May 2020
-
Wisconsin Supreme Court struck down Governor’s stay-at-home order on May 14…
…when the 7-day-average of new cases per day was about 300 for the state; 12 days later, it's now well over 400 new cases per day. Correlation or causation? I'll bet money on the latter. UPDATE: Today, May 28, Wisconsin recorded its second highest case total ever (the highest was less than a week ago).
-
Class action law firm filing suits around the U.S. against universities seeking tuition refunds
While many schools refunded prorated room and board, I'm not aware of any who have refunded tuition, but that's exactly what a growing number of lawsuits are seeking. This will add to the serious financial woes of U.S. universities, especially if the plaintiffs are successful and online teaching continues into the coming academic year.
-
On cruel moralizers
Philosopher Paul Russell (British Columbia & Lund) comments.
-
Blast from the past: Steve Fuller makes things up
It's important not to forget who the charlatans are.
-
Coronavirus in Chicago (and Illinois): a timeline
MOVING TO FRONT, ORIGINALLY POSTED MARCH 14–VARIOUS UPDATES, MOSTLY FOR CHICAGO/ILLINOIS, FEWER NOW FOR NEW YORK CITY Just a snapshot of what's going on in one metropolis, that hasn't (yet!) been hit as bad as NYC or Seattle or parts of Northern California; I'll update this periodically. Illinois is doing a fair bit of testing,…
-
Advertising update
June spots are now all sold out. In July I am taking a break from blogging, although I may put something up now and then, but I'm not selling ads that month. In August, I'll resume a lighter schedule of blogging and will sell ads at reduced rates. There is one spot open at each…
-
States reopening but lying about their case counts and deaths?
Doubts about Georgia and Florida in this article. State officials fudging on data this important should be fired or, better yet, jailed.
-
Impact of the pandemic on universities in the UK
This is a pretty sobering assessment; some excerpts: Manchester University published what it considered its worst-case scenario about what might happen next year: 80 per cent of students from outside the EU and 20 per cent of UK and EU students could defer or drop out. On that basis, they estimate, the university stands to…
-
Works of philosophy summarized in one-syllable words
This game has been making the rounds on social media, and now many of the examples are collected here. Many are quite good; the one on Nietzsche, however, is incompetent (makes me wonder whether the author actually read the book).
-
Congratulations to the Chicago Alumni who made lateral moves this year
They are: Cathy Hwang '10 (corporate) who is moving from the University of Utah to the University of Virginia. Kyle Langvardt '07 (First Amendment, contracts, law & technology) who is moving from the University of Detroit Mercy to the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. Goldburn P. Maynard, Jr. '05 (tax law & policy) who…
-
Naturalized epistemology, we need more of it
After Alvin Goldman, Hilary Kornblith (U Mass/Amherst) is my favorite among contemporaries in the analytic tradition, and this judicious review by philosopher Jennifer Nagel (Toronto) brings out his virtues rather nicely.
-
New CDC estimates on COVID
35% of cases are asymptomatic (but still infectious), while the fatality rate for those with symptoms is .4% (so four times worse than the standard estimate for flu mortality); from a CNN article: The fifth scenario is the CDC's "current best estimate about viral transmission and disease severity in the United States." In that scenario,…
-
Why did the APA Board terminate the “Committee on Philosophy and Law”
See here, and for some further detail, the end of the 2018-19 report. The latter seems to suggest it has something to do with the fact that so many legal philosophers are not in philosophy departments, but other units (like law schools, but not only there). Does anyone know what the story is? (Thanks to…
-
Developing herd immunity: an interactive tool
The title of this piece is misleading–depending on variables like how long immunity lasts and how many others each infected person infects, herd immunity may be possible–but what's useful here is the tool that allows you to adjust he variables to see how that affects herd immunity, and how many would die in the process.…
Georgy Maksimovich pointed me to this article in Russian: https://novayagazeta.ru/articles/2026/05/25/antisovetskie-filosofskie-kontratseptsii