Top 10 of 2007

I picked up this idea from my buddy, Matt "Gump" Garrison. We've been friends since we were in college together. We reunited in San Francisco at the APA-Pacific in March 2007. I hadn't seen Gump in about 5 years. Perhaps I'm not in the best position to write this list but maybe it'll prompt others to write their own lists.

10. (partial roll-over from 2006); the APA-Eastern fire. Those who lived it cannot forget the largely disorganized mass of people leaving the Marriott hotel in downtown Washington, D.C. at 400am. The frigid cold, damp weather was something to forget.

9. Jean Baudrillard, a significant figure especially among those who consider themselves postmodernists or interested in continental philosophy, dies at 77.

8. A Philosophy Job Market Blog. Because job candidates aren't frustrated enough, they now have an electronic outlet for their thoughts. (here)

7. Philosophy Job Wiki. This is a partial roll-over from 2006, but this year's wiki is far more sophisticated using words like "ditto" to indicate more than one interview taking place either by phone, at the APA, or on campus.

6. Honderich/McGinn battle royal. OK. Here's how it works out. Ted Honderich writes a book about consciousness and philosophy of mind. Colin McGinn writes an "honest" review of Honderich's book for The Philosophical Review. Then, all hell breaks loose! Leiter has reported here that Honderich wants compensation from PR for having published McGinn's scathing review (Check out The Guardian's story here).

5. Fritz Allhoff (Western Michigan) started Philosophy Updates. Philosophy Updates is a listserv for professors and students to be alerted to news. It's a helpful addition to a short bank of listservs for philosophical interests. Also, the listserv has a clearly defined aim, which some of the other listservs do not.

4. The 2nd Annual Online Philosophy Conference was a huge success in May (here), and we look forward to the 3rd annual conference this year. Thanks to the efforts of Thomas Nadelhoffer and Eddy Nahmias!

3. William & Mary's Philosophy department was put into partial or quasi-receivership this year because of the department's mistreatment of junior faculty members (story here).

2. Richard Rorty died June 8, 2007. Perhaps one of the most significant American philosophers of the 20th/21st century.

1. Experimental philosophy continues to ride a wave of popularity among philosophers, psychologists, and cognitive scientists. By all indications the empirical investigation of ordinary intuitions by philosophers will continue to be popular for at least the next few years.

To do

I returned from Baltimore yesterday evening to find several emails awaiting my response (129 to be exact). I've gotten through them and responded to them, but I've got lots to do this week before school begins again.

Here's a sample:

1. read Frank Hindriks "Intentional action and the praise-blame asymmetry" (available online through Wiley-Blackwell early online articles at The Philosophical Quarterly.

2. finish framework of paper on "Persisting actions."

3. finish syllabi for spring semester classes.

7 Random things Meme

Brandon was tagged and published his seven random things. He doesn't tag people, but he invites people to engage in the meme. So, I'll take the baton.

The rules are:

• Link to the person who tagged you.
• Share 7 random or weird things about yourself.
• Tag 7 random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.
• Let the person know they've been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

(1) I have a fog horn in my desk drawer, and I'm not afraid to use it!

(2) I own 6 copies of Descartes's Meditations; 4 in English, 1 in French, and 1 in Latin.

(3) My favorite Warner Brothers cartoon character is Tweety, and I have a tatoo to prove it.

(4) 8 windows are open on my Macbook's desktop. 4 of which have something to do with my research and teaching. 1 is my syllabus for Philosophy of Eastern Religion I'll be teaching in the spring, 1 is my dissertation (hasn't been closed in about 3 months), 1 is my website for Philosophy of Eastern Religion class, and 1 is a work-in-progress "Persisting Actions." Oh, yeah: two other windows are notes for further revised portions of my dissertation.

(5) I actually enjoy waiting in security lines at the airport. (Is this random or weird?)

(6) I love my job.

(7) Three books I'd like to read again after I've finished my dissertation, mostly for research purposes: (a) Plato's Parmenides, (b) Lotze's Logic, and (c) Ted Sider's Four-dimensionalism.

You're it: Bob, Leah, Relz, Scott, and Shelley. Uh, I can't think of 2 more. Anyone else should jump in if they're interested.

Does accuracy count?

Mitt Romney's made a few inaccurate comments. (N.Y. Times story here.)

When Mitt says "my father marched with Martin Luther King, Jr.," he means "my father was alive at the same time Martin Luther King, Jr. was."

When Mitt says "I've been a hunter all my life," he means "I've known hunters all my life."

When Mitt says, "I won't raise taxes," he means, "the rich won't have to pay taxes when I'm in office."

