Leigh M. Johnson

The Leiter/PGR Archive Is Now Closed (and, A Note from Your Archivist)

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Leiter, PGR, Philosophy, Politics, Race and Racism, RMWMTMBM Archive, SPEP, Women and Gender Issues 0 Comments

This has been a strange month for academic Philosophy, for professional philosophers and, as a more or less direct consequence, for this blog.  A little less than four weeks ago, on September 24, I began collecting various posts, essays and articles related to what I then anticipated was going to be, at the very least,…

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CFT (Call For Tweeters) #SPEP14

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Philosophy, Politics, RMWMTMBM Archive, SPEP 0 Comments

Last year’s meeting of the Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy (SPEP) was the first such conference, as far as I’m aware, that was live-tweeted by a significant-enough number of participants to be noteworthy.  I was one of the SPEP Twitterati last year in Eugene, and I wrote a post about that experience after I…

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The Ferguson Lesson: Another Way To “Take Up Arms”

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson #BlackLivesMatter, Codifying Civility and Collegiality, Democracy, Ferguson, Philosophy, Politics, Race and Racism, RMWMTMBM Archive, Weak Humanism 0 Comments

As someone who has spent the better part of her career researching, analyzing and teaching not only about the structure and nature of oppressive power regimes, but also better and worse ways to resist or transform such regimes, I’ve nevertheless been unable to settle in my own mind, to my own satisfaction, my position with…

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Missing: An Image of “The Worker” Today

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson 99%, Marx, Philosophy, Politics, RMWMTMBM Archive 0 Comments

This semester I have the very good fortune of teaching a graduate course in the History of Theory and Criticism at Memphis College of Art. (Check out my syllabus here and the class blog here.) For their final projects, my students are required to employ one of the theories we studied during the semester to present a…

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Trolleys, Fat Men and Drones

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Open Source Pedagogy, Philosophy, Politics, RMWMTMBM Archive, Teaching 0 Comments

Just a random”Philosophy pedagogy” insight today: I’m teaching three sections of a course entitled “Contemporary Moral Problems” at Christian Brothers University this term, which is more or less CBU’s version of  “Intro to Ethics.”  As I’ve done in all of my past Ethics courses, I spend the second day of class leading students through a…

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#SPEP14 Tweeter/Absentee “Buddy System”

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Digital Humanities, Philosophy, RMWMTMBM Archive, SPEP 0 Comments

Daniel Brunson (@danieljbrunson) asked me if I could figure out a way to connect (1) people who won’t be attending #SPEP14 but who are interested in hearing specific panels and (2) Tweeters who will be live-tweeting those same panels. I think something like a digital-philosophical “buddy system” is a great idea, especially for those unfortunate…

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Ferguson Syllabus for Philosophers

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson #BlackLivesMatter, Codifying Civility and Collegiality, Ferguson, Open Source Pedagogy, Philosophy, Politics, Race and Racism, RMWMTMBM Archive, Teaching 0 Comments

Many of you have probably seen the excellent “Ferguson Syllabus” created by Sociologists for Justice, which has been circulated widely over the last several days and which provides a collection of research articles used to inform the arguments and positions represented in their Statement on Ferguson.  I strongly encourage you to keep circulating that document, and…

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Philosophy Qua Frenemy

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Memphis on the Downbeat, RMWMTMBM Archive, Women and Gender Issues 0 Comments

The earth revolves around the sun. Not everyone on talent shows has talent.  The square root of four is two. Your mom did it with your dad. Also, it’s not easy being a woman in Philosophy. I won’t bother to link to the series of scandals that have beset the discipline of Philosophy over the…

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Democracy Must Always Be Severe

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Bon Mots, Codifying Civility and Collegiality, Democracy, Philosophy, Politics, RMWMTMBM Archive 0 Comments

“Democracy must always be severe. Without either desire or dread of paradox, we may go even further. Democracy must always be unpopular. It is a religion, and the essence of a religion is that it constrains. Like every other religion, it asks men to do what they cannot do; to think steadily about the important…

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“Somehow Philosophy Got Left Behind”

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Codifying Civility and Collegiality, Philosophy, Race and Racism, RMWMTMBM Archive, Women and Gender Issues 0 Comments

There’s a really great essay by Eugene Sun Park entitled “Why I Left Academia: Philosophy’s Homogeneity Needs Rethinking”  that appeared yesterday on HIPPO Reads.  Stop whatever you’re doing and go read it now. I’ve posted a fair bit of material on this blog addressing the racial and gender disparity in professional Philosophy, which remains truly embarrassing, but…

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