May 2023
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What if the American Academy of Arts & Sciences returns to honoring faculty *exclusively* for scholarly achievement…
…rather than membership in professional networks (e.g., "Christian philosophers," "decision theorists," "Kant scholars," "friends of Sally"), or demographic diversity. Over the years, I have been pretty good at identifying those who should be elected on the merits. For example, on my 2010 list of "sins of omission," most have since been elected, although I'm still…
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New bill making its way through Texas legislature would preserve “tenure in name only”…
…or a kind of pseudo-tenure, as Keith Whittington explains: Section 3(c) defines the property interest in tenure as a single year salary. This is designed to allow university to fire tenured faculty without good cause so long as it pays out a single year salary. A mockery of meaningful tenure… And then we have terms…
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Masks actually work for reasons we have long understood
This essay makes an important point: For masks, are randomized trials an appropriate way of evaluating a basic engineered safety system in the first place? We don’t rely on such trials for seat belts, bike helmets or life jackets, and the oft-cited randomized trial of parachutes is an old running joke. Why is that so hilarious?…
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Ernest Lepore (Rutgers) talks about philosophy of language, slurs and other topics…
…at Robinson's Podcast.
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What philosophical ideas should non-philosophers know about?
Philosopher Iskra Fileva posed this nice question on FB, and I thought it would be interesting to pose it here for a wider audience. Professor Fileva asked her friends to pick just "three top" ideas, but I'm happy if readers want to propose more than three. From many years of teaching philosophy to law students…
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Great moments in obscure rock ‘n’ roll: Tin House, “Be Good and Be Kind” (1971)
ORIGINALLY POSTED JANUARY 14, 2017 This hard rock/blues rock trio came out of Florida, their debut album, from which this tune comes, produced by Rick Derringer. The guitarist Floyd Radford was, alas, hired away by Edgar Winter not long after the first album (he subsequently played with Johnny Winter as well). But this is one of several…
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Scharp from Twente to Illinois/Urbana
Kevin Scharp (philosophy of language, philosophy of science, philosophy of artificial intelligence, ethics), currently at the University of Twente, has accepted appointment as Professor of Philosophy at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, beginning 2023-24. He was previously Professor of Philosophy at Ohio State University, and Reader in Philosophy at the University of St Andrews. This…
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Someone actually read hundreds of mostly unmoderated blog comments…
…and wrote about what they reveal about the sociology of the philosophy profession. It took real courage to do this, given the first and fifth laws of cyber-dynamics! (Thanks to Cora Diamond for the pointer.)
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How to de-escalate confrontations…
…for lawyers and citizens, via lawprof Walter Effross (American). Some good techniques!
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Philosopher Rachel Barney (Toronto) discusses the Sophists…
…at Robinson's Podcast.
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Blast from the past: “On New York bluntness”
Back in 2017.
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“Philosophy in the Open” from the Open University
Philosopher Dan Cavedon-Taylor from the Open University writes: A new online exhibition is being launched today on the Open University Digital Archive. Philosophy in the Open: The OU Philosophy Media Archive, contains over 30 hours of footage of interviews and debates between some of the most celebrated mid-to-late 20th century British philosophers (readers may be…
Indeed that remark resonates with our topic, but note that it comes from a very early and never published essay.…