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Helen De Cruz
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Collective academic overwork and survivor guilt are a labor issue
In February, before I finally made time to see my primary care provider, I was working very intensely, being totally overwhelmed. I'd been in this state of overwhelm since late 2021 when we were out of the height of the pandemic and our temporary grace and acknowledgment that things are... Continue reading
Posted May 7, 2024 at The Philosophers' Cocoon
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Edited volumes as acts of resistance
Chiara Ambrosio begins her book review of Milena Ivanova and Steven French's edited volume The Aesthetics of Science: Beauty, Imagination and Understanding (2022) as follows: Edited collections are acts of resistance. We are told that they weigh less in research assessments and that book chapters are not as valuable as... Continue reading
Posted Mar 16, 2024 at The Philosophers' Cocoon
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On Gilles Deleuze's birthday: on the philosophical significance of co-authoring
Posted Jan 18, 2024 at The Philosophers' Cocoon
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The loss of Twitter for the philosophical community
A lot of philosophy twitter accounts have gone dormant (like mine) or have now disappeared. What are we losing with the philosophical Twitter community? I always liked the prickliness of Twitter and the resistance to a kind of conformity mindset I often encounter on FB and other places. However, the... Continue reading
Posted Dec 20, 2023 at The Philosophers' Cocoon
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Against squeezing too much orange juice from few oranges
I'm reading an enthralling book on the Somerville Quartet of female Oxford philosophers, Metaphysical Animals by Clare Mac Cumhail and Rachael Wiseman. It led me to look again at the work of GEM Anscombe, Philippa Foot, Iris Murdoch, and Mary Midgley. Prior to this book, I only knew Midgley's work... Continue reading
Posted Dec 13, 2023 at The Philosophers' Cocoon
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On papers that are hard sells for journals
I recently submitted a paper to a journal. It's a triple-anonymous journal so the editors don't know that it's me, and I won't discuss its content here, so anonymous review is not compromised by talking about the paper here. It's been a while--over a year--since I last sent a non-invited... Continue reading
Posted Nov 18, 2023 at The Philosophers' Cocoon
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Philosophical friends and epistemic partiality in friendship
The history of philosophy is replete with passionate, deep, and inspiring philosophical friendships. Consider Huizi and Zhuangzi, Elisabeth of Bohemia and René Descartes, David Hume and Adam Smith, Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, Isabelle Stengers and Bruno Latour, and the “Somerville Quartet” of women philosophers in Oxford during and after... Continue reading
Posted Oct 28, 2023 at The Philosophers' Cocoon
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Philosophical competence, language, and the perplexing Gavagai problem
Many grad students at the department where I work ... Continue reading
Posted Sep 26, 2023 at The Philosophers' Cocoon
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Philosophy in Senegal
This is the thirty-third installment of The Cocoon Goes Global, a series that gives a sense of what the philosophy profession looks like outside of the Anglophone West. This installment is by Hady Ba, Associate-Professor of Philosophy, is the Head of the Philosophy Department at Cheikh Anta Diop University’s Teachers... Continue reading
Posted Sep 24, 2023 at The Philosophers' Cocoon
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To be a philosopher in Ukraine
This is the thirty-second installment of The Cocoon Goes Global, a series that gives a sense of what the philosophy profession looks like outside of the Anglophone West. This is a guest post by Viatkina Nataliia Department of Logic and Methodology of Science, Skovoroda Institute of Philosophy, National Academy of... Continue reading
Posted Sep 10, 2023 at The Philosophers' Cocoon
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Thoughts on networking: the good, the bad, the tacky
Early-career academics often get some version of this advice: “Network already! Don’t be worried if it feels distasteful. Just call it “professional friendships.” It’s vital for your career.” I’ve been thinking about putting the onus on networking on early-career academics like this. How, if at all, are we to think... Continue reading
Posted Sep 7, 2023 at The Philosophers' Cocoon
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It's OK to have an inefficient writing process
I'll let you in on a secret. I am a luddite when it comes to writing. I don't have bibliographical management tools other than a huge master BibTex document that I began to compile in 2009 or so for my dissertation. I don't use any AI-powered writing software, nor do... Continue reading
Posted Sep 2, 2023 at The Philosophers' Cocoon
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The Happy Sophist (guest post by Eric Schliesser)
This is a guest post by Eric Schliesser, University of Amsterdam Because my dad resented being shunted into the family business – and disguised his anger at himself for not escaping this fate – he made it very clear that unlike his parents, he was willing to support me in... Continue reading
