September 2019
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One philosopher among 2019 class of MacArthur Foundation Fellows
Elizabeth Anderson (Michigan) is the only philosopher out of 26 new Fellows who will receive over 600K for five years, no restrictions attached. MacArthur has awarded very few of these grants to philosophers over the years: Richard Rorty, Gregory Vlastos, Patricia Churchland, Nancy Cartwright, T.M. Scanlon all come to mind, but that's not many considering…
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The major affirmative action program at Harvard is for the children of alumni, donors, and faculty, plus athletes
(LINK ADDED–sorry about that!) 43% of (only) white students are at Harvard because of these affirmative action programs. I'm sure a significant number of non-white students benefit from these same preferences. What a joke the crown jewel of the "meritocracy" is! (Thanks to David Livingstone Smith on FB for the pointer.)
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Lawrence VanDyke, apologist for creatonism, has now been nominated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit
Longtime readers will recall Lawrence VanDyke, who made for some amusing drama in the early days of the blog. But he's back and Senators need to ask some serious questions!
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Danielle Citron (Boston University) is a 2019 MacArthur Foundation Fellow…
…along with 25 others. Congratulations Danielle!
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Videos of the keynotes from the Bernard Williams conference at Lund this summer
The keynotes from the Lund conference organized by Paul Russell are now available here. Unfortunately, I missed Professor Heuer's talk (but look forward to watching it now), but I can highly recommend those by Miranda Fricker, Stephen Darwall, and Gideon Rosen.
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Rawlsian liberalism in context
An excerpt from Katrina Forrester's new book In the Shadow of Justice: Postwar Liberalism and the Remaking of Political Philosophy, which is already giving philosophers indigestion, as it should. As Forrester succinctly puts it on p. ix of her book: in the wake of Rawls, "liberal political philosophers pass ethical judgments on the world by…
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Trump nominee to the 9th Circuit has a record as an apologist for creationism
As a student at Harvard Law School fifteen years ago, Lawrence VanDyke (Trump's nominee) published an incompetent apologia for Intelligent Design creationism, under the guise of a "review" of a book shilling for creationism, in the Harvard Law Review. I excoriated it on my philosophy blog, while further efforts by Mr. VanDyke to defend himself…
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Memories of John Gardner
When it became clear that John's cancer had recurred and was terminal earlier this year, John's wife, Jenny, reached out to friends asking them to share with John our memories of him. Jenny, after seeking permission, has now made these available here. Those who knew John will appreciate them, and those who didn't, will get…
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What is Yale hiding in the “Napping while Black” scandal it created?
I think this lawyer's assessment is correct: "Yale is fighting a war of attrition, using [Sarah] Braasch’s financial hardship against her, delaying the disclosure as long as possible so that interest will wane…." In this case, they postponed a hearing on releasing police video of events on the night of the alleged incident but only…
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Richard Marshall interviews Ross Cameron (Virginia)…
…at 3:16 AM. Marshall is now asking subjects to answer questions along the lines of the PhilPapers Surveys. Professor Cameron is a hardcore ethical realist and (unsurprisingly) a non-naturalist, among other positions he affirms.
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Trial of two of the suspects in the Dan Markel murder begins today, and a remarkably forthright critique of Wendi Adelson and her family (UPDATED)
As Blog Emperor Caron reports, the trial of the suspected hitman and middlewoman in the Markel murder begins today, but even more remarkable is this piece by Professor Markel's friend Jason Solomon, titled "What Should Happen When Your Mom and Brother Murder Your Ex?," which, rightly indicts the awful behavior of Markel's ex-wife Wendi Adelson;…
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Lawford-Smith on philosophers behaving badly, and what’s really driving the campaign against Gender Critical feminists
Philosopher Holly Lawford-Smith (Melbourne) makes a number of good points in this essay. I'll provide a few excerpts, but I encourage readers to look at the whole essay. Regarding the Dembroff/Kukla/Stryker tantrum about being featured on the same page with Stock, Lawford-Smith et al. at IAITV: In their statement, the three claimed to have been…
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More on the illegal firing of tenured faculty at St. Cloud State
MOVING TO THE FRONT FROM SEPTEMBER 20: UPDATED A good article in a local newspaper, giving the perspective of philosopher Michael Shaffer, one of those affected. If the union grievance process does not get the decision reversed, I'm optimistic he would prevail in a lawsuit. UPDATE: As philosopher Joel Pust (Delaware) points out to me,…
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Great moments in obscure rock ‘n’ roll: Fat, “Duck Sweat,” 1970
Another good number from this Massachussetts band that we first featured this summer:
Don’t click the transcript – it’s a mis-transcription that makes Harvey sound unhinged. The bit of it that’s visible without…