June 2020
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In Memoriam: Edward Kleinbard (1951-2020)
A leading tax scholar and practitioner, Professor Kleinbard had taught at the University of Southern California since 2009. USC Dean Guzman's memorial announcement is here. Blog Emperor Caron has collected some memorials here.
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Is Illinois Wesleyan V-P for Finance Matt Bierman responsible for the disastrous proposals there?
Philosopher Christopher Pynes (Western Illinois), one of the editors of the PGR, writes: I have to say that I feel bad for Illinois Wesleyan. Back in 2018, when Matt Bierman became a VP of finance there, I thought, maybe I should email the philosophers and warn them about him. Matt Bierman was the budget director at…
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Board of Illinois Wesleyan, a leading liberal arts college in the Midwest, is considering eliminating Philosophy!
This is quite shocking in several respects: the Philosophy Department, as noted in the PGR, is one of a small handful of regional liberal arts colleges with a notably strong philosophy faculty, all its members being well-trained and productive members of the profession; in addition, the President of Illinois Wesleyan is a classicist, S.…
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Over 2 million GBP grant from Templeton for project on “Global Philosophy of Religion”…
…led by philosopher Yujin Nagasawa (Birmingham).
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On science denial
Philosopher Adrian Bardon (Wake Forest) comments. I'm pretty skeptical of the adaptaionist explanation for this, even if the phenomenon described is currently all-too-real.
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On the phenomenology of solitude
Philosopher Dermot Moran (Boston College) comments.
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Lateral hires with tenure or on tenure-track, 2019-20
These are non-clinical appointments that will take effect in 2020 (except where noted); I will move the list to the front at various intervals as new additions come in. (Recent additions are in bold.) Last year's list is here. Feel free to e-mail me with news of additions to this list. *Bryan Adamson (civil…
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An interview with philosopher David Wallace (Pittsburgh)…
…about Black Holes.
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COVID and higher education…
…with a particular focus on Boston University, from philosopher Daniel Star at BU. BU has not been covering itself in glory with its approach to faculty and graduate students during the crisis.
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Is the philosopher’s concept of knowledge an outlier?
This is amusing, if not wholly surprising (after all, if the philosopher's just matched the "ordinary" one what work would the philosopher be doing?): We find that academics and laypeople share a similar concept of knowledge, while philosophers have a substantially different concept. These experiments show that (a) in contrast to philosophers, other academics and…
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Where is the self?
Philosopher Shaun Gallagher (Memphis) comments.
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Good news out of Poland
President Duda, of the illiberal and reactionary "Law and Justice [sic]" party, has been forced into a run-off election. Good luck to Poland, where democratic processes may yet oust the neanderthals from power.
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Larry Tribe to retire from Harvard Law School after 52 years of teaching
Quite interesting biographical interview with Professor Tribe here. A very funny bit about his time clerking on the Supreme Court: We used to go to the basement of the court to watch porno flicks because the court was in a phase where it would just have to judge — thumbs up or thumbs down —…
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Great moments in obscure rock ‘n’ roll: Red Dirt, “Maybe I’m Right,” 1970
We haven't featured this Yorkshire band since 2016, but here's another tune from their debut album:
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What is it like to be a philosopher? Anne Margaret Baxley edition
Here, courtesy of Clifford Sosis as always.
Georgy Maksimovich pointed me to this article in Russian: https://novayagazeta.ru/articles/2026/05/25/antisovetskie-filosofskie-kontratseptsii