I wrote a short post on Facebook today, making note of the passing away of Jerry Fodor: Much as I admired Fodor’s writing chops, I deplored the way he did philosophy. The stories of his ‘put-downs’ and sarcastic, ironic, ‘devastating’ objections, questions, or responses in seminars always left me feeling like this was not howContinue reading “Jerry Fodor And Philosophical Practice”
Tag Archives: academic debate
Back To Conferencing, Thanks To The Mountains
Last year, indeed, almost exactly a year ago, I wrote a post titled My First Academic Conference. In it, after describing my reluctance to attend academic conferences, I closed with the following lines: Now, I don’t go to conferences any more; the travel sounds interesting, but the talks, the questions and answer sessions, the socialContinue reading “Back To Conferencing, Thanks To The Mountains”
Not So Fast With The Private Surveillance
A revealing–no pun intended–reaction to news of Steven Salaita’s troubles at the University of Illinois was that he was only paying the price for having his social media speech monitored (or surveilled) by his employer. As the argument goes, all employers monitor social media; we should all accept the consequences–in our places and zones ofContinue reading “Not So Fast With The Private Surveillance”
Steven Salaita and Academic Freedom in Academic and ‘Non-Academic’ Spaces
Steven Salaita might have thought he was headed for a new faculty position: the University of Illinois had made him a job offer, he had accepted, and resigned his position at Virginia Tech. But not so fast: the Chancellor of the university rescinded the offer, apparently because of Salaita’s aggressively vocal presence on Twitter, whereContinue reading “Steven Salaita and Academic Freedom in Academic and ‘Non-Academic’ Spaces”
The Missed Rejoinder: Memorable For All The Wrong Reasons
A few years ago, I served as a referee for the National Science Foundation, reading and evaluating grant proposals, and hopefully, being fair to the hopeful applicants. Once I had submitted my preliminary report, I traveled to Washington DC for a final meeting with other referees for that round of funding; we met over twoContinue reading “The Missed Rejoinder: Memorable For All The Wrong Reasons”
Academic Arguments, Sports, and Urban Policing as ‘War’
In the introduction to The Social Construction of What? Ian Hacking writes: Labels such as ‘‘the culture wars,’’ ‘‘the science wars,’’ or ‘‘the Freud wars’’ are now widely used to refer to some of the disagreements that plague contemporary intellectual life. I will continue to employ those labels, from time to time, in this book, for my themesContinue reading “Academic Arguments, Sports, and Urban Policing as ‘War’”
Samir Chopra 