Best Majors for GRE Scores in 2013: Philosophy Dominates

http://www.physicscentral.com/buzz/blog/index.cfm?postid=5112019841346388353#.UfcOmCZhmxc.facebook

Philosophy Talk Radio: Hom on Forbidden Words

If you're interested in hearing about my current research project, I was a guest on the Philosophy Talk radio show with John Perry and Ken Taylor this summer. The recorded episode will air in the San Francisco Bay Area this Sunday at 10 am PDT on KALW 91.7 FM (re-broadcast Tuesday at 12 noon). You can stream it live at www.kalw.org/listen-live. It will also be available to stream on-demand at philosophytalk.org for one week beginning Friday, Oct 26.

The Power of Philosophy

Thoughts from retirement

I retired in 2003 because I had a project that I wanted to work on and being a teacher at TT was taking too much time. The project is to work out a projectivist account of color. Color projectivism is the view that objects are not colored, although they look colored. Two ideas make me think that projectivism is the right way to go. First: when we see an object as red - the object looks red - we visually attribute to the object as sensuous non-relational property. Call this property s-red. Similarly there is s-green, s-blue, and so forth. Second: if the world we see about us is anything like physics says that it is then the objects we see about us are not s-colored. So I conclude that it must be that our visual system projects s-colors onto objects.

Since 2003 I have written five essays (I am a very slow writer), three of which are about projectivism. "Toward a Projectivist Account of Color" appeared in JP in May of 2005. "The phenomenological character of color perception" was published on line by Philosophical Studies,in September of 2010, and will eventually come out in their journal. I have just finished a third article that is now under review.

I thought I would use this blog to consider some issues that have arisen with these works. Perhaps a blog on perceptual consciousness and another on perceptual representation.

Ed Averill

Philosophy of Literature: Philosopher ranks as 16th best career

Philosophy of Literature: Philosopher ranks as 16th best career: "Something to consider as you are in college! http://www.careercast.com/jobs-rated/2011-ranking-200-jobs-best-worst?page=1 It is not all rose..."

Lepore on Context

The Philosophy Department at Texas Tech University is pleased to announce the first installment in our Fall 2010 Speaker Series:

“Switching Contexts, Sharing Contents”

Prof. Ernest Lepore (Rutgers Philosophy, Acting Director of the Rutgers Center for Cognitive Science)

Thursday, October 21, 7:30 PM

English/Philosophy 106

This talk is supported in part with a grant from Humanities Texas, the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

We hope that you can join us. The schedule for our speaker series can also be found online at:

http://www.depts.ttu.edu/philosophy/events/Philtalks10-11.php

Nathan on Beauty

The Philosophy Department at Texas Tech University is pleased to announce the final installment in our Spring 2010 Speaker Series:

"Making the Subject Objective: Toward a Naturalist Theory of Beauty"
Prof. Daniel Nathan (Texas Tech University)
Thursday, April 29, 7:30 PM
English/Philosophy 106

We hope that you can join us. The schedule for our speaker series can also be found online at:

http://www.depts.ttu.edu/philosophy/events/talksf09.php

Schwartz & Hayes on Piety

The Philosophy Department at Texas Tech University is pleased to announce the next installment in our Spring 2010 Speaker Series:

“Piety as Gratitude in Plato’s Euthyphro”
Profs. David Hayes (European College of Liberal Arts, Berlin) & Jeremy Schwartz (Texas Tech University)
Friday, April 16, 4 PM
English/Philosophy 264

We hope that you can join us. The schedule for our speaker series can also be found online at: http://www.depts.ttu.edu/philosophy/events/talksf09.php

Beck is Back!

Jacob Beck (TTU, Washington University in St. Louis)

Departmental colloquium: "Analog Magnitudes: A Case Study in Nonconceptual Cognition"

Friday, February 26, 4:00 PM - ENG/PHIL 264

See Hom Swear...

Departmental colloquium: "A Puzzle About Pejoratives"

Prof. Christopher Hom (Texas Tech University)

Friday, October 30, 4:00 PM - PHIL 264

Abstract and draft of the paper available here: http://www.webpages.ttu.edu/chom/Papers.html

"Peterpalooza": RESCHEDULED

Peter Railton (John Stephenson Perrin Professor of Philosophy, University of Michigan)

Public Lecture: "Happiness, Satisfaction, and Morality"

Friday, October 16, 4:00 PM - Engl/Phil LH01 [RESCHEDULED]

Departmental colloquium: "Rationality in Belief and Desire: A Unified Account"

Saturday, October 17, 10:00 AM - Phil 264 [RESCHEDULED]

Because of flight delays, Prof. Railton will not be able to present on Thursday night, and will instead give his public talk on Friday afternoon.

Hope you can join us!

Fall Colloquia Series

The 2009-2010 Philosophy Colloquia Series is now underway, and we have some great talks lined up this semester!

