February 2023
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The political economy of the academy and the decline of the humanities
This New Yorker essay on the decline of the humanities is getting lots of comment on social media; an excerpt: According to Robert Townsend, the co-director of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences’ Humanities Indicators project, which collects data uniformly but not always identically to internal enrollment figures, from 2012 to 2020 the number of graduated…
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“The Workbench”
Philosopher Nathan Ballantyne interviews other philosophers about their writing practices and habits.
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Katha Pollitt on the “kinder, gentler” Roald Dahl fiasco (with a guest appearance by the Orwellian “Inclusivity Ambassadors”!)
Apt and cutting, as usual; an excerpt: You may have read that Roald Dahl’s classic tales have been altered to be, well, nicer. Because as we all know, niceness is what Roald Dahl is all about. Forget the misanthropy, physical disgust, and delight in transgression and violence and extravagance that give his stories bite and…
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What happened to the Twitter maniacs from a couple of years ago?
The good news is that many of them have left academia (e.g., this one, this one, and this one), some self-destructing in a way consistent with their online antics, others just failing to find academic positions. Alas, some of the juvenile jackasses remain in the academy, at least for now. Let me add that the…
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Florida Philosophical Association statement on the attack on the universities by Viktor DeSantis
Here, it's a good statement. An excerpt: The professoriate stands accused, by politicians, of “indoctrinating” students. Like Socrates (famously, and falsely, accused of “corrupting the youth” and “impiety”), we teach our students to think critically about common wisdom, to question authority, and to welcome fresh perspectives and ideas–even when doing so results in discomfort. We…
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The sociology of police violence, continued: the killing of Tyre Nichols in Memphis
Illuminating, as usual, from sociologist Randall Collins. (Thanks to Howard Berman for the pointer.)
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The “Login Project”
Podcast interviews with philosophers from underrepresented groups who do logic and/or formal philosophy. (Thanks to Richard Kimberly Heck for the pointer.)
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Temple Philosophy faculty statement of support for striking graduate students
The University has been playing pretty vicious hardball with the striking students (e.g., pulling their health insurance, demanding they now pay tuition), but the strike continues, no doubt because the average annual salary of graduate student TAs is about $19,500, which is astonishingly low. The statement of support from the Temple philosophers is below the…
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Heidegger the Nazi, redux
An illuminating review of a new book by the intellectual historian Richard Wolin; an excerpt: Heidegger in Ruins draws on the work of a range of historians to present the by-now familiar story of Weimar’s reactionary modernists who attacked democracy and supported dictatorship. But four other elements of the book are new and important, especially in…
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Blast from the past: What is cancel culture?
Back in 2020, a useful substantive characterization.
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The debate over requiring the LSAT (or some other admissions test) continues…
…despite the last proposal being rebuffed. As the NYT notes: The association is considering dropping that requirement, and letting each law school decide for itself whether tests are necessary. Opponents and supporters of the change both make arguments on behalf of diversity — a sensitive subject in the field of law, which is disproportionately white.…
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Viktor DeSantis comes for all the public universities in Florida, for real now!
MOVING TO FRONT FROM FEBRUARY 24–UPDATED Here's the proposed legislation; the new bits are underlined. Not all of it is outrageous, but most of it is: e.g., The Board of Trustees is responsible for faculty appointments, and need not consult the existing faculty. It's fair to say Humboldt did not inspire this vision of the…
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Great moments in obscure rock ‘n’ roll: The Move, “When Alice Comes Back to the Farm,” live on Beat Club, 1971
ORIGINALLY POSTED AUGUST 19, 2017 The English band "The Move" enjoyed some success in Britain and Europe in the late 1960s and early 1970s; its front men, Roy Wood and (from 1970) Jeff Lynne subsequently went on to great fame and fortune with the Electric Light Orchestra later in the 1970s. Although The Move began as more of a pop…
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The evolution of the CV
This is interesting.
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Is there a right to sex?
Philosopher Raja Halwani (School of the Art Institute, Chicago) discusses at Brain in a Vat.
Georgy Maksimovich pointed me to this article in Russian: https://novayagazeta.ru/articles/2026/05/25/antisovetskie-filosofskie-kontratseptsii