The “papers blog”:http://opp.weatherson.org/archives/004406.html has been updated. The entry today has a bit of a CT theme, with contributions from Chris Bertram and John Holbo. It would be even more CT-ish if I had finished off some of the things I’m working on before today…

The “North American James Joyce Conference”:http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/joyce/conference/ will be here in Ithaca next week. The program runs 21 pages long, and at a rough count I think there are something like 250 papers being offered. It would be fun to attend some (I think) but the only registration option they have is $110, which is meant to cover a whole host of meals etc as well. And it’s somewhat immoral to sneak into a conference without paying registration. There is a roving reading of _Ulysses_ on Bloomsday as part of the festivities and I might pop along to see some of that. Fellow Ithacans should be aware of the English professors incoming!

The “web page”:http://www.oup.co.uk/isbn/0-19-928803-8 for Jason Stanley’s book, _Knowledge and Practical Interests_. It seems surprisingly affordable for a new academic book in hardback, though hopefully there’ll also be a paperback out before too long. I liked this part of the blurb.

bq. First book from one of the world’s leading younger philosophers.

This book should be very good.

The “web page”:http://www.oup.co.uk/isbn/0-19-928803-8 for Jason Stanley’s book, _Knowledge and Practical Interests_. It seems surprisingly affordable for a new academic book in hardback, though hopefully there’ll also be a paperback out before too long. I liked this part of the blurb.

bq. First book from one of the world’s leading younger philosophers.

This book should be very good.

A new “web-based symposium on gender, race and philosophy”:http://stellar.mit.edu/S/project/sgrp/ has just been launched. Here is their description of the site.

bq. These symposia provide opportunities for philosophers and other scholars to discuss current work on race and gender. We aim to make feminist philosophy and philosophy of race more visible to academic philosophers and others; to provide a forum for feminists and race theorists to respond rapidly to recent philosophical contributions to their fields; and to provide a forum for sustained and productive conversations between philosophers, feminists and race theorists.

More details on the project are available “here”:http://stellar.mit.edu/S/project/sgrp/courseMaterial/topics/topic1/help/text2/text.

The site has started with symposia on two papers.

* “Blackness and Blood: Interpreting African American Identity”:http://stellar.mit.edu/S/project/sgrp/materials/projects.html by Lionel McPherson and Tommie Shelby
* “Identity Trouble: Disidentification and the Problem of Difference”:http://stellar.mit.edu/S/project/sgrp/materials/resources.html by José Medina.

The symposia consist of commentaries by invited commentators with replies by the authors. There are discussion forums for those wanting to get involved. You’ll need to register to be part of these (I often wish I had registration here to cut out the spam) but the registration process seems as painless as possible.

So go check out “the site”:http://stellar.mit.edu/S/project/sgrp/. This should be a really valuable resource for people working in and around race and gender issues. I imagine the conversations on the discussion boards, and on blogs linking to “SGRP”:http://stellar.mit.edu/S/project/sgrp/, will be lively and illuminating.

“Carrie Jenkins”:http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~csj6/ points to this BBC survey to work out who people think is the “greatest philosopher of all time”:http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/inourtime/greatest_philosopher_why.shtml.

The BBC site is taking nominations for the next 24 hours or so, with a vote to be held amongst the top 20 nominees. Right now Wittgenstein and Marx seem to be getting the most votes, with very little support for TAR’s favourites, especially Lewis and Grice. (And the reasons people give for voting for Wittgenstein seem awful. Apparently Wittgenstein showed that questions about right and wrong are meaningless … and this is a _good_ thing.) So “head over there”:http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/inourtime/greatest_philosopher_why.shtml and add some better names/reasons to the list.