Niko Kolodny, U.C. Berkeley, Oct 1-2

Peter Railton, U. of Michigan, Oct 15-16

Christopher Hom, Texas Tech, Oct 30

Darren Hudson Hick, Texas Tech, Nov 13

David Miguel Gray, Texas Tech, Dec 4

Check the link below for times and locations:

http://www.depts.ttu.edu/philosophy/events/talksf09.php

Philosophy Grad Conference in Metaethics

The Texas Tech Philosophy Third Annual Graduate Student Conference on metaethics kicks off this Friday, April 3.  Graduate students from around the country will be presenting papers, and many of our own graduate students will be commenting.  The keynote speaker will be Geoffrey Sayre-McCord from UNC-Chapel Hill.  You can access Prof. Sayre-McCord's website here:

http://philosophy.unc.edu/smccord.htm

And the conference schedule here:

http://www.philosophy.ttu.edu/dept/GradConf2009.doc

The Stanford Encyclopedia entry on metaethics would also be something useful to look at:

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/metaethics/

Hope to see you there!

Beginning Philosophy

Plato, Descartes, Locke, Hume, Reid, Armstrong... discuss away. And good luck on your first philosophy exam.

Active Learning?

If you were a student in my teaching seminar last semester, I know you are already shuddering at the post's title. Take a look at this NY Times article about active learning in intro physics classes at MIT (& other schools)--then take a look at the comments, especially the ones from MIT students who actually have to take those "TEAL" classes: they tell very different stories. Is the new style of classroom and teaching the way to go? How do we know what's the best teaching method?

http://community.nytimes.com/article/comments/2009/01/13/us/13physics.html?s=1&pg=2

Cha-ching

If you're looking into financial support for graduate school, check out the following link:

http://chronicle.com/stats/stipends/

Community College Jobs

If you are thinking about applying to community college jobs, read on:

http://chronicle.com/jobs/news/2008/10/2008101401c.htm

http://chronicle.com/jobs/news/2008/11/2008111701c.htm

Publishing in Graduate Journals

If you are thinking about publishing in a graduate journal, read on:

http://leiterreports.typepad.com/blog/2008/11/a-young-philoso.html

Which philosopher will you vote for this election season?

When you need a good break, you should watch each of the following philosophy campaign ads and then rock the vote: will it be for Nietzsche, Kant, or Kierkegaard? Personally I like Kierkegaard, but I don't know if he has enough experience. I need someone reliable and tested- someone I can set my watch to.

Ad for Nietzsche:


Ad for Kierkegaard:

NEH apparently clueless about philosophy

It was in complete disbelief that I read a colleague's email this morning with the announcement of a new NEH grant called "Enduring Questions: Pilot Course Grants (http://www.neh.gov/grants/guidelines/EnduringQuestions.html). Here's the program description:

The purpose of the Enduring Questions grant program is to encourage faculty and students at the undergraduate level to grapple with the most fundamental concerns of the humanities, and to join together in deep, sustained programs of reading in order to encounter influential thinkers over the centuries and into the present day.

Enduring questions are, to an overarching degree, pre-disciplinary. They are questions to which no discipline or field or profession can lay an exclusive claim. Enduring questions can be tackled by reflective individuals regardless of their chosen vocations, areas of expertise, or personal backgrounds. They are questions that have more than one plausible or interesting answer. They have long held interest for young people, and they allow for a special, intense dialogue across generations. The Enduring Questions grant program will help promote such dialogue in today’s undergraduate environment.

What are these enduring questions? The following list is neither prescriptive nor exhaustive but serves to illustrate.

• What is the good life?
• What is justice? Mercy?
• What is freedom? Happiness?
• What is friendship?
• What is dignity?
• Is there a human nature, and, if so, what is it?
• What are the limits of scientific understanding?
• What is the relationship between humans and the natural world?
• Is there such a thing as right and wrong? Good and evil?
• What is good government?
• What are the origins of the modern world?
• What is liberal education?

The Enduring Questions grant program will support new humanities courses at the undergraduate level: their design and preparation, teaching, and assessment, as well as ancillary activities that enhance faculty-student intellectual community. Courses may be taught by faculty from any department or discipline in the humanities or by faculty outside the humanities (e.g., astronomy, biology, economics, law, mathematics, medicine, psychology), provided humanities sources are central to the course.

NEH Enduring Questions courses:

• must give evidence of “pre-disciplinary” character, encouraging reflection on human experience and avoiding extensive specialization;
• must focus on an explicitly stated question or questions, pursued in a disciplined and deliberate manner;
• must draw on significant readings from prior to the twentieth century and may draw on later works, with a preference for reading books in their entirety or near entirety;
• may draw on artworks (e.g., music, plays, sculpture);
• must reflect intellectual pluralism, anticipating more than one plausible or interesting answer to the question(s) at hand;
• must be open to all students regardless of major or concentration;
• may not be offered for graduate credit; and
• require a letter of institutional support from the president, provost, dean, program chair, or department chair, attesting to the course being new and committing to offering the course at least twice.

My question is: Has anyone at the National Endowment for Humanities ever heard of introductory philosophy courses? This is not only outrageous in the ignorance it shows about philosophy--the mother discipline of all humanities, and sciences--and about what is going on at universities around the country, it is also offensive to the discipline of philosophy. If I were on the board of the NEH, I would be utterly embarrassed.