A graph showing the percentage of philosophy articles that cited empirical sources each year between 1970 and 2024. That proportion has increased from approximately 10% in the 1970s to over 50% in the 2020s.

Philosophy was mostly "armchair" in the mid-20th century—but it's not anymore! Philosophers have increasingly cited empirical sources and discussed empirical data and evidence. In fact, as of the 2020s, non-empirical philosophy has become the minority.

This IHE article discusses my recent work with @mvazquez.bsky.social about how students' politics change during college. Simply put, independently of political *beliefs* students seem to adopt an "educated liberal" *identity.*

A blue chess pawn and a red pawn, each mounted on a wooden block, face one another.

Opinion | The Real ‘Diploma Divide’ Is About Identity, Not Beliefs

The familiar narrative that colleges are fueling a growing divide in political beliefs is not backed up by the data. But something else consequential has changed. By Michael Vazquez and Michael Prinzing. https://bit.ly/4uQcSeM

Does going to college make people more liberal? Probably yes, but it’s complicated… For decades, US adults with degrees have held more left-leaning views on social issues, but not on economic ones. And, until the 2010s, grads did not *identify* as more liberal than non-grads.

I do! Anecdotally, many folks seem to agree on the differences between 'performance' and 'learning' contexts (even if they do not always use these terms). But I don't as often see people map those differences against the distinction between domain novices and experts (how they think, learn, etc.)

Would you mind if I shared this with a faculty working group at UNC (with citation, of course)?

New Film Captures the Value and Excitement of Ethics Bowl - Daily Nous The Bowl is a new documentary that follows a team of six girls and their teacher as they prepare for and compete in the National High School Ethics Bowl---and you may be able to arrange an interactive screening of it in your town. . Created by documentary filmmaker Eli Yetter-Bowman of Ethereal Films, The Bowl aims

“We got so lucky to follow such an inspiring group of students. Their journey is an excellent snapshot of how rewarding the ethics bowl experience can be.”

What’s an idea worth? How prominent thinkers have understood intellectual property | Aeon Videos Should it be possible to own an idea? The debate around intellectual property has deep roots in the history of philosophy

Should ideas be owned like physical objects, or are these property rights different? How can societies encourage innovation while making ideas accessible for the greater good? Watch this animated TED-Ed short examining philosophers’ perspectives on intellectual property rights through history

Benefits of Studying Philosophy | APA On DemandAPA Mission - The American Philosophical Association To activate captions, click on the CC icon at the bottom of the video, then select English from the menu.

I had a great chat about how studying philosophy can make people better thinkers with @mvazquez.bsky.social, @markalfano.bsky.social, Deborah Mower, and Heather Battaly. Thanks to @apaphilosophy.bsky.social for hosting and making the recording available!
www.apaonline.org/mpage/benefi...

Studying philosophy does make people better thinkers, according to new research on more than 600,000 college grads Philosophers are fond of saying that their field boosts critical thinking. Two of them decided to put that claim to the test.

Turns out studying philosophy is actually valuable. Philosophy majors don’t just argue well, they actually become better thinkers and do better on tests.

Data from 600k students shows they outscore every other major on reasoning, curiosity and open-mindedness.

APA Live | “Benefits of Studying Philosophy,” Wednesday, August 27, 6 p.m. Eastern / 3 p.m. Pacific, with panelists Michael Prinzing, Michael Vazquez, Deborah Mower, Mark Alfano, and Heather Battaly.

Are you a faculty member trying to convince university administrators that philosophy is important? Or a student wondering about the benefits of taking philosophy courses? Join us for “Benefits of Studying Philosophy” on August 27. Registration is open to all: www.apaonline.org/events/Event...

4th Annual Penn-Georgetown Digital Ethics Workshop We invite submissions for the 4th Annual Penn-Georgetown Digital Ethics Workshop, to be held at the University on Pennsylvania on April 3rd-4th, 2026. Submissions in any area of digital ethics, broadl...

We are excited to announce the 4th Annual Penn-Georgetown Digital Ethics Workshop, organized by Brian Berkey and myself. The conference will take place April 3-4, 2026, at Penn.

If you work on digital technology ethics, broadly construed, please consider submitting an abstract.

