Certain Doubts

palindrome (pronounced with a short a): examples–mom, dad, otto, tenet, … you get the picture…
Palindrome (pronounced with a long a): an answer to a question that makes as much sense read backwards…

Keen to connect your work on logic, probability, and decision making (a.k.a. Formal Epistemology) to computer scientists’ work on logic, probability, and decision making (a.k.a. Artificial Intelligence)? Then consider two upcoming conferences. (more…)

A nice article here, on the fast rise of experimental philosophy and the controversy surrounding it. Nice pic on Knobe on the main page as well!

It is interesting to see when informal designations first start appearing in job advertisements. Not sure if this is the first, but Maryland is advertising an open position in formal epistemology. See here for some details. Neat!

This is to announce that the University of Nebraska-Lincoln will be hosting the second annual Midwest Epistemology Workshop (MEW) Friday Oct. 17th—Saturday Oct. 18th, 2008. The workshop is an annual event where epistemologists present and discuss recently completed work or work in progress. It is open to everyone. Those interested in attending should contact Al Casullo at [acasullo@unlserve.unl.edu].

The keynote speaker for this year’s workshop is Tyler Burge, UCLA.

This year’s workshop will consist of eight nonconcurrent sessions, each involving a presentation of approximately 40 minutes followed by 40 minutes of discussion. As they are made available, workshop papers will be distributed to participants in advance of the workshop. This year’s presenters include Mike Bergmann (Purdue), Andy Egan (Michigan), Adam Leite (Indiana), Peter Markie (Missouri), Brit Brogaard (Missouri-St. Louis), Jonathan Weinberg (Indiana), and Juan Comesaña (Wisconsin). For more information, see here

MEW2 is supported by the Chambers Research Fund, the UNL College of Arts and Sciences, the UNL Philosophy Department, and the Cedric Evans Memorial Lecture Fund.

Philosophy of Science in a European Perspective (PSE) is a recently launched research network program funded by the European Science Foundation. The program brings together an exciting mix of philosophers from across Europe for the purpose of sharing results and building up infrastructure for the Philosophy of Science in Europe. For more information, visit the websites of ESF and PSE.

News about the next conference from Peter Klein:

The next Rutgers Epistemology Conference will be held on May 8th and 9th of 2009.  The Conference will follow the same general format — beginning at 1:00 pm. on Friday, May 8th, and ending at 7:00 pm. on Saturday, May 9th.  I hope this early notice of the date makes it possible for you to plan to attend.  I will send you more information as the program takes shape.

We will continue to award the Young Epistemologist Prize.  The guidelines will be the same as they were this year with only the dates changed.  The deadline for submission will be November 26, 2008.  To see the guidelines, please go to the Rutgers Philosophy Department homepage, click on “epistemology” in the drop down menu under “events and journals” and then click on “Young Epistemologist Prize.”  The address for the RU Philosophy homepage is:  http://philosophy.rutgers.edu/   Please encourage your eligible colleagues to apply.  (They must have a Ph.D., and it must not have been awarded prior to May, 1999.)

No, I’m not yelling “odd!”. I’m talking about oppositional defiant disorder, a mental disorder introduced in 1980 to the DSM IV. For discussion, see “Brainstorm: Oppositional and Defiant–Or Critical Thinker?” Here’s a memorable quote:

In 1980, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) created oppositional defiant disorder, defining it as “a pattern of negativistic, hostile and defiant behavior.” The official symptoms of ODD include “often actively defies or refuses to comply with adult requests or rules” and “often argues with adults.”

Damn! That’s me! They got me. Shit. Give me the pill, I need the cure…

What makes this interesting is that this disorder is apparently becoming a quite popular diagnosis, favored unsurprisingly by teachers to help deal with problem students, since one treatment for the disorder is medication with tranquilizers.

Reminds me of what I tell intro to logic students when trying to get them to be better at constructing counterexamples. I tell them that many of them were very good at this when they were young, until pissed off teachers socialized them out of this non-compliant, argumentative reaction. But socialization fails in some cases, and we get critical thinkers capable of being good philosophers as a result (and, if we are *really* lucky, an epistemologist!).

Let me point out that I’m not questioning the possibility of a behavioral disorder of the sort described. But for any of us who attempt to inculcate critical thinking in students, this is scary. We have enough mindless, lock-step behavior in our culture already; as a culture, all we need is a good soundbite “they hate us for our freedom” and we’ll easily acquiesce to reckless destruction of people and property around the world led by a frontier-mentality President with an itchy trigger finger and an oil-addicted sidekick. I say the danger is abuse by the powerful to coerce, medically or otherwise, “compliance with adult requests and rules”. So, send me your tired, your poor, your uneducated for whom you seek an ODD diagnosis. The world will be a better place if those who understand, teach, and value critical thinking (and here I mean philosophers, not products of education schools) weigh in on the matter before any system is given free rein in which you can find some credentialed sympathizer with the difficulties of managing such individuals who will issue a diagnosis and thereby justify medical intervention.

Fordham University will be hosting a one-day workshop on the topic of Wisdom on April 17th, 2009. Speakers will be:

John Greco (University of St. Louis)
Charles Larmore (Brown University)
Gabriel Richardson Lear (University of Chicago)
Ernest Sosa (Rutgers University)
Valerie Tiberius (University of Minnesota)
Katja Vogt (Columbia University)

The conference website is here. The workshop will be open to the public. For more information, contact me at ahazlett@fordham.edu.

Epistemology: 5 Questions

Edited by Vincent F. Hendricks & Duncan Pritchard
ISBN: 978-87-92130-07-5

List Price: $38 / £28

372 pages

New York, London: Automatic Press / VIP

Epistemology: 5 Questions is a collection of short interviews based on 5 questions presented to some of the most influential and prominent scholars in epistemology. We hear their views on epistemology with particular emphasis on the intersection between mainstream and formal approaches to the field; the aim, scope, the future direction of epistemology and how their work fits in these respects.

More promo material and a table of contents below the fold.
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