Before I drop the 2011 Year in Pop Culture, which will be the last of my year-end lists, I thought I’d do one recounting my own year. 2011 began for me with a bit of a rough transition, as I was returning from a semester-long sabbatical, but things eventually smoothed out and stayed running smoothly…
Read MoreGOP Presidential candidate and Texas Governor Rick Perry has released a campaign ad called “Strong,” in which he bemoans the fact that “gays can serve openly in the military but our kids can’t openly celebrate Christmas or pray in schools.” (For the record, kids can pray in schools. They can even do so “openly.” It’s…
Read MoreRecently, I saw that a philosopher friend of mine (Jeffrey Bernstein) posted the following as his status update on Facebook: “For an explanation of (1) why Occupy Wall Street doesn’t need a positive political program and (2) why the Occupy Movement exceeds the designations of Democrats and Republicans, read the first paragraph of Aristotle’s Metaphysics.”…
Read MoreFor those of you fortunate enough not to know what a “Philosophy Smoker” is, let me begin by saying that it has nothing to do with either “smoking” or “Philosophy.” “Philosophy Smoker” is, rather, the informal term used to reference end-of-the-day receptions held at professional Philosophy conferences. Generally speaking, Philosophy Smokers are garden-variety academic conference…
Read MoreIt’s been too, too long since I’ve posted here. Two whole months, in fact. [Insert standard excuse about being too busy.] My absence was particularly egregious this time, since my last posts, back in September, left a few issues hanging. (Just as an aside, it’s hard for me to believe that the last time I…
Read MoreOkay, if you haven’t read Part One of this series, you should go back and do so. Otherwise, the following won’t make much sense. If you have read Part One, and if you don’t already have a dog in this fight, you may be wondering: what exactly is the big deal here? So what, two…
Read MoreNow that things have quieted down a bit, and in response to readers who’ve been asking me to do this for a while, I’ve decided to offer a few reflections on the recent (and very public) kerfuffle between Brian Leiter and Linda Alcoff. I expect that most of you who aren’t professional philosophers don’t have…
Read MoreI’m beginning a new Challenge today, called 31 Days in Seuss. I’ll be taking some element of my life each day and describing it in verse like the children’s author Dr. Seuss. I have to admit that I’m not entirely confident I’m going to be able to do this for the whole month of July,…
Read MoreSeveral years ago, when I was still at Penn State, I learned of Phillip McReynolds’ film project on American Philosopher (or philosophers in America) through my dissertation advisor (and McReynolds’ wife), Shannon Sullivan. Since then, I’ve seen a few segments of it appear here and there on the internet, but I had yet to see…
Read MoreEvery time I try to put away my obsession with the uncanny valley, some new robot or robot-story invades my world and reanimates that fascination all over again. Regular readers of this blog will know that I first became interested in robotocist Masahiro Mori’s theory of the uncanny valley back in October of 2010, when…
Read More
Recent Comments