July 2015
-
More on “Effective [sic] Altruism”: kid works at hedge fund…
…and gives money to charity and now feels good about himself. How much harm is he doing by working at the hedge fund? I guess that doesn't count. How much good would he and the hedge fund managers do if they gave all their money to Bernie Sanders? Can't be measured effectively, so doesn't count.
-
Rostron & Levit’s useful compilation of information about submitting to law reviews…
…has been updated again. They write: We just updated our charts about law journal submissions, expedites, and rankings from different sources for the Fall 2015 submission season covering the 204 main journals of each law school. A couple of the highlight from this round of revisions are: First, the chart now includes as much information…
-
Colorado Philosophy Dept. to get a Philosophy Prof. as Chair
A good development for a department that has been treated horribly by an insane Admin running scared of Title IX bureaucrats who are happy to destroy individuals. I hope Prof. Boonin will have the courage to speak out about the outrageous Colorado Administration.
-
On neoliberalism and behavioral economics
Another smart piece from the Boston Review.
-
The power of an endorsement
I first began tweeting my support of Donald Trump for the Republican nomination a few days ago and now the latest poll shows that Trump has surged to the head of the Republican pack. Well done philosophers! UPDATE: Reader Howard Berman writes: "You know of course, if Trump actually gets elected, he’ll redo the Whitehouse into the Taj Mahal…
-
Visiting faculty at the top six law schools, 2015-16, 4th & Penultimate draft
MOVING TO FRONT: YALE LIST IS NOW, I THINK, COMPLETE–PLEASE NOTIFY ME OF ANY REMAINING ERRORS As I've done in the past, I'm posting a list of the visiting professors (who hold university appointments elsewhere) at the top six law schools, the schools that are "top six" by almost all measures of faculty quality–which are…
-
A debate about “Effective [sic] Altruism” from the Oxford Left Review in 2012
I agree with most of what Pete Mills writes here (scroll to page 4); some excerpts (sorry about the font problems): In practice…80,000 Hours has one dominant answer to the problems of the worst-off: in most cases, it turns out the right thing to do will be to embark on a high-paying career, get rich, and donate some…
-
I support Donald Trump for the Republican Presidential Nomination
Demand for my endorsement has come earlier than usual, but since so much is at stake, I feel I should speak out now: Trump is clearly the most qualified of the Republican Presidential candidates, in terms of intelligence, good judgment, and accomplishments. I give him my unqualified support for the Republican nomination. Please join me.…
-
Those who watch FOX news know less about current events than those who watch no news sources
We're doomed. (Thanks to Michael Swanson for the pointer.)
-
Denise Lunsford, the county prosectuor in Charlottesville, VA, is a disgrace
Unbelievable. The UVA Law School should set up a clinic devoted to monitoring this menace to the justice system.
-
How can we affect public support for public higher education?
A philosopher in the University of Wisconsin sytem writes: I'm writing to ask if you'd be willing to host a thread focused specifically on the question about strategy, raised by harry b in a comment on The Republican war on public higher education: it's now the law in Wisconsin, concerning "what we [who want to…
-
The “Effective Altruism” (EA) schtick is all about the “effective” not the altruism
And so defenses like this are silly. Who, besides Ayn Rand, isn't in favor of improving the well-being of others? The problem has to do with the way the EA folks interpret "effective," which guarantees that it will be both ineffective and very appealing to the capitalist media, which loves moral self-congratulation that is utterly…
-
More on “Effective [sic] Altruism”…
…again at Boston Review; an excerpt, but do read the whole thing, especially if you're on the verge of falling for the "effective altruism" sales pitch: [R]andomized controlled trial (RCT) field experiments…are designed to make the complex social world as much like a scientific laboratory as possible in order to isolate the effect of a…
-
Three philosophers elected to British Academy
They are: Andy Clark (Edinburgh), Jonardon Ganeri (SOAS, London) and, as a Corresponding Fellow, Christine Korsgaard (Harvard).
-
Stapleton elected to British Academy
Jane Stapleton, a distinguished torts scholar at the University of Texas School of Law (and previously at the ANU), has been elected a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy.
“Freedom’s just another word for Je est un autre.”