Stylized letter X.

About X

X is a 20-something graduate student doing her/his PhD in philosophy at a university somewhere in North America. Different people will contribute to X’s diary. So X is a philosophical persona composed by several real persons.

Real-World Spirituality and the Poverty of Professional Philosophy.

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]

How to Become an Official Enemy of the Professional Academic State. The Timeline of the Sartwell Case, and What It All Means

1. The Timeline of the Sartwell case.  Feb. 24 – Sartwell’s post against the APA statement on bullying: http://eyeofthestorm.blogs.com/eye_of_the_storm/2016/02/bully-for-you.html  Feb. 27 – Sartwell’s post stating his intention to leave academia: http://eyeofthestorm.blogs.com/eye_of_the_storm/2016/02/out.html Feb. 28 – Sartwell accuses Linda Zagzebski of plagiarism and posts a link to a music video by Miranda Lambert called “Time to Get … [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]

“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]