-
Philosopher Paul Boghossian provides a “precis,” and reply to critics, of the “Boghossian Report”…
…at The Philosopher’s Magazine. (A relevant earlier post on this blog here.) I call particular attention to these remarks near the end of Professor Boghossian’s essay: According to the standard diagnosis, the humanities have been captured by the ideological left leading to an unacceptable viewpoint homogeneity that needs to be remedied by appointments, to be…
-
Should you agree to let your books be used for LLM training?
Philosopher Daniel Wodak writes: I was wondering if you had any advice on the following issue, which might be a good topic for your blog. CUP asked me to sign an addendum authorizing them to in effect use the text of my Element in training LLMs, with the promise that I’d get 20% of unspecified…
-
This is encouraging: majority of Americans want to redistribute wealth from AI companies to society
Let’s hope it happens, but this will require the prudent wing of the ruling class, i.e., the Democrats, to ‘betray’ the (short-term) interests of their class, much as FDR did. (As some readers will know, FDR was regularly accused of being a traitor to his class, whereas in reality he saved them from extinction.)
-
In Memoriam: George Graham (1945-2026)
Professor Graham was well-known for his work in philosophy of mind, psychology and psychiatry. Philosopher Eddy Nahamias at Georgia State kindly shared this obituary: After a long illness, George Graham died at his home in Birmingham, Alabama on July 2, 2026. After earning his BA in philosophy from Fordham in 1967, George went on to…
-
“From a Realist Point of View” at NDPR
My thanks to Adrian Kreutz (Amsterdam) for this friendly review of my latest book, about which he writes: Leiter’s new volume…is both a fantastic foray into, and recapitulation of, the many forms realism has taken in philosophy and jurisprudence. It builds on the American tradition, but goes beyond that—or, in any case, presents perhaps the…
-
A very strange interview in CHE with the President of the American Anthropological Association
The CHE reporter Stephanie Lee does a really good job trying to get Professor Rouse to actually answer questions, but Professor Rouse’s responses mostly serve to confirm the doubts expressed about her field in the Boghossian Report. It’s a shame, because I am a huge fan of a lot of work done in anthropology. One…
-
Anthony Appiah’s report on “literary studies,” as part of the background research for the “Boghossian Report”
Here. I haven’t had time to compare this to Professor Kramnick’s rejoinder to the official Report, but if any readers have taken the time to examine both Appiah’s report on literary studies, and Kramnick’s essay, please feel free to post your assessment. Signed comments will be preferred (i.e., full name and valid email address [the…
-
Philosophy debate tournament for high school students and undergraduates
Details here. Applications close July 29.
-
San Jose State professor fired after engaging in pro-Palestinian protests reinstated by arbitrator’s decision
An interesting case. It seems like the right decision: firing a tenured professor was wildly disproportionate to the offense, given the professor’s strong record. It was no doubt crucial that the San Jose State faculty is unionized.
-
Great moments in (what will soon not be) obscure “rock ‘n’ roll”: Niamh Kierans, “Lazarus,” 2025
Ms. Kierans is the daughter of an old friend; she is now a student at the University of Virginia. The friend did not ask me to post this, but I told the old friend I would because I was so impressed with her “indie-style” music and her stunning voice. Her songs are available on Spotify,…
-
The “federal election assistance” commission that Trump gutted
His firing of the last three commissioners is not as ominous as it seems. Of course, Trump has only malign purposes, so who knows what further mischief he will try to work there.
-
Yale AAUP Chapter lawyers up as it threatens to take legal action if Yale Admin cuts a deal with Trump
CHE story here. It’s obviously true that “deals” with a criminal like Trump are almost never reliable, but, contrary to what the article suggests, there is no “academic freedom” right to engage in unlawful discrimination in admissions. The only question here is factual: does Yale continue to discriminate against white and Asian applicants? If so,…
-
Texas AAUP sues Texas Tech over its clearly unlawful attemps to control course content and faculty speech
I trust the federal courts will put a stop to this mischief. I hope they get to depose Gauleiter Creighton! (Earlier coverage.)
-
Not only a malevolent buffoon, and an incompetent ignoramus…
…but also increasingly disabled, mentally and physically. This would make for an amusing read, except for the the terrible reality that he has real power and can continue to do real damage.
