November 2022
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$1.7 billion to rename UC Hastings?
That would be a tad expensive! The lawsuit cites an 1878 agreement with the state of California to create and fund the law school, which promised Hastings’ heirs $100,000, plus interest, should the school ever “cease to exist.” One hundred forty-four years later, that would amount to $1.7 billion, the San Francisco Chronicle has reported.…
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“Do the guilty deserve punishment?”
John Martin Fischer (UC Riverside) takes on the moral responsibility skeptics at Brain in a Vat.
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The threat to academic freedom in teaching and research from the “woke” thought police, an ongoing saga
A biologist at Williams College recounts her experience: We each have our own woke tipping point—the moment you realize that social justice is no longer what we thought it was, but has instead morphed into an ugly authoritarianism. For me that moment came in 2018, during an invited speaker talk, when the religious scholar Reza Aslan…
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The “glories” of Empire
A useful reminder: Elkins’s catalog of British interrogation methods is extensive and horrifying: inserting needles under fingernails (Malaya); stuffing oil-soaked sand into a man’s mouth (Palestine); inserting “gun barrels, knives, snakes, vermin, sticks, and hot eggs up men’s rectums and into women’s vaginas” (Kenya); pouring large quantities of water up someone’s nose (Palestine); applying electric…
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“Operant conditioning” via Twitter (or “Twitter poisoning”)
I thought this was interesting and perceptive: Behavioral changes occur as a side effect of something called operant conditioning, which is the underlying mechanism of social media addiction. This is the core mechanism analogous to the role alcohol plays in alcoholism. In early operant conditioning, pioneered by famous behaviorists like B.F. Skinner, animals were…
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How Birkbeck senior management wrecked the finances of the university
This is a damning expose, and suggests that the only people losing their jobs should be the Vice-Chancellor and his management team; an excerpt: Published accounts show that at least £35 million of free cash flow has been spent on the acquisition and refurbishment of new buildings since 2016, when the EU referendum signalled forthcoming…
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All but one of the delusional 2020 election deniers running to be in charge of their state’s elections lost…
…which is hopeful news. That includes the maniac in Arizona, and others in other swing states. The only one who won is in a solidly Repug state, Indiana.
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“Effective [sic] Altruists” treat girls like “meat” just like guys who don’t posture so much
I think that's a fair summary of this: EA circles…are widely incestous where people mix their work life (in EA cause areas), their often polyamorous love life and social life in one amalgomous mix without strict separations. This is the default status quo. This means that if you’re a reasonably attractive woman entering an EA…
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What’s going on at the University of San Diego School of Law?
This essay notes a number of retirements, including some surprising ones, like the constitutional law scholar Steven Smith. (Larry Alexander, who is 79, is a less surprising retirement, although he is unquestionably the person singularly responsible for making USD a nationally recognized law faculty. He has also been badly treated in recent years, as I…
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Great moments in obscure rock ‘n’ roll: The Marmalade, “I See the Rain,” 1967
ORIGINALLY POSTED JUNE 4, 2016 Reportedly Jimi Hendrix's favorite single of 1967, it flopped in the UK, though this Scottish band went on to have a number of hits (mostly in the UK) that were decidedly more sugary pop than this terrific psychedelic number:
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University of California academic workers (TAs, post-docs etc.) may strike
MOVING TO FRONT FROM NOVEMBER 10–AN INTERESTING DISCUSSION OF WHAT FACULTY SHOULD DO IF TAs GO ON STRIKE; OTHER COMMENTS WELCOME Inflation and cost of living are looming large, although I don't see graduate TAs getting 54k per year, but as a bargaining position, it's probably good to aim high. An LA Times piece here. …
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Why did the Democrats do relatively well: the Michigan experience
A longtime reader in Michigan shared these interesting observations: Democratic (both in the party affiliation and strict senses) politicians did particularly well in Michigan. All state-wide offices (Governor, Attorney General, Secretary of State) went to the Democratic candidates. Democrats have a (narrow) majority in the State House and State Senate. This is the first time…
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The study of philosophy in law schools, and JD/PhD programs in the U.S. (and elsewhere), 2022 edition
This follows up on a 2017 post on this topic, which takes as its starting point the 2017 PGR section on the study of philosophy in law schools. Some terminology: by "general jurisprudence," I mean the core philosophical questions about the nature of law, the relationship between law and morality, and the nature of legal…
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More on Professor Hay’s Twitter misrepresentation of Professor Byrne at the PPE conference in New Orleans
A propos this, philosopher Chris Surprenant (who was also at the session) makes the following interesting point on Twitter: What should be getting the most attention — and it's not — is that the content of her tweet was addressed in the q&a and Hay acknowledged that she was mistaken. But then she left the…
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Graduate programs in philosophy advertising in the blogosphere
Students periodically ask me about American PhD programs that advertise on other philosophy-related blogs. For the obvious reasons, mediocre programs do not advertise here. Not all the programs that advertise elsewhere are mediocre, but many of them clearly are. Proceed with caution!
The phrase ‘Does the fact’ naturally invites howls of derision: it’s a fact that every child knows that the Japanese…