In praise of the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

There is a fine article at Quartz by Nikhil Sonnad on the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy ('SEP').

SEP is an amazing resource. I use it in both my teaching and research. I'm glad to see that it's receiving some praise outside of the academic philosophy community.

Some developments within the academic philosophy community

I thought that I would start the year with a rather lazy post (in keeping with my akratic nature).

First, the American Philosophical Association now has a blog.  I’ve added it to the blog roll at the bottom of the page.

Second, the number of high quality, free, online philosophy journals seems to be growing every year.  Recently, Prof. Kate Norlock put together a list of these journals.  I encourage all professional philosophers and students to support these journals, as they facilitate the dissemination of research and new ideas far more democratically and effectively than the current model of print publications.  (One of my articles has been published in one of these excellent online journals, the Journal of Ethics and Social Philosophy.  I plan to submit more papers to such journals in the future.)

Happy 2016!

New department website

I mentioned a few weeks ago that my department was constructing a new website.  Well, it's now active, and I think that it looks pretty good (even the part for which I was partially responsible).  I previously did not think that such a change was necessary, but I must concede that the new site definitely is an improvement from the earlier one.

APA statement on the erosion of tenure within the University of Wisconsin system

Kudos to the Board of Officers of the American Philosophical Association for its criticism of the recent (entirely spiteful and politically-motivated) undermining of tenure by the Wisconsin State Senate, Assembly, and Governor:

Tenure is the most important safeguard of academic freedom, and academic freedom is a bedrock principle of philosophical inquiry. The Board of Officers of the American Philosophical Association deplores the assault on academic freedom in Wisconsin, whether it affects the flagship University of Wisconsin-Madison or the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee or any other universities in the UW System, and we deplore the precedent it sets. We call on legislators, regents and other campus administrators to work towards restoring recognized standards of tenure in Wisconsin.

Read the full statement here.

What has been happening in Wisconsin since Scott Walker's election as Governor and the seizure of control of the State Assembly and Senate by the Republican Party in 2010 -- especially, from my perspective as a professor, the evisceration of a once-excellent public university system -- has been incredibly depressing. Morale at the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee, where I teach, is at an all-time low. I'm dreading returning to Milwaukee next week...