PEA Soup

Gary Watson Fest, November 3-5, 2016

Just to wet your whistle, this is an announcement of a conference celebrating Gary Watson's work to take place on November 3-5, 2016 in New Orleans, LA (probably at the Intercontinental Hotel).  The proceedings will begin on Thursday, November 3, with an interview of Gary conducted by John Martin Fischer.  Committed speakers over the next two days include Antony Duff, Harry Frankfurt, Jeanette Kennett, Michael McKenna, Tim Scanlon, Michael Smith, Jay Wallace, and Susan Wolf.  The conference will conclude with Gary Watson discussing and responding to critical themes raised.  

Mark your calendars!  (The conference is being organized by Justin Coates, Neal Tognazzini, and David Shoemaker.  Registration will be free, and all are welcome.  Just let me (Shoemaker) know.)

No More Soup for Us

We, the Davids Shoemaker and Sobel, have decided to step down from the managing of PEA Soup.  Shoemaker has been a co-editor of the blog since its inception in 2004 (with Dan Boisvert, Josh Glasgow, and Doug Portmore), and Sobel has been a co-editor since 2013.  During that run we have made a number of efforts to increase traffic, diversify the line-up, encourage greater participation, and partner with the top moral and political journals for sophisticated discussion of their leading articles.  While we have had some successes, we also recognize that it’s a changing internet world and we haven’t been as successful as we would have liked in some respects.  And we have also come to agree that we no longer have the energy required to move the blog forward in the ways that would be necessary to sustain its relevance in this changing world.  So we will be stepping down.

However, we also appreciate the value the blog could continue to have under the leadership of someone (or someones) who have the energy and wherewithal to keep it running and bring new ideas to the table.  We are thus looking to hear from people who would be willing to take it over.  There are some relatively minor financial costs to doing so, but the opportunities are great.  So we are asking for proposals from interested parties, consisting of a few paragraphs saying what ideas you might have for helping PEA Soup to flourish, along with a bit about your background, interest, and commitment.  Please send these “proposals of interest” to both dshoemakATtulaneDOTedu and davidsobel3ATgmailDOTcom, no later than December 31, 2015.  (We welcome co-managing proposals as well.)

SLACRR 2016: Call for abstracts

SLACRR: May 22-24, 2016 

Keynote Speaker: 
Paul Boghossian (NYU)

St. Louis Annual Conference on Reasons and Rationality provides a forum for new work on practical and theoretical reason, broadly construed. Please submit an anonymized abstract of 750-1500 words by January 15, 2016 to [email protected]. In writing your abstract, please bear in mind that full papers should be suitable for a 30 minute presentation. Please attach your abstract as a pdf file, the name of which should be based upon the title of your abstract.  (In other words, don't name your file FILE.pdf or ABSTRACT.pdf)

What to Submit

SLACRR includes papers in ethics, epistemology, and other areas of philosophy that deal with reasons, reasoning, or rationality. For instance, we would be interested in papers exploring such questions as:

• What is the relation between reasons for actions and reasons for beliefs?
• What are the sources of our reasons for belief?
• How are features of one's psychology relevant to reasons? 
• What is the relation between reasons and what we ought to do or believe?
• What is the relation between reasons and value?
• Are the requirements of practical and theoretical rationality normative? 
• What is the relation between individual rationality and collective rationality?
• Are actions or beliefs themselves structured by reasons?

Of course, this is just a small sample of questions. Further questions can also be directed to Eric Wiland, Julia Staffel, Kathryn Lindeman, or to [email protected]

 

Sex Work is Different

This post was inspired by a story in the WaPo, the relevant detail of which is that, due to the economic hardship in Greece, some young Greek women are selling sex for the price of a sandwich they cannot otherwise afford to buy. Also, the argument I want to make may be old news; this is not a topic where I have a lot of familiarity with the literature.

There are basically two moral views about sex work, which I will define for present purposes as the exchange of money for some form of sex in short-term, one-off transactions. (So, here, sex work is prostitution.) One view is that sex work is a lot like other kinds of work, except it is mostly performed by women and, due to various kinds of sexism and discrimination, has historically been stigmatized and exploited labor. The right course is to learn to treat sex work as normal work, and enact appropriate regulation that protects the sex workers, in the same spirit one would legally protect other kinds of workers.

The other moral view, which I take to be encoded in most state laws in the US (I can’t speak for elsewhere), is that sex work is morally problematic in some deeper way. The usual thought, I believe, is that it degrades the sex worker; sex work is intrinsically undignified. The proper way to handle sex work is to proscribe it entirely, where this is practical, and in any case discourage it.   What follows is an argument in favor of this general view.

The Marc Sanders Prize in Metaethics

In keeping with its mission of encouraging and recognizing excellence in philosophy, The Marc Sanders Foundation seeks to highlight the importance of ongoing support for the work of younger scholars. As part of this commitment, the Foundation has dedicated resources to an ongoing essay competition, designed to promote excellent research and writing in metaethics on the part of younger scholars. More information about the Sanders Prize in Metaethics, and the Marc Sanders Foundation, can be found at http://www.marcsandersfoundation.org/sanders-prizes/metaethics/. 

    The Marc Sanders Prize in Metaethics is an annual essay competition open to scholars who are within fifteen years of receiving a Ph.D. or students who are currently enrolled in a graduate program. Independent scholars may also be eligible, and should direct inquiries to the Editor of Oxford Studies in Metaethics Russ Shafer-Landau, at [email protected].  The award for the prizewinning essay is $10,000, and winning essays will be published in Oxford Studies in Metaethics. The recipient of the award will be expected to present his or her paper at the 2^nd Annual Chapel Hill Metaethics Workshop, Sept 9-11, 2016. More information about the Workshop can be found at http://metaethicsworkshop.web.unc.edu/.

    Submitted essays must present original research in metaethics.  Essays should be between 7,500 and 12,000 words.  Since winning essays will appear in Oxford Studies in Metaethics, submissions must not be under review elsewhere. To be eligible for this year’s prize, submissions must be received, electronically, by March 1, 2016.  Refereeing will be blind; authors should omit remarks and references that might disclose their identities. Receipt of submissions will be acknowledged by e-mail. The winner will be determined by a committee of members of the Editorial Board of Oxford Studies in Metaethics and will be announced in early June. 

    All submissions and inquiries should be directed to the Prize Administrator, Russ Shafer-Landau, at [email protected].