When Mitt says, "we share a common creed of moral convictions," he means "the LDS Church is right about issues of morality and America reflects that fact."

I just want to make clear what Mitt says if you who don't understand Mitt-speak or if you choose to ignore Mitt-speak.

Thomson's Acts and Other Events

I've been re-reading Judith Jarvis Thomson's Acts and Other Events because I'm currently revising a paper on the problem of temporal order relations for the unifier and multiplier accounts of action individuation. For some reason, I decided to read some reviews of Thomson's book. I was shocked by what I found.

One reviewer's comments were outrageous. The reviewer writes:

"The book is idiosyncratic to the point of perversity."

"[The book] manages to be at one and the same time technically pedantic and philosophically vague."

Anyone who has read Thomson's book would find it to be a monumental work for action theorists and metaphysicians with interest in the philosophy of action or mind.

The reviewer may have been distracted by Thomson's notation, but that's a problem for the reviewer not for the book. Other than that I cannot even begin to speculate why the reviewer would have been so harsh in her assessment of Thomson's work.

Perhaps Thomson's most important contribution is her temporal order relations argument against the prevailing accounts of action individuation that appears in chapter 4. She identifies all of the major assumptions and implications of the problem in meticulous detail.

The problem is very basic but the implications are great - all previous accounts of action individuation are problematic. Imagine a situation where Jones shoots the czar at noon on Tuesday, but the czar doesn't die until 500pm on Friday. Can we say truly that "Jones kills the czar" before Friday? On at least one account of action individuation Jones does kill the czar before Friday because Jones's shooting the czar just is killing the czar. That means Jones killed the czar at a time before he actually died. How can Jones kill somebody without their dying? Something's wrong with this account.

On another account, Jones's killing the czar is distinct from Jones's shooting the czar. But, if Jones dies before the czar does, then Jones continues to act after he's dead. The implication is that both accounts of action individuation are strikingly odd.

The future academic job market: some good news?

My routine tromp around the internet this morning found this story on a cnet.com blog by Matt Asay. Although the story is not focused only on academic jobs, the story includes some fascinating statistics about the future of academic jobs.

The story cites the top-10 jobs the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has projected the U.S. economy will add in the next 10 years. Nurses, salespersons, and customer service representatives fill out the top 3. What surprised me was #8. #8 is college/post-graduate teachers.

Asay's story cites a CIO.com opinion (here) that the high turnover of college/post-graduate teachers is "troubling." The projected high turnover of college/post-graduate teachers puts all segments "at risk," according to the CIO opinion.

I'd like to think that the bureau's data show that the future academic job market is bright. But that implication outstrips the data. The data merely show that there will be a need to fill vacated positions. Since colleges and universities might fill the positions by hiring adjunct instructors, the next generation of college/post-graduate teachers could be short-changed.

CIO.com's spotting the "troubling" future of the academy is right on two counts. First, it's probably correct that we don't have enough bodies to fill the soon-to-be-vacated positions, and - second - it's correct to think that how the institutions of higher education will fill these vacated spots with adjunct instructors is equally - if not more - "troubling."

59th Philosophy Carnival

Despite heavy snow in Buffalo, "Lake-effect" Philosophy blog hosts the 59th Philosophy Carnival (here). Highlights will be discussed in this post after I've successfully submitted all my grades.

New Philosophy Lecture Series

SUNY Fredonia has a new lecture series entitled: the Young Philosophers Lecture Series and Podcast (here). SUNY Fredonia invites young philosophers (defined as people who have received the Ph.D. in the last 6 years) to campus for two talks: the research talk and introductory talk. The research talk is a professional talk, and the introductory talk is aimed at the community in general. The first in the series takes place February 28/29, 2008.

Cleaning house

The blog needs a serious overhaul. Many of the links are inactive, and many more links need to be added. Also, I'm thinking of adding a page element much like what appears on Mormon Metaphysics. His left hand column contains brief descriptions of recent posts at blogs he reads or hears of. If any one has suggestions for how to update my blog, comment on this post.

Besides my blog site, I'm working on my faculty.weber.edu website. The website was a disaster a few months ago. Now I feel it's coming up to speed. I list syllabi, teaching statement, research trajcetory statement, and current classes. I'm working on a current papers page, which includes my job talk (on "persisting actions"). Perhaps a links page is a good addition too.

What's happening now?

I finished the semester in my usual uneventful (and unstressful) way; the key is my grading schema for my lower division classes. My grading schema is set up such that I know with high probability what my students' grades will be about two-to-three weeks prior to the end of the semester. I statistically rule out what each student couldn't possibly earn (both on the high and low side).

