May 2018
-
The tragedy of student suicide
MOVING TO FRONT FROM YESTERDAY–UPDATED This bracing and tragic NYT story about a student at Hamilton College should be read by all college teachers. The awful situation in which those local know that a student is in distress but the parents do not results from student privacy laws that, quite mistakenly, treat teenagers (and those…
-
Turmoil at U of Southern California: 200 faculty call on President to step down…
…in the wake of sexual abuse and other scandals. (Do read the letter, it's quite strong.) I saw only three philosophy faculty among the signatories: Janet Levin, Edwin McCann and Gary Watson. (More law faculty signed, including one with a courtesy appointment in philosophy.) Philosophy, perhaps more than any other department at USC, has been…
-
‘On hate speech and feminist silencing’
Another interesting piece on our recent theme; an excerpt: Feminism, as a political movement aimed at the liberation of women, has long theorized gender not as an innate essence, but as a hierarchical system enforcing women’s subservience. Characterizing certain personality traits – compliance, nurturance, the desire to be pretty or objectified – as ‘natural’ to…
-
Conference in honor of Jerry Fodor at Rutgers…
…just last month. Videos of the talks are here.
-
Entry-level hiring report for 2017-18
We are indebted, as always, to Professor Sarah Lawsky (Northwestern) for compiling it yet again. A few striking data points: total rookie hires increased from 62 last year to 75 this year; I was expecting more like 80, but perhaps the small pool of candidates led some schools not to hire at the end of…
-
Confessions of an “arsehole”
This is funny; an excerpt: A few months into a cushy postdoctoral fellowship at Princeton, where the walls were a soothing yellow and poached salmon was a staple, it dawned on me that I could reasonably be considered an arsehole. This wasn’t the first time the thought had occurred to me: after all, I am…
-
Kitcher on Errol Morris and Thomas Kuhn
Philip Kitcher (Columbia) has a very useful review of the filmmaker's new book, a useful complement to this earlier post. (Thanks to Jerry Dworkin for the pointer.)
-
Kant on felony murder laws
Philosopher Zachary Hoskins (Nottingham) comments.
-
The disappearing anonymous and pseudonymous blogs
In recent months, the embarrassing "Stormfront for philosophers" blog ceased operations ("due to security concerns" it says at the URL for the site) and then the latest iteration of the metablog disappeared (I'm not sure when, but some time it appears in the last few weeks). Both blogs were marked by the expression of controversial…
-
Professor Stock responds to objections to her views about transgender women
Since I first linked to Professor Stock's essays last week, the various more timid philosophy blogs have picked up her articles as well, in many cases allowing comments (including abuse of Professor Stock–in keeping with the usual rules at these famously hypocritical blogs, abuse is always welcome when directed at people with "incorrect" views). Professor Stock…
-
Annals of twitter hypocrisy: the case of “condescension from below”
This past Saturday morning, I woke up early and had some time to kill, and so when I checked twitter, instead of blocking the usual jerks and knuckleheads there, I actually engaged some of them. Before I get into the delicious details of what ensued, a reminder about a long-standing meme here, the idea of…
-
Great moments in obscure rock ‘n’ roll: Budgie, “Guts,” 1971
e haven't featured the great Welsh heavy metal trio (who never made it in the U.S.) in quite some time; here's the lead track from their debut album: And as a bonus, below the fold, they perform in the studio their best-known number, "Breadfan":
-
The paradox of non-binary gender
Thanks to the important discussion initiated by philosopher Kathleen Stock (Sussex), people have been sharing with me interesting essays on issues related to gender and sexuality. Here's a particularly insightful piece from political philosopher Rebecca Reilly-Cooper; since the argument is complex, I post a longish excerpt from parts of the essay, but I recommend the…
-
“Neither cis nor TERF”
Another interesting essay by feminist theorist and journalism professor Robert Jensen (UT Austin). Noting that "cisgender" means "people whose internal sense of gender identity matches their biological sex," Professor Jensen explains why he is not at all cisgender: As a male human, [the culturally dominant] patriarchal conception of masculinity is not my “chosen” identity, nor do I believe…
“Though not outright proof on its face” is where the heuristics from the conversation would inform next steps. Plagiarism of…