The Pervasiveness of Motivated Reasoning
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Diversity and "the" Philosophical Tradition
A typical problem for introductory philosophy courses is that the list of readings is dominated by privileged authors — white men, members or adjuncts of the ruling classes of their respective societies, many of them able-bodied, often lifelong bachelors who have almost no experience interacting with children or the infirm,...
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Sexism, Philosophy, and the Reciprocity of Virtue
Sexism in philosophy has been on my mind lately, between my colleague Kerry McKenzie’s review of a disastrous attempt at philosophy of physics by notorious sexist philosopher Colin McGinn and a visit to our department last week by Jenny Saul. I’ve also been thinking a lot about virtue ethics, in...
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The Climate Debate: Ignorance, and/or Complexity?
Why is the climate change debate so interminable? From the perspective of many scientists, we’ve had compelling data since the 1970s and more than enough reason to reduce greenhouse gas emissions since the 1980s. Today the IPCC will release the first part of their fifth Assessment Report. But no one...
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Objectivity is a Unicorn
Following up on my last post and a semi-related conversation with a new officemate, it seems to me that a lot of people might react something like this:
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