AAPT Members

Textbook torrents. It is a site that allows users to share scanned-in versions of their textbooks via peer-to-peer networks.  This really was just a manner of time. There are a number of other attempts out there to fix the textbook marketplace, including my own Inquiry site , Wikibooks, OpenTextBook, TextBook Revolution and (one I didn’t know of until today) Scribd.

Regular readers of this blog will remember my grant proposal from last spring. (FIPSE denied the grant proposal - in fact, they only awarded 6 grants this year! In most previous years, they awarded around 60. I think they are playing hard-ball with congress).

Check out the usedbook Blog for more comments: http://usedbooksblog.com/blog/textbook-torrents/

Really? The organization that awarded Darwin the Copley medal in 1864 (albeit, famously *not* for the Origin, at least, that is what General Sabine claimed. Huxley had a different view) now thinks that creationism should be taught in schools?

Well, this story: Leading scientist urges teaching of creationism in schools in the Times makes that claim. Actually, the story glosses over a number of details. The teaser claims that the claim was made ‘according to the royal society’, but if you read further, the claim was made by Rev Michael Reiss, who is the current director of education. The society could confirm that “Professor Reiss’s views did represent that of its president, Lord Rees of Ludlow, and the society”, but there is no mention of a resolution being passed by the membership or any such general consensus.

Moreover, the article hasn’t clearly distinguished between teaching creationism as a scientific theory (whatever that may mean) and teaching it merely “as a world view.” After all, one could teach astrology “as a world view” without making claims to its veracity.

Later in the article, Reiss is quoted as saying “Just because something lacks scientific support doesn’t seem to me a sufficient reason to omit it from a science lesson.” Again, the problem here is what we mean by ‘lesson’. Sure, I can (and do) include Bill O’Reilly’s tirade on Katrina in my lessons on Critical Thinking, and his views lack support (any, not just scientific). But I make no claims as to the veracity of his assertions, just the structure of his reasoning.

All of this ambiguity in the article appears to have caused a stir over in Carlton House. The Royal society issued this retraction earlier today (9/16):  read more »

New worlds for thought Businesses hiring Phil majors in Oz, from Sydney Morning Herald.

Individual profiles of Philosophy student - An accidental path to philosophy From Sydney Morning Herald

An interesting story here from the Times (UK).

I’ve been hard at working building the American Association of Philosophy Teacher’s members-only website for the past two weeks, and hence haven’t had the chance to post. This blog will be moving there in some capacity, once I figure out precisely how - i.e. via XML-RPC or just an RSS feed. If you’re not a member of the AAPT in good standing: Become one! Really. It is a great organization, and the site we’re building will have blogs, forums, archives, news updates and social networking - all in all, it should be a really useful resource for all Philosophy teachers.

Anyway, a colleague of mine, Anne, was looking for good examples of arguments from analogy. Hillary Clinton’s new stump speech contains a line something like:

“sending the Republicans back to the White House is like asking the iceberg to save the Titanic” - see the Orlando Sentinel: Hillary on the stump for Obama

Here are the two that I use frequently:

From AAPT-Shared

It is from the Washington Post in 2004, but I appear to have lost the specific date. I’ll try to recover it. The other is the famous Apple 1984 ad:  read more »