A few highlights from the year past:
Certainly the two most widely discussed items from the blog this year pertained to unfortunate incidents involving professional misconduct by philosophers.
First, there was the Synthese scandal, for which those primary responsible, Vincent Hendricks and Johan van Benthem, have yet to apologize or even make amends. I hope philosophers as appalled as I was by this affair will continue to show resolve and refuse to either submit to or referee for this journal.
Second, there was the fake "Climate for Women" report (and see also this and this), which not only denigrated departments for having a 'bad" climate based on no evidence, but praised departments about which there was evidence of sexual harassment problems! (One of the best commentaries remains this one.) The "Climate for Women" travesty, unfortunately, distracted from the reasonable effort of philosophers associated with the Society for Phenomenology & Existential Philosophy and the Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy to present their view of programs in fields of interest to their members. It is a shame they chose to mislabel it as a "pluralist" guide, but fortunately Spiros came to the rescue on that one.
Several topics this year about philosophy, both its future and its past, generated lively and interesting discussions from readers: these included Stanley v. Romano on "Progress" in Philosophy, Best Philosophical Stylists, Kitcher on "Reconstruction" in Philosophy, and Why study history of philosophy?.
Of "Issues in the Profession," one that generated lively discussion at the start of the year and throughout was the relative merits of APA interviews vs. Skype. A.C. Grayling's new initiative, a pricey private college in London, was, shall we say, controversial. There was also a useful discussion of concrete steps for increasing the racial diversity of the philosophy profession.
And perhaps most importantly: why studying and teaching philosophy is great!
Finally, since it was a year, like most years, of incompetent coverage of philosophy in the media, let's pause to remember James Ryerson's excellent piece on Philippa Foot, that started the year on the right note.
Best wishes for 2012 to all readers.
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