McDaniel Philosophy Club

Journal Rankings

2008-09-29T13:24:00.000-07:00

The Australasian Philosophical Association has released a ranking of Journals in Philosophy. Much of this (as you can imagine) is based on reputation, not research. As a result, the rankings are heavily influenced by disciplinary biases, including the relative prestige of various sub-specializations in the discipline. But it *may* give you a sense of which journals to prioritize in your research.
http://aap.org.au/publications/AAP_ARC_ERA_Journal_Ranking_Flatfile.xls

Updates to the McDaniel Dictionary

2008-09-09T10:36:00.000-07:00

Stargasm (n) orgasm from watching stars. Related to 'mathgasm'). "I don't want to go look at the stars tonight. I'm not in the mood for a stargasm" (Sept, 2008)

Henticular (adj) Anything good that an asian does. From 'Henti', the anime version of porn. "Lin, that was henticular!" (Sept, 2008)

hella (adj) modifier - as in 'hella good'

obvi (adj) shortened version of 'obvious'.

hollabread (exclamation) general enthusiastic / celebratory exclamation. From 'Challah bread', the sweet breaded bread.

soulja boy (n) synonym of 'awkward turtle'.

awkward turtle (n) hand symbol used to silently express 'awk-WARD', which was popular a few years ago.

party foul (n) Spilling beer at a party

creeper (n) noun version of 'creepy'. "Sam Paxton, you're such a creeper" (reported by S. Dunne, Fall 2008).

camp-po (n) Campus police

straight (adj) shorthand for 'having everything I need' - "Do you have enough beer? Yeah, I'm straight."

deco (n) Contraction for diet coke

cra-cra (adj) pronounced cray-cray. shortened version for 'crazy'. "Girl, you cra-cra".

WoWer (n) World of Warcraft player.

jockitude (n) the attitude typical of jocks. "That guy is has some serious jockitude" (Fall 2008)

labby (n) Someone who attended the Lab school in DC

Doucheweasel (n) Someone who is really irritating (i.e. even more than a Douchebag).

cho-cho (n) vagina.

fooding (v) present participle of the verb 'to food'.

friend (v) to add someone as a friend on facebook.

ACSlatering (v) to go to the bathroom backwards (male only). From the character 'AC Slater' on Saved by the Bell, who always sat on his chair backwards.

boomer (n) magic mushrooms

crysterbation (n) from scrubs (probably) to masturbate using own tears as lubricant.

OGC - look at the word sideways (with the C down). You'll figure it out.

dick fest (n) a game of verbal one-up-man-ship, usually played by males, where each member of the group attempts to show the vastness of their intellect by producing trivial facts. The content varies, but is always tied to the area of discourse that defines the particular sub-culture: i.e. 'You said that X first appeared in Spiderman 3, but in fact, he made his first appearance in Spiderman 5'.
"I'm not going to GLAR today, but I'm not in the mood for a dick fest" (9/10/2008)

What is Philosophy?

2008-06-11T19:00:00.000-07:00

Read this post - and the interview upon which it was based - to discover the opinions of four significant contemporary philosophers:
Four Philosophers Answer Questions about Philosophy: Its Purposes, Nature, History

Grad School admissions

2008-06-02T08:08:00.000-07:00

Eric Schwitzgebel has put together a report on Grad School admissions. Read it here:
More Philosophy Ph.D. Admissions Data from U.C. Riverside
It is pretty daunting. McDaniel has little, if any, prestige. His analysis of how that hurts you is pretty much right on- we are not known to the admissions committee, there is a suspicion that grade inflation is higher at small schools for good students due to the lack of competition, and, as he puts it: "talented students will find it easy to get top grades and it may be rare for them to have their feet held to the fire about their essays, may not get the harsh and detailed criticism necessary to transform those essays into excellent writing samples". That is true - I try to offer the same level of critique whether you get an 'A' or an 'F', but I often fail to do so for the top grade papers. We're hoping that the new Jr. Level writing requirement will address that somewhat. And we're probably going to institute a new 'directed writing' class for students interested in grad school.

