Wikipedia Entry for the Alan Turing Year

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Turing_Year

       I don't put much stock in Wikipedia in general. It can be quite entertaining and interesting. The Alan Turing Year entry is worth checking out. Further links for our celebration (Turing 2012) is at www.pilosopiya.com and turing.pilosopiya.com. 

Wilfrid Sellars Society

[http://wss.categorymistake.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/IMG_3952.jpg 

Photo by George D. Wood]

    Not many people I know of in the Philippines (involved in analytic philosophy or dabbled in Rorty-style pragmatism) are familiar with Wilfrid Sellars. Most of them would recognize him as the editor of some compilation and not be familiar with his philosophy. It does not seem unsurprising that it follows that more are also unfamiliar with Robert Brandom and John McDowell. I think that this situation in the Philippines is unfortunate.  

     There is also the matter of the availability of his works in our university library. I have read his Empiricism and the philosophy of mind and "Philosophy and the scientific image of man" (as far as I know not available in our library) Sellars also has an autobiographical essay that features an anecdote with Carnap. The title of that essay escapes me at the moment. Andrew Chrucky's  site was what I primarily read for quite some time. 

     The link to the Wilfrid Sellars Society is here.

Turing 2012: Call for papers EXTENSION

[Extended till February 6. Culled from http://turing.pilosopiya.com/conference]

Turing 2012: International Conference on Philosophy,
Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Science

March 27 to 28, 2012

De La Salle University-Manila, Philippines

Call for papers

The conference will focus on different academic fields directly influenced by Turing, like philosophy, artificial intelligence, computer science, theories of computing, mathematics, cryptography, biology, and psychology. It will also feature topics which could also be associated to Turing, such as gender studies, international relations, and developments in cyberspace. Among the suggested topics include the following: 

• Computer science, computing and cognitive science
• Internet crimes, code-breaking and cryptography
• LGBT issues, policies and legislation
• Singularity, artificial intelligence and consciousness
• Cyberspace and the future of international relations

For researchers, professors, and graduate students who are interested to attend and/or present a paper, kindly register via our online form. Link

Due to several requests, the abstract submission has been extended to February 6, 2012. Submitted abstracts will undergo a peer review process. Accepted ones will be notified via email. The deadline for full papers will still be on March 4, 2012. The best papers from the conference will be considered for publication in special editions of the following international journals:

Recent reads part 9: Hellblazer, Damned and Riddled with Life

[Image culled from Vertigo's blog: http://vertigo.blog.dccomics.com/files/2011/12/20901_180x270.jpg The link to the interview with Milligan is here.]

Hellblazer: Suicide bridge by Peter Milligan and Simon Bisley
Damned by Chuck Palahniuk
Riddled with life by Marlene Zuk

Coincidentally, the first two selections deal with damnation and dealing with the past.

From Shakespeare's Coriolanus

[The text is from http://shakespeare.mit.edu/coriolanus/full.html. The site for the movie is  http://www.iconmovies.net/coriolanus/. I highly recommend the film adaptation directed by Ralph Fiennes. It also has a great cast.

I have not read the full text though. The Shakespeare texts I have read fully are Richard III, Hamlet and As You Like It.  ]

You common cry of curs! whose breath I hate
As reek o' the rotten fens, whose loves I prize
As the dead carcasses of unburied men
That do corrupt my air, I banish you;
And here remain with your uncertainty!
Let every feeble rumour shake your hearts!
Your enemies, with nodding of their plumes,
Fan you into despair! Have the power still
To banish your defenders; till at length
Your ignorance, which finds not till it feels,
Making not reservation of yourselves,
Still your own foes, deliver you as most
Abated captives to some nation
That won you without blows! Despising,
For you, the city, thus I turn my back:
There is a world elsewhere.

Citizen Philosophers:Teaching Justice in Brazil by Carlos Fraenkel

Got to this article via Brian Leiter's site. It's from the Boston Review. The article is here. The image is from the article. Here are some interesting passages from the article:

"In 1971 the military dictatorship that ruled Brazil from 1964 to 1985 eliminated philosophy from high schools. Teachers, professors in departments of education, and political activists championed its return, while most academic philosophers were either indifferent or suspicious. The dictatorship seems to have understood philosophy’s potential to create engaged citizens; it replaced philosophy with a course on Moral and Civic Education and one on Brazil’s Social and Political Organization ('to inculcate good manners and patriotic values and to justify the political order of the generals,'one UFBA colleague recalls from his high school days)."

 "But can philosophy really become part of ordinary life? Wasn’t Socrates executed for trying? Athenians didn’t thank him for guiding them to the examined life, but instead accused him of spreading moral corruption and atheism. Plato concurs: Socrates failed because most citizens just aren’t philosophers in his view. To make them question the beliefs and customs they were brought up in isn’t useful because they can’t replace them with examined ones. So Socrates ended up pushing them into nihilism. To build politics on a foundation of philosophy, Plato concludes, doesn’t mean turning all citizens into philosophers, but putting true philosophers in charge of the city—like parents in charge of children. I wonder, though, why Plato didn’t consider the alternative: If citizens had been trained in dialectic debate from early on—say, starting in high school—might they have reacted differently to Socrates? Perhaps the Brazilian experiment will tell."

Allan Gregg in Conversation: "American Psycho" author Bret Easton Ellis on "Glamorama".

I've read both books. The interview with Bret Easton Ellis is here. Ellis uses many devices that many readers might not be used to. For these readers, the interview may help clear it up.