Philosophers Anonymous

Take it up to Room 21!

2013-05-19T19:36:00.000-04:00

This is still hilarious. And it's clear from its cover alone that this should be added to the book collection. I still am not sure if I have received a copy. Please mail your red box to Mr. Danzig.

Hating Perfection

2013-05-16T09:31:00.001-04:00

Several people have contacted me about an odd package they received, unsolicited, in a red box, containing two copies of a book titled Hating Perfection. I have not seen this book, and I know nothing about it or its author. For all I know, there is a red box waiting for me in my campus mail slot. But I've been told three interesting facts about the book:

First, it comes with endorsements from some pretty well-known, non-insane philosophers.

Second, it includes a pamphlet in which the author claims to have "solved the Chinese room paradox" (?).

And third, the book contains several full-color glossy drawings of provocatively-dressed vampire women.

Explain.

Bowie's Epistemology

2013-05-15T09:32:00.001-04:00

Just getting around to a proper study of the new Bowie. That album is a little long, but overall surprisingly good. It's also refreshing to see that Bowie is back to doing epistemology. On one song, he argues, "The moment you know, you know you know." If you're going KK, you might as well go for the strongest version....

No Surprise about Hell

2013-05-10T22:46:00.000-04:00

No surprise... Richard Hell once again shows himself to be a barely-literate, self-important, ignorant, fool. Face it: the guy's never even been shallow. Here.

Religious Vomit

2013-05-09T16:08:00.003-04:00

"The Grammy-nominated frontman of Christian metalcore band As I Lay Dying has been arrested on suspicion of hiring an ex-policeman to kill his wife."

Here.

Advice to High Schoolers

2013-05-05T19:50:00.002-04:00

Don't ask why, but I had a family member ask me today at what point I think a kid should choose his or her college major. My immediate response was, "When does the kid's university require one to declare one?" But then I was told that the 16 year old daughter of this family member was being told by a high school guidance counselor that she must now begin to decide what colleges she wants most to attend, and what major she wants to pursue. I'm assured that it is not uncommon for guidance counselors to tell 16 year old kids this kind of crap. Anyway, I said it was ridiculous to think that a 16 year-old should need to make this kind of decision. So then the questions was put again: When should a kid make a decision about her major?

My reply: She's not ready to declare a major until she's mature enough to hate the way she was raised.

Delayed Posse Alert

2013-05-04T16:19:00.002-04:00

Jeff Hanneman has a posse.

Raining blood.

Here.

First Refusal

2013-05-01T20:41:00.001-04:00

Anyone who has ever signed a book contract will have encountered the "first refusal" bit. This is where the Press claims a right to "first refusal" of the author's next book. The idea is that the author is obliged to submit his or her next book project or manuscript to the publisher of the present book. One can easily see why this would be important for trade publishers who want to continue to publish a best-selling author. But I've always been puzzled by the presence of the clause in contracts for academic books. Moreover, I know of no case in which it has been taken as binding. Does anyone know of a case in which this clause has been appealed to in the context of an academic book?

PR Problems in Philosophy

2013-04-30T22:02:00.003-04:00

Philosophy obviously has a lot of PR problems. And many of these are going to become all the more pressing in the near future as colleges and universities become increasingly accustomed to betraying their humanistic mission in favor of goals set by the market. But an exchange I had today while waiting for a plane got me thinking of another dimension of the problem, namely, how Intro to Philosophy gets taught...

Guy: So, what line of work are you in?
Me: I'm an academic.
Guy: What's your field?
Me: Philosophy.
Guy: Huh. That's... what?... the study of ancient peoples or something?
Me: Well, no. It's the discipline that asks the most fundamental questions that we know of...
Guy: I get that. I had it in college. But what you study is what ancient people thought about that stuff.
Me: Well, no. We do study the work of ancient philosophers, but...
Guy: Why would anyone care to study what ancient people thought about anything? They knew so little...
Me: Well, we don't read Aristotle for the purpose simply of finding out what some old Greek thought, we try to find out what the truth is about certain matters, and, surprisingly, Aristotle can help. But, again, we don't study Aristotle simply to find out what he thought.
Guy: Really? My course in college was only about old people, long dead. There are philosophers who are alive today?
Me: Yeah.
Guy: Wow. I had no idea. I thought philosophy died out sometime in the 1800s. I guess I always wondered why...

Life Imitates Lynch

2013-04-20T17:21:00.002-04:00

"Of course! Of course... it's the urine. Shit... You've gotta... You can't leave out the urine!!"

Woman, loudly, on cellphone, in my old school coffee shop. I hope that she was a medical professional talking to another about a patient. But who can tell these days?

Edwin Mellen...

2013-04-17T22:47:00.001-04:00

A "quasi-vanity press cunningly disguised as an academic publishing house." Cunningly disguised?

More here.

Geek Test

2013-04-15T11:16:00.001-04:00

A classic just showed up in my inbox. If you think this is funny, it's too late ....

