Top News, Articles, and Interviews in Philosophy

Introducing SHAPE: Q&A with Sophie Goldsworthy and Julia Black (part one)

26. February 2021 Philosophy News News
OUP is excited to support the newly created SHAPE initiative—Social Sciences, Humanities, and the Arts for People and the Economy. SHAPE has been coined to enable us to clearly communicate the value that these disciplines bring to not only enriching the world in which we live, but also enhancing our understanding of it. In the first instalment this two-part Q&A, we spoke to Sophie Goldsworthy, Editorial and Content Strategy Director here at OUP, and Professor Julia Black CBE FCA, Strategic Director of Innovation and Professor of Law at the London School of Economics and Political Science, and President-elect of the British Academy, to find out more about SHAPE and what it means to them. The post Introducing SHAPE: Q&A with Sophie Goldsworthy and Julia Black (part one) appeared first on OUPblog.        Related StoriesJohn Rawls: an ideal theorist for nonideal times?Tips for adapting the elementary music curriculum to online teachingThe ruins of the post-Covid city—and the essential task of [More]
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John Rawls: an ideal theorist for nonideal times?

21. February 2021 Philosophy News News
John Rawls's "A Theory of Justice" was published fifty years ago. What is the connection between Rawls’s abstract theorizing about justice and work aiming to address real-world injustices? The post John Rawls: an ideal theorist for nonideal times? appeared first on OUPblog.        Related StoriesTips for adapting the elementary music curriculum to online teachingFive themes in Asian Shakespeare adaptationsWhich literary heroine are you? [More]
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What is “representation” in the human brain and AI systems?

19. January 2021 Philosophy News News
Neuroscience is beginning to make sense of what’s going on inside the human brain—a seemingly inscrutable organ of even great complexity. We can now see what some patterns of activity are, and we have an inkling of what they are doing, of how they track the environment, and subserve behaviour. The post What is “representation” in the human brain and AI systems? appeared first on OUPblog.         Related StoriesPlaying to lose: transhumanism, autonomy, and liberal democracy [long read]Essenes in Judaean Society: the sectarians of the Dead Sea ScrollsUnderstanding black holes: young star clusters filling up [More]
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Playing to lose: transhumanism, autonomy, and liberal democracy [long read]

9. January 2021 Philosophy News News
[long read] Transhumanists insist that their vision of the “radical” bioenhancement of human capacities is light-years removed from prior eugenics, which was state managed. This reassuring, empowering picture is undercut by transhumanists’ own arguments, which offer incompatible pictures of personal autonomy in relation to decisions about the use of bioenhancement technologies. The post Playing to lose: transhumanism, autonomy, and liberal democracy [long read] appeared first on OUPblog.         Related StoriesImpressionism’s sibling rivalryWas the dog-demon of Ephesus a werewolf?The economic and environmental case for electric [More]
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Girls, women, and intellectual empowerment

2. November 2020 Philosophy News News
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s nickname in law school was “Bitch.” Senator Elizabeth Warren was sanctioned by her GOP colleagues when “nevertheless, she persisted” in her questioning of soon-to-be Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Senator Kamala Harris reminded Vice President Mike Pence “I am speaking, I am speaking,” as he attempted to interrupt and speak over her in a recent vice presidential debate. CNN found it more important to report that two women won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry than to report the names of the women who won it. Though we may wish to think it otherwise, women and girls are still routinely silenced and excluded from positions of power, expertise, leadership, and full participation in the public sphere. The post Girls, women, and intellectual empowerment appeared first on OUPblog.         Related StoriesScientism, the coronavirus, and the death of the humanitiesSeven books for philosophical perspectives on politics [reading list]President Trump and the war against American [More]
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Seven books for philosophical perspectives on politics [reading list]

31. October 2020 Philosophy News News
2020 has come to be defined by widespread human tragedy, economic uncertainty, and increased public discourse surrounding how to address systemic racism. With such important issues at stake, political leadership has been under enormous scrutiny. As the US election approaches, we’re featuring a selection of important books exploring politics from different philosophical perspectives, ranging from interrogating the moral duty to vote, to how grandstanding impacts public discourse. The post Seven books for philosophical perspectives on politics [reading list] appeared first on OUPblog.         Related StoriesPresident Trump and the war against American ChristianityThe politics of punk in the era of TrumpScientism, the coronavirus, and the death of the [More]
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Scientism, the coronavirus, and the death of the humanities

30. October 2020 Philosophy News News
The cause of the humanities’ current crisis is far older than critics of postmodern relativism allow—and more baked into the heart of the modern American university. In fact, one must look back to very creation of the American universities in the late nineteenth century to see why their triumph precipitated the marginalization of the modern humanities. The scientizing of our higher education amounts to the root of the problem, and without a deep-seated revolt against this process, the humanities will continue to wither. The post Scientism, the coronavirus, and the death of the humanities appeared first on OUPblog.         Related StoriesThe politics of punk in the era of TrumpIs it rational to condemn an artwork for an artist’s personal immorality?Five things you didn’t know about [More]
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The politics of punk in the era of Trump

24. October 2020 Philosophy News News
Trump is Punk! It’s a hashtag. It’s a slogan on t-shirts and trucker hats. It’s a click-bait headline. Milo Yiannopoulos, a former Breitbart editor, may have started this buzz with his speech (delivered in drag) at Louisiana State University on 22 September 2016, in which he claimed that “being a Donald Trump supporter is the new punk” because it would “piss off your teachers, piss off your parents, piss off your friends.” Then in October, The Atlantic published “Donald Trump, Sex Pistol: The Punk Rock Appeal of the GOP Nominee,” and after the election, the New York Post ran an opinion piece with the headline “Trump is the Punk-Rock President America Deserves” (9 November 2016). Despite social media protestations, “punk” became shorthand for Trump’s rule-breaking, anti-establishment campaign filled with unapologetic vulgarity and appeals to white male grievance. The post The politics of punk in the era of Trump appeared first on OUPblog.         Related StoriesThe poetics and politics of rap music in the UKThey may not be pros—but they’re recording artists nowIs it rational to condemn an artwork for an artist’s personal [More]
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Why do humans have property?

10. October 2020 Philosophy News News
Property is a rather old subject. We’ve been writing about it since at least the time of the Sumerian tablets, in part, because after four and a half millennia we still haven’t settled on what property is, who has it, how we get it, or even what it’s for. The post Why do humans have property? appeared first on OUPblog.         Related StoriesUS journalism’s complicity in democratic backslidingIs it rational to condemn an artwork for an artist’s personal immorality?Six leadership practices that create an agile [More]
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