Call for Papers: “Spirituality in Action: Bringing Transpersonal Psychology to a World in Crisis”

I though this might be relevant for those working on Environmental Ethics, Philosophy of Religion, and/or Moral Psychology. Best of Luck!

Does Darwin Get Too Much Credit?

Some apparently think so:

Freewill in the NYT

… featuring FSU’s Al Mele, here.

(HT: The Garden of Forking Paths)

“Philosophical Readiness”

Call for abstracts of presentations for a symposium on teaching philosophy to be part of the 55th annual conference of the Florida Philosophical Association, to be held November 13-14, 2009, in Gainesville, Florida, hosted by Santa Fe College.

DEADLINE: August 14, 2009

More information on the 2009 meeting is available here.
Symposium organizer: Charlotte Pressler, South Florida Community College

Dr. Donald Clark Hodges (1923-2009)

http://www.tallahassee.com/article/20090617/NEWS01/906170315/1010/Donald+Hodges+followed+road+less+traveled

Trouble for Philosophy at FSU?

Potential layoffs of tenured faculty? Brian Leiter provides some details here.

I have heard that certain faculty members and certain departments at FSU have suffered pretty badly from the budget cuts. I am under the impression, however, that philosophy faculty are highly regarded (rightly so) and that the department does not face such drastic cuts.

FPA 2009 – Call for Papers

MOVING TO THE FRONT (FROM APRIL 30)

Paper submissions are invited for the 55th annual meeting of the Florida Philosophical Association, to be held November 13-14, 2009, in Gainesville, hosted by Santa Fe College.

(Note: For graduate students, the deadline for submissions to the FPA conference is, roughly, two weeks after the deadline for submissions to the Northeast Florida Student Philosophy Conference. For undergrads, the FPA deadline is, roughly, seven weeks later. For details, see both here and below.)

Moral Philosophy and Moral Behavior

Congratulations to Eric Schwitzgebel (UC-Riverside) and Josh Rust (Stetson) on their forthcoming paper in Mind, “The Moral Behavior of Ethicists: Peer Opinion.” The ‘peer opinion’ is not particularly flattering. Here is the abstract:

A Graduate Conference for Feminist Philosophers, Call for Papers

I was visiting the web-page of the Philosophy Department at the University of Western Ontario, and noticed that they had an open call for papers for an upcoming graduate student conference on feminist philosophy (Sept. 18-20). The Keynote speaker is Alice MacLachlan (York University).

 Here is an excerpt of their description of the conference: “This conference aims to bring together graduate students from across North America who share an interest in feminism, post-coloniality, queer theory, critical race theory, philosophy of disability and anti-oppression theory in general, regardless of their primary area of research. ”

The deadline for submissions is on June 15th. Click here for more information.

Video Lecture: Introduction to Modal Logic by Rajeev Gore

Rajeev Goré of Australia National University gives a very approachable introduction to propositional modal logic in this video lecture here. It’s a nice, non-technical exposition of the relationship of syntax, semantics and derivation calculus for modal logic. Particularly interesting (and convincing!) is Goré’s assertion that Kripke frames can be intuitively understood in terms of graph theory.

“Health Care, Conscience, and Property”

MOVING TO THE FRONT (FROM MAY 19th; ORIGINALLY POSTED APRIL 28th)

UNF’s Department of Philosophy invites paper submissions from undergraduate or graduate students for the 13th Annual Northeast Florida Student Philosophy Conference:

“Health Care, Conscience, and Property”

September 12, 2009
Jacksonville, Florida

Plenary Speakers:
H. Tristram Engelhardt (Rice University/Baylor College of Medicine)
Kenneth Brummel-Smith (Florida State University)

Directions: Submit both (i) a cover sheet that includes your name, the title of your paper, your university affiliation, your e-mail address, and a 150-word abstract, and (ii) a copy of your paper – 3000 words or less, prepared for blind review (i.e., omitting any information that might allow a referee to identify you) – to Rico Vitz.

Note: Papers on any topic of philosophical interest will be considered, although papers related to the conference theme are preferred.

Deadline for Submissions: Saturday, July 25th, 2009

Notifications: Authors of papers accepted for the conference will be notified by August 15th.