Philosophy as Blood Sport

2008-05-06T11:20:00.000-07:00

By Norman Swartz. It is a distressing part of our field, but Swartz's analysis is worth reading:
http://www.sfu.ca/philosophy/swartz/blood_sport.htm

How not to email your profs...

2008-03-25T07:13:00.000-07:00

These are from profs around the country. Just read them. You'll see what I mean...

"Favorite" student email

X-Phi Anthem

2007-12-24T13:06:00.000-08:00

On youtube - the prof speaking in the video on the bottom is Jesse Prinz, a former colleague of mine at Wash U, and the person I have referred to in class a couple of times as the best young philosopher out there. If any of you are seriously considering grad school, take a careful look at UNC, where he is.

Squabbit

2007-11-26T09:06:00.000-08:00

Squabbit (n): [Possible proper name] - A small furry animal that lives outside Blanche which resembles both a squirrel and a rabbit.
"I saw the squabbit last night for the first time!" - Fall 2007

Sexpelled

2007-11-22T17:05:00.000-08:00

Another for the McDictionary:
Sexpelled (v) transitive - but can be used intransitively if the subject is implied. To be banned from a shared dorm room because the sexual exploits of one's roommate(s).
"I didn't get my paper in because I was sexpelled last night, and my laptop was in my room." Nov, 2007.

McDictionary

2007-09-28T17:38:00.000-07:00

The use of 'vajayjay' in the McDaniel free press today inspired me to reinvigorate the McDictionary. I've lost the access to the old blog, so here it is in a single post:
Business major
(n) a person, usually male, who participates frequently in organized sports
"My, what a voluminous gaggle of business majors in glar this eve"
Jersey
(v, transitive) to degrade someone or something with a lot of attitude.
"Damn, he got all Jersey on your ass."
Pubbin'
(v, non-transitive) (esp. "Pubbin' it") To eat at the pub (see 'pub').
Choices
(n) Proper Name. A stage production held on the last day of freshman orientation during which topics such as sex and drugs are discussed.
kirkin'
(v, non-transitive) (esp. "kirkin' out") to suffer a emotional and psychological breakdown, specifically in response to an overload of work.
"A freshman is kirkin' out in Rouzer" 8-28-2005 (during 'Choices' (see 'Choices'))
Bachelors
(n) Proper name? A fraternity
"He's a member of the bachelors" 8-31-2005
Detray
(v) to remove trays from a cafeteria table (see Glar (n))
"There is not much room on this table, we are going to have to detray." 9-2-2005
Pickle
(n) One of the College's green vans.
"We are thinking about getting a pickle to go to the protest" 8-31-2005
Glarbage
(n) Food produced in McDaniel's cafeteria (see Glar (n)).
"Don't eat the glarbage" 8-31-2005

So I've reached That Age..

2007-09-24T17:08:00.001-07:00

The age at which bands that one used to follow are doing children's television:

Actually, I think this may be the perfect song. Ever. Seriously. Think about my description of Critical Thinking.

Religion, Philosophy & Ethics course: Starting Out as a Philosopher (and A-levels)

2007-08-20T08:45:00.000-07:00

Here's an interesting discussion on the 'what do you do with a Philosophy major' question:
Religion, Philosophy & Ethics course: Starting Out as a Philosopher (and A-levels)

OK, now these are hilarious.

2007-06-05T05:55:00.000-07:00

http://flickr.com/groups/philolsophers/pool/

Primer on Fair Use

2007-05-21T10:14:00.000-07:00

Now this is brilliant!

AiG opening Memorial Day

2007-05-07T17:43:00.000-07:00

Anyone going to be in Northern KY this memorial day?
http://rallyforreason.arkonuts.com/

'Evolution' car dissed by Red States on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

2007-04-24T06:36:00.000-07:00

Damn! Now that's what I call identifying oneself via product ownership (or product avoidance as the case may be):
'Evolution' car dissed by Red States on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

No Dogs or Philosophers Allowed

2007-04-13T13:15:00.000-07:00

John Cleese on Philosophy:
No Dogs or Philosophers Allowed

CT Lectures on iTunes!

