July 2021
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PGR Update
Philosophers Berit Brogaard (Miami) and Christopher Pynes (Western Illinois), editors of the PGR, asked me to share the following: We are working to have a 2021-2022 report available for later this year. The timeline for the survey isn't fixed yet, but the plan is for it to be early in the fall. If folks have…
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Adolph Reed on Robin DiAngelo and the political economy of “race” politics
Amusing interview; an excerpt: Reed: One of the interesting things I think that we’ve experienced over the last half century or so, and our reasons for this too and get into maybe, or maybe not maybe later, that racism as a category has expanded. The currency of what counts as racism has inflated like the…
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COVID vaccines on campus
Many readers will probably have seen that Indiana University's mandate for vaccination has survived a legal challenge, which is not surprising given that the Supreme Court has recognized the constitutionality of state-mandated vaccination more than a century ago. Meanwhile, Boston College, a private Catholic university, is facing backlash because it has taken the reasonable and…
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The inflation of trauma
A former student, Mark Engleson, who is autistic, writes: I recently got embroiled in a bit of go-round on Twitter (do not recommend). The background: the Judge Rotenberg Center in Massachusetts uses shock collars on autistic children to make them more compliant. The FDA tried to ban this use of the device, and a federal court…
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Blast from the past: inflated letters of recommendation
Back in 2011, with a discussion by readers.
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Alex Berenson, the world’s dumbest journalist, redux
A good overview of the serial misinformation emanating from this malevolent buffoon, whom we've noted before. Karl Kraus: "No ideas the ability to express them: that's a journalist!"
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Invitation to participate in “Legal Academy and Theory Survey”
Law professor Kevin Tobia (Georgetown) writes: I am conducted an anonymous survey, with a graduate student collaborator, to learn more about the legal academy and legal theory. Anyone who self-identifies as a member of the “legal academy” is invited to participate. Participants might include, among others: law professors, fellows, and students; legal practitioners; and scholars…
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Great moments in the blues and their rock ‘n’ roll covers: Blind Willie McTell, “Statesboro Blues,” 1928
Blind Willie McTell (1898-1959) was a prolific bluesman from Georgia, who continued performing into the 1950s. My favorite song of his is one I featured a few years ago, but this song became, posthumously, his most famous number, thanks to the covers: Surely the most famous (and probably the best) cover was by the Allman…
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An overview of research on vaccine effectiveness against the Delta variant
Mostly good news, although it's clear that the vaccines do not work as well against Delta as they did earlier variants.
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Books by Nobel prize winners to read (or listen to) this summer
One of the great joys of being a student or academic is the ability to engage in self-directed learning. The freedom this affords can be overwhelming, given the massive volume of books, articles, and other media that could be consumed. This raises the question, what should be read for pleasure first? Recently, I've been reading…
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Blast from the past: editors removing philosophers from a book based on “allegations” of sexual misconduct
Back in 2016. I imagine these kind of star-chamber judgments are still affecting the editing of books and maybe even journals.
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Against utilitarian thinking during a pandemic
Philosopher Anna Whiston (Oxford) comments.
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In Memoriam: Jorge J.E. Gracia (1942-2021)
Professor Gracia was a longtime member of the philosophy department at the University at Buffalo, State University of New York, where he retired in 2019. He wrote widely in metaphysics, medieval philosophy, Latin-American philosophy, philosophy of race, and other areas. The Buffalo memorial notice is here. (Thanks to Adam Taylor for the pointer.)
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Staff union calls for international boycott of University of Liverpool…
…as a response to the bad behavior by the Administration in firing academic staff based on citation counts and recent grant capture. I encourage all readers to honor this boycott: if the Liverpool Admin gets away with this crap, it will spread.
My “headline” was a reference to the earlier thread on “existential” risk. I’ve written multiple times about the threat to…