Category Archives: Public Philosophizing

The ‘Broader Impacts’ of Sequestration on Science

CSID Director Bob Frodeman has some suggestions about the interconnection of research & society in post-austerity world. Now that we’ve been driven off the “fiscal cliff,” perhaps we should look around and assess the results. It turns out that sequestration … Continue reading

Posted in Accountability, Broader Impacts, Economics & STEM Research, Public Pedagogy, Public Philosophizing, Science and technology ramifications, STEM Policy, Sustainability, Risk Management, & Long-Term Security, TechnoScience & Technoscientism | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Who Killed the PrePrint, and Could It Make a Return? | Guest Blog, Scientific American Blog Network

A very interesting piece written on preprints here: Who Killed the PrePrint, and Could It Make a Return? | Guest Blog, Scientific American Blog Network. Preprints are essentially working papers that are ‘published’ in order to solicit feedback prior to … Continue reading

Posted in Future of the University, Libraries, Metrics, Open Access, Peer Review, Public Philosophizing, Science and technology ramifications, Sustainability, Risk Management, & Long-Term Security | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Re-engineering Ethics, Kelli Barr and Wenlong Lu « Social Epistemology Review and Reply Collective

CSID fellows Kelli Barr and Wenlong Lu just published a thoughtful piece at the Social Epistemology Review & Reply Collective. They consider a recent professional meeting that they attended and the implications of having a diverse crowd of trained experts … Continue reading

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Does technological liberation have to come at a price?

A good read from Evgeny Morozov at the WSJ: Are Smart Gadgets Making Us Dumb? Once we step into this magic space, we are surrounded by video cameras that recognize whatever ingredients we hold in our hands. Tiny countertop robots inform … Continue reading

Posted in Innovation, Public Philosophizing, Science and technology ramifications, STEM Policy, TechnoScience & Technoscientism | Leave a comment

Mothers of Jews who like bacon: Where Facebook meets identity politics

Tom Scott did something extraordinary last week: he typed in searches on Facebook’s new Graph Search feature and posted images of the results on his tumblr, called ActualFacebookGraphSearches. … which sounds quite un-extraordinary. Except that Scott – something of an … Continue reading

Posted in Metrics, Philosophy & Politics, Public Philosophizing, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

“The Individual and Scholarly Networks” webinar: Notes from the not-so-underground philosopher

My initial reaction is that the single-day webinar in which I presented on Tuesday (and in which I was the only humanist – !) was a success. Excepting some minor and very intermittent technical difficulties with sound and visual, the presenters … Continue reading

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Denton Drilling: The End of Closed-Door Paternalism

“Men often hate each other because they fear each other; they fear each other because they don’t know each other; they don’t know each other because they can not communicate; they can not communicate because they are separated.” -Martin Luther … Continue reading

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Innovation Is About Arguing, Not Brainstorming. Here’s How To Argue Productively | Co.Design: business + innovation + design

Turns out that brainstorming–that go-to approach to generating new ideas since the 1940s–isn’t the golden ticket to innovation after all. Both Jonah Lehrer, in a recent article in The New Yorker, and Susan Cain, in her new book Quiet, have asserted as much. … Continue reading

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The flipped academic: turning higher education on its head | Higher Education Network | Guardian Professional

Alex Bruton, associate professor in innovation and entrepreneurship at Mount Royal University in Canada, thinks so. The ‘flipped academic‘, as he sees it, is an academic who informs first and publishes later, seeking usefulness as well as truth in their … Continue reading

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Bieberians at the Gate? | Inside Higher Ed

Essay on the idea that non-philosophers should judge philosophers | Inside Higher Ed. Comments on this piece are most welcome!

Posted in Accountability, CSID Publications, Future of the University, Peer Review, Philosophy & Politics, Public Philosophizing | Leave a comment

Is visual content separable from the implied message?

