UPDATE: Sep. 23 — The Phylo site now has 40 job ads, and it’s going strong! What a time to be alive.
Exciting, yes? Yes.
Written to and posted on The Philosophy Smoker, where the nuances are discussed in more satisfying detail:
Chris Sula and I have revamped the Phylo site to create an actual jobs board to (ahem) supplement the JFP. The URL is the same as the old wiki: http://phylo.info/jobs. As of today, we’ll start accepting job postings in that space from departmental representatives only.
Our friends over at NewAPPS have put up an interesting and eye-opening post about the gender balance in many popular philosophy book series. Go join the discussion!
Many of you may be aware of the case of Troy Davis. He has been on death-row for twenty years, convicted of murdering a police officer. Davis has always maintained his innocence. There is no physical evidence linking him to the crime. Of nine witnesses for the prosecution, seven have changed or recanted their initial testimonies in sworn affidavits. Some claim they were coerced by the police ahead of Davis’ trial. Meanwhile, ten people have pointed to one of the remaining witnesses as the killer. In spite of this, the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles have refused to grant Davis clemency. He is due to be executed tomorrow. If you would like to join the Amnesty campaign to try and reverse this decision, go here.
Not only does God hate fags, he also hates the Foo Fighters – according to Fred Phelps and his extended family of haters, otherwise known as the Westboro Baptist Church.* Placards in hand, they recently turned up to picket a Foo Fighters’ gig in Kansas, on the grounds that the band were teaching ‘fornication, adultery, idolatry, and fags’. In response, the Foo fighters took to the back of a pick-up truck and serenaded the Phelps crew with a song extolling the virtues of gay sex and hot man-muffins (whatever those might be). You can read more here.
*Has no connections with the Baptist Church.
Author Junji Hotta has blessed the world with “Tsundere, Heidegger, and Me”, a tour de force of European philosophy… in a world where all the philosophers are self-conscious anime girls. The books went on sale September 14.
The table of contents includes: “Chapter 1, Descartes: proving the existence of God”; “Chapter 2, Spinoza: man is the greatest for man”, “Chapter 3, Berkeley and Hume: to exist is to be aware”, “Chapter 4, Kant: the starry heaven above me and morality within me”, “Chapter 5, Hegel: the world is an infinite progression towards wisdom”, “Chapter 6, Nietzsche: God is dead, but nothing has changed”, “Chapter 7, Heidegger: without a world, we do not exist, without us, the world does not exist, we are not alone”.
Part of me, of course, is sceptical about the quality of the philosophy this publication might contain. Another part of me thinks it might be fab for children to see philosophical thoughts coming out of the mouths of “girlie girls”. (Assuming this is meant for children. I’m never quite clear on that point, wrt anime.) …but…and don’t get me wrong, I’m no puritan, and no prude; teens are sexual creatures. but does Kant really need the big pendulous breasts? And don’t get me started on Spinoza…
Read more here.
to planned cuts to legal aid, which they worry will hurt women.
Senior backbench Conservative MPs are concerned about the government’s changes to legal aid, Huffington Post UK can reveal.
As the government prepares to cut £350m from the legal aid budget, Conservative MP Anna Soubry has said she and some backbench colleagues are concerned about how this will affect women.
“We’re not happy about the changes in legal aid… we’re fearful they will affect women who are separating from husbands. We’ve identified that as a problem.”
The coalition’s cuts to legal aid mean that in civil law cases, those going through divorce will no longer be entitled to help from the state.
Feminist Philosophers 