March 2010
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A Cautionary Tale about Posted Placement Records
A young philosopher writes: Prospective students really should look into the placement records of departments they are interested in, not just by looking at department websites, but also by speaking to current students and faculty. Despite your efforts, and the general improvement in how departments report their placement results, some departments–even quite distinguished ones–continue to report misleading or incomplete information. I know of one…
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Update on the Situation at King’s College, London
I am told that there are some hopeful signs from KCL, that the administration is beginning to realize that KCL will fall off the face of the earth as far as major research universities go if they follow through with the initial course of action. I hope to have more concrete news to report before…
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Batterman from Western Ontario to Pittsburgh
Robert Batterman (philosophy of science and physics), holder of a Canada Research Chair in Philosophy at the University of Western Ontario, has accepted the senior offer from the Department of Philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh.
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What philosophers earn
Here is some data on faculty salaries for the 2009-10 academic year from a major public research university with a reputable and PGR-ranked philosophy department and PhD program. The data was published by a news magazine, but I've anonymized the data here, since the point isn't to make this even more public than it already is,…
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Law School Lateral Hiring List, Updated
I've updated my 2010 law school lateral moves list over at The Faculty Lounge and it's here. — Dan Filler
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Sam Buell from Washington University in St. Louis to Duke
Samuel Buell (criminal law and securities regulation) has accepted a tenured position at Duke Law School. Buell's rise is rapid; he only joined the Wash U. faculty in the fall of 2006. His story should give academically-oriented practitioners hope. He was a genuine practicing attorney for 11 years before joining Texas as a VAP in…
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Fodor v. Sober on Natural Selection and Laws on Bloggingheads TV
Here. It's really a first-rate discussion, and brings out aspects of the argument that were not clear (to me at least) in the earlier iterations, namely, that the key claim of Fodor and Piattelli-Palmarini (hereafter FPP) isn't that there isn't a difference between traits that are selected for and those that are mere free-riders (e.g.,…
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Friday Poem: “My Small Grandmother”
My Small Grandmother My small grandmother Who did not smile Wore her mortal trial Neatly on her shoulders While somewhere in her dry silence My grandfather’s shadow hovered Fleshless as her bony Yiddish Grandmother all gristle and wrinkles Outlasted Czarist Russia Survived the Cossacks’ plunder Brought here her Sabbath’s wonder Five sons…
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Interested in Studying Nietzsche in Grad School?
If so, you probably already read my Nietzsche blog, but just in case.
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David Hasen from Penn State to Santa Clara
David Hasen, a professor at Penn State, will be moving to Santa Clara next year. He joined the Penn State faculty, from the University of Michigan, last year. Hasen has diverse interests – from tax to jurisprudence. — Dan Filler
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Tough Times at Rutgers
Public university funding is turning ugly. We've all followed the harsh cutbacks in the California university system. Now Rutgers, and other New Jersey colleges, are going to take their lumps. It appears, for example, that Rutgers will have to absorb a 15% cut in its direct state funding during the next school year. That's some…
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Former Columbia Dean Albert Rosenthal Dies
Albert Rosenthal, who was dean of Columbia Law School from 1979 to 1984, died Wednesday. He was 91. As a young man, he served as the President of the Harvard Law Review and clerk to Justice Felix Frankfurter. He joined the Columbia faculty in 1964. Most recently, he has been the Maurice T. Moore Professor…
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Exceptional Pedagogical Commitment
Here. (Thanks to Bill Wringe for the pointer.)
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Peer Review, ExpressO, and the Law Review Submission Process
As we slog through another law review article submission season – with authorial anxiety now painfully in view – I started wondering how Stanford's partial peer review process was coming along. Rather than shout into the blogosphere I decided to call the Stanford Law Review. Masha Hansford, the new President, tells me that while peer review…
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Fodor on Natural Selection Redux
Jerry Fodor and Massimo Piattelli-Palmarini reply to Ned Block and Philip Kitcher's devastating critique, and Block and Kitcher respond at the same link. Be sure to read the response by Block and Kitcher.
Georgy Maksimovich pointed me to this article in Russian: https://novayagazeta.ru/articles/2026/05/25/antisovetskie-filosofskie-kontratseptsii