OK this isn't so much a conversation, but a direct report. Sometimes the responsibilities of being a parent can run up against the responsibilities of being a graduate student. For example, sometimes as a parent you're actually responsible for watching over your child, but as a graduate student you're also expected to attend department functions such as colloquium talks. Over the last five years I have often times overcome this tension by simply taking Isabelle to attend talks with me. I've been under the impression that she mostly colors and snacks during these talks, but the scales have dropped from my eyes after what she said the other day.

"Philosophy talks are boring Dad. Everyone just sits around talking about P"

The APA Central Division meeting is right around the corner and there looks to be a lot of epistemology on the docket. This year I'm particularly happy to see that a lot of friends are on the program. I've listed all the talks below the fold.

Remember, if you're going to be in town for the central, plan to come a day early for the one-day epistemology conference at Northwestern. The program has been loosely organized around Jennifer Lackey's book, Learning From Words, and features Robert Audi, Elizabeth Fricker, Peter Graham, and Jon Kvanvig.

Last week while driving home I happened to catch the first few minutes of NPR's Talk of the Nation and much to my surprise the discussion of the day was on the epistemic significance of disagreement. I've mentioned this to a couple of people and received a couple of incredulous looks. Of course, they never actually said "the epistemic significance of disagreement". Instead they simply talked about what we ought to do when we disagree. The discussion was prompted by the guest Steven Landsburg's new book The Big Questions: Tackling the Problems of Philosophy with Ideas from Mathematics, Economics, and Physics. I haven't read the book, but I'm dubious about the contents just based on the title. Here is one worry, most philosophical thesis aren't the kind of thing that could be confirmed our disconfirmed by empirical research. Once a question is open to empirical investigation philosophers typically pass off the project. Here is a second worry, there is a lot of philosophy going on in mathematics, physics, and especially economics. Less than a hundred years ago we didn't even have economists; they were just political philosophers.

In the transcript Landsburg endorses what we'd call a conformist position on disagreement. That is, when two peers disagree, they ought to both become less confident in their contested belief. I haven't read the book, but I suspect that Landsburg comes to his views on disagreement via work on information sharing in economics. This is very formal work in which economist attempt to model how information sharing does, or should, work. The challenge for the economist is that these models are only as good as the assumptions that go into making the models. Here's the rub, those assumptions are philosophically informed.

Recently I installed the Action Streams plug-in for MovableType. I wanted to be able to track some of my online activities in other places and have a central point of contact here on the blog. Summit Post is a site that I use to track some of my outdoor activities, so I've created an Action Stream plug-in that provides a profile link. I'm still thinking about what information I'd like to scrape from Summit Post, which means you should check back later for an updated plug-in.

I've recently started using Google Wave for course that I'm TA'ing here at Northwestern. Perhaps I'll have something to report on the functionality and course integration down the road. In the mean time, I've got a few invitations that I'd be willing to share with my friends or colleagues. Just drop me a note if you want one.

Get off Facebook! Today I made the move to largely Facebookless world and it comes as something of a relief. For one, I realize that 80% of my Facebook "friends" aren't friends at all. Further, keeping up with the varying privacy changes to Facebook has become more than annoying. If you still feel the need to be connected with me online, you can still find me at Academia.edu.

The journal of social epistemology, Episteme , has just released issue 6.3 on the epistemology of disagreement. These papers are the product of the 6th Annual Episteme Conference hosted at Northwestern University this past summer.

• Introduction: The Epistemology of Disagreement, David Christensen


• On Treating Oneself and Others as Thermometers, Roger White


• Second Guessing: A Self-Help Manual, Sherrilyn Roush


• Conciliatory Views of Disagreement and Higher-Order Evidence, Jonathan Matheson


• What is the "Equal Weight View"?, David Jehle and Branden Fitelson


• Evidentialism, Higher-Order Evidence, and Disagreement, Richard Feldman


• Peerage, Earl Conee


• A Vindication of the Equal-Weight View, Tomas Bogardus


• Rational Disagreement after Full Disclosure, Michael Bergmann

Friday, April 16th, 2010

Keynote Speaker: Hilary Kornblith, Professor of Philosophy, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

The Myth of Epistemic Agency

The philosophy departments at Northwestern University and the University of Notre Dame are proud to announce the 1st annual joint graduate epistemology conference, to be held April 16th, 2010.

Submission Guidelines: We welcome submissions in the field of analytic epistemology, broadly construed. Papers should be no more than 4000 words (approx. 13 pages), excluding notes. Submissions should also include a second sheet with an abstract (200 words or less). Papers should be suitable for blind review: include detachable cover page with the paper's title, author's name, mailing address, email, phone number, school affiliation, and word count; please omit any self-identifying marks within the body of the paper.

Deadline: Papers must be received by January 8th, 2010. Papers should be emailed as an attachment to the conference organizers at nu.nd.gradconference@gmail.com preferably in PDF format.

Web Site:
http://www.wcas.northwestern.edu/epistemology/egradconf/

Co-Sponsored by the Philosophy Department at Northwestern University and the Philosophy Department at the University of Notre Dame

[via PhD Comics]

"Skeptics who reportedly can't imagine, for instance, that the God of traditional monotheism exists need remedial work in the area of imagining circumstances"