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I've mentioned de Botton's work on this blog a couple of times before, but I'm going to do it again. This talk, which appears to have grown out of his recent book (index of reviews here), really just rehearses ancient theories of emotion - check his analysis of envy at about 5:30 against Aristotle's Rhetoric 2.10. His prognosis for modern society is--without using the word 'catharsis'--lifted from the Poetics.

But the originality of insight isn't what is important here. De Botton applies these ancient ideas to our experiences in advanced capitalism with an ease of prose that is enviable. And he may be the only (except perhaps Randy Pausch) voice out there speaking against the dominate model of a successful life.

I'm considering assigning this for my FYS, after the Athens game, during which the students read the Rhetoric, to help the students bridge back from the embeded, liminal experience of the Reacting pedagogy to the real world of American political discourse.

YouTube - Alain de Botton: A kinder, gentler philosophy of success

I've no doubt missed a number of these, but here are a few that I caught:
Leszek Kolakowski dies at 81; exiled Polish philosopher - Los Angeles Times

History News Network - by Christopher Hitchens

Leszek Kolakowski | The Blog | Chicago Reader

Polish philosopher Leszek Kolakowski dead at 81 - Forbes.com

Leszek Kolakowski, 1927-2009: Polish philosopher -- chicagotribune.com

UPDATE 8/6 (thanks to Stephen Clark @ Liverpool)

Professor Leszek Kolakowski: philosopher -TimesOnline

Leszek Kolakowski - Telegraph

Polish philosopher Leszek Kolakowski dead at 81 - Guardian  read more »

Worldnetdaily - wnd.com - a site that appears to trade in right wing conspiracy theories has a bizarre, but useful, article 'unmasking' Henry Louis Gates Jr. The author spends almost half of the article criticizing DuBois - because, apparantly, having a persons' name on your endowed chair means that their political affiliations from a century ago are yours, today. The most hilarous one, however, is his salvoy at our (i.e. the APA's) current (or is it former) president: Meet the man at center of Obama's race controversy

Gates also lured to Harvard socialist sympathizer Kwame Anthony Appiah, a Ghanaian philosopher, cultural theorist and novelist, as well as William Julius Wilson, who is close to the Democrat Socialists of America.

Good for use in Critical thinking no?

For example: why 'Ghanaian'? Appiah is as much British as Ghanaian. Actually, he's now an American - so why not 'American'? He was raised in England and attended Cambridge. If you've ever heard him speak, you'd think he was a relative of the Queen.

Actually, he is. So how about 'aristocratic'?  He is related to both the Asante and British royal family.  His parent's wedding, held in Westminster Abbey, was written up in the Times (go ahead, look it up. It was a big thing back then.  I remember some passage from the times mentioning 'barefooted Africans,' but it's been 10 years since I read it, so I might be mis-remembering).  read more »

MSU has announced that the Philosophy and Religious Studies departments are going to be be housed together for the purposes of minimizing administrative overhead. This is a little worrying for the folks at MSU.  I'm in a 'joint' department, and I have to say, it hurts both sides. In our school, Philosophy is either completely misunderstood, or is viewed as some kind of character-forming hobby.  Religious Studies, on the other hand, is viewed as pre-theology school. As my friend in RelStudies said 'people who think these two disciplines have something in common haven't studied either in 50 years.'

 The benefit that the administration reaps in keeping us together has the cost of perpetuating the myth that Philosophy and Religious studies are not disciplines in their own right. We have enough misunderstanding to counter in the academy. This simply doesn't help.

The article goes out of the way to claim that neither department is under threat. But sticking the two together cannot help the profile of either.

The State News: MSU philosophy and religious studies departments might soon be housed together

Projo.com, a news source for Providence and Rhode Island, has a book review / profile of Pessin's two books: The God Question and the 60-Second Philosopher.  Both are written for the public, so are probably suitable for an intro class and /or First year seminar:
Philosopher urges us: Don’t just sit there, think! | projo.com | The Providence Journal Books |

'The Australian' has an article on the putative brain-drain of Australian Philosophers to our shores:
Great minds think America | The Australian

AUSTRALIAN-trained philosophers are in big demand among US universities.

The reasons given include the dire funding situation in Oz, a shift in the emphasis away from humanistic research toward practical, and the strong analytic tradition in Aussie Philosophy.  The article is a little jumbled, so it is hard to piece together what role the different responsibilities of teaching play here.  For example (quoted as printed):

"Teaching is taken very seriously," says Boston's Daniel Star, but when it comes to such time-consuming chores as marking, graduate-level "teaching assistants" pitch in.

The increased separation of teaching and research of the Dawkins era of the 1990s, says Godfrey-Smith, ushered in "a funding model that privileges certain kinds of projects, those with practical application, at the expense of more abstract and reflective projects of the kind generally undertaken in philosophy".

