September 2008
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Well-Informed Article on Experimental Philosophy…
…in the Chronicle of Higher Education. (Kudos to CHE and the author, Christopher Shea, for doing an informed and constructive piece on this important bit of contemporary philosophy.)
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Haidt on Moral Psychology, Religiosity, and the “New Atheism” (Nadelhoffer)
I just stumbled upon the following interesting and timely exchange between Jonathan Haidt, David Sloan Wilson, Michael Shermer, Sam Harris, PZ Myers, and Marc Hauser over at Edge.org. Haidt’s extended discussion can be found here. The responses on the part of Wilson, Shermer, and the others can be found here. One of the key issues…
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Introducing Experimental Philosophy
"Experimental philosophy," as it is known, is one of the most exciting developments in the field of philosophy in a long time, one that promises substantive and methodological changes to philosophy that may be surprising to many legal scholars–and of special interest to those working in and around behavioral law and economics and law and…
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“Law Professors for McCain” and “Law Professors Against Palin”
In the former camp (via Professor David Bernstein of George Mason), here’s a complete list. As Professor Bernstein notes, no Chicago professors, which does not surprise me. I know of only one colleague who definitely supports McCain (entirely for tax reasons, as far as I can tell), though I really have no idea of what…
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Australian Philosophical Association “Ranks” Journals
Thom Brooks (Newcastle) compiles a list of the A*, A, and B journals from the APA exercise. The A* list isn’t bad, apart from some dubious inclusions (probably meant to pander to this-or-that interest group) like Hypatia, Political Theory, and Philosophy East and West. (The best work in feminist philosophy, for example, has surely appeared…
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John McCain, “low-ranking monkey”
This is funny.
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An Open Apology to Ignorant Yahoos
I want to hereby apologize to all ignorant yahoos for suggesting that Sarah Palin was one of you. There is now a consensus across the political spectrum in the wake of Governor Palin’s recent Couric ‘interview’ [sic] that Palin is quite probably the dumbest, least developed and least prepared candidate for national office in our…
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Harvard Law School to Adopt Pass-Fail Grading System Like Yale and Stanford
An HLS student has just forwarded me the e-mail from Dean Kagan, which reads in pertinent part: I am writing to let you know that the faculty decided yesterday to move to a grading system with fewer classifications than we have now. The new classifications, much as at Yale and Stanford, will be Honors-Pass-Low Pass-Fail. …
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No Bailout Needed, Turn the Problem Over to the FHA
Robert Hockett (Cornell) explains.
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The Hazards of Name-Dropping “Kant”
Here. Rather funny. (Thanks to Jason Walta for the pointer.)
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UT’s Rob Koons: “run-of-the-mill Republican”
That’s my former colleague’s self-description in this NY Times article about conservative efforts to influence the curricula at colleges and universities through programs like the one Rob heads up at UT Austin. But as Rob is quoted as saying in the article, “The kind of thing that we’re proposing and developing transcends all those political…
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Now We Know Why the McCain Camp Would Prefer There Not be a Vice-Presidential Debate Either
Maybe they’ll take Michael Drake’s idea, and get Miss South Carolina to step in. Another gem here and here’s the longer video. (The latter link is Andrew Sullivan, and it’s hard to disagree with his comment on the video clip.) (Thanks to Robert Hockett and Ian Proops for the last two links.)
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A New Low in “Gaming” the US News Rankings?
Bill Henderson (Indiana) comments on Michigan’s new admissions policy observing that "an elite law school sets a new low in our obsession of form over substances." Blog Emperor Caron draws a similar conclusion, and notes that Georgetown is doing almost the same thing. The requirement of not taking the LSAT to be eligible for this…
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Update on the Lawsuit by Former Faculty Against Ave Maria and Tom Monaghan
Nothing like discovery to increase the likelihood of settlement! (For background, see here.)
For anyone following the story of the Vanderbilt / Washington U. report, it is important to follow the story of…