Leiter Reports: A Philosophy Blog

News and views about philosophy, the academic profession, academic freedom, intellectual culture, and other topics. The world’s most popular philosophy blog, since 2003.

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August 2025

  • The latest on the Amy Wax case

    Here.  The IHE article on this is misleading (typical of IHE!):   the federal judge dismissed only the discrimination claims (which seemed to me preposterous), and since that was the only federal law claim at issue, the federal court declined to take up the state law breach of contract claims.  But state law breach of contract is Wax's…

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  • Federal court dismisses Amy Wax’s discrimination claims…

    …and declines to take up the state law breach of contract claims, which are certainly the strongest ones as I noted originally.   I would assume she will file a breach of contract action against Penn in state court.

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  • Law school applicants increase

    Blog Emperor Caron collects the details from LSAC, but as he notes the Trump changes to federal student loans may change this situation significantly.  If students cannot get federal loans for the total cost of three years of legal education, they will have to turn to the private loan market, which will no doubt price…

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  • Trump’s paramilitary forces

    This deserves more notice, and if the Democrats manage to retake Congress, they need to dismantle these stormtrooper outfits: I see the evisceration of due process. I see detention centers being built where it is extraordinarily hard for lawyers and families to reach the people inside. I see men in masks refusing to identify themselves…

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  • Blog service providers–advice sought

    So Typepad, the blog service provider I have used for many yeras, is shutting down on September 30 of this year.   The domain name, which I own, namely http://www.leiterreports.com, will remain unchanged, but I'll need to move the blog content to a new service provider.  I'm curious whether readers have any informed opinoins about (1)…

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  • Jack White, redux

    I heard from lots of readers after my confession of not knowing who Mr. White (born Gillis) was, but suffice it to say, now I am informed!  While I can't say I care for The White Stripes (his first band with his ex-wife), I still admire his firm response to the monster child.  Philosopher Robert…

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  • Penelope Maddy interviewed…

    …by Nathan Ballantyne at The Workbench.

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  • In Memoriam: Harry Deutsch (1942-2025)

    Emeritus at Illinois State University, Professor Detusch was a leading contributor to philosophical logic and cognate areas during his long career.  There is a memorial notice here, and do see the first comment by Nathan Salmon.  Comments are open for remembrances from those who knew Professor Detusch or for those who would like to comment…

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  • Chicago Alumni & Fellows on the law teaching market, 2025-26

    MOVING TO FRONT, ORIGINALLY POSTED AUGUST 6 This post is strictly for schools that expect to do hiring this year. In order to protect the privacy of our candidates, please e-mail me to get a copy of the narrative profiles of our candidates who are on the entry-level market this year and participating in the…

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  • Rock musician Jack White on Donald Trump

    I'd never heard of White prior to this, but kudos to this guy for pulling no punches with the monster child: 

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  • ABA Council on Legal Education tables proposal on doubling experiential credit hours (for now)

    That doesn't mean it's gone for good, but it's a hopeful development!  My earlier post got rather a lot of traction on social media, including among practitioners, so one may hope the Council is rethinking its approach.  And, of course, they must in light of the latest research.

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  • Experiential legal education: what does the evidence really show?

    This new empirical study by my colleague (and Dean) Adam Chilton, Peter Joy (Wash U/St. Louis), and Kyle Rozema (Northwestern) could not be more timely.  And if the ABA Council is actually responsive to evidence (that's a big "if") this would get them to change course. The paper uses data from ABA disclosures to study…

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  • More on the UChicago Humanities Division

    The last proposal from the Humanities Dean (noted here) met with a lot of pushback, so the Dean issued a revised plan, more in line with that a faculty committee had recommended:   "We will have a pause for all PhD admissions except for two departments with unique situations related to their previous pauses: Philosophy and…

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  • Blast from the past: best/most important books in ethics of the last 200 years

    Poll results, with reader discussion, back in 2011.

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  • A beautifully apt description of Trump from historian Jack Rakove

    Here: His overt acts, craven ambition, delusional beliefs, erratic behaviors, perpetual dishonesty, and mental capacities lie so many norms of deviation apart from all his presidential counterparts that he has to be taken as a unique case. There are other apt observations by historians and political scientists in the linked piece, but the key fact…

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