June 2021
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“Nietzsche Against Marx on the Causes of Suffering”
An early and rough draft of a project I'm still thinking about. Here's the abstract: Marx and Nietzsche, the two lodestars of modern philosophical anthropology, differ most interestingly not in their moral outlooks–which are indeed contradictory–but in their explanatory methods. Marx has, as it were, no psychology, only an anthropology and economics, while Nietzsche relies…
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Great moments in live rock ‘n’ roll: Foghat, “Slow Ride,” 1976
Foghat emerged from the British Savoy Brown Blues & Boogie Band, and really made it big in America in the mid-1970s, when they were a staple of stadium rock concerts (and, allegedly, one of the inspirations for the rock satire This is Spinal Tap). Here's a terrific live performance of one of their signature songs,…
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Blast from the past: philosophy of journalism?
Or: "Why is Brian Leiter so mean to me," asks Carlin Romano back in 2009.
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In Memoriam: Aryeh (L.A.) Kosman (1935-2021)
A longtime member of the philosophy faculty at Haverford College, Professor Kosman also taught as a visiting professor at several leading PhD programs. He was well-known for his contributions to scholarship on ancient philosophy, especially Aristotle. The Haverford memorial notice is here.
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Not a great advertisement for the Hogan Lovells firm
An investigative report in the NYT.
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QAnon and survey responses
A props the QAnon craziness, a couple of readers point out that some number of survey respondents (maybe 4% on average?) are either inattentive to the questions being asked or simply mischievous. That's worth remembering, but hardly reassuring given that the survey found one in four Republicans believed in a batshit crazy conspiracy theory: if…
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Richard Marshall interviews Jessica Wilson (Toronto)…
…at 3:16 AM. An excerpt: [T]he original motivation for Grounding would be obviously enthymematic to anyone familiar with work in the metaphysics of science and mind, where it has been recognized since the 1970s that modal and conceptual/representational approaches to metaphysical dependence were unsatisfactory. In the ensuing decades, philosophers working in those areas (and others)…
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To protect academic freedom, create an institutional role responsible for its protection and promotion
I strongly agree with this piece by a colleague in the law school here. We recently made a proposal like this to the incoming President of the University.
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Editors of pro-democracy newspaper in Hong Kong arrested under new “security [sic] law”
You know that you're not just creeping towards authoritarianism, but have arrived, when the journalists who don't toe the party line are taken away in handcuffs.
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Blast from the past: when it turned out the primary test of implicit bias was worthless
Back in 2017 (and also).
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“Choosing the self we want to be”
Philosopher Laurie (L.A.) Paul (Yale) discusses.
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America is doomed, part 357: QAnon now rivaling major religions for adherents
There are many ways civilized countries can disintegrate, the Weimar-to-Nazism case is only one, even if it looms very large for understandable reasons. Consider now the ramifications of this: 15 percent of Americans say they think that the levers of power are controlled by a cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophiles, a core belief of QAnon…
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When philosophers cozy up to authoritarian rulers…
…they get their own line of coffee shops! (Thanks to David Zimmerman for the pointer.)
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When “DEI Training” goes wrong
Stories like this ought to give the ABA substantial pause about the proposed revisions to the accreditation standards.
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The history of political meddling at UNC-Chapel Hill
A useful catalogue, some of which we've noted previously.
I don’t think it’s that the philosophical debates will become irrelevant in your example, so much that your example demonstrates…