Metaphilosophy for Undergraduates

Topics/Questions in Metaphilosophy

• What is philosophy? A philosophical question?

• How is philosophy done?

• Does philosophy make progress?

• What do different traditions/schools/styles have if common?

• Why should we do philosophy?

Metaphilosophy on the Web

• Metaphilosophy (philpapers)

• Contemporary Metaphilosophy (IEP)

• What is philosophy--and what is it for? (Philosophers Mail)

• Taxonomy of Philosophy (Lageard)

• Searle: It upsets me when I read...(New Philosopher)

• Reese, Why study philosophy? To challenge your own point of view: Interview with Rebecca Goldstein (The Atlantic)

• Dietrich, There is no progress in philosophy

• Morton, An antidote to injustice (TPM)

• Samuelson, Why I teach Plato to Plumbers (The Atlantic)

• What is philosophy? (Philosophy Bites)

• Soren Overgaard, How to philosophize

Readings for Undergraduates

• Smith, R. List of Readings for Metaphilosophy

Books

• Bontempo, C.J and Odell, S. J. (eds). 1975. The Owl of Minerva: Philosophers on Philosophy. New York: McGraw-Hill Paperbacks.

• Daly, C. 2010. An Introduction to Philosophical Methods. Breakwater Books. Haug, Matthew C. 2014. Philosophical Methodology: The Armchair or the Laboratory? Routledge.

• Overgaard, S., Gilbert, P. and Burwood, S. 2013. An Introduction to Metaphilosophy. Cambridge.

• Rescher, N. 2001. Philosophical Reasoning: A study in the methodology of philosophizing. Blackwell.

• Rescher, N. 2006. Philosophical Dialectics: An Essay on Metaphilosophy. State University of New York.

• WIlliamson, T. 2008. The Philosophy of Philosophy. Wiley-Blackwell.

Syllabi & Course Descriptions for Metaphilosophy

• Gentzler, J. Metaphilosophy (Course Description). Amhurst.

• Goddu, G.2013. Philosophical Methods. Richmond.

• Lutz, S.2013. Philosophical Methodologies. Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München.

• Nado, J. 2011. Philosophical Methodology. Lingnan University.

• O'Rourke, M. 2004. Metaphilosophy. University of Idaho.

• Plant, R. Metaphilosophy (Course Description). University of Aberdeen.

• Pogler, 2013. Topics in Philosophical Methodology, U Cincinnati

• Powell, J. 2012. Metaphilosophy: Paradoxes. Humbolt.

• Smith, R. 2015. Philosophical Writing, Coastal Carolina University.

• Suber, P. 2002. Metaphilosophy. Earlham College.

Blog Posts and Short Essays

• The Many Ways of Being a Philosophy (Fruhling)

• Day-to-Day Life & the Life of Ideas (Fruhling)

• Philosophy that Closes vs... (Schwitzgebel)

Writing Philosophy

• Why Writing Philosophy is Hard (Schwitzgebel)

“[Philosophers] may have thought very little about what it is they are doing when they are doing it, which is odd, because usually we need to know what it is we are trying to do before wondering how we should get it done.” Overgaard et al. 2013. An Introduction to Metaphilosophy, pp. 4-5.

“Philosophizing is not like riding a bicycle, best done without thinking about it—or rather: the best cyclists surely do think about what they are doing.” Timothy Williamson, 2008, The Philosophy of Philosophy, p. 8 (cited in Overgaard, et al.)

“The philosophy of philosophy is perhaps a somewhat joyless and unrewarding subject for reflection.” David Armstrong, 1980, The Nature of Mind, p. 19.

“A philosopher should philosophize: he should try to solve philosophical problems, rather than talk about philosophy.” Karl Popper, 1968, Conjectures and Refutations, p. 72. (Cited in Overgaard et al. p. 6).

“Preoccupation with questions about methods tend to distract us from prosecuting the methods themselves. We run, as a rule, worse, not better, if we think a lot about our feet.” Gilbert Ryle, 2009. Collected papers Vol. 2, p. 331. (Cited in Overgaard et al. p. 6.)

Philosophy in the News, Around the Web, and more links here

• Why philosophy matters (IAI News)

• What philosophers are working on (Daily Nous)

• Philosophy & Science Education (Aeon)

• How (and when) to think Like a Philosopher (NPR)

• Stoljar, How philosophy makes progress (Daily Nous)

• Taylor, Why philosophy? (Daily Nous)

• When philosophy lost its way (NYT-The Stone)

• Can philosophy survive...? (Times Higher Ed)

• Nussbaum, On philosophy

• What to study in college

• Why is philosophy so straight?

• Why every student should study philosophy (Kelly)

• The hard problem of public philosophy

• The Earning Power of Philosophy Majors (Atlantic)

• Philosophical Toolkit in Tow (The Conversation)

• Philosophy is not useless (The Odyssey)

• Why we need philosophy communication

• Stern, The complications of philosophy (The Point)

• That useless liberal arts degree [philosophy] (Forbes)

• Hallman, Philosophy's not dead (Odyssey)

• Does philosophy have a problem with women? (The Guardian)

• Philosophy via Facebook? Why Not. Schwitzgebel (LA Times)

• Philosophy students in the news

• Is philosophy inquiry or therapy? Warburten (Ideas/Beta)

• How can philosophy make itself more relevant? Anderson

• The long reach of reason (TED)

• When did science and philosophy separate into different fields of study? (Slate/Quora)

• Why we need philosophers engaged in public life NPR

• Neil deGrasse Tyson and the Value of Philosophy (HuffPo)

• How to save liberal arts education

• How to sell philosophy (Slate)

• Be Employable, Study Philosophy (Salon.com)

• Why I majored in philosophy (PolicyMic)

• What do philosophers do? (The Atlantic)

• The unexpected way philosophers are changing the world of business (HuffPo)

• Shammas, For a Better Society, Teach Philosophy in High Schools (HuffPost)

• Has physics made philosophy and religion obsolete? (Atlantic)

• Why philosophy has been central to legal education for more that a century (Leiter in HuffPo)

• Children doing Philosophy (NPR)

• The Philosopher (JPSE)

• Philosophy Info for Undergrads (APA)