Saul Kripke resigned yesterday from his position as Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the CUNY Graduate Center. While similar allegations have been circulating in unpublished form for years, a team of philosophers from Oxford University has just released a damning report claiming that they were systematically unable to reproduce the results of thought experiments reported by Kripke in his groundbreaking Naming and Necessity. The team, led by Timothy Williamson, first became suspicious of Naming and Necessity after preliminary results raised questions about related work by Hilary Putnam.
Day: February 25, 2012
Distinguished Woman Philosopher: Call for Nominations
The Society for Women in Philosophy kindly asks for nominations for the Distinguished Woman Philosopher of 2012.
Nominations deadline: March 31st, 2012.
Each year the Society for Women in Philosophy comes together to honor a woman philosopher whose contributions to the support of women in philosophy and to philosophy itself are outstanding and merit special recognition. A panel and reception celebrating the honoree’s accomplishments will be organized for the Eastern Division meeting of the American Philosophical Association, Dec. 27-30, 2012.
Nominees do not need to work or live in the United States to qualify.
Nominations should include: (1) a copy of the nominee’s curriculum vita, (2) a minimum of two supporting letters, by SWIP members in good standing, which summarize the nominee’s contributions to philosophy and support of women in philosophy. At least two-thirds of letter writers for any nomination must be members of a division of the society for women in philosophy, in good standing. To join or renew membership see links on: http://www.savannahstate.edu/eswip/
Please e-mail all nominations to Maeve O’Donovan, ESWIP Executive Secretary, modonovan AT ndm.edu, no later than Thursday, March 31, 2012
Not true: Job-seekers required to work as prostitutes
Many thanks to the readers who let me know this wasn’t true. Embarrassing that I didn’t realise it, but then how implausible is it really when in the UK disabled people may soon be required to work for free in order to receive disability benefits? And jobseekers have already been required to work for free at Tesco? It’s getting harder and harder to tell reality from hoax these days. Still, I do apologise.
A 25-year-old waitress who turned down a job providing “sexual services” at a brothel in Berlin faces possible cuts to her unemployment benefit under laws introduced this year.
Prostitution was legalised in Germany just over two years ago and brothel owners – who must pay tax and employee health insurance – were granted access to official databases of jobseekers.
For more, go here.
Early Modern Mentoring Workshop
The Hume Society is pleased to announce a mentoring workshop for early career women in Hume studies or related areas of early modern philosophy. The workshop will be held at the Hotel Alma, the conference hotel for this year’s International Hume Conference in Calgary on the afternoon of July 17th (the day before the conference begins). The workshop will have two components: a writing workshop with papers circulated in advance, and a practical session devoted to strategies for securing and retaining employment in academia. Work for the writing workshop should be a complete paper (something you are preparing for publication or a conference) or chapter (book or dissertation). Senior women Hume scholars will facilitate both sessions. The workshop is open to women members of the Hume Society or women registrants for the Hume Conference. If you are interested in participating, please contact Jacqueline Taylor (jtaylor2 AT usfca.edu) by March 20th, 2012, so that appropriate meeting room space can be reserved. If you plan to submit work for the writing workshop, paper/chapter drafts should be sent to Jacqueline Taylor by June 15th, 2012. Papers will be pre-circulated to all participants, mentors and early career women scholars. Further information on the 2012 Hume conference in Calgary can be accessed on the Society’s homepage here.
Feminist Philosophers 