Posted Jul 20, 2023 at The Philosophers' Cocoon
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On the merits of low-key, low-standard philosophy
Reinventing yourself A blogpost by Liam Kofi Bright on how he no longer believes in his work begins in the following sobering way For a while now I have been unable (unwilling is what I should say, but from the inside it feels stronger than that) to really commit to... Continue reading
Posted Jul 18, 2023 at The Philosophers' Cocoon
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Women Philosophers in the Twitter ‘Manosphere’ (or, that light-hearted Hume Tweet that ended in r*pe threats)
Posted May 11, 2023 at The Philosophers' Cocoon
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Philosophy in France
This is the thirty-first installment of The Cocoon Goes Global, a series that gives a sense of what the philosophy profession looks like outside of the Anglophone West. This guest post is by, Cédric Paternotte is an assistant professor in philosophy at Sorbonne University (Science, Norms, Democracy research team) France... Continue reading
Posted May 1, 2023 at The Philosophers' Cocoon
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Philosophy on dying social media platforms
"I'm working through a line of thought, a feeling and an instinct. Not an original one but not one I've fully internalized or understood yet. But the way that a need to profit runs counter to the value of the internet. A need for money broke Twitter, long before the... Continue reading
Posted Dec 20, 2022 at The Philosophers' Cocoon
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Some thoughts on gatekeeping
Gatekeeping has a bad rap. Still, though we loathe it, academics do it all the time. Our institutions depend on the well functioning of various gatekeeping mechanisms--mechanisms that help discern what should be funded or published, and what doesn't. For instance, I am associate editor for journals Ergo and for... Continue reading
Posted Dec 19, 2022 at The Philosophers' Cocoon
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In Defense of Boring and Derivative Philosophy (by J. Dmitri Gallow)
This is a guest post by J Dmitri Gallow. Dmitri thinks about the metaphysics of causation and chance, rational choice, and formal epistemology. He is a senior research fellow at the Dianoia Institute of Philosophy at ACU. This post has also appeared in Daily Nous. I often hear papers, talks,... Continue reading
Posted Dec 12, 2022 at The Philosophers' Cocoon
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"Pay me for my expertise"--on the issue of honoraria for talks by academics
Every few years (months?) discussion surfaces on what a "fair" remuneration is for academics who give a talk. For instance, today on Twitter Jennifer van Alstyne argued that PhD holders should charge a minimum of $3500 for a one-hour talk. This struck many as unrealistic. Very few academics other than,... Continue reading
Posted Dec 5, 2022 at The Philosophers' Cocoon
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The wagon has three wheels: Reimagining philosophy of action from a working class perspective
This is a guest post by Deborah Nelson Bio: Deborah Nelson received a Master’s Degree in Philosophy from Brandeis University in 2014 and a Ph.D. in Philosophy from UCR in September 2022. Her dissertation examined the philosophy of action literature for class-centrism and proposed advancing this literature by balancing the... Continue reading
Posted Oct 3, 2022 at The Philosophers' Cocoon
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The journals we don't write in, because they don't exist
The space of possible journals in philosophy is much bigger than what is actually on offer. Consider the most prestigious journals (an exercise done every few years) and what appears there: Philosophy and Phenomenological Research (not much phenomenology published there), Journal of Philosophy, Philosophical Review, Mind (OK. Mind is a... Continue reading
Posted Aug 18, 2022 at The Philosophers' Cocoon
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Participate in a survey on non-academic careers (guest post by the APA non-academic careers committee)
The APA Non-Academic Careers Committee is seeking input and feedback on how it can better serve philosophers in and out of the profession. To this end, the Committee has created a survey: https://delaware.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3JCIC4U196id4ma While the Committee is particularly interested in hearing from philosophers who have left academia or are considering... Continue reading
Posted Aug 8, 2022 at The Philosophers' Cocoon
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Does hybrid conferencing "degrade" the conference experience?
I am grateful to the APA for their decision to implement (at least as a test) the proposal that Philosophers for Sustainability launched to have one of the divisional conferences go virtual. They agreed to implement our proposal starting 2025. I think this is a step in the right direction.... Continue reading
Posted Aug 4, 2022 at The Philosophers' Cocoon
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Finding first readers for your paper
Your manuscript (book chapter, paper etc) needs a first reader (also known as "alpha reader" in literature critique) to spot obvious problems before it goes out for review. We know that many great papers need multiple tries at journals before they land. I read a lot of referee reports in... Continue reading
Posted Jul 25, 2022 at The Philosophers' Cocoon
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