John Corvino has a newish series of philosophically informative videos that are super clear and helpful. Consider giving them a look at his YouTube channel here.
It would be lovely if folks who know of other good public philosophy would post it below in the comments.
It is a fraught topic of broad and not merely academic interest. Strong and hurt feelings abound. You have a view you work to hone and carefully articulate. Good and earnest people resist your view and argue against it. They may even suggest that it is a view unworthy of you. You remain unconvinced and argue back but manage to persuade few who did not start out on your side. You feel the polite condemnation of good and thoughtful people, yet you continue to think you are right. Perhaps you are even surprised people disagree with you on this topic. You try to be mindful of whose interests are primarily at stake and whose first-personal experience lends their views more authority in such contexts. You try to avoid defensively feeling like just because you have taken a public stand you cannot change your mind. You remind yourself you are not making a one-sided lawyerly case for a position but trying to reach a balanced overall assessment. You try to not let the mere professional status of those who argue with or against you unduly influence your thinking. Others are joining your side but, or so it seems to you, less cautiously. The rhetoric and tone escalate around you. It seems the distinctions you were at pains to clarify are sometimes lost in some of the complaints about your view. You become agitated and start thinking “I can’t let this take over my day and this is getting unpleasant.”
Where do you go from there?
The Job Candidate Mentoring Program for Women in Philosophy is currently recruiting both mentors and mentees for the upcoming job market season. The program matches eligible job candidates with a junior faculty mentor.
Please note that the name for this program is somewhat misleading. The current policy is that you are eligible to sign up as either a mentor or mentee if at least one of the following applies to you:
-Assigned female at birth
-Identifies as a woman
-Does not identify as either a woman or a man
The program, started in 2014, is run entirely by volunteers.
Mentors should currently hold a permanent academic post and have had job market experience at the junior level in the past seven years. The application deadline for mentees is Sept 8th. Preference will be given to job candidates who have not participated in this mentoring program before.
Other job candidates seeking mentorship are encouraged to participate in the Cocoon Mentoring Project.
Travis Timmerman (Seton Hall) came up with these.
About a year ago, several family members, friends, and philosophical luminaries gathered at All Souls College to remember and celebrate the life of the great moral philosopher, Derek Parfit. Those twenty videos, with the production assistance of several members of the Parfit family, have been posted here, and they include remembrances by the moral and political philosophers Tim Scanlon, Frances Kamm, Jeff McMahan, Martin O’Neill, Larry Temkin, Roger Crisp, John Broome, Brad Hooker, Jonathan Dancy, Jonathan Glover, Rahul Kumar, Julian Savulescu, and others.
Collegiate athletics is likely going to change significantly in the near future and we should think together about how we want to direct that change. Collegiate athletics is likely to become significantly more expensive soon as student-athletes will soon be paid or paid more. And there is a possibility that those expenses will further eat away at the academic “side” of higher education,
At most colleges and universities, athletics 1) already uses up too much money and is 2) given too much weight in admissions. Concerning 1, most athletic departments, especially outside the elite athletic conferences, are a net financial drain on universities. Revenue-generating sports currently help pay for non-revenue generating sports. It is often claimed, usually without much evidence, that this cost is compensated for by alumni giving which is motivated partly by alum bonding with the university through its high-profile sports teams and continuing to relate to it after they graduate via following its nationally prominent sports teams. Further, concerning 2, prowess in athletics, like playing the tuba well, is an achievement that could reasonably give one an advantage in admissions. But prowess in sports currently is given a much larger role in admissions than similar prowess outside of sports. (more…)
Here. It’s a true mess, with lots of flights into the city cancelled, and now many members at one main hotel downtown unable to get across the river to the convention center to attend and participate in today’s sessions.
