Lecturer in Philosophy, University of St. Andrews
I’ve decided to start a new substack. From now on, I’ll be publishing my random thoughts there: https://axdouglas.substack.com/
If you’ve liked reading of my posts here, I hope you’ll consider signing up. I have no plan to ever start charging you money for it, though nor do I plan to pay anyone to read it.
My last post was not as solution-oriented as I generally try to be. I promised I’d talk about alternatives. I don’t have many answers, but I think I know some of the questions.
Some people ask: how can the system change? That, I think, is easy. By “the system” I just mean the fact of peer-reviewed publication working as the currency of academia. Killing a currency is as easy as killing Tinkerbell; just stop believing in it (as long as it’s not a tax-driven currency). If enough of us stop thinking that peer-reviewed publications have value, they stop having value.
Continue reading “A World Without peer-review, or How to Stop Hiring the Same People”Publications–peer-reviewed publications in highly-ranked journals–are the currency of academic philosophy. This paper will address the following question:
When I was getting into philosophy, I thought it was for creative, deep thinkers who wanted to get to the root of things and not take anything for granted. When I ask: what is the point of peer-reviewed publications in highly-ranked journals?, I expect philosophers to have answers–and thoughtful ones. Philosophy is the opposite of saying “I don’t know, that’s just what we do”. Philosophers ask why. Philosophers give reasons. What are our reasons?
Continue reading “Fuck Peer-Reviewed Publications, No Offence”
I came across an interesting passage in the Introduction to John Laird’s (1920) A Study in Realism:
Note footnote 3.
Thomas Reid (1710 – 96) was, of course, the great Scottish proponent of realism and common sense. According to Victor Cousin, his philosophy became the conventional wisdom in Scottish philosophy, everywhere except St Andrews. St Andrews escaped the dogma because of the presence of one figure: James Frederick Ferrier (1808 – 1864).
Continue reading “St Andrews: A Haven from Realism”
Sometimes I like to think of humanity as a big engine for converting energy into happiness. I don’t want to fuss too much over what “happiness” means here. It is the thing I think we generally seek in our lives. I wrote a whole book about beatitude if you want to get into that.
Continue reading “The Theory of Hedonic Heat”
Alexander Douglas 