August 2009
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“Best of the summer” blog
For those who took a break from blog-reading during the summer, here are a few items from the summer that might be of interest: Is "Secular Moral Theory" Really Relatively Young? (June) The New NRC "Methodology" for Ranking Graduate Programs (July) The Arrest of Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (July) In Memoriam: G.A. Cohen (August) A proposal on…
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“Aspiring Law Professors” Conference at Arizona State
I don't usually do conference announcements, as longtime readers know, but I'm speaking at this one and it's of course directly relevant to one of our main topics/audiences. Interested readers should contact Professor Sylvester at ASU for details about the conference. I'll be giving a faculty workshop the Friday afternoon prior on a scholarly topic…
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A Difficult Job Market for the Class of 2011
A New York Times story on the legal market here, and, in particular, the difficulties facing current 2Ls. What I hear from talking to career services professionals is that, among the elite law schools, things will be hardest for the biggest law schools (like Harvard and NYU, both mentioned in the article), for a simple reason: …
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Hiring Chairs are Still Announcing Themselves…
…here. Many also mention particular areas of interest, which is especially useful for job seekers. Area-specific needs drive hiring at 90% or more of all law schools each year, so knowing area priorities is very useful information.
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I will probably regret mentioning this…
…but a blog is running a contest for the "best philosophy post on a blog" in the last year, and most (not all) of the nominations so far are incompetent or worse. Since the contest actually comes with a cash prize, and since it's pretty clear the blog running the contest has relatively few readers informed on…
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Results of the Reader Feedback Poll
Thanks to the 740 readers who completed the poll about the blog from earlier in the summer. The results were mostly what I expected, except for the strong showing for substantive philosophical postings–we've done relatively few of those, but I infer they are welcome, and so I'll aim for more such discussions. I was also struck…
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Michigan Lawyer Sues University of Iowa for “Age Discrimination”
Story here. One suspects there is age discrimination in academic hiring, but just on the paper record there are too many other possible explanations for why Mr. Dobkin was not hired apart from his age (55): law schools, and especially one of Iowa's stature, have a scholarly and research mission, and one might be skeptical…
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Anonymous Smear Blogger Has Her Identity Revealed by Google After Defamation Suit
The trashy New York Post has a suitably inflammatory story about it. This is a case study in the problem with anonymous speech on the Internet. Predictably, the juvenile libertarians at the Electrronic Frontier Foundation aren't happy about this outcome. My guess is that this this case is a symptom of a broader cultural shift,…
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How a Different APA Handles Career Services for Academic Job Seekers
The American Psychological Association, that is. Should our APA adopt this model?
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Ben-Gurion Professor Calls for Selective Boycott of Israel to End Settlements and “Apartheid” Status of Palestinians; Israeli Officials Call for His Firing , University President Joins Denunciations
There is a good account, with links, here. The spectrum of debate in Israel is usually much wider and more vigorous than in the U.S., so I am surprised by the ferocity of the reaction and by the disgraceful performance of the President of Ben-Gurion University. I am curious whether readers have insight into the…
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UC Irvine Law Starts Classes Today
And they got a nice 'welcome' in a front-page story in the Los Angeles Times this past Friday. The 1L curriculum is quite interesting. Lawyer/mentors for each 1L could prove to be a brilliant innovation. Teaching fact investigation also seems an inspired idea. I do wonder about legal ethics in the first year–good PR for the school, but…
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100 German Professors Being Investigated for Taking Bribes to Award PhDs
Story here. No indication of how many folks were paying bribes for philosophy doctorates!
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Per Capita Expenditures is the Tail that Wags the US News Ranking Dog
I've remarked on this many times before, and Tom Bell (Chapman) confirms it with his characteristically more sophisticated analysis. (Do see this chart too.) Of course, U.S. News does not publish the information on per capita expenditures, since it would make it far too obvious what they are actually ranking.
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There should have been a constitutional provision…
….for just this problem. Of course, my friends who periodically send this to me aren't thinking specifically of George W. Bush, but a phrase that, for some reason, I often had occasion to use during the appointments process in the law school. Go figure?
Georgy Maksimovich pointed me to this article in Russian: https://novayagazeta.ru/articles/2026/05/25/antisovetskie-filosofskie-kontratseptsii