Opinion | Students Want the Liberal Arts. Administrators Are Ignoring Them. Students want to study the humanities and liberal arts. But university administrators keep getting in the way.

“When students realize their own humanity is at stake in their education, they are deeply invested in it.” bit.ly/457AAYZ

Studying Philosophy Makes People Better Thinkers: Further Data - Daily Nous A new study "offers the strongest evidence to date that studying philosophy does indeed make people better thinkers." Readers may recall the previous research of Michael Prinzing (Baylor) & Michael Va...

New research on the question of whether studying philosophy makes students better thinkers...

American Philosophical Association The panelists for this event are as follows:

Join us for an APA Live event:

The Benefits of Studying Philosophy

Wednesday, August 27, 2025
6 p.m Eastern / 3 p.m. Pacific

Register here: tinyurl.com/4773k45a

@mvazquez.bsky.social and I analyzed data from over half a million college students, looking at tests of verbal, logical, and mathematical reasoning, plus self-report measures of valuable habits of mind (a mix of curiosity, open-mindedness, intellectual rigor, etc.)
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Elizabeth D. Rockwell Center Prize for Best Article on Ethics, Leadership, and Public Policy | Hobby School of Public Affairs | University of Houston Elizabeth D. Rockwell Center Prize for Best Article on Ethics, Leadership, and Public Policy

Elizabeth D. Rockwell Center Prize for Best Article on Ethics, Leadership, and Public Policy, for paper published in print or online in the last three years.

uh.edu/hobby/edr-ce...

If we think through enough concrete cases, can't we come up with some defeasible rules of thumb (subject to all the situational variability of φρόνηςις)?

Well said! Agreed. There remains an open question about how much weight their interests carry. Part of me is drawn to the Jeffersonian idea 'that the earth belongs in usufruct to the living' (within reason).

The ethical dilemma of deathbed wishes - Sarah Stroud and Michael Vazquez Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

What do we owe the dead?

In this new TED-Ed video, Sarah Stroud and I examine promises made to a dying spouse—and what moral philosophy says about keeping them: go.unc.edu/wishes

This is part of an ongoing partnership with TED-Ed to build educational resources in ethics: go.unc.edu/ted-ed

Jeff Greene standing in front of a slide that reads: "So...what can teachers do to help students form responsible beliefs in the modern world?"

Paula McAvoy presenting a group activity.

On Saturday, K-12 educators from across the Triangle joined us on UNC's campus for "The Art of Inquiry: Promoting Responsible Belief in the Classroom." With guidance from @jeffgreene.bsky.social (UNC) and Paula McAvoy (NCState), participants learned strategies for fostering critical thinking...(1/2)

That was such a rich and engaging presentation, Jeff! You had us all thinking about those themes and strategies for the rest of the day.

Slide with the title "Three Ways to Educate for Responsible Believing" listing Debunking/prebunking/inoculation, Teaching lateral reading, and Developing intellectual virtues.

So fun talking to teachers about "Educating for Responsible Belief" at the “The Art of Inquiry: Promoting Responsible Belief in the Classroom” event hosted by the Applied Epistemology Project at UNC-CH (@unc-aep.bsky.social). Slides available if you're curious: https://buff.ly/4jeXJhr

Abstracts for the 2025 SPP at Cornell are due on January 24th!

Leaked documents show Cuban military sitting on billions of dollars amid humanitarian crisis Internal documents show how much the Cuban military has diverted resources to build hotels.

Excellent reporting on how the Cuban govt military dept GAESA has billions that could be used for urgent aid but is instead being used (through GAESA owned Almest and Gaviota) to invest in tourism. Crony communist corruption, not egalitarianism, rules the island.

www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-...

Them “It’s all a bit academic really.”

Me (in my head) “You’re right, it’s so important we need to concentrate efforts to study it!”

If you’ve read Nudge you don’t make a New Year’s Resolution. You make a New Year’s Adjustment to Your Choice Architecture.

Found it on Logos — thanks!

This is awesome! Do you know when it will be available for purchase?

The SPP can for papers is out. The Society for Philosophy and Psychology (SPP) invites submissions of papers to be presented at its 51st Annual Meeting, to be held June 19-21, 2025 at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY.
Please submit an abstract by January 24, 2025 at 11:59pm EST.