Though there is lots of derailing, in the comment thread on the post linked below there’s some interesting discussion of intelligence, trash-talking, sports, norms of etiquette, and race.
Day: January 22, 2014
Really top men investigate the mind
I note the list of the really top men ends with a link that could conceivably reveal a top woman.
The Foundations of MindThursday, March 6 & Friday, March 7, 2014 International House • University of California at Berkeley
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Confirmed plenary speakers / panelists include: |
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| Join the world’s leading cognitive scientists and consciousness scholars for this unique event as mind and consciousness are explored. The perspectives taken range from why the really hard problems like machine vision and translation have not yet been solved to whether a suitably reconstructed notion of consciousness that takes quantum mechanics into account can help save the environment.
Please send inquiries to Proposed paper/poster presenters should send a 500-word abstract
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“Am I dead?”
I hope the quote marks manage to suggest the “I” does not necessarily refer to me!
A recent movie reminded me of a literary trope about death. The actor is often first shown in some very dangerous or threatening situation. In the next scene, the character is back in a familiar setting. Still, no one seems to notice, even people very close to them. Then they try to speak to someone, but no one hears and so no one replies. Someone in the scene might get the sense that there’s something unusual in the environment, perhaps an odd wind or lowering of temperature, but the character’s presence is not understood.
How many times, I wondered, have I experienced this scene in philosophy? It used, I think, to happen a great deal, when one didn’t get called on however often one’s hand went up in a question period until finally at the end one could say something and it was completely misunderstood and dismissed. I might count the two experiences I’ve had recently of having my comments responded to at a conference by someone who didn’t recognize that I actually argued for the counter-claims I had made. I could put in here a conviction I recently discovered was shared in a group a people; namely, nothing I did benefited my department or my college. The latter might have at least asked for my opinion, if I existed.
Interestingly, the too often reported experience of having one’s comment in a question period attributed to someone else certainly fits the literary trope. Here is a scene in which the character says something and it is heard, but everyone thinks it came from someone else who is visible to them.
I have also had much more perfect instances of the trope, one recent one taking the prize, though without the danger, unless one counts publishing as a woman in philosophy dangerous.
Enough about me! What about you?
Feminist Philosophers 