Other Materials
Presentations, roundtable discussion, radio
Listen here for a 2022 podcast on science fiction
Watch here for a 2022 talk on Science Fiction and Philosophy Illustrated: with the Anarres Project for Alternative Futures
Watch here for a postcast for Damn the absolute!
Watch here for a Seize the Moment podcast interview.
Watch here for a podcast interview with John Symons, MANA, a platform for promoting philosophy in Saudi Arabia.
Watch here for a roundtable discussion of Alan Torrance, Kevin Hector and me on experimental philosophy of religion.
Here is a presentation on the argument from miracles, which found its way as chapter 8 of A natural history of natural theology.
A radio interview (in Dutch) on science and faith at Evangelische omroep
Public philosophy pieces
2022 An archaeology for a better future. The Raven
2022 (with Pauline Lee) How to be useless. Psyche Magazine
2022 The best illustrated philosophy books.Five Books
2021 The Case for alternating in-person and virtual conferences. APA Blog
2020 The necessity of awe. Aeon Magazine.
2020 (with Sameer Yadav). Yes, God can be hurt, but not in the way Trump claims. The Conversation.
2020 How Prince Zuko restored his honor. Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture
2020 (with Johnathan Flowers) A pragmatist philosopher's view of the US response to the coronavirus pandemic. The Conversation
2018 (with other undersigned). You don’t need to know Plato and Aristotle to be a humanist. The Guardian
2018 Xenophobia and misogyny is a systematic feature of power relations. The New European
What can philosophers do?
What can do you with a philosophy degree, outside of academia? I have a tumblr blog, Doing Things with Philosophy.
My interviews with philosophers who work outside of academia have appeared originally on the blog NewApps (parts 1, 2 and 3), and have since appeared in short form in The Philosophers' Magazine. They have also been covered in The Atlantic Monthly, and have been translated in Chinese in the online newspaper The Paper.
Blogging and outreach
My own blog is Wondering Freely.
I regularly write for the The Philosophers' Cocoon.
I am co-organizer (with Marcus Arvan) of the Philosophers' Cocoon job market mentoring project, which is aimed at providing support for philosophy job candidates who face special challenges, or who do not have mentoring support.
On the Cocoon, I have (co)organized several series to help to diversify the profession and offer resources to philosophers who would otherwise not have access to them. These include:
The Cocoon Goes Global, showcasing the challenges and opportunities that philosophers face working in countries outside of the Anglophone west, including Nigeria, Peru, Argentina, China, Singapore, Germany.
How to Write Philosophy, a series of blogposts by guest writers to demystify the writing process, aimed at philosophers but also useful for a broader audience
Unusual Teaching Ideas that work, a series of focused blogposts by guest writers with concrete, clear examples of ways to improve pedagogy, with teaching techniques such as paper scavenger hunts, meditation in the classroom, non-conventional discussion formats, etc. Useful for anyone who teaches philosophy
Once out of the Cocoon, a series of guest posts specifically aimed at those who have job security, in the hope that they could help empower others. These will include posts on work/life balance, on activism and how to incorporate it in one’s life, on how to help and support others.
Together with other members for the Philosophers for Sustainability, I petitioned the American Philosophical Association to have one or two of their divisional meetings to go one line entirely. Our petition and campaign can be found here.
My piece with a rationale for this move can be found here
The APA's preliminary response can be read here
Together with Eleonore Stump, I petitioned the American Philosophical Association for a code of conduct for its members (see petition here). The APA has heard our petition and has created the code of conduct.
One of my current interests is how philosophers can increase their philosophical scope and elicit a wider readership by using fiction (in fact, using fiction to convey philosophical ideas is a time-honored tradition, with authors like Iris Murdoch, Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone De Beauvoir). I have written about the need to include fiction in our philosophical toolkit here, and I have interviewed several philosophers who write speculative fiction, for instance Eric Schwitzgebel and R. Scott Bakker. An interview with me about this topic for the APA can be read here.
I have several advice pieces for junior scholars and peers that other people have found helpful. These include the following:
Writing that energizes. Advice on how to develop a positive relationship with your writing, and how you can set it low stakes enough so it does not become too daunting. Develops some ideas on the importance of discovery writing in academic prose.
Four years of learning the craft, a step-by-step guide on how to write fiction for publication in magazines.
Dealing with the collapse in the academic job market: advice for mentors and people on the job market, written in 2020 when the academic job market was severely depressed, this is a comprehensive how-to guide for graduate students on how to find a job outside of academia.
Fruitfulness versus productivity--thoughts for writing what you want to write, deals with the narrow and in ableist focus on productivity in academia, shifting to the concept of fruitfulness and how to achieve that.
Renaissance Lute
I play the Renaissance lute, an instrument that was popular from roughly 1500 to 1620. It has 8 courses (which is 7 double strings and 1 single string, the chanterelle). The instrument was made in 1996 by Sandi Harris and Stephen Barber, an excellent lute maker husband-and-wife team. The tuning is G major.
Here are some pieces played by me (YouTube links)
Digital art
I make digital art.
See here for a portfolio of published and unpublished artworks.
My book Philosophy Illustrated, has 42 color illustrations of thought experiments by me, as well as reflections by experts on these thought experiments. Oxford University Press, 2022.
Cover art for Philosophy through Fiction (edited by Helen De Cruz, Johan De Smedt, and Eric Schwitzgebel), Bloomsbury, 2021
Cover art for Voices from the Edge (edited by Michelle Panchuk and Michael Rea), Oxford, 2020)
This Bored Panda post with drawings of philosophical thought experiments is probably one of my most viewed philosophical contributions. A volume is under contract with Oxford University Press with 42 full-color drawings of my thought experiments.
Fiction
I write short, speculative fiction with philosophical themes. Published works include:
Mathematical Revelations. SF, about 4700 words. Published online and podcast in Escape Pod (2021). Narrated by Amy Sturgis
The music at the end of the world. Hopepunk, SF, 3200 words. Published online in HyphenPunk (2021). The story notes with some explanation of the philosophical concepts are here
The gleaning city. Flash fiction, SF, 600 words. Published online in 365 Tomorrows (June 18, 2021)
Soul sleep. Short story, slipstream, 2200 words, published in the online magazine 96th of October (December issue, 2020).
Introductory Dispute Concerning Science Fiction, Philosophy, and the Nutritional Content of Maraschino Cherries, co-authored with Eric Schwitzgebel and Johan De Smedt, appeared in our co-edited volume Philosophy through Fiction (edited by Helen De Cruz, Johan De Smedt, and Eric Schwitzgebel), Bloomsbury, 2021
A Boy's Shadow. Flash fiction story included in Migration: Queer Sci Fi's Sixth Annual Flash Fiction Contest, edited Scott Coatsworth, 2019.