July 2018
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Shocking brief filed by UT Austin regarding “academic freedom”
Three faculty at UT Austin sued the state and the university over the law permitting licensed gun owners to carry guns on campus, including in classrooms; they asserted, among other things, that this law violated their academic freedom. A lower court dismissed their academic freedom claim (correctly, in my view–the campus carry law is barbaric…
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What is it like to be(come) a philosopher: Joel Sati edition
Here. (Mr. Sati is a PhD student, although not in philosophy, with an extremely interesting life trajectory.)
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Advertising update
The top spots for September and October are all booked, though there's at least one 2nd-from-the-top spot still available each of those months. There's also one top spot still available in each of November and December. With the academic year commencing, rates go back to normal ($600 for a top spot, $500 for a 2nd…
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Is time an illusion?
Philosophers Alison Fernandes (Warwick) and Huw Price (Cambridge) discuss with a physicist.
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Rostron & Levit update their guide to law review submissions
Professor Levit asked me to share this, which I'm happy to do: Dear Colleagues, We just updated our charts about law journal submissions, expedites, and rankings from different sources for the Fall 2018 submission season covering the 202 main journals of each law school. For this round of revisions, we created hyperlinks for each law…
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Great moments at the foundations of rock ‘n’ roll: Blind Willie McTell, “You Was Born to Die,” 1933
McTell (1898-1959) was a prolific performer and recording artist through the 1940s, though never had big "hits" of his own, though he became well-known enough to inspire a song by Bob Dylan. Here's a lesser-known number from 1933 (lesser-known compared to his famous "Statesboro Blues"), one which, I suspect, Keith Richards studied carefully:
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Northwestern Lecturer Mark A. Cohen’s Angry Outburst on Twitter (Michael Simkovic)
I recently pointed out some factual problems with claims by Northwestern lecturer Mark A. Cohen. Cohen, writing in Forbes, claimed that faculty terminations at Vermont Law School were proof that student debt was unsustainable, not only at Vermont, but at all law schools except for a handful of elite institutions. Here’s the problem: When student…
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In Memoriam: Robert Coburn (1930-2018)
Emeritus at the University of Washington in Seattle, where he had taught since 1971, Professor Coburn also taught philosophy for eleven years at the University of Chicago. He worked on a variety of topics in metaphysics, epistemology, and philosophy of religion over his long career. I will add links to memorial notices as they appear.
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University of Illinois, Chicago Board approves acquisition of John Marshall Law School in Chicago (UPDATED)
A big moment for the legal education landscape in Chicago if this goes through and if the new UIC John Marshall Law School offers state resident tuition discounting comparable to that at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. While Urbana-Champaign won't be much affected, there will be considerable pressure on the private law schools in Chicago,…
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Berkeley’s Hans Sluga has a blog!
Mostly on topics in and around political philosophy, broadly (which is appropriate) construed.
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Four philosophers elected to the British Academy
They are: Samir Okasha (Bristol), Ian Rumfitt (Oxford), Victor Tadros (Law, Warwick) and, as a Corresponding Fellow, Robert Brandom (Pittsburgh). Other Corresponding Fellows who work in cognate fields to philosophy elected this year include Seyla Benhabib (Yale) and Barbara Partee (U Mass/Amherst emerita).
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What do you consider the most pressing issues confronting the academic profession of philosophy in the U.S. currently?
MOVING TO FRONT FROM YESTERDAY–ALMOST 600 VOTES ALREADY, MORE WELCOME A new poll. I'll post results and open it for discussion next week. No doubt I omitted some issues others might have included; readers can note other issues in the discussion next week.
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Which law schools could merge? (Michael Simkovic)
There are economies of size in legal education. Larger law schools can support a more highly specialized faculty, offer students a wider range of course offerings, amortize fixed costs over a larger number of students, and negotiate better terms with their vendors. As some law schools have shrunk to below efficient scale, mergers may offer…
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Thalos from Utah to Tennessee
Mariam Thalos (philosophy of science), formerly Professor at the University of Utah, is now Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and the new Head of Department at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, effective this month.
Everything you say is true, but what is the alternative? I don’t think people are advocating a return to in-class…