August 2022
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AFA opposes mandatory “diversity” statements in appointments and promotion
Quite rightly, as we have discussed before. An excerpt from the AFA statement: Academics seeking employment or promotion will almost inescapably feel pressured to say things that accommodate the perceived ideological preferences of an institution demanding a diversity statement, notwithstanding the actual beliefs or commitments of those forced to speak. This scenario is inimical to…
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Free online lecture and seminar series on Chinese and comparative philosophy from East China Normal University
There is a fuller description here. The lecture schedule is here, and the seminar schedule here. The lectures are 90-minute talks, the seminars are short-courses that run anywhere from 2-6 weeks, meeting 2-3 times a week for two hours.
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President of American Historical Association criticizes “presentism” in history scholarship and its usurpation by politics…
…singling out, inter alia, the 1619 Project, the misuse of history by conservative Supreme Court justices, ignoring the role of Africans in the slave trade, and a few other items. He has now issued an absurd and abject apology: My…Perspectives on History column has generated anger and dismay among many of our colleagues and members. I…
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In Memoriam: Terence Parsons (1939-2022)
ORIGINALLY POSTED JULY 30–UPDATED AGAIN Well-known for his work in philosophy of language and metaphysics, Professor Parsons was emeritus at UCLA, where he spent the last twelve years of his career. He taught before that at the University of Illinois at Chicago, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and the University of California at Irvine. …
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Great moments in obscure rock ‘n’ roll: Sensational Alex Harvey Band, “Midnight Moses,” 1972
Scottish hard rock band that emerged out of the ashes of "Tear Gas" (a band we have featured before), they were fairly successful by the mid-1970s in the UK, but never got much notice in the U.S. This strong number comes from their very first album:
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California’s ban on state employee travel using state funds to the benighted states…
MOVING TO FRONT FROM AUGUST 17–UPDATED, AND COMMENTS ARE OPEN FOR FURTHER DISCUSSION …has implications for the academic freedom of faculty as well. Suppose a faculty member needs to do lab or other in-person work with a colleague in one of the benighted states, and ordinarily they could utilize allocated research money for this travel. …
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Would you take an immortality pill?
John Martin Fischer (UC Riverside) discusses the question at Brain in a Vat.
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The first FAR is out…
…and there are only 272 applicants for law teaching positions! Since this year is, I expect, going to have even more schools searching than last year, this will be a great year to be a job seeker. I do wonder whether the second FAR distribution won't have more resumes than usual. 272 is very low.…
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Honoraria for Zoom talks?
Philosopher Peter Vallentyne (Missouri) writes: In 2014, you had some useful discussion of the role of honoraria for philosophy talks. I’m now wondering about whether people think that honoraria (e.g., $100-$300) should be paid for non-recorded virtual (e.g., Zoom) philosophy talks to other, roughly peer, philosophy departments. On the one hand, there are no travel-time…
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Blast from the past: megalomaniacs in M&E?
A discussion back in 2004.
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Canadian judges covering for other Canadian judge excorciated
Leslie Green (emeritus, Queen's & Oxford) comments. (Earlier coverage here and here.)
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Have things really changed in philosophy since the 1990s when it comes to publication pressure and narrowness of specialization?
On the earlier thread, philosopher Gary Kemp (Glasgow) asks: When I was coming up in the 1990s, the complaints were: Pressure/requirements to publish, and overspecialisation. I take it that the readers here think this has grown worse. What sort of evidence do we have? This is a good question, and I'll open it for discussion. …
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Law professors ranked by h-index (Google Scholar) (CORRECTED)
MOVING TO FRONT, ORIGINALLY POSTED AUGUST 1–CORRECTED (three errors of omission from the first version: Bernard Black, Martha Fineman, and Nuno Garoupa) I recently came across a ranking of 1,000 living chemists (link fixed) based on something like their h-index ("The h-index, or Hirsch index, measures the impact of a particular scientist rather than a…
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Former Delta flight attendant sues after being fired for attacking Trump as a racist on her Facebook page
The amazing part is that she has to sue on grounds of race discrimination, since private employees have no legal protection in the U.S. from being sanctioned by their employer for speech on matters of public interest. (A public employee has some protection on this score–see the discussion of the Pickering test here.) Faculty at…
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The American system of legalized bribery of public officials
Many folks have puzzled about the behavior of the nominally Democratic Senator from Arizona, Kryrsten Synema, but I suspect in most cases the explanation involves payoffs known as campaign contributions.
Jacob Barrett, Ideal and Non- Ideal Theory (Cambridge University Press, 2026) Part of the Elements in Political Philosophy series. Permanently…