April 2025
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Law prof Michael Dorf on Trump’s lawlessness
A remarkable catalogue, that deserves to be shared widely. Unless the courts, the other branches of government and civil society get serious about this soon, we're doomed. (As Professor Dorf notes, only one law professor of the 35 that the NYT consulted tried to make excuses for this orgy of lawlessness–Adrian Vermeule of Harvard [see,…
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Federal judge frees Columbia philosophy student unlawfully detained by the Trumpistas
Good, but now it remains to be seen what the next move of the fascists will be.
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Art of the aphorism, part 2
"We are so used to disguising ourselves from others that we end by disguising ourselves from ourselves." –La Rochefoucauld
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In Memoriam: Karl Ameriks (1947-2025)
Professor Ameriks, a longtime member of the philosophy faculty at the University of Notre Dame, where he was emeritus, was an internationally renowned expert on Kant and German Idealism. Comments are open for remembrances from those who knew Professor Ameriks or from those who wish to comment on the significance of his work. (Thanks to…
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DOE’s Office of Civil Rights finds Penn in violation of Title IX…
…for letting a trans woman compete on the women's swimmng team. It's not clear to me what "investigation" was actually undertaken, but at least the proposed remedies do not involve cutting off federal funding for health and science research! In the annals of th Trump war on universities, this is the least egregious bit of…
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Now the National Science Foundation starts cancelling grants
A report from Northwestern University, but I don't know how widespread this is yet. The targets at Northwestern are all "DEI"-related in some sense or others. Are cancellations reaching beyond that, and is this affecting other schools? Links to more information welcome in the comments.
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Virtual dissertation groups, 2025
From Joshua Smart: Virtual Dissertation Groups (VDG) is shifting to a summer schedule. Open sign ups for this summers’ groups go through Saturday, May 10th 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 of science or the like). Since…
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Art of the aphorism
"Neither the sun nor death can be looked at steadily." –La Rochefoucauld
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The media’s mostly incompetent coverage of Trump’s illegal rampage against the universities
Josh Marshall makes the key point, using the New York Times as his target: I wanted to point your attention to this recent article from the Times on the battle between Trump and Harvard University. It captures the Times’ feature quality. It contains good factual detail, but it radiates what I can only describe as a…
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Consciousness and the allegedly “unified, objective” world
Philosopher Christian List comments.
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Great moments in obscure rock ‘n’ roll: Rory Gallagher, “Bullfrog Blues,” live in 1976 and 1980
ORIGINALLY POSTED AUGUST 13, 2016 From the band Taste in the late 1960s, through his solo performances into the 1990s, the great Irish guitarist Rory Gallagher was a "big name" throughout Europe, but never got the same level of recognition on this side of the Atlantic. A fabulous rock, blues and slide guitarist, as well as…
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More on the capricious deportation of human beings to the El Salvador concentration camp
A striking account from NYT columnist Michelle Goldberg.
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New APA Prize in ethics in honor of Stephen J. White…
…who taught philosophy at Northwestern and died tragically young.
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What if AI is making our lives worse?
Philosopher Benjamin Mitchell-Yellin discusses.
I don’t think it’s that the philosophical debates will become irrelevant in your example, so much that your example demonstrates…