January 2019
-
Job ad specifies candidate sought for the position
A job seeker (not the one named in the ad) calls this funny ad to my attention: PLS, Visiting Assistant Special Professional, Bugyis, Eric-Preferred Candidate Institution: University of Notre Dame Location: Notre Dame, IN Category: Faculty – Liberal Arts – Philosophy Faculty – Liberal Arts – Religious Studies and Theology Posted: 01/14/2019…
-
Making decisions…
…in The New Yorker, discussing the views of philosophers Agnes Callard (Chicago) and Laurie Paul (Yale), among others.
-
Jeff McMahan (Oxford) on “no-platforming”
This is timely; it appears in a new philosophy series at The New Statesman run by Aaron Wendland.
-
Philosopher Bence Nanay (Antwerp) discusses “The Fractured Mind”…
…at the recent HowtheLightGetsIn conference.
-
Oxford political theorist Sophie Smith on the Finnis case
Although she comes down on the right side of the question, she too manages to muddy the core academic freedom issue–you can't punish faculty for the offensiveness of their published research, full stop. But I'm sympathetic with some of her frustration at the responses by other legal philosophers. I don't think she or anyone needs…
-
Virtual Dissertation Groups, once again
Joshua Smart (Ohio State) asked me to share this announcement, which I'm happy to do: Virtual Dissertation Groups VDG is a free service that connects graduate students to provide feedback on dissertation work. Members are grouped with two others working in the same general area of philosophy. About once a month, one member sends some…
-
The situation for women in economics
It sounds worse than in philosophy (where things, at least, have gotten better in the last decade).
-
Blog traffic and the rise and fall of blogs
I see a lot of references, both in cyberspace and sometimes in traditional media, to the decline of interest in blogs. This is attributed to two main factors: the current popularity of Twitter and the growth of Facebook, which many users treat as de facto blogs. Certainly in philosophy, relatively few blogs have survived the…
-
In Memoriam: David W. Robertson (1937-2018)
It has only just come to my attention that my former colleague and longtime faculty member at the University of Texas School of Law, David W. Robertson, passed away at the end of last year. A leading authority on admiralty law–his 1970 Admiralty and Federalism is widely cited by the courts, including the U.S. Supreme…
-
A list of Trump’s made-up conversations he never had
It's quite a list, although I don't find it unsettling, since it is of a piece with his pathological lying about everything.
-
Philosopher Alex Byrne (MIT) on the idea of “gender identity”
MOVING TO FRONT FROM MORNING OF JANUARY 11, IN CASE PEOPLE MISSED IT Since he picks it apart pretty thoroughly, he will no doubt be added to the list of wrong-thinking villains like Kathleen Stock, Leslie Green, and mild-mannered me. Fortunately, since those who keep lists of wrong-thinking villains are increasingly the objects of the…
-
Great moments in obscure rock ‘n’ roll: Sir Lord Baltimore, “Hard Rain Fallin’,” 1970
Brooklyn-based proto heavy metal band, this song comes from their debut album, which just barely cracked the Billboard top 200.
-
Nihilistic password security questions
These are very funny; a sampling: What is the name of your least favorite child? In what year did you abandon your dreams? At what age did your childhood pet run away? In what city did you first experience ennui? What sports team do you fetishize to avoid meaningful discussion with others? On what street…
-
Poetry from the past: “Recidivism”
Back in 2011. A reader kindly called this to my attention as a poem he particularly liked. My father was 78 when he wrote that poem, and will turn 86 next week.
-
The Democratic challengers to the monster-child, an update
As everyone knows, Senator Elizabeth Warren has declared, and now Representative Tulsi Gabbard. I'd vote for either, and am happy they are in the game. But since presidential elections are now heavily influenced by the garbage media (e.g., Fox) and the brainless Internet, the real question is who will manage this environment the best? And,…
Georgy Maksimovich pointed me to this article in Russian: https://novayagazeta.ru/articles/2026/05/25/antisovetskie-filosofskie-kontratseptsii