2007-04-13T10:32:00.000-07:00

The link is: http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=251848574

Philosophy on Youtube

2007-04-13T08:36:00.000-07:00

I've been looking on youtube for lectures like the ones I'm vodcasting, and am finding pretty much nothing except stupid people goofing off in bad philosophy classes. This, however, is interesting:

McDaniel (v) from the Urban Dictionary

2006-12-16T18:44:00.001-08:00

To pull a McDaniel:

 To be a stupid fucker and get a 2 on an AP exam.

 Holy shit, Haas pulled a McDaniel on Latin AP

 http://to-pull-a-mcdaniel.urbanup.com/204984

Check it!

2006-08-17T19:39:00.000-07:00

OK - so this has little to do with Philosophy, but who cares?
I found my old TMCM site on archive.org! Unbelievable - not only for the fact that this stuff still exists, but that it was so poorly designed. Anyway:
http://web.archive.org/web/19981203030935/ http://antioch-college.edu/~pbradley/tmcm/
And you won't believe this:
A search on 'Anarchoantioch' (a term I coined for the student-run site - most of which I wrote) yielded 16 hits in google! Most of these are lists of 'anarchy sites on the web'. It appears that most of these people never actually looked at the site - except, perhaps for the person who said the site was 'possibly another Jolt-originated' website.

Departmental Calendar!

2006-08-13T19:49:00.000-07:00

Finally - we have a departmental calendar. Well - it's a little hard to read at the left, but you can get the link here: Philosophy Department Calendar on Google

Enjoy!

On-line Philosophy Conference (OPC)

2006-05-17T06:58:00.000-07:00

Some interesting papers at this site:
On-line Philosophy Conference (OPC)

NYU > GSAS > News & Events > Events > Frumkes Lecture Series

2006-04-21T08:20:00.000-07:00

More interesting, and possibly relevant, lectures:
NYU > GSAS > News & Events > Events > Frumkes Lecture Series

Ethics Updates - Ethics Podcasts

2006-04-21T07:53:00.000-07:00

Hinman (the editor of our ethics textbook) has started an podcast site. It looks pretty good, actually:
Ethics Updates - Ethics Podcasts

Philosophy Forums

2006-04-11T08:22:00.000-07:00

Philosophy Forums
This site contains a number of interesting discussion forums - including one in which you can get help with logic homework!

Phil Students the most content!

2006-03-27T07:44:00.000-08:00

Sam's Work

2006-01-17T11:02:00.000-08:00

Sam (Snider-held) photoshopped this from a pic of me on the Inquiry site - rather impressive, I must say:

N a b a z t a g > Home > The first smart rabbit

2006-01-16T07:36:00.000-08:00

The coolest thing I've seen in a while - if anyone is visiting France anytime soon, pick us up one!
N a b a z t a g > Home > The first smart rabbit

What Looks Like Graffiti Could Really Be an Ad

2005-12-26T16:49:00.000-08:00

Sony is co-opting graffiti art to promote their PSP! Read all about it!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/25/AR2005122500589.html

Urban Dictionary: snakes on a plane

2005-12-22T15:00:00.000-08:00

Brian sent this over- it certainly is a word. And notice that the qualification for addition to the dictionary was being used on a blog!
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=snakes+on+a+plane

Brown Discussed Wardrobe During Katrina - Yahoo! News

2005-11-03T16:48:00.000-08:00

Oh this is just priceless - and note, as the author did, that Bush appeared with his sleeves rolled up!
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051104/ap_on_go_co/fema_brown

_U B U W E B_ : _Tristan Tzara_

2005-10-31T07:17:00.000-08:00

We talked briefly about Dada in the Phil Art class: Jason Rosenberg found these audio recordings of Tristan Tzara - author of the Dada manifesto - reading Dad poetry!
http://www.ubu.com/sound/tzara.html

Giving Surgeons a Helping Hand

2005-10-28T06:17:00.000-07:00

Hey - one of our members gets front-page billing!

http://www.mcdaniel.edu/120_401.htm

Thoughts Arguments and Rants: Silly Talk about Philosophy

2005-08-11T09:29:00.000-07:00

Some of the stories on this are hilarious - and just think: it's what you all have to look forward too in the next few years of answering that daunting question "What are you majoring in?"
Thoughts Arguments and Rants: Silly Talk about Philosophy

