Browsing All Posts filed under »Miscellaneous«

On the So Called “Grey Areas” of Sexual Consent

May 20, 2017 by

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Sexual consent has been the foundation of sexual ethics for many modern thinkers of sexuality. The notion itself stretches back to at least Immanuel Kant, who presented some arguments for why we should generally respect an individual’s autonomy. Respect for autonomy is the idea that we should respect a person’s capacity to make self-governing decisions […]

America: on Existentialism and Obligation

November 9, 2016 by

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This is not meant as a rhetorical exercise; it is a genuine issue I’m wrestling with re: my own academic future. As such, please keep comments respectful and relevant. Content notice for discussion of the repugnant positions of the United States’s President and Vice President elect. In October of 1992, on a stage in Georgia, […]

New Contributor: Celso Neto

September 17, 2016 by

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I’m pleased to introduce our new contributor, and my very good friend, Celso Neto.  I first met Celso at a workshop last summer in Gut Siggen, Germany  called “Superorganisms, Organisms, and Suborganisms as Biological Individuals: Individuality in the Life Sciences.”  It was at this workshop I learned of his great interest in the concept of […]

Grinworthy Quotes (12)

July 24, 2016 by

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Here’s W. V. O. Quine discussing the fact that Frege didn’t adopt a type theoretic approach (like Russell and Whitehead’s) when faced with Russell’s paradox. Actually, it is not to be wondered that Frege did not think of this course, or, thinking of it, adopt it. It was by having all his classes at ground […]

Philosopher’s Cocoon: Seeking Philosophical Mentors

June 9, 2016 by

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Helen De Cruz and Marcus Arvan are seeking mentors for their Philosopher’s Cocoon Job-Market Mentoring Project. The philosophy job market is a tough place (I’ve applied to a few jobs over the past year or so) and this project seeks to help as much as a project can help during this difficult process. Below is a […]

Philosophy and Industry: We Have Transferable Skills

May 20, 2016 by

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Over the last year I’ve been thinking about how to identify and present the transferable skills one gains from philosophy.  Recently Mike Steiner, a UCalgary alumnus, gave a presentation to grads in our department concerning his experience with the non-academic job market.  Mike demystified the process of applying for jobs in industry. Although many of […]

An Open Letter from a New Editor

May 15, 2016 by

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Hi Everyone, As the new managing editor of this blog, I oversee blog activity for the foreseeable future.  Business is as usual–we will continue sharing ideas with posts ranging from research that our contributors are interested in to topics concerning the profession.  I also promise that Aaron’s Grinworthy quotes series will continue to be raw […]

What’s Wrong With Punishing Children?

September 3, 2015 by

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Originally posted on What's Wrong?:
(image: spanking) UCLA graduate student Laura Gillespie gave an intriguing talk on childhood punishment at this year’s Rocky Mountain Ethics Congress.  In it, she proposed a novel account that would justify the practice in at least some cases.  For those who were unable to attend her presentation, she has…

The Killing Game by Joy Williams

August 1, 2015 by

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Originally posted on Howling For Justice:
Dr. Denise Albert was able to remove a snare from around a wolf’s neck and treat the animal with antibiotics. NPS photo It’s hunting season and blood is in the air. Oh the joy of seeing a bullet hit its mark into unsuspecting flesh. Or an arrow that wounds,…

Hashtag_Octothorpe

April 26, 2015 by

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A while back I was reading a paper  by Bob Hale and Crispin Wright, first published in 2000 [1], in which they use the symbol “#” to denote an arbitrary matrix sentence. That was over half a decade before twitter went live. That symbol, variously known as the hash sign/symbol, the number sign, or octothorpe […]

APA/BPA Journal Survey

March 18, 2015 by

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The APA and the BPA have just published the results of their joint philosophy journal survey here, and here (respectively). Data includes number of submissions, acceptance rates, time to publication, percent female authors, and a few other things. I have only had a quick look through the data, and I’m sure someone will do a […]

Grinworthy Quotes (7)

March 14, 2015 by

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Here is John Burgess’s amusing description of Quine’s view of mathematical ontology as motivated by the indispensability argument, from “Mathematics and the Bleak House” (Phil. Math. 12, 2004). Quine…urged a very different sort of reason for accepting the existence of numbers (or other abstract mathematical entities to which numbers could be “reduced”).  According to Quine, […]

The Intellectual Life, by A. G. Sertillanges (1)

March 14, 2015 by

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I am currently reading through, The Intellectual Life, by A. G. Sertillanges, a French Dominican monk from the early twentieth century. The book is a masterpiece. If I were to recommend only one guide to graduate students—no, to anyone who takes thinking seriously—this would be it. Obviously, Sertillanges writes from a Roman Catholic perspective, and […]

Playing Outside Your Wheelhouse

February 2, 2015 by

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Anyone who has been following the Grinworthy Quotes series here on A Philosopher’s Take will likely have noticed that I’ve been reading a fair amount of medieval philosophy recently. Some readers may also be aware that I usually work on philosophy of mathematics, logic and metaphysics. In working on medieval philosophy, and in particular medieval […]

Philosophers from Poverty

December 19, 2014 by

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I strongly encourage anyone with an interest in academic philosophy, and/or inequality issues to have a look at this discussion over at the Daily Nous.

Grinworthy Quotes (4)

December 9, 2014 by

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I apologize for taking so long to post another one of these. Here is Nicholas of Cusa (a.k.a. Cusano, a.k.a. Nikolaus von Kues) (1401–1464) on the primacy of intelligent people from De Concordantia Catholica. (This was quoted in Paul Sigmund’s Nicholas of Cusa and Medieval Political Thought, Harvard University Press, 1963, p. 132).   Almighty […]

What does it mean to ask “Did you forget where you came from?”

October 18, 2014 by

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In August of 2009  (a little over 5 years ago) I moved from my hometown ( Fall River, Massachusetts ) to Pullman, Washington to pursue a graduate degree in Philosophy. Every time I have returned I heard one person or other say something along these lines; “You didn’t forget where you came from, did you?”, or, “Don’t forget […]

Ignoble Prize Highlights at Choice & Inference

September 24, 2014 by

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The winners of the  2014 Ignoble prize have been published! Here are some highlights over at Choice & Inference. The full list is here. Enjoy.

Tweet from @JustinCaouette

May 17, 2014 by

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What I Wrote in 2013

January 1, 2014 by

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2013 was a productive year for me. I was able to finish all the requirements of my PhD program (ABD), spend lots of time with my family and friends and found a little time to get further writing done. I am sad to see 2013 go but I think I’ll take the advice of the […]

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EDITORS: Alison McConwell; Justin Caouette; Aaron Thomas-Bolduc.

FOUNDING EDITOR: Justin Caouette

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