Thomas Berry, Environmentalist, Priest, Eco-Theologian, Dies at 94

Read more here and here.

Good Giggle…

… here.

Job Opening (Fall 2009)

UNIVERSITY OF NORTH FLORIDA, Jacksonville, FL. One-year Visiting Assistant Professor, beginning fall semester 2009. Rank/salary dependent on Ph.D. status. Ph.D. preferred. AOS and AOC open, but the program has teaching needs in gender/race theory, philosophy of science/epistemology, and Asian/comparative philosophy. 8 courses/year (4/semester), undergraduate, possible graduate instruction. The successful candidate will mostly teach lower division introductory courses with opportunity for select upper-level philosophy courses. Minimal non-teaching duties. Summer work available. We encourage applications from women and members of minorities. Mail complete dossier, including a letter of application, C.V., at least three letters of recommendation, graduate transcripts, a brief writing sample, and evidence of successful teaching experience, to: Philosophy Visiting Position, Department of Philosophy, University of North Florida, Jacksonville, FL 32224-2665. Deadline for initial consideration of applications is June 10. The position will remain open until filled. Applicants must complete a one-page application form online at http://www.unfjobs.org and must mail all required documents to be considered for this position. Applicants who do not complete the one-page online application form and who do not mail all required documentation will not be considered for this position. “UNF is an Equal Opportunity/Equal Access/Affirmative Action Institution.”

The New Philosophers’ Carnival is…

here.  Topics include everything from meta-ontology, to libertarian political philosophy.

Enjoy!

“The World’s Second Oldest Profession”

John Perry discusses the nature of the philosophy, what it takes to be a philosopher, and (~24:00) personal identity and related philosophical issues, here.

(HT: Brian Leiter)

Call for Papers

Søren Kierkegaard Society Meeting at the Central APA
February 17-20, Palmer House, Chicago , IL
Session Theme: Kierkegaard and Time
Reading time: 20-25 minutes max.
Keynote address by John Davenport (Fordham University): “Earnestness, Loyalty, and Purity of Heart: Narrative Unity through Infinite Pathos”
Deadline for submission: June 5, 2009. Two open slots.

Any submission broadly related to these topics will be considered. Scholars, including graduate students, who have not spoken recently at an APA group meeting of the SK Society are especially encouraged to submit. No more than one submission per person, please.

Please submit papers in Word form (as an email attachment) or in hardcopy to George Connell at the Department of Philosophy, Concordia College, 901 8th St S, Moorhead, MN 56562 – connell@cord.edu

The “Top Ten” Philosophers

… according to this recent poll:

1. Plato (Condorcet winner: wins contests with all other choices)
2. Aristotle loses to Plato by 367–364
3. Kant loses to Plato by 411–328, loses to Aristotle by 454–295
4. Hume loses to Plato by 534–166, loses to Kant by 533–176
5. Descartes loses to Plato by 597–117, loses to Hume by 356–269
6. Socrates loses to Plato by 548–101, loses to Descartes by 327–270
7. Wittgenstein loses to Plato by 610–85, loses to Socrates by 385–193
8. Locke loses to Plato by 659–29, loses to Wittgenstein by 311–239
9. Frege loses to Plato by 611–86, loses to Locke by 279–256
10. Aquinas loses to Plato by 642–57, loses to Frege by 289–284

See the complete results — the “Top 48″ — here. Comments are welcome.

A Slightly Belated Congratulations …

… to:

• Dathan Auerbach, whose paper, “A Defense of Retributivism Through an Alternative Conception of Human Agency,” won UNF’s Graduate Student Paper Prize in the Philosophy.

• Andrew Brenner, whose paper, “The Impact of Chalmers’ Theory of Consciousness on the Theistic Argument from Consciousness,” won UNF’s Undergraduate Student Paper Prize in Philosophy.

• Jessica McCall, whose paper, “The Trouble with Mormons,” won UNF’s Undergraduate Student Paper Prize in Religious Studies.

• Macon Jones, who was selected as UNF’s Outstanding Graduating Senior in Philosophy.

