Top News, Articles, and Interviews in Philosophy

Quebec Government Deplatforms Daniel Weinstock (updated)

24. February 2020 Philosophy News News
Daniel Weinstock, a philosopher on the Faculty of Law at McGill University and director of the McGill Institute for Health and Social Policy, was disinvited by the Quebec government from speaking at a meeting about reforming the mandatory ethics and religious culture course taught in the province’s schools. Professor Weinstock was falsely described earlier this week in a Le Journal de Montreal column by writer Richard Martineau as having expressed support for a type of “symbolic” form of “female circumcision.” Martineau criticized the Quebec government for inviting Weinstock to speak at the meeting. Shortly after the column’s publication, Quebec’s education minister, Jean-François Roberge, cancelled Weinstock’s appearance at the meeting. Weinstock has not supported female circumcision, not even in its “Seattle Compromise” form. He told CTV: “I think that no compromise should be made with female genital cutting at all.” Martineau apparently mistook Weinstock’s description of a position regarding female circumcision for advocacy of it. Yesterday, the columinst, Martineau, admitted that is column was inaccurate, but refused to apologize, according to CTV. Despite being made aware of the inaccuracy, education minister Roberge refused to reinstate Weinstock’s invitation to speak at the meeting, which is taking place today. UPDATE (2/24/20): Roberge apologizes to Weinstock. The post Quebec [More]
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Recognizing Graduate Student Service Work Beyond Compensation (guest post by Angela Sun et al)

24. February 2020 Philosophy News News
The following is a guest post* by  Angela Sun (Michigan), Carolina Flores (Rutgers), Milana Kostic (UCSD), Elise Woodard (Michigan), and Jingyi Wu (UC Irvine), graduate students in philosophy who comprise the organizing team of Minorities and Philosophy (MAP). It follows up on a previous guest post by MAP, “Compensate Graduate Students for Service Work.” A survey run by Minorities and Philosophy (MAP) last year found that graduate students from marginalized backgrounds shoulder a disproportionate burden of service work in their departments. The lopsided distribution of service work at the graduate student level prefigures what we find at the faculty level, which has been shown to have damaging effects on research and publication records. In order to make the profession more inclusive, it is therefore imperative to recognize, compensate, and more fairly distribute service work. What should we do now? In our initial report, we offered several suggestions to help give graduate student service work the recognition it deserves. But following our Group Session on the recognition of service work at the Eastern APA, we want to start a conversation about five under-discussed issues regarding service work recognition, and offer further suggestions for departments — and the profession at large — to better recognize service work. 1. Providing professional (in addition to monetary) compensation for service work In discussions about compensating graduate student [More]
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The Exchange of Words: Speech, Testimony, and Intersubjectivity

24. February 2020 Philosophy News News
2020.02.19 : View this Review Online | View Recent NDPR Reviews Richard Moran, The Exchange of Words: Speech, Testimony, and Intersubjectivity, Oxford University Press, 2018, 233pp., $105.00 (hbk), ISBN 9780190873325. Reviewed by Peter J. Graham, University of California, Riverside Sang-Hee just told me the store closes early tonight. I believe her and adjust my plans accordingly. What is it for her to tell me that? And what is it for me to believe her when she does? Furthermore, why do I acquire a good, sufficient reason to believe that the store closes early from believing Sang-Hee? Why do we learn -- acquire knowledge -- from believing what someone tells us? Richard Moran's book addresses these questions. Moran's book has seven chapters, three previously published, including his well-known essay "Getting Told and Being Believed." In the preface, Moran says when incorporating these three that he has "tried to keep changes to a minimum while at the same time eliminating repetition across... Read [More]
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Better late than never …

23. February 2020 Philosophy News News
So here we are: four hundred and twenty pages of logical goodness, written with insight, clarity, zest, and wit, making it an unmissable read for students new and old. Well, that’s the theory …. Kind friends and relations have said … Continue reading → The post Better late than never … appeared first on Logic [More]
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Raving on to the finish line …

22. February 2020 Philosophy News News
The end is in sight for writing IFL2 (though through the great kindness of strangers, and some very last minute sets of very useful comments) I’m still editing up to the wire. I just came across this in Elizabeth Bowen’s novel The … Continue reading → The post Raving on to the finish line … appeared first on Logic [More]
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The Pavel Haas Quartet — at Wigmore Hall

22. February 2020 Philosophy News News
 The Pavel Haas Quartet glimpsed rehearsing the Shostakovich Quintet for their Wigmore Hall concert on Wednesday with the terrific Boris Giltburg. The evening performance was wonderful, the best I’ve heard that piece played, full of ambiguities, tensions, life and … Continue reading → The post The Pavel Haas Quartet — at Wigmore Hall appeared first on Logic [More]
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Lessons in Love: A Manifesto for better sex education

21. February 2020 Philosophy News News
The huge success of the Netflix teen drama series, Sex Education, is partly fuelled by the poor quality of sex ed lessons in schools. Young people are fed up with prudish, vague and incomplete information from their teachers - and parents. So they are turning to the often explicit TV series to get answers.During my recent school talks on human rights, more than half the pupils said they had watched Sex Education, mostly because their classes about sex were, in their words, “crap, boring and out-of-touch.” Little wonder that millions of young people are entering adulthood emotionally and sexually ill-prepared. Too many subsequently endure disordered relationships, ranging from unfulfilling to outright abusive.The result? Much unhappiness - and sometimes mental and physical ill-health.A lot of relationship and sex education (RSE) still concentrates on the biological facts of reproduction and on using a condom to prevent HIV. Relatively little teaching is actually about sex – or feelings [More]
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Quebec Government Deplatforms Daniel Weinstock

21. February 2020 Philosophy News News
Daniel Weinstock, a philosopher on the Faculty of Law at McGill University and director of the McGill Institute for Health and Social Policy, was disinvited by the Quebec government from speaking at a meeting about reforming the mandatory ethics and religious culture course taught in the province’s schools. Professor Weinstock was falsely described earlier this week in a Le Journal de Montreal column by writer Richard Martineau as having expressed support for a type of “symbolic” form of “female circumcision.” Martineau criticized the Quebec government for inviting Weinstock to speak at the meeting. Shortly after the column’s publication, Quebec’s education minister, Jean-François Roberge, cancelled Weinstock’s appearance at the meeting. Weinstock has not supported female circumcision, not even in its “Seattle Compromise” form. He told CTV: “I think that no compromise should be made with female genital cutting at all.” Martineau apparently mistook Weinstock’s description of a position regarding female circumcision for advocacy of it. Yesterday, the columinst, Martineau, admitted that is column was inaccurate, but refused to apologize, according to CTV. Despite being made aware of the inaccuracy, education minister Roberge refused to reinstate Weinstock’s invitation to speak at the meeting, which is taking place today. The post Quebec Government Deplatforms Daniel Weinstock appeared first on [More]
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