Black Existence in “Torto Arado” em Dez Dobraz

The collection of critical essays “Torto Arado” em Dez Dobras [“Torto Arado” in Ten Folds] will be released in 2023 in Brazil by Mercado de Letras. The anthology, organized by Francisco Neto Pereira Pinto, Rosemere Ferreira da Silva, Naiane Vieira dos Reis Silva, and Luiza Helena Oliveira da Silva, is divided into four sections entitled: […]

Breaking Bad Habits

Two things to note about habits: one, they are very hard to break and two, a fair number of them are bad for us. Many of us have fallen into the habit of reaching for our phones throughout the day to read the news and editorials. We watch videos of congressional hearings, we listen to […]

ChatGPT After Six Months: More Practical Reflections

When ChatGPT was released to the public late last year, its impact was immediate and dramatic. In the six months since, most people have barely had time to understand what ChatGPT is, yet its core model has already been upgraded (from GPT 3.5 to GPT 4.0) and a competitor has been released (Bard, from Google). […]

APA Member Interview: Mary-kate Boyle

Mary-kate Boyle is an undergraduate student at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. She is currently interested in ethics, German idealism, epistemology, and philosophy of mind. Mary-kate organizes and directs an after-school philosophy program for students of Lincoln Northwest High School. Please email her directly for her independent work in philosophy. What are you most proud of […]

Toward a Feminist View of Harm

Oppression, Harm, and Feminist Philosophy In many ways, our understanding of oppression is closely tied to the concept of harm. This connection is especially clear in feminist philosophy—not only do feminist philosophers regularly analyze oppression’s physical, material, psychological, and social harms, but they often argue that harm is a constitutive feature of oppression. For instance, […]

Abbott Elementary and Utilitarianism

In this clip, the teachers at an underfunded Philadelphia public elementary school are debating the pros and cons of having a “gifted” program that only serves a small portion of the student population. Their conversation sparks a discussion about Utilitarianism, and whether we should focus on the success and happiness of a select few, or […]

Teaching Graduate Students to Teach

As one who has urged graduate departments to offer their students a practicum in teaching, I read with interest Heather Brant’s thoughtful post A Graduate Seminar With a Unique Topic: Teacher Training, published this spring. She describes a course she took that explored how insights from cognitive science and related areas could enhance understanding of […]

Meet the APA: Lucy Santerre

Lucy Santerre is the APA’s Program Assistant for the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation’s grant to support diversity institutes in philosophy. Introduction I am proud to say that joining the APA in 2018 was the start of my professional career. After graduating from Boston College in 2017 with a bachelor’s degree in philosophy, I completed a […]

Recently Published Book Spotlight: Thoughtful Images

Thomas Wartenberg is Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at Mount Holyoke College. He has edited or co-edited books on the philosophy of art, the philosophy of film, philosophy for/with children, and the nature of power. His most recent book Thoughtful Images: Illustrating Philosophy through Art explores various illustrations of philosophical concepts and develops a beginning theory […]

APA Member Interview: Ian MacDonald

Ian MacDonald is an educator and writer at the University of Waterloo who investigates the interrelations between inquiry, meaning, and methods. He focuses on the writings of Peirce, Clifford, and Welby and defended his dissertation, Communal Inferentialism: Charles S. Peirce’s Critique of Epistemic Individualism, in 2019. What’s your favorite quote?  “We have created a Star […]

Recently Published Book Spotlight: Phenomenology of Black Spirit

In this Recently Published Book Spotlight, Biko Mandela Gray, Assistant Professor of Religion at Syracuse University, and Ryan J. Johnson, Associate Professor of Philosophy at Elon University, discuss their new book, Phenomenology of Black Spirit. By examining the relationship between Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit and the work of twelve Black thinkers, this book asks the […]

APA Member Interview: Trevor Adams

Trevor Adams is a PhD candidate at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. His primary research interests are epistemology, philosophy of mind, and philosophy of religion. His dissertation is focused on the nature and rationality of hope. What excites you about philosophy? Since philosophy is both an individual and group activity I think there are really two […]

Inside the APA: Applying for APA Grants

One of the many ways the APA supports philosophers and helps address issues in the field is through grants. If you’re an APA member, you’re eligible to apply for an APA grant, and in this post I’ll share a bit about each of the types of grants the APA offers and how they work. To […]

Witches and ‘Welfare Queens’: The Construction of Women as Threats in the Anti-Abortion Movement

While today’s anti-abortion movement has been empowered by the recent fall of Roe v. Wade, the original ‘right-to-life’ movement dates to the mid-nineteenth century. In the mid-1800s, physicians began to take over the practice of childbirth from midwives and the medical specialty of obstetrics developed. The movement to medicalize women’s reproductive health made use of […]

A Graduate Seminar With a Unique Topic: Teacher Training

It is not uncommon for graduate students in philosophy to be thrown into teaching without any formal training or preparation. This practice seems to rest on the misguided notion that if one knows the philosophy, then one will be able to teach it (or more pessimistically, teaching is not valued enough to prioritize it within […]

The Neurotic Dogma of Reality

The world appears to be a certain way, but sometimes appearances are deceiving. This doesn’t seem to undermine what we think we know, for instance, the apparently obvious fact that we have hands. But, how do you know you’re not dreaming right now? Or better, do you know you’re not a handless brain in a […]

Reports from Abroad: Dr. Kranti Saran

This series questions and complicates what ‘reporting from abroad’ can mean in a globalized world that faces interconnected and local crises alongside forces grappling with how to liberate our beings from oppressive structures rooted in past and present (neo)colonialism and imperialism. We can take this as a chance to collectively and constructively consider both broader […]

Back to the Warm Home, Good Relationships, and Philosophy

Three years in, we stay true to the pulse underlying our philosophical work. Coming from memorable personal relationships, we end with free correspondence.

APA Member Interview: Rebeccah Leiby

Rebeccah Leiby is the Hoffberger Ethics Fellow at the University of Baltimore’s Hoffberger Center for Ethical Engagement (previously, the Hoffberger Center for Professional Ethics). She completed her Ph.D. in 2022 at Boston University, where she defended a dissertation entitled “Towards a Contractualist Theory of Transitional Justice.” What are you working on right now?  In addition […]

Ableism and ChatGPT: Why People Fear It Versus Why They Should Fear It

Philosophers have been discouraging the use of ChatGPT and sharing ideas about how to make it harder for students to use this software to “cheat.” A recent post on Daily Nous represents the mainstream perspective. Such critiques fail to engage with crip theory, which brings to light ChatGPT’s potential to both assist and, in the […]