Philosophy in the News
- Is the World Becoming a Better Place By Any Chance?
Peter Singer thinks so.
- Reflections from Prison
Prison inmate students of philosopher Jennifer Lackey's class at Stateville Correctional Center write about their prison cells.
- The Seven Layers of You
Maria Popova offers one of her always excellent overviews -- this time of Amelie Rorty's The Identities of Persons, which includes essays by Rorty as well as Daniel Dennett, John Perry, and Ronald de Sousa — with Rebecca Goldstein on what makes you and your childhood self the same person despite a lifetime of change, Hannah Arendt on being vs. appearing, Andre Gidé on what it really means to be yourself, and Parker Palmer on the six pillars of the integrated life.
- Procreation, Parenthood, and Educational Rights
Procreation, Parenthood, and Educational Rights explores important issues at the nexus of two burgeoning areas within moral and social philosophy: procreative ethics and parental rights. Surprisingly, there has been comparatively little scholarly engagement across these subdisciplinary boundaries, despite the fact that parental rights are paradigmatically ascribed to individuals responsible for procreating particular children. This collection thus aims to bring expert practitioners from these literatures into fruitful and innovative dialogue around questions at the intersection of procreation and parenthood. Jaime Ahlberg (UF) & Michael Cholbi (eds). Procreation, Parenthood, and Educational Rights (Routledge, 2017)
- Philosophy Major Tells You Exactly What You Can Do with Your Humanities BA
Quite well, that's what. As we ask ourselves what studies we value and seek to promote in our society, we should not rely on poor data and stereotypes when doing so.
- Teaching Kids How (and Not Just What) to Think
A summary follow-up piece on the study run last year by the UK's Education Endowment Fund -- which showed the dramatic benefits of teaching philosophical inquiry to children. Includes links to various venues that covered the story.
- Thinking Outside the Pod
Peter Godfrey-Smith discusses free will, what it might be like to be an octopus, which prehistoric animal would be the most interesting to resurrect, and his new book, Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness. (audio)
- How Should We Remember the Fallen?
How should we remember and commemorate those who die in war? What about the enemy dead? Cécile Fabre, author of several books on the philosophy of war, discusses these issues. (audio)
- Santideva’s Contributions to Ethical Theory
The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy has a new entry on Śāntideva who was a 17th & 18th century Buddhist monk, philosopher, and poet whose reflections on the overall structure of Buddhist moral commitments reach a level of generality and theoretical power that is hard to find elsewhere in Indian thought. His writings were immensely influential in the development of the Tibetan religious tradition. His two major works may represent the single most significant contribution of the Buddhist tradition to the global enterprise of ethical theory.
- From Reason to Enlightenment
A discussion with Anthony Gottlieb and Dalia Nassar. Gottlieb is on a mission is to document in plain language the pivotal moments in the history of philosophy — from the pre-Socratics to the dawning of reason in the Enlightenment. And we hear from Dalia Nassar, about that giant of the Enlightenment, Kant, and his third Critique. (audio)
- The Universe as We Find It
Philosopher John Heil has a free online course up on metaphysics and its relation to science.
- Official Robot Ethics Guidelines
Britain comes out ahead of the curve with the official guidelines for robot ethics just published by the British Standards Institutes.
- The Negation Problem in Metaethics
Frege-Geach worries about embedding and composition have plagued metaethical theories like emotivism, prescriptivism and expressivism. The sharpened point of such criticism has come to focus on whether negation and inconsistency have to be understood in descriptivist terms. Because they reject descriptivism, these theories must offer a non-standard account of the meanings of ethical and normative sentences as well as related semantic facts, such as why certain sentences are inconsistent with each other. This paper fills out such a solution to the negation problems, following some of the original emotivist ideas about the interplay of interests in conversation. We communicate both to share information and coordinate our actions, and we use distinctively normative language like deontic ‘must' and ‘may' to negotiate what people are to do. The kinds of disagreement involved in such negotiation can illuminate the issues with negation and inconsistency. This paper outlines a dynamic semantic system in which these ideas can bear fruit, developing the scorekeeping model of conversation. The result is clarification about what Frege-Geach worries can mean for nondescriptive semantics.
- Oh, You Think You’re So Modern
For all our technological breakthroughs, we're still wrestling with the same basic questions as the Enlightenment philosophers. On Descartes, Leibniz, Spinoza, and Anthony Gottlieb's follow-up to “The Dream of Reason.”
- What Is Happening Outside Your Moral Self
An interview with philosopher Edward Harcourt. "One cannot possibly understand the totality of what Wittgenstein was up to – the later Wittgenstein included – unless one sees his enterprise as an ethical one, though explaining why that is so is tricky."
- “Impartial” Media Lends Credibility to Uncreditable Views
Many journalists' attempts at neutrality have the unintended consequence of bolstering the seeming plausibility of intolerant, inhumane, and irrational ideas.
- Breaking Bad Law
The right to privacy explicitly provided by the Alaska Constitution has long been broadly interpreted—even protecting Alaskan citizens' right to personal home use and possession of marijuana. Though this right to privacy has been interpreted many times over the last few decades, Alaska currently lacks a coherent approach to application of its privacy laws. As the prevalence of methamphetamine production increases in homes across Alaska, the Alaskan courts' approach to privacy must be reevaluated in light of its delicate interaction with search and seizure policies surrounding methamphetamine labs.
- Can Your Doctor Deny Care on Moral Grounds?
Does your doctor have the right to choose not to help you if they oppose the procedure you request? We sometimes grant exemptions from, for example, military service for conscientious objectors. Does the same idea apply here?
- How to Tell If You’re a Jerk
Do you look in the mirror in the morning and ask, am I a jerk? Probably not. You realize that is just how a jerk would behave. The question is a reasonable one. There are, presumably, genuine jerks in the world. And many of those jerks, presumably, have a pretty high moral opinion of themselves, or at least a moderate opinion of themselves. They don't think of themselves as jerks, because jerk self-knowledge is, you know, hard to come by. Philosopher Eric Schwitzgebel is back and ready to help you out with your jerkitude.
- How to Live Well in the Real World
A review of Peter Singer's recent book, Ethics in the Real World.