Verdibørsen interview on "humanity in puberty" aired

An interview with me aired on Verdibørsen earlier today, titled "Menneskeheten i puberteten" (Humanity in puberty). In the interview I relate to Arne Næss´ thoughts about war and peace and the long-term maturing of humanity, admit to occasionally longing for a new civilization, and identify as a liberal deep ecologist. Program host Jostein Gjertsen presents the interview as Verdibørsen´s contribution to Forskningsdagene, an event which this year has "oppvekst" (childhood, upbringing) as theme.

First two days of animal ethics study trip to Switzerland

Yesterday I travelled to Switzerland, flying to Zürich, from Stavanger via Copenhagen, to take part in the study trip of Norway´s Council for animal ethics, of which I am a member (representing animal protection NGOs). I then went to Tänikon by car to meet the others, and we then went by car to Wädensvil, where we visited ZHAW Wädenswil (a campus of Zurich University of Applied Sciences) to look at their aquaculture research. After this we went to Chur to stay the night.

Today we first went to Landquart, to be shown around at Plantahof, an agricultural knowledge center in the canton of Graubünden. In this canton as much as 60% of all farms are organic. Then we went to Domleschg where we visited an organic farm which practices slaughter of calves on-farm. Finally we went to Schwägalp to stay the night there.

Completing 8 hours of teaching this week; more than half of teaching this autumn

Today I have given the third seminar in the third round of Ex.phil. seminars (the last one in this round, since two were merged due to my travels starting tomorrow.).

I am now through with half of the Ex.phil. teaching this autumn semester - and more than half of my teaching in the Master course "Philosophy of science and research methods".

Planning meeting

Today I attended a planning meeting for use of student assistants in the Master course "Philosophy of science and research methods", in the seminars in research methods, which will be led by me.

Fourth Verdibørsen interview this year forthcoming

Today I was interviewed by Jostein Gjertsen on characterizations of humanity as being at a teenage stage of development.

Verdibørsen interview on animal ethics and human dignity aired

My third Verdibørsen interview this year, with program host Karen Frivik and in dialogue with Ragnhild Sollund, was aired on Wednesday September 19th (see "Dyr og menneskeverd").

See also:

Verdibørsen interview

6 hours of Ex.phil. teaching

Today I have taught for 6 hours in Examen Philosophicum at Department of social studies - first the 6th lecture (on the human condition and such), and then the first and second of the third round of seminars (Sith one of them being two seminar-groups merged into one due to forthcoming travels).

Planning meeting

Today I participated in a planning meeting related to use of student assistents.

Autumn´s fifth writing day

Today I had this autumns fifth writing day - and, with 7 hours, the longest so far (I find it practical to have a writing day on Thursdays and then catch up with email and other tasks on Fridays - Monday to Wednesday I am (mostly) teaching).

I did different kinds of work with five different articles (including writing new text on four), so the day was a bit fragmented in terms of focus.

Biosemiotics 11(2) published

Biosemiotics volume 11, number 2 has been published. This is a special issue edited by Andrew Winters, "Semiotic aspects of the extended synthesis".

First planning meeting

Today I participated in the first planning meeting for Dyreetikkonferansen 2018, which will take place November 23rd at Adamstuen, Oslo. This will be the 7th annual conference.

Top 3%

According to Academia.edu, I am in the top 3% of researchers the last 30 days in terms of views (with 22 profile views, 92 document views and 86 unique visitors).

Semiotics review article has 600 reads in ResearchGate

According to ResearchGate, our review article "Hundred introductions to semiotics, for a million students: Survey of semiotics textbooks and primers in the world" (Kalevi Kull et al. 2015) has achieved 600 reads there.

Third philosophy of science seminar

Today we had the third philosophy of science seminar in the master course "Philosophy of science and research methods", involving student presentations about "global species" and the Anthropocene.

Seminar on Zapffe, Næss texts

Today we had the third seminar in philosophy of science in the course "Philosophy of science and research methods". The seminar included three student presentations of two Norwegian eco-philosophers, Peter Wessel Zapffe and Arne Næss.

Verdibørsen interview

Today I was at NRK Rogaland to record an interview with me and professor of criminology Ragnhild Sollund (University of Oslo) on issues related to animal ethics and human dignity.

