Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Some Links

Check out the 2nd annual Online Philosophy Conference. I hope I'll have time to read the papers and chip in with some comments soon.

The 47th Philosophers' Carnival is here, with a focus on "practical philosophy". We need more volunteers to host future editions, so email me if you're interested.

I found the entry on sexual perversion especially interesting. It's a fundamental question whether an act might ever be wrong due to its being "abnormal" or "perverse", independently of any harmful consequences. Whence comes the normative authority of these externally imposed "purposes" that mustn't ever be replaced? (In other contexts we praise innovation, after all!)

Finally, I note that the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy finally has an entry on the meaning of life:
English-speaking philosophers can be expected to continue to find life's meaning of interest as they increasingly realize that it is a distinct line of enquiry that admits of rational enquiry to no less a degree than more familiar normative categories such as well-being, right action, and distributive justice.

Doesn't it reflect poorly on our discipline's recent history that this doesn't "go without saying"?

3 comments:

  1. Dang, 47? You've created a monster. I'm impressed that it's gone on this long, and continued to do well. Good work.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Richard,

    I dropped a post about the Carnival on Felicifia. We have a few members who I think would make good hosts. I'm guessing I wouldn't make for a good host, as I know almost no philosophy outside of ethics and don't know much ethics outside of utilitarianism.

    Anyways, have fun at Princeton, and be sure to give Dr. Singer my regards.

    ReplyDelete

Visitors: check my comments policy first.
Non-Blogger users: If the comment form isn't working for you, email me your comment and I can post it on your behalf. (If your comment is too long, first try breaking it into two parts.)

Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.