September 2020
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Faculty at the top five schools in scholarly impact who began their careers outside the top 18
MOVING TO FRONT FROM SEPTEMBER 21–CORRECTED Following up on an earlier post, I thought it would be interesting to look at where tenure-stream academic faculty at top law schools began their academic career. I'll limit this round to the top five law schools in scholarly impact; I'll expand the list to the top ten or…
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COVID risks while flying
Interesting, case study of ten-hour flight with one symptomatic passenger in business class: We traced 217 passengers and crew to their final destinations and interviewed, tested, and quarantined them. Among the 16 persons in whom SARS-CoV-2 infection was detected, 12 (75%) were passengers seated in business class along with the only symptomatic person (attack rate…
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Non-elite business programs boost earnings more than most assume (Michael Simkovic)
A popular narrative is that business school is not worth the time and money, especially outside of a handful of elite programs. This narrative closely echoes earlier critiques of legal education that have since been thoroughly debunked. (See here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here). As was the case with legal education, the…
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“The Microfoundations of Marxism”
Philosopher Jaime Edwards (St. Norbert College) talks with philosopher Robert Gressis (Cal State/Northridge) about some of the ideas and arguments growing out of his important dissertation on this topic. (Edwards and I are writing the volume on Marx for my Routledge Philosophers series.)
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Philosopher Alastair Wilson (Birmingham) on “Natural Philosophies”…
…discussing quantum modal realism.
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What is court packing?
Since my e-mail "interview" with NPR is showing up in lots of stories, let me say a bit more. "Court packing" is typically used to refer to FDR's proposal in the 1930s to expand the size of the Supreme Court, which had been holding New Deal legislation unconstitutional. The idea was that FDR would add…
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A question for readers: from feudalism to capitalism?
I know the standard Marxian story (as told by Marx!), but I'd be grateful for some guidance on literature by historians, Marxists or otherwise, especially about the transitions in very roughly the period of the 16th into the 18th-centuries: the fall of feudalism and the remnants of the feudal order, and the gradual transitions towards…
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What is court packing?
Since my e-mail "interview" with NPR is showing up in lots of stories, let me say a bit more. "Court packing" is typically used to refer to FDR's proposal in the 1930s to expand the size of the Supreme Court, which had been holding New Deal legislation unconstitutional. The idea was that FDR would add…
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Blast from the past: for a JD/PhD, does the caliber of the law school matter?
Back in 2011, and still applicable. Worth noting that Harvard, which used to fully fund all JD/PhDs, has stopped doing so. (LINK NOW FIXED TO GO DIRECTLY TO THE OLD POST.)
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The colleges that are succeeding, despite COVID
After the "bad news" stories about college openings that journalists love, the real story now is the number of schools that seem to be making this work. Notre Dame, with 12,000 students and a rocky start, imposed a two-week lockdown; now they have a positivity rate of 1.2% and only about five dozen active cases…
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The life and work of Derek Parfit
Informative essay by philosopher Jonathan Dancy (Texas).
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Great moments in obscure rock ‘n’ roll: Stack Waddy, “Mystic Eyes,” 1971
British blues rock band active in the late 1960s and early 1970s, this is from their debut album (a cover of the mid-60s number by the Irish band Them):
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Toronto Law scuttles search after sitting judge (and major donor) criticizes the final candidate on political grounds
MOVING TO FRONT FROM SEPTEMBER 17–UPDATED What an embarrassment. If these allegations are borne out, the Dean of the Law School there will have to resign. UPDATE: The University of Toronto's Students' Law Society has written a public letter to the Dean. And various faculty, at Toronto and elsewhere, have apprently called for an ethics…
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Cass Sunstein reviews books describing the mass appeal of ultra-nationalism (Michael Simkovic)
In the NY Review of Books (recently republished online): Nazism was so horrifying and so barbaric that for many people in nations where authoritarianism is now achieving a foothold, it is hard to see parallels between Hitler’s regime and their own governments. Many accounts of the Nazi period depict a barely imaginable series of events,…
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On the death of Justice Ginsburg of the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS)
Her death is deeply unfortunate, not just for her family, but for the polity she served, and on many levels. To start, it makes clear how perverse "life tenure" on SCOTUS has become when people live so long. You can protect judges from political influence by giving them term-limited tenures that will extend beyond the…
I’m a graduate student in philosophy at a well-known terminal MA program who is applying to PhDs this fall and…