May 2019
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New Books in May
Authors and/or publishers kindly sent me these new books this month: Emancipation after Hegel: Achieving a Contradictory Revolution by Todd McGowan (Columbia University Press, 2019). Against Nature by Lorraine Daston (MIT Press, 2019). A Critical Introduction to the Philosophy of Language: Central Themes from Locke to Wittgenstein by John Fennell (Routledge, 2019). The Routledge Handbook…
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Yet another anonymous attack on Kathleen Stock (Sussex)…
…by someone claiming to be a philosophy graduate student. Maybe she is, and maybe she is leaving because she can't abide people having verboten thoughts and beliefs, and expressing them. But we don't know, do we? (If she's really a grad student leaving the profession for the reasons stated–and not for other reasons–why not sign…
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How to cite Hobbes: the debate continues
Round 1 (from S.A. Lloyd [USC]and A.P. Martinich [Texas]); round 2 (responses to Lloyd and Martinich, including from Noel Malcolm, editor of the new OUP edition); and now round 3: a response from Professor Lloyd, which she asked me to share: Download Lloyd reply re Hobbes edition. I'm an outsider to Hobbes studies, but I…
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Philosopher elected to the European Parliament
Several readers have pointed out that a philosopher, Catherine Rowett (East Anglia) was among those elected to the European Parliament in the recent elections–she ran as a Green MP. As classicist Benjamin Harriman (Edinburgh) wrote: "She is a specialist in the Presocratics and in Plato, particularly the Republic, making her election to the cave even…
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Seminars on my realist jurisprudence at the EHESS in Paris in June
I'll be giving a series of seminars (in English) on my realist jurisprudence at the EHESS in Paris in June; the syllabus/plan for the seminars is here: Download Leiter Seminar Syllabus EHESS June 2019 The seminars are open to interested faculty and graduate students in and around Paris; you should contact Prof. Otto Pfersmann if…
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Every country has mental illness…
…but those that have actual gun control don't have carnage when deranged people strike: 19 attacked, only two killed, because all the attacker had were knives.
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Seminars on my realist jurisprudence at the EHESS in Paris in June
I'll be giving a series of seminars (in English) on my realist jurisprudence at the EHESS in Paris in June; the syllabus/plan for the seminars is here: Download Leiter Seminar Syllabus EHESS June 2019 The seminars are open to interested faculty and graduate students in and around Paris; you should contact Prof. Otto Pfersmann if…
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“The Death of God and the Death of Morality”
The final version is now on-line at The Monist, for those who might be interested. (This is part of a special issue of The Monist devoted to Nietzsche.)
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The quest for “relevance” by some analytic philosophers, and their ignorance of the post-Kantian traditions in European philosophy
Apt observations from a very good philosopher expert in the post-Kantian traditions in European philosophy: We all recall the times when presenters of papers in philosophy expected an onslaught in the Q&A. It was never appealing prospect or sight, and the notion that it was stirred only by the pursuit of truth was obviously a…
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Summer blogging schedule
I'll be doing less blogging the next couple of months, although I'll update the laterals list and try to get major items on the blog in a timely way. Expect more frequent blogging to resume in mid-August as the next hiring season in law schools gets under way.
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European parliament election results in the UK
From a UK friend, this is interesting: Pro-Brexit parties (Brexit Party and UKIP) obtained 34.9% of the vote; Anti-Brexit parties (Green Party, Lib Dems, SNP, Plaid Cymru and Change UK) obtained 40.4% of the vote.
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Speaking of irrational political beliefs…
…the philosopher Michael Huemer (Colorado) does not cover himself in glory with this sophomoric attack on Marxism. I'll keep this brief, as I'm super busy with grading currently! 1. Huemer says, "Without the labor theory of value, there’s no theory of surplus value, no theory of exploitation, and thus the central critique of capitalism fails." …
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HiPhi Nation episode on civil (and uncivil) disobedience by animal rights activists in Australia
Here. I actually talked with philosopher David Killoren (Australian Catholic U) about these issues, a bit more in the abstract, quite some time ago (and not with reference to providing help for victims of malaria!). (This episode is mainly hosted by Killoren and his philosophy colleague Richard Rowland at ACU.) Philosophers featured include Peter Singer,…
My specialization is AI, and I’m very, *very* skeptical. My graduate studies were in math, an area where I would…