July 2017
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Focus group of California lawyers defends tight restrictions on entry into the legal profession (Michael Simkovic)
California is an extreme outlier in the extent to which it restricts entry into the legal profession compared to other U.S. jurisdictions. Two examples of this include an unusually high minimum cut score on the bar exam and a refusal without exception to permit experienced licensed attorneys from other jurisdictions to be admitted without re-examination. California…
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New Books in July
Authors and/or publishers kindly sent me these new books this month: America in Italy: The United States in the Political Thought and Imagination of the Risorgimento, 1763-1865 by Axel Korner (Princeton University Press, 2017). Pragmatism and Justice edited by Susan Dieleman, David Rondel & Christopher J. Voparil (Oxford University Press, 2017). Minds Without Fear: Philosophy…
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“Teaching Philosophy Outside the University” by Preston Stovall
Preston Stovall is a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Hradec Králové in the Czech Republic, an adjunct instructor at the University of Nevada and La Roche College, and an education researcher with Studium Consulting. He kindly shared with me this interesting piece about his teaching experiences, which I suspect will interest others (especially as it…
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“Chicago Carnage” from the Rebel Pundit
This is bracing, and makes a couple of good points: UPDATE: Philosopher John Casey (Northeastern Illinois) points out to me that "Rebel Pundit" is a front organization for a Breitbart wacko named Jeremy Segal, whose purpose is obviously to suppress African-American voting. Unlike most of the Breitbart crew, this guy isn't that stupid, since he…
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Lateral hires with tenure or on tenure-track, 2016-17
MOVING TO FRONT FOR THE LAST TIME–ORIGINALLY POSTED AUGUST 1, 2016 These are non-clinical appointments that will take effect in 2017 (except where noted); I will move the list to the front at various intervals as new additions come in. (Recent additions are in bold.) Last year's list is here. *Aviva Abramovsky (commercial law, insurance law, financial…
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The fractured executive
Amusingly apt comments from legal scholar Jack Goldsmith (Harvard): The fractured executive branch is partly a result of terrible executive organization but mainly the product of an incompetent, mendacious president interacting with appointed or inherited executive branch officials who possess integrity. The President says and does things that his senior officials, when asked, cannot abide.…
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More than scholarly “carelessness”?
A propos last Thursday's post, a PhD student in another discipline writes: [Y]ou have rightly indicated that a cursory reading of the "unpublished manuscript" should make clear that its author is not Soble. But independent of this — I am not a philosopher, but is it not highly irregular to attribute a weak position to…
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Evergreen State Professor to sue college…
…over his treatment. I don't know enough about Washington law to know what his prospects are.
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Great rock ‘n’ roll instrumentals (#3 & #4): John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers (with Eric Clapton), “Steppin’ Out” (1966) and “Hideaway” (1966)
Continuing our series of great rock 'n' roll instrumentals, now that we're into the "electric" ones, the fourth and third spots go to John Mayall's Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton on lead guitar. First, "Steppin' Out," and, of course, "Hideaway":
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Brennan from Western Ontario to Guelph
Samantha Brennan (moral & political philosophy, feminist philosophy), Professor of Philosophy and Women's Studies at the University of Western Ontario, will become Dean of the College of Arts and Professor of Philosophy at the University of Guelph, effective January 2018.
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The best hope for humanity is that Trump is as incompetent at governing as he was in the real estate business…
…but now he's given us the ultimate gift of the foul-mouthed New Yorker Scaramucci (God bless him): Scaramucci also told me that, unlike other senior officials, he had no interest in media attention. “I’m not Steve Bannon, I’m not trying to suck my own cock,” he said, speaking of Trump’s chief strategist. “I’m not trying…
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Top 10 Anglophone PhD programs for 19th-century Continental philosophy according to an Internet Condorcet poll
Not quite 110 votes on this more specialized survey, results are again not crazy, though it's clear strength in Nietzsche and Schopenhauer, for example, counts for less than strength in Hegel and German Idealism typically (which, of course, stands the reality of respective insight on its head!). I've listed the relevant faculty in parentheses at each school:
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In Memoriam: Timothy Hall (1969-2017)
I am very sorry to report that the philosopher Tim Hall, who earned his PhD from UCLA and taught at Oberlin since 2000 where he was a tenured professor, has died in an apparent suicide. There is a memorial notice from the Oberlin Philosophy Department here. (Thanks to Glenn Branch for the pointer.)
Sorry to keep beating a dead horse, but something just occurred to me that I haven’t seen anyone discuss. Why…