January 2016
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From bad to worse in Turkey
A philosophy professor will be put on trial. Note that under Turkish law, insulting the President is an actionable offense. It is the law, and not necessarily its application in this instance, that is rotten. UPDATE: A philosopher in Turkey writes: "I think it might be worth pointing out that Orsan is an important part of Turkish…
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Philippa Foot once wondered whether anyone knew what a “reason for acting” was…
…but as philosopher Samuel Asarnow (Macalester) notes, pop songwriters seem to!
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The latest on the battle over tenure in the University of Wisconsin System
MOVING TO FRONT FROM YESTERDAY–MORE INFO FROM PROF. WHITE IN COMMENTS, PLUS OTHER COMMENTS/SUGGESTIONS–MORE DISCUSSION WELCOME Philosopher Alan White (Wisconsin/Manitowoc) has been involve throughout in the process of revising the Regental rules on tenure after the assault on tenure by Governor Walker and his Republican allies in the legislature. The current proposed polices can be…
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On slippery slopes
A sensible statement by the chair of Amherst College's Board of Trustees, in the wake of the decision to rename the school's controversial mascot: A statement issued by Cullen Murphy, chair of the college's board, said that while the college would prefer that people not use the Lord Jeff nickname or mascot, the college will…
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UT Austin faculty member and Nobel Laureate Steven Weinberg will not permit guns in his classes
Good for him. Undoubtedly this will be challenged in court, since the gun crazies have many lawyers at their disposal. But civil disobedience is the right posture, and Weinberg can afford to do it, literally and symbolically. (He and his wife, who is a law professor at UT Austin, earn over $800,000/year; they are also…
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Enrollment/application trends at the top law schools
Via Bloomberg News: some of the changes are just noise, but certainly enrollment declines in the 20-30% range are not!
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APA Endorses Statement protesting Turkish persecution of academics
News release here. I'm glad to see the APA join the other professional organizations that have spoken out about this, especially since a dozen or more philosophy faculty (including, as I understand it, some APA members) have been targeted in this campaign. UPDATE: Unfortunately, the statement by APA Board Chair Cheshire Calhoun (Arizona State) is not…
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Virtual Dissertation Groups, again
Joshua Smart writes that another round is starting: 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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10 years of the “Routledge Philosophers” series
As the second ad from the top on the right sidebar notes, to celebrate ten years of books in the series, Routledge is offering a 10% discount on all volumes (code RPS15). Steven Fesmire's Dewey was recently named a Choice outstanding academic title for 2015. Other recent volumes have included Kenneth Baynes on Habermas, Albert Atkin on…
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“The Open Syllabus Project”
This is fun and maybe even useful; there's an explanation here. (Thanks to Walter Effross for the pointer.)
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The latest “shame” fest in philosophy cyberspace
It starts here, and continues here, and receives scathing commentary here. For the life of me, I can't even figure out what the purportedly offending passage even means: its English is barely intelligible. Synthese should be embarrassed to have published this on the latter ground alone. What do readers think of all this?
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Duke Dean and former federal judge David Levi elected new President of the American Law Institute
Duke's announcement is here.
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German Societies for Philosophy and for Analytic Philosophy issue public statement protesting Turkish persecution of academics for their political speech
The joint statement, delivered to the Turkish Embassy in Germany, is here: Download Erklärung der DGPhil und GAP zum Vorgehen der Türkei gegen Hochschullehrer
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Corey Robin on Sanders and Clinton
Lots of sensible stuff here, and much of it amusing too. Krugman's anti-Sanders commentary, in particular, is a disgrace; the awfulness of Bush redeemed Krugman, but in the beginning he was a tiresome apologist for the status quo, and he's come back home to his true calling now that the 36th year of Ronald Reagan's Presidency may…
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With empirical work the fashion of the moment in the legal academy…
…I'm curious what folks have to say about the eminent psychologist Richard Nisbett's take on multiple regression analysis: I hope that in the future, if I’m successful in communicating with people about this, that there’ll be a kind of upfront warning in New York Times articles: These data are based on multiple regression analysis. This…
All about class.