Top News, Articles, and Interviews in Philosophy

Refereeing Papers About Your Own Work

10. October 2019 Philosophy News News
A graduate student in philosophy writes in with the following query:  Under what conditions is it appropriate to referee a paper that responds directly to your own work?  The student elaborates: On the one hand, it seems unethical to review such a paper, given the personal investment in the subject. On the other, it seems plausible to me that the conflict of interest doesn’t necessarily make a potential referee a less qualified reviewer than whoever would replace them, especially if the topic is a niche one or is highly technical. I can see an argument for the idea that it might be unfair to the author (or bad for the subject) to “selfishly” refuse to contribute in cases where one’s expertise might make a relevant difference. (Though I suspect that there are very few cases in which the topic is genuinely as niche or technical as that.) It also seems worthwhile to balance concerns of the time required to find additional reviewers and the associated costs to both author and editor. Finally, I’m unsure how I would draw a cutoff for papers that one shouldn’t review—speaking only for myself, I suspect that I would be more likely to be uncharitable to a paper that failed to engage with my work on a subject than with one that responded to it, for instance.  I reached out to Rebecca Kukla (Georgetown), editor-in-chief the Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal and former editor-in-chief of Public Affairs Quarterly for a response. She writes: [More]
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Mary Astell on female education and the sorrow of marriage (philosopher of the month)

10. October 2019 Philosophy News News
Mary Astell is widely considered one of the first and foremost English feminists. Her pioneering writings address female education and autonomy in the early modern period and had a profound influence on later generation of feminists. Astell was born into a middle class family in 1666. Her father was Newcastle coal merchant who died when […] The post Mary Astell on female education and the sorrow of marriage (philosopher of the month) appeared first on OUPblog.         Related StoriesThe moral mathematics of letting people dieJohn Duns Scotus – The ‘Subtle Doctor’ – Philosopher of the MonthG.E. Moore – his life and work – Philosopher of the [More]
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Racism’s Guts? The Physiology of Oppression

9. October 2019 Philosophy News News
by Shannon Sullivan Can a person’s belief in racial hierarchy—for example, that white people are superior to Black people—be embodied in their gut? I wondered this after having an “aha” moment while reading Elizabeth Wilson’s book Psychosomatic: Feminism and the Neurological Body. Chapter two of her book examines the psychology of the stomach and the intestines [More]
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U. Chicago Reforms PhD Programs: Lifts Limits on Funded Time, Sets Limits on Number of Students

9. October 2019 Philosophy News News
The University of Chicago has announced several reforms to its Ph.D. programs in the humanities, social sciences, and some other fields. The changes cover graduate student funding and teaching responsibilities:  “Every enrolled PhD student in good academic standing has full tuition coverage, paid health insurance premiums, and funding for the duration of their program at least at the guaranteed stipend level,” apparently with no preset limit on the number of years one can receive funding (though presumably programs may remove students for lack of progress). Funding is independent of teaching duties—“Regardless of whether a student is teaching in a particular quarter or year, gross stipends will not vary”—and teaching duties will be aimed at helping graduate students “learn how to teach.” “The total number of PhD students across a particular school or division [e.g., Humanities, or Social Sciences, or Divinity] will be a fixed number, and new students will not be admitted until currently enrolled students graduate or leave their program. The model allows for variation across fields in time to degree and provides autonomy for departments to weigh the trade-off between entering cohort size and years in the program.” As Colleen Flaherty puts it at Inside Higher Ed: If full funding is the carrot to finish one’s degree in a timely manner, minimizing financial distractions, there is a stick—at least for departments. [More]
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Monthly gleanings for September 2019

9. October 2019 Philosophy News News
Some more finger work: in the posts for September 25 and October 2, 2019, the etymology of the word finger was discussed. Some comments on the first one require further notice. Final -r. I deliberately stayed away from the origin of -r in fingr-, though I did mention the problem. The post Monthly gleanings for September 2019 appeared first on [More]
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Syllabus Showcase: Alexandra Bradner, Justice and Care, A Community-based Learning Syllabus

9. October 2019 Philosophy News News
by Alexandra Bradner  Alexandra Bradner is the former chair of the APA’s Committee on the Teaching of Philosophy, a former member of the APA’s Board of Officers, and the current Executive Director of the American Association of Philosophy Teachers. She recently edited Philosophers in the Classroom: Essays on Teaching (Hackett 2018) with Steven M. Cahn and Andrew [More]
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The journalist who created Jack the Ripper

9. October 2019 Philosophy News News
Many of us know the name Jack the Ripper. Perhaps we associate it with a dark shadow wearing a top hat and holding a knife in the middle of a foggy street in Victorian London. But not many of us know that this image is very far away from any reliable fact that has reached us about the 1888 tragic events that took place in Whitechapel. The post The journalist who created Jack the Ripper appeared first on [More]
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