Monday, February 16, 2009

Open thread

Any questions, gossipy or otherwise, that readers would like answered by other readers? Suggestions for new topics? Paranoid conspiracy theories? Post them in the comments and I'll turn some of them into separate posts.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Here's a fun idea for a thread: worst conference presentation you've attended. Here's another: best presentation you've attended.

Anonymous said...

Leiter posted a thread about Nathan Jung's anti-PGR survey. There was an addendum (and a funny one at that), and then it got deleted. Why? I was looking forward to some interesting controversy?

Anonymous said...

Here is what remains in my RSS feed of the deleted Leiter thread mentioned by uturn (it was once located at: http://leiterreports.typepad.com/blog/2009/02/caveat-emptor.html)

"Several folks have called to my attention that a recent PhD graduate from the "Philosophy and Literature" program at Purdue University (which is, apparently, a separate track from the ordinary Philosophy PhD program at Purdue), who writes about Deleuze and..."

Anonymous said...

Nathan Jun's (not Jung) survey appears to have been taken down, though you can read about it since Google has a cache of the page:

http://74.125.47.132/search?q=cache:nfM6oxS8TMkJ:faculty.mwsu.edu/philosophy/nathan.jun/survey.asp+Nathan+jun+Philosophical+gourmet&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2&gl=us

Anonymous said...

Why don't you e-mail Leiter or Jun instead of speculating about it here?

Anonymous said...

do both! or at least keep speculating about it here. it's a gossip blog, for goodness' sake! say things that wouldn't be said elsewhere.

Anonymous said...

How old are you fucking people???

Anonymous said...

The best conference presentation I ever attended was a paper by Rae Langton on the morality of pornography - extremely clear, concise, and even funny despite the decidedly un-funny subject matter. The worst conference presentation - that's tough! Believe it or not, it's probably a tie between Miles Burnyeat (on some incredibly arcane aspect of Aristotle's Physics) and Robert Brandom (responding to some criticism of "Ariculating Reasons"). Both were a few years ago; I just remember being really, really, really painfully BORED.

Anonymous said...

I couldn't list a best presentation, I've seen a lot of really good ones and I'm too lazy to take the time and rank them. The worst talk I went to was by Michael Pakaluk about Plato's views of immortality.

And by worst I just mean it was really, really long and I wasn't interested in the topic.

Anonymous said...

I am very curious to hear opinions from faculty about the following article: http://chronicle.com/jobs/news/2009/01/2009013001c.htm

...especially as it pertains to philosophy. I received my PhD a couple months ago, and I have to admit that I feel like I chose the wrong profession, but not because of any deficiency on my part in regard to what it has taken to be a professional philosopher. Rather, given the market this year, this seems like a dying field. I estimate that 25% of the TT jobs originally posted in the October JFP have been suspended or pulled, and there seems little to no sympathy or understanding coming from established faculty (especially those who have decided not to retire because their TIAA-Cref's have lost value). This is not about landing a 2/2 research position in a 'prime' location. This is about paying rent, buying food, and paying on loans. I realize that none of us were promised jobs when we finally 'got out,' but I have seen little to nothing from established philosophers that honestly addresses the economic crisis, especially as it pertains to our field (and to those of us suspended between graduate school and academic employment). The fall semester will be here sooner than many of us want it to be. Faculty, what is your honest advice? What do all of you really think is going to come of this profession?

Anonymous said...

How do you take a short break at the computer?

...scholarly (sort of) and funny and occasionally meaningful but different enough to constitute a break? There's Acephalous. Especially for lit fans.

http://tinyurl.com/2dubss

...stupidly funny? Try the blog "Hot Chicks with Douchebags." Totally mind-clearing. Gleeful and completely idiotic pictures and snark.

http://tinyurl.com/m8agz

...very strange, and unintentionally funny, if these guys are serious? "Christian Domestic Discipline -- Loving Wife Spanking in a Christian Marriage." No pictures, just "articles" offering Biblical explanations of and justifications for wife spanking. Totally bizarre.

http://tinyurl.com/apfphg

Anonymous said...

Thank you, thank you, for HCwDB.

Anonymous said...

On a different topic... Do referees for journals ever "out" themselves once the piece appears in print? Have you ever, upon getting a paper published, gotten an email saying, "I was the anon reviewer ..."

Anonymous said...

http://philosophymetablog.blogspot.com