2009 in Essays

We're at the point where we are going to start wrapping up 2009. We're going to start with our best essays. Each produced a spike in our readership, so if you've missed any of them, I recommend catching up.

The Personal is Still Political: The Status of Women in Philosophy
by Josh Kurdys, November 12
I highly recommend Josh's response to a spate of articles and blogs on the status of women in philosophy. This includes discussion on the philosophical canon and on current professional practice. Click to find out why

The absence of women from philosophy classrooms and the professoriate is already a political issue that many current members of the profession have ignored, promoted, misrepresented or resisted.

RIP Claude Lévi-Strauss

by Matthew R. McLennan, November 3
Matt's personal reflection on the meaning of the work of Lévi-Strauss, which makes me regret that I've put off reading it for so long. Read it and find out why, as Matt writes,

My own experience with his texts and ideas as an undergraduate was immensely gratifying; I got the impression that at bottom, he wished to include the whole variety of ways of human being in the same family.

The Politics of Student Debt
by Devin Zane Shaw, October 14
A gentle reminder as the Fall semester ends and the Winter (or, for you in warmer climates, the Spring) Semester nears. As you might expect from my writing, I conclude that

this situation is political: the transformation of the university to a semi-private and pro-business institution, insofar as it emaciates the schools and faculties that encourage the cultivation of critical thinking skills, has a definite bias toward the neo-liberal status quo.