Michael Jackson dead at 50

Several news outlets are reporting that Michael Jackson died today of a heart attack (here).

despicable

here. But I don’t understand the contributor’s reaction. The contributor seems surprised that the amazon reviews are inflated by authors, contributors, or employees of the publishing house. It’s been known for years that hotel, rental car, and airline superb reviews have been posted by employees of the company. These employees have received compensation (whether monetary or some other benefit) for their reviews.

This news isn’t that shocking, but it is very disturbing!

Polish Journal of Philosophy, Vol. III, no. 1

The Polish Journal of Philosophy has published the first issue of its third volume. Its contents are listed below.

I’ve served as one of the review editors of the journal since the journal’s inception in 2007. Volume III represents the last time I will work as the review editor. I received an invitation from our editor-in-chief Sebastian Kołodziejczyk to replace Peter Baumann as deputy editor of the journal beginning with Volume IV (2010). I have already assumed the responsibilities associated with this position. Robert Barnard will assume responsibilities as review editor beginning with Volume IV (2010).

The journal welcomes submissions on any area of philosophy, though the journal has a special interest in publishing articles furthering (or influenced by) the rich Polish philosophical tradition.

Since there has been a lot of discussion around the philosophy blogosphere regarding the transparency of journal refereeing procedures (and given my interest in empirical data), I plan to publish details of the journal’s procedures (at the very least) on this blog. I hope to dedicate a webpage of the journal’s website to this data soon thereafter. If anyone has any questions about the journal’s content or a comment about the journal, please do not hesitate to contact me.

CONTENTS

ARTICLES

John BARKER,   Disquotation, Conditionals, and the Liar
Paul HORWICH, Kripke’s Paradox of Meaning
Mark MCLEOD-HARRISON, God and (Nearly) Universal Pluralistic Antirealism
Christopher NORRIS, Badiou on Set Theory, Ontology and Truth: mathematics as a guide to metaphysics (Part One)
Włodek RABINOWICZ, Values Compared
John SKORUPSKI, Back to Kant?
Nicole A. VINCENT, Responsibility: distinguishing virtue from capacity

BOOK REVIEWS

David Copp, Morality in a Natural World: Selected Essays in Metaethics by Christopher M. CALDWELL
Joshua Knobe and Shaun Nichols (eds.), Experimental Philosophy by Adam FELTZ
Zdzisława Piątek, Ekofilozofia, [Ecophilosophy] by Stefan KONSTAŃCZAK
Krzysztof Rotter, Gramatyka w dobie sporu o podstawy matematyki. Esej o drugiej filozofii Wittgensteina [Grammar in the Age of the Dispute over the Foundations of Mathematics: an Essay on Wittgenstein's Second Philosophy] by Jakub GOMUŁKA
James Robert Brown, Philosophy of Mathematics. A Contemporary Introduction to the World of Proofs and Pictures by Roman MURAWSKI
Joel Kupperman, Ethics and Qualities of Life by Scott WILSON

NOTES ON BOOKS
by Jan WOLEŃSKI

Philosophers Carnival and an announcement

The 92nd Philosophers Carnival has been posted at Philosophengang here.

In other news, John Bickle will start this fall at Mississippi State University as Professor and Department Head. The announcement is here. This is great news for MS State – which received some bad blog press over the past few years, see here – and the philosophical community in Mississippi. I’m sure the program will prosper under Bickle’s leadership.

Dumbass

here, which is followed up by some ridiculous comments. What surprises me is how few people (including Ed Fester himself) refer to the moral culpability of the women (or other doctors) requesting the abortion. In their world, only doctors are to blame. I have to conclude that this post shows how ignorant these people are! Not only do they not understand “women’s rights” but they don’t understand how to think about the problem from a variety of angles. UGH!

CU Boulder plans to eliminate 75 full-time faculty and staff positions…

9News (Denver KUSA; story here) reports that the University of Colorado plans to eliminate 75 full-time faculty and staff positions. 9News learned of the cuts through the Boulder Daily Camera. The Camera says that 33 of the 75 positions cut will be full-time faculty members.

I haven’t confirmed this from other independent sources, but this is indicative of a critical situation at large and well-respected R-1 land grant institutions like CU. Other Colorado schools have been suffering in the economic recession, e.g., the University of Denver reduced full-time staff by 10% at the beginning of the year. So, I’m not necessarily surprised.

The question is whether they will eliminate tenure-track faculty members or – even – tenured faculty members. The reports are unclear and ambiguous.

Air France Flight 477

A friend and colleague wanted me to write a brief comment about the recent Air France airline accident (Flight #477), since I had accurately identified the cause of a commuter plane crash outside Buffalo, N.Y. in February (here) long before any news agency reported what the F.A.A. and N.T.S.B. investigation had found. I have to admit at the outset the circumstances surrounding the crash are unusual, and my interpretation may be wrong. I’ve not watched or read any coverage of the accident, but I’m familiar with the airspace and with the type of aircraft that crashed.

aviation reviews…

Patch has two interesting posts some readers might like. Today he reviewed the new Liberty XL2 aircraft (here). And this thing looks awesome! It’d be great for learning or for leisure flights! The on-board avionics are state of the art! I’m particularly fond of the Garmin WAAS GPS active display. It’ll certainly make navigating easy.

Patch’s post on Monday reviewed the COMM1 VFR radio simulator software (here). Communication with towers can be unsettling for pilots who have learned to fly at class C airports, i.e., airports without a tower issuing instructions to aviators in their airspace. As Patch suggests, one can learn the communication ropes by listening to other aviators engage with tower, departure, or approach control online at LiveATC.com. Of course the website doesn’t include smaller airports or control centers, so one’s listening experience will be limited to some of the busiest airspace in the country, e.g., SoCal and New York. The Comm1 software teaches you the basics and it goes through the reasons why it’s important aviators communicate clearly and correctly with ATC. The software is compatible with Mac and PC platforms, and it’s relatively cheap. Check out Patch’s review!

The humanities don’t “cumulate”…

Norman Holland at Psychology Today has argued (here) that knowledge cumulates in science but not in the humanities. Holland has claimed that knowledge cumulates in science because it comes to definitive conclusions. Since the humanities don’t come to definitive conclusions and since the humanities are more interested in discussing problems than solving them, the humanities don’t gather together knowledge. In a sense, I think that his argument is that knowledge is not possible in the humanities.

Philosophy Carnival #91

has been posted here on Seven Layer Cake philosophy blog.