July 2025
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RFK Jr’s plan to kill us all: CDC edition
The latest. I have been chatting with colleagues at a number of universities in civilized countries, and they report many American "refugees" seeking shelter. There are lots of reasons to do so, of course, but the destruction of public health is especially frightening.
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Lateral hires in law with tenure or on tenure-track, 2024-25
These are non-clinical/non-LRW appointments that will take effect in summer or fall 2025 (except where noted); (new additions will be in bold.) Last year's list is here. This is the final iteration of the 2024-25 list; a 2025-26 list will begin in August. *Christine Abely (property, contracts, international business transactions) from New England Law…
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In Memoriam: Paul Kalligas (1948-2025)
Philosopher Stephen Menn (McGill University) writes: Paul Kalligas, Παύλος Καλλιγάς (1948-2025) [was] the leading scholar of Greek philosophy in Greece itself and an inspiration to a whole generation of younger (although no longer so young) Greek scholars. He was most famous for his modern Greek translation and commentary on Plotinus' Enneads, the work of decades:…
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It’s official: Wiley’s Journal of Political Philosophy is kaput
Announcement here. All because they fired the respected founding editor, Bob Goodin, which led to mass resignations and the establishment of a new open access journal. Hopefully this will help deter similar conduct by other publishers.
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Trump successfully extorts Columbia University
This is a useful summary of the "deal,"which includes some of the earlier demands (such as violating the academic freedom rights of certain programs to design their programs and hire faculty without outside interference), as well as less outrageous requirements, like compliance with federal non-discrimination laws in hiring and admissions. This time, however, the "deal"…
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Advertising update
The top spots are now booked for September, but there is one top spot available each month the rest of the fall. There is at least one 2nd or 3rd spot available each month in the fall as well. Top spots are $600/month, 2nd spots are $500/month, 3rd spots are $450/month, with a 10% discount…
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In Memoriam: Margaret Boden (1936-2025)
Professor Boden, who spent most of her academic career at the University of Sussex, was a leading figure in cognitive science, who wrote extensively on computational models of the mind, on artificial intelligence, and on computational creativity, among other topics, engaging regularly with philosophy and philosophers. Comments are open for remembrances from those who knew…
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Does your university/college have a faculty hiring freeze?
MOVING TO FRONT (ORIGINALLY POSTED JUNE 18)–MORE INFORMATION WELCOME I have been posting periodically about the Trump war on higher education, which has led to a number of faculty hiring freezes that I have heard about: the University of California system, Northwestern, for example. Please post here about hiring freeze announcements at your higher education…
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The “concentration camp” in Florida
Worth reading. (Thanks to Henry Cohen for the pointer.)
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How to increase citations to your scholarship and improve article placement?
Join Twitter! As one suspected… Professors Nyarko and Pozen write: [T]he abnormally large Twitter bump that we detect in law [compared to other fields] deserves further inquiry. The discrepancy is not driven by differences in citation rates across disciplines, because we benchmark our results against typical citation rates within the field. Two hypotheses strike us…
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The worst President in the history of the United States has now ruled for six months
No one else compares. Consider what the monster child has done in just six months: Trump pardoned all the stormtrooper rioters of January 6, 2021, including many who had assaulted law enforcement. Trump purged the FBI, Justice Department and other parts of the civil service of competent professionals, in favor of hack loyalists. Trump appointed…
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More signs of the times: Duke Medicine to cut salaries of tenured faculty who do not meet certain external grant thresholds
Duke Medicine is, by all metrics, a major biomedical research center, so this is a quite dramatic move, coming at a time when, of course, NIH grants are much harder to get due to the Trumpistas. If this doesn't produce a revolt and exodus at Duke, expect this practice to spread. (Thanks to Owen Flanagan…
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Are numbers real?
Eklund vs. Kodsi, at The Philosopher's Magazine.
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Two philosophers elected to the British Academy
They are: Hasok Chang (Cambridge) and David Papineau (King's College, London).
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Great moments in obscure rock ‘n’ roll: Tony Joe White, “Polk Salad Annie,” 1969
The original "swamp rocker" (a mix of rockabilly, blues, and soul), Louisianan Tony Joe White had one top hit in his career, from his debut album, which he here performs on British TV in 1970: Please post links to other Tony Joe White favorites in the comments.
Georgy Maksimovich pointed me to this article in Russian: https://novayagazeta.ru/articles/2026/05/25/antisovetskie-filosofskie-kontratseptsii