March 2005
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More on the German Academic “Brain Drain”
Kai Wehmeier (Philosophy, UC Irvine) writes: As a German expat of sorts myself, I was very interested to read the remarks by Volker Halbach and Hannes Leitgeb on your blog. I’m not really familiar with the Austrian philosophical scene, but Volker is certainly right about Germany — at least insofar as logicians are concerned. I…
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Slight Change in US News Law School Ranking Methodology–First Change Since Late 1990s
The US News law school (and other graduate program) rankings will be officially released tomorrow (and I’ll have a few additional comments then on some of the particulars of the results for law and for the humanities and social science programs), but it’s worth noting that US News changed the way it calculates the "median"…
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Joel Feinberg Remembered…
…here by a former student. I had not realized it, but he died a year ago yesterday.
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Further Proof Paul Krugman Reads This Blog…
…or at least lives in the same country I’m living in. An excerpt: Democratic societies have a hard time dealing with extremists in their midst. The desire to show respect for other people’s beliefs all too easily turns into denial: nobody wants to talk about the threat posed by those whose beliefs include contempt for…
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Big Catch for Miami: Colin McGinn from Rutgers to Miami
Colin McGinn, whose wide-ranging work traverses issues in philosophy of mind, metaphysics, Wittgenstein, epistemology and even ethics, will leave Rutgers University at New Brunswick to join the Department of Philosophy at the University of Miami in fall 2006.
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“This is about Israel, not Anti-Semitism”
Strong statement by London Mayor Ken Livingstone.
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Candor in Strange Places
Dover, Pennsylvania pastor and parent Ray Mummert, a defender of the local school board’s decision to teach intelligent design creationism as an alternative to evolution in the schools, on opponents of the decision: "We’ve been attacked by the intelligent, educated segment of the culture." Well, you certainly wouldn’t want those kinds of folks determining the…
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Fallout from the Pacific APA: Call for APA Members to Protest Pacific Division’s Handling of the Matter
The resolution below was circulated at the alternative conference at the recent Pacific APA. If you would like to add your name to it, please email ljshrage at csupomona.edu (see here for updated signatures) CALL for DEMOCRACY and SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY IN THE APA, PACIFIC DIVISION *Whereas the Pacific Division Executive Committee (PDEC) failed to inform…
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The Destruction of the American University System…
…is being orchestrated by the pathological David Horowitz and right-wing state legislators pushing his Orwellian "Academic Bill of Rights." Here’s a nice illustration, from a teacher of philosophy, of what’s in store: In the Florida legislature, House Republicans, on the Choice and Innovation Committee, recently voted to pass a bill that threatens to restrain academic…
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Logician Leitgeb from Salzburg to Bristol
Hannes Leitgeb, a logician at the University of Salzburg, has accepted a Readership at the University of Bristol in the U.K. Oxford logician Volker Halbach, who notified me of this move–and who himself moved from Konstanz to Oxford last year–observed that, "You recently claimed that no other country has suffered a brain drain like the…
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Updating the 2003-04 Law School Rankings
Various students have been writing recently asking about whether I plan to update the faculty quality rankings, based on the Spring 2003 survey. I had planned to do so, but plans are one thing, and time is another. Right now, I hope to do it in the early fall. The truth is there haven’t been…
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Boycott Imax Theaters…
…until they stop caving in to know-nothings who want the public to be as ignorant as they are. UPDATE: Frank Schmidt (Biochemistry, Missouri) writes: "The Times may be a bit late, since Fort Worth, the most egregious offender, is going to show "Volcanoes" after all. And, since there is no such thing as bad publicity,…
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Statement of “Iraq Veterans Against the War” on the 2nd Anniversary of the Invasion
Full text here; an excerpt: Today marks the second anniversary of the invasion and occupation of Iraq, a key milestone in the current U.S. Government’s campaign of lies and deceit common since 9/11. We were first told that there was a link between Iraq and the horrible 9/11 attacks. But there was none. Then we…
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The Coming Military Draft…Again
The New York Times is usually a reliable indicator that mischief is going mainstream; this from a frontpage story in yesterday’s paper: For the first time in nearly five years, the Army missed its active-duty recruiting goal in February. The Reserve has missed its monthly quota since October. Army officials said the goals would most…
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Congratulations to Ian Farrell…
…one of our graduates (the first graduate to have been actively involved in the Law and Philosophy Program) who took up in January a position as Lecturer on the law faculty at the University of Wollongong in Australia. He is missed in Austin.
Georgy Maksimovich pointed me to this article in Russian: https://novayagazeta.ru/articles/2026/05/25/antisovetskie-filosofskie-kontratseptsii