Three logicians walk into a bar. The bartender asks if they would all like a drink. The first logician says "I'm not sure." The second logician says "I'm not sure." The third logician says "Yes."

Early Twentieth-Century?

2013-04-09T15:26:00.000-04:00

Am I correct to think that it's odd for a book titled Early Twentieth-Century Continental Philosophy to be focused mainly on "the great French philosophy of the Sixties"? In what sense is the Sixties early Twentieth Century? Why isn't that middle or later Twentieth Century?

Margaret Thatcher Posse

2013-04-08T08:45:00.000-04:00

Maggie has a posse.

Here. (And here!)

Roger Ebert Posse

2013-04-04T16:56:00.002-04:00

Roger Ebert has a posse.

Here.

Author Meets Critics

2013-04-03T10:54:00.001-04:00

Apparently several of us were at the same Author Meets Critics session at the Pacific. A somewhat serious question: What exactly is the point of such sessions? Are they occasions for people who have all read the book to get together with the author to argue about its theses, arguments, and claims? Or (on the other end) are these sessions really for people in the audience who may not have read the book, but have some interest in its topic -- so a kind of advertisement for the book by way of chit-chat with the author? Should the appointed critics try to say something summarizing the book (or at least the part of it that they intend to criticize)? Should the author be given time at the session to summarize the book? Or should such sessions proceed as if everyone already knows what's in the book?

Live Smoker Band

2013-03-29T02:34:00.001-04:00

Live blues band at the free-beer smoker. Seriously. An awkward scene made even more strange by additional obstacles to normal conversation? Stroke of genius? Both?

Pacific

2013-03-26T10:32:00.001-04:00

I'll be at the Pacific, but not for the duration, so I'll see you jerks at the usual San Fran spot. You'll know it when you see it.

Also: Can someone remind me of the reason why the APA does its three conferences in December (soon to be January), February, and March? I take it that there used to be a job-market-related reason: people entering new positions would need to begin in September, so there was reason to have the meetings as early in the spring (or late in the fall) as possible. But now there's really no job market outside of the Eastern, and that, too, is thankfully giving way to Skype and other modes of interviewing. So what's the rationale?

Explanation

2013-03-21T22:14:00.003-04:00

Would someone care to explain the new Bowie to me?

Negotiation (Second-Hand Smoking)

2013-03-20T11:44:00.002-04:00

Sorry to have to do this, but I'm wondering about how junior faculty negotiate the terms of a tenure-track job offer these days. A long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, there was very little that was placed on the negotiating table for junior faculty offers: a little more pay, some start-up money, and maybe the promise of especially light committee work for the first several years, and so on.

This of course has changed considerably. Junior people are able to negotiation for a reduced teaching-load, research support, and an especially favorable teaching schedule, in addition to more money.

Would a few newcomers to the profession weigh in on these matters? What should I be telling my people about negotiating the terms of their first job? Is there anything in addition to the stuff above I should be telling them to press for?

Doom, #2389130

2013-03-19T16:29:00.003-04:00

Billy Joel is still alive.

Talking Through: A Plea?

2013-03-05T23:11:00.005-05:00

This comes as a part of a developing discussion on a previous post, but it struck me as something worth its own entry. A long-term reader writes as follows:

I couldn't agree more with the people who are calling for the abolition of paper-reading at conferences. Reading a paper to an audience of adults is ridiculous, and I have long thought that there's no direct correlation between philosophical ability and one's ability to consume and digest a philosophical argument delivered by way of a paper read aloud. (I know lots of people who aren't that good at following papers when they're read aloud, but are exceptionally good in other kinds of philosophical contexts. But this is a side issue anyway.) But here's the rub. At a recent conference, I attended several sessions where presenters didn't read but instead talked-through (as you've put it) their material. This was all to the good. However, in many of these sessions, the Q&A session proceeded as if the presenter had been reading. What I mean is that some of the questions were entirely unforgiving when it came to even slightly imprecise formulations (viz., sentences containing scope ambiguities which would have been averted in a written text). I think that those of us who would call for an end to paper-reading at conferences should publicly vow to give some slack and extend some charity to those who "talk-through" their papers. I know it's a minor point, but there was a session at the last conference that was dominated by questions that were fixed on the minor linguistic failings of the presentation, and so missed the big picture altogether.

Seems correct to me. Stop reading, begin talking through, and we in the audience promise to cut you some slack.

Delayed Announcement

2013-03-02T20:06:00.005-05:00

Bonnie Frankin has a posse.

Here.

C. Everett Koop Posse

2013-02-25T23:14:00.002-05:00

C. Everett Koop has a posse.

Here.

Dismal at the Central

2013-02-25T15:27:00.003-05:00

So... the Central was pretty dismal. I'm told attendance (by registration numbers) was down, but the sessions seemed even more sparsely attended than is typical, perhaps due to what the location had to offer. Maybe the solution to the APA's conference woes is simply to eliminate the three-division structure altogether?

Anybody have anything else to report from New Orleans?