Recent links… “They don’t necessarily think their movements will make all the difference—at least not in the short term. But they believe they can make a difference to their movement” — Michael Brownstein & Alex Madva on the civic value of losing loudly A fictional movie about sexual harassment, set in the Yale Philosophy Department, will be out in the US in October — starring Julia Roberts, Ayo Edebiri, Andrew Garfield, and Chloë Sevigny, “After the Hunt” is getting mixe...| Daily Nous
If versions of any of your books are on LibGen or similar online collections of pirated material, there is a chance it was used as training data for AI, and you may be able to join a lawsuit about it. Earlier this month, a group of authors sued Anthropic, the firm behind the Claude family of large language models, for copyright infringement. The lawsuit states: Anthropic has built a multibillion-dollar business by stealing hundreds of thousands of copyrighted books. Rather than obtaining perm...| Daily Nous
For the latest installment of the occasional academic equipment series, let’s talk coffee. How is coffee done in your department? Is it every-coffee-drinker-for-themselves? Is there a communal coffee-making device of some sort? If there is an office coffee machine, what is it? What do you (realistically) wish it was? Why? Who pays for the coffee? Which coffee do you use (and who gets to decide)? Who cleans and maintains the machines? That is: what is your department’s coffee practice? Wha...| Daily Nous
Harry Deutsch, emeritus professor of philosophy at Illinois State University, has died. Professor Deutsch was known for his work in philosophical logic and philosophy of language. You can learn more about his work here and here. Professor Deutsch spent most of his career at Illinois State. Before that, he held appointments at Indiana University Bloomington and the University of California, Los Angeles, among other places. His earned his PhD from UCLA. A brief obituary is here. In a comments o...| Daily Nous
At the end of last month, a petition was launched to move the Board of Officers of the American Philosophical Association (APA) to issue a statement about Gaza that would, “Unequivocally condemn the ongoing atrocities and war crimes against Palestinians” and “Express solidarity with Palestinian scholars, intellectuals, and students who are enduring immense suffering under war crimes, siege, and mass starvation.” You can read more about the petition itself here. The APA Board stated th...| Daily Nous
What will tell your students about whether and how they may use AI for work you assign? It depends on the students, right? That’s the main idea behind today’s guest post by Victor Kumar (Boston University). Professor Kumar is co-author (w/Richmond Campbell) of A Better Ape (OUP, 2022). In addition to his academic work, he writes about philosophy, teaching, and society at his blog, Open Questions. “To capitalize on the benefits of AI and avoid the risks, teachers must craft two AI polic...| Daily Nous
How would you determine whether studying philosophy improves critical thinking? Last October, Michael Prinzing (Baylor) & Michael Vazquez (UNC) produced an informal report for the American Philosophical Association arguing that, even though there are some selection effects, they had nonetheless found some “initial and suggestive evidence” in favor of the claim that majoring in philosophy makes students, in general, better thinkers. Prinzing and Vazquez incorporated these findings...| Daily Nous
“Pity the poor reader” is one of philosopher Penelope Maddy‘s writing maxims. Maddy is Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Irvine, and is interviewed about her writing by Nathan Ballantyne (Arizona State) at his site, The Workbench. What does she mean by it? She says: In philosophy especially, I figure the reader is nearly always gasping for breath, in danger of being swept out to sea, so the writer should do everything in their power to help. Keep things ...| Daily Nous
Recent links… While much has been written about how current generations should wield the power they have to affect future generations, almost nothing has been written on whether that power is legitimate — but there’s a question there. Is it a good one? Emil Andersson thinks so To what extent is visual perception influenced by one’s culture? — a look at some recent findings “Think lightly of yourself and deeply of the world” — the 21 rules of 17th Century Samurai Miyamoto Mu...| Daily Nous
Which philosopher has a species of extinct horned armadillo named for him? Here’s an illustration of the creature, in case you’d like to see one: Here’s a hint: you might, because of the ears, be leaning towards Schopenhauer, and I can see that… …but that’s not correct. Here’s another hint: fossils of the armadillo were discovered in Argentina and Chile, places the philosopher for whom it is named never visited. That narrows it down, and I’m sure you’re on the cusp of guessi...| Daily Nous
“You can choose to use AI to learn, or you can choose to use AI to avoid learning.” That’s the central message of a new a new first-year philosophy course created by Joshua “Gus” Skorburg (Guelph) called, “Digital Wisdom: How to Use AI Critically and Responsibly”. The course was prompted by Skorburg’s observation that “students get lots of vague and mixed messages about AI use, but very little sustained, hands-on demonstration of what it looks like to use AI to learn, rather...| Daily Nous
Ryan Lake, associate professor of philosophy at Perimeter College at Georgia State University, has died. Ryan’s philosophical interests were mainly on questions related to freedom and determinism. He joined the faculty at Perimeter College in 2016. Before that, he held appointments at Miami Dade College and Clemson University. He earned his PhD from the University of Miami and his BA from Grand Valley State University. In addition to his academic work and teaching, Ryan dedicated a signifi...| Daily Nous
Here’s “an informational and best practices guide for people who are inviting and people who are being invited.” It’s by Barry Lam, professor of philosophy at UC Riverside, creator of the philosophy podcast Hi-Phi Nation, and author of the recent Fewer Rules, Better People. “Maybe it’s because I’m a first-gen college grad, but I didn’t really develop the habit of asking questions in advance about any of these things when I first started getting invitations,” he says. Now th...| Daily Nous
“How much use of AI in our research is acceptable?” In a recent email, a professor of philosophy asked for a discussion about the ethics of using AI in philosophical research, and institutional policies about it. He adds: “My instinct is to hold my students to the same standards that I would expect of my colleagues.” While that is one possible conclusion we might land upon, I don’t think it’s a particularly good place to start, since there seem to be relevant differences between s...| Daily Nous