In other news, the holidays are right around the corner, and I'm not ready at all. My usual last minute shopping spree will have to wait a little while longer because I've got to prepare for interviews at the APA and finish a draft of a paper I've been working on.

Having completed all my application letters in October and November, December was dedicated to writing philosophy papers, drafting arguments, etc. It was so much more fun!!! I forgot how much I enjoyed this stuff!

"Weirdest" Psychology Study - vote now!

PsyBlog has initiated discussion of the weirdest psychology study (here). Vote now for your favorite.

I want to know what kind of desperate graduate student had to be employed to run the periscope in the urination study. That seems like a really creepy affair!

Kenny on the beginning of individual human life

In "The Beginning of Individual Human Life," presented at the 2006 meeting of the A.C.P.A. and published as a part of the proceedings of the conference (which I received a few days ago), Sir Anthony Kenny argues that the individual human being exists fourteen days after conception.

Typically, it has been argued that individual human life begins at conception, birth, or sometime between conception and birth. Kenny discusses Aquinas's account, a broadly Thomist position, and his own position. His position is a mixture of Aquinas's account and the Thomist position.

Aquinas's account calls for an uninterrupted development linking the moment of conception with adult life. It's a theory of three successive entities. The theory of three successive entities at various stages of pregnancy are: the embryo, which lives a plant life with a vegetative soul, the animal soul, which replaces the vegetative soul when it disappears, and - finally - the rational soul, which is infused by God at an advanced stage of development.

Kenny calls into question the uninterrupted development of an individual from embryo to adult human. An embryo may turn into something that's not human, a single human, or twins. Since "each of the gametes might, in different circumstances, have fused to form a single conceptus, and the conceptus might, in different circumstances, have turned into more or less than the single individual that it did in fact turn into," (36) there is not an uninterrupted history of an individual.

He stresses the importance of the distinction between specific and individual identity. The distinction correlates roughly with the distinction commonly referred to as qualitative and numerical identity. Identical twins, Barbara and Beatrice, are qualitatively the same in every specific respect, but they are not a single individual.

Ultimately, Kenny uses the distinction to show that individual human life begins approximately fourteen days after the moment of conception. Fourteen days after the moment of conception a zygote may split into two entities (identical twins). The potential split should be as highly regarded as the moment two different gametes become one zygote. The Catholic position places great importance on potentiality. So, the potentiality of twinning gives us reason to doubt that the earlier embryo is an individual human being.

Kenny's argument seems to depend on a view of how to individuate between the stages of human life, i.e., embryo, fetus, child, and adult. If they're all the same thing, then Aquinas's position is correct. The embryo is as much an individual human being as the adult. If any two of the stages are distinct, then we may say that an earlier stage is not an individual human being.

To my mind, what's important about Kenny's argument is its emphasis on individuation. People's views on abortion may arise from their views of individuation. Advocates of one side in the debate may see little or - perhaps - no distinction between any two developmental stages. Thus, it's morally impermissible to abort a fetus or embryo or whatever. Others may distinguish between two stages. They would argue that it is morally permissible to abort a fetus or embryo or whatever. (Note: I'm not taking into consideration the notion of a woman's choice, which is equally important. I'm merely talking about the individuation of the stages of development.) Consequently, people's views on individual human life may depend on whether they see harming an earlier stage of development as equivalent or as unequal with a later stage of development.

Prichard's work on acting, willing, and desiring

Steve Bayne has posted part 11 of H.A. Prichard's Moral Obligation: Essays and Lectures (1949). It's Prichard's essay "Acting, Willing, Desiring" (available here). Since I've only skimmed it in the past, I want to give it a thorough reading now. Comments may be forthcoming.

Nietzsche blog

Brian Leiter has a blog on Nietzsche (here), called - simply - "Brian Leiter's Nietzsche Blog." The blog is not as active as his Leiter Reports, but - to my mind - it is a valuable resource for information on Nietzsche.

Two posts (here and here) are particularly noteworthy. The first post gives an overview of how to engage in reading Nietzsche if you're a beginner. Leiter suggests that the Nietzsche novice start by reading Beyond Good and Evil; I couldn't agree more. BGE is one of Nietzsche's more accessible works.

The second post is a detailed discussion of where the action is in Nietzsche studies. The discussion explains what's worth doing if you're doing research in Nietzsche studies.

On a teaching note: I suggested that the members of my existentialism class consult Leiter's Nietzsche Blog before they began their research papers. Most of them did, and they seemed to have found much of the material there very accessible.

