Was Jane Austen a Moral Philosopher?

Was Jane Austen a moral philosopher? Thomas Rodham thinks so. 

Jane Austen (1775-1817) wrote delicious romantic comedies about middle-class girls looking for good husbands among the landed gentry of Regency England. But if that were all there was to it we wouldn’t take her any more seriously now than the genre hacks published by Mills and Boon. What’s so special about her novels that we are still reading them today? It’s not just their literary quality. Austen was also a brilliant moral philosopher who analysed and taught a virtue ethics for middle-class life that is surprisingly contemporary. Appreciating this can help us understand why she wrote the way she did, and how and why we should read her today.

Reading Jane Austen as a Moral Philosopher | Issue 94 | Philosophy Now

Ronald Dworkin

Ronald Dworkin

The legal philosopher and scholar Ronald Dworkin passed away at age 81. Dworkin made important contributions to the philosophy of law and political philosophy.

His theory of law as integrity, in which judges interpret the law in terms of consistent and communal moral principles, especially justice and fairness, is amongst the most influential contemporary theories about the nature of law. He advocates a "moral reading" of theUnited States Constitution,^[4] and an interpretivist approach to law and morality. (Wikipedia)

Writing a Philosophy Paper

Here is a Prezi offering some good advice on writing a philosophy paper.

Should You Kill The Fat Man?

Try this thought experiment at The Philosopher's Magazine:

This activity is a treatment of some of the issues thrown up by a thought experiment called 'The Trolley Problem', which was first outlined by the philosopher Philippa Foot, and then developed by Judith Jarvis Thomson and others. But before we start properly, we need to ask you four preliminary questions so we get a sense of the way that you think about morality.

Should You Kill The Fat Man?

Minority Report

The Film and Philosophy series will screen and discuss Steven Spielberg's Minority Report on Friday, Feb. 8, from 3:00-6:00 in the Digitorium. Please join us!

For more information about the film see:

• Philosophical Films
• Alexpeak.com
• Robert Barnes review
• IMDB

Philosophy Student Conference

Fifth Annual Philosophy Student Conference

This is the call for papers for the fifth annual Philosophy Student Conference at the University of Georgia. The conference will be held at Peabody Hall, University of Georgia, Room 115 on Saturday, March 30th. (phone(706)-542-2823). The deadline for submissions is March 9th. Following the deadline, all submissions will be reviewed and selections will be made, with notifications sent to all no later than Saturday, March 16th, 2012. It is the committee's intent to accommodate as many of the student papers submitted as possible. Papers will be followed with discussion.

Paper Submission Guidelines:

• The colloquium is open to any undergraduate student. Papers submitted can be on any topic of serious philosophical concern and are to be between a minimum of 1, 500 words and a maximum of 3,000 words.
• Please prepare paper for blind review. Include cover letter and provide no identifying information in paper.

Submissions should be sent by e-mail attachment (word document) to:
ugaphilosophyclub@gmail.com

Phi Sigma Tau-University of Georgia Chapter

An Interview with Philosopher Hilary Kornblith

3:AM: What made you become a philosopher? Has it turned out to be what you imagined? 

Hilary Kornblith

Hilary Kornblith: When I was in high school, I read a lot of existentialist novels and plays – Dostoevsky, Camus, Sartre – and I went on from there to read Nietzsche and some of Sartre’s essays and Being and Nothingness. When I got to college, I planned to be a math major, and, in addition to signing up for some math courses, I decided to take some philosophy. Quite by chance, I took a philosophy of science course in which the entire semester was devoted to reading Locke’s Essay. I was hooked. For the next few semesters, I took nothing but philosophy and math courses, and it wasn’t long before I realised that it was the philosophy that really moved me. I don’t know whether I can say that having a career in philosophy has turned out as I imagined, since in many ways I had little idea of what such a life would be like. But philosophy is still tremendously exciting to me, and the opportunity to think, and talk, and write about these issues has been wonderful.

On reflection: Interview with Hilary Kornblith » 3:AM Magazine

The Right to Bear Arms?

Do you have a right to own a gun? Take the poll below.

Be sure to attend our Philosophers' Cafe on February 22 when discuss Gun Violence

What Is Consciousness?

Philosopher Ned Block talks about consciousness and the "inner eye."



What Is Consciousness? Go to the Video! | Observations, Scientific American Blog Network

The Normal Well-Tempered Mind

Dan Dennett talks about "selfish neurons" and the well-tempered mind.

Dan Dennett

We're beginning to come to grips with the idea that your brain is not this well-organized hierarchical control system where everything is in order, a very dramatic vision of bureaucracy. In fact, it's much more like anarchy with some elements of democracy. Sometimes you can achieve stability and mutual aid and a sort of calm united front, and then everything is hunky-dory, but then it's always possible for things to get out of whack and for one alliance or another to gain control, and then you get obsessions and delusions and so forth. 