-
Open access philosophy books, a thread: Part IV (moving to front from May 28)
The last thread had fewer entries than earlier ones, but several months have past, perhaps readers can supply some new links. The instructions, as before: In light of the growing number of these volumes, I am going to run a thread periodically in which I invite authors or readers to share links to philosophical works…
-
Warwick “mentoring” scheme for “early career researchers” from the Global South, with a focus this year on scholars from India
An interesting initiative from moral, political and legal philosophers at the University of Warwick: “The Centre for Ethics, Law and Public Affairs (CELPA) at the University of Warwick is pleased to announce the CELPA Mentoring Scheme. The Scheme aims to support academics from groups underrepresented in moral, legal, and political philosophy, particularly researchers without established…
-
More on the difficult choices facing faculty at Exeter
A propos this, philosopher John Dupre writes with an update: The redundancy project is continuing at Exeter, with at least a heartening level of resistance from staff and the staff union. There is some hope that they will succeed: a lot about the process seems entirely unjustified and of debatable legality. Please everyone consider signing…
-
More on philosophers working for AI companies…
…in the NYT. It’s pretty thin on facts, and pretty thick on stereotypes about philosophers and philosophy students. And some of its “facts” aren’t even accurate: Nietzsche did not survive on the generosity of friends and family, as the article says, he worked for 11 years as a classics professor and then received a disability…
-
New APA Job Market Mentoring Program accepting applications
Philosopher Amy Berg, Chair of the relevant APA Committee, kindly calls to my attention this new program (more details here), which should be helpful to philosophy job seekers this coming year. Kudos to Professor Berg and the APA for this initiative.
-
An open letter calling for disclosures of conflicts of interest in publications by philosophers
I was pleased to be asked to sign this well-done letter by philosophers of science Craig Callender (UC San Diego) and Cailin O’Connor (UC Irvine), which is now public and taking signatures from any interested philosophers. From the letter: In recent years, philosophical writing on areas such as climate change, technology, misinformation, and artificial intelligence…
-
On friendship (and Chomsky and Epstein)
Philosopher Peter Ludlow comments.
-
A fitting July 4th essay for an America in which that malevolent buffoon is still President
Here (the full essay is behind a paywall, alas–but here are some excerpts).
-
U of Tennessee pays $1.9 million to assistant professor wrongfully fired…
…for exercising her First Amendment rights after the murder of Charlie Kirk. She did not, however, get her job back, but my guess she will walk away with more than one million of the settlement. Hopefully these kinds of payouts will teach spineless administrators something the next time the exercise of First Amendment rights offends…
-
If there is really a budget crisis at Exeter, why are all the cuts coming from humanities and social science?
A propos this earlier post, another Exeter faculty member asks, [W]hy, even if they need to make savings, are these overwhelmingly concentrated on humanities and social sciences? 85% of all staff placed at risk of redundancy (445 out of 523 FTE) are based in HASS (humanities and social sciences). That amounts to a 30% cut…
-
A video of the 2026 Schock Prize symposium with the laureate lecture by Bas van Fraassen…
….as well as remarks by the four commentators: Hans Halvorson, James Ladyman, Michela Massimi, and Kyle Stanford.
-
More criticisms of the “Boghossian Report” on the state of the humanities
This time from philosopher Richard Moran (Harvard), who makes some interesting points. Those following the debates about the report should read this.
-
The super-legislature’s reign of terror
Too many awful decisions since last week, it’s hard to know which one to single out, but Michael Dorf at Cornell is good on today’s decision gutting independent federal agencies and “empower[ing]…a corrupt, vindictive narcissist whose preferred replacements for subject-area experts are sycophantic ignoramuses.”