I've added a link to Leiter's blog.

The New New Philosophy in the New York Times Magazine

A brief article by Kwame Anthony Appiah on experimental philosophy was published in today's New York Times Magazine (here).

Update (12/9; 325pm): MindHacks has posted highlighting the NY Times Magazine article and the experimental work of Eric Schwitzgebel (here).

Update (12/10; 835pm): Gonepublic: Philosophy, Politics, and Public Life has a post "On Armchairs and MRIs" in response to the NY Times Magazine article by Appiah (here).

Are podcasts altering the classroom?

(I've had the content of this post rattling around in me for quite a while. Today's L.A. Times article [available here], cited by Brian Leiter, spurred me on to spit it out.)

If you've not heard of a podcast, let me explain what it is: a podcast is a type of audio or visual media one can download to an mp3 player or iPod for a fee or free (e.g., through iTunes). Students can download their favorite music for free (if they're not too concerned about sometimes infringing copyright laws) or for a minimal fee if they're using music clearinghouses like iTunes.

More than music is available for the iPod or mp3 player. Books - whether classics or new releases, fiction or non-fiction - and university lectures have become available for download. Students and non-students alike can download an entire semester's worth of an instructor's lectures in a matter of minutes.

The L.A. Times article reports that non-students are eating up the university lectures. They're thrilled to have the opportunity to listen to the lectures whether they're at home, in the car, or on the treadmill. They can learn what they may have missed when they were undergraduates.

Some people - so the L.A. Times reports - have sent the universities money in compensation for being able to listen to the lectures. The general public has an interest learning about the death of God, the multiple dimensions of string theory, or advancements in biomedical engineering.

Although podcasts may be enlightening for the general public, what might they be doing for university students? Podcasts might not be an asset for universities or the students they serve. I think two problems are hard to ignore. (1) Students may think they will not have to attend class regularly and (2) the podcast learning experience might alter higher education too much.

If podcasts are available on the internet, then students can download them anytime. If they can download the podcasts anytime, then they will download them and listen to them outside the classroom.

The article points to some interesting facts about class attendance. Only 25% of enrolled students cut class. If only 25% of enrolled students cut class when the lectures are available using podcasts, then that's an even better attendance record than what you would expect without the availability of podcasts. Somehow I don't trust the article's empirical evidence. (Also, Dreyfus is quoted in the article as saying "25% of enrolled students cut class" but his picture's caption reported that he said "half the students cut class." I think the latter is more accurate than the former.)

Podcasts cannot replace learning in-the-classroom. Students who think so might not be paying attention to what's going on in class. A good (or reasonably good) class typically generates discussion between the instructor and students and between students. When students participate in the dialog, they typically gain better command of the material. Podcasts don't allow for active participation in class. Listening intently is still learning passively. So, students who relish listening to podcasts at home or at the gym aren't actively engaged in dialog to gain better command of the material.

Podcasts should supplement the classroom experience for students (here's a NY Times article pointing out what I mean here). They will permit the student to revisit a part of the class they may have had difficulty understanding when they first heard it in the lecture hall. Podcasts should also be used by the instructor to revisit parts of his/her lecture s/he may have had difficulty clarifying concepts for the student.

Second, podcasts may alter higher education. I doubt such will be the case, but you can imagine some savvy businessperson opening a college or university run using nothing but podcasts to educate its students. Perhaps this is a bit speculative but it is possible - in theory.

Ontology of collections - I

1 of 3 in series on the ontology of collections. Consider two different collections: a museum collection and my office collection. Collections are not restricted to museums or to offices. A sampling of collections will show what I mean here, and I think that "collections" extend much further than we suppose at first.

We can point to typical collections. These are collections ordinary people keep for various reasons, e.g., sentimental objects, objects of admiration, etc. For example, males typically collect baseball cards. Females typically collect dolls. Some people collect unpaid parking tickets while others collect books, pens, autographs, email, letters, cards, or golf balls. Collections seem to come in all shapes and sizes.

The size and shape of collections differ dramatically.

A museum houses collections of artifacts, such as dinosaur bones, monumental documents, or art works. Museums contain important artifacts because people will pay money to go see them. The items are so precious that some people have even stolen items from a museum. A museum's artifacts are usually arranged by a curator to be pleasing for the viewer.

When I look around my office (which is where I happen to be right now), I see books, keys, pens, computer equipment, lights, a calendar, and chairs - to name a few items. We might say that these items are a part of my "office collection."

What distinguishes my "office collection" from a "museum collection?"

