August 2022
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Lederman from Princeton to Texas/Austin
Harvey Lederman (logic, epistemology, philosophy of langauge, Chinese philosophy), Professor of Philosophy at Princeton University, has accepted a senior offer from the Department of Philosophy at the University of Texas at Austin, where he will start in January 2023. That's a big catch for Texas, which together with other hires since the last PGR (and…
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“Five Questions” with philosopher and clinical therapist Hanna Pickard (Johns Hopkins)…
…by Kieran Setiya (MIT).
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Links to resources for graduate students
Adam Patterson, a PhD student at Syracuse University, has compiled an extensive set of links about reading philosophy, writing philosophy, teaching philosophy, the job market, etc. Not all the sources are of equal quality, but many are quite good, and some I'd never seen before (e.g., Connie Rosati [Texas] on how to read philosophy [aimed…
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Michigan lawprof sues university, law school, and Dean West…
…for discrimination on the basis of race, gender, disability, and family status. Some of the allegations about discriminatory conduct are very vague and conclusory, and hard to assess; others are quite specific, such as about deviations from an allegedly lockstep salary structure to the disadvantage of plaintiff, and allegations about shockingly inappropriate emails sent by…
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In Memoriam: Larry Laudan (1941-2022)
Professor Laudan was one of the great philosophers of science of the last fifty years, many of whose papers and books will be read, I expect, a century from now. I had the pleasure of being his colleague at the University of Texas at Austin, as he reinvented himself as a philosopher of law, especially…
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Blast from the past: Irresponsible philosophy faculty, how widespread a phenomenon?
Back in 2005, with reader discussion. I'll open comments here in case any readers want to comment on changes in the interim.
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Free college causes fascism, the dangers of an “educated proletariat”…
…and other oddities from the early days of the Republican war on higher education (with a focus on Reagan and the University of California system in the 1960s and 1970s). (Thanks to Joshua Selby for the pointer.)
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Just to put journal submissions in perspective
It turns out one of the papers recently selected by the Philosopher's Annual as one of the "ten best" of the year was, in fact, desk-rejected by one of the handful of very top journals, and then rejected, after R&R, by another top journal, before finally landing in a different top journal! So from desk rejection, to…
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Adolph Reed: “Black Studies as a Class Project”
The latest from Professor Reed; an excerpt: Inattentiveness to racial inequality’s embeddedness in capitalist political economy links directly to the fact that antiracist discourse posits “racism”—rather than historically specific political-economic and legal institutions, relations, and practices—as the causal source of (unjust) inequality affecting black people past and present. Racism, however, notwithstanding efforts to represent it…
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Wimsatt on Lewontin and philosophy of biology
William Wimsatt (Minnesota & also emeritus here at Chicago) comments on Richard Lewontin's legacy and his influence, in particular, on philosophy of biology. (Biologist Gregory Mayer, who kindly flagged this essay for me, points out that, "Philip Kitcher was not a guest in Dick’s lab, but in Steve Gould’s area. Philip, though, was acquainted…
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Should the ABA eliminate a required admissions test (like the LSAT) for law school admission?
Dean Kevin Washburn (Iowa) makes an interesting case for keeping the test.
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Virtual dissertation groups, redux
Joshua Smart (SIU-Edwardsville) asked me to share this announcement: Virtual Dissertation Groups are back for Fall 2022. Open sign-ups through Wednesday, September 7th at www.jasmartphilosophy.com/virtual-dissertation-groups. What it is: Virtual Dissertation Groups is a free service for those currently working on their doctoral dissertations in philosophy departments (or philosophy of science or the like). Since 2014, VDG has connected…
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Great moments in obscure rock ‘n’ roll: Gong, “I Never Glid Before,” 1973
Eclectic progressive rock band, that continues to this day, this came from their period of relative (albeit modest) success:
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Blast from the past: Graduate students afraid to support the open letter in defense of academic freedom
Back in early 2021. (Addendum: the original open letter is now available here.)
Jacob Barrett, Ideal and Non- Ideal Theory (Cambridge University Press, 2026) Part of the Elements in Political Philosophy series. Permanently…