January 2009
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Reminder: PGR Surveys End This Friday at Noon Central Standard Time!
We’re now approaching 200 evaluators (many thanks!), but we are definitely in need of more evaluators in some of the specialty areas, where your vote will count even more! Those areas with 10 or fewer respondents so far include: Philosophy of Religion; Philosophy of Action; Philosophy of Physics; Philosophy of Biology; Philosophy of Social Science;…
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It’s Official: Obama to Nominate HLS Dean Kagan as Solicitor General
Dean Kagan has sent an e-mail out to the Harvard Law School community. Congratulations to Dean Kagan! Early reports are of pandemonium and jubilation in New Haven especially.
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History, English Job Markets Off 15-20% This Year
Story here. I’ve not seen reliable data on Philosophy, but the anecdotal evidence is consistent with a similar decline in positions–and there is still the risk, alas, that positions will disappear or be frozen before being filled. I wish there were some hopeful news to report, but at present there isn’t. I am expecting next…
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Perry on Raz, Authority and Anarchsim
I am grateful to those who turned out at 9 am on a Sunday morning (!!!) to an "Author Meets Critics" session at the Eastern APA on my book Naturalizing Jurisprudence (OUP, 2007) and especially to Thom Brooks (Newcastle), the organizer, and Stephen Perry (Penn), the commentator. (Sadly, the other commentator, Ken Himma [Seattle Pacific] was…
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McGinn Reviews Bill Maher’s New Film on Religion…
…and concludes: "We indeed don’t know everything, but some things we know quite well—and the complete falsity of religious doctrine is one of them."
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International Law and Gaza
Here is an informative analysis of the legal issues. The legality or illegality of the Israeli actions is, of course, wholly independent of their immorality.
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Harvard Dean Kagan, Former Stanford Dean Sullivan Said to be “Favorites” for Obama’s SG
Story here. UPDATE: The Boston Globe reports on Kagan's SG candidacy here. The first commenter on the article reports his skepticism of Kagan and Obama based on his own experience at the University of Chicago, which he refers to as "Moscow on the Midway," and says no one talked to him when he declared that…
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Friday Poem: “Among the Philistines”
Among the Philistines When the bombs fell I pulled down the shadesSettled comfortably in my warm homeLowered the lights to rest my eyesWatched a movie listened to musicMade early dinner of a generous saladOrange pepper three kinds of lettuceCucumber tomato all freshly chilledCountry dressing upon my feastCool water from a brimming pitcherAn apple and…
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More on the “Uselessness” of the APA
David Velleman (NYU) writes: A more significant symptom of the APA’s uselessness is the annual appearance of news items like this one. A professional organization that was worth the dues would help visiting journalists to understand the central concerns and accomplishments of the discipline, so that they could write more than a hodgepodge of caricatures…
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Gaza Petition and More Resources
Philosopher Yitzhak Melamed (Johns Hopkins) calls my attention to this petition about the atrocities in Gaza, and adds: "if you are interested, here are two links to the only two Israeli/Jewish groups that came out unequivocally against the barbarism of the Israeli operation in Gaza": here and here. (The latter is the site of an…
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Reminder: PGR Surveys End a Week from Tomorrow!
The PGR surveys end on Friday, January 9 at noon Chicago time (Central Standard Time in the U.S.): that’s 1 pm in New York, 10 am in Los Angeles, 6 pm in London, and some time in the early morning hours of Saturday, January 10 in Sydney. Many thanks to the 150 philosophers who have…
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Nietzsche Blog for your New Year
Did you know the other Brian Leiter has a blog on Nietzsche? New stuff there, too, including links to papers and review essays. Check it out. Happy New Year!
Let us agree to disagree about Dennett. I still maintain that it really does matter that we try to understand…