October 2005
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The Philosophy of the Future
The future of philosophy may be the philosophy of the future, if Nick Bostrom (Oxford, Philosophy) has anything to say about it. He directs the Oxford Future of Humanity Institute, which is a part of the University of Oxford’s recently founded James Martin 21st Century School. "The Institute will focus on the fundamental question: which…
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Darwin Day Celebration, and Creationism Watch
Darwin Day has a wealth of material and links, all celebrating the great natural philosopher. While the Pennsylvania case makes headlines (check the Panda’s Thumb and links therefrom for the full story), the University of California defends a suit in which the plaintiffs insist that the institution that was home to Oppenheimer, Segre, Seaborg, Lawrence,…
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The Equality Exchange Has Moved
The Equality Exchange, a blog about equality and distributive justice, has just moved here. (Thanks to Crooked Timber.)
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It’s Just a Thought Away: Chalmers Refutes Materialism Again
David Chalmers has been polishing his 1996 argument against materialism. The result, titled "The Two-Dimensional Argument Against Materialism," is posted here.
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Woman of Mass Destruction
Maureen Dowd, in case you don’t follow her columns in the New York Times, has said what has for so long needed saying about Judy Miller, still "St. Judith of the First Amendment" in the estimation of so many nice-minded people. Hey, Miller admits she was "totally wrong" about Iraq’s WMDs: "If your sources are…
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Special Counsel Dot Gov
Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald today opened a website (still "under construction," no doubt). As soon as the Special Counsel indicts or announces he will not, the Wilsons are expected to file a civil action. A subpoena of President Bush should follow in due course–easy to justify given press reports like this in the Los Angeles…
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Cross-training for Philosophers
Philosophers spend a lot of time grappling with tangles, and trying to come up with clear pictures. Mental cross-training is important. So little of what we do is purely deductive, that exercises like sudoku can’t give us the workout we need. So little of what we do is merely verbal, that crosswords don’t cut to…
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A Hard Sell
The omerta of the last five years unravels, as evidenced by the willingness of Colin Powell’s chief aide to state the obvious, and more, as reported in the Daily Telegraph. The full transcript of Col. Lawrence Wilkerson’s remarks before the not-exactly-left-wing New America Foundation appears here, courtesy the Washington Note.
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“Recent Work” Works
If you’re like me, you’re grateful and relieved to see “Recent Work” or "State of the Art" articles. Grateful, because if done well they can provide a jump start to get rolling into an unknown area. Relieved, because they can be a good excuse for ignoring piles of articles that predate the “Recent Work” piece. …
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The Cooley Law School Rankings
No doubt one of the great mysteries of our time is what the Administration of the Thomas M. Cooley Law School in Michigan thinks it is accomplishing by publishing these preposterous rankings year in and year out. Is it their goal to convince people that US News is rocket science? (By comparison, it is.) To…
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Good Advice on Interviews at the “Meat Market”
Sensible advice about the "ideal" interview for asprising law teachers, from Daniel Solove (Law, George Washington).
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The Art of Stealth
Speaking of constitutional moments, the stealth candidate that Bruce Ackerman (Yale, Law) warned of in "The Art of Stealth," in the London Review of Books (Feb. 2005) ) has, after the Roberts’s confirmation, apparently dropped off his radar screen: see the American Prospect (Sept. 2005), "The Constitutional Moment That Wasn’t". From the February piece: "Bush’s…
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Philosophy Radio and WebCast: War Against Idiocy
The Guerilla Radio Show ("Waging War Against Idiocy") makes good its claim to be The Cutting-Edge Philosophy Talk Show. It can be heard live on KCSB 91.9 FM (Los Angeles to Sacramento) or via World Wide Web-cast (www.kcsb.org) every Tuesday night from 7:00-8:00 PM (PST). Archived episodes of the show (e.g., last night’s, on Political…
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Testing Saul Smilansky’s Free Will Illusionism
Saul Smilansky (Haifa, Philosophy) has argued that free will is a beneficially necessary illusion. Without free will, no moral responsibility, and without moral responsibility, life would be so much more solitary, nasty, brutish, and…you know the rest. But, really, how necessary is it? Surely it’s an empirical question, which Thomas Nadelhoffer (Florida State, Philosophy) and…
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Calm Before the Perfect Storm?
Today’s Washington Post indicates that Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald may announce indictments in his investigation of the White House Iraq Group (a/k/a "WHIG") as early as tomorrow [8/19: make that "next week"]. A report by Dan Froomkin contains the first indication I know of that a "secret snitch" inside the White House has been aiding…
I respond to this report here https://jasonstanleyantifascist.substack.com/p/on-the-philosophical-muddle-that