Top News, Articles, and Interviews in Philosophy

Rudolf Carnap

24. February 2020 Philosophy News News
[New Entry by Hannes Leitgeb and André Carus on February 24, 2020.] Rudolf Carnap (1891 - 1970) was one of the best-known philosophers of the twentieth century. Notorious as one of the founders, and perhaps the leading philosophical representative, of the movement known as logical positivism or logical empiricism, he was one of the originators of the new field of philosophy of science and later a leading contributor to semantics and inductive logic. Though his views underwent significant changes at various points, he continued to reaffirm the basic tenets of logical empiricism, and is [More]
RSS | Podcasts | Twitter | Facebook | Kindle

69 - Wood on Sustainable Superabundance

24. February 2020 Philosophy News News
In this episode I talk to David Wood. David is currently the chair of the London Futurists group and a full-time futurist speaker, analyst, commentator, and writer. He studied the philosophy of science at Cambridge University. He has a background in designing, architecting, implementing, supporting, and avidly using smart mobile devices. He is the author or lead editor of nine books including, "RAFT 2035", "The Abolition of Aging", "Transcending Politics", and "Sustainable Superabundance". We chat about the last book on this list -- Sustainable Superabundance -- and its case for an optimistic future.You can download the episode here or listen below. You can also subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify and other podcasting services (the RSS feed is here). Show Notes0:00 - Introduction1:40 - Who are the London Futurists? What do they do?3:34 - Why did David write Sustainable Superabundance?7:22 - What is sustainable superabundance?11:05 - Seven spheres of flourishing and seven types of superabundance?16:16 - Why is David a transhumanist?20:20 - Dealing with two criticisms of transhumanism: (i) isn't it naive and polyannish? (ii) isn't it elitist, inegalitarian and dangerous?30:00 - Key principles of transhumanism34:52 - How will we address energy needs of the future?40:35 - How optimistic can we really be about the future of energy?46:20 - Dealing with pessimism about food production?52:48 - Are we heading for another AI winter?1:01:08 - The politics of [More]
RSS | Podcasts | Twitter | Facebook | Kindle

Are Philosophers Using Publons?

24. February 2020 Philosophy News News
About four years ago in a post about getting credit for refereeing articles, I mentioned Publons, a site that allows you to “track your publications, citation metrics, peer reviews, and journal editing work in a single, easy-to-maintain profile.” At the time, not many philosophers or journals appeared to be making use of Publons, but there have been increasing mentions of it, and now a number of philosophy journals are listed on it (some of which have “partnered” with the Publons, as indicated on its lists by a blue checkmark). The philosophy journals with the most reviews as of the time of this post are: Still, people have questions about it. One reader wrote in: Are people using Publons? Journals are offering to give me recognitions, via Publons, for review work and I just have no idea whether it’s something worth doing. I don’t particularly care about me being recognized, but I do think it’s good if our profession can come up with ways to incentivize timely, quality reviewing. Does Publons actually do that? Discussion welcome, especially from reviewers who use Publons or have thought about it but don’t, and editors whose journals make use of Publons. The post Are Philosophers Using Publons? appeared first on Daily [More]
RSS | Podcasts | Twitter | Facebook | Kindle

Quebec Government Deplatforms Daniel Weinstock (updated)

24. February 2020 Philosophy News News
Daniel Weinstock, a philosopher on the Faculty of Law at McGill University and director of the McGill Institute for Health and Social Policy, was disinvited by the Quebec government from speaking at a meeting about reforming the mandatory ethics and religious culture course taught in the province’s schools. Professor Weinstock was falsely described earlier this week in a Le Journal de Montreal column by writer Richard Martineau as having expressed support for a type of “symbolic” form of “female circumcision.” Martineau criticized the Quebec government for inviting Weinstock to speak at the meeting. Shortly after the column’s publication, Quebec’s education minister, Jean-François Roberge, cancelled Weinstock’s appearance at the meeting. Weinstock has not supported female circumcision, not even in its “Seattle Compromise” form. He told CTV: “I think that no compromise should be made with female genital cutting at all.” Martineau apparently mistook Weinstock’s description of a position regarding female circumcision for advocacy of it. Yesterday, the columinst, Martineau, admitted that is column was inaccurate, but refused to apologize, according to CTV. Despite being made aware of the inaccuracy, education minister Roberge refused to reinstate Weinstock’s invitation to speak at the meeting, which is taking place today. UPDATE (2/24/20): Roberge apologizes to Weinstock. The post Quebec [More]
RSS | Podcasts | Twitter | Facebook | Kindle