Edited by Shawn E. Klein
- Papers must focus on topics or ideas that are significantly connected to the life, work, and/or cultural impact of Steve Jobs.
- Submit abstracts of no more than 300 words to: sklein@rockford.edu
- Direct any questions about possible topics to: sklein@rockford.edu
- Abstracts due: On-Going
- Notification of accepted abstracts: On-Going
- Completed paper due: May 9, 2014
- 3,000-word philosophy papers written in a conversational style for a lay audience
Any relevant topic considered, but here are some possibilities:
- Jobs’ leadership style and ethical considerations raised by it: the virtues of leadership and how these were (or were not) exemplified by Jobs.
- Epistemological issues of creativity (related to how Jobs sought to inspire and cultivate creativity and innovation at Apple, NeXT, and Pixar)
- Epistemological and ethical issues in being a “visionary”; the effects of the so-called “Reality Distortion Field”
- The ethical, social, or corporate importance of creativity
- Epistemological issues in intuitionism and its role in Jobs’ thinking.
- Perfectionism: virtue or vice?
- Technology and aesthetics (Form and function)
- The originator vs. the integrator/popularizer. (e.g. Apple didn't invent the GUI or point and click, but integrated them with other systems and made them popular)
- Philosophical lessons learned by failure and success (from the Newton to the Iphone; Jobs getting pushed out and then returning to lead Apple)
- Buddhism and its role in Jobs’ life and career.
- The juxtaposition of Jobs’ counter-culture attitude and his capitalistic success.
- The virtue (or vice) of pride: moral ambitiousness or hubris?
- Steve Jobs vs Bill Gates/Apple vs Microsoft
- Jobs on philanthropy
- Jobs’ political philosophy/outlook
- Company creating and building as a moral enterprise.
Steve Jobs and Philosophy will be a book in Open Court Publishing Company’s Popular Culture and Philosophy Series: http://www.opencourtbooks.com/categories/pcp.htm. Submit ideas for possible future PCP books to the series editor, George A. Reisch, at pcpideas@caruspub.com.