The new semester is upon us—at least some of us, yours truly included. Summer, you were good while you lasted. Before things ramp up to a more normal pace around here, I want to thank the authors who contributed to the Summer 2025 Guest Post Series. I very much appreciate them writing and giving us so much to think and talk about. In case you missed any of them, see the list of links below. Why Do Philosophy PhD Programs Even Exist?by Barry Lam . . . . . When To Be a Heroby Elizabet...| Daily Nous
The Royal Institute of Philosophy recently announced the longlist of books being considered for the 2025 Nayef Al-Rodhan International Prize in Transdisciplinary Philosophy. The £20,000 prize recognizes “books that transcend academic boundaries” that “further… our understanding of the key challenges facing the world today” in areas such as the future of humanity, disruptive technologies, global governance, transcultural understanding, scientific innovation, human nature, and transd...| Daily Nous
Links you may want to check out… “They call it repugnant, this world Z of ours / Where zillions breathe beneath ordinary stars / But let me tell you of a lottery divine / Where existence itself is the prize on the line” — Richard Chappell, in search of philosophically moving music, has cranked the bombast up to 11 (sorry, Richard) “The a priori is not empirical reasoning in that it doesn’t admit evidence from the senses. But beyond that, what is it?” — what makes philosophy...| Daily Nous
The articles that made it into the latest edition of Philosophers Annual have been announced. The list aims to “select the ten best articles published in philosophy each year—an attempt as simple to state as it is admittedly impossible to fulfill.” This volume---the 44th---covers the literature from 2024. The selections are: Rosalind Chaplin (UNC Chapel Hill), “Kant| Daily Nous - news for & about the philosophy profession
What are some practical work suggestions for philosophy PhD students who are seeking academic careers? Hugo Heagren, a student at King’s College London who is currently finishing up his PhD, has compiled a list of “practical tips for philosophy PhD students.” You can check it out here. Below are some of the things on his list: Use a reference manager. Use a password manager. Keep templates for types of emails you’ll send a lot. Keep notes on pretty much everything. It’s easy to writ...| Daily Nous
Links added lately… “Combining economics with philosophy makes for an excellent and productive career” — that’s advice for graduate students from John Broome, but it might also be a summary of this in-depth interview with him about his education and work “The fantasy that you can just wipe away democratic traditions and get something in its place that will solve the problems of democracy is a very dangerous one that Plato fell victim to” — on Plato’s real world attempts to...| Daily Nous
The President of Monmouth College, a private liberal arts college in Illinois, has recently announced that students at the school will no longer be able to major in philosophy, nor in a number of other subjects, starting in Fall 2026. “We stand firm to our commitment as a liberal arts college and embrace the traditions of Monmouth and liberal arts schools,” said President Patricia Draves, as she announced the elimination of major programs in philosophy, history, classics, anthropology, so...| Daily Nous
“I don’t want to be a cop in the classroom. So, it’s… important for students to come to the same conclusion themselves and understand the rationale for this [AI] policy.” Recently, Patrick Lin, a philosophy professor at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, wrote a long essay for his students on the importance of explaining to why artificial intelligence (AI) is prohibited in his courses. He also shared it on his new Substack site with the thought that it could be of use to other instructors ...| Daily Nous
Journal for New Narratives in the History of Philosophy (JNNHP) is a new, online, open-access, peer-reviewed journal. The journal’s focus is “leading-edge research relating to new narratives in any period in the history of philosophy [and] discussion of and scholarship on diverse, underrepresented, and non-canonical approaches, themes, and figures in a wide variety of world philosophical traditions.” The editors write: Our goal is to provide a platform for philosophical research that c...| Daily Nous
Philosophers Johan Gustafsson and Thomas Ward have been hired by the University of Texas at Austin. Johan Gustafsson was most recently senior research fellow at the University of York. He joins the UT Austin Department of Philosophy this fall as full professor. His research covers a range of topics in moral and political philosophy, and he is the author of Money-Pump Arguments (2022), among many other works. You can learn more about his writings at here and here. Thomas Ward was previously as...| Daily Nous
The Philosophy, Politics, and Economics Society is the recipient of a $3.2 million award. The funds, from the John Templeton Foundation, will “establish an international grant initiative to support PPE research projects, host workshops for the award winners, and build an expansive catalog of research and teaching resources,” the PPE Society announced. The grant initiative “will primarily offer funding for teams of PPE scholars working together to address areas of pressing importance th...| Daily Nous
The Stanford Daily, Stanford University’s independently run student newspaper, and two of its student staff, are suing Marco Rubio, in his capacity as Secretary of State, and Kristi Noem, in her capacity as Secretary of Homeland Security, for violating their First Amendment rights. . The suit argues that the administration’s reliance on the Immigration and Nationality Act to censor and punish lawfully present noncitizens is unconstitutional. From the suit: Secretary of State Marco Rubio...| Daily Nous
“We do not publish any work advancing views that are clearly contrary to the established teachings of the Catholic Church.” That’s in the submission guidelines for the National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly (NCBQ). Also in those submission guidelines: The NCBQ seeks to foster intellectual inquiry on moral issues by publishing articles that address the ethical, philosophical, theological, and clinical questions raised by the rapid pace of modern medical and technological progress. Inspi...| Daily Nous
"Over the last decade, interest in ethical issues related to computing, especially concerning artificial intelligence (AI) and big data, has skyrocketed." Why should philosophers---as teachers, as researchers, as members and administrators of philosophy departments---care about this? And what should they do in response to it? The following guest post is by members of the Value| Daily Nous - news for & about the philosophy profession
