August 2015
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“Green Bullshit”…
…explained.
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Mindless web “journalists” stick together
Kevin Drum edition. Philosophers take note.
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Tuition discounting at private law schools? Up to nearly 50% from only 20% a decade ago…
…according to Loyola-Chicago Dean David Yellen.
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Virtual Dissertation Groups, Redux
Joshua Smart is organizing them again; he writes: While advisors and committees are important, it can be incredibly helpful to discuss one’s work with peers in a lower-stakes environment, and it can be particularly enlightening to do so with those who take a different approach or have a different focus. Not only that, but there…
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So much for trying to bring philosophy to the public
Torbjorn Tannsjo, Kristian Claëson Professor of Practical Philosophy at Stockholm University, asked me to share the following experience he recently had. Dylan Matthews, a philosophically-minded editor at Vox.com, solicited Professor Tannsjo to write a piece for Vox on the "repugnant conclusion." More precisely, Mr. Matthews wrote: I'm an editor for the US news site Vox.com, and…
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Couldn’t make it to the conference in honor of David Rosenthal in Taiwan?
You can see videos of all the talks here.
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Trump and Hitler
This guy actually watched Trump's entire speech in Alabama (read the description!), and observes: 1. Approximately half of the talk was devoted to narcissistic bluster. Whatever issue he addressed in passing, Trump would interrupt himself to talk about himself. (Surely the pompadour hairstyle is the appropriate one for so pompous a figure.) His solipsism would…
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“Bullying and harassment” at UBC
More on Canada's apparently most dysfunctional university. The culture of bullying clearly extends to the philosophy department, where Alan Richardson (the Chair of the Department at UBC and a longtime PGR hater, going back to 2002!) tried to bully colleagues, as we've since learned, into signing last fall's PGR boycott statement, until there was a backlash in the department–at which…
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“Against Charity”
Pitt philosophy grad student Mathew Snow takes on the "Effective Altruism" schtick. Lots of good stuff. (Thanks to Joel Pust for the pointer.)
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National Security Law Journal repudiates an article it published!
Here. (Those with somewhat longer memories may recall the author of the now repudiated piece as this fellow; more here.) ADDENDUM: A critique of William Bradford's article by Prof. Jeremy Rabkin (George Mason): When an article proposes to arrest law professors and bomb law schools and nearby TV studios, it’s not engaging in “controversy,” but slipping into…
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NYT’s David Brooks on North Carolina’s L.A. Paul
Who woulda thunk it? (Hint: he's not discussing her work on causation!)
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One out of ten people in London, Ontario belonged to Ashley Madison adultery site
Curious. No word yet on what percentage of University of Western Ontario faculty are members… ADDENDUM: A reader who asked not to be identified calls my attention to this interesting "philosophical" contribution to the understanding of the Ashley Madison hack.
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Sultan of the Texas Taliban, Ted Cruz, worried about atheists
We're comin' to get ya! UPDATE: Reader Larry Franz tells me this is a satirical website. Like much good satire, they hit close to the truth!
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Meet your new ruler: Google
Not good.
I’d like to pose a question. Let’s be pessimistic for the moment, and assume AI *does* destroy the university, at…