November 2013
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Religious exemptions to the law
A short opinion piece at the new Al Jazeera America site, drawing on some themes from my book.
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Religious exemptions to the law
A short opinion piece at the new Al Jazeera America site, drawing on some themes from my book.
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Famous philosophical, mathematical, and scientific ideas…
…in 60 seconds. (Thanks to David Livingstone Smith for the pointer.)
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Ludlow from Northwestern to Rutgers
Peter Ludlow (philosophy of language, mind, cognitive science, & linguistics), Professor of Philosophy at Northwestern University, has accepted a senior offer from the Department of Philosophy at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, where he will also have an appointment in and serve as Director of the Rutgers Center for Cognitive Science. (No word on whether his avatar…
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The FBI files on Sartre and Camus
Your secret police at work.
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More on the dental school analogy…
…from the WSJ law blog, including an interesting little quiz. UPDATE: A colleague elsewhere writes, regarding some of the earlier quotes about dental schools in the WSJ item: Of course, none of the quotes were: “Dentals schools are just trying to steal money from their students” “Dental professors are useless and lack any relevance in…
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In Memoriam: Edward McClennen (1936-2013)
MOVING TO THE FRONT FROM NOVEMBER 7–UPDATED He was Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at Syracuse University at the time of his death, and had also taught at Washington University in St. Louis, Bowling Green State University and the London School of Economics at various points in his career. He was well-known for his work on the…
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Dretske’s Last Interview (February 2013)
Mikkel Gerken kindly called to my attention this interview with Fred Dretske that was conducted by the students, named below, for an undergraduate philosophy publication, Tanken, at the University of Copenhagen; the students kindly gave permission to publish the interview. Interview with Fred Dretske By Tanja Tofte Bøndergaard and Linda Fønss Duke campus is beautiful and, to a newcomer, seems…
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Anonymity and cyber-harassment
Professor Leong makes several good points, on themes we've touched on before. (Link now fixed.) UDPATE: This is worth quoting in particular: [T]he various anonymous comments about me have no purpose other than to harass and no content other than racially and sexually demeaning language. And the reason they’re anonymous is obvious. The commenters want…
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More on the humanities
Speaking of the importance of the humanities, this program features, among others, philosopher Debra Satz from Stanford, where 45% of the faculty are in the humanities, but only 18% of undergraduates are humanities majors. (Thanks to Dirk Felleman for the pointer.)
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“The Truth is Terrible” at Davidson
The video of the Epes Distinguished Lecture in the Humanities, including a few remarks in praise of the humanities.
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Terminal vs. non-terminal MA Programs
The PGR recommends a number of terminal MA programs with strong faculties (as an important sidenote: financial aid varies quite a bit among these programs, and does not correlate at all with the relative strength of the faculties–in general, I would advise students *not* to take out loans to earn an MA in philosophy). Often…
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Chomsky should read more Foucault…
…since he doesn't seem aware that Foucault's skepticism is directed at the human sciences, not the natural sciences, which he tends to view much as a logical positivist would! See my discussion here, esp. pp. 4-5 (and the footnotes).
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The Dental School Analogy
Dean Gershon (Mississippi) calls our attention to the mid-80s crisis in dental education, in which some of the schools that closed were at major private research universities. (For more on dental school closings, see also this article.) Dean Gershon writes: What is interesting is that among the universities choosing to shut down their dental programs…
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“Death of an adjunct,” revisited
A more detailed story about the former adjunct French professor at Dusquesne, whose death generated substantial national attention. As one might have suspected, the story had more complexities than the original report suggested, though the complexities make it more, not less, tragic. One thing not in dispute: Dusquesne has resisted efforts by its adjunct faculty…
Georgy Maksimovich pointed me to this article in Russian: https://novayagazeta.ru/articles/2026/05/25/antisovetskie-filosofskie-kontratseptsii