May 2022
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Blast from the past: What counts as “service” at your university?
A discussion back in 2010.
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New “Journal of Law Teaching and Learning”
Lawprof Emily Grand (Washburn) asked me to share the following announcement: The Institute for Law Teaching and Learning is thrilled to be launching a new scholarly journal. The Journal of Law Teaching and Learning will publish scholarly articles about pedagogy and will provide authors with rigorous peer review. We hope to publish our first issue in…
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Are your students “back to normal”?
The NYT recently ran an op-ed about college students "not being OK" two years into the pandemic. A colleague elsewhere who sent it to me added this observation: "In my large required class, teaching was pretty dismal this term: endless absurd excuses, academic integrity issues etc. Maybe a good discussion topic, when you are blogging…
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Law professor Brian Soucek admits that the University of California system’s use of diversity statements has been mostly unlawful…
…but can't quite acknowledge it. I sent the following letter to CHE: To the editor: When Brian Soucek assures readers that diversity statements “are constitutional — at least if they are done the right way” and reveals that the University of California is changing its approach to their utilization accordingly, he effectively admits that the…
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Training graduate students to actually teach philosophy
Georgia State actually does so in its MA program (the article is on page 4 of the linked newsletter).
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More on the Joshua Katz case at Princeton
A robust defense from his wife; this bit was striking: As was widely reported, Princeton’s department last year voted to eliminate its language requirement for undergraduates. Now it has eliminated its most legendary language instructor. The great irony is that the elimination of the language requirement was, in part, to encourage students to take ancient…
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An immodest proposal on guns
Blinn Combs, a philosopher-turned-lawyer in Texas, posted the following on Facebook and kindly gave permission to share it here: Please, for the love of sanity, please stop saying conciliatory shit to people who'd just as soon see your children gunned down at school. We ABSOLUTELY DO NOT HAVE two radical fringe extremes in what…
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Blast from the past: Phyllis Schafly has a friend in Rick Hills
Some amusement, from way back in 2008!
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“Thought: A Journal of Philosophy” will go open access with a new publisher
Crispin Wright (NYU/Stirling), one of the editors of Thought, asked me to share the following announcement: The Editors of Thought, hitherto a subscription journal published by John Wiley, Inc., are pleased to announce that new publication arrangements for the journal have at last been agreed. From volume 11 onwards Thought will be published online only…
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Adam Gopnik on American’s gun insanity, back in 2012
Still true, and I suspect will still be true ten years from now: After the Aurora killings, I did a few debates with advocates for the child-killing lobby—sorry, the gun lobby—and, without exception and with a mad vehemence, they told the same old lies: it doesn’t happen here more often than elsewhere (yes, it does);…
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Legal realism and the U.S. Supreme Court
I talk with Prof. Eric Segall (Georgia State) on his podcast "Supreme Myths" (also available on Spotify and other podcast platforms).
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Legal realism and the Supreme Court
I talk with Prof. Eric Segall (Georgia State) on his podcast "Supreme Myths" (also available on Spotify and other podcast platforms).
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Fired Princeton classics professor Joshua Katz gives his side of the story in the Wall Street Journal
Here, but behind their paywall. An excerpt: I have been subjected to “cultural double jeopardy,” with the university relitigating a long-past offense—I had a consensual relationship with a 21-year-old student—for which I was already suspended for a year without pay well over a decade after my offense. This was, I emphasize, a violation of an…
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A different perspective on the Katz case at Princeton
A propos this, a professor at Princeton writes: I think you are wrong about what’s going on with Joshua Katz's firing. It is not about his views, but rather about misconduct towards women students. Here are three relevant points. 1 — As a member of the Princeton faculty, I know Chris Eisgruber well and have…
Georgy Maksimovich pointed me to this article in Russian: https://novayagazeta.ru/articles/2026/05/25/antisovetskie-filosofskie-kontratseptsii