What Is Public Philosophy?

One-Sheet for SOPHIA Conversations

Thumbnail image of the One-Sheet, which links to a printable, Adobe PDF version of this one-sheet.There is a growing movement for public philosophy today. Leaders of the Milwauke SOPHIA Chapter created a SOPHIA One-Sheet asking “What Is Public Philosophy?” given all the different outlooks on what the practice is that such a movement might entail. For a little more background on the call for more public philosophy, see the statement that the American Philosophical Association issued on valuing public philosophy here.

Photo of Dr. Gregory B. Sadler being interview on television news. Click this image to link to the printable, Adobe PDF version of the one-sheet.

This one-sheet was created by Gregory B. Sadler and Kreigh A. Knerr of the Milwauke SOPHIA Chapter, with some questions added by Eric Thomas Weber.

SOPHIA is grateful to Greg, Knerr, and the Milwauke SOPHIA Chapter for sharing this one-sheet! 

076: Ep72 – A Multicultural Manifesto

Philosophy Bakes Bread radio show & podcast

The cover of Van Norden's book, 'Taking Back Philosophy,' featuring a warrior in colorful apparel.In this 71st episode of the Philosophy Bakes Bread radio show and podcast, Eric Thomas Weber and Anthony Cashio interview Dr. Bryan Van Norden on “A Multicultural Manifesto,” the subtitle of his recent book Taking Back Philosophy and the theme underlying a very popular piece that he published in The Stone series in The New York Times, titled “If Philosophy Won’t Diversify, Let’s Call It What It Really Is.”

Dr. Bryan Van Norden.

Photo courtesy of Karl Rabe / Vassar College

Bryan is currently Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho Temple Professor at Yale-NUS College. A recipient of Fulbright, National Endowment for the Humanities, and Mellon fellowships, he has been honored as one of The Best 300 Professors in the US by The Princeton Review. He is also Chair Professor in Philosophy in the School of Philosophy at Wuhan University, China, and Professor of Philosophy at Vassar College (USA). He has authored, edited, or translated a number of books on Chinese and comparative philosophy, including Introduction to Classical Chinese Philosophy (2011), Readings in Later Chinese Philosophy (2014, with Justin Tiwald), and Readings in Classical Chinese Philosophy (2nd ed., 2005, with P.J. Ivanhoe).

Listen for our “You Tell Me!” questions and for some jokes in one of our concluding segments, called “Philosophunnies.” Reach out to us on Facebook @PhilosophyBakesBread and on Twitter @PhilosophyBB; email us at philosophybakesbread@gmail.com; or call and record a voicemail that we play on the show, at 859.257.1849. Philosophy Bakes Bread is a production of the Society of Philosophers in America (SOPHIA). Check us out online at PhilosophyBakesBread.com and check out SOPHIA at PhilosophersInAmerica.com.

 

(1 hr 6 mins)

Click here for a list of all the episodes of Philosophy Bakes Bread.

 

 

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We’re on iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, Stitcher, and even now on YouTube, and we’ve got a regular RSS feed too!

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Notes

  1. Bryan’s 2016 piece in The New York Times, “If Philosophy Won’t Diversify, Let’s Call It What It Really Is.”
  2. Fung Yu-lan (or Feng Youlan), entry in the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
  3. Lao Tzu (or Laozi) entry on the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
  4. Thich Nhat Hahn’s page of books about Buddhism on Amazon.com.
  5. Consequentialism, entry in the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
  6. The Hua Yan Buddhist mentioned in this episode was Fazang, whose Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry is here.
  7. Virtue ethics, entry in the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
  8. Mo-tzu, or Mozi, entry in the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
  9. Mencius (or Mengzi), entry in the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
  10. Zhang Xuecheng.
  11. Zhu Xi (Chu Hsi), entry in the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
  12. Joseph Chan at the University of Hong Kong.
  13. Martha Nussbaum at the University of Chicago, and a past guest on Philosophy Bakes Bread in Episode 19 of the show, on “Anger and Forgiveness.”
  14. Bryan’s 2018 op-ed in The New York Times, “The Ignorant Do Not Have a Right to An Audience.”

 

 

You Tell Me!

For our future “You Tell Me!” segments, Bryan posed the following question in this episode:

“When you’re on your deathbed and you look back on your life, what kind of accomplishment do you think will make you proud of the life you’ve lived?”

Following up on that: “Are you going to be proud of how much money you earned, about the car you bought in 2019, or about the time you showed integrity in a time of crisis, or the time you stood up for somebody who could defend themselves, or the time you spent with your family?”

Let us know what you think! Via TwitterFacebookEmail, or by commenting here below.

067: Ep63 – Democracy and Public Exposure

Philosophy Bakes Bread radio show & podcast

Dr. Mark Sanders.In this 63rd episode of the Philosophy Bakes Bread radio show and podcast, Eric Thomas Weber and Anthony Cashio interview Dr. Mark Sanders on “Democracy and Public Exposure.” We ask Mark about democracy and public philosophical engagement, including some of the special projects that he runs in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Photo of a streaker at a soccer game, playing on the sillier sense of 'public exposure,' when we really mean public engagement, of course.

Mark specializes in American Pragmatism and social and political philosophy. He is very involved on campus; he is a Faculty Associate with the Center for Professional and Applied Ethics and the Faculty Co-Advisor of the Philosophy Club. Mark has recently written and published articles in Human Affairs and the Review Journal for Political Philosophy. The focus of his recent work has been on the intersection of deliberative democracy, pragmatic pluralism, and citizenship. Mark also has interests in phenomenology especially the views of French philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty.

