March 21, 1998
Norman,
Too many of us philosophers treat our profession as a blood sport in which
we score points by looking for the mistakes, rather than the good
points, in another philosopher's work. You hint that perhaps having
more women in the profession would help. I hope you are right. Your
paper deserves to be more widely distributed because the
first step in the problem's solution is to become aware that we do have
a problem, and you've described the problem so clearly.
Brad Dowden
Philosophy Department
California State University Sacramento
Sacramento, California
email: dowden@saclink.csus.edu
[Afterthought]
March 27, 1998
As I was sitting here grading essays I realized that grading student
essays can also be a blood sport in which graders sit in wait,
looking for errors to attack, rather than praising what is
accomplished correctly. Students too often feel bloodied upon
receiving their graded essays.
Brad
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