S.Korean man dies after 50 hours of computer games - Yahoo! UK & Ireland News

2005-08-10T11:17:00.000-07:00

Wow!
S.Korean man dies after 50 hours of computer games - Yahoo! UK & Ireland News

Photo in the News: Ultra-Lifelike Robot Debuts in Japan

2005-08-09T13:26:00.000-07:00

Aaron sent me this story: now all we need is either for her to become a prostitute, or go insane and try to take over the world. Or both, for that matter.
Photo in the News: Ultra-Lifelike Robot Debuts in Japan

CRUTCHER PUBLISHING

2005-06-29T18:45:00.000-07:00

I just found this incredible site:
CRUTCHER PUBLISHING
He's this flaming fundamentalist racist who has a book on intelligence and race, and why Adam's decendants are white, etc. It is all the bullshit that Steven Jay Gould debunked in his 1981 'The mismeasure of man'. In that introduction, Steven Jay said, when speaking of the 1992 publication of 'The Bell Curve', that it seems like this idea pops up every 10 years. Well, he was a little off about the timing: it seems more like 11-12 years.
I'd like to get a copy of this for use in my Crit Thinking class in the fall, but I think it would be unethical to actually give this guy money. What do I do?

Ex-KKK Member Convicted in 1964 Killings - Yahoo! News

2005-06-21T10:05:00.000-07:00

Great news! We talked about this case in Ethics, as you may remember: Ex-KKK Member Convicted in 1964 Killings - Yahoo! News

CafePress.com : Sell Online : Introduction

2005-06-20T19:09:00.000-07:00

OK, so I'm thinking ahead. But if we were to resurrect the idea of T-shirts, this might be handy:
CafePress.com : Sell Online : Introduction

So, ideas. Here's a few to get the ball started:

You can't understand this if you're not a Philosophy major.

Philosophy: Why stupid people suck

Everything on this shirt is false.

My girlfriend (boyfriend) reads Plato and all I get is this lousy T-shirt

Action Philosophers!

2005-06-09T08:15:00.000-07:00

An old friend of mine sent me this link. I can't testify to its accuracy, but it looks damn entertaining:
Action Philosophers!

Grade Inflation

2005-06-05T18:16:00.000-07:00

There was a fascinating article in the Washington Post today that I thought everyone might be interested in reading. It's located here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/
The most recent data on grade inflation shows a continuing trend:
National Trends in Grade Inflation, American Colleges and Universities
The average grade given at private schools is now a 3.26 - more a B than a B. A full 50% of the grades given at Harvard this year were 'A's (according to the article)!
Aside from the obvious relevance to your lives - I would like to know what you think about the ethics of grade inflation. After all, many of my students at Wash U argued that they needed grade inflation in order to compete with students from other institutions for graduate school placement. On the other hand, doesn't grade inflation cheapen the achievement of those who actually earned an 'A'? What is to be done?

Brawny Paper Towels and Napkins - Everything you need in a paper towel - Products - Brawny Advertisements

2005-05-30T11:07:00.000-07:00

Rachel mentioned this brawny ad one day in class - it's basically porn for the middle-aged housewife. I just found it online:
Brawny Paper Towels and Napkins - Everything you need in a paper towel - Products - Brawny Advertisements
To make things even better, there is an interactive element called 'Innocent Escapes', where the user can customize his seduction technique.

I drink coffee, therefore I am : EpistemeLinks.com Online Store : CafePress.com

2005-05-30T10:12:00.000-07:00

There are also a number of rather entertaining T-shirts, mugs and the like for sale at epistemelinks.com. This one is, I think, particularily appropriate.
I drink coffee, therefore I am : EpistemeLinks.com Online Store : CafePress.com

EpistemeLinks.com: For Philosophy Resources on the Internet

2005-05-30T09:32:00.000-07:00

This site contains a wealth of information about philosophy- including graduate programs, other web sites, class lecture notes, discussions, etc.
EpistemeLinks.com: For Philosophy Resources on the Internet
Make sure to check out the 'humor' section - which includes a link to the always hilarious 'Philosophical Lexicon'.

