September 2007
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Philosophical Fame? Remember, “Napoleon’s a pastry”
I was discussing with my friend Justin Schwartz the always amusing question of whether some philosopher, in this case Rorty (prompted by this post), will be read in 25 or 50 years. The answer to these kinds of questions are now harder to gauge thanks to the complete professionalization of philosophy–that is, the fact that…
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Forgive this brief foray back into politics…
…but if the Christian Fascist wing of the Republican Party in the U.S. really runs a third-party candidate, then they and the Republicans are doomed. That would obviously be good news for the world and for humanity, even if the Democrats are reprehensible in their own right.
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Recent Interview with Norman Finkelstein
He makes a number of interesting points about academic freedom and the political pressures that prevent honest discussion of Israel in the United States. He also has some funny lines about the disgraceful Alan Dershowitz.
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The Challenges Facing a New Public Law School in California
Vik Amar (UC Davis) comments.
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Friday Poem: “Julian Sorel”
Julian Sorel In college I gave a talk in Comp Lit On Le Rouge et Le Noir The hour before class I sat in the john Trying to figure out what to say Then stone-cold without notes I walked in and talked about Sorel For almost an hour I may have told the story Like…
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ASU Law Dean White to Step Down After Nearly a Decade
The ASU press release is here, which includes an unusually impressive list of glowing appraisals of Patricia White’s accomplishments as Dean at Arizona State. One thing that is certainly clear to an outsider is the quality and strength of faculty appointments during her tenure.
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Iowa College Instructor Fired Allegedly for Not Treating the Book of Genesis Literally
Story here; an excerpt: A community college instructor in Red Oak claims he was fired after he told his students that the biblical story of Adam and Eve should not be literally interpreted. Steve Bitterman, 60, said officials at Southwestern Community College sided with a handful of students who threatened legal action over his remarks…
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Stone on Columbia, the Iranian President, and MoveOn’s Ad about “General Betray Us”
This is about the most sensible (and principled) commentary I have seen on these issues; others may find Geof Stone’s remarks of interest.
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The Most Productive Non-Elite Law Schools
The folks at Roger Williams have completed the study of scholarly productivity for which they were soliciting feedback a couple of weeks ago. They studied all schools in the 3rd and 4th tiers of U.S. News, plus (for comparative purposes) local schools in New England (Roger Williams is in Rhode Island). The results are, I…
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Is it Unethical for Law Schools to Lie to US News?
Ann Bartow (South Carolina) is certain it is: "lying to improve Useless News & World Distort rankings is despicable." I’m not so sure it’s that simple. Let’s put to one side a position that seems to be Kant’s, namely, that lying is always immoral. Sometimes, surely, lying is justified: e.g., when you lie to the…
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Senator Obama Interviewed on ImmigrationProf Blog
Here. Kudos to Professor Johnson and his colleagues for getting the Senator to answer these questions about immigration law and policy.
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So what did happen at Irvine?
The mystery continues.
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Speaking of Paranoia on the Right–
–as we were just the other day–David Bernstein (George Mason) has now served up a remarkable example. First there is the sheer weirdness of comparing being fired from a job with being disinvited to give a dinner speech to a Board of Regents. (Even a commenter remarked on this: "[Y]ou really think being disinvited from…
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“Nietzsche’s Theory of the Will”
UPDATE: I gather the link was not working earlier, but it seems to be fine now. This article of mine has now been published by The Philosophers’ Imprint and is available for download here. I would be pleased to have discussion of the essay in the comments section at my Nietzsche blog. Here is the…
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“Nietzsche’s Theory of the Will”
On the off chance that this topic interests some readers, there is more information on this paper of mine here. Although it is a philosophical exegesis, it is done with an eye to general philosophical issues about free will and moral responsibility, and also shows how Nietzsche’s theory wins support from recent empirical psychology.
Giovanni Molteni Tagliabue (Italy) Rationalized and Extended Democracy – The REDemo Project. Foreword by Gilberto Corbellini. Firenze University Press 2023.…