New APPS: Art, Politics, Philosophy, Science

Fostering racial diversity in the philosophy curriculum: Islamic and Arabic philosophy

In the context of our recent discussions on how to make the philosophy profession more diverse along the race dimension, I’d like to put forward a modest suggestion for everybody’s consideration. It has in fact been put forward by a commentator in a NewAPPS thread quite a few months ago (unfortunately, I don’t remember the name of the commentator in question), and remained in the back of my mind since. Now that we are explicitly discussing these issues, it seems like an appropriate moment to bring it to the fore.

Philosophy books for non-philosophers

During a Thanksgiving dinner conversation I was asked by someone who knows next to nothing about philosophy what one book they should read in order to get a sense of what philosophy is about. Now I am long habituated to conversations with people unfamiliar with philosophy, and to addressing various questions, but this time I did not have a standard, prepared answer. I did suggest they read either Robert Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance or Plato's Dialogues, especially the Five Dialogues collection, but then I couldn't quickly add to the list, so I am intersted to know what book (or books) others would recommend if they were asked the same question.

Should You Become a Professional Philosopher (Now)?

A long time ago I had a post up on my blog Lemmings called "Should You Become a Professional Philosopher?" The main message of the post was that you probably should only go into a Ph.D. program in philosophy and attempt to get a job in academia if you cannot imagine yourself being happy in a different kind of job. Some of the reasons listed included the difficulties of getting a job and the relatively low salaries that philosophers receive.

Since I published the blog post, the prospects of getting a job in philosophy and a decent salary have only gotten worse. Budget cuts have forced colleges and departments to cut back on new hires and raises. I can use my own department as an example. For the first time since 2008 we got a very tiny raise this year. The other years our salaries were cut in various ways. In addition to that, four people have left, or are leaving, and budget cuts prevent replacement. To make up for the loss of four faculty members, the dean has given us permission to hire one person in a temporary position with a 4-4 course load and a salary that's about half of that of a tenure-track person (who is not getting all that much in the first place). Four courses is a lot, not least when you compare it to the regular course load in the college, which is a 2-2.

History of analytic philosophy anthologies

A graduate student writes with a request: What are some of the best anthologies that folk have used in teaching history of analytic philosophy?

Occupy Maine teach-in

Instead of an #OWS poster today, we have this teach-in by Jason Read. It's very well-done: it affirms the inspirational affect of the event, and it is concise in its analysis without over-simplification. Among the themes: 

• Socialization of risk, privatization of profit (“We won’t pay for your crisis”); 
• Our subjectification as self-entrepreneurs and the resultant debt;
• Financialization of the economy (from the entrepreneurial M - C - M' to the speculative M – M’);
• Commodification of social life (Facebook, Google; “we occupy Wall Street because Wall Street has occupied every corner of our lives”).

Please send links to more teach-ins. Feminist Philosophers has the one by Zizek.

Pedagogy Tricks: Make Their Contributions to a Discussion Board Part of Their Grade

I will join the borg, too. Large undergraduate lecture classes make class discussions difficult. So my latest "trick" in those classes is to open a discussion board within our university's online system. Each week I will open a new forum that fits the topic of that week. The most important part of this trick is to make contributions part of the grade and to specify rules for contributions.

The students can respond in several ways. They can 1. post a substantial question relating to the text, 2. answer a question posed by another student, 3. make a substantiated criticism of an argument in the readings for that week, 4. elaborate on an argument in the readings for that week, or 5. comment substantially on each others' comments in a friendly way. This approach usually lead to quite substantial online discussion among the students. Once in a while I will join in, make contributions, correct misunderstandings or answer questions. Sometimes I will answer the questions posted early in the week during the next class. Because participation in the online forum is part of the students' grade, only few students fail to contribute or fail to follow the rules. Occasionally a student will make a nasty comment but then you can go in and delete it or ask the student to edit it.

Pedagogy tricks: asking questions

Okay, let me join the borg: I am not sure who taught me this trick, but it works very well on a lot of levels. So, here goes: when I teach undergraduates I ask the students to pose a question about the assigned reading and submit either to me or to Blackboard before class. The first sentence of this assignment MUST be a question about the text. In the remainder of the paragraph-long-assignment (so about 150 words) the student should motivate the question with references to or analysis of the text. THE QUESTION SHOULD NOT BE ANSWERED. (During class discussion I often turn to these questions.) After class, I comment and 'grade' these assignments. (In fact, during the first few weeks of a course I put a lot of work into this.) But if the infrastructure is available, I let students answer at least one question by another student (again with detailed references to the text) after class discussion. These answers can generate list/blog discussions among the students. (I generally don't get involved, but I prescribe some politeness rules and monitor the discussion carefully.)

There are four benefits to this assignment: 1. Students are prepared for class. (I often am tempted to use this assignment on my grad students!) Since I have used it I have had much more enjoyable class experience. 2. They learn how to read critically (because they must find a question in the text--I don't allow obviously rhetorical questions). 3. They start to learn how to ask questions, which is a (valuable?) skill that can be taught, but not easy to master at first. (Students are much better at giving answers.) 4. It creates intellectual community among the students (who end up doing a lot of the teaching to each other).

