March 2025
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Stanley from Yale to Toronto
Jason Stanley (philosophy of language, epistemology, political philosophy), Professor of Philosophy at Yale University, has accepted a senior offer from the University of Toronto, where he will be three-quarters in the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy and one-quarter in the Department of Philosophy. Professor Stanley tells me the primary reason was the…
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Dandalet from Cambridge to Wisconsin
Sophia Dandelet (ethics, epistemology), Associate Professor of Philosophy at Cambridge University, has accepted a tenured appointment as Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
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Speaking of petty tyrants emboldened by Trump…
…immigration agents arrest U.S. citizen, then concoct phony warrants after-the-fact.
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A website for those “blowing the whistle” on abuses by Trump and Musk
It's been established by Senator Merkley (D-Oregon). I imagine it will get a lot of reports, just based on the few that are making their way into the media.
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“The Rise and Fall of the Mind-Body Problem”
Philosopher Katalin Balog comments.
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Galileo, Einstein, and the unexpected origins of relativity
Philosopher Sebastián Murgueitio Ramírez comments.
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Detentions and deportations of dubious legality at the US border
The reports keep coming in: the French scientist critical of Trump; elderly Indian green card holders; a Canadian actress seeking a work visa; the kidnapping of a US permanent resident by federal authorities because of his lawful political speech; and other horror stories. Some of these are the product of intentional political persecution of Palestinian…
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Paul Weiss capitulates…
…to "the mob boss," while Williams & Connolly defends Perkins Coie. Paul Weiss has disgraced itself, and Williams & Connolly, along with Perkins Coie and Covington & Burling, are the clear destinations of choice for the best law students who believe in the rule of law.
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Columbia University caves to Trump’s highway robbery
The full details are not yet available, but the capitulation includes agreeing to turn control of several departments over to a senior administrator–a move demanded for purely ideological reasons by the Trumpistas. Academic freedom is dead at Columbia, and the university has damaged all of higher education. It remains to be determined why capitulation instead…
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SUNY Fredonia to eliminate philosophy department and will terminate its sole remaining faculty member…
…Stephen Kershnar, whose constitutional and legal rights the university had been violating for some time. Philosopher Neil Feit tells me that Professor Lershnar, who has bee on paid leave for several years now, will be paid through August 2026. One hopes this move will add to the damages he wins in his lawsuit.
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Statement of constitutional law scholars on Trump’s unlawful threats against Columbia University
Here. Singatories include Federalist Society co-founder Steven Calabresi, libertarian Richard Epstein, and other leading conservative and liberal constitutional law scholars. The bottom line is that what the Trumpistas are doing is completely illegal…and yet, rumors are Columbia may comply.
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University of California system ends the use of “diversity statements” in hiring…
…although it's pathetic that the NY reports this as though the only critics of their use were "conservativdes," when the only serious critics were defenders of free speech and academic freedom. (The benighted Professor Soucek from UC Davis, based on the quote in the article, still professes to believe that mandated action in accordance with…
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A strong statement by the President of Princeton on the attack on Columbia University…
…and academic freedom. We need more of this making of the case for American research universities. Of course, Princeton has the luxury of perhaps being the only such school in the country that could actually survive loss of federal money! But all the research universities need to band together and lobby the Republican Senators and…
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Speaking of misconduct by authoritarian regimes: the crisis in Serbia continues
I received the following from Serbian academics, and I hope others will join me in signing: We write to you as members of the academic community, gravely concerned about the escalating repression targeting participants in peaceful students-led protests that have now persisted for four months. From the very beginning, students and citizens have faced systematic…
Georgy Maksimovich pointed me to this article in Russian: https://novayagazeta.ru/articles/2026/05/25/antisovetskie-filosofskie-kontratseptsii