Browsing All Posts filed under »Joshua Stein«

Truth and meaning in the age of Trump

July 18, 2018 by

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I learned philosophy of language in the dogmatic antiquity of a couple of years ago. Many of my colleagues and senior philosophers seem still to cling to these dogmas, like “a sentence is made true by its disquotation.” In the now-times, though, it seems especially important to show where we went wrong in developing our […]

Turning Bad Rubbish into Good Lessons

May 30, 2018 by

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Alternately titled: What we talk about when we talk about Jordan Peterson. I should begin by saying that all thoughts here are mine. They are not endorsed or shared by the University of Calgary, the Department of Philosophy, or any other group with which I’m affiliated, unless those folks choose to endorse or share them. […]

Powerful Medicine; a dimension of the Nassar case

January 27, 2018 by

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I want to start this post with a really clear content notice; if you’re uncomfortable with or likely to be triggered by descriptions of sexual assault, you may want to gird yourself or take a pass on this post entirely. I experienced nausea myself in reading the accounts, but I don’t think it is really […]

Failures in teaching, discipline

November 21, 2017 by

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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 Philosophy for Talking about Philosophy

September 19, 2017 by

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Some people become philosophers (or academics, more generally) because they want to be able to teach; they want to be experts in a subject and engage with the world and influence the beliefs and actions of others in a positive way. I think that’s a great and admirable reason to become an academic; I have […]

The “But you can’t do that!” gambit, rejected

August 14, 2017 by

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It is common enough to run across arguments talking about how certain sorts of philosophical positions have corrupted the modern academy, destroying an intellectual commitment to truth in favor of some other set of values. These claims have come up regularly in disputes over "the atheistic worldview," post-modernism, and moral relativism.

Eichmann at the Border

January 30, 2017 by

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TIME writer Charlotte Alter reported a brief exchange between an American citizen and a U.S. border patrol officer. When U.S Citizen asked a border patrol supervisor why they detained his fiancé, the answer was: “just following orders.” #muslimban — Charlotte Alter (@CharlotteAlter) January 29, 2017 Twitter is not a venue conducive to nuance, careful and […]

Anti-colonialism, Kant, and modern academia

January 21, 2017 by

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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 […]

On Teaching Philosophy of Religion

December 11, 2016 by

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In his recent book, John Loftus argues that we ought to stop teaching philosophy of religion. This is not an extended review of the book; I might read it in the future and write a more fleshed out review, but rather a response to the excerpt (in the link above) that Hemant Mehta posted recently; it is […]

There’s no water in Flint

November 28, 2016 by

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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 […]

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, […]

Free Speech and Safe Space

September 22, 2016 by

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I’ve debated for a little while about whether or not to write about the ongoing cultural discussion on “free speech” and “safe space” protections on campuses. Of course, this seems a large and timely topic, given the presence of the University of Chicago letter. (I will come to the Chicago letter a bit late in […]

Proposition 60, Pornography, and Sex Work

August 14, 2016 by

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I’ve debated for a long time whether this is something that I wanted to talk about in public writing; I have a lot of thoughts about ethics and sex work, but generally keep them close to the vest. Given that this concerns a health and public policy issue, I thought it appropriate to post my first […]

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