Pedagogy tricks: leaving the classroom

Neal Hebert asks for pedagogical advice in this comment. I thought I'd begin the series with this trick of mine. Send an email to one of the New APPS Borg (resistance is futile, Eric and Mohan!) and we'll post your pedagogy trick.

One of my tricks is to have the students break into 3-4 person groups to consider a question on that day's reading. I then leave the room for 10 minutes to give them time to discuss.

A wonderful new resource for teaching Intro to Philosophy (and other courses!)

Here's the URL -- www.teachphilosophy101.org -- and here's the website's Intro: 

Welcome to TeachPhilosophy101 (TΦ101)

This site presents strategies and resources for faculty members and graduate assistants  who teach philosophy courses, especially at the introductory level; it also includes material of interest to college faculty generally. The mission of TΦ101 is to provide free, user-friendly resources to the academic community. All of the materials are provided on an open source license. You may also print as many copies as you wish. I am deeply indebted to Villanova University for all of the support that has made this project possible.

John Immerwahr, Professor of Philosophy, Villanova University, Email

What a great resource! Putting it together is a real service to the profession, and we owe John Immerwahr and Villanova a great deal of appreciation for sharing it like this. 

Speaking of gratitude for teaching resources, I would be remiss if I didn't also point us to In Socrates' Wake, a wonderful teaching philosophy blog which has been in our Blog Roll from the beginning.

Any thoughts?

Information provided by Masters Degree

Resurrection of Medieval; wither Early Modern?

[The following was promoted by reflection on word that L.A. Paul and Marilyn Adams will be co-teaching a cool sounding course on medieval and contemporary metaphysics Fall 2012.--ES] Despite Gilbert Harman, who infamously claimed, that “history of philosophy tends not to be useful to students of philosophy," cutting edge philosophy often re-discovers or promotes different historical figures and episodes as conversation partners (or emblematic forms of legitimation). Deleuze's use and approach to Spinoza is a favorite among many NewAppsers. Even in analytic philosophy, we are familiar with this process: Russell's and Ayer's revival of Hume at the start of the 20th century; the Rawlsians' rediscovery of Rousseau and Kant; more recently Hegel at Pittsburgh, and a host of other examples, including Harman's unappreciated study of Adam Smith. (In all cases the full story is complex.)

With the current unraveling of the hegemony of the Kantian-"framework" picture (roughly from Kant through Davidson/Rorty), the secure place of "Early Modern," which has always been a kind of set-up to Kantianism, may come to an end in the English speaking philosophical world. (In my view we see some of this already with the lowered status of Locke and Berkeley.) In particular, given that analytic metaphysics embraces many of the neo-Scholastic virtues (especially the high premium on careful distinctions) and is often driven by questions that the Scholastics worried intensely about, we should expect that the study of Medieval philosophy has a chance to escape from the religious stronghold that still stifles it. (Of course, we should not ignore the fact that analytic metaphysics and analytic theology have become very comfortable bed-fellows.) I am not claiming that it is over-determined that Medieval will be the main beneficiary: we also see renewed interest in the British Idealists (Della Rocca, Sam Newlands, Kris McDaniel) and Brentano (Ariana Betti and her students among others). Either way, there is an exciting process of rediscovery under way. (When we were colleagues McDaniel got me interested in and made me appreciate Suarez.)

Hitchcock's "fun gimmick is to have a theme song for each class"

Courtesy of Christopher Hitchcock's suggestion (in comments here): Plato's Cave: Out of the Shadows, by Sarah McLachlan Zeno: The Space Between, by Dave Matthews Berkeley: What's the Matter Here? by 10,000 Maniacs Personal Identity: Who are you? by the Who McTaggart: No Time, by the Guess Who Mind-body problem: Spirits in the Material World, by the Police Newton's bucket argument: Twist and Shout, by the Beatles Mach's critique of Newton: The Speed of Sound, by Coldplay

With some further suggestions by Paul Raymont: Cosmological Argument: 'Nothing from nothing' by Billy Preston; Autonomy: 'My way' by Frank Sinatra (or the cover by Sid Vicious); Collective Agency: 'Something in the air' by Thunderclap Newman; Theories of Punishment: 'Folsom prison blues' by Johnny Cash; Emergence: 'NaCL' by Kate and Anna McGarrigle; Is the mind spatial? 'Where is my mind?' by the Pixies; Justice: 'Know your rights' by the Clash; The nature of facts: 'Crosseyed & Painless' by the Talking Heads;

I am surprised the 21st Century Monads have not been mentioned yet. Other suggestions welcome. Participatory Democracy (or the lack of it): 'Why do you bother me?' by Gals and Pals -- it's not well known, but it's on YouTube at http://youtu.be/vpKBpQjc13c

What are you teaching this fall?

A common enough question. I think it will be helpful to be able to see a sampling of the teaching (and enrollment, and teaching loads) of our colleagues. Links to course pages or syllabi encouraged as are email addresses so people can get in touch with you if they want more info on a course.

I'm teaching 

• a graduate seminar on "Foucault and Biopower" (14 students) and 
• an undergraduate Honors College course on "Evolution and Biology of Morality" (19 students).