Old Testament Ethics Conference at Notre Dame

The Center for Philosophy of Religion at the  University  of  Notre  Dame presents a conference entitled

My Ways Are Not Your Ways: The Character of the God of the Hebrew Bible

Philosopher’s Digest

The Digest is a great resource for the Philosopher who wants to stay current on recent articles published in major journals.  Not only are the articles presented with concise representations of their arguments, the site additionally offers a forum for commentary and reviews.

One of the motivations for the site is to encourage discussion of philosophical ideas in a way that benefits both writer and reader…so, join the conversation and stay current – check out the Philosopher’s Digest.

~Q

Conference Preview

Both the theme and the plenary speakers are set for the 13th Annual Northeast Florida Student Philosophy Conference. The theme is “Health Care, Conscience, and Property.” The plenary speakers are H. Tristram Engelhardt, Jr. (Rice) and Kenneth Brummel-Smith (FSU). The CFP will be out shortly.

Note: Although papers related to the conference theme will be preferred, papers on any topic of philosophical interest will be welcomed.

Grad School Offers

Congratulations to those who have been accepted for graduate studies!

UNF’s Department of Philosophy would particularly like to congratulate a number of our own students on their accomplishments:

• Quincy Faircloth has accepted an offer from the Ph.D. program in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Colorado, Boulder. He also had an offer from the Ph.D. program in the Department of Philosophy at the University of California, Irvine.

• Amy Wuest has accepted an offer from the Ph.D. program in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Western Ontario.

• Linda Harris has accepted an offer from the Ph.D. program in the Department of Political Science at the University of Florida.

• Macon Jones has received offers from the J.D. programs at Southern Illinois University and the University of Indiana.

• Josh Jarvis was admitted to the M.Div. program at Reformed Theological Seminary.

These are welcome additions to a (growing) list of accomplishments by our students in recent years, including, e.g.,

• Andrea Pitts (UNF – B.A., 2006) accepting an offer from the Ph.D. program in the Department of Philosophy at the University of South Florida, and

• Jared Warren (UNF – B.A. & B.S., 2008) accepting an offer from the Ph.D. program in the Department of Philosophy at NYU.

We welcome our readers — especially any UNF students whose names and news I’ve omitted — to share their good news concerning grad school. The format of  comments should be as follows: [Name] has accepted an offer from the [degree] program in the Department of [name] at the University of [name]. Followed by, when applicable:  S/he also had an offer from the [degree] program in the Department of [name] at the University of [name].

This Thing Called Race…

… is the title of tonight’s philosophy slam hosted by JU.  The presentation will be given by Dr. C.W. Dawson, Jr.,  of Bethune-Cookman College.  The slam begins at 7:30 and will be held at the London Bridge Pub, Downtown on the corner of Adams and Ocean.  For more information e-mail aaxelss@jacksonville.edu .

The “End” of Philosophy?!

An op-ed piece in today’s New York Times, the unofficial newspaper of the nation’s literati, predicts the “end of philosophy.”

The piece, available here, suggests that changes in our psychological understanding of morality heralds the end of philosophy as we know it.

Notwithstanding the brash generalizations about psychological research (which reveal either the author’s lack of understanding of psychology as a discipline, or his indifference to it), as well as an obvious lack of historical knowledge about the field of ethics (as in: this was already suggested, once, by a man named A.J. Ayer), the most obvious flaw in this piece is the conflation of  “philosophy” with “ethics.”

Psychology (and potentially other sciences, such as evolutionary biology) may very well validate something like emotivist metaethics. This is not a novel idea or strategy of argumentation. Even the suggestion that emotions play a larger role in moral decision making then rationality is not new (thanks, David Hume).

But it’s not really to the author’s credit that he seems unable to tell the difference between philosophy, as a whole, and ethics, as a sub-speciality. Maybe current psychology will bring an end to ethics, maybe it won’t. (Incidentally, that idea is historically first one of a group of philosophers, not scientists, and has been around … since the 1920s cf. logical positivism; A.J. Ayer). But that doesn’t mean that psychological research will bring an “end” to metaphysics, epistemology, philosophy of science, aesthetics, etc. It’s not clear at all, for example, how psychological research would “end” the debate about what counts as justification for a belief, or or tell us what good art is? Can it even solve the is-ought problem?

Thoughts, opinions, angry table-pounding from others? I am interested to hear it.