You begin to think about the normal well-tempered mind, in effect, the well-organized mind, as an achievement, not as the base state, something that is only achieved when all is going well, but still, in the general realm of humanity, most of us are pretty well put together most of the time. This gives a very different vision of what the architecture is like, and I'm just trying to get my head around how to think about that.

THE NORMAL WELL-TEMPERED MIND | Edge.org

Philosophy Movies

The Film and Philosophy series continues this spring the second Friday of each month at 3:00 in the Digitorium.

Female Philosophers Shake Up Their Field

Philosophy has been slow to change:

Most philosophy departments and conference meetings are still saturated with men. More than 80 percent of full-time faculty members in philosophy are male, compared with just 60 percent for the professoriate as a whole, according to 2003 data compiled by the U.S. Education Department, the latest available.

But it is changing.

Ms. Alcoff [President of the Eastern Division APA] and other women say that despite the overwhelmingly male nature of their discipline, faculty members picked her as president in part because those who vote in the association's elections are more likely than others to endorse change, and because the association's nominating committee assembled a diverse slate of presidential candidates, including a black male and two feminist philosophers. "One of my goals is to increase diversity," Amy Ferrer, the association's new executive director, told The Chronicle.

At NKU about 25% of our majors are female. And only one of our five tenured faculty is female. We have few opportunities to hire new faculty, but we can do more to attract more female majors and minors.  Any suggestions?

We will offer PHI 311 Philosophy of Woman in the fall. Look for it.

Female Philosophers Shake Up Their Field - Faculty - The Chronicle of Higher Education (Firewall)

Are Babies Born Good?

"New research offers surprising answers to the age-old question of where morality comes from"

Are Babies Born Good? | Science & Nature | Smithsonian Magazine

Knowledge, Innovation, and Integration (in Philosophy)

Here's an interview video we made with Integrative Studies last year. The topics included generating knowledge within philosophy, innovation and integration.

The best books of 2012 from The Philosophers Magazine

There are some good books on this list.

With 2012 safely behind us, we ask TPM’s reviewers to select a favourite book published last year (give or take a few months), taking into account our commitment to the twin virtues of philosophical rigour and readability. As a slightly late stocking stuffer, we offer you this rich, juicy and still mildly festive list of philosophy books which are both illuminating and enjoyable.

The best books of 2012 | The Philosophers Magazine

Embodied Cognition

Excerpt from  Louder Than Words: The New Science of How the Mind Makes Meaning by Benjamin K. Bergen.

Starting as early as the 1970s, some cognitive psychologists, philosophers, and linguists began to wonder whether meaning wasn’t something totally different from a language of thought [Call it Mentalese, whichtranslates words into actual concepts: a polar bear or speed limit, for instance]. They suggested that—instead of abstract symbols—meaning might really be something much more closely intertwined with our real experiences in the world, with the bodies that we have. As a self-conscious movement started to take form, it took on a name, embodiment, which started to stand for the idea that meaning might be something that isn’t distilled away from our bodily experiences but is instead tightly bound by them. For you, the word dog might have a deep and rich meaning that involves the ways you physically interact with dogs—how they look and smell and feel. But the meaning of polar bear will be totally different, because you likely don’t have those same experiences of direct interaction.

See more of this excerpt in Scientific American, Embodied Cognition: Our Inner Imaginings of the World Around Us Make Us Who We Are [Excerpt]

Free Philosophy Courses

You can find a number of interesting philosophy classes online for free. Perhaps there that would interest you.

55 Free Philosophy Courses | Open Culture

Skeptic Society

David Lewis on Philosophy

David Lewis

Our “intuitions” are simply opinions: our philosophical theories are the same. Some are commonsensical, some are sophisticated; some are particular; some general; some are more firmly held, some less. But they are all opinions, and a reasonable goal for a philosopher is to bring them into equilibrium. Our common task it to find out what equilibria there are that can withstand examination, but it remains for each of us to come to rest at one or another of them…
      Once the menu of well-worked out theories is before us, philosophy is a matter of opinion. Is that to say that there is no truth to be had? Or that the truth is of our own making, and different ones of us can make it differently? Not at all! If you say flatly that there is no god, and I say that there are countless gods but none of them are our worldmates, then it may be that neither of us is making any mistake of method. We may each be bringing our opinions to equilibrium in the most careful possible way, taking account of all the arguments, distinctions, and counterexamples. But one of us, at least, is making a mistake of fact. Which one is wrong depends on what there is (Collected Papers, Vol. 1, 1983: x-xi). 

Fall Philosophy Reception

We want to invite all NKU philosophy majors and minors, and friends of the program, to a fall celebration of student achievement, when we we acknowledge our graduating seniors and inductees into Phi Sigma Tau, the philosophy honor society. Stop by LA 203 on Wednesday, December 5, between 3:00 and 5:00. Refreshments and great conversation.