Daily Nous

The American Philosophical Association (APA) has announced the winners of its Spring 2026 prizes. 2027 John Dewey Lectures Three annual lectures, one at each divisional meeting of the APA, given by a prominent and senior (typically retired) philosopher associated with that Division, who is invited to reflect broadly and in an autobiographical spirit on philosophy in America as seen from the persp…

A slightly larger mini-heap of links than usual… How “claim[s] that someone was the inventor of modern logic or a particular branch of philosophy” come to be a part of philosophy’s story — more from Jens Lemanski on the case-study of Dummett’s assertion that Frege invented analytic philosophy and modern logic “Few of us now have much idea what online conferencing could become if given the chance …

“The aim is not to keep everything exactly as it was before gen AI took off. That would be both impossible and undesirable. The aim is to preserve the parts of philosophical education that are still worth preserving while changing the surrounding infrastructure enough to make that possible.” That’s David Bourget, a philosophy professor at Western University and executive director of the PhilPaper…

Governments and firms are turning to philosophers and other scholars more and more in regard to the ethics of developing and regulating technology. Yet this engagement with ethics may be superficial, careless, or even manipulative—and the ethicists involved may not even be in a position to realize this. “Ethics-washing” can take several forms. In the following guest post, the authors (in alphabet…

Nancy Cartwright, professor of philosophy at Durham University and the University of California, San Diego, has been selected as the recipient of the 2026 Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in the Humanities. The award, sponsored by the Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA) Foundation, was given to Professor Cartwright in recognition of “her use of philosophy to strengthen scientific ration…

Kate Conroy, a philosopher who has held various positions in academia, government, and industry, has been chosen to lead the recently established Australian AI Safety Institute, part of the Australian government’s Department of Industry, Science and Resources. According to the Australian Broadcasting Coroporation, the aim of the Institute is to “monitor, test and share information on emerging AI …

“Philosophers were the first targets of Orbán’s ‘culture war.’” That’s László Szücs (Institute of Advanced Studies Kőszeg), talking to Courthouse News Service about “the so-called ‘philosophers’ affair’: Orbán’s and his media’s first major anti-intellectual campaign.” It is “the saga of how the government slowly throttled an archive and research center inside the old apartment of György Lukács, a…

“I’m teaching care for their own particular point of view, a disdain for all things ‘vibes’ that aren’t carefully thought out, and a deep understanding of the courage it takes to withdraw from other people for a while, to have braved a thought all on your own.” That’s Robert Wallace, associate professor of philosophy at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly). In the f…

Summer is here, and with it, as you may have noticed, a more relaxed pace at Daily Nous. There will be somewhat fewer news stories and more guest posts. Travel and other commitments may mean less time for comment moderation, which may mean that comments on some posts are closed, or that comments sometimes take more time to appear than usual. Thanks for your patience. I hope your summer is off to …

“In our view there are several worrying tendencies in contemporary academic scholarship in the humanities and social sciences, all of which reflect, to varying degrees, a distinctive form of politicization in which the scholarly enterprise is taken to be subordinate to, or in the service of, political (social or moral) goals beyond the advancement of knowledge and understanding.” That is from a r…

Virginia Held, professor emerita of philosophy at the City University of New York and an influential figure in ethics and social and political philosophy, has died. Professor Held is especially well known for her work on the ethics of care and feminist philosophy. She is the author of several books, including The Public Interest and Individual Interests (1970), Rights and Goods: Justifying Social…

A few weeks ago, I was contacted by a reporter working on a story about the extent to which AI, as a topic of research and an area of specialization demanded by employers, was becoming dominant in philosophy. Here’s one thing I said to her: People should be cautious when inferring how much philosophy of AI work is actually happening from how much philosophy of AI work they’re hearing about. AI is…

This is the weekly report on new and revised entries at online philosophy resources, new reviews of philosophy books, new podcast episodes, recently published open access philosophy books, and more. (If we missed anything, please let us know.) SEP New:  ∅ Revised: Nāgārjuna by Jan Christoph Westerhoff. Disability and Justice by Jessica Begon, Daniel Putnam, David Wasserman, Jeffrey Blustein, and …

Mark Murphy, currently professor and chair of philosophy at Georgetown University, will be moving to the University of Notre Dame. Professor Murphy is known for his work in moral philosophy, philosophy of law, and philosophy of religion. He is the author of God’s Own Ethics: Norms of Divine Action and the Argument from Evil (OUP, 2017) and God and Moral Law: On the Theistic Explanation of Moralit…

Earlier this week, it was reported that Russian Philosopher Svetlana Mesyats was placed under house arrest and the offices and homes of several other employees of the Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences were searched. What is going on there, and why? In the following guest post, Elizaveta Shcherbakova (Humboldt University of Berlin), who used to work at the Institute of Phi…

Has your department instituted an AI policy? If so, whom does it govern, and what does it say? What should such a policy say? Has your department considered an AI policy but held off on writing or implementing it?  If so, what issues, disputes, or questions have contributed to the delay? Does your department even have the institutional authority to have such a policy? Would it be better to not ha…

Russian Philosopher Svetlana Mesyats is under house arrest and the offices and homes of several other employees of the Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences were searched, according to social media postings from a pro-Russian government account and other media sources. Meduza reports: 10 researchers were taken to the Investigative Committee of Russia and interrogated until la…

New virtual writing groups for people working on dissertations in philosophy are forming now. Joshua Smart (St. Bonaventure University), once again, is organizing them. He writes in with the following information: Virtual Dissertation Groups (VDG) will be running again this June – August. The VDG sign-up form is open for this summer’s groups through Saturday, June 6th. What it is: Virtual Dissert…

Recent links… “A lot of kid stuff involves situations where the risk of something bad happening is very low, but if it does happen, then it’s really terrible.” How should a parent approach these decisions? — perhaps the concept of moral luck could be helpful What is a woman? — a discussion between Talia Mae Bettcher and Tomas Bogardus, moderated by Miles Donahue “Liberal learning” is “a kind of l…

This is the weekly report on new and revised entries at online philosophy resources, new reviews of philosophy books, new podcast episodes, recently published open access philosophy books, and more. (If we missed anything, please let us know.) SEP New: Susanne Langer by Juliet Floyd. The Liar Paradox in Arabic and Islamic Philosophy by Ahmed Alwishah and David Sanson. Descartes’ Ethics by Denis K…