Christmas 2016 came and went. Did you think much about spirituality, traditional organized religion, and/or God? According to Wikipedia, Millennials (also known as the Millennial Generation or Generation Y, abbreviated to Gen Y) are the demographic cohort between Generation X and Generation Z. There are no precise dates for when the generation starts and ends. … [continue reading]
Author Archives: W
Is Philosophy Inherently Escapist?
W2: I wanted to raise a question in light of your recent post, Hyper-Disciplined Minds. One of my concerns is that some problems you raise for professionalized philosophers are, in fact, problems for anyone who pursues philosophy full time. The fact that experts in critical thinking are siphoned off into the ivory tower, where society … [continue reading]
EDGY SPEECH DOUBLE FEATURE 1. The Leiter-Motif in the Sartwell Debate, and the Double-Edged Sword.
FK: I’ve read the recent post on Sartwell by W1 and X1, and they’re right of course, especially with respect to the sanctimonious silence from those who usually shout at every opportunity. But it might also be good to point out that Brian Leiter at least is on the right side by defending Sartwell’s fundamental … [continue reading]
On Playing the “Mental Health Issues” Card in the Crispin Sartwell Debate. By W1 and X1.
In the well-known professional philosophy blog, The Daily Arse, and elsewhere online, some people have been claiming that Crispin Sartwell is suffering from “mental health” (what an awful, but aptly Foucauldian, euphemism) “issues,” and that this explains away whatever is going on. The charge has the triple-benefit of: 1. Making the charger appear so very … [continue reading]
“Analytic” vs. “Continental” Philosophy Re-Revisited. (APP’s Readers Talk Back! 4)
APP Editors’ Note: not-Q is a recently tenured associate professor of comparative literature at an institution of higher education somewhere in North America; and JdB recently received her/his BA in philosophy at a public university somewhere in North America. This conversation flows from these three posts: 1. “Analytic” Philosophy vs. “Continental” Philosophy: WtF? Why Does … [continue reading]
Which Brand Do You Identify With? Brand Loyalty as Discrimination in Professional Philosophy.
Are you Analytic-coke, or Continental-pepsi? Are you Femininist-Tareyton, or non-Feminist-Tareyton? Would you rather fight than switch? Now remove ‘coke’, ‘pepsi’, and ‘Tareyton’ from those all-too-familiar professional-philosophy labels. Do you now see how essentially stupid, rationally unjustified, or even immoral it is for you to identify yourself with one brand of professional philosophy than another? Or … [continue reading]
APP’s Readers Talk Back! 1
Why Anonymous? Why “Against”? APP Editors’ note: M is a 30-something woman philosopher who is currently teaching in a non-TT position at a public university somewhere in Europe. M: Is this you? I find it a bit strange to talk to someone who apparently prefers to communicate as … anonymous. I hadn’t been aware of … [continue reading]
“Mind the Gap”: How to Close Professional Philosophy’s Gender-Gap and Minority-Gap. With a Critical Postscript by X and Y.
I think it’s obvious that contemporary professional philosophy has a gender-gap and a minority-gap, no matter how one calculates the percentages of women or members of minority groups (ethnic and racial, economic class, sexual-orientation, disability, etc.) in the field: that is, whether it’s in relation to all current tenure-track faculty of any age-cohort (including emeritus/a … [continue reading]