August 2006
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Velleman on the Newcombe Competitions and How Philosophers Present Their Work (Leiter)
David Velleman (NYU) writes with the following interesting information about the Newcombes and the selection process; I would particularly urge graduate students and young philosophers to heed the points about presenting one’s work to non-specialists. Professor Velleman writes: Having served on the final selection committee for the Newcombe Fellowships (though not in the most recent…
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Anyone Have a Car in Chicago I Might “Rent”?
As many readers know, I’m going to be at the University of Chicago in the fall. Driving from Austin is more hassle than it’s worth, so I am wondering whether any readers in the Chicago area who might be on leave themselves in the fall, or who have an extra car, would be willing to…
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Newcombe Fellows (Leiter)
UPDATED 2012 As I noted several months back, one of our outstanding PhD students, Neil Sinhababu, had won a Charlotte W. Newcombe Fellowship in the 2005-06 competition. It turns out that only one other philosophy student won support this past year: Japa Pallikkathayil, a PhD student at Harvard University. Having won a Newcombe myself many…
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“The Manchurian Clergyman” (Leiter)
This is delightfully written (worthy of Mencken)…and scathing; an excerpt: In the 1920s, explaining the growing phenomenon of religious fundamentalism and how it battened Prohibition upon a suffering nation, H.L. Mencken described Southern Baptism as "a theology degraded almost to the level of voodoo." Eighty years on, we could remark, "plus ça change, plus c’est…
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Blog Roll Update (Leiter)
So I finally added, on the left side-bar, a list of "recommended" blogs, i.e., blogs I read more-or-less irregularly, but which are informative or at least fun. I want to call your attention, in particular, to the fact that Thomas Nadelhoffer, who has done a spectacular job keeping this site interesting and educational all summer,…
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“Secretly Reads Brian Leiter” (Leiter)
It’s time to come out of the closet! I’m told nearly ten shirts have been sold already. The royalties will let me buy a decaf cappucino! (On the origin of the shirts, see here.)
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“British Irrationality Lags Only Slightly Behind American” (Leiter)
So observes John Gardner from Oxford, who sent me a link to this item: Chris Parker, a final-year English student at Hertford College, Oxford, believes God made the world. Ask him why, and he talks cogently about the gaps in evolutionary theory and how explanations involving intelligent design are unsatisfactory. But, ultimately, it is because:…
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Santorum Confesses to Treason (Nadelhoffer)
Last week U.S. Senator Rick Santorum suggested that the individuals who leaked information about our domestic and international surveillance programs were traitorous (see here). Moreover, he claimed that, "If leaking this information is traitorous, then publishing it is also complicit with that activity." Just to be clear, his first claim is that the act of…
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The Post-iPod Era (Wolff)
So I’ve survived my first flight in the post-iPod era. Thankfully I was flying from Gatwick, rather than Heathrow, and suffered only a ten-minute delay. I flew to Jersey – that’s Old Jersey, in the Channel Islands – which is a 35 minute flight. Just long enough for one pass each of the duty free…
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Sacrificing Freedom for Security (Nadelhoffer)
On Friday Jack Balkin posted something over at Balkinization about the relationship between surveillance and the so-called ‘war on terror’ that I think merits attention (see here). You see, according to Balkin, the fundamental issue is not whether more surveillance is either necessary or prudent–he thinks it is–but rather whether it should be brought within…
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The Bush Admin’s War on Preventing Terrorist Attacks, Part 37 (Leiter)
His achievements as an international war criminal may overshadow his accomplishments at making Americans more likely to die at the hands of fundamentalist killers: While the British terror suspects were hatching their plot, the Bush administration was quietly seeking permission to divert $6 million that was supposed to be spent this year developing…
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A Jew Who Escaped the Holocaust Decries the Horrors in Lebanon (Leiter)
How could any morally decent person not? An excerpt: As a Jew who escaped the Holocaust by moving with my family to America in 1938, I turn on the BBC at night. And what I see are clouds of black smoke, explosions; the dead and the dying – children crying bitterly, cities in ruins. Only…
I just want to address this comment: > What initially presents itself as impressive intelligence can, upon closer inspection by…