September 2020
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Data on academic philosophy in the U.S., 1967-2017
A new report from the APA, with a lot of data about gender, in particular. I've only skimmed it, so readers are invited to note any interesting material in the comments.
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Class and responses to Trump’s rudeness and Biden’s gaffes
In 2016, Democrats made the mistake of focusing on Trump's rude, crude and vulgar mouth (on display, I gather at last night's "debate" [sic], which apparently some sentient people actually watched!). Alas, Democrats may be doing it again. Many people don't care (and those who do aren't on the fence), which is rather important in…
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Advertising update
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On “cancel culture” again, and a philosophy anecdote
Linguist John McWhorter (Columbia) takes another stab at the topic (earlier attempt here): Our national reckoning on race has brought to the fore a loose but committed assemblage of people given to the idea that social justice must be pursued via attempts to banish from the public sphere, as much as possible, all opinions that…
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“How does science really work?”
Recent work of philosopher Michael Strevens (NYU) discussed in The New Yorker. (Thanks to Benj Hellie for the pointer.)
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PGR haters are strangely self-unaware
Here is philosopher Udo Schuklenk (Queen's/Canada) declaring that "no serious academic would…lend their time to" the PGR. You can see a complete list of the several hundred "unserious" academics who "lend their time" to the PGR: it includes Brian Skyrms, Anthony Appiah, Ernest Sosa, Penelope Maddy, Cristina Bicchieri, Paul Guyer, Timothy Williamson, John Hawthorne, Alex…
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Many Hispanic voters do *not* view themselves as “people of color”
This is interesting, and a problem for the Democrats: Progressives commonly categorize Latinos as people of color, no doubt partly because progressive Latinos see the group that way and encourage others to do so as well. Certainly, we both once took that perspective for granted. Yet in our survey, only one in four Hispanics saw…
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In Memoriam: Amélie Oksenberg Rorty (1932-2020)
MOVING TO FRONT FROM SEPTEMBER 19–UPDATED Professor Rorty wrote very widely in moral psychology, philosophy of mind, philosophy of the emotions, and the history of philosopy (especially ancient). She taught for a quarter-century at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, and then later at Brandeis and Boston Universities, among other places. I will add links to memorial…
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Some jurisprudential articles
"The Roles of Judges in Democracies: A Realistic View" is now out in Journal of Institutional Studies, and will also be reprinted in P. Chiassoni & B. Spaic (eds.), Judges and Adjudication in Constitutional Democracies: A View from Legal Realism (Springer, 2021). From the abstract (taken from the penultimate SSRN version): What are the “obligations” of…
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NY Times quietly revises a key claim of the 1619 project!
Good catch by the World Socialist Web Site! (Thanks to Chris Morris for the pointer.)
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The biggest threat to free speech on campus and academic freedom…
…consistently comes from the pro-Israel interest groups. They are running scared because they realize that far too many of Israel's actions can not withstand public scrutiny.
Georgy Maksimovich pointed me to this article in Russian: https://novayagazeta.ru/articles/2026/05/25/antisovetskie-filosofskie-kontratseptsii