“I’m afraid I don’t like your manner,” he said, using the edge of his voice. “I’ve had complaints about it,” I said. “But nothing seems to do any good.” –Philip Marlowe* *In R. Chandler, Farewell My Lovely (New York: First Vintage Crime/Black Lizard, 1992), p. 51. APP Editors’ note: Y’All is a tenured full professor … [continue reading]
Author Archives: Z
APP is Not Alone 4: “The Fragmentation of Philosophy, The Road to Reintegration” (AC.EDU Re-Post)
Münster Lecture, Universität Münster, November 2013. Forthcoming soon in E.M. Jung and J. Göhner (eds.), Susan Haack: Reintegrating Philosophy (Springer Verlag), and also posted on Academia.edu. … every fact leads to every other …. . Only men do not yet see how, always. And your business is to make plainer the way from some one … [continue reading]
APP is Not Alone 3: “The Ph.D. Octopus” (Harvard Monthly Re-Post)
Harvard Monthly, 1903 Some years ago we had at our Harvard Graduate School a very brilliant student of Philosophy, who, after leaving us and supporting himself by literary labor for three years, received an appointment to teach English Literature at a sister-institution of learning. The governors of this institution, however, had no sooner communicated the … [continue reading]
Philosoflicks 3: On the Metaphysics of Puppets.
WHAT IS A PHILOSOFLICK? In “Let’s Make More Movies,” the epistemological anarchist Paul Feyerabend wrote this: The separation of subjects that is such a pronounced characteristic of modern philosophy is … not altogether undesirable. It is a step on the way to a more satisfactory type of myth. What is needed to proceed further is … [continue reading]
APP is Not Alone 2: “Making Philosophy Matter—Or Else” (CHE Re-Post)
Lee C. McIntyre is a Research Fellow at the Center for Philosophy and History of Science at Boston University and an Instructor in Ethics at Harvard Extension School. Chronicle of Higher Education, 2011 In March administrators at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas announced that, because of budget cuts, the entire department of philosophy … [continue reading]
APP is Not Alone 1: “When Philosophy Lost its Way” (NYT Re-Post)
New York Times 11 January 2016 Robert Frodeman and Adam Briggle teach in the department of philosophy and religion and the University of North Texas. They are co-authors of the forthcoming “Socrates Tenured: The Institutions of 21st-Century Philosophy.” The history of Western philosophy can be presented in a number of ways. It can be told … [continue reading]
Some Remarks on Russell’s Metaphilosophy.
1. The Essay, by Boethius. I’ve been reading Russell here and there recently, mostly late stuff from 1942-67, with an eye to studying his metaphilosophy. There’s at least one common metaphilosophical thread with “The value of philosophy” from 1912, one thing I’ve noticed in the tone and substance of Russell’s criticism of philosophy I’d group … [continue reading]
Genuine Puzzlement: A Philosopher of Science Talks Back! to APP, & Z Replies with an Analogy.
APP Editors’ Note: PoS is a philosopher of science and an associate professor in a non-US subsidiary of a top-ranked US philosophy department. PoS: Your website is down, I guess professionalism is good for something after all… Z: Re website functionality: Sorry! It seems to be working fine now. Re professionalism: You might find this … [continue reading]
Plato and Professional Philosophy.
1. A Prefatory Note, by Z. My first passionate loves in philosophy were Plato, life-changing metaphysics, early Wittgenstein, life-changing metaphysics, Whitehead, life-changing metaphysics, Kant, and life-changing metaphysics. In the late 70s, in my Plato phase, working ecstatically on my senior thesis on Plato, Kant, and the life-changing metaphysics of value (yes, 70s naif that I … [continue reading]
Professional Philosophy, Scientism, and Frankenscience.
The truly apocalyptic view of the world is that things do not repeat themselves. It isn‘t absurd, e.g., to believe that the age of science and technology is the beginning of the end for humanity; the idea of great progress is a delusion, along with the idea that the truth will ultimately be known; that … [continue reading]