Subscribe:
RSS feed
A group of bloggers discussing philosophical ideas as well as the profession of philosophy
Browsing All Posts filed under »Politics«
Failures in teaching, discipline
November 21, 2017 by Joshua Stein
A few notes before I get into the nitty gritty of this issue: I’m a graduate student at the University of Calgary, a member of the university’s Graduate Student Association (our union), and the president of the philosophy department’s affiliated Graduate Student Association chapter. Nothing I say in this post is made in those roles; […]
A History Lesson Every American Should Know
August 28, 2017 by Justin Caouette
***The following post was authored by a professor of philosophy in North America that wishes to remain anonymous. They say that those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Well, I have studied history books, and here’s a history lesson. Several decades ago, a boorish man with no morals came to hold […]
Post-Truth Debate and Critical Thinking
July 4, 2017 by James DiGiovanna
“Look it up” should be a good response to a dispute about matters of fact where a correct answer already exists. This is why bars used to keep sports record books handy; bets could be solved quickly and conclusively. But “look it up” relies not only on there existing a source of (largely) correct information, […]
Cognitive Dissonance and Philosophy
April 5, 2017 by Mike Steiner
I want to first give credit to the authors of “Mistakes Were Made (but not by me)” – Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson. Their talk of cognitive dissonance and the metaphor of the ‘pyramid of choice’ has inspired my comments below. Although the ideas in this book have obvious ramifications for psychology, psychotherapy, political science, […]
Anti-colonialism, Kant, and modern academia
January 21, 2017 by Joshua Stein
Disclaimer: I should state, first and foremost, that though I am a student in the philosophy department at the University of Calgary, my opinions in no way represent or reflect those of my peers and supervisors. Lately, a great deal of ink has been spilled on a recent move by the University of London School […]
There’s no water in Flint
November 28, 2016 by Joshua Stein
Comments Off on There’s no water in Flint
The most banal example philosophers use in discussing conceptual analysis is water; from Putnam’s twin earth papers to Kaplan’s two-dimensionalism, this is the classic example that is supposed to illustrate something valuable about the way that concepts work. I won’t delve too much into the traditional analyses, here, though a familiar observer may note this […]
Books by Contributors
A Philosopher's Take 
May 2, 2018 by jamiemlombardi
1