhaps – of a couple of days before, I spent the weekend at Center Parcs (a half term weekend, what’s more). There was a reason: good company and my partner’s god-motherly duties coupled with unexpected contingencies. But it gave me a second opportunity (after about ten years) to experience a peculiarly domesticated version of nature and to reflect on how it isn’t so very unusual in the UK with its couple of millennia of close living and domestication of the the natural environment.For those who don’t know, Center Parks is a kind… -
Garrath Williams on the claims that actions make
1 Jun 2013 | 1:11 pmI will try to summarise Garrath Williams’ stimulating presentation at the UCLan philosophy research seminar this week and then frame my lingering doubts as to whether I really understood the main idea. (The bitty style is the result of taking notes, not the presentation.)The main claim seemed to be that actions enact normative claims and thus, through actions, normativity is introduced into the world. That slogan was meant to diverge from a conventional view in which actions are distinguished from mere movements by a machinery of mental states (eg the beliefs and desires which cause it, on… -
Wellbeing: conceptual or preconceptual?
17 May 2013 | 8:17 amThere was an interesting moment in a supervision with Laura Buckley today, this time prompted by something my colleague Bernie Carter (pictured) said. Thinking about how effective the older people whom Laura had interviewed were in thinking through and communicating their thoughts about their wellbeing, Bernie, who is interested in children's pain on the nicest interpretation of that phrase, commented on the broad opposing views of pain and language. On one, language fails to communicate the real nature of pain, which is private to the sufferer. On the other, there is an essential connection…
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Freemason Information - Masonic Traveler
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A DAY AT THE BEACH
17 Jun 2013 | 2:30 amBRYCE ON LIFE- You go for relaxation, but are taken aback by what you see.(Click for AUDIO VERSION) To use this segment in a Radio broadcast or Podcast, send TIM a request.I took some time off during the Memorial Day weekend and escaped to the beach. I guess I’m like just about anyone in that I rarely take advantage of the scenery in your own backyard. It’s been a while since I’ve been to the beach and I found the rhythm of the waves in the morning tranquil and somewhat therapeutic. However, I had forgotten about all of the pollution on the beach, eye pollution that is. I… -
AMERICAN VACATIONS
14 Jun 2013 | 2:30 amBRYCE ON LIFE- Do we ever truly escape our work environment?(Click for AUDIO VERSION) To use this segment in a Radio broadcast or Podcast, send TIM a request.I think Americans have a problem taking vacations. Although most of us feel lucky to take a week off or a few days here and there, it’s rare for Americans to take vacations like our European or Australian counterparts who may take as much as a month off at a time. Sure, we enjoy some time off to recoup from work, but I think the problem here is that Americans don’t know how to relax. Whereas others take the time to study the… -
OFFICE GOSSIP
12 Jun 2013 | 2:30 amBRYCE ON MANAGEMENT- Does your business promote or squelch idle gossip?(Click for AUDIO VERSION) To use this segment in a Radio broadcast or Podcast, send TIM a request.I have a problem with gossip in the office but I think we are all guilty of some infraction of it at some time or another. Petty gossip is one thing, viscous slander is something else altogether. Not surprising, there is a lot of misinformation floating around in an office regarding people and corporate direction. We often hear of rumors of people bucking for a certain job, looking to leave and join a competitor or customer,… -
BEWARE OF OFFICE POLITICS
10 Jun 2013 | 2:30 amBRYCE ON MANAGEMENT - There’s no avoiding it, regardless of the type or size of company.(Click for AUDIO VERSION)To use this segment in a Radio broadcast or Podcast, send TIM a request.When we join a new company, we’re all hoping for a fresh start and clean slate. The last thing we want is to get embroiled in political intrigue, regardless of how petty it might seem. Most of us just want to do our work and move along with our lives. Even if this were so, which is rarely the case, we must still deal with “political correctness” as defined by society; we have to… -
RESISTING CHANGE
7 Jun 2013 | 2:30 amBRYCE ON MANAGEMENT- Who is defending the status quo in your business? Are they right?(Click for AUDIO VERSION) To use this segment in a Radio broadcast or Podcast, send TIM a request.I have been fortunate to have visited a lot of companies in my lifetime as a consultant. I have also participated in several nonprofit groups, many of which are well established and steep in customs and tradition. Interestingly, a lot of these organizations operate on autopilot when it comes to executing procedures. So much so that whenever someone suggests something new as a means of expediting a process it is…
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The Mindful Word
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ECONOMICS OF HAPPINESS: The benefits of localization
17 Jun 2013 | 11:49 pmI first heard of Ladakh in the early 1990s when anthropologist Helena Norberg-Hodge, on a book tour, spoke of her decade’s worth of experiences in [...] The post ECONOMICS OF HAPPINESS: The benefits of localization appeared first on The Mindful Word. ... -
FORGET THE FLU SHOT: Boost natural immunity with these 6 lifestyle changes
15 Jun 2013 | 10:19 pmFor those 65 and older the influenza vaccine helped in just 9 per cent of cases, a number too low to be statistically significant, according [...] The post FORGET THE FLU SHOT: Boost natural immunity with these 6 lifestyle changes appeared first on The Mindful Word. ... -
GROUND CONTROL: Grounding exercises and visualizations
14 Jun 2013 | 6:01 pmGrounding is the preparation of mind and body to absorb energy from the Earth. To be grounded is to be in right relationship with God/Spirit [...] The post GROUND CONTROL: Grounding exercises and visualizations appeared first on The Mindful Word. ... -
ECOLOGICAL COST OF NEW: Great reasons to shop second hand
13 Jun 2013 | 10:53 pmI grew up shopping in thrift stores. I remember my mother searching for me as I hid in between clothing racks, her cart piled high [...] The post ECOLOGICAL COST OF NEW: Great reasons to shop second hand appeared first on The Mindful Word. ... -
SIMPLE CONVERSATION: Relearn listening and speaking skills
12 Jun 2013 | 5:14 pmIt’s funny that as technology has advanced and we have so many means to communicate, we still miss connecting, hearing and communicating effectively with others. [...] The post SIMPLE CONVERSATION: Relearn listening and speaking skills appeared first on The Mindful Word. ...
