November 2020
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Which living philosopher has exerted the greatest positive influence on your moral and political views?
MOVING TO FRONT FROM THIS MORNING–ABOUT 650 VOTES OVER THE LAST SIX HOURS, MORE WELCOME! John Tasioulas (Oxford) posed that query on Twitter, and in his poll offering four choices, Peter Singer won (which sums up the moral triviality of contemporary philosophers in my view). In the comments, readers offered other possible answers. So herewith…
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Mask-wearing: the Danish study
This study has gotten some attention, but the media accounts I've seen don't accurately report what it found (this one is typical). First, the study did not control at all for what participants did and who they were with when not outside the home: so it is possible that the participants (who wore masks outside…
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Tolstoy’s explanation for why Kant was such a bad writer
He smoked too much! (Thanks to David Gordon for the pointer.)
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“Do you have to reply to this paper?”
Philosopher Saul Smilansky (Haifa), ever the contrarian, argues, "Yes!"
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On the changing demographics of who is voting Democratic and Republican in the US
Two interviews with David Shor, one at Politico, one at New York Magazine (thanks to Benj Hellie for flagging the latter). Shor doesn't seem to know much about the empirical literature on voter behavior, but there are still many interesting observations. Some highlights from the first interview: Politics is fundamentally about splitting the country in…
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On Brandom’s philosophy
A lucid essay from earlier this year giving an introductory overview of the work of Robert Brandom (Pittsburgh).
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Blast from the past: smoking a liability on the job market?
Back in 2008. The comments go on to discuss other odd habits, like being a vegan!
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Wuhan after the lockdown
An interesting study; among the findings of note: (1) "All city residents aged six years or older were eligible and 9,899,828 (92.9%) participated. No new symptomatic cases and 300 asymptomatic cases (detection rate 0.303/10,000, 95% CI 0.270–0.339/10,000) were identified." (2) "The detection rate of asymptomatic positive cases was very low, and there was no evidence…
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Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine: 70% effective on average
Another two-dose vaccine, that was 90% effective in the group that got a half-dose first, and then a full dose second (but less effective in the group that got a full dose each time). Note that in this trial they also checked for asymptomatic infections. Various experts comment here.
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On Schopenhauer’s pessimism
A nicely written essay by philosopher David Bather Woods (Warwick).
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Hong Kong’s slide into a police state
This is appalling: Hong Kong police claim they have received more than 2,500 tip-offs since the launch of a hotline for people to report suspected breaches of the city’s sweeping national security law. The multi-platform hotline, which opened on Thursday, allows Hong Kongers to report information directly to national security police via text message, email,…
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The Constitutional Court of South Africa: the building
A lovely tour from former Justice Albie Sachs, a brilliant judge and a deeply humane and courageous man, a kind of jurist utterly foreign in the highest reaches of the U.S. legal profession in recent years.
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Blast from the past: Inflated letters of recommendation
A discussion, back in 2011. (The first link in the 2011 post isn't working: it goes to this earlier post about the "code" in which letters of recommendation are too often written.)
Giovanni Molteni Tagliabue (Italy) Rationalized and Extended Democracy – The REDemo Project. Foreword by Gilberto Corbellini. Firenze University Press 2023.…