May 2025
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Great moments in obscure blues that Led Zeppelin “borrowed”: Memphis Minnie and Kansas Joe McCoy, “When the Levee Breaks,” 1929
While poets, according to Harold Bloom, suffered from the anxiety attending the influence of earlier poets, Led Zeppelin suffered nothing similar, borrowing rather freely (and sometimes without attribution) from the American blues canon. The originals are often forgotten. Here's one, with the Zeppelin version below the fold:
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Apt remarks by economist Glenn Loury on the universities and their critics (like the imbecile Christopher Rufo)
Here: [T]hese universities, and Harvard is at the pinnacle of an exquisite system of intellectual production, are places of real mastery. That’s true in the sciences, the social sciences, and in the humanities. The people who get tenure at these institutions are custodians of the legacy of intellectual reflection and the production of ideas that…
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Harvard strips tenure from and fires embattled HBS psychologist Francesca Gino
Here. At one time, she was one of the five highest paid faculty at Harvard, earning one million dollars a year (business school professors are very good at ratcheting their salaries up!). I suppose so much money, which no doubt resulted from outside offers, could create a bad motive for producing striking experimental results no…
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Memorial events for Larry Sklar at the University of Michigan
Philosopher Laura Ruetsche writes: Next week we're having a few events in Larry Sklar's memory. One is a celebration of life held in Ann Arbor, June 5, with an option for zoom participation. Another is a June 6 workshop featuring talks by Larry'sstudents. All interested parties are welcome to attend either!
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Republican budget bill would eliminate Pell grant eligibility for about 20% of students who currently get them
Not surprising that the Republicans are doing this (they're having a lot of trouble being the "working class party," aren't they?), but in addition to creating financial distress for students it will prove another budgetary problem for many universities.
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Can there be a “theory of everything”?
Philosopher Stephan Hartmann comments.
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What are the Title VI obligations of universities with regard to speech critical of Zionism?
Everyone knows that the Trump Administration has failed to follow Title VI procedures, but what about the substantive requirements of Title VI? Law professor Ben Eidelson (Harvard) and Deborah Hellman (Virginia) examine the issue.
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On leaving America
The NYT put together a video about three Yale professors–two historians and philosopher Jason Stanley–who are leaving Trump’s America to go to the University of Toronto. I had repeatedly urged Jason to take the Toronto job, because of the direction this country is going, and because he himself had elicited abuse from Trump’s “communications” hatchet…
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The latest lawlessness by the Trumpistas against Harvard
The Department of Homeland Security informed Harvard that it can no longer enroll international students, and Harvard has sued for this brazen First Amendment violation and will seek, and get, a temporary restraining order against the government. What is extraordinary and frightening about the behavior of the miscreants in Washington DC is that they do…
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In Memoriam: Alasdair MacIntyre (1929-2025)
Professor MacIntyre, who was emeritus at the University of Notre Dame, wrote widely and influentialy in ethics and the history of ethics over his long career, which also included tenured teaching posts at Boston University, Duke University, Vanderbilt University, and Brandeis University, among other schools. There is a remembrance here and a link to an…
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My summer blogging quasi-hiatus has already begun…
…as readers may have inferred. There will continue to be posts, but not as frequently as in prior months. With lots of grading on the immediate horizon for me, I will also be even less responsive to email than before, but I still welcome suggestions, and will try to respond, if not right away.
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A federal judge in Boston finds that his order was defied by the Trumpistas
It sure sounds like it was. Now he needs to put some people in jail or levy fines on the defiant actors personally, or this will continue.
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Richard Marshall interviews Jeremy Bentham…
…at 3:16 AM.
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Blast from the past: Which journal’s book reviews have the most influence?
A poll, back in 2018. Although NDPR has been publishing fewer reviews in the last few years (although more this year), I still suspect they have the most impact for the reasons noted in the original post.
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An apt take-down of Anthony Appiah’s “Ethicist” column at the NYT…
…although the critique applies to lots of moral philosophy as well (which is also a moral etiquette manual for the bourgeosie). As the abstract at the start puts it: The New York Times advice column, where snitching liberal busybodies come to seek absolution, is more than a mere annoyance. In limiting our ethical considerations to…
Giovanni Molteni Tagliabue (Italy) Rationalized and Extended Democracy – The REDemo Project. Foreword by Gilberto Corbellini. Firenze University Press 2023.…