-
An interview with philosopher Rebecca Tuvel at CHE
Here, almost a decade on from the defamatory harassment of her orchestrated by the “usual suspects” in academic philosophy (Alcoff, Trott, Winnubst, et al. [see] . We first wrote about this misconduct here, and quite a bit thereafter. An amusing bit from the interview: Goldstein: Two hallmarks of the Hypatia crisis strike me as relevant…
-
Lateral moves/retirements since the 2024 Philosophical Gourmet Report: 2025-26 edition
In addition to the separate posts announcing (generally tenured) faculty moves, I will keep a running list of all lateral moves (and retirements and deaths) not reflected in the faculty lists for the 2024 PGR (some moves that took place after the 2024 PGR were reflected in the faculty list, because the editors knew of…
-
Lazar from ANU to Johns Hopkins School of Government and Policy
Seth Lazar (applied ethics, philosophy and AI), currently Professor of Philosophy at the Australian National University, has accepted a senior offer form the new School of Government and Policy at Johns Hopkins University (which is in Washington, DC, rather than Balitmore, where most of the university is located), where he will start this fall.
-
Why AI companies are hiring philosophers
Amusing piece in The Economist. It would be nice if we had some actual figures on the number of philosophers being hired. Luciano Floridi “describes the scale of departures from philosophy departments as a ‘haemorrhaging,’” which is obviously nonsense: there are still far more philosophy PhDs than there are jobs, even if a handful are…
-
UK higher education watch: Exeter threatening to cut 150 academic staff
So reports the BBC. I reached out to the well-known philosopher of science and biology, John Dupre, at Exter, who tells me he has received a possible redundancy notice, although he is already 80% retired. He adds: I expect I’ll go quietly to relieve the pressure slightly on people who need their jobs. I’m certainly…
-
First there was the “Boghossian Report,” now there is the “Spode Report”
And it doesn’t mince words. In this case, the task was assigned to EJ Spode, “who assembled the following crack team of elite scholars to work as a totally independent group to address the issues raised in the charge: Somerset Maugham, Edmund Burke Junior, Joseph de Maistre, and Thomas Carlyle. Fortuitously, at the time the…
-
An English professor responds to the Boghossian Report
Jonathan Kramnick, a philosophically-minded English professor at Yale, has an interesting response to the “Boghossian Report” which is worth reading. Professor Kramnick agrees with the Report that, “When scholarship becomes subordinated to extra-scholarly ends — when a field decides in advance what its findings must be and bends its methods accordingly — it ceases to…
-
Trump’s “rolling coup”
Everyone should read this. Although Trump is a colossal screw up whose support is collapsing thanks to his incompetence, he has laid the foundation for massive political repression, for which the midterm elections seem the likely trigger given that the Republicans will lose in a free and fair election. UPDATE: A scenario for how the…
-
Major ERC Grant to philosopher Alyssa Ney (LMU-Munich) for a project on…
…“The Nature of Quantum Reality.”
-
The demand for “philosophy of AI” in job ads is as huge as you thought it was
Based on this analysis by philosopher Charles Lassiter, more than 20% of job ads now mention AI. This is going to result in a lot of weak appointments, given how few philosophers really have expertise in this area.
-
Philosophy at Dundee slated for elimination
There’s a petition in support of the program here. (Thanks to Don Sudduth for the pointer.)
-
On the occasion of the opening of the Obama Presidential Center in my neighborhood
A different take on Obama, that makes some fair critical points. He was no progressive, alas. The way he has enriched himself non-stop post-Presidency has been particularly gross.
-
Great moments in obscure rock ‘n’ roll covers of blues songs: Budgie, “Baby, Please Don’t Go,” 1973
Budgie, the late great Welsh heavy metal trio, gets credit for (among other things) the best cover (to my taste) of the Big Joe Williams song from 1935:
Leiter Reports: A Philosophy Blog
News and views about philosophy, the academic profession, academic freedom, intellectual culture, and other topics. The world’s most popular philosophy blog, since 2003.
Boghossian writes: “What we need to do is to restore a conception of the justification of scholarly claims that is…
When I teach legal philosophy, I am teaching it to law students and graduate students (and an occasional undergraduate student).…
The way I read this is that Professor Boghossian is trying to ease the waters a little bit by removing…
Dr. Leiter, this is my critique of the report. I linked to your piece more clearly in the draft, but…
I’d do it for free, since I want users to get better answers when they ask philosophical questions. The reasons…
I’m an English PhD from a strong program. It certainly seems true that the prototypical straight, white male pool of…
In accusing me of a fondness for ad hominem arguments, Prof. Boghossian confuses a few distinct matters. There is nothing…