May 2019
-
Oxford’s “Very Short Introduction” series
A graduate student writes: Apropos this post on your blog about Peter Singer's Marx: A Very Short Introduction. I wonder which titles relevant in philosophy in the same series are the best ones to read? Or maybe which titles to avoid? (Maybe Simon Critchley's Continental Philosophy?) Perhaps you and the readers of the blog could…
-
Open letter of support for Prof. Wojciech Sadurski (Sydney)
Professor Sadurski, a leading legal theorist and scholar of constitutionalism, has been a vigorous and penetrating critic of the reactionary and authoritarian "Law and Justice" party in Poland ("PiS" is the Polish acronym); he has now become the target of both civil and criminal legal actions attempting to silence him. The open letter is here,…
-
Unethical philosophers who participated in harassment and defamation of Rebecca Tuvel issue “white paper” on “publication ethics”
It has come to pass. As I noted last year, "three of the five academic [authors]–Rebecca Kennison, Yannik Thiem, and Adriel Trott–were signatories to the open letter defaming Prof. Tuvel and calling on Hypatia to retract her article. That's right, the majority of this committee supported unethical and unprofessional conduct by Hypatia." And for good measure,…
-
Open letter of support for Prof. Wojciech Sadurski (Sydney)
Professor Sadurski, a leading legal theorist and scholar of constitutionalism, has been a vigorous and penetrating critic of the reactionary and authoritarian "Law and Justice" party in Poland ("PiS" is the Polish acronym); he has now become the target of both civil and criminal legal actions attempting to silence him. The open letter is here,…
-
In Memoriam: Ruth Anna Putnam (1927-2019)
A longtime member of the philosophy faculty at Wellesley College, where she was emerita, she was best-known for her work on various important figures in American pragmatism. There is a brief obituary here. I will add links to other memorial notices as they appear. (Thanks to David Guberman for alerting me to her passing.)
-
Great moments in rock ‘n’ roll riffs: Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac, “Oh Well,” 1969
In 1968-69, the British blues band Fleetwood Mac, led by guitarist Peter Green, ruled the British charts, including with this number, which may be the best riff in the history of rock 'n' roll. For May, I'll be featuring various covers of this tune, but here's the original (that's Green on vocals and doing the…
-
Open letter to the fascist in Brazil from the American Philosophical and Sociological Associations (and others)
The letter is here. Of course, everyone understands the letter is being addressed to a fascist and a moron, but the hope is that at some point adverse publicity for these moves leads to reconsideration for whatever actual reasons influence such a "leader."
-
Wittes on Attorney General Barr
Benjamin Wittes, of the Brookings Instiution and Lawfare, is not exactly a radical bomb-thrower, so this assessment is all the more damning.
-
Two more tenured hires for Cornell: Hübner from Toronto, Pavese from Duke
Karolina Hübner (early modern philosophy, Jewish philosophy), Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Tornoto, and Carlotta Pavese (philosophy of language, mind & action, epistemology, philosophical logic), Mellon Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Duke University, have both accepted tenured appointments as Associate Professors of Philosophy at Cornell University, to start this fall. This marks…
-
Twitter “believe it or not” part 3: the Twitter kids can’t figure out why no one is taking them seriously
I won't embarrass this individual, who seems more clueless than malevolent, but from this philosopher's Twitter feed I learned that Keyvan Shafiei (yes, the person who launched the out-of-the-blue verbal assault on feminist philosopher Holly Lawford-Smith, and who prefers the pronouns "they/their," which I honor in what follows) actually had the audacity to stand up…
-
Button from Cambridge to UCL
Tim Button (philosophy of language, logic & mathematics; metaphysics), currently Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at Cambridge University has accepted a (permament) post as Lecturer in Philosophy at University College London, effective this fall.
-
Cambridge University fires post-doc who was target of Internet campaign last fall
Last fall, we noted an Internet mob calling for the head of a young scholar, Noah Carl, who has some reprehensible political views, but who had been awarded a post-doc on the basis of his scholarly work, not his views. Now The Guardian reports that he has been fired, although the statements from college officals…
-
Top 10 Corporate & Securities Articles of 2018
From Professor Thompson's website at Georgetown (I've added institutional affiliations): The Corporate Practice Commentator is pleased to announce the results of its twenty-fifth annual poll to select the ten best corporate and securities articles. Teachers in corporate and securities law were asked to select the best corporate and securities articles from a list of articles…
-
Buchanan from Duke to Arizona
Allen Buchanan (political philosophy) has taken emeritus status at Duke and has returned to the University of Arizona (both the Freedom Center and the Department of Philosophy) effective this past January, with an officially quarter-time appointment, although he will be in residence and working with graduate students more than that. This will further solidify Arizona's…
-
“I’m no fan of Paglia, but these students are crazy”
That was philosopher David Zimmerman's (Simon Fraser) apt description of the events recounted here.
I disagree with the perspectives described here and wrote with my co-authors on the very real catastrophic potential of AI…