Steven Gimbel, Gettysburg College In the last couple of years, we have seen two incidents that have raised the question of comedic ethics in the larger popular discourse. Michael Richards, better known for his role as Kramer on the television series Seinfeld, while on stage at the Laugh Factory in Hollywood in 2006 said to […]

Sophia A. Stone, Lynn University Williams, John F. Hating Perfection. Amherst: Humanity Books, 2013. Pp. 7 + 373. Paperback $19.99. ISBN: 978-1-61614-875-1. Williams’s monograph, revised from 2009, reveals insensitivity to his intended audience’s intelligence, philosophical acumen, literary taste, and mood. Evidence of his insensitivity or sheer hubris is proved by the fact that not one […]

Brook J. Sadler, University ofSouth Florida With respect to many complex problems, we proceed to enact solutions even when we are not certain what the precise causes of the problem are and even when we lack sufficient information to guarantee that our attempts to solve the problem will work. Proceeding in the light of such […]

Shelley M. Park, University of Central Florida I agree wholeheartedly with my co-panelists that white, male philosophers ought to care about the lack of diversity in philosophy. However, I am skeptical that most of them do care. To be sure, some do and perhaps some others can be persuaded to care. However, in philosophy as […]

Matthew Groe, Jacksonville University The first thing that strikes you about Nancy Stanlick’s book, American Philosophy: The Basics, is the immense scope that is surveyed in its roughly 150 pages. In addition to covering the classical pragmatists, as well as such major figures as W.V.O. Quine, Thomas Kuhn, John Rawls, and Richard Rorty, Stanlick spends […]

Carmen Maria Marcous, Florida State University In order to elevate discussion on the (euphemistically coined) “diversity problem” in philosophy (i.e., the significant under-representation of women and minorities in the discipline) philosophers must step outside their comfort zones. We have to ask direct questions, such as: “What are the most effective approaches that departments can take […]

Peter Olen, Lake Sumter State College American Philosophy: The Basics is a pluralistic, inclusive attempt to re-cast the history of American philosophy in an introductory text. As one of Stanlick’s former students, it is a satisfying read because it is structured around ideas present in her earlier lectures on America philosophy. In this new book, […]

Nancy Stanlick, University of Central Florida As both commentators have noted, American Philosophy: The Basics contains an expanded conception of American philosophy and, in addition, it is a challenge to the very conception of what philosophy is. The traditional categories such as metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, and other areas of philosophical inquiry are the primary divisions […]

Winner of the Gerritt and Edith Schipper Undergraduate Award for Outstanding Undergraduate Paper at the 59th Annual Meeting of the Florida Philosophical Association Ryan Simonelli, New College of Florida I. Introduction Donald Davidson argues that the very nature of belief ensures that, if we have any beliefs at all, most of them must be true. […]

Winner of the Outstanding Graduate Paper Award at the 59th Annual Meeting of the Florida Philosophical Association Josh Turkewitz, Florida State University In the Philosophy of Philosophy, Timothy Williamson presents an account of modal reasoning where the capacities that produce and evaluate everyday modal knowledge epistemologically grounds more abstract counterfactual reasoning. Further, if thought experiments, […]