AAPT Members American Association of Philosophy Teachers

The researchers from the University of Munster carried out the human study after results in rats suggested that memory could be boosted by a diet containing 30% fewer calories than normal.

The study volunteers, who had an average age of 60, were split into three groups - the first had a balanced diet containing the normal number of calories, the second had a similar diet but with a higher proportion of unsaturated fatty acids, such as those found in olive oil and fish. The final group

I bookmarked this one ages ago, but forgot to blog it. USNews and World Report ran a series in Dec. on '50 Ways to Improve Your Life'. Diane Cole wrote a short note called "Learn Philosophy," highlighting the ethics bowl.

In January, they published a letter to the editor from Felicia Nimue Ackerman, Professor of Philosophy, Brown University:

As a philosophy professor, I am embarrassed to see an officer of my
professional organization advertising philosophy as teaching skills
that are "wonderfully transferable" to a range of careers without
giving any hard evidence for his claim ["Brush Up Your Socrates"].
Must professional philosophers hawk their product like used-car
salesmen nowadays. Whatever happened to studying philosophy for its own
sake rather than as a smart career move?

She has a point, especially about the lack of evidence. But come on. The original article contained 344 words. And not everyone teaching Philosophy has the luxury of teaching solely to students pursuing wisdom for its own sake. Many of us, who teach at colleges and universities not fully endowed, are required to defend our value in the academy in terms of our support for other more practical pursuits, such as pre-law.  read more »

By Jonathan D. Moreno, "philosopher by training", and professor of bioethics in the Department of History and Sociology of Science and the Department of Medical Ethics.
1/20/09, Talk About Teaching and Learning - Almanac, Vol. 55, No. 18

This is a poetic response I wrote in 2003 to a piece fo writing called "Principia Metaphysica" by Colin McGinn. It is a bit 'in-jokey', so reading the original may make it more fun to read. On the other hand, it might work alone. I'm not sure. Comments and criticisms definately encouraged. BTW, Colin's website seems to be causing trouble at the moment.

Metaphorysics

1. Philo

In the study, Prof. Fried observed the neural activity in the brains of 13 epilepsy patients, as the patients watched clips from TV shows like Seinfeld and The Simpsons. A short while after, the test subjects were asked to describe what they remembered from the video clips. During recall, the exact same neurons that had fired while viewing a clip fired once again while the subject was recalling it. Soon, the researchers were able to predict what clip the subjects would recall just by looking

The popular press is excited by the prospect of a drug designed to delete memories we don't wish to retain. The story reads like a super-villian's research proposal. It's a pity the research isn't about 'memories' as most people understand them. The current research shows that

Donald H Taylor at ‘trainingzone.co.uk’ has an article about recent research on the myth of remembering only 10% of what you read, etc.: Modern myths of learning: You only remember 10% of what you read. It follows the research summarized at ‘Will at Work’: People remember 10%, 20%…Oh Really? This research has been around for a while (and it has been discussed widely since the ‘will at work’ post in 2006), but what I find the most interesting is the last section of the trainingzone.co.uk post:  read more »

The unexamined life is not living, but is the unexamined course worth giving? Is there any value in giving in-class blue book exams in philosophy? Let’s exclude logic and critical thinking, what is the advantage to timed exams?  read more »

[Post by Phil Jenkins]

Unlike brain surgery, the practice of philosophy shouldn’t be limited to professionals. That’s why I run a Socrates Café at the Scranton, PA public library. We are having our fourth monthly meeting tonight. We had 4 people attend the first month, 10 the second, and 21 last time. Because of the publicity created by the above linked article, the library is now thinking about expanding to two meetings per month, and maybe doing a third for 8-10 year olds.  read more »

[Post by Phil Jenkins]

One of the biggest challenges in teaching philosophy to beginning students is demonstrating its relevance to their lives. This year I’m experimenting with movies and videos, both through mail services and free content on the web, and I think the results may actually be working, though the semester is admittedly still young.  read more »