March 2017
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Against “secret” waitlists in PhD admissions
Philosopher Tim O'Keefe (Georgia State) writes: I’d like to speak up against having “secret” or “hidden” waitlists, as the practice has been described to me by applicants to graduate programs. (Those are their names for what’s going on.) Basically, programs accept, waitlist, and reject a bunch of applicants, but there is still a group of…
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Kipnis on “Unwanted Advances: Sexual Paranoia Comes to Campus”
The publisher kindly sent me a copy, which I've been reading and will have more to say about, since its main case study is the Ludlow affair at Northwestern, and its verdict on that case should be of interest to everyone in academic philosophy–on her telling, there are a lot of philosophy faculty and students who have…
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AAUP reports finds College of Aurora in Colorado fired philosophy instructor for failing to dumb down his class!
What an embarrassment for the College of Aurora. (Thanks to the AAUP for sending this report to me.)
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CEU in Budapest under threat of closure by Hungarian government
This is appalling, but Hungary is currently led by an authoritarian anti-semite. Among other things, CEU has a strong philosophy faculty among its many departments. ADDENDUM: More from CEU here about the proposed legislation.
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“Naturalism in Legal Philosophy” revised and updated at Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (SEP)
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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“Naturalism in Legal Philosophy” now revised and updated at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy…
..and also now co-authored with Max Etchemendy, our Law & Philosophy Fellow this year at Chicago.
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John Searle may be guilty of sexual harassment…
…and that, according to Jenny Saul (Sheffield), suggests that "[I]f you can avoid teaching/discussing [him], that may be the best strategy." This calls to mind that other remarkable endorsement of educational malpractice by James Sterba (Notre Dame), namely, that one should not teach Thomas Pogge because of his (unrelated) alleged misconduct. I am curious what readers make…
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Not John Searle’s first litigation
As a landlord, he brought suit concerning rent control laws in Berkeley.
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Who is paying the defense attorney fees for one of the accused in the Markel murder?
The state wants to know, the defense lawyers don't want to say. Anyone know how unusual such requests are and what the rules are in Florida governing disclosure?
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The profundity of Ayn Rand
Robert Paul Wolff comments.
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Reconciling materialism and dualism?
Philosopher John Heil (Wash U/St. Louis) comments.
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Summer blogging hiatus, revised
Back in early January, I announced an intention not to blog this summer. I heard from a lot of unhappy and/or concerned readers about this! This response from a philosopher elsewhere–whom I've never met (that I can recall), though I have admired her work for a long time, so it was especially nice to hear from…
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BU philosophy major teaches philosophy at shelter for homeless women
Interesting! (Thanks to Phil Gasper for the pointer.)
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Many thanks to last week’s guest-bloggers
Warm thanks to Darlene Deas, Barry Lam, and Christopher Pynes for their contributions last week. You can see their postings by clicking on their "Guest Blogger" link, below.
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In Memoriam: Marilyn McCord Adams (1943-2017)
MOVNG TO FRONT FROM MARCH 23 A distinguished philosopher of religion and scholar of medieval philosophy, Professor Adams taught for more than two decades at UCLA, and then over the last 20+ years at Yale University, Oxford University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and most recently, Rutgers University at New Brunswick. I will…
I never met Alan, sadly, but his work leading the charge in making philosophy of sex “a thing” in contemporary…