Congratulations to Neal Tognazzini

Neal has been awarded a Dissertation Completion Fellowship by the Mellon Foundation. The Fellowships are administered by Mellon and the ACLS. He'll use the fellowship to finish up his dissertation on moral responsibility. He'll also have the opportunity to work on a planned book on Harry Frankfurt's philosophy.

Congratulations on this richly deserved award!

Contest winner: A fog of philosophers

. . . all credit to the inimitable V. Alan White for the suggestion.

On Thursday morning at the Pacific APA I announced my choice for a new collective noun for philosophers. As the header says, the winner was a fog of philosophers. (Thanks, by the way, to everyone who attended the session, even those of you with devastating objections to my view.) I settled on 'fog' because where there is one philosopher there is hope for clarity; where there is two there is none. Plus, I do like alliteration.

As readers of this blog will know, there were a lot of really great suggestions for a new collective noun for philosophers. My personal favorites were Saul Smilansky's suggestions, including a Vargas of philosophers. And, I loved obviously excellent choices like 'gruep' and 'group*', among several others. However, I decided to deploy a set of standards that ruled out many worthwhile choices. These standards included (1) no confusing collective nouns (e.g., an argument of philosophers), (2) nothing cutesy, necessarily pun-involving, or insider-y (the last two ruled out many of my favorites), (3) nothing that presumed a particular philosophical tradition, subfield, or time period of philosophy, (4) nothing pre-existing, only because that would ruin the fun (and plus, my sense was that no existing convention had stuck), so I ruled out Lipton's wrangle of philosophers, rightly recommended by Hilary Kornblith, (5) nothing so offensive that it would make someone blush or offend delicate sensitivities. These standards narrowed the scope for me, and fog just seemed like the best choice at the time.

So, I hereby encourage the use of 'fog' as the collective noun for philosophers. However, if you don't like it or find it altogether intolerable, I can remind you that there are several species that admit of multiple collective noun terms. So, feel free to add your own unless you can't. :-)

Pacific APA

For those of you attending the Pacific APA in Pasadena, here are some sessions that might be of interest:

Thursday, March 20, 2008, 9 am-noon
Invited Symposium: Four Views on Free Will
Chair: Joseph Keim Campbell (Washington State University)
Speakers: Michael McKenna (Florida State University)
“Compatibilism”
Derk Pereboom (Cornell University)
“Hard Incompatibilism”
Robert Kane (University of Texas–Austin)
“Libertarianism”
Manuel Vargas (University of San Francisco)
“Revisionism”

Thursday, March 20, 2008, 1-4 pm
Invited Symposium: The Problem of Evil
Chair: Thomas M. Crisp (Biola University)
Speakers: John Bishop (University of Auckland)
Ken Perszyk (Victoria University of Wellington)
“The Normatively Relativised Logical Argument from Evil”
Hugh McCann (Texas A&M University)
“On Grace and Free Will”
Michael Tooley (University of Colorado–Boulder)
“The Probability That God Exists”

Friday, March 21, 2008, 9 am-noon
Author-Meets-Critics: John Martin Fischer, My Way: Essays on Moral Responsibility
Chair: Michael Tiboris (University of California–San Diego)
Critics: Randolph Clarke (Florida State University)
Calvin Normore (University of California–Los Angeles)
Gideon Yaffe (University of Southern California)
Author: John Martin Fischer (University of California–Riverside)

Friday, March 21, 2008, 9 am-noon
Author-Meets-Critics: Ernest Sosa, A Virtue Epistemology
Chair: Keith Lehrer (University of Arizona)
Critics: Paul Boghossian (New York University)
Stewart Cohen (Arizona State University)
Hilary Kornblith (University of Massachusetts–Amherst)
Author: Ernest Sosa (Rutgers University)

[And, yes, I’m aware of the conflict but sometimes life isn’t fair!]

Hope to see you there!

Best, Joe

Moral Luck and Desert in the SF Chronicle

In this article in the SF Chronicle, Chris Colin asks whether we deserve our salaries given how much of our lives are a matter of moral luck for us. He even asked John Perry, who apparently said something close to the following: "No, but don't worry about it!"

Enjoy, and happy St. Patrick's Day.

CONTEST: What is a group of philosophers to be called?

Hi all-

What's the proper term for a group of philosophers?

My sense is that there is no widely accepted term for a group of philosophers. I do think there ought to be one. So, I thought I would tap the wisdom of the philosophical crowds for some nominees. I'm looking for something pithy, clear (so, no 'argument of philosophers'), and the kind of thing that in retrospect seems almost obvious.

The winning suggestion, as judged by me, will be announced during a talk I will give at the Pacific APA. Fame and fortune are sure to follow, or failing that, infamy and life as usual. Moreover, should I publish the paper in which I plan to use your suggestion, full credit will be given to you for suggesting the term, which will surely be grounds for admiration by the two or three people who read the paper.

Nominations are now open, and the contest will continue up until I give the paper around 9am-ish on Thursday March 20th, or whenever I last check the GFP before giving said paper.

Thanks in advance for you help with this crucial piece of soon-to-be immortal linguistic convention, or at any rate, the convention used in that sentence of my talk.

More Garden Fruit

Well the Garden has been especially productive this year: congrats to Eddy Nahmias and family, who welcomed a new addition on March 3, Eve Kopec Nahmias. Eddy reports that Eve is both healthy and, most importantly, cute!

 

Unfree Agent Sommers to Houston

Our very own metaskeptic about moral responsibility, Tamler Sommers, has accepted an offer for a position at the University of Houston.  Congratulations Tamler!