April 2016
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Great moments in obscure rock ‘n’ roll: The Pretty Things, “S.F. Sorrow is born,” 1968
The British band The Pretty Things were a bit less obscure in the UK in the mid-1960s (remembered, if at all, for this "British invasion"-style single [think the Kinks circa 1964]), but by 1968 they'd turned into a progressive/psychedelic band, whose "rock opera" of which this is the memorable title song was, alas, a commercial flop. But…
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New Books in April
Authors and/or publishers kindly sent me these new books this month: Wondrous Truths: The Improbable Triumph of Modern Science by J.D. Trout (Oxford University Press, 2016). Aristotle, Metaphysics, translated with introduction & notes by C.D.C. Reeve (Hackett, 2016). Applicative Justice: A Pragmatic Empirical Approach to Racial Injustice by Naomi Zack (Rowman & Littlefield, 2016). Victims'…
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Can this book live up to its blurb?
Reader David Gordon sends along this gem of a dustjacket blurb: Theory of Identities is essential for those who work in Laruelle studies or whose work departs from the fundamental presuppositions of non-philosophy and non-standard philosophy. Indeed, this book constitutes the most illustrative proof that "non-philosophy is a synthesis of quantum theory and Marxism." It…
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Should professors give more feedback before the final exam? (Michael Simkovic)
New research from Dan Schwarcz and Dion Farganis at Minnesota argues that providing students with practice problems and exercises that are similar to final exams and giving individual feedback prior to the final examination can help improve grades for first year law students. Schwarcz and Farganis tracked the performance of first year students who were…
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Florida Atlantic University sued by fired tenured professor
Alas, the fired professor is a rather creepy piece of work, but his lawsuit clearly has merit. A state university can not fire a tenured professor for holding creepy views, and the justification given (failure to fill out some conflict of interest forms) is transparently pretextual. What the university should have done is initiated a…
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Best Anglophone political philosophers since 1945
MOVING TO FRONT FROM YESTERDAY Now that we've done the moral philosophers, here's the political philosophers. To be included, the political philosophers had to have done most of their important work after WWII and, for those who are still living, they have to be age 60 or older in 2016. I also tried to make…
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Philosophy professor at Gordon College sues institution for retaliating against her…
…after she protested its anti-gay bigotry.
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American Academy elections, 2012-2016, by institution
MOVING TO FRONT FROM YESTERDAY–UPDATED Following up on last week's post about the latest AAAS elections, I thought I'd take a look at the institutional affiliations of five years' worth of elections. A quick note about how the AAAS process works (I owe most of this to the late Ruth Marcus, perhaps things have changed…
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The typical career trajectory of a UK philosophy PhD
This is informative and, to the best of my knowledge, accurate, but if not, you can comment over there.
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Yale retains name of slaveholder and slavery apologist on one of its residential colleges
Wow. But "masters" of colleges will now be called "heads" of college, since the word "master" is, obviously, associated with slavery, while the name Calhoun…. (Earlier coverage.)
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Petition protesting Dickinson College’s termination without process of philosophy professor Crispin Sartwell
MOVING TO FRONT FROM YESTERDAY The petition is here. (Thanks to philosopher Joel Pust [Delaware] for organizing this.) The background statement hedges a bit more than is really necessary in my view, crediting claims by the college that are nonsensical and won't stand up in court. But the basic text of the statement is good…
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Donald Trump is so stupid that…
…he doesn't realize that every Administration has put "America first" when it comes to foreign policy.
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Penn, the new legal history powerhouse on the block
In recent years, Penn has emerged as a force to be reckoned with in the academic market for legal historians. Two recent Penn JD/PhDs in History, Karen Tani and Greg Ablavsky, have secured tenure-track jobs in the law schools at, respectively, Berkeley and Stanford. Another Penn PhD in History (with a Harvard JD), Anne Fleming,…
A remembered Dreyfus remark on the Maharishi: I recall hearing Dreyfus say in a recorded lecture, perhaps twenty-five years ago,…