May 2010
-
What is Israel Thinking?
Juan Cole has an analysis and links with regard to the latest atrocity.
-
The Best Methods for Measuring the Scholarly Quality of a Faculty
So with over 250 votes cast, our earlier poll is now complete; herewith the results: 1. There is no reliable method (Condorcet winner: wins contests with all other choices) 2. Impact/citation studies loses to There is no reliable method by 125–115 3. Reputational surveys loses to There is no reliable method by 130–110, loses to Impact/citation studies by…
-
“Oxford Bibliographies Online” is now…
…on-line! It's a subscription service, so unless you're working from a university computer at a school that subscribes, you will only be able to see some of each entry. For some reason, co-authors on entries got dropped, and that is currently being fixed (so, e.g., I am the secondary author of the "Legal Positivism" entry,…
-
Philosophy Journals in Decline?
Interesting citation data from Jon Kvanvig (Baylor).
-
Call for an Academic Boycott of Middlesex!
MOVING TO FRONT FROM MAY 26: Please, if you haven't yet signed this, do so! The petition is here, and it has the support of the philosophy faculty at Middlesex. I would, of course, urge all readers to sign, and I would also urge academics in other fields to sign and would ask philosophers to…
-
“Rightwingoverse”
It isn't just a possible world, it's the actual one.
-
Amazon’s Conception of “Philosophy”
Their list of best-selling "philosophy" books. No comment. (Thanks to Andrew Kunsak for the pointer.)
-
Gary Simson to Become Dean at Mercer
The folks at Mercer Law are feeling very pleased, I imagine. They've hired Gary Simson, the Joseph C. Hostetler-Baker and Hostetler Professor of Law at Case Western Reserve University, as their new dean. Simson came to Case in 2006 to be dean and he served through 2008. He stepped down several months after publishing a…
-
Alstott from Harvard Back to Yale
Anne Alstott (tax), who moved from Yale Law School to Harvard Law School two years ago, has now accepted an offer to return to Yale, effective July 1, 2011.
-
The University of Virginia Defends Academic Freedom!
UVA has now gone to court to put a stop to the harassment by the Attorney General. That's very good news for UVA and its faculty, and a credit to the Administration. (Thanks to Antonia Lolordo for the pointer.)
-
“12 Modern Philosophers”: Which Will Be Read and Studied A Century Hence?
I just got a copy of 12 Modern Philosophers, ed. by Belshaw & Kemp (Wiley-Blackwell), containing illuminating essays (based on the three I've read so far) about Davidson, Quine, Kripke, Rawls, Singer, Parfit, Williams, Nozick, Nagel, Rorty, McDowell, and Fodor. As the editors explain: "There are 12 philosophers represented here, all writing in English, and…
-
NEH Summer Stipends–But No Defending a “Philosophical” Point of View?
This is very odd, and, one hopes, it is simply the product of just bad writing: NEH summer stipends may not be used for "projects that seek to promote a particular political, philosophical, religious, or ideological point of view." Won't this prevent most philosophers from applying, unless they're writing a survey piece? One assumes that,…
-
Everything you need to know about U.S. foreign policy (and the domestic budget deficit)…
…is available from these four charts—plus. I guess it also helps to have read Thucydides.
I only just learned of Barry’s passing, and I’m enormously saddened at the news. I wrote my PhD on his…