March 2022
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Ukraine’s Zelensky asks if the West is “afraid of Moscow”?
This is really a childishly stupid thing for him to have said (right up there with loose-lips Biden calling for Putin to be removed from power). The West is afraid of nuclear war, as everyone in their right mind should be, including Zelensky. Surely Zelensky knows this is why he isn't getting more military help: …
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Great moments in British rock ‘n’ roll that remain obscure in the U.S.: Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac, “Man of the World,” 1969
Fleetwood Mac began as part of the British blues explosion of the late 1960s, led by guitarist Peter Green. While "Oh Well" is known in the U.S. (thanks to many covers), Green's version of the band had other hits in 1968 and 1969, that made no appearances on the U.S. charts. This number hit #2…
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Blast from the past: Garrison Keillor on the Republican Party
And this was back in 2004! It's a helluva lot worse now.
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UC San Diego offers Henry Allison Chair in History of Philosophy to Notre Dame’s Shields
Students interested in ancient philosophy considering Notre Dame and UC San Diego will want to inquire about this: Christopher Shields (Notre Dame), best-known for important work on Aristotle, has been offered the Henry Allison Chair in History of Philosophy at the University of California, San Diego. Together with existing strengths in ancient at UCSD, this…
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“Isolating Russia won’t bring Europe peace”
Political philosopher Lea Ypi (LSE) comments.
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2022 Schock Prize in “Logic and Philosophy” goes to David Kaplan (UCLA)
Announcment here. The Schock Prize is about as close to a "Nobel" as philosophy has, although as the title suggests, it tends to lean a bit more towards those with work related to logic than a pure philosophy prize would. Still, past recipients include Quine, Rawls, Kripke, Nagel, Putnam, and Dummett, among others. Kaplan is…
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In Memoriam: Sten Lindström (1945-2022)
He was emeritus professor of theoretical philosophy at Uppsala University and well-known for his contributions to philosophical logic, philosophy of language, and philosophy of mathematics. There is a memorial notice (in Swedish) here.
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Is there any other field where everyone knows the top two departments are at non-“brand name” universities
Thanks to the PGR, everyone knows that NYU and Rutgers are the top two departments in American philosophy. In most other disciplines, the "top two or three" departments are always some mix of Harvard, Princeton, MIT, Caltech, Chicago, Stanford, Columbia, Berkeley, Yale, sometimes also Michigan, Penn or UCLA. NYU and Rutgers dominate no other…
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Yale Law School’s public relations disaster continues
David Lat (who went to YLS, subsequently founded the abysmal online tabloid Above the Law, and then wisely bailed from that) shares on his substack a recent letter from a current Yale Law student: Students here seem unwilling to have their beliefs and actions challenged. Many of my peers see the expectation of rigor and…
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Changing a school’s name from “X College” to “X University” increases enrollment
This is a peculiar finding, and one does wonder why more students apply and enroll. Any ideas?
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Tenured philosopher Andrew Haas resigns position at Higher School of Economics in Moscow in protest of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine
His resignation letter is here: Download Haas Resignation from HSE.Haas.22. He calls on his colleagues to do the same.
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Blast from the past: Per capita expenditures is the tail that wags the US News ranking dog
Back in 2009, and it's still true.
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Putin’s nuclear decision-making
This is interesting, and seems well-informed. I invite those with more knowledge about these matters to comment. (Thanks to Howard Berman for the pointer).
People should understand what precipitated my remarks here at Leiter Reports. Also, a few replies and comments on the conversation:…