March 2024
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“Open Doors Academy” at University of Pittsburgh this summer
MOVING TO FRONT FROM MARCH 11: A reader points out that the definition of who is eligible has been broadened (see under "Who?"), to explicitly take account of economic disadvantage, and to remove references to some of the now legally dubious categories (e.g., race). The deadline is coming up, so apply if you're interested! It's
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Great moments in obscure rock ‘n’ roll: Grannie, “Leaving,” 1971
LAST POSTED SEPTEMBER 14, 2019 This is one of the very first obscure numbers I posted several years ago, but it's such a great tune by a forgotten British band that I'm putting it up front again (a mix of Blind Faith and Traffic, as it were):
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Illinois makes bid for two tenured faculty at Syracuse (UPDATE: they have accepted!)
MOVING TO FRONT FROM MARCH 7–UPDATED The Department of Philosophy at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has made senior offers to two tenured philosophers at Syracuse University: Luvell Anderson (philosophy of language, philosophy of race, aesthetics) and Verena Erlenbusch-Anderson (political philosophy, contemporary European philosophy) (the latter offer is joint with Political Science at Illinois).
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Philosopher Leif Wenar on effective (i.e., short-term, measurable) altruism
A pretty wicked takedown, but basically right. It turns out even the emphasis on short-term measurable effects involves bad measurements. An excerpt: Where [Toby] Ord was earnest, [Will] MacAskill was shameless. “HOW YOU CAN SAVE HUNDREDS OF LIVES” is the name of a chapter in his pitch book for EA. The book tells you that
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“Not everything is about gender”
Katha Pollitt, the longtime feminist critic and commentator at The Nation, on the latest blather from Judith Butler (in The Atlantic, not The Nation, which tends to tread rather lightly on this topic); an excerpt: The central idea of Who’s Afraid of Gender? is that fascism is gaining strength around the world, and that its weapon
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Fallout from St. Norbert’s mass firing of humanities junior faculty
In the wake of this, I've heard from a number of prominent moral and political philosophers who have now cancelled speaking engagements (including for their Killeen Lecture series) at St. Norbert College to protest the shabby treatment of the humanities, including philosophy. Kudos to them! The students are also up in arms. Let's see if
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On retiring
An apt comment, from the earlier thread, from philosopher Paul Guyer (recently emeritus at Brown University) that deserves special notice: We have it good in philosophy and other humanities fields: retiring does not necessitate the end of research and writing, as it might for natural scientists dependent on maintaining a lab, including continuing to get
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Talk about having a change of heart
From NeoNazi to observant Jew!
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Epiphenomenalism about consciousness
Philosopher Helen Yetter-Chappell sets out the case.
[…] America’s turn towards “competitive authoritarianism,” and the prospects for recov… on Why I fear things will end badly for…