October 2016
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In Memoriam: Tomis Kapitan (1949-2016)
Professor David Buller (Northern Illinois) asked me to share this memorial notice: Tomis Kapitan, Distinguished Teaching Professor Emeritus at Northern Illinois University, passed away October 12 in London, where he had been living since his retirement in 2014. He was 66. Professor Kapitan was a member of the Philosophy Department at NIU for 23 years,…
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Kamtekar from Arizona to Cornell
Rachana Kamtekar (ancient philosophy, ethics), Professor of Philosophy at the University of Arizona, has accepted a senior offer from the Department of Philosophy at Cornell University (effective 2017-18), where she will join Tad Brennan and Charles Brittain in continuing Cornell's strong tradition in ancient philosophy. (Gail Fine officially retires from Cornell at the end of…
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Colin Kaepernick in the Philosophy Classroom…
Colin Kaepernick is a multi-millionaire, NFL quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers. He recently made headlines by refusing to stand for the U.S. National Anthem before the start of NFL games. Lot of people have impassioned opinions on the acceptability of his refusal to stand, even a Supreme Court Justice, who eventually apologized for the…
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Ayn Rand and Public Schools in Chicago…
Readers my find this story about Chicago Public School CEO, Forrest Claypool, interesting. It's just another example of the consequences of Ayn Rand fundamentalism.
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You Can’t Just Talk to Each Other
I know some philosophers find telling laypeople that they are philosophers or explaining what philosophy is tiring. On the other hand, some philosophers give a veritable conference paper to the simple question, “What do you do?”
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Even though the malevolent narcissist Trump is going to lose the election in a few weeks…
…we won't be done with him, since he's psychologically incapable of losing gracefully, and will without a doubt do his best to incite violence and disruption after the election. My prediction, however, is that once he has officially lost, Republican leaders will move quickly to repudiate and discredit him in full. One fortunate aspect of…
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Reflections on my APA Committee Service
From the fall of 2012 to the spring of 2015, I was a member of the APA’s Status and Future of the Profession Committee. I wrote in a comment to this post that my service was both rewarding and informative. Like all standing committees of the APA, the Status and Future of the Profession Committee…
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On kinds of charisma…and Dopey Donald Chump
This is an interesting essay by sociologist Randall Collins (Penn), though I'm not sure I find the application to Trump that persuasive. (Thanks to Howard Berman for the pointer.)
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Deep Cuts in Indie Music
Okay, so it's not great moments in obscure rock n' roll, but it might get you through until Leiter's next installment. Josh Ritter's "Idaho," 2006 (The Animal Years)
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A Case of Class Over Curriculum? (Philosophy and the LSAT)
Philosophers often use LSAT data as a marketing tool to convince students who want to go to law school that they should major in philosophy. But how do we really know studying philosophy is the key to higher scores? Are the high scores really the result of studying philosophy or is there some other cause?…
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Yale Philosopher Wins Nobel Prize in Literature?!
Oh, wait. It's Bob Dylan. See what prescient Bill Wyman had to say about Bob Dylan and the Nobel prize in 2013. I don't happen to agree, but he makes a pretty decent case. You can see how Dylan stacks up to past winners here.
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Best PhD Programs for Philosophy of Law for 2016-17
Following up on this post, and once again taking account of faculty changes since the fall 2014 PGR, here's an attempted update of the top (3.5 or higher) programs for Philosophy of Law for 2016-17, again by rough "clusters" of peer programs: Group 1 (1) Oxford University Group 2 (2-5) New York University University of California,…
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Philosophy Accreditation Redux
Last October, I wrote about accreditation as a way to create support for philosophy at colleges and universities. It generated some good comments, but I wanted to reiterate my support for philosophy accreditation. After the post, I received a supportive email from a philosopher who had recently entered into an academic leadership position. With permission, here…
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Not much new until next week…
…travel and conferences on the horizon!
“Freedom’s just another word for Je est un autre.”