Leiter Reports: A Philosophy Blog

News and views about philosophy, the academic profession, academic freedom, intellectual culture, and other topics. The world’s most popular philosophy blog, since 2003.

  1. Jane Byford's avatar
  2. Allen Hazen's avatar

    I taught in the philosophy department (“mental and moral sciences – philosophy”) at TCD in 1977-1979, and so had David…

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  5. Dan Dennis's avatar

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/07/30/why-ai-companies-are-destroying-millions-of-old-books/ ‘the latest extraordinary attempt by Silicon Valley to boost the power of its AI machines. De Vries soon discovered…

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March 2017

  • PhD Programs behaving badly! (MOVING TO FRONT FROM EARLIER TODAY–UPDATED)

    A major North American PhD program is pressuring a student to accept by this Friday (today)–in violation of (sensible) APA rules–in order to get a particularly good scholarship.  I know this because another major North American PhD program is interested in the same student, and alerted me to the misconduct  I will not name names just yet,…

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  • New Books in March

    Authors and/or publishers kindly sent me these new books this month: Philosophy, Law and the Family:  A New Introduction to the Philosophy of Law by Laurence D. Houlgate (Springer, 2017). Vagueness and Law:  Philosophical and Legal Perspectives edited by Geert Keil & Ralf Poscher (Oxford University Press, 2016). Aristotle, Politics, a new translation with introduction…

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  • PGR, 2016-17

    I've noticed a lot of traffic to the attempted updates of the PGR, no doubt because decision time is looming.  Here again is the post that includes all the relevant links. 

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  • Best Anglophone philosophers since 1957?

    470 votes were cast, and here's the top ten: 1. W.V.O. Quine  (Condorcet winner: wins contests with all other choices) 2. Saul Kripke  loses to W.V.O. Quine by 166–163 3. David K. Lewis  loses to W.V.O. Quine by 170–139, loses to Saul Kripke by 181–130 4. John Rawls  loses to W.V.O. Quine by 181–125, loses to David K. Lewis…

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  • Two philosophers win ACLS Fellowships in 2017 competition

    They are:  Lydia Moland (Colby) and Tad Schmaltz (Michigan).

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  • “Attack of the Offendotrons”

    This is funny and all too apt–it's not just a phenomenon of academic philosophy, of course, but it's pathetic that despite the pretense of so many members of this profession, the exact same thing happens here.  "Human, all-too-human" as a certain German philosopher observed.

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  • “Justifying Academic Freedom: Mill and Marcuse Revisited”

    A new draft paper that may be of interest to some readers; the abstract: I argue that the core of genuinely academic freedom ought to be freedom in research and teaching, subject to disciplinary standards of expertise. I discuss the law in the United States, Germany, and England, and express doubts about the American view that…

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  • In Memoriam: Richard Tieszen (1951-2017)

    Well-known for his work in philosophy of logic and mathematics, in both the analytic and phenomenological traditions, he was at the time of his death Professor of Philosophy at San Jose State University in California.  I will add links to memorial notices as they appear. (Thanks to Charles Carlini for the information.) UPDATE:   Philosopher Charles…

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  • Smear merchants at “Campus Watch” object to being correctly described

    This is rather funny.  In my "Academic Ethics" column last week for CHE, I wrote: The Daily Caller, The Washington Times, Campus Watch, The College Fix, Breitbart, and College Insurrection, among others, devote themselves with some regularity to policing faculty speech, and then presenting it — sometimes accurately, mostly inaccurately — in order to inflame…

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  • Trump and the Dunning-Kruger Effect…

    …with a surprise appearance by philosopher Steven Nadler (Wisconsin)! (Thanks to John Doris for the pointer.) UPDATE:  Steve Nadler writes with a useful bit of context: Thanks for the notice about the Times OpEd piece.  However, just to clarify, lest I come across as a poseur: I did not present myself as a “foreign policy…

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  • Heuer from Leeds to UCL

    Ulrike Heuer (ethics, practical reason, philosophy of action), Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Leeds, has accepted an offer to become Reader in Philosophy at University College London, starting this September. (Thanks to Jose Zalabardo for the information.)

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  • Should we aim for self-discovery?

    Philosopher David Chalmers and others discuss.

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  • Battaly from Cal State/Fullerton to U Conn

    Heather Battaly (epistemology, ethics, virtue theory), Professor of Philosophy at California State University, Fullerton, has accepted a senior offer from the Department of Philosophy at the University of Connecticut, Storrs.

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  • Best Anglophone philosophers of the past sixty years?

    MOVING TO FRONT FROM YESTERDAY–I'LL LET THIS RUN ABOUT ANOTHER DAY OR SO, AND POST RESULTS BY FRIDAY We haven't had a poll in awhile, so here's a new one.  74 choices (you don't have to rank them all!), across all fields.  Only those philosophers over 70 in 2017 or no longer living are included.  …

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