PEA Soup

Replacing the Philosophy Journals Wiki with Something Much Better

Some time ago, I started the Philosophy Journal Wiki. But as has been rightly pointed out here, the Philosophy Journal Wiki leaves a lot to be desired. Thankfully, Andrew Cullison has taken it upon himself to come up with a better version. I think that what he has in the works is excellent, but before he gets it up and running he's looking for some feedback. Over at his blog, he's created a small model of what he has in mind. Please click on this link http://www.andrewcullison.com/2009/07/best-journal-survey-method-so-far/ and check it out. Leave any useful feedback that you have there, not here. 

Welcome, Jason Brennan

We're pleased to announce that Jason Brennan has accepted our invitation to become a contributor. Here's a brief biography, which I borrow from his web site: "JASON BRENNAN (Ph.D., 2007, University of Arizona) is Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Research, at Brown University, and a member of the Political Theory Project, an interdisciplinary research center at Brown. He specializes in metaethics, normative ethics, and political philosophy. His current research is on voting ethics, and he is developing a new liberal, pluralistic theory of civic virtue that emphasizes the public value of private, non-political activity. Together with David Schmidtz, he is the author of A Brief History of Liberty, forthcoming from Blackwell in August 2009. His second book, The Ethics of Voting, is under contract with Princeton University Press." Please join me in welcoming Jason.

Global Comments Feed...

... returns, thanks to Simon Rippon.  You can find the feed link in the top Navigation Bar.

Thank you, Simon, for getting this global comments feed back up and running for us!

Happy Fifth Birthday!

Thank you all—contributors, commentators, and readers—for another great year in the Soup!   This month marks PEA Soup's fifth "birthday" on the blogosphere, and because of all of you, it was clearly the best.  Thank you!

To celebrate, we've introduced a new design theme—Lone Tree Green!—and we've added a list of our contributors' most recent books.  Most importantly, we've put together a small "2008-2009 Yearbook" to highlight some of the noteworthy events that happened this year on the Soup, and, especially, events that happened to and for some of our contributors.  If contributors or readers have any more good news to share, please feel free to add it in the comments section.  So, thank you all again, and… drum roll please…

Conference - THICK CONCEPTS

Friday 3rd - Sunday 5th July 2009
University of Kent, UK
Sponsors: The Analysis Trust, The Mind Association, The University of Kent.

Speakers include: Jonathan Dancy, Daniel Elstein, Allan Gibbard, Edward Harcourt, Chris Hookway, Adrian Moore, Michael Smith, Alan Thomas, Pekka Vayrynen, and Nick Zangwill, as well as PEA Soup's very own Brad Cokelet, Simon Kirchin, Jussi Suikkanen and Eric Wiland!

Call for Abstracts

The first Annual Arizona Workshop on Normative Ethics will take place in Tucson, Arizona, at the Westward Look Resort on January 7-9, 2010. Keynote speakers will be Thomas E. Hill (UNC, Chapel Hill), Holly Smith (Rutgers), and Peter Railton (Michigan).

Those interested in presenting a paper at the workshop are invited to submit a 2-3 abstract (double-spaced) by June 1, 2009. Only one submission per person is permitted. Abstracts will be evaluated by a program committee and decisions made in early July.

Welcome, Adrienne Martin!

We are pleased to announce that Adrienne Martin, Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania, has accepted our invitation to become a contributor here at PEA Soup.  Adrienne works on agency, practical reasoning, and Kantian ethics.  Her writings have appeared in such publications as Pacific Philosophical Quarterly and the Hastings Center Report.  Welcome!

We are pleased to announce that Adrienne Martin, Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania, has accepted our invitation to become a contributor here at PEA Soup.  Adrienne works on agency, practical reasoning, and Kantian ethics.  Her writings have appeared in such publications as Pacific Philosophical Quarterly and the Hastings Center Report.  Welcome!

A Request for Help Regarding Imperfect Duties

At the moment, I’m interested in imperfect duties and, in particular, the duty of beneficence, and I need some help tracking down the relevant literature with regard to two particular aspects of this duty. First, it seems to me that the duty of beneficence is not a duty to do x amount of good for others (where x is some percentage of the total amount of good that one could possibly do for others), but is instead a duty to dedicate y percent of one’s time and/or resources to helping others. If it were the former as opposed to the latter, then, a person who donates only to NPR (National Public Radio) would have to donate twenty times as much as a relevantly similar person who instead donates only to Oxfam if Oxfam does twenty times as much good for others as NPR does with the same quantity of donated monies. Now, surely, someone has made this point, but since I don’t know the literature that well, could you tell me who and where.

Welcome, Neil Sinhababu!

We are pleased to announce that Neil Sinhababu has accepted our invitation to become a contributor here at PEA Soup. Neil recently received a Ph.D. from the University of Texas, Austin, and is currently an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the National University of Singapore. Along with Brian Leiter, he is an editor of Nietzsche and Morality, to which he also contributed his “Vengeful Thinking and Moral Epistemology.” His paper “Possible Girls” appeared last year in the Pacific Philosophical Quarterly, and his paper “The Humean Theory of Motivation Reformulated and Defended” is forthcoming in The Philosophical Review.

Welcome, Lionel K. McPherson!

We are pleased to announce that Lionel K. McPherson has accepted our invitation to become a contributor here at PEA Soup. Lionel is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at Tufts University. He is the author of several journal articles, which have appeared in journals such as Ethics, Journal of Philosophy, and Philosophy & Public Affairs. His research interests include race, normativity, war and terrorism, and the basis and extent of our obligations.