The view of Australian humanities departments as increasingly "unpleasant", says Priest, is "a view that I share with most of my colleagues".  read more »

From the FT.com. It might be worth including an a class discussing the so-called 'culture wars' or the 'clash of civilizations'.  I can't testify to its value as a work of philosophy, but it might be worth looking at:
FT.com / Books / Non-Fiction - In Search of Civilization

Remember, Online Conversations Are Not All About You

In ordinary conversation, there's always a subterranean effort to tell people about yourself, and sometimes it's more or less appropriate," says John Perry, a philosopher at Stanford. "Online conversations are similarly goal-oriented. And irrelevant disclosures come across as pretentious." In other words, people will notice—and dislike—sneaky self-aggrandizement. Trust me, I saw way too much of that at Harvard.

If you haven't read it yet:
Why We Must Ration Health Care - NYTimes.com

Harriet E. Baber (USanDiedo) [And, I believe, a member of the AAPT!] has a peice in the Gaurdian critiquing the 'New Atheists' for believing in non-belief.  I'm not entirely sure that's warranted, but how often do you read sentences like this in the newpaper:

The philosopher's God | HE Baber | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

I believe that ordinary material objects are 4-dimensional aggregates of temporal parts.

John Immerwahr, over at Teach Philosophy 101 has been posting a number of creative ideas, with examples, on his 'what's new' blog. His RSS feed is syndicated here (look on the lower right), but I think some of these are worth drawing particular attention to. His collection of student generated websites by first-year Villanova students is good, and the idea of adapting 'pecha-kucha' for student presentations is excellent. He also has blog entries on innovative ideas such as student-produced DVDs and graphic syllabi.  Enjoy!

Alain de Botton's series has been posted on Channel 4's site. The series is based on his book 'The Consolations of Philosophy', and it's worth watching.
Philosophy: A Guide to Happiness - Channel 4

The West Australian has an article interviewing a sex-working Philosophy student:
Perth philosophy student tells of life as sex worker : thewest.com.au

I don't post rants or political diatribes on this blog. I usually reserve those for my classroom ;). But I do like to collect examples of public discourse that can be used for instruction in the Critical Thinking classroom. This story--of how Sarah Palin quoted "Plato" on her Twitter account, when in fact there is no such Plato quote--is a perfect example for timely CT instruction. It is one of those that can open one up to charges of political bias, but look: Obama just doesn't make these kind of mistakes. Maybe it's because he's actually read Plato! (oh, there I go, showing my bias... damn.).

So: here's the putative quote:

Here's a progressive political blog attempting to find the *actual* source of the quote: Think Progress » Aspiring philosopher Palin quotes ‘Plato.’

I've searched google books as well, and found it attributed to a 'old saying' in No Props: Great Games with No Equipment‎ - Page 12 (good), and Plato (bad) in:  read more »

If you have a January term that allows for study trips, like we do, and have been stymied in try trying to come up with an excuse to take students somewhere warm, like, say... Greece... the the case for such a trip was just made slightly stronger:
Ancient Lyceum of Aristotle to open to public in late July

For those of us without great research libraries and full-text databases, sites like the Nietzsche source are a godsend (please pardon the irony):
Nietzsche Source - Home

A heartfelt thanks to Christine McCarthy Madsen (Oxford) for making this available.

It appears that inappropriate cuts of Philosophy programs are not limited to Middle Tennessee or Southern Louisiana:

Philosophers don't think much of university staff cuts | The Australian

Peter Singer, arguably Australia's best-known philosopher with an international reputation as an ethicist and animal rights advocate, said the cuts at the end of 2007 had undermined the university's "Melbourne Model", which encouraged a broad undergraduate education.

Statement by the Honourable James Moore, Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages, on the Presentation of the 2009 Canada Council for the Arts Molson Prizes

Made possible by a $1-million endowment by the Molson Family Foundation to the Canada Council for the Arts, the Prizes aim to encourage Canadians to pursue their work in the Canadian arts and humanities sectors and to contribute to Canada's cultural and intellectual heritage.

The NY Times has a touching story about Darrel Griffen Sr's memoir of his son, who was killed in Iraq. The whole story is behind the password barrier, but here's the part that is most interesting: Books of The Times - ‘Last Journey’ by Darrell Griffin Sr. - A Mourning Father’s Tribute to the Son He Lost in War - Review - NYTimes.com  read more »

Austin College, which was just rated in the top 10 for job satisfaction by the Chronicle, just hired Marjorie Hass (Muhlenberg) as their next president. Unbelievably good news. Now I just have one question: are they hiring?

Austin College welcomes new president | News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas Morning News | News: Education

Austin College. Sherman, Texas