"imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness"

The cover of the book, “Innovations in Teaching Philosophy: A Toolkit for the 21st-Century Classroom” Edited by Brynn F. Welch.

The first page of chapter 29, “Virtuous Dialogues in Epistemic Communities: Helping Students Understand the Value of Citations” by Cassie L. Finley and Kristopher G. Phillips.

One cool thing about having a partner who is also a philosopher is that we get to think, write, and publish together.

Thanks John! I certainly will. I think it’ll be a few months - it’s off to referees now - then I need to do revisions, but I expect it some time this calendar year! Stay tuned.

Holy shit. I wrote a whole book!

#ProfLife

A screenshot from Rick Astley's Never Gonna Give you up music video

A screenshot from Rick Astley's Never Gonna Give you up music video

A screenshot from Rick Astley's Never Gonna Give you up music video

A photograph of the seminary gym in knives out. It has the same window.

Just watched the new Knives Out and I think it's really important you know that the scene in the Seminary's Gym is filmed in the same place Rick Astley filmed the music video for Never Gonna Give You Up.

I saw the window tracery and immediately made my friends pause the film so I could tell them.

Listen, I was cheering for the Detroit Lions for every game of 0-16. I’m not about to boo them for 8-6 and a shot at the playoffs.

#onepride

It was the result of at least a year of thinking about the material before writing. So… maybe?

I told my doctor that I was trying to eat better. Eating more salads and chicken, less pizza and such. He responded, “have all the salad you want, but if you’re drowning it in ranch or blue cheese don’t kid yourself about being healthy.”

I said nothing about dressings, he just assumed. 🤷‍♂️

(They’re pretty good words too!)

Holy shit. I wrote like, 4500 words today. I might finish this book after all.

This was literally a joke on futurama.

Yes you do! I added you!

Of course it still has grades! What is this, some sort of new-age feel-goodery?

I still assign final grades, and I give copious feedback on where and how to improve. Numbers and letter grades don’t tell a student how to do better.

Ugh. This is such lazy writing.

It’s hilarious because the first paragraph pretty well describes me, right up to the, “they are frauds” and then literally everything that follows is a straw-person of the actually thoughtful pedagogical choices I make.
But also, my rejection of grades has nothing to do with “who am I to judge?”

I actually pretty much exclusively use Garamond. And my jeans are blue, but cuffed, so.. you know. Trying too hard.

Fuck man. That really is me.

Descartes gave us all the tools we need to survive in an era of misinformation. Simply begin with the understanding that you are real but everything else is fairly likely to be the cruel games of a demon sent to torment you specifically.

Since January, I’ve written 38,811 words.

They’re pretty good words in what I take to be an interesting order.

Gotta keep going. October 1 is fast approaching.

Oh shit! I’m here for it

Angela (Theme From 'Taxi') - Bob James (1978) YouTube video by djbuddylovecooljazz

Not to be too much of a hipster, but the Taxi theme song popped up on my Spotify and honestly, it slaps.

Great writing music!

youtu.be/5DL8SGEyhZE?...

I have a productivity app that I use to track my writing time. While I’m not always great about making sure I use it, it’s tracked 77+ hours of writing since Jan.

I have somewhere around 40k words, which puts me at ~519.5 words/hour.

Can I finish this book by September? We will see!

Be careful what you wish for!

OOOOH. Good idea!

I thought this would streamline my feedback process because I assumed few students would pick 5.

All but one of my students picked 5 this term.

Side note: I just spent 90 minutes on one paper.

Special Issue: AI and Public Philosophy CFP: Special Issue: AI and Public Philosophy  The Public Philosophy Journal invites contributions for a special issue focused on AI and public philosophy.  The rapid evolution of artifi...

CFP: Special Issue: AI and Public Philosophy

The Public Philosophy Journal invites contributions for a special issue focused on AI and public philosophy.

philevents.org/event/show/1...

Happening soon! Going to be a great discussion! Register here to receive the Zoom link: philosophyteachers.org/talking-teac...

I have a lot to say about that as a definition and purpose of higher ed, but I’ll let you read the rest of the chapter before I respond, as I suspect a lot of what I’d say here has already been said in the second half of the chapter.

My partner is so damn amazing!! She’s cooler than you (and me).

Dude, you’re not alone. Getting students to do philosophy without AI is just getting students to do philosophy. And it’s important. I feel you.