As an example of the interface of aesthetics, visual content in this case, and ethics, the implied message and its implications, I would rate this as good design (intellectual) merit, but poor ethical and social merit (impact)… … which, in … Continue reading

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After Kyoto: Special Issue of NATURE

On 1 January 2013, the world can go back to emitting greenhouse gases with abandon. The pollution-reduction commitments that nations made as part of the Kyoto Protocol will expire, leaving the planet without any international climate regulation and uncertain prospects … Continue reading

Posted in Climate Change, Degrowth Economics, Environmental policy, Globalization, Philosophy & Politics, Public Philosophizing, Science and technology ramifications, Sustainability, Risk Management, & Long-Term Security, TechnoScience & Technoscientism | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

The looming spectre of differential tuition

Someone can do the relatively simple accounting and see that the humanities–”majors without an immediate job payoff”–are already subsidizing those which have a “job payoff.” In fact, this was already done at few institutions, including UCLA. But this is a … Continue reading

Posted in Basic News, Economics & STEM Research, Future of the University, Graduate Studies, Philosophy & Politics, Public Pedagogy, Public Philosophizing, Science and technology ramifications, STEM Policy | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

More Scientists-Statesmen?

Only a handful of physicists have reached the halls of Congress. Bill Foster, a particle physicist and businessman just elected as a Democrat to the House of Representatives from Illinois’s newly drawn 11th district, wants this situation to change. The … Continue reading

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America’s secret fracking war – Salon.com

There’s a war going on that you know nothing about between a coalition of great powers and a small insurgent movement.  It’s a secret war being waged in the shadows while you go about your everyday life. In the end, … Continue reading

Posted in Broader Impacts, Climate Change, Economics & STEM Research, Environmental policy, Gas Fracking, Globalization, Public Philosophizing, Science and technology ramifications, Sustainability, Risk Management, & Long-Term Security, TechnoScience & Technoscientism | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Hacking Your Education, part 2

Second part of a talk given to UNT”s Seven Circles, the Interdisciplinary Student Association. Watch part one here.

Posted in Future of the University, Occupy Wall Street, Public Pedagogy, Public Philosophizing | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Hacking Your Education, Part 1

First part of a talk given to UNT”s Seven Circles, the Interdisciplinary Student Association. Watch part two here.

Posted in Future of the University, Public Pedagogy, Public Philosophizing | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

On Live Tweeting Your Own Lecture – The Long Road

Autotweeting a lecture and getting folks actively involved through social media… Anyone who actually uses twitter recognizes that its power comes not from what one pushes out, but from what one receives. This is felt most palpably when one invites … Continue reading

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‘Preparing for Life in Humanity 2.0′ hits shelves just in time for Halloween

Steve Fuller’s latest book, Preparing for Life in Humanity 2.0, hits shelves just in time for Halloween. I find the timing of the book’s release interesting, since it introduces the most frightening philosophic character since Nietzsche’s Übermensch — the ‘moral … Continue reading

Posted in Interdisciplinarity, New Books, Public Philosophizing, Science and technology ramifications, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Denton Drilling: Draft ordinance needs overhaul

Last night, about forty dedicated citizens gathered to review the draft gas drilling ordinance and generate ideas for how to improve it. There was one clear take home message: The draft ordinance is inadequate. It gets an F. We need … Continue reading

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Want to Change Academic Publishing? Just Say No – Commentary – The Chronicle of Higher Education

When I became a professor, 20 years ago, I received a request from a woman who lived close to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where I taught: Could she come and talk to me about a set of interests she … Continue reading

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5 New Technologies That Have Changed The Digital Classroom | Edudemic

In the past, the suggestion of getting a college degree without ever cracking a book meant paying a degree mill. It meant the degree was in name only, reflecting neither learning nor effort. Then distance learning meant correspondence courses, perhaps … Continue reading

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On the benefits of a philosophy major « Pleas and Excuses

The blog post below has a very nice graphic which details the proven skills that one obtains with a degree in philosophy. While I am tired of having to justify this over and over, I think it is important to … Continue reading

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Can E-Tutoring Bridge Economic Divides?

In a 1984 paper that is regarded as a classic of educational psychology, Benjamin Bloom, a professor at the University of Chicago, showed that being tutored is the most effective way to learn, vastly superior to being taught in a classroom. … Continue reading

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The Religiosity of the Fracking Debate

CSID Faculty Fellow Adam Briggle publishes at Science Progress: The debate over hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, and the shale gas revolution it has spawned has a religious aura to it. Both sides have an unshakeable conviction that fracking is either … Continue reading

Posted in Environmental policy, Gas Fracking, Globalization, Philosophy & Politics, Public Philosophizing, Science and technology ramifications, Sustainability, Risk Management, & Long-Term Security, TechnoScience & Technoscientism | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment