November 2003
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Weapons of Math Instruction
At New York’s Kennedy airport today, an individual later discovered to be a public school teacher was arrested trying to board a flight while in possession of a ruler, a protractor, a setsquare, a slide rule, and a calculator. At a morning press conference, Attorney general John Ashcroft said he believes the man is a…
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Philosophy Job Market 2003-04
Interesting data here (courtesy of Brian Weatherson) on the distribution of jobs advertised this year by area of philosophy.
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IN MEMORIAM
Hugh Kenner (1923-2003) The New York Times obituary is here. 11/30 UPDATE: And see also this appreciation from the NY Times as well.
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Wittgenstein’s Symphonic Premiere…
…read about it here. Who knew?
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“Bad Writing” by Literary Theorists
This post by philosopher John Holbo on a volume that tries to defend the “bad writing” of Judith Butler et al. is certainly worth reading. I especially enjoyed the dismemberment of the hopeless John McCumber. But here’s something for philosophers to puzzle about: can we say, with confidence, that Judith Butler et al. are really…
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British Performance Poet Rejects OBE
His explanation is here. He observes: “I think OBEs compromise writers and poets, and laureates suddenly go soft….” And not just OBEs…
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“The less they know, the less they know it” article of the week is…
…here, wherein a National Review journalist informs us that ABC, CBS, NBC, Time, and Newsweek are bastions of “the Left.” What must the intellectual and imaginative horizons be like of someone who actually thinks these media outlets constitute “the Left”?
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Two Sides to Every Issue…
…but not all sides are equal. One side is here (and here), courtesy of a recent graduate of Harvard who majored in philosophy (and who I was picking on here…but now I take it all back). The other side is here (scroll down to the Update), courtesy of an Assistant Professor of Political Science at…
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The Right-Wing Attack on the Academy
It would be fair to say that I’m not a renowned admirer of Stanley Fish’s contributions to legal and literary theory, but now that he’s become an administrator, he’s been rather good on the subject of the growing right-wing campaign against universities–for example, here. Another salvo in the campaign came last night via Nightline’s giving…
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Stanford Profs Bring Philosophy to the Radio
UPDATED: see below “Philosophy Talk” (the creation of John Perry and Kenneth Taylor at Stanford) is set to debut starting January 6th, 2004, 12:00pm pdt on KALW 91.7 FM in San Francisco. The program will appear weekly. From Professor Taylor: “We are also in negotiations at this very moment with public radio stations in Oregon…
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More on the Draft
Rep. Ron Paul (R-Tx) on “The Crime of Conscription.” Although American kids at Oxford find Donald Rumsfeld wholly credible, Congressman Paul apparently does not.
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Law School Public Relations and the case of the University of Southern California Law School
Like all law professors, I get mailings every day, especially in the fall, from law schools around the country, touting their visiting speakers, their faculty, their alumni, their special programs, and so on. This practice is plainly a result of the U.S. News law school rankings, 25% of which are based on a “peer reputation”…
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Democracy Hypocrisy…
…from Karl Kraus’s favorite-journalist-he-never-met Thomas Friedman is remarked upon here (scroll down to Friday, Nov. 21), with all appropriate scorn and sarcasm.
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More Paranoia about fascism
As I’ve remarked previously, right-thinking folks know that it’s just silly to talk about fascism in connection with the current developments in the United States, but for some reason a distinguished historian at the University of Michigan is doing just that. Jeez, it’s not like a former high-ranking, and still high-profile, military officer suggested that…
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Blog Stats
So “readership” (hit-o-ship?) seems to have stabilized over the last couple of weeks, with 800 to 1,000 visits per weekday, and 500 per weekend day, with 75% of visits coming from “old-timers” each day. Thanks to those as well who have e-mailed helpful feedback.
I never met Alan, sadly, but his work leading the charge in making philosophy of sex “a thing” in contemporary…