July 2010
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Why Are the Right-Wing Thugs So Effective at Policing the Major Media in the U.S.?
This is an astute analysis; an excerpt: The American right wing is achieving its long-term goal of becoming the nation's thought police. They are realizing this goal through the timeless practices of extremists…which are intimidation, slander and harassment. In the past several months, conservative outbursts have ruined the careers of journalists, most of whom were…
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Writing Recommendations for your Philosophy Students Applying to Law School
Mark Decker (Nebraska/Omaha) writes: I have a question about writing recommendation letters for students who are applying to law school. When it comes to writing letters for graduate philosophy programs, I know what they're looking for and what to say. But will a law school care, say, that a particular student did an independent study…
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ABA to Change Accreditation Standards Related to Tenure?
That's the point of this story about proposed changes to the ABA accreditation requirements, which had previously been taken to require a tenure system for academic faculty and some kind of job security for clinical and other faculty. Northwestern Law Dean David Van Zandt, who has led the charge, denies that this is an attack on…
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Oxford’s Marmodoro Awarded One Million Euros from European Research Council for Five-Year Project on Ancient Metaphysics
Story here. I don't think I've ever heard of such a generous grant for a project in ancient philosophy. Kudos to Dr. Marmodoro and the ERC!
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Does President Obama Have Any Backbone?
Nominating Elizabeth Warren (Harvard) as head of the new Consumer Protection Agency may be the ultimate test.
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How do you get scholars to take Ayn Rand Seriously? Pay them of course!
Seriously, there are important issues raised in this piece about corporate efforts to inject Ayn Rand into the curricula at different universities. (Thanks to David Auerbach for the pointer.) I'm curious what readers think about the issue of financial donations with subject-matter strings attached. Signed comments are much more likely to appear; all comments must…
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Rampant Socialism in America!
Something must be done!
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Tulane’s Gordley Elected to the British Academy
James Gordley, a leading scholar of comparative law and legal history and professor at Tulane Law School, has been elected a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy. In addition, the legal historian Neil Duxbury (LSE), who is a frequent Visiting Professor at the University of Virginia Law School, was elected a Fellow. Relatively few U.S.…
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Two Philosophers Elected to British Academy
They are Terence Irwin (Oxford University) and Shalom Lappin (King's College, London). Lappin, it will be recalled, had his job threatened at KCL, before the international outcry led the administration, wisely, to reconsider its plans. But think about it: administrators, without tenure as an obstacle of course (!), were going to fire a researcher whose…
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“Three Minute Philosophy”
This episode: Kant's ethics. Rather amusing. (Thanks to Daniel Groll for the pointer.)
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Mark C. Taylor (Columbia Religion Dept.) is an Ignorant Menace
Professor Taylor–whom we've encountered previously arguing for "transforming" universities by destroying them and cheerleading for Derrida, has now weighed in, with his characteristic lack of insight and knowledge, on the subject of tenure. Put aside the absurdity of a postmodernist religion professor peddling the "tough talk" of the marketplace; let's overlook too that salaries are not paid out…
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SSRN: “Stop Socialism Right Now!”
Robert Hockett (Cornell) comments.
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Putting Ayn Rand’s Corpus to Good Use
A fine idea here.
There are some errors (not surprising in something of this size!): down at the bottom of the journal list, among…