October 2019
-
New Books in October
Authors and/or publishers kindly sent me these new books this month: Bergson by Mark Sinclair (London: Routledge, 2020) (this is in the Routledge Philosophers series) Merleau-Ponty, 2nd edition by Taylor Carman (London: Routledge, 2020) (this is in the Routledge Philosophers series) Leibniz, 2nd edition by Nicholas Jolley (London: Routledge, 2020) (this is in the Routledge…
-
Our old friend Lawrence VanDyke just got whacked by the American Bar Association
It seems like not much has changed in the last fifteen years.
-
Nominee for 9th Circuit Lawrence VanDyke deemed “unqualified” by ABA…
…based on interviews with dozens of lawyers and judges who had worked with him and found him “arrogant, lazy, an ideologue, and lacking in knowledge of the day-to-day practice,” and who also described a "lack of humility," and an "'entitlement' temperament." That certainly well describes his reaction to being called out for his idiotic apologia…
-
Kiosk philosophy
UC Irvine edition.
-
Letters of recommendation are essential…
…even if some people write useless letters, as they do. But the arguments here are not sensible (for example, "prestige bias" is a canard, as we've noted before). As a senior philosopher elsewhere wrote to me last week: In many years on hiring committees I have found these letters extremely valuable in distinguishing the A…
-
G.A. Cohen does Gilbert Ryle
Being reminded this morning of G.A. Cohen's brilliant impersonations and comedy routines, I happened upon one I had not see before, which is a gem:
-
Michigan drops its “Bias Response Team” after appeals court rules against the University
A brief report from IHE, with links. (Earlier coverage.)
-
Marxian economist/philosopher John Roemer (Yale) interviewed
Here. This gives a nice overview of the different dimensions of his work over time. UPDATE: And let's not forget G.A. Cohen's "Marxist Boxing Match: Roemer v. Habermas." Don't miss what referee Leon Trotsky tells the fighters. (Thanks to Jeff Ketland for the pointer.)
-
Philosopher Susan Schneider (UConn) on the BBC…
…talking about our robot overlords of the future! Since they will have advanced intelligence, they will presumably be Marxists, so this could work out well!
-
Society for Empirical Legal Studies (SELS) objects to use of HeinOnLine citation data to measure “scholarly impact”
Their letter to USNEWS.com editor Robert Morse is here. I agree with a lot of this; herewith a few comments, sometimes expanding on the points made in the SELS letter, sometimes disagreeing. The SELS letter states that while "no ranking system is perfect, one strength of the existing ranking approach–as U.S. News officials themselves have…
-
“Are you a moral grandstander?”
Some folks in philosophy should definitely read this (you know who you are!).
-
While Heidegger joined the Nazis, the Vienna Circle…
…opposed them. Unfortunately, the evidence of their experience suggests that logic, scientific standards, and rigor were not adequate to the challenges they faced.
-
“Lock him up!”
He actually deserves to be locked up for his life of crime; this is from last night's World Series baseball game, where the monster-child appeared:
-
The situation for universities in Brazil
MOVING TO FRONT FROM FRIDAY–SOME INTERESTING INFORMATION IN THE COMMENTS, MORE WELCOME Last month I spent a week in Brazil, participating in conferences (one on Nietzsche, one on "Genealogy and Critique") at the Federal Universities of Goiânia and Rio de Janeiro. We've noted previously the attack on the universities by the fascist Bolsonaro, but now…
My “headline” was a reference to the earlier thread on “existential” risk. I’ve written multiple times about the threat to…