March 2018
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Great Obscure Rock ‘n’ Roll Albums: Leaf Hound, “Growers of Mushroom,” 1971
In the annals of great unrecognized rock classics, none is greater than Leaf Hound's one and only 1971 album, which, happily, has found a new audience in recent years. This is a gem from start to finish for fans of the hard rock/blues genre that Led Zeppelin made most famous:
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New Books in March
Authors and/or publishers kindly sent me these new books this month: Debating Humanitarian Intervention: Should We Try to Save Strangers? by Fernando R. Teson & Bas van der Vossen (Oxford University Press, 2017). Speak Freely: Why Universities Must Defend Free Speech by Keith Whittington (Princeton University Press, 2018). The Nietzschean Mind edited by Paul Katsafanas…
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Philosophy is good for capitalism…
…so it must have value after all (an on-going series). (Thanks to Courtney Cox for the pointer.)
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On ‘celebrity’ scientists
Philosopher Philip Kitcher (Columbia) comments.
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In Memoriam: Moishe Postone (1942-2018)
The distinguished Marxist historian and social theorist, whose work is of great significance for philosophers interested in Marx as well, has died. I will add links to other memorial notices as they appear.
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Julia Kristeva, collaborator with the Bulgarian secret police in 1971
Curious. My opinion of Kristeva is already so low I'm not sure this moves the dial much, though it certainly introduces another kind of consideration–beyond the one Jon Elster adduced–for thinking poorly of her: "rubbish" work plus collaboration with fascists. (Thanks to several readers for passing this on.) UPDATE: Kristeva denies the allegations (about working with…
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Philosophical Gourmet Report in the real world
LSE for example.
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Repeal the Second Amendment, says retired Justice Stevens
A good idea. It's an anomaly among world constitutions and a relic of the past. I've no doubt people would still be able to own hunting rifles and, in some parts of the country, handguns, but civilized gun control measures would be easy without endless court battles over a fraudulent interpretation of the constitution.
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Is Philosophy & Public Affairs really the “Oxford-Princeton-Harvard Nepotistic Journal of Reasonableness Studies”?
Someone, who definitely did not want credit, just e-mailed me this, which he said is making the rounds on Facebook. Let's hope Prof. Satz changes things so much that even that joke won't get traction anymore.
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Amy Wax on the radio…
…at least until she got cornered by the (very polite) questioner. Of course, Prof. Wax's comments attempted to violate the confidentiality of African-American students at her school, who, like all students, are entitled not to have their academic performance broadcast to the world by a faculty member.
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PGR haters seem more unhinged this time around
I assume it's because the fake 2014 controversy failed to derail the PGR as intended: not only did the 2014 PGR appear, the 2017 PGR has appeared, and with even higher rates of participation (and Wiley-Blackwell has even contracted for two more iterations over the next six or seven years). So this is obviously frustrating…
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Web of Science’s “global reputation” surveys
These are much better done than the Quirky Silliness rankings, though not as detailed in the published results (there is on separate philosophy listing). See also the discussion of the University of Tokyo, which highlights the perils of world reputation surveys.
Giovanni Molteni Tagliabue (Italy) Rationalized and Extended Democracy – The REDemo Project. Foreword by Gilberto Corbellini. Firenze University Press 2023.…