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News
News: February/March 2015
Conspicuous Shortage of Women Philosophers • Non-Human Rights • Google Hires Philosopher • Museum to Confucius Built — News reports by Sue Roberts, Tomiwa Owolade and Anja Steinbauer
(No) Women in Philosophy
A recent report by the Equality Challenge Unit found that, among non-Stem (science, technology, engineering and maths) subjects, philosophy is, with the exception of Economics, the most male-dominated. In the UK women account for only 28.8% of professional philosophers. This shocking statistic will not come as a surprise to Professor Jennifer Saul, who has been hosting a blog with an abundance of accounts of what it can be like being a woman in philosophy: beingawomaninphilosophy.wordpress.com.
The Google Philosopher
Luciano Floridi, professor of philosophy and ethics of information at Oxford University’s Internet Institute (OII) has been appointed by Google to advise them on the EU’s Right to be Forgotten ruling. According to the Italian philosopher, we all inhabit a new online life-world, together with everything else from websites to sewing machines, racing cars and puppies. A human being is now the sum of her information: professional, social, political, medical, financial and personal. Sharing, manipulation and ownership of data therefore become vital issues. Our lives are organized accordingly: “We format our lives, our world, our reality, from an informational perspective,” Floridi comments. He argues that we therefore need a critical discipline which analyses and evaluates this new situation in all its forms and developments, a ‘Philosophy of Information’.
“Non-Human Personhood”
A shy orang-utan held in an Argentine zoo will be transferred to a sanctuary after a court recognised it as a ‘non-human person’ unlawfully deprived of freedom. Animal rights campaigners filed a habeas corpus petition in November on behalf of Sandra, a 29-year-old Sumatran orang-utan at the Buenos Aires Zoo. They argued it had sufficient cognitive functions to not be treated as an object. A court in the capital agreed that the orang-utan deserved the basic rights of a ‘non-human person’.
Rabbit Rights and Consumer Power
Consumer choices can be used to achieve some moral good in the world: A video released by animal rights organization PETA Asia showing workers in Chinese factories ripping the fur from the bodies of screeching rabbits has caused a huge public outcry. The public reaction to this instance of animal suffering has in turn led retailers, including ASOS, H&M, Calvin Klein, Ted Baker, French Connection, All Saints, Tommy Hilfiger and many more, to drop angora from their sales altogether.
Confucius Museum
A Confucius Museum is currently under construction in Qufu where the great philosopher was born around two and a half millenia ago. The museum, which is due to open this year, will contain more than 100,000 relics and artworks relating to the life and teachings of Confucius displayed using state of the art technology. Though few details of Confucius’ life are known, his teachings have been of momentous importance. With an emphasis on moral theory, education, self-cultivation and political solutions, Confucius’ philosophy and that of other ‘Confucian’ thinkers has shaped social mores and values, state ideologies and education in China and throughout the Far East for thousands of years.
Philosophising in Turkish
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said last month that following Atatürk’s alphabet reform in 1927, the Turkish language no longer lends itself to philosophising and scientific inquiry: “Although we had a very rich [Ottoman] language that was highly convenient for doing and producing science, we woke up one day and we realized that it was gone.” Prominent human rights philosopher and head of Turkey’s Philosophy Association Ioanna Kuçuradi, commented: “Turkish is a language that is suitable to philosophize in. The terminology used is not loaded like in the Western languages. This helps Turkish philosophy texts in reaching the readers.” Furthermore, as she pointed out, philosophical activity in Turkish is in fact going on all the time: “We philosophize in Turkish, we even have publications, but it is obvious that [Erdogan] does not know this.”
Philosophy in Schools
Philosophy is to become a subject on the Irish Republic’s school curriculum for the first time under a plan developed by minister for education Jan O’Sullivan, to give “students an opportunity to explore the concepts and ideas of philosophy in the 21st century.” Believing that it will make “a significant contribution to giving students the tools to critically engage in an informed manner with the world around them” the Minister says she will ask the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) to design a short Philosophy course that can be taught in the early years of secondary school.
Philosophy Now ‘Against Stupidity’ Award
We are delighted to announce that the 2014 winner of Philosophy Now’s Award for Contributions in the Fight Against Stupidity is linguist and philosopher Professor Noam Chomsky. He was chosen for the Award because of his contributions to critical thinking, and in particular for his work with Edward S. Herman on the ‘Propaganda Model’, a detailed analysis of structural biases and filters that shape news reporting in the mass media.
Nominations for the 2015 Award are now open. (editors@philosophynow.org)
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