Brennan McDavid

Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Smith Institute for Political Economy and Philosophy. Soon to be @UFhamilton 🐊 Generalist/Fox. Plato-obsessed Aristotelian.

[Brennan McDavid @ProfBMcD]

It’s an honor and a privilege have something to contribute to this important inflection point.

[Hamilton School for Classical and Civic Ed @ufhamilton]

Hamilton School’s Brennan McDavid delivered a plenary address at the Conference on Civic Thought at the Salmon P. Chase Center for Civics, Culture, and Society (@osuchasecenter) at Ohio State University.

Her talk, “Adam Smith on the Civic Purpose of a Liberal Education,” examined how Smith understood the relationship between learning, character, and citizenship in a free society.

Congratulations to Professor McDavid on this important contribution!

https://t.co/1RRLuOQFFi

[Brennan McDavid @ProfBMcD]

@SWGoldman Say it louder for those in the back, under the bleachers, plotting doom.

[Brennan McDavid @ProfBMcD]

💪

[Brandon Warmke @BrandonWarmke]

Standing room only and great student questions last night for the Hamilton School’s PPEL speaker series. Philosopher Dan Jacobson (CU Boulder) gave an exceptional talk on “Mill’s Reconciliation of Liberty and Utility.”

[Brennan McDavid @ProfBMcD]

@mattbencole @BrandonWarmke The what?

[Brennan McDavid @ProfBMcD]

@mattbencole @BrandonWarmke That’s the belief.

[Brennan McDavid @ProfBMcD]

@chezaristote So relatable.

[Matt Walsh @MattWalshBlog]

There should be a statue built to this man outside the school. A true hero of our time.

[Brennan McDavid @ProfBMcD]

@DavidAFrench Ok, I found the good thing on twitter today.

[Brennan McDavid @ProfBMcD]

Tell me higher ed is conformist and risk-averse without telling me..

“Let’s all shorten our degrees *together* so no university has to risk being left behind.”

This is a bid for collective cover in lowering the bar.

[Steve McGuire @sfmcguire79]

3-year degrees are gaining momentum.

NYU President Linda Mills:

“Universities are due for another evolution: offering 90-credit, three-year bachelor’s degrees in fields that demand immediate workforce development.”

“Four years of college is not an inviolable standard.”

[Brennan McDavid @ProfBMcD]

@sfmcguire79 This was my bigger question about it:
https://t.co/TXSXFPyUJA

[Brennan McDavid @ProfBMcD]

I wonder if the faculty actually teaching some of the controversial topics have different rankings of these sources of pressure than the faculty not teaching them.

I guess the question is: Do the brave ones have a different perception of the risks?

[Brennan McDavid @ProfBMcD]

@sfmcguire79 Er, sorry, biggest *reported* *perceived* threat.

[Brennan McDavid @ProfBMcD]

@sfmcguire79 Biggest *perceived* threat.

[Brennan McDavid @ProfBMcD]

@JTasioulas @olivertraldi @DanSoch This was a great read. Thank you for sharing.

[Brennan McDavid @ProfBMcD]

I wonder if the faculty actually teaching some of the controversial topics have different rankings of these sources of pressure than the faculty not teaching them.

I guess the question is: Do the brave ones have a different perception of the risks?

[Heterodox Academy @HdxAcademy]

🔎 Where does the pressure on professors to avoid "controversial" topics come from?

In a new survey of HxA members, many gave the same answer: other professors.

In collaboration with @Hartz_PhD and @epkaufm, this new survey identifies which topics feel off-limits on campus and why.

[Brennan McDavid @ProfBMcD]

Needs more Nobel winners.

I have other critiques too, but do you think they are listening?

[H S Joshi @jon_stewartmill]

The contemporary section of @Columbia's core curriculum is a beauty.

Nothing to see here, move on

[Brennan McDavid @ProfBMcD]

Maybe this is why teaching the genoeconomics of crime felt a bit futile.

[Experimental Philosophy @xphilosopher]

There hasn't been enough attention to this amazing result, and I'd love to hear ideas about how to explain it

Participants are given a story about a morally bad behavior that it is due to genetics. Then they are asked the simplest possible question: Is it due to genetics?

[Brennan McDavid @ProfBMcD]

@bad80smusic Homeowners in America are insufficiently paranoid about easements.

[Brennan McDavid @ProfBMcD]

Man gotta have a telos.

[Dan Walden @dwaldenwrites]

Jen is obviously right here. The R1 model aims at the production of knowledge through research. The humanistic disciplines have always fit strangely into this framework, because traditionally they aim at producing a certain kind of person through teaching.

[Brennan McDavid @ProfBMcD]

@jon_stewartmill They flipped a coin. Heads = murder each other; tails = get Greta into the marriage. It came up tails, so they didn't murder. I think she misspelled polygamous as 'duogamous'. Otherwise, it's flawless from an editor's point of view.

[Brennan McDavid @ProfBMcD]

@vmayerriquelme @jennfrey That conclusion isn't obvious to me. Are the humanities saved through increasing or maintaining humanities PhD production? It seems like most discourse around the value of the humanities in higher ed focuses on its role in an undergraduate education.