by Daniel A. Kaufman ___ For those readers who recognized that beneath my humorous essay on “Jewish” Philosophy was a serious point regarding our attitudes not just towards the professional discipline of philosophy but the subject itself, I want to add a substantial postscript. It is inspired, in part, by Robert Gressis’s reply to my piece, which I quote in […]
by Daniel A. Kaufman ____ According to Robert Gressis’s most recent essay, a “Protestant” philosopher is one who thinks that professional philosophy today is crap, while a “Catholic” philosopher is one who think it’s terrific. He alleges that the balance within the discipline is somewhere around 80% (Protestant) 20% (Catholic). By my calculations this adds up to 100%, and I […]
by Daniel A. Kaufman ___ The end of the Fall semester is rapidly approaching, and it will mark the last time I will have taught the current iteration of my Philosophical Ideas in Literature course, devoted to five novels by Philip K. Dick: The Man in the High Castle (1962); The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch (1965); Do Androids Dream […]
by David Ottlinger ___ I used to brag about the state of philosophy to people concerned about the humanities. Philosophy had fought valiantly on the side of the scientists in the “Science Wars” of the 1980’s and 90’s. Sociology, literary studies and anthropology may have, to varying degrees, succumbed to postmodernism and other such fashionable nonsense, but philosophy stood strong. […]
by Daniel A. Kaufman My dialogue with Robert Gressis, on his essay, “Is Philosophy OK?” and on the recent “white paper” on publication ethics. First aired on Sophia, MeaningofLife.TV, May 30 2019.
by Robert Gressis Lately, I’ve been wondering whether it’s OK for me to be a philosophy professor. You might wonder, “Why on earth should anyone wonder whether it’s OK to be a philosophy professor?” I have a simple argument. It goes like this: The Conceptual Claim: Professors do three things as part of their jobs: produce research, teach, and provide […]
by Daniel A. Kaufman ___ When one hears the expression “white paper,” one thinks of a document of great historic significance, typically issued by a government. Winston Churchill’s famous 1922 white paper clarifying the 1917 Balfour Declaration, which set in motion a series of events that changed the face of the Middle East, immediately comes to mind. What one doesn’t […]
by Daniel A. Kaufman ___ Over at the Daily Nous, an influential philosophy-insider’s blog, editor Justin Weinberg kicks off a celebration of its five year anniversary by congratulating himself. [1] He says that he is proud that he and the Nous have played a role in “breaking up a toxic concentration of power in our profession” and ushering in a […]
by Daniel A. Kaufman My article on Philosophy’s past and future in the current issue of Philosophy Now. https://philosophynow.org/issues/130/The_Decline_and_Rebirth_of_Philosophy
by Daniel A. Kaufman ___ Over at Leiter Reports, probably the most well-read philosophy-insider’s blog, Brian Leiter has run a two-day poll, in which he asked the following question: Would you leave the APA [American Philosophical Association] and join a new dues-charging professional philosophy association that does much of what the APA does, but without the current political agendas/projects? The […]
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