Listen for our “You Tell Me!” questions and for some jokes in one of our concluding segments, called “Philosophunnies.” Reach out to us on Facebook @PhilosophyBakesBread and on Twitter @PhilosophyBB; email us at philosophybakesbread@gmail.com; or call and record a voicemail that we play on the show, at 859.257.1849. Philosophy Bakes Bread is a production of the Society of Philosophers in America (SOPHIA). Check us out online at PhilosophyBakesBread.com and check out SOPHIA at PhilosophersInAmerica.com.

(1 hr 1 mins)

 

Click here for a list of all the episodes of Philosophy Bakes Bread.

 

 

Notes

  1. Albert Camus, The Myth of Sysiphus (New York: Vintage Press, 1991).
  2. The story of Sysiphus.
  3. The New College of Florida.
  4. The Web site for Campus Compact, and the Charlotte, North Carolina Chapter.
  5. Jana Mohr Lone and Michael Burroughs, Philosophy in Education: Questioning and Dialogue in Schools (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2016).
  6. Lynx Light Rail of Charlotte, NC.
  7. James Fishkin on deliberative polling and the Center for Deliberative Democracy.

 

 

You Tell Me!

For our future “You Tell Me!” segments, Mark posed the following question in this episode:

“Not to promote excessive drinking, but: Do you think that there ought to be a drinking game to go along with the Philosophy Bakes Bread podcast?”

Proposed examples: When you hear “I like that,” “Right on,” “Indeed,” Eric’s out-of-date pop-culture references, or “This is correct!”

Let us know what you think! Via TwitterFacebookEmail, or by commenting here below.

 

 

Disagreement

One-Sheet for SOPHIA Conversations

Adobe logo, to serve as a link to the Adobe PDF version of this one-sheet document.

Printable version

Courtesy of the South Puget Sound SOPHIA Chapter

By Dr. Sergia Hay, Dr. Michael Rings, and Matthew Salzano

First used on March 5, 2018 at Pacific Lutheran University

 

Topic:

Disagreement: Strategies for Talking Across Divides

 

Dr. Sergia Hay.

Hay

Questions for conversation:

 

1) How can we have productive discussions when there is disagreement?

Dr. Michael Rings

Rings

2) What does it mean to have a “productive” discussion when there is disagreement?

3) Can tools from philosophy help in these discussions?

4) What are the roles of reason and emotion in these discussions?

Matthew Salzano

Salzano

5) Are there strategies to use (or avoid) in these discussions?

6) Are there times when it is advisable not to engage in these discussions?

 

Additional Resources:

David Bohm, On Dialogue (New York: Routledge Press 2004), http://amzn.to/2FCdb75.

Daniel Dennett, Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking (New York: Norton Publishing, 2014), http://amzn.to/2DeUS2C.

John Dewey, How We Think (New York: Dover Thrift Editions, 1910/2002), http://amzn.to/2Fplxjn.

Jennifer Lackey, The Epistemology of Disagreement (New York: Oxford University Press, 2016), http://amzn.to/2GarlKy.

John Stuart Mill, On Liberty (New York: Dover Thrift Editions, 1859/2002), http://amzn.to/2ty2PQY.

“Disagreement,” Philosophy Talk [Radio], Sunday, December 5, 2010, https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/disagreement.

Bryan Frances, “Disagreement,” The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2018, https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/disagreement/.

016: Ep12 – That’s a Wicked Problem You’ve Got There

Philosophy Bakes Bread radio show & podcast

Dr. Danielle Lake.In this twelth episode of the Philosophy Bakes Bread radio show and podcast, co-hosts Dr. Anthony Cashio and Dr. Eric Thomas Weber interview Dr. Danielle Lake of Grand Valley State University on the topic of what are called “wicked problems.”

Line drawings contrasting traditional problems with wicked problems, where the former is just two crossed lines and the latter is many chaotically scribbled, crossed lines.

Dr. Lake is assistant professor in the department of Liberal Studies at Grand Valley State University, with her Ph.D. in Philosophy. In 2016, she was honored with the John Lachs Award for Public Philosophy from the Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy. She is the author of Institutions and Process: Problems of Today, Misguided Answers from Yesterday (2008), in addition to many journal articles. 

Listen for our “You Tell Me!” questions and for some jokes in one of our concluding segments, called “Philosophunnies.” Reach out to us on Facebook @PhilosophyBakesBread and on Twitter @PhilosophyBB; email us at philosophybakesbread@gmail.com; or call and record a voicemail that we play on the show, at 859.257.1849. Philosophy Bakes Bread is a production of the Society of Philosophers in America (SOPHIA). Check us out online at PhilosophyBakesBread.com and check out SOPHIA at PhilosophersInAmerica.com.

(1 hr 9 mins)

Click here for a list of all the episodes of Philosophy Bakes Bread.

 

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Subscribe to the podcast! 

We’re on iTunes and Google Play, and we’ve got a regular RSS feed too!

 

Notes

  1. Jostein Gaarder, Sophie’s World (2007).
  2. Jean Paul Sartre, “Existentialism Is a Humanism,” Online for free, or on Amazon.
  3. Epictetus, Handbook (aka Enchiridion), Online for free, or on Amazon.
  4. The Internet Classics Archive.

 

You Tell Me!

For our future “You Tell Me!” segments, Dr. Lake proposed the following question in this episode, for which we invite your feedback: “How can you today step across the divides that we have and engage and advocate for progress with regard to the shared problems that we face?” What do you think?

Let us know!  Twitter, Facebook, Email, or by commenting here below!

 

Transcript

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