Banksy: The Art Terrorist

2005-05-25T10:04:00.000-07:00

Not a blindingly bad arguement but fun anyway. Two links about Banksy, an art terrorist from England. Interesting and could be tied into Bradley's What is Art class. First link is to a news article about Banksy, and the second leads to Banksy's website itself.

Discuss amongst yourselves.

The Philosophical Gourmet Report 2004 - 2006 :: Overall Rankings

2005-05-22T06:35:00.000-07:00

If you haven't seen this before, this is a ranking of graduate programs in Philosophy. A few caveats: 1st, there is a HUGE difference between a program's reputation and the quality of instruction. In a perfect world, these rankings reflect ONLY the reputation. 2nd, this is not a perfect world. The rankings tend to value Analytic core (mind / language or Metaphysics & epistemology) over both value theory (ethics / aesthetics) and continental. Also, there have been a number of cases where a school is ranked highly because they have a famous semi-retired faculty member who, in fact, never actually interacts with students.
The Philosophical Gourmet Report 2004 - 2006 :: Overall Rankings

The rankings are also broken down by subject area - but the same caveats apply: for example, in my last year at Temple, it was ranked 10th in a 5-way tie with schools like UC Berkeley. UCB had one mind guy: a semi-retired part time John Searle. When my advisor announced he was leaving Temple, it dropped off the rankings - but the school he went to didn't replace it! (it's there now - in group 3)

Breakdown

All that having been said, reputation of a school is important. This information is interesting, and should help you when considering what grad school to apply to - BUT take it with a grain of salt.

Crossfire & Intelligent Design

2005-05-20T13:22:00.000-07:00

This guy wins the award for the 'stupidest argument since Presidental election, 2004':

Not only is this a red herring, but even if we are charitable in our interpretation of his argument, why would anyone think that making one's theory of biology (a deeply complex and mysterious phenomenon) dependent on one's theory of cognition (a far more complex and vastly more mysterious phenomenon) is a good idea? Idiots all!

Discovery Institute - News - Darwinists Snub Kansas, Refuse to Answer Questions About Scientific Problems with Evolutionary Theory

2005-05-15T19:40:00.000-07:00

Fresh from the Kansas school board debate: this one's just loaded with spin and abuses of language. If I had to categorize it, I'd say it's a combination of a 'loaded question' and 'shifting the burden of proof' (see the last para for the second fallacy).
Discovery Institute - News - Darwinists Snub Kansas, Refuse to Answer Questions About Scientific Problems with Evolutionary Theory
Discovery Institute - News - Darwinists Snub Kansas, Refuse to Answer Questions About Scientific Problems with Evolutionary Theory

All Squirrels Must Die!

2005-05-06T03:32:00.000-07:00

OK, OK, so this site doesn't really qualify as an argument, at least in the strictest sense of the term, but the authors clearly have a definite proposition of which they seek to convince you, AND they have loads of evidence upon which they seek to change your mind. So, if we're charitable, we can call it an inductive argument to the conclusion:
All Squirrels Must Die!

Bad Arguments: A Couple of TalkOrigins Links

2005-05-05T13:43:00.000-07:00

TalkOrigins was the first site to pop into my mind when I received Dr. Bradley's e-mail requesting terrible arguments. The site highlights (in many cases) fallacious creationist arguments and the problems with those arguments. Good browsing if one is ever faced with a creationist argument that one has a feeling is off-base and one can't quite articulate the problem with the argument on one's own.

Anyway, a couple of examples:
Debunking the "Young Earth" creationist arguments--for instance, "Young-earth "proof" #25: The current population of Earth (5.5 billion) could easily be generated from 8 people in less than 4000 years. If the earth were really billions of years old, the human population would have gone through the roof!"

Debunking Kent Hovind's offer and its silly requirements:

"I have a standing offer of $250,000 to anyone who can give any empirical evidence (scientific proof) for evolution.* My $250,000 offer demonstrates that the hypothesis of evolution is nothing more than a religious belief.

