Top News, Articles, and Interviews in Philosophy

Companions in Guilt: Arguments in Metaethics

13. September 2021 Philosophy News News
2021.09.03 : View this Review Online | View Recent NDPR Reviews Christopher Cowie and Richard Rowland (eds.), Companions in Guilt: Arguments in Metaethics, Routledge, 2020, 232pp., $160.00 (hbk), ISBN 9781138318335. Reviewed by Luke Elson, University of Reading The Moral Error Theory says that no positive moral claims (such as ‘murder is wrong’) are true. The most common argument for the theory is that the truth of such claims would involve the existence of objectionably ‘queer’ irreducibly normative or motivating properties (such as wrongness). In Mackie’s words, the queerness point is that it’s ‘in the end less paradoxical’ to reject the truth of positive moral claims than to accept their objectionable implications (1972: 42). Rather than directly arguing that (1) morality doesn’t really have the claimed implications, or (2) the implications are not so objectionable after all, ‘companions in guilt’ arguments (CGAs) purport to show that some other area of discourse also has those implications. CGAs do not offer... Read [More]
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Art Scents: Exploring the Aesthetics of Smell and the Olfactory Arts

13. September 2021 Philosophy News News
2021.09.02 : View this Review Online | View Recent NDPR Reviews Larry Shiner, Art Scents: Exploring the Aesthetics of Smell and the Olfactory Arts, Oxford University Press, 2020, 355pp., $78.00 (hbk), ISBN 9780190089818. Reviewed by Benjamin D. Young, University of Nevada, Reno Larry Shiner's book is a great exploratory sniff of the aesthetics of smell and the myriad types of odorific arts. Shiner does a fantastic job of introducing those unfamiliar with the subject matter to the use of smells as artwork, as well as their importance within aesthetic experiences across history and cultures. The book offers a pluralist conception of art that makes room for worldwide olfactory aesthetics, drawing on numerous historical and contemporary examples of scent arts, introductory olfactory neuroscience, and careful philosophical analysis with easy-to-follow arguments. The central moves in the core arguments are carefully laid out at the outset and elaborated throughout the book, ensuring the reader is not lost in this cross-disciplinary tome. An overview of Shiner's argument... Read [More]
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Nietzsche’s Life and Works

10. September 2021 Philosophy News News
[Revised entry by Robert Wicks on September 10, 2021. Changes to: Main text, Bibliography] Friedrich Nietzsche (1844 - 1900) was a German philosopher of the late 19th century who challenged the foundations of Christianity and traditional morality. He was interested in the enhancement of individual and cultural health, and believed in life, creativity, power, and down-to-earth realities, rather than those situated in a world beyond. Central to his philosophy is the idea of "life-affirmation," which involves an honest questioning of all doctrines that drain life's expansive energies, [More]
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Associate Professor - Political Philosophy

10. September 2021 Philosophy News News
Job List:  Americas Name of institution:  University of Toronto, Scarborough Town:  Toronto Country:  Canada Job Description:  The Department of Philosophy at the University of Toronto Scarborough (UTSC) invites applications for a full-time tenure stream position in the area of Political Philosophy. The appointment will be at the rank of Associate Professor, with an expected start date of July 1, 2022, or shortly [More]
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RWB: Running with Black

10. September 2021 Philosophy News News
One year in grad school I was training for the Columbus Marathon with fellow student and runner Tony. I am white, Tony is black. While doing a training run on the course, a police car pulled up behind us and flashed its lights. We stopped running and turned to face the officer. We had been [More]
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