January 2021
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In Memoriam: Jim Edwards (1939-2021)
A longtime member of the department at the University of 'Glasgow, Professor Edwards was well-known for his work in philosophy of language and epistemology. The Glasgow Department has posted some memories from friends, colleagues, and former students here. (Thanks to David Bain for the pointer.)
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Blast from the past: On New York bluntness…
…and other offenses to "WASP decorum" (back in 2017).
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University of Kansas Regents seem to think they can unilterally breach the university’s contract with tenured faculty
As philosopherJohn Symons (Kansas) notes on Twitter, the Regents voted to "approve allowing university CEOs power to dismiss, suspend or terminate employees incl tenured faculty." If they do so, this will end up in court.
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The East Timor genocide
Indonesia was the immediate perpetrator, the U.S. was one of many international supporters. 45 years ago. Worth remembering. UPDATE: Dr. Roger Albin (Michigan) writes: "An excellent complement to the link you posted on the East Timor genocide is Geoffrey Robinson’s The Killing Season, a first-rate monograph on the slaughter that brought the Suharto regime to…
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Can people vaccinated for COVID still be contagious?
A nicely done news article about what we do and don't know at this stage. From the conclusion: In the end, the vaccines likely limit transmission in two ways: 1. Preventing some percentage of infections totally, even asymptomatic ones. This prevents the body from replicating the virus and having enough to share with others.…
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Now that the monster-child is gone…
…I give him credit for not annihilating civilization in a nuclear war. He exceeded my low expectations in this very important respect. Kudos!
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Richard Marshall interviews Walter Horn…
…at 3:16 AM.
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How the Wokerati talk: a guide
This was a rare gem from one of the old metablogs; it's a shame the author can't be given credit for their guide to the special (mis)use of language by the "woke": The vocab is hard to keep up with. Should we start a running glossary? "Problematic": adj. (of arguments) false; (of pratices) must be…
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Blast from the past: “Expanding notions of harm in psychology”
Back in 2015, but still relevant.
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More on UIC John Marshall Law School and the case of Professor Kilborn
Law professor Andrew Koppelman (Northwestern) offers a critical (and fair) assessment of the case we noted last week.
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Is anyone surprised that a Trump-appointed commission about how to teach American history…
…produced reactionary garbage? I assume not!
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Why is the new variant of the coronavirus more transmissible (if it is)?
It's been hard to find a clear answer to this in the media. The most common surmise I've seen is that the new variant reproduces more in the nose and throat, and so people expel more of it when they sneeze or cough. But a recent NYT article suggests these as possible explanations: In a…
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Blast from the past: the most significant moral philosophers in the history of Western philosophy?
A poll, and discussion, back in 2013.
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New study suggests COVID immunity appears to be longlasting
An account here; an excerpt: Covid-19 patients who recovered from the disease still have robust immunity from the coronavirus eight months after infection, according to a new study…. [T]he new study does show that a small number of recovered people do not have long-lasting immunity. But vaccination ought to offset that problem by ensuring herd…
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In Memoriam: Deborah L. Rhode (1952-2021)
MOVING TO FRONT (ORIGINALLY POSTED JANUARY 9: UPDATED A leading scholar of legal ethics and the legal profession, as well as gender and the law, Professor Rhode spent her academic career at Stanford Law School. I will add links to memorial notices as they appear. UPDATE: The Stanford memorial notice is here. ANOTHER UPDATE: The…
With regard to the paper, it should not be much of a surprise that my views have substantially evolved over…