A collage of images, featuring most prominently a person holding a sign reading "no justice no peace"

Category: Academia

Academia

 by 

Call for Papers: Stanford Junior Scholars Workshop

Here is a call for funded (!) workshop for junior scholars at Stanford’s Center for Ethics in Society:

https://ethicsinsociety.stanford.edu/research-outreach/junior-scholars-workshop

An excerpt from the Call: “We are especially interested in scholarship in what might be called “interdisciplinary ethics.” Normative scholarship focused on issues like immigration, climate change, global poverty, and the governance of new technologies can benefit from engagement with the social sciences, law, engineering, and life sciences. We especially encourage submissions that bring relevant empirically-oriented scholarship to bear on normative questions and analysis.”

Very much in the spirit of this blog!

Academia / Distribution / Education

 by 

“Dumbed down for the masses”? Public philosophy in different keys, and why it matters for justice

When one makes one first steps into public philosophy, one quickly encounters a challenge: as academic philosophers, we are used to writing in a slow, careful, sort-of-boring-but-at-least-precise way: to hedge our claims, to qualify the scope of our theses, etc. For public philosophy, editors want the opposite: brief, succinct sentences, never mind a bit of exaggeration and a polemical tone. And often, they request more: “We really need a concrete example here.” “This is too abstract, we’ve taken the liberty of rewriting it a bit.”  “Can you please do a photo session, for a nice picture?” For many of us, these things feel a bit awkward. Different people draw the line in different places – but it seems unavoidable to play this game, at least up to a point, if you want to reach a broader audience. And as I will argue, there is a matter of justice at stake here. (more…)

Academia

 by 

5th Annual Conference of the Centre for the Study of Global Ethics

The Call for Papers for the 5th Annual Conference of the Centre for the Study of Global Ethics (30-31 May 2019, Birmingham) is now open. We welcome abstract submissions on the Conference’s theme Bodies and Embodiment as well as other topics in global ethics. For more information, please see below or visit the conference website. (more…)

Academia / Distribution

 by 

Philosophical experiment about inequality

A cross-post with crooked timber  – written with Ingrid Robeyns.

Political philosophers often engage in thought experiments, which involve putting hypothetical persons in hypothetical scenario’s. However, it is often challenging to find ways to involve real, non-hypothetical, people with the questions we are dealing with, aside from the more traditional ways to engage in outreach such as debates and opinion pieces.  On the evening of Friday the 5th of October, the Fair Limits team – which studies the plausibility of upper limits in the distribution of economic and ecological resources – attempted a new way to engage the public by making use of a participatory “veil-of-ignorance” thought experiment.

(more…)

Academia / Distribution / Gender / Work

 by 

Who Cares: Emotional Labour in Academia

As I am finishing yet another application for a position with limited chances of success (I did my statistics homework), I am reminding myself again that I shouldn’t get too emotionally invested: I shouldn’t picture myself with this specific position in this particular place just yet. I should take a potential ‘No’ lightly as a sportive challenge and not see it as a fundamental rejection of my work and my value as a member of the academic community. I know all of that. But it is emotionally exhausting. It requires energy and time to deal with the anxieties and insecurities this process brings up. And, importantly, it often requires the support and care of people that are close to me. (more…)

Academia

 by 

Conference Announcement: ASPP Annual Conference 2019

The next Association for Social and Political Philosophy Annual Conference will be held 24-26th June 2019 at Politics, Newcastle University, UK.

Theme: Justice in Times of Austerity, Rupture, & Polarisation

Keynote speakers:

Submissions: We welcome papers in any area of social and political philosophy, and particularly encourage papers offering normative or evaluative perspectives addressed to the contemporary political climate – papers concerned with justice in or in response to the context of countries reducing public expenditure and/or budget deficits, rising inequality, attitudes and parties veering towards political extremes, declining political civility, and both states and supra-state institutions facing schisms and separatist movements. This could include topics such as:

  • Social and economic policy
  • Disadvantage and inequality
  • Political ruptures
  • Democratic crisis and renewal

For more information about the conference and submission details please visit our website: conferences.ncl.ac.uk/aspp

 

Academia

 by 

Lectureships at Newcastle Politics Department: Information & Applications

Newcastle Politics Department currently have 4 lectureships advertised and a chair/reader to be advertised shortly. In this blog post those who are on the interview panels for the lectureship posts give some information to anyone thinking of applying to try give everyone an inside track.

(more…)

Academia / Distribution / Governance

 by 

On the Ethics of Self-Driving Cars: An Interview with Johannes Himmelreich

My colleague at Stanford’s Center for Ethics in Society, Johannes Himmelreich, is a philosopher who investigates agency and responsibility in contexts of collective collaboration and technological augmentation. Here, I ask Johannes about the ethical issues raised by the development of self-driving cars – one strand of his current research.

FN: Can you tell those of us who know less about the technology behind self-driving cars a little bit about where it’s currently at and how fast the development is going?

JH: In my view, the automotive sci-fi future will not come to your city within the next eight years. I would be very surprised if the majority of driving will be much different from what it is now. I expect we will see gradual improvements of systems that assist human driving. But, honestly, that’s more of a guess than a prediction. I actually can say very little about where the technology is at, since there is not much to go by that is publicly available and that is not just boisterous over-promising. This will change in the next 12-18 months. Google offshoot Waymo is starting a taxi service with self-driving cars in Phoenix, Arizona this year and General Motors’ brand Cruise say that they will start a similar so-called “robo-taxi” service in San Francisco next year. That’s when the rubber hits the road. (more…)

Academia

 by 

Recent Vacancies in Political Theory/Philosophy/Ethics

Lecturer in Political Theory, University of Manchester (closing imminently)

Lecturer in Ethics / Political Philosophy, University of Sheffield (closing imminently)

Teaching Fellow in Philosophy, University of Edinburgh (closing imminently)

Tenure-Track / Tenured Position in Social & Political Philosophy, Stanford University

Research Associate in Ethics, Lancaster University

Lecturer / Senior Lecturer in Social & Political Philosophy, University of Edinburgh

Senior Lecturer in Political Economy & Philosophy, Swansea University

Lecturer in Philosophy, Swansea University

Lecturer in Political Philosophy, Newcastle University

Assistant / Associate Professor in Political Theory, University of California, Berkeley

Assistant Professor in Philosophy, LSE

Assistant Professor (teaching) in Political Theory, Durham University

Max Weber Post-Doctoral Fellowships (open to political theory/philosophy applications), European University Institute

Academia / Education / Gender

 by 

The Philosopher Queens

Women in philosophy have been ignored. Help crowdfund The Philosopher Queens to have their voices heard.  Its editors Rebecca Buxton and Lisa Whiting tell us more about how and why this important book project has come about.  

 

When we began looking for a book on women in philosophy we were not prepared for what we found – or rather didn’t find. An afternoon in Waterstone’s, followed by a trip to Kensington library, followed by an evening of angrily searching online for something, anything on women in philosophy, had generated almost nothing. The only book we found was written by an incredible woman in philosophy herself, Mary Warnock, who wrote a book on women in philosophy over 20 years ago.  (more…)