Dead Philosophers' Carnival - The 60th Philosophers' Carnival.

Welcome to the Dead Philosophers’ Carnival - The 60th Philosophers' Carnival.

The death of Socrates marks one of the most significant moments in the development of philosophy. It is one of the landmarks in the development of Plato’s thought, and thus influential on all who have laboured under his tutelage. It is also one of the deaths that have a presence in the history of philosophy; a notable elder sibling to the deaths of Seneca, Boethius, Nietzsche, and Foucault.

The death of a philosopher marks the conclusion of their endeavours. In some cases it comes at the end of substantial contribution, in others it comes a little too early.

The intent of this Carnival – the first in what, it is hoped, will be an annual series – was to provide an opportunity for the students of philosophy to reflect on the contributions made by those who did not see the close of 2007. Admittedly not everyone stuck to the theme, but if philosophers always did what was asked of them, where would we be?

Duckrabbit starts the proceedings with a discussion of the work of Richard Rorty, one of the most high-profile philosophers to die in 2007 with: Is Rorty a "textualist"? And if so, is that bad?

Inconsistent thoughts provides a retrospective of Paul Cohen’s work on the Continuum Hypothesis: On Cohen and CH

VirtualPrimate gives an excellent summation of the Humanist philosophy of of Kurt Vonnegut jr: Goodbye Blue Monday : Kurt Vonnegut Jr. 1922-2007

Philosophy etc talks not about someone in particular who died, but about the end of one’s life itself with: Death's Deprivations


Enigmania nominated two other posts of note relating to the work of philosophers who passed in 2007:

Religious Pluralism and Consistency relates to Jewish religious philosopher Ernst Ludwig Ehrlic’s work

and

Monty Hall and Interpretations of Probability is in the area of the late Henry E Kyburg Jr, well known for his contributions to both Philosophy and Artificial Intelligence.


And now to the other articles of philosophy worthy of inclusion, but sadly off-theme.

Pete Mandik of Brain Hammer assures us that: Your Brain is Reading This. And who are we to argue?

Andrew Moon of Show-me the Argument asks us to consider how much similarity is there between The Train Case and the Hospital Case ?

Gualtiero Piccinini quizzes us on out semantic intuitions (I have none, Kripke has ruined them) - Will You Share Your Semantic Intuitions?

Nothing of Consequence revisits some earlier work on Sequent Calculus in: Operational meaning and global meaning in sequent calculus.

And finally, Thom Brooks at The Brooks Blog outlines some of the pitfalls awaiting us when we try to get a book deal with: Some of the worst advice on publishing (Graduate Students note: Thom's blog is packed with good advice in many relevant areas!)


To all the contributors who made the cut, especially those who stuck to the theme, well done and keep up the good work. The Editors appreciate the effort that you went to.

With only one exception (the article was good, but not actual philosophy), the rest of the submissions we received were essentially political, commercial or religious spam and/or total and utter drivel. Those people will get nothing from us except pure contempt. You know who you are.

Happy New Year Everyone.

The First Dead Philosophers' Carnival (Philosophers' Carnival #60) - Call for Papers

2007 saw the death of philosophers including Jean Baudrillard, Susan Hurley, Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe, Richard Rorty, and Robert C. Solomon.


Dialectic, in association with the Philosophers' Carnival, is hosting the first Dead Philosophers' Carnival (as the 60th Philosophers' Carnival).


The Editors of Dialectic, as hosts of the Carnival, are calling for posts relating to the work of those philosophers who have died in 2007 and those who have celebrated notable anniversaries in 2007. Eligible posts are in no way limited to the philosophers mentioned above. If contributors know of other philosophers that have recently passed, we urge potential contributors to submit posts. Preference will be given to contributions relating to the theme, but interpretation of that theme need not be strictly literal.


The Carnival will commence on the 7th of January 2008.


Submissions will close on the 2nd of January 2008, but don't put forward your posts until after submissions to Carnival #59 have closed (unless you want to be in #59 of course).

Rorty on Democracy and Philosophy

Since his death Rorty has become something of a regular here about. Here is one of his last works, discussing the premises of his philosophy.

Rorty is Dead II

Ramin Jahanbegloo, who made an appearance in these parts last year when he was arrested and imprisoned in Iran, has written an obito-analysis of Richard Rorty.

Rorty Is Dead

‘Alas, I have come down with the same disease that killed Derrida.’

Considerable American philosopher Richard Rorty died on the 8th of June (of pancreatic cancer).

Jürgen Habermas provides a personal obituary, while Roger Scrutton is critical and the New York Times is biographical. (Arts and Letters Daily is listing other obituaries.)