We seek nominations for the most excellent titles ever given to philosophy papers.
I nominate “From Supervenience to Superdupervenience” by Horgan.
We seek nominations for the most excellent titles ever given to philosophy papers.
I nominate “From Supervenience to Superdupervenience” by Horgan.
My in-progress book on normative conventionalism is called “this is how we do it”
My favorite actual paper title is “Bob and Ted and Carol and Alice” by Kaplan
“How to Russel a Frege-Church” comes to mind, also D. Kaplan
‘Split Brains and the Godhead’, by Trenton Merricks.
Not a paper, but Meghan Sullivan’s dissertation was entitled “A-Theory: A Theory”. Also, if some scholar of ancient philosophy wants to team up to write a paper called “Plato’s Retreat” (Google warning: slightly NSFW), lemme know.
Gerald Massey, 1991, “Backdoor Analyticity.”
David Velleman, 1991, “Well-Being and Time”
Charles Mills, 2003, “‘Heart’ Attack: A Critique of Jorge Garcia’s Volitional Conception of Racism”
Austin, 1962. Sense and Sensibilia.
David Boonin, 2003, Robbing PETA to spay Paul
John Burgess, 2007, Against ethics
Not philosophy proper but philosophically relevant and such a great title:
Kieran Healy, 2017, Fuck nuance
Haskell Fain, “The Very Thought of Grue”
J. L. Austin, “Three Ways of Spilling Ink”
Hájek, A. (1991). Nuke’Em Problems. Analysis, 51(4), 254-264.
“Kant can’t get no . . . contradiction” (an article just accepted for publication in Philosophia).
Stephen Rosenbaum’s defense of Epicureanism in American Philosophical Quarterly is titled “How to Be Dead and Not Care”
This isn’t a paper, but Fred Feldman’s book on death is titled “Confrontations with the Reaper” which I always thought was brilliant.
My personal favourite – also pretty much the only paper title I can remember – “The That” by Jimmy Lenman.
I’ve always liked really short titles, like Harry Frankfurt’s ‘On Bullshit’. My friends point out that my own work would be well served by an even shorter title.
“‘Screw you’ and ‘Thank you'” by Colleen Macnamara
I don’t know about best ever, but I’m proud of my “Ya Shouldn’t Wouldn’ta Couldn’ta”, a critique of the couldn’ta wouldn’ta theory of essence.
“I was a Teenage Logical Positivist
(Now a Septuagenarian Radical Probabilist)” – Dick Jeffrey
This one made me want to read it: “Parasites, Pimps, and Capitalists: A Naturalistic Conception of Exploitation” By Tommie Shelby
I’ve always liked paper titles with simple but layered meaning:
Chignell, “Belief in Kant”
Kratzer, “What ‘Must’ and ‘Can’ Must and Can Mean”
Pettit, “Responsibility Incorporated”
Rawls, “The Sense of Justice”
David Kaplan: “Transworld Heir Lines”