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There has been some coverage of Matthew Crawford's forthcoming book "Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry Into the Value of Work", which was excerpted at the NY Times last Thursday. Indeed, the article is currently the 2nd most emailed:

The Case for Working With Your Hands - NYTimes.com

My interest here stems from the fact that Crawford has a PhD from UChicago in Political Philosophy.  Obviously, I can't attest to the entire book, but the excerpt looks excellent. And like the last post, this could be a superb intro book for a First Year Seminar course. I'm actually thinking of suggesting it as a summer reading, but I can assure you that it would will get nixed by those worried about the fabled 'Summer melt'! 

Still, many (dare I say most?) of the students who show up at my college have little understanding of why they are there. Probing these questions - the value of higher education and the kinds of jobs to which they will have access after graduation - is a worthwhile endeavor.  If only because they have (generally) never actually considered an alternative lifestyle to the one laid out for them by their social status.

 UPDATE 6/8: 

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Simon Critchley (New School), recently famous for the Book of Dead Philosophers, has followed up with a short op-ed in the NY Times on happiness. The essay builds entirely from Rousseau's autobiography, analyzing happiness as a feeling of existence, rather than an emotion. [Technically, it Critchley doesn't oppose his analysis to the traditional 'emotional model' of happiness, if I can call it that.  He only opposes his view against those who think it is "quantitative or measureable" or is "the object of any science, old or new"]

Happy Like God - Happy Days Blog - NYTimes.com

Could be useful for starting a discussion in an intro class.

Alfred University posted a press release honoring 25 years of service from William Dibrell:
Alfred University : News

The Hay festival - a festival of music and literature - in Wales is including Philosophers in this year's program (programme, for the Brits). According to the story in the (sponsoring) Guardian:

Enlightenment comes to the Hay festival | Books | guardian.co.uk

The mix of philosophy and music is a natural one, says festival director Hilary Lawson. "The title of the festival is How The Light Gets In and that indicates what we're about – bringing light into our lives through ideas. The Enlightenment meant exactly the same thing: bringing light into a world of authority and darkness. Music is trying to bring that same light in and one doesn't want to think that philosophy is just about arguing over a concept but bringing ideas in a more general way into our lives. We don't want it to feel like something dry and dull. We have some parties too."

Another story from across the pond about the good work of the Philosophy Shop. This one starts with the rather hilarious teaser:

Camden News: Eleanor Palmer Primary School | The Philosophy Shop | Campaign for Real Education | sto Miriam Cohen Christofidis

...when one philosopher, aged eight, demonstrated the nature of experience by making a fellow thinker hit his own face repeatedly.

The NY Times had an article last week (5/17) on the rise of cheater-enabling sites like coursehero.com, cramster, koofers.com, and sparknotes.  These sites are worrisome enough, but here's my primary concern. The columbia student that the NY Times interviewed said:

Psst! Need the Answer to No. 7? Click Here. - NYTimes.com

“Many professors who return homework won’t tell you how you got it wrong — just that it’s wrong. This way you can complete the feedback process, which is essential to learning.”

Uh... Yeah. That's the point of grading. Isn't it? Am I missing something here? Do other faculty actually turn papers back without giving feedback?  Is that why I see all my colleagues relaxing in the week before grades are due? Isn't providing feedback on student work the central task of teaching?

The Independent's 'Career Adviser' column attempts to answer the question 'Should I do a degree in Philosophy'?  I bring this to your attention merely because unlike all answers to this question I've ever seen in the U.S., this answer appears to be based on real data! Nothing insightful, specific or all that memorable, of course, but at least it isn't anecdotal!

The Careers Adviser: Should I do a degree in philosophy? And how can I get a job researching the medicinal benefits of plants? - Getting a Job, Career Planning - The Independent

I caught this movie review in the Post the other day - it's an independent film covering a conflict around a 'squatters' community garden in East L.A.  Locke's notion on property does not explicitly appear in the movie, but it clearly informs the conflict that the movie protrays--and the Post review!  Keep an eye out for this movie--it may be very useful in Social-Political and/or British Empiricism classes:

Movie Review: Philip Kennicott on the Oscar-Nominated Documentary 'The Garden' - washingtonpost.com

Erasmo Calzadilla has published parts 2 and 3 of his discussion of dismissal from the University of Havana:

The Philosophy that I Liked to Teach (2) - Havana Times.org

The Philosophy that I like to Teach (3) - Havana Times.org

Larrey Anderson, conservative commentator for the 'American Thinker', has an interesting story about his experiences as a student under Nozick at Harvard:
American Thinker: The Attitude of Ideology

I've always had a great deal of respect for Nozick as a Philosopher and Teacher, even though I disagree with him on a number of issues. This is a rare glimpse into a student-faculty relationship with one of the greatest practitioners of that delicate art. And it is well worth reading, if you can get past the side-swiping ad hominem attacks at liberals.

