November 2022
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The end of the LSAT is coming
It seems like the writing is on the wall. The real driving force, that we're seeing across multiple fields, is concern that standardized testing hurts "diversity." If in fact the LSAT becomes optional, the next question will be what the masters of legal education at USNews.com decide to do. If they decide to just increase…
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2022 U.S. midterms post-mortem
So the big news is there was no Republican wave (although the Repugs will probably take the House), and the polls (which in 2016 and 2020) underestimated support for Trump and sometimes Republicans more generally, this time overstated their support. The polls had the Pennsylvania Senate race basically tied, but in the end Fetterman, the…
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Blast from the past: Observations on philosophy by a journalist at Scientific American
Back in 2017, with a lively discussion in the comments.
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Conference organizers may want to think twice before inviting Professor Carol Hay (U Mass/Lowell) to their event
This bizarre case of unprofessional behavior occurred while I was in Rome, and so I only just caught up on this nonsense in the last day. On November 4, philosopher Alex Byrne (MIT) presented a paper at the PPE conference in New Orleans; here is the abstract: Patriarchy and the Original PositionIf politics is the…
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The end of law Twitter?
Lawprof Heidi Feldman (Georgetown) is maintaining a list of law faculty and lawyers migrating to Mastodon in the wake of the Musk takeover of Twitter. In a rather short time, there are more than 500 migrants! Could this be the end of law Twitter? Of Twitter? Will Mastodon prove better, or will it also turn…
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Kathleen Stock reflects on last year’s events
Interesting essay. This was especially striking: I still face the challenge of dealing with the fact that sections of my former profession and the press have a vested interest in winning the disinformation war about what a heinous villain I must be. Though I tend to insulate myself well from idiots, in occasional moments of…
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A philosophically substantial work on the history of Marxism?
A longtime reader writes: I'm wondering if you — or even your readers, if you think it'd be fitting to pose the below question to them — could recommend a history of marxism that could serve as an alternative to Kolakowski's comprehensive yet superficial Main Currents. Is there another work out there that covers as much ground but is more philosophically in-depth?…
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AI bots based on Herzog and Zizek…
…in "conversation"! Yikes! (Thanks to Dean Rowan for the pointer.)
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The search for a new Oxford Professor of Philosophy of Law
A couple of readers have been asking what the story is on the search (which I alluded to here), given the situation for jurisprudence at Oxford. The bad news is that the best younger scholar working in general jurisprudence in the UK did not even make the short-list. The good news is that at least…
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In Memoriam: Dmitry Karshtedt (1977-2022)
I'm sorry to report the untimely passing of Professor Karshtedt, a well-regarded patent law scholar, who was recently tenured at George Washington University. There are memorials here, here, and here. (Thanks to Sean Seymore for the information.)
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What happens in illiberal societies where zealots reign supreme
Iran for instance, where a PhD student in philosophy was murdered by the local thugs of the state. Please remember the Revolutionary Association of Women of Afghanistan! (Thanks to Ruchira Paul for the pointer, and Reza Hadisi on Twitter for calling the issue to my attention.)
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Meloni, the new Italian Prime Minister
MOVING TO FRONT FROM NOVEMBER 3–SOME INTERESTING COMMENTS, MORE WELCOME I've been in Rome over the last ten days (seminars and guest lectures, mostly at Roma Tre University, but also Rome Sapienza), where the weather has been remarkably mild (another "triumph" of global warming). Meloni had her vote of confidence in parliament while I was…
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Chomsky on Dylan
A propos this, reader David Lobina calls my attention to this apt observation by Chomsky: Just the other day I was sitting in a radio studio waiting for a satellite arrangement abroad to be set up. The engineers were putting together interviews with Bob Dylan from about 1966-7 or so (judging by the references), and…
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In Memoriam: Milton Fisk (1932-2022)
A longtime member of the Department of Philosophy at Indiana University at Bloomingon, where he was emeritus, Professor Fisk passed away in September. He began his career working in metaphysics and philosophy of science, but soon shifted his interests to moral, political and social philosophy within a Marxist framework. The Indiana meomrial notice is here.…
Then my question is how many of ordinary mathematicians also qualify as artists of their profession…