September 2023
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Great moments in obscure rock ‘n’ roll: Sweetwater, “Why Oh Why,” 1968
This Los Angeles-based band (active in the late 1960s and early 1970s) was supposed to be the opening act at Woodstock, but got stuck in traffic, so they performed after Richie Havens (whose performance made the movie). This was the closing number of their debut album, and a nice one: Comments are open for those…
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A Lightly Comedic Primer on Personal Finance for Law Professors (Michael Simkovic)
Many graduates of elite law schools work in large corporate law firms either initially or after a clerkship. This requires law graduates to work closely with businesspeople, accountants, bankers, and other financial professionals. Those who have expertise in finance or accounting are at an advantage. Those who do not, but wish to succeed, quickly get…
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New “Technology Ethics” podcast
Philosopher Sven Nyholm (LMU Munich) writes: John Danaher (Senior Lecturer, University of Galway's Law School) and I–Sven Nyholm (Professor of the Ethics of AI, LMU Munich) – have just started a new podcast series on the ethics of technology, which will run for one season consisting of nine episodes: the "technology ethics podcast". The podcast…
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Where junior tenure-track faculty at the “top 20” PhD programs got their PhD, 2023-24 (corrected)
MOVING TO FRONT FROM SEPTEMBER 12–CORRECTED Here is where the current untenured tenure-track faculty in philosophy at the top twenty U.S. programs got their Ph.D. (or D.Phil.): 1. Harvard University (10) 2. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (7) 2. New York University (7) 4. Yale University (5) 5. Princeton University (4) 5. Rutgers University, New Brunswick…
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In Memoriam: JoAnne Epps (1951-2023)
A longtime law faculty member at Temple University–where she also served as Dean of the Law School, Provost, and, at the time of her death, Acting President–Professor Epps died suddenly and unexpectedly earlier this week. The NYT story about this tragic turn of events is here.
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What does “tenure” really mean in Australia?
With the bloodbath at ACU, and the dubious reasons given for it, one has to wonder whether having a "tenured appointment" at an Australian university means much or creates any meaningful legal rights or entitlements? Consider what happened at ACU: starting in 2019, philosophers were recruited, often from tenured positions around the world, to a…
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ACU’s rationalization for killing the Dianoia Institute of Philosophy and cutting back the other research Institutes
Since a lot of folks in Australia have been visiting the blog lately because of the coverage of the ACU disaster, I've been hearing from a lot of academics in fields other than philosophy. One sent me the "Thematic Review"–basically the hatchet document meant to justify dismantling the research Institutes: Download ACU Thematic Review of…
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Which law school has the strongest scholarly faculty?
It's that time of year for another amusing Internet poll: pairwise comparisons of the "top 40" law faculties. More than 60 choices. Have fun!
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In Memoriam: Gianni Vattimo (1936-2023)
A longtime professor at the University of Turin, where he was emeritus, Professor Vattimo was a leading exponent and defender of "postmodern" philosophy in Italy and in Europe, although somewhat less-known in the Anglosphere. There is an obituary in Italian here. Comments are open for remembrances from those who knew Professor Vattimo, or from those…
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Former Idaho law professor settles discrimination suit against law school for $750,000
Details here, including the interesting structure of the payout from the settlement.
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Blast from the past: Some observations about twitter, esp. philosophy-related twitter
Back in 2020, and still apt, alas. The only good news is Elon Musk seems to be destroying Twitter, so maybe it will go away?
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Is Politicization Endangering Higher Education? (Michael Simkovic)
In August I warned that a perennial anti-higher-education narrative that was resurfacing in the conservative press could soon go mainstream, as it did in the 2010s. According to this narrative, too many colleges (and law schools) are focusing on left-wing political indoctrination while charging students too much money and providing too little value in terms…
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In Memoriam: Michael Scriven (1928-2023)
Professor Scriven had an eclectic career that ranged widely in both topics and institutions. He wrote well-known papers on the philosophy of scientific explanation (including famous counter-examples to Hempel's covering law model of explanation), and later became a prominent figure in philosophy of education with his work on "evaluation." He taught during his long career…
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Fragments by Maimonides discovered in Cambridge University library
Story here. (Thanks to David Livingstone Smith for the pointer.)
Everything you say is true, but what is the alternative? I don’t think people are advocating a return to in-class…