January 2024
-
American gun craziness, aided and abetted by Supreme Court craziness
Law professor Eric Segall comments. The Governor of Texas is currently defying the Supreme Court, it's time for civilized governors in civilized states to ignore the Supreme Court's deranged Second Amendment jurisprudence and enact and enforce sensible gun control measures. (On the general topic of ignoring the Supreme Court, see this discussion.)
-
Budget crisis at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario
MOVING TO FRONT FROM YESTERDAY–SOME INTERESTING COMMENTS, MORE WELCOME Somewhat sensational coverage here, but it seems the cause is pretty clear: the Ontario government cut tuition by 10% and then froze it at 2019-20 levels (and there's been significant inflation since, of course), and international enrollments have not recovered since the worst of the pandemic. …
-
Blast from the past: Is “secular” moral theory really relatively young?
Back in 2009, with reader discussion.
-
In Memoriam: Marshall S. Shapo (1936-2023)
I only just learned of Professor Shapo's death in December. He was a longtime member of the law faculty at Northwestern University, where he was emeritus, and a leading scholar in the fields of torts and products liability. The Northwestern memorial notice is here.
-
Plagiarism vs. copyright infringement
An interesting point in this essay: Plagiarism…is normally understood as «[p]resenting work or ideas from another source as your own, with or without consent of the original author, by incorporating it into your work without full acknowledgement». This Oxford University definition goes hand in hand with definitions stated in various dictionaries that systematically define plagiarism as the…
-
Spring 2024 Virtual Dissertation Groups
Philosopher Joshua Smart asked me to share this announcement, which I'm happy to do: Spring Virtual Dissertation Groups Signups are open through Sunday, February 11th. To join, fill out a short survey at www.jasmartphilosophy.com/virtual-dissertation-groups. What it is: Virtual Dissertation Groups is a free service for those currently working on their doctoral dissertations in philosophy departments (or philosophy…
-
More on SCOTUS clerks and academia
A propos yesterday's post about the new half-million dollar signing bonuses for SCOTUS clerks and Professor Gordon's suggestion that this probably explains why we seem to be seeing fewer former SCOTUS clerks on the academic job market, Professor Sarah Lawsky (Northwestern) shared this useful graphs based on the data she collects on the rookie job…
-
Masters of Legal Studies at University of Chicago Law School
This is a great opportunity for PhD students in fields other than law whose dissertation work would benefit from legal study for a year. The ideal doctoral candidate should have completed coursework and just be embarking on dissertation work that has some connection to law. The program is also open to established scholars whose work…
-
What is it like to be a philosopher? Heather Browning (Southampton) edition…
…courtesy of Clifford Sosis.
-
On the intellectual habits of contemporary philosophers that render them vulnerable to mobbing and “cancellation”
Interesting and apt discussion by philosopher Joseph Heath. (Thanks to Chris Morris for the pointer.)
-
$500,000 is the new “norm” for signing bonuses for Supreme Court clerks
Wow! Perhaps some empirical legal studies scholars will examine whether hiring SCOTUS clerks really confers the appellate advantage some firms seem to think they do. UPDATE: Professor Jeff Gordon (Columbia) writes: Don't you think that one consequence of these lavish bonuses for Sup Ct clerks has been a marked fall off in the number of…
-
Great moments in rock ‘n’ roll covers: the Sex Pistols do Frank Sinatra
The original is slightly different, but the song is still recognizable in the Sex Pistols version:
-
“Hegelian Pragmatism”?
I'm skeptical, but Terry Pinkard is always worth reading on Hegel.
-
More on the campaign to suppress pro-Palestinian speech on campus
Apt comments from my law colleague Tom Ginsburg on a very foolish essay by a Penn law professor.
-
Most cited Anglophone books on Kant, Hegel, Marx, and Nietzsche
This is an update to an earlier effort to look at the most-cited philosophical books written in English on four major figures in the German tradition: Kant, Hegel, Marx, and Nietzsche. (The "philosophical" category is a bit harder to apply in the case of Marx, of course, since his major work concerned political economy, on…
Georgy Maksimovich pointed me to this article in Russian: https://novayagazeta.ru/articles/2026/05/25/antisovetskie-filosofskie-kontratseptsii