Shelia J Curran, consultant and "former executive director of the Duke University Career Center and served in a similar role at Brown University", has an article in Business week titled:

Philosophy Majors: Get a Job - BusinessWeek
She concludes, roughly, that experience in the work-world is more important than intellectual achievement when it comes to hiring decisions, and hence:  read more »

The Herald.ie has an odd short story about a convicted murderer studying for his Philosophy PhD:

Philosophy exam for wife killer - National News, Frontpage - Herald.ie

Wife killer Joe O'Reilly has hit the books ahead of exams which will help him earn a doctorate in philosophy.

O'Reilly (36) below, who murdered his wife Rachel in the family home, is studying hard in the Midlands prison where he is serving a life sentence.

We should probably resist the temptation to spew forth all those bad jokes that we welling up... What is it that we always say about ethicists?

I all seriousness, this case is worth thinking about: like many of my colleagues in Phil, I believe that studying Philosophy has a kind of transformative power in the life of those who study it. This case seems to be the ultimate test of that naive belief.

Leiter is reporting that a former UT Austin PhD is one of the first four women elected to the Parliament in Kuwait:
Leiter Reports: A Philosophy Blog: Philosopher Aseel al-Awadi One of First Four Women Elected to Parliament in Kuwait!

Next time a student asks you what you can do with a Philosophy degree: just refer them here!

NY Times coverage of the election:

First Women Win Seats in Kuwait Parliament

I've been seeing some buzz in the British press about the Cannes premier of 'Agora', a movie about the ancient philosopher Hypatia (Wikipedia entry). The reviews have largely been about the real-life Hypatia, rather than the movie, but it is worth keeping an eye on:

Alejandro Amenabar's Agora: a gift for classicists | Culture | guardian.co.uk

AFP: Spain's Amenabar brings Cannes toga-clad philosophy flick

For anyone teaching Phil. of Perception, Metaphysics or just the primary/secondary quality distinction:

The 5th annual 'Best Visual Illusion of the Year' contest has some seriously cool illusions this year. The best of which is a great motion illusion:
The break of the curveball « Best Visual Illusion of the Year Contest - curveball [Shapiro, Lu, Knight and Ennis]
Make sure you try 'reversal' as well. Who knew that spatial contrast effects could cross the 'modality' boundary between color and motion. Won't Berkeley be happy!

The others / runners up are here:
http://illusioncontest.neuralcorrelate.com/

Erasmo Clazadilla, a self-described 33-year old teacher of Phil at the University of Havana tells of the difficulty of teaching Philosophy in Cuba today.  While the story is certainly not complete here, he claims that one of the problems motivating and/or excusing his dismissal from the University was that his students couldn't tell what Philosophy was. Of course, we all know that Philosophy is:

...a science, the mother of all others, studying the most general laws of reality and thought, and that it establishes the relationship between being and thinking. This science, they say, is above all concerned with establishing whether the material or the spiritual is primary, and that true philosophy-ours, Marxist and revolutionary, confirmed by the advances of science-establishes that being determines thought.

The Philosophy that I Liked to Teach (I) - Havana Times.org

Even without knowing the full details of the story, I have to say that I stand by Clazadilla.

The Kansas City Star has a review of Professor of Philosophy Clancy Martin's recent novel 'How to Sell'. It looks promising:

After a lifetime of 'mistakes,' UMKC philosopher Clancy Martin emerges on the literary scene - Kansas City Star

UPDATE 5/21:

Art of the Deal - NYTimes

Clancy Martin's debut novel, How to Sell,' attempts to tell the truth about deception - SanLuisObispo.com

I thought I had started a blog post tracking the reviews of this one, but I can't find it. It certainly looks like this could be an useful introductory text for undergrads:

The philosopher and the wolf Mark Rowlands Mark Vernon TLS - 12/31/08

Jess’s Book Pick for May: The Philosopher and the Wolf: Lessons in Love, Death, and Happiness by Mark Rowlands. - Monsters and Critics - 5/1 (short) (contains link to interview with Rowlands before the publication: http://www.cosmoetica.com/DSI14.htm).

We should care because humans and animals are different | Mark Vernon | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk 5/8 (some analysis)

The Philosopher and the Wolf: Lessons From the Wild, By Mark Rowlands - Reviews, Books - The Independent - 5/10 (v. short)
 

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I've always suspected that bad economic and political situations yield more interest in Philosophy. The same, I believe, holds for cartooning, but that's a side note. [The Far Side / XKCD?] Anyway, the sundayherald from scotland seems to have the same analysis:

When The World Just Doesnt Add Up Pupils Turn To Philosophy (from Sunday Herald)

In contrast to the flagging fortunes of economics and accountancy, Higher Politics is up 138%, Higher Music has grown by 16%, and the number taking the Philosophical Studies Higher has grown by 25% over five years.

Oddly enough, this is actually the last line of the article. The rest is all about the cuts to funding by the SNP. Your guess as to why this became the headline is as good as mine...

The Lawrentian (Lawrence U, Appleton, WI) has a memorial profile of William Broadman:

William Boardman Professor Emeritus of Philosophy 1939-2009 - News

...joined the philosophy department at Lawrence in 1965 following graduate school at the University of Minnesota. He retired in 2002 and devoted his life to his family and to leisurely reading, a pursuit he did not have time for when he was teaching.