Sunday, February 23, 2014

Second Call: Steve Jobs and Philosophy

I am still looking for a few more papers to include in Steve Jobs and Philosophy. This volume is part of Open Court's popular Pop Culture and Philosophy series. 
  • 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 300 words to: sklein@rockford.edu 
  • Direct any questions about possible topics to: sklein@rockford.edu 
  • Completed paper due: May 9, 2014 (or thereabout)
  • 3,000-word philosophy papers written in a conversational style for an intelligent lay audience 
I have most topics already covered, but there are few topics that are important for including in the volume.
  • Ethical and/or Epistemological issues of creativity (related to how Jobs sought to inspire and cultivate creativity and innovation at Apple, NeXT, and Pixar)
  • Epistemological issues in intuitionism and its role in Jobs’ thinking. (How does Jobs' focus on intuition relate to -- or does not relate to -- philosophical approaches to intuition?)
  • Philosophical lessons learned by failure and success (Jobs is successes were preceded by flops: Lisa before the Mac; Newton before the Ipad; Jobs getting pushed out and then returning to lead Apple to even greater success) 
  • Some thing on the Apple Fanboy/girl phenomenon. 
  • The juxtaposition of Jobs’ counter-culture attitude and his capitalistic success. In particular, how does this mix highlight how conventional left-right/liberal-conservative dichotomies actual fail to capture most people?

Please contact me if you are interested in any of these or any other topic that is well-suited for this volume. If you know of someone who might be, please forward this page to them.