December 2019
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Blast from the past: Nick Cohen and the Iraq War
Back in 2004. Anytime I see anyone refer to this vacuous hack as a "man of the left," I am reminded of this.
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Identity politics and power
This essay is plainly on to something; an excerpt: What if the people who speak in the language of identity politics were to recognize that their framework was the culturally dominant one? The one that helped you get into an elite college or win a coveted internship? If you spoke that language, you were working…
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Best introductory texts to philosophy of science and/or philosophy of particular sciences (e.g., physics, biology)?
MOVING TO FRONT FROM DECEMBER 13–MORE SUGGESTIONS WELCOME Continuing our new series, I invite readers to name what they think are the best introductory texts to general philosophy of science and/or the best introductory texts to the philosophy of particular sciences, such as physics or biology. As before, don't just name a text, but say something…
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Great moments in obscure rock ‘n’ roll: Frijid Pink, “Drivin Blues,” 1970
Another late 60s Michigan band, the psychedelic/blues rock Frijid Pink had one national hit with their cover of "House of the Rising Sun," but this was an earlier single the same year:
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Vigilante justice comes to NYU…
…as a reader points out to me. Professor Ronell was at least found to have violated sexual harassment rules on her campus, unlike Professor Hubbard, but her case was adjudicated and she was sanctioned. Unless universities respond quickly and harshly to these student mobs (in this case, a small one), this is going to spread…
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Blast from the past: when Nathan Oseroff was abusing his position at the APA Blog
There were several incidents, but this one was one of the weirdest. (I wouldn't bother revisiting this except people keep pointing out to me that Mr. Oseroff continues to lie on social media about what he actually did. It defeats the point of his apology for his misconduct for him to now lie about what…
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Reforming publication in the student-edited law reviews
Professor Brian Galle (Georgetown) shares a draft proposal from the AALS Section on Scholarship. The current system is a disaster and absurd, so I hope some version of this gets traction.
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What is it like to be a philosopher? Scott Soames edition
Here, courtesy of Clifford Sosis as always.
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JHP Book Prize for 2019
Professor Jean-Luc Solère (Boston College), the book review editor of Journal of the History of Philosophy, writes: The recipient of the 2019 Journal of the History of Philosophy Book Prize for the best book in the history of philosophy published in 2018 is: Richard Arthur (Professor Emeritus, McMaster University), for his Monads, Composition, and Force: Ariadnean…
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Condolences to the United Kingdom
Rather bitter election results, which will no doubt produce lots of mostly baseless attributions of blame. My British friends should read Achen and Bartels' book Democracy for Realists, written before Trump, but they got him and his effect on Republicans exactly right, but their evidence is not limited to the United States. Many group identities…
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In Memoriam: Jaegwon Kim (1934-2019)
MOVING TO FRONT FROM NOVEMBER 30: UPDATED One of the most influential contributors to metaphysics and the philosophy of mind of the last half-century, Professor Kim taught from 1963-1967 and then from 1987 onwards at Brown University (where he was emeritus), but also spent some two decades at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, with…
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Do philosophical intuitions vary across demographic groups? Knobe v. Machery & Stich
It's the battle of the X-Phil titans! Joshua Knobe (Yale) recently argued that the experimental results show little variation in philosophical intuitions among different demographic groups, while Edouard Machery (Pittsburgh) and Stephen Stich (Rutgers) contest Knobe's interpretation of the data: you can read their draft paper here: Download Reply to Knobe — Demographic Difference in…
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Petition in support of faculty and librarians whose positions are threatened at St. Cloud State University
Following up on earlier coverage, there is now this petition, which I urge readers to sign. (Thanks to Tina Gross for the pointer.)
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A friendlier take on the “1619 Project”
A relatively brief (15 minutes) interview with historian Eric Foner (Columbia). It doesn't really engage any of the doubts raised by the other historians we have noted over the last week, but it captures pretty well my own initially favorable reaction to the series until I began reading the preceding interviews. (Thanks to Barbara Herman…
Georgy Maksimovich pointed me to this article in Russian: https://novayagazeta.ru/articles/2026/05/25/antisovetskie-filosofskie-kontratseptsii