December 2004
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Definitive Proof of the “Value” of a Philosophy Degree
Here. (Thanks to Bruce Umbaugh for the pointer.)
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Acceptable and Unacceptable Academic Hiring Practices
Sergio Tenenbaum, a philosopher at the University of Toronto, writes: As we get close to the American Philosophical Association [Eastern Division Meeting, which is also the hiring convention], I thought it might be worth having a thread on what counts as acceptable or unacceptable practice in the hiring process. Here are some of my views;…
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What passes for “thought” among American Rhodes Scholars
Here. Yes, I know they’re not all this pathetically parochial and trite…. UPDATE: Apt comments from Strange Doctrines.
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What David Horowitz’s “Academic Freedom Bill of Rights” Really Means
Horowitz’s house organ, FrontPage Magazine, gives a good indication of what "academic freedom" really means to Horowitz & his gang of thought police with this typical hatchet job on a Stanford professor. Note that there is no substantive, scholarly criticism in the entire article; this professor is to be condemned for his substantive views–on topics…
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Kansas Taliban on the March!
Sahotra Sarkar (Biology & Philosophy, Texas) has the details on the latest efforts by the ignorant to harm schoolchildren.
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“A Narrow and Technical Issue”
A propos the recent discussion of Harvard’s ethical blindspots, Michael Perry (Law, Emory) calls to my attention this thoughtful critique of Harvard’s handling of misconduct by another member of its faculty; an excerpt: Did the customary conflict-of-interest provisions apply to Harvard economist Andrei Shleifer when, under contract to the U.S. government in the mid-1990s, the…
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“The Man of the Year”
You know whom that right-wing rag Time picked; now here’s the real winner.
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Wyman from NYU Law to Toronto
Katrina Wyman (environmental law), currently an assistant professor of law at New York University, has accepted an offer from the law faculty at the University of Toronto. While leading Canadian law faculties are frequently raided by American schools, moves back North are more rare (the only other one I can think of recently involved Michael…
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More on merit, cronyism and discrimination against those with families in the philosophy profession
A senior philosopher out West writes: The thread on TAR on "Philosophical Perspectives" and related issuesraises many very important and complex questions. The roles ofinstitutional affiliation and "connections" are very significant invarious areas of our profession, although they sometimes work insubtle ways. A more thorough exploration of the VARIOUS ways inwhich graduate school affiliation and…
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Two Lateral Hires for Villanova Law
Villanova has just made two senior appointments, a scholarly couple, David Caudill (evidence, property, postmodern legal theory) from Washington & Lee has accepted a Chair at Villanova and Penelope Pether (law & literature, criminal law, postmodern legal theory) from American University will join the tenured faculty.
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Now The Economist Endorses the Newest “Big Lie”: Universities are not diverse
What goes on in the mind of people who write stuff like this? Academia is simultaneously both the part of America that is most obsessed with diversity, and the least diverse part of the country. On the one hand, colleges bend over backwards to hire minority professors and recruit minority students, aided by an ever-burgeoning…
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Canada at risk of becoming a plutocracy?
So says Osgoode Hall tax professor Neil Brooks: The C. D. Howe Institute recently set up a "Tax Competitiveness Centre" to recommend far-reaching tax reforms. That spells trouble for most Canadians. Unless you’re a rich investor, hold onto your wallet. Whenever the business-funded institute starts poking around in the tax system, it finds lots of…
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In Memoriam
Paul Edwards (1923-2004) The New York Times obituary is here. UPDATE: A propos our recent discussion of Professor Flew’s purported conversion, Gilbert Harman (Philosophy, Princeton) suggests an apt headline for the passing of Professor Edwards: "Noted Atheist Dies without Converting to Christianity"!
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Round ’em up
According to this new poll, Nearly half of all Americans believe the U.S. government should restrict the civil liberties of Jewish-Americans, according to a nationwide poll. Whoops, sorry, that’s Muslim-Americans…anyway: The survey conducted by Cornell University also found that Republicans and people who described themselves as highly religious were more apt to support curtailing Muslims’…
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The Social Security Privatization Scam, continued
Remarkably, I actually heard from some poor deluded free market utopian protesting the facts about social security privatization, pointing (as befits anyone suitably indoctrinated) to the putative great success of private pension plans in Chile. Now, as chance would have it (did he get the same e-mail?) comes Krugman: Decades of conservative marketing have convinced…
I suspect we differ on big picture questions about how correlated various different mental abilities are. I think a reasonable…