Fifth lecture

Today I gave the fifth lecture this autumn in Ex.phil. The topic was mainly hermeneutics and questions concerning objective vs. subjective approaches to understanding human matters.

Pocket version of Ulvetider received

I have just received 10 copies of the pocket book version of our book Ulvetider - Rovdyret som splitter Norge, which has been published in September and is now in sale in book stores, kiosks and supermarkets.

Autumn´s fourth writing day

Today I had this autumn´s fourth writing day, with some 5 hours of writing time - while I was watching the twins (kindergarten closed for planning day). I did some writing on "Human development, inequality and social risks in Latin America and the Nordic countries" and on the forthcoming Biosemiotics editorial "Phenomenology and Biosemiotics".

I also started keeping track of progression in writing of academic articles (I am starting to look upon both academic and other writing in terms of handicraft), by word count. I imagine that 1.000 words per writing day is a decent result, resulting in ca. 50.000 words of academic writing per year (I also devote separate focused time to work on selected book projects, mostly in evenings).

Course planning meeting

Today I have attended a course planning meeting with three colleagues.

2nd Call for papers for NASS XI

The second call for papers for the 11th conference of the Nordic Association for Semiotic Studies, held on University of Stavanger June 13-15th 2019, has appeared. It is available on the NASS webpage. Abstract deadline is December 10th.

There are four keynote speakers:

• Nora Bateson
• Ingvil Hellstrand
• Jon Kvist
• Jaan Valsiner

Book chapter on cultural background of predator conflict in sale soon; book launch planned

The book Rovviltet på Agder, edited by Tor Punsvik, will be available for sale October 15th and launched at Nordli bookshop at Evje on October 24th. Here is the publisher´s (Bokbyen forlag) webpage for the book.

4 hours of teaching

Today I have given the fourth round of the second Ex.phil. seminar this fall, i.e. the eight seminar counting consecutively. I have also facilitated and moderated the first seminar in philosophy of science in the Master course "Philosophy of science and research methods", which involved two student group presentations (of texts by Michael Polanyi and David Abram). Some 50 students attended each of the seminars.

Seminar teaching

Today I gave the third round of there second Ex.phil. seminar this autumn. Social work students today.

Book review cited by publisher of Sann opplysning

My book review, published in Prosa, of the anthology Sann opplysning? is cited on the publisher´s page for the book (CappelenDamm).

Staff meeting

Today I have attended the staff meeting of Department of social studies. Brief one today.

6 hours of teaching

Today I have taught for 6 hours in Examen philosophicum at Department of social studies. First the fourth lecture this autumn, then the first two rounds of the second seminar. The lecture topic today was different forms of knowledge.

Member of ILL12 scientific committee

I have accepted to become a member of the scientific committee of the 12th International Symposium on Iconicity in Language and Literature (ILL12).

Applied for professor promotion

I have just submitted an application for being promoted as full professor in philosophy to University of Stavanger´s Faculty of Social Sciences. 31 attachments, about 600 pages of text.

Quitting UiS work group on ethical trade

I have today communicated that I quit as the academic member of University of Stavanger´s Work group on ethical trade.

To supervise MEES master student

I have negotiated with Department of media studies and social science that I will supervise a Master student in the Master in Energy, environment and Society, next Spring. In return, I will grade fewer exam papers in "Philosophy of science and research methods".

Autumn´s third writing day

Today I had the third writing day this autumn (out of four planned so far), with 5 hours off-email time devoted to focused academic writing. I wrote a little bit on "The case for minimizing anthropogenic mortality in wildlife management" and more on "Human development, inequality and social risks in Latin America and the Nordic countries". Altogether I wrote close to 1.000 words. 

Fifth MEE140 lecture

Today I have given the fifth and last lecture in philosophy of science in the master course "Philosophy of science and research methods". The topic was mainly ethical issues facing researchers.

Fourth MEE140 lecture

Today I gave the fourth lecture on philosophy of science in the Master course "Philosophy of science and research methods". The pic was rationality in relation to theory choice and scientific change.

Third Ex.phil. lecture

Today I gave the third Ex.phil. lecture this autumn at Department of social studies. The topic was different kinds of explanations in the social sciences.