July 2009
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Reaction Formation Watch: State Senator Paul Stanley, Republican of Tennessee
Haven't done one of these in awhile, but this is too charming to let pass in silence. God Bless America!
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The Australian Philosophy Exodus to America
Story here. (Thanks to Michael Weisberg for the pointer.) UPDATE: Huw Price (Sydney) writes: The Australian piece on the "exodus" of Australian philosophers seemed a little one-sided, to me. A quick count reveals that about 40% of my colleagues here at Sydney are imports, who first came to Australia after graduate school. The list includes…
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Notre Dame’s Plantinga to Retire in 2010
Browsing the philosophy blogs, I came across this impressive conference line-up for a "retirement celebration" in May 2010 in honor of Alvin Plantinga (b. 1932), a mainstay of the Notre Dame Department for more than a quarter-century, and a leading contributor to epistemology, metaphysics, and philosophy of religion during that time and before. One can get some sense…
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The Public’s Understanding of the Tax System is Limited
Marjorie Kornhauser (Arizona State) wants to do something about it.
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DePaul College of Law: Heading to Loss of ABA Accreditation?
Sixteen senior law faculty at DePaul have reported the scandalous way in which an Interim Dean was chosen to the ABA, claiming (it seems almost certainly correctly) that it violates ABA rules requiring faculty consultation in the selection of a Dean. (Earlier postings on the DePaul deanship scandal here and here.) Will the ABA step…
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Atlas Shrugged, the Movie: It’s on the Way!
Helpful analysis here; choice paragraph: Weep no more, bruised and battered libertarians: After 37 years of being shot down by rational people who see the book as a stilted and masturbatory work suitable only for college freshmen who haven’t figured out that, if everyone did exactly what they wanted all the time, civilization would collapse…
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Controversy Over Anti-Gay Bigot Li-ann Thio Visiting at NYU Continues
Now there is a petition to NYU protesting her scheduled visit this fall. As a political tactic, designed to help stamp out anti-gay bigory, it's plainly a sensible move, but in its explicit content it is wrong, and dangerously wrong. The petition states: To harbor Dr. Thio under the banner of "academic freedom" is disingenuous, untenable…
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Young from Auckland to Wake Forest
Julian Young, a leading scholar of 19th- and 20th-century German philosophy at the University of Auckland, will become Kenan Professor of the Humanities at Wake Forest University in January 2010. That's an exciting appointment for Wake Forest. A propos our earlier discussion of 'enduring questions,' I heartily recommend Young's The Death of God and the…
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Time to Boycott “Journal of Philosophy”?
More authors are reporting horror stories with J.Phil. here. Add to this the fact that it's an in-house operation, and the fact that there are now lots of high-profile and high-quality alternatives, that are also generally efficient (like Nous, Philosophy & Phenomenological Research, Philosophers' Imprint etc.), and one wonders whether a boycott isn't the right response. (See…
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US News Does Right by Loyola Law School
A colleague at Loyola Law School, Los Angeles reports that the magazine notified the Dean yesterday that they will resume listing the school by its proper name on the ballot, though will continue (for some reason) to list it in the magazine as Loyola Marymount University. That's a partial victory for good sense, though surely…
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The New Ave Maria Law School, Formerly of Ann Arbor, Set to Open Its Doors in Florida Next Month
Story from a local paper here. The more optimistic take of Andrew Morriss (Illinois) regarding the relocated school's prospects–quoted in the article–may well be right. The big obstacle will be hiring faculty. No one with any choice will be eager to join a law school where tenured faculty have previously been terminated, probably illegally. The…
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More on “Enduring Questions” and the NEH–and Why Philosophers Should Be “Worried”
Philosopher Mark Couch calls to my attention an interesting comment posted on IHE, which I here reprint in its entirety: I am an assistant professor of philosophy in a PhD-granting department and was a reviewer for the NEH Enduring Questions grant this past year. I hope you will excuse this message's anonymity — and its…
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Iran Protests Again
A dramatic account by a philosophy student in Tehran of protests this past Friday. (Thanks to Parsa Pezeshki for the pointer.)
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In Memoriam: Leszek Kolakowski (1927-2009)
The Polish historian of philosophy and ideas died today in Oxford. A short obituary is here. He is probably best-known for the three-volume Main Currents of Marxism, which remains an extremely useful reference work for students of the history of Marxist thought. His view that Stalinist terror was (as the obituary puts it) the "logical" outcome of…
I’m a graduate student in philosophy at a well-known terminal MA program who is applying to PhDs this fall and…