Recent Responses

Jane Doe, a senior person at a public relations agency, with expertise in one industry, has begun freelancing for a major newspaper. The articles do not disclose Jane's corporate affiliation; rather a generic description of Jane is given at the end of each article ("Jane Doe, an expert in ...., is a --- consultant"). The topic of the articles do relate to Jane's clients at the public relations agency (i.e., article topics are in line with the industry focus). Specific companies are not named in the articles and it isn't possible to say if Jane is indirectly promoting her clients' goals because the public relations agency does not disclose a list of client names, although it is clear that one client is a government-related agency. Jane is using her public relations agency email address for her articles work, and is interviewing experts for her articles during "normal" work hours. It seems to me that this is an ethical conflict of interest. If I'm employed by a university, say, and write articles on the side about my experiences as a bird-watcher (and, just to be clear, there's no orthinology program at the university), there's no real conflict. But if I'm employed as a university administrator and write articles about, say, the pros and cons of tenure, it seems to me that I have to disclose my affiliation. My take is that, in Jane's case, there is the appearance of conflict and, what's worse, even if there isn't a conflict, there's a lack of transparency about her corporate affiliation. Yes? In the interest of full disclosure, I am a public relations professional who's somewhat horrified by this type of breach. While getting a hold on any vindictive element in defense of my profession, I also wonder if it would ever be appropriate to notify the newspaper (this assumes that they don't know, and would care). Thank you for your time.

Richard Heck October 10, 2005 (changed October 10, 2005) Permalink I don't have a whole lot to say about your analysis of this situation. It seems to me that you are plainly right that Jane has a conflict of interest, in so far as her freelance articles could promote the interests of her clients. Log in to post comments... Read more

Why are white objects always opaque?

Richard Heck October 10, 2005 (changed October 10, 2005) Permalink Are white objects always opaque? I've got a white plastic grocery back here in my office through which I can read the papers inside. Log in to post comments

A friend and I were debating recently the proper classification of the word "nearly" in the following sentence: "I was studying until nearly dawn." We both thought it was an adverb modifying "until," which was modifying "studying." But he was more convinced than I was, and I'm still not sure. Rearranging the syntax makes the word's adverbial qualities more clear, but it also changes the meaning of the sentence (if only subtly). Could somebody clarify exactly what the word is doing in the sentence above?

Alexander George October 10, 2005 (changed October 10, 2005) Permalink To my ear, your sentence means "I was studying almost until dawn". So Itake "nearly" to be an adverb that modifies the adjectival phrase"until dawn", to create a new adjectival phrase, "nearly until dawn", which in turn applies to your studying. Thus, I take thesentence to be structural... Read more

What is the philosophy of art and the art of philosophy?

Aaron Meskin October 10, 2005 (changed October 10, 2005) Permalink The philosophy of art investigates a range of general questions about art. Here are a few: What is art? What is the nature of artistic representation? What is the nature of artistic form? What are the values of art? Is artistic evaluation simply a matter of opinion, or are there object... Read more

I was loading up to go on a trip the other day and asked my Dad why he was taking a lot of extra stuff and he said: "Just in case the unexpected happens." So out of that comes my question: If you expect the unexpected, then doesn't that make the unexpected expected and the expected unexpected?

Alexander George October 9, 2005 (changed October 9, 2005) Permalink When someone says "I expect the unexpected" we might hear that alongthe lines of "I fathered someone fatherless". That is, we mightinterpret him as meaning that he expects some event which he also doesnot expect. That does seem like a contradiction. But isn't that tomisunderstand what he's... Read more

I was loading up to go on a trip the other day and asked my Dad why he was taking a lot of extra stuff and he said: "Just in case the unexpected happens." So out of that comes my question: If you expect the unexpected, then doesn't that make the unexpected expected and the expected unexpected?

Alexander George October 9, 2005 (changed October 9, 2005) Permalink When someone says "I expect the unexpected" we might hear that alongthe lines of "I fathered someone fatherless". That is, we mightinterpret him as meaning that he expects some event which he also doesnot expect. That does seem like a contradiction. But isn't that tomisunderstand what he's... Read more

What are the moral responsibilities of a very intelligent person to the general public? Should they be held to the same standard of behavior as their less fortunate peers?

Jyl Gentzler October 9, 2005 (changed October 9, 2005) Permalink A widely accepted dictum in ethics is that “ought” implies “can”.Philosophers disagree about what exactly this means– but I think thatthe kernel of truth in this idea is that we can’t hold someone morallyresponsible for doing things that he or she couldn’t have not done.One's abilities in some... Read more

Astronomers routinely observe the most distant objects and the earliest events in the universe. If we had a telescope powerful enough, could we observe the Big Bang and if so, could it be observed whichever way we looked?

Alexander George October 9, 2005 (changed October 9, 2005) Permalink The following comment has been kindly sent in by Professor Kannan Jagannathan (Department of Physics, Amherst College): "The best evidence we have for the isotropy andhomogeneity of space leads cosmologists to hold that the universe hasno center and no periphery. If the universe is infini... Read more

I am a philosophy undergrad. What should I do to guarantee I get the most I can out of grad school?

Alexander George October 9, 2005 (changed October 9, 2005) Permalink Remain fascinated to the point of distraction by the questions, problems,solutions, arguments of philosophy. I don't know how much this is inone's control: you can avoid bad teachers and seek out inspiring ones;you can select to focus on areas that grip you; you can learn to put aproject a... Read more

Is it possible to philosophize about the human condition from a lofty philosophical viewpoint rather than gleaning humble wisdom through the experience of engaging with the messy experience of meeting, befriending and loving the mass of mere humanity?

Alexander George October 9, 2005 (changed October 9, 2005) Permalink Often when non-philosophers think of philosophy they think of an extremely abstract discipline with only tenuous connections to everyday life. As Jyl says, this isn't so: many if not most philosophical problems take off from a perplexity regarding some very mundane and ubiquitous feature... Read more

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