The business world and philosophy

A few weeks ago I read this when discussions of it began to appear on numerous philosophy blogs. I had a lot to say about the discussions of the article until Richard of Philosophy etc posted his own comment here; he said much of what I wanted to say.

As Richard points out, the discussions of the Guardian article rave how studying philosophy is good for one's employment prospects. But that claim outstrips the collected data. The only fact we can glean from the data is that philosophy graduates are doing better than they were a few years ago. Doing better is not a good indicator for one's employment prospects overall.

Richard goes on to claim that it would be dishonest for undergraduate advisors and philosophy instructors to say to the prospective philosophy major that "philosophy will help you get a job." But based on the data set I don't think we can say that it would be dishonest for advisors or instructors to say such a thing.

What we need is data that show business leaders, e.g., CEOs, presidents, vice-presidents, etc., attitudes toward philosophy graduates versus their attitudes toward business graduates (or the like). In particular, we'd like to know who they would choose if both a philosophy graduate and a business graduate were going up for a job in their company. The data would help us get a grip on the potential success of philosophy graduates on the open job market.

Ultimately, I think Richard is right to say that prospective philosophy majors should undertake their studies because they have an intrinsic interest in the subject. I would say that to anyone who is considering a major in business, biology, pre-med, etc. Honestly, I think that if you're in college to make a buck, then you're in college for the wrong reason and you should re-think your objective. Going to college is not going to make you a quick buck because you're in college and you cannot make as much money in college as you can out of college.

We should seek substantive data supporting the conclusion that philosophy graduates stand a good chance of succeeding in the business world after college. If it's not there, it's not there. We will have to confirm that in a more scientific study.

New Philosophy Carnival

It's about time I start touting the philosophers' carnival again, the 58th in the series. It's available at "Philosophy Sucks!" here.

Of the entries, Marco's post on truthmaking is pretty cool (here) and Tanasije's exploration of phenomenal/conscious experience has some interesting things to say about the way we talk about "phenomenal experience" (here).

Maybe I'll have something to contribute to the carnival next time. That means I'll have to do some real thinking and not just revising my dissertation or talking about my dissertation. COOL!

Goldman on the ontology of events

Alvin Goldman has a nice piece forthcoming in The Monist, and a copy of it is available on his webpage here. In the piece he revisits arguments for positions in the action individuation debate. He does so with an eye toward widening the methodological role of cognitive science in metaphysics.

Goldman argues that the way that we individuate events depends on the way we mentally represent these events, either in the spatio-temporal system or in the kind-based system. Those who represent events in the kind-based system tend to individuate events by kind-term or property, and those who represent events in the spatio-temporal system tend not to distinguish between kinds.

He cites several examples in the developmental psychology literature to support his view that the mind has the ability to represent events in two ways. (Much of it is very interesting!)

How does this play out for act individuation? On the multiplier's account, if two actions, a and b, have distinct properties where each is a token of two different action-types, say A and B, then a is not identical to b even if a and b are performed by the same agent at the same time - i.e., spatio-temporally overlapping actions of the same agent. Action a and b are distinct acts because they exemplify different properties/kinds. This view corresponds with the kind-based system.

On the unifier's account, action a and b are the same when and only when both a and b are performed by the same agent at the same time. So, e.g., Smith's pulling the trigger is the same as Smith's firing the gun because the same agent performs the two actions at the same time. This view corresponds well with the spatio-temporal system.

I think that Goldman's argument jibes pretty well with the data I collected on action individuation; one might even be prone to say that his argument serves as an explanation of the data. Perhaps if the mind has two ways of representing events, kind-based and spatio-temporally based, then one or the other might have precendence when a person responds to the vignettes. In the poison case, people may give greater weight to spatio-temporal considerations than kind considerations. In the antibiotic case, people may give greater weight to kind-based considerations.

Where has the time gone?

Teaching and applying for jobs consumed most of my time in late October and November. Blogging - to say the least - was the farthest thing from my mind. The application whirlwind is over; the waiting game has begun. So, I have some time to spare (perhaps I've got too much time to spare).

Those readers who are unaware of the philosophy job market can get an understanding of it here. Admittedly, the discussion is somewhat jaded. But we're on the market and job seekers think they've got the world stacked against them.

If the waiting game wasn't bad enough not knowing whether you will have an APA interview (or if you're extremely lucky an on-campus interview), a Philosophy Job Wiki has been created here to make job seekers even more anxious. NOTE: The wiki appears to be under attack! The page has been deleted several times the past few days. As of 950pm 12/2/07, the philosophy job wiki is down - the horror!