From a glimmer in the eye of lead editor Christina Hendricks, the Introduction to Philosophy project has grown quickly, with a team of around 20 collaborators working to clarify the approach to and scope of the project. The team have developed a draft table of contents, with seven initial sections to be covered; Metaphysics, Epistemology, Aesthetics, Social and Political Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind, Philosophy of Science and Ethics.
In a big milestone, we are pleased to welcome aboard our first two section editors who will lead the way on developing and completing their sections, and also help to build out the process of starting an open textbook from scratch with the Rebus Community.
Dr. Scott Clifton is a visiting assistant professor of philosophy at Miami University, and will lead the section on Aesthetics. Scott works primarily in ethics, analytic aesthetics, and philosophy of emotion, and is also interested in medical ethics.
Dr. George Matthews is a teaching lecturer in philosophy at Plymouth State University with 20 years experience teaching intro courses in philosophy, ethics, philosophy of mind, environmental ethics, and political philosophy. He will be heading up the section on Ethics.
The section editors will be responsible for:
- Creating a list of around five chapters to be covered in their section
- Working with Christina to develop a light author guide (e.g. desired length of each chapter, general guidelines for content structure)
- Helping to organise and guide chapter authors (with support from Rebus project managers)
A huge thank you to Scott and George for agreeing to join us in this role!
As with the History of Applied Science and Technology project, our approach is to break a larger project down into manageable pieces and focus on completing one or two of those pieces at a time. You can read more about this approach in this blog post: “If We All Chip In, the Effort Will Be Minimal and the Benefits Great.”
If you’re interested in keeping up to date with this project, or might be interested in authoring a chapter in Aesthetics or Ethics, head to the forum project page and let us know!