* NOTE: When I use the word evolution, I am not referring to the minor variations found in all of the various life forms (microevolution). I am referring to the general theory of evolution which believes these five major events took place without God:
1. Time, space, and matter came into existence by themselves.
2. Planets and stars formed from space dust.
3. Matter created life by itself.
4. Early life-forms learned to reproduce themselves.
5. Major changes occurred between these diverse life forms (i.e., fish changed to amphibians, amphibians changed to reptiles, and reptiles changed to birds or mammals)."

Enjoy :)

How to post:

2005-05-05T09:53:00.000-07:00

There are a couple of ways. The interface for posting is at http://www.blogger.com/. You'll need the username and password you created when you accepted the invitation.

From there, just click on the little green plus sign, and post away! (Incidentally, if you don't something that looks like this:

you're not logged in. Log in (in the upper right) and you'll be OK.)

There are a couple of shortcuts to get to blogger.com:

Click on the little orange B in the left side of the navbar (to read more about the navbar, click here).
Click on 'I Power Blogger' on the right (below all the links).

Or

You can do this all automatically with bogger.com's 'Blog this' functionality. In short, it's a little button that you can add to your browser that will popup a little window with all the information you need to add an entry to the blog. The window looks like this:

And to add it to you're toolbar, drag this link:

BlogThis! <-- drag this link to your browser's Links bar

to your toolbar.

If you want to read about the details, click here.

Example

2005-05-02T14:02:00.000-07:00

This is exactly the kind of thing I'm looking for. He illustrates the fundamentalist position (that we talked about in Ethics) perfectly.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/library/08/1/l_081_04.html

This is his website: http://www.answersingenesis.org/

You can even purchase his sermons online: http://www.sermonaudio.com/! (I'm downloading some of these, and will post them later).

Notice:

(1) his use of violent imagery ('...it's a war. It's a battle of world views').

(2) his absolute commitment to the text 'No apparent, perceived, or claimed evidence in any field, including history and chronology, can be valid if it contradicts the Scriptural record' - including his denial of interpretation.

(3) his complete lack of understanding of the basic idea of evolution (confusing evolution by natural selection with the big bang AND saying that evolution teaches that humans descend from chimps, when it actually teaches that humans and chimps descend from the same common ancestor AND bringing up the global flood).

The Blog...

2005-05-02T12:55:00.000-07:00

OK, here are some of the cool things we can do with this:

(1) I've set it up so that registered users can email posts directly to the blog. I won't put the email address here, but will let you know via the philosophyclub mailing list.

(2) You can get the blog via an RSS / Atom feed at: http://philosophyclubmcd.blogspot.com/atom.xml. If you don't know what that means, in short: you can get the blog as if it is email. I'm not sure how each email program works, but in thunderbird (mozilla), go to Tools -> Accounts. Click on 'Add Account'. And Select 'RSS News and Blogs'. Call it what you want, and put the URL above into the 'location' box.

(3) Output. We can, if we want, send posts to the blog to the list. This might be annoying. But we could set up a second mailing list for people who can't use the RSS feed, and they'll get the messages as they are posted as well.

Idea

2005-04-30T07:57:00.000-07:00

Greg (Alles) and I have been tossing around an idea about starting a tradition of 'forums' at McDaniel. The idea is fairly simple: at a time that is convient for students, we'd assemble 4-5 faculty, community members, etc to discuss a topic. Each person would get 5-10 min, strictly enforced, and then field questions from the audience. The idea would be to get some pretty good debates going, so the topics chosen should be of interest to you, and the panelist should be as broad in view point as possible.

For example:
Evolution and Intelligent Design
Panelists: Me, Greg, Wilbur Long, Someone from the Church of the Open Door.

Church and State:
Mark (Hadley), Herb Smith, others?

Video Games and Intelligence:
Me, Dr. Mazaroff, others?

Performance Enhancing Drugs
????

etc.

What do you think? Would we be able to attract people?

????

2005-04-30T07:08:00.000-07:00

Check out this guy's blog. It's almost transcendent in it's Zen-like elegance:

????

Test Post

2005-04-30T06:39:00.000-07:00

This is the first test post to the Phil Club blog.