Category: Philosophy in the news
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Think! Win Valuable Prizes!
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The Great American Think-Off is held each year inthe tiny town of New York Mills, Minnesota. This year’s contest topic is “Is it ever wrong to do the right thing?” Seven-hundred-and-fifty-word essays on the topic are due by April 1 (no fooling here). Contest finalists will debate the matter in New York Mills on June…
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“Show me something pleasurable and I’ll show you something which is very likely associated with Pleistocene adaptation”
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Denis Dutton, Professor of Philosophy at University of Canterbury in New Zealand, has published a book entitled The Art Instinct, in which he argues that art is an evolutionary adaptation. If you give a monkey a typewriter….
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Oxford don and his, um, plagiarism-detecting computer program
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According to the (London) Times , a California businessman and a Uah legislator contacted Peter Millican, a philosophy professor who has created a computer program that can detect “when works are by the same author.” The two were seeking evidence that would prove that Barack Obama’s memoir was actually ghost-written by Bill Ayers. Millican reported…
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But is it altruistic to win…?
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Here’s a piece about the growing popularity of Ethics Bowl competitions at colleges and universities around the country. Do you suppose the winners promise to donate the prize money to the social change organization of their choice?