May 2009
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Journalists May be the Dumbest People on the Face of the Earth, Part 361
Someone just sent me this item from the California Lawyer by a "reporter" named Lawrence Hurley. I can't recall ever having spoken to Mr. Hurley, but if I did, he just made some things up anyway: University of Chicago Law School professor Brian Leiter hates U.S. News and World Report's law school rankings. The influential rankings,…
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Once Again, the Costs of Being Critical of Israel…
…in the U.S. academy. Personally, I would not have sent that particular e-mail (though it's arguably within the parameters of the course), but it's almost unbelievable that it should trigger a formal "investigation" because of external pressures by groups that are systematically committed to stifling honest discussion of Israeli policy.
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Elsevier Should Go Out of Business…
…after this scandal.
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Anti-Muslim Bigotry Emanating from Kalamazoo
When someone flagged for me last week Clayton Littlejohn's pointer to a bit of raving bigotry by one of the many right-wingers at the aptly-named "What's Wrong with the World" blog (which exemplifies, rather than analyzes, the phenomenon), I merely added a note about it as an afterthought to an earlier post. But an alert reader has since pointed…
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The Most “Conservative” Law Faculties?
My comment the other day that Sai Prakash's move from USD to Virginia give UVA the strongest "conservative" public law group of any law school in the country prompted one reader to ask about other "conservative" faculties. Bear in mind, of course, that terms like "liberal" and "conservative" operate as indexicals: what they refer to…
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An Update on Some “Moves to Watch For” from the 2009 PGR
I thought it might be useful to update in one place the status of the 'moves to watch for' noted in the last PGR; in quick summary form: 1. David Chalmers (ANU) turned down Princeton and Rutgers, and accepted a half-time post at NYU. Due to the different calendar years, he will remain more-or-less full-time in…
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Advertising Discount for June, July & August
A top advertising spot (where the current UCL or Durham ads are) for the entire summer can be had for a mere $500 (regular price $810). A top spot for any individual summer month is available for $200 (regular price $300). For information on summer traffic, see here. There are also still some advertising spots available in…
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For Chicago Readers: Looking for a Magician for a Party?
This guy really was very good, and had a very nice manner with a group of 1st-graders–he had them laughing hysterically as well as enjoying and participating in the magic.
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New St. John’s Dean
Michael Simons.
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Philosopher Aseel al-Awadi One of First Four Women Elected to Parliament in Kuwait!
Story here. Aseel took her PhD in philosophy at UT Austin, writing a dissertation with my former colleague A.P. Martinich. Kudos to Aseel and the others for their courage and ground-breaking victory!
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Does the NY Times Not Realize That Stanley Fish is Philosophically Incompetent?
It appears not, judging from the fact that they keep running his sophomoric prattle. I have been ignoring it, but a reader flags today's foray into bad epistemology and philosophy of science: Evidence, understood as something that can be pointed to, is never an independent feature of the world. Rather, evidence comes into view (or…
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The 20 “Most Important” Philosophers of All Time
With nearly 900 votes cast, we now know: 1. Plato (Condorcet winner: wins contests with all other choices) 2. Aristotle loses to Plato by 367–364 3. Kant loses to Plato by 411–328, loses to Aristotle by 454–295 4. Hume loses to Plato by 534–166, loses to Kant by 533–176 5. Descartes loses to Plato by 597–117, loses to Hume by…
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Is LSAC Giving Some Sample Tests *Only* to Students Who Pay for Prep Courses?
This account suggests LSAC is, which would be rather surprising!
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The State of California Has Essentially Stopped Subsidizing Legal Education
Take a look at these tuition rates, including their increase over the past few years and the rates going forward. Michigan and Virginia are already de facto private law schools; Texas has been moving in that direction, though not as dramatically as Berkeley and UCLA. Will there be an elite, genuinely public (i.e., in which…
I don’t think it’s that the philosophical debates will become irrelevant in your example, so much that your example demonstrates…