May 2021
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VALEP: Virtual Archive of Logical Empiricism
Courtesy of the Vienna Circle Institute at the University of Vienna. Note that VALEP welcomes contributions to the archive from readers.
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Ludlow v. Haspelmath on naturalistic inquiry, language, and generative linguistics
If, like me, you don't know who Haspelmath is, you may still find this discussion interesting.
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Philosopher Claire Kirwin (Clemson) talks about value realism…
…at the great Elucidations podcast run by Matt Teichman here at the University of Chicago.
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How a gay philosopher’s book ended up changing Canada’s law on the importation of pornography
An interesting tale. (Thanks to Christopher Morris for the pointer.)
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Great moments in live rock ‘n’ roll: Chicago Transit Authority, “I’m a Man,” 1969
Excellent footage of the whole band on this early performance for Beat Club in 1969, before legal threats by the actual CTA forced the band to shorten their name (big mistake by the actual CTA!). Most of the band members had been students at DePaul University in Chicago. Gives a nice sense of how good…
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Dominic Berry (LSE) once again threatening gender critical feminists
When we last heard from Dr. Berry, he was busy severing Twitter ties (seriously) with anyone who was merely "following" Nigel Warburton on Twitter–Warburton's "thought crime" had been including philosopher Kathleen Stock (Sussex) on his podcast. That was comical, rather than alarming, although more concerning was his threat to not tolerate gender critical feminists in…
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Blast from the past: Transparency in refereeing
A discussion, back in 2019.
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Sleepwalking toward the collapse of democracy
This political scientist also thinks we're doomed: The most destructive thing that Trump did on his way out the door was he took the Republicans’ waning commitment to democracy and he weaponized it, and he made it much worse to the point where I think that a good deal of rank-and-file Republican voters simply don’t…
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“Moral Psychology with Nietzsche” should be out any day now in paperback…
…and you can preorder it now. And from a recent review by Paul Loeb in the January 2021 Journal of the History of Philosophy: Brian Leiter’s second book on Nietzsche brings together ideas and arguments that have already had a significant influence on the field through their earlier formulations in his articles from the past…
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AAUP criticizes numerous schools for failure to abide by AAUP standards when terminating faculty and programs…
…including two schools we've written about here: University of Akron and Illinois Wesleyan. (The Akron faculty lost a procedural appeal in the Ohio Supreme Court, and are now rethinking their legal strategy.)
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Laws purporting to ban teaching of “Critical Race Theory” are plainly unconstitutional
A leading Firsts Amendment scholar explains. (I do laugh when the know-nothings on the right associate CRT with Marxism: I wish it were true, but it's the opposite.) Of course, the fascists proposing this legislation don't care that it's unconstitutional!
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“Why are so few law professors interested in antitrust?”
Lawprof, antitrust expert and Chicago alum Daniel Crane (Michigan) comments.
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Turmoil in the Bowling Green philosophy department
MOVING TO FRONT FROM YESTERDAY What a mess. One thing not noted in the CHE article: Kevin Vallier and Brandon Warmke are both Arizona PhDs (and Arizona is, as readers will know, a strong program), so it's not exactly unusual for graduates to prefer graduates of their own programs. But that just scratches the surface…
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U Miami Law Dean Varona ousted by President and Provost effective July 1…
…and apparently without consultation with the faculty. He moved to Miami just two years ago. I don't know more at this stage, just that faculty were caught by surprise. UPDATE: More details here. ANOTHER: Another news item.
I wonder how feasible and time-intensive it would be to make it a standard policy check for undisclosed AI usage.…