November 2022
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Great moments in obscure rock ‘n’ roll: Uriah Heep, “What Should Be Done,” 1971
Not quite as obscure as some other featured bands (although it is probably unknown to many younger readers), the British hard rock/progressive rock band Uriah Heep enjoyed considerable success in the UK, Northern Europe, Australia, Japan, and to some extent in the U.S. from roughly 1972-1976. This relatively "mellow" number that I've always liked comes…
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Jobs at selective liberal arts colleges and the expected decline in college enrollments in the coming years
At Philosopher's Cocoon, there is an interesting discussion of expected changes in enrollment patterns and whether that is in any way connected to a perception of fewer jobs at SLACs this fall. Comments are open there.
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The “sociology” of literary studies
Reader Scott Newstok called my attention to this very interesting LRB review essay of John Guillory's latest attempt to look at the history and organization of literary studies as a field. A brief excerpt: For Guillory, the pivotal development in the whole story was the arrival of ‘criticism’ as the dominant approach in the 1920s…
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Richard Marshall interviews David Hume…
…at 3:16 AM.
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Blast from the past: “Demolishing Gertrude Himmelfarb”
Way back in 2004.
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“Salt of the Earth,” a blacklisted 1954 movie, makes perfect Thanksgiving day entertainment…
…for those observing the American holiday today (originally posted in 2018): Based on an actual strike by Mexican-American workers against a zinc mining company, it is set in New Mexico, and uses actual mineworkers and their families in most of the main roles (including the male lead, Juan Chacon–his wife was played by a professional…
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Cornell’s statement on USNews.com rankings
I think they're not joining the boycott, but it's actually a bit ambiguous. Dean Ohlin makes many points I've made here, but then note the first sentence of his last paragraph (bold added): My own view is that the rankings distort academic decision-making, fail to adequately capture institutional quality, and create perverse incentives that are…
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Petition in support of tenure in the Florida public university system
Here. The petition is prompted by a proposed post-tenure review system. The basic problem with the proposal is that it eviscerates the due process protections that are supposed to attach to revocation of tenure: individual decision-makers (chairs, deans, etc.) have too much discretion in this process to deem a faculty member's performance "unsatisfactory," which can…
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Chicago is not joining the boycott
From Dean Miles's statement:
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UC Irvine Law will not cooperate with USNews.com rankings
Announcement here. This is a much riskier decision for Irvine than for Yale or Harvard, and perhaps signals that schools outside the top ranks will also boycott. (Thanks to Sameer Ashar for the pointer.)
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Blast from the past: Rosenberg on the threat to our self-understanding posed by neuroscience
Back in 2018, with reader discussion.
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American exceptionalism?
Here's a chart, make of it what you will: Country Homicide rate per 100,000 Covid deaths per 100,000 Per capita GDP GINI coefficient (higher=more inequality) Military expenditures per capita (2019) United States 4.96 326.90 $69,287 41.50 $2,224 United Kingdom 1.20 312.41 $47,334 35.10 $ 720 Ireland 0.87 164.87 $99,152 30.60 $ 228…
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Is it “effective” altruism to give money to Republicans?
SBF did, as well as to conservative Democrats.
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A boycott of USNews.com will only succeed if most law schools (not just top law schools) join it
The NYT story noted the other day foolishly invoked the nonsense category "top 14" in discussing schools that were declining to cooperate (UCLA's joining the boycott torpedoed that characterization). As UCLA Interim Dean Korobkin correctly noted, 80% of the input data is available to USNews.com without the cooperation of the schools. It will, however, be…
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Academic freedom and tenure
I spoke to United Campus Workers of Mississippi about the philosophy and mostly law of tenure and academic freedom, and then answered questions related to attacks on tenure and academic freedom in Missisisippi. The discussion was well-received, and faculty elsewhere might find it useful. There are a lot of basic facts about what tenure means,…
Georgy Maksimovich pointed me to this article in Russian: https://novayagazeta.ru/articles/2026/05/25/antisovetskie-filosofskie-kontratseptsii