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A group of bloggers discussing philosophical ideas as well as the profession of philosophy
Browsing All Posts filed under »The Discipline«
More About Forallx: Calgary Remix
The Winter 2017 edition of Forallx: Calgary remix has been out for a few weeks. Indeed, I’ve started teaching from it. Richard Zach has blogged about our progress here. Later this week I’ll be posting about my experience getting ready to teach “Logic I” for the first time, so stay tuned! (Photo credit: Richard […]
The Status of Black/African-American Philosophers in the U.S.
November 15, 2016 by Celso Neto
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I confess: I am a sort of observer. Perhaps something like an amateur anthropologist observing the philosophical community. I enjoy going on the web searching pictures and videos from all kinds of philosophy conferences around the world. I love to see philosophers “in action”, being caught on camera while giving talks, discussing formally or (even […]
An Open Source Logic Text
October 18, 2016 by Aaron Thomas-Bolduc
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The Open Logic Project, initiated by my supervisor, Richard Zach, is a project to produce a comprehensive free and open source intermediate logic text. More recently, Richard and I have been putting together a Calgary remix of forallx, a free and open source text for introductory logic, originally written by PD Magnus. Below is the […]
The Dark Side of Philosophy
July 14, 2016 by Mike Steiner
I have spent some time thinking, writing and talking about how philosophers have valuable skills that are sorely needed outside academia (see www.mikesteiner.ca for relevant posts). I’ve also provided advice for how philosophers can sell themselves in order to get good jobs in the business world. In general, I’m a fan of philosophy and truly […]
Philosopher’s Cocoon: Seeking Philosophical Mentors
June 9, 2016 by Justin Caouette
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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 Alison K McConwell
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 Unusual Worry About Jargon.
May 16, 2016 by Aaron Thomas-Bolduc
I was often told, especially earlier in my education, to avoid excessive use of jargon. More generally, we as philosophers are accused of writing articles that are difficult to understand, at least in part because of our use of jargon. I do think that we should be careful about the overuse of technical terminology, especially […]
Schliesser on Shortening the PhD
September 24, 2015 by Justin Caouette
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I often reflect on my experiences in graduate school, especially now that they are coming to an end, and for what it’s worth I plan on writing about these crazy times when I come up for air in a few years (It’s been 7 years between getting my M.A from Washington State Uni. and now entering […]
On Servicing the Profession as a Graduate Student
September 8, 2015 by Justin Caouette
Cross posted over at the Philosopher’s Cocoon (see here with nice comments and further questions in the thread) A week or so ago I received an email asking me to review a paper for a journal, this is not the first such email I have received asking this service of me. It seems that the […]
Adrian Currie on ‘Inclusivity’ in the Philosophy profession
March 24, 2015 by Justin Caouette
Adrian Currie has posted a very succinct and important post on how straight white males can help to make the discipline a bit more inclusive. It can be found here in it’s entirety, below is a snippet. Currie offers clear ways on how we could all do better. It is very much worth the read […]
APA/BPA Journal Survey
March 18, 2015 by Aaron Thomas-Bolduc
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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 […]
The Intellectual Life, by A. G. Sertillanges (1)
March 14, 2015 by Gordon Hawkes
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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 Aaron Thomas-Bolduc
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 […]
University of Calgary: 5th ranked Philosophy Program in Canada (according the the new PGR)
November 17, 2014 by Justin Caouette
Some preliminary results from the PGR are in and the University of Calgary is now recognized as a top 5 program in Philosophy in all of Canada (See Brian Leiter’s recent blog post claiming this here). We recently hired Ken Waters (Philosophy of Science/Biology) and with some great work being done by our younger philosophers […]
A Defence of Philosophy
October 19, 2014 by Aaron Thomas-Bolduc
There is a very nice article/interview in the Observer with Rebecca Newberger Goldstein about her latest book Plato at the Googleplex: Why Philosophy Won’t Go Away, in which philosophy is defended very well. I particularly like the characterization of philosophy as `increasing coherence.’ I would very much like to see what people have to say […]
The Future of the Philosophy Profession
August 31, 2014 by Justin Caouette
Originally posted on Daily Nous:
Many graduate philosophy programs rely upon what could be characterized as a game of bait and switch. These programs exist not because there is a job market for their graduates. They exist for a variety of reasons, including the intrinsic value of philosophy and institutional mandates to produce Ph.D.’s. But…
Grad Traps! (Guest Post by Daniel Silvermint)
August 22, 2014 by Justin Caouette
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Originally posted on Daily Nous:
Grad students of philosophy! And other relevant parties! Behold! Daniel Silvermint, assistant professor of philosophy and women’s, gender, and sexuality studies at the University of Connecticut, has developed a list of unhelpful thoughts that might occur to you every once in a while. He calls them “grad traps,” and the idea is…
On Brian Leiter’s PGR and Graduate Schools in Non-English Speaking Countries.
August 22, 2014 by Aaron Thomas-Bolduc
Brian Leiter has been ramping up to the next edition of the Philosophical Gourmet Report (PGR) recently having posted the penultimate draft faculty lists of the departments to be evaluated (see here). There have been various criticism of the PGR throughout the years, sometimes resulting in changes in methodology, and I don’t wish to rehash […]
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A Philosopher's Take 
January 18, 2017 by Aaron Thomas-Bolduc
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