The Philosophers' Cocoon

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Job-Market Reporting Thread (2026-27)
Job-Market Discussion Thread (2026-27)

  1. I have similar feeling all the time. I do not know about others, but based on my own experience, I…

  2. Mount Holyoke requested reference letters two working days after I submitted the app (deadline isn’t until the end of the…

  5. I feel like this all the time. I think it’s important to just get feedback from other people, because there…

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  • CFP (and call for commentators): 14th Annual Legal Philosophy Workshop

    Wendy Salkin (Stanford University) writes in:

    We are pleased to announce the 14th annual Legal Philosophy Workshop (LPW), and to invite you to participate. We are excited to host the 2027 workshop in-person on June 17-18 at Stanford University.

    Click here to submit an abstract, or to volunteer to comment, for the 2027 LPW. 

    LPW is an annual pre-read workshop designed to foster reflection on the nature of law and the philosophical issues underlying its different areas. Our aim is to promote work that connects legal philosophy with other branches of philosophy (e.g., moral and political philosophy, metaphysics, philosophy of language, philosophy of race, epistemology, feminist philosophy, or philosophy of action) and to create a venue for the critical examination of different viewpoints about law. All sessions are plenary and you can find more Information about LPW for this year and years past on our website.

    We would like to invite you to submit an abstract or to volunteer to comment. Please ensure that the abstract is for unpublished work, anonymized, and does not exceed 1,000 words. The deadline for submitting your abstract is January 8, 2027. This is also a call for commenters. You can volunteer to comment or submit an abstract by filling out form above. (If you would like to join the LPW listserv about this or future events, please join the Legal Philosophy Workshop Google group.) We expect to notify all participants in March 2027.

    Once we have received abstracts, we aim to put together a diverse program that we hope will be of interest to a wide range of people interested in legal philosophy. Please note that this is an open call for abstracts, so please feel free to forward this information to anyone who you think might be interested in presenting a paper, commenting on a paper, or attending the workshop.

    We look forward to hearing from you.

    Best,

    The LPW Organizing Committee

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  • AI Philosophy Competition

    Elliott Thornley and Zachary Goodsell (National University of Singapore) write in:

    AI is now exceptionally capable in mathematics and coding, but how good is it at philosophy? We are organising the first AI Philosophy Competition to find out.

    Entrants may submit up to three original essays on any philosophical topic. Essays must be primarily AI-generated, though some human guidance is allowed. Entrants must also submit a methodology report explaining how each essay was produced.

    The essays will be judged by a committee of philosophers including David Chalmers, John Hawthorne, Matthew Mandelkern, Rachel Sterken, Herman Cappelen, Branden Fitelson, Kenny Easwaran, Daniel Greco, Cian Dorr, Jake Nebel, and Christian Tarsney, with more to be announced.

    The prizes are $3,000 for first place, $2,000 for second, and $1,000 for third. There is also a prize pool of $5,000 for creative methodologies, to be distributed as the judge committee sees fit.

    The submission deadline is 31 October 2026. Results will be announced at the end of January. The competition is organised by Zachary Goodsell and Elliott Thornley, and is funded by Forethought Research. Full details are available on the competition website.

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  • Leaving a postdoc for another postdoc?

    In our August “how can we help you?” thread, a reader asks:

    Is it a bad idea to leave a postdoc for another postdoc before one’s time in the former position runs out?

    For context, I’m currently in my first postdoc. I’m also on the job market and hoping to find a tenure-track position this cycle. However, I’m also considering applying for other postdocs some other postdocs. My current position is not terrible (it’s not a toxic working environment or anything like that) but for various reasons, including the location, some specific policies at the current institution, and general department “fit”, I think I would be much happier elsewhere. So, even if I don’t find a tenure-track job this cycle, I would prefer to be in a contingent position at a different institution than to remain here. But this would mean cutting my current postdoc short.

    I wonder (1) how common moves like this are, and (2) whether such a move would have significant costs, e.g. raising questions from hiring committees in the future or burning bridges with my current institution.

    Thoughts from readers?

    6

  • Journal typesetting issues?

    In our August “how can we help you?” thread, a reader asks:

    In some journals the published articles look crisp and elegant, but in some other journals the typesetting is underwhelming and sometimes even ugly or unprofessional-looking.

    I know that it’s a little bit silly, but I can’t help but to take it into consideration when choosing where to submit my work, especially considering that people outside of academic philosophy don’t really know the difference between journals and the appearance might be their main subconscious indicator of how “serious” the publication is. Am I the only one who feels like this? I’ve used it as a tie breaker when deciding between journals that are prestige-equivalent and I’ve almost been tempted to take it as reason to submit a bit lower before. Am I crazy?

    I’ve definitely noticed this: there’s a publication or two of mine that I can barely stomach to read due to the typesetting. But I don’t think this has ever impacted where I submit.

    Any thoughts from other readers?

    20