Rarely, if ever, does the term ‘intellectual property’ add clarity to any debate of substance–very often, this is because it includes the term ‘property’ and thus offers an invitation to some dubious theorizing. This post by Alex Rosenberg at Daily Nous is a good example of this claim: Locke famously offered an account of theContinue reading “Once More: ‘Intellectual Property’ Breeds Confusion; Drop it”
Tag Archives: academic philosophy
Letting The Feminists Know What Time It Is
A couple of years ago, in a post commenting on Virginia Held‘s Sprague and Taylor Lecture at Brooklyn College, I wrote: My association with her goes back some twenty years, when I first began my graduate studies in philosophy as a non-matriculate student at the CUNY Graduate Center [in the fall of 1992]. My firstContinue reading “Letting The Feminists Know What Time It Is”
In Praise of Alan Watts And ‘Popularizers’
I have a confession to make: I enjoy reading Alan Watts‘ books. This simple statement of one of my reading pleasures, this revelation of one of my tastes in books and intellectual pursuits, shouldn’t need to be a confession, a term that conjures up visions of sin and repentance and shame. But it is, aContinue reading “In Praise of Alan Watts And ‘Popularizers’”
Academic Writing In Philosophy: On Finding Older Writing Samples
Yesterday, while cleaning up an old homepage of mine, I found some old papers written while I was in graduate school. Overcome by curiosity–and rather recklessly, if I may say so–I converted the old Postscript format to PDF, and took a closer look. The first is titled ‘No Cognition Without Representation’; its abstract reads: AContinue reading “Academic Writing In Philosophy: On Finding Older Writing Samples”
Acts of Kindness: Writing to Writers, Especially Academic Ones
A couple of years ago, after reading Neil Gross‘ excellent biography of Richard Rorty, I sent him a short note of appreciation, telling him how much I enjoyed his book. Gross wrote back; he was clearly pleasantly surprised to have received my email. I mention this correspondence because it is an instance of an actContinue reading “Acts of Kindness: Writing to Writers, Especially Academic Ones”
The Black Absence in Academic Philosophy
Jason Stanley recently posted the following interesting status message on his Facebook page: The first sentence of this article is “Nationwide, just over 5 percent of all full-time faculty members at colleges and universities in the United States are black”. If that is so disturbing as to give rise to this headline, what are weContinue reading “The Black Absence in Academic Philosophy”
Professional Academic Philosophy’s Blind Spots
A few years ago, I read an email–or a post on an online forum, I am not sure–written by a very accomplished senior philosopher (a logician to be precise.) In his argument, the logician–adept at providing mathematically elegant proofs of recondite logical problems–seemed to have committed at least two logical fallacies in the first paragraphContinue reading “Professional Academic Philosophy’s Blind Spots”
The Year That Was, Here, On This Blog
The formal two-year anniversary of this blog was sometime back in November; as I was traveling then I couldn’t put up a commemorative post; this year-end dispatch will have to do as substitute marker for that occasion. 2013 was a busy year for blogging here, though I blogged on fewer occasions than I did inContinue reading “The Year That Was, Here, On This Blog”
More on ‘Male Anxiety’ in Academic Philosophy
Daniel Mullin comments on my post from yesterday about ‘male anxiety’ in the workplace–in particular, in academic philosophy departments–and describes his strategy for dealing with an atmosphere in which there is heightened sensitivity about sexual harassment: Since that time, I’ve considered ANY interaction with a female student as a potential minefield to be avoided ifContinue reading “More on ‘Male Anxiety’ in Academic Philosophy”
Male Anxiety in the Workplace: The Case of Academic Philosophy
In 1990, I began work at AT&T’s Bell Laboratories. My technical employment status was ‘Resident Visitor’; I was a ‘consultant’ sent to work at the Laboratories on a contingent basis. Because of this status, I was not required to attend the training sessions that were often set up for permanent employees. Off they went, whileContinue reading “Male Anxiety in the Workplace: The Case of Academic Philosophy”
Samir Chopra 