September 2025
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In Memoriam: Jonathan Lear (1948-2025) (UPDATED; ORIGINALLY POSTED 9/22/25)
I’m very sorry to report that my colleague Jonathan Lear died this morning. During his long career, he taught at Cambridge University, Yale University, and the University of Chicago, and wrote importantly on Aristotle and Freud, as well as on a range of topics in ethics (broadly speaking). You can learn more about his work…
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Two great remarks about “journalists”
There are honorable exceptions, but not enough! “No ideas and the ability to express them: that’s a journalist”–Karl Kraus “The journalist belongs to a sort of pariah caste, which is always estimated by ‘society’ in terms of its ethically lowest representative.”–Max Weber Kraus’s quip probably illustrates Weber’s observation!
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The “Executive Memo” on alleged domestic terrorism “networks”
Do read it. It’s transparently an effort to legitimize state persecution of liberal organizations and their funders.
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A different approach to academic assessment in the age of AI
Philosopher Matthew Hammerton comments; an excerpt: Prohibition simply doesn’t work when you can’t enforce it. Telling students not to use AI is like telling them not to think about pink elephants. The result is a two-tiered system where conscientious students follow the rules while the rest can cheat with impunity. This breeds cynicism and erodes trust in higher education.…
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Court reinstates wrongfully fired Texas State professor
Thank God for a functional judiciary. (Earlier coverage of this travesty.) (Thanks to Phil Gasper for the pointer.)
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LSAT scores aren’t what they used to be, and schools need not obsess about them
I missed this illuminating analysis by Derek Muller (Notre Dame) from several months ago, but it is worth reading!
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Massive violation of First Amendment, and academic freedom, at Texas Tech University
An “executive order” provides no basis for overriding the First Amendment and academic freedom rights of faculty to discuss and reject the idea that there are only two genders, regardless of what the monster child “thinks.”
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Norcross on Singer and in defense of his own scalar utilitarianism
At IAITV: https://iai.tv/articles/there-is-no-good-and-evil-only-better-and-worse-auid-3371?_auid=2020
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In Memoriam: John Searle (1932-2025)
Professor Searle, who taught for decades at the University of California at Berkeley, wrote widely and influentially in philosophy of language and philosophy of mind. (See, e.g., the entries at SEP on speech acts,”the Chinese room” argument and “social institutions” for a sense of his work and its influence..) In 2017, he was the target…
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Where (untenured) tenure-track faculty at the U.S. top 20 Ph.D. programs earned their Ph.D., 2025-26 edition
MOVING TO FRONT WITH CORRECTIONS–ORIGINALLY POSTED SEPTEMBER 1 It looks like the last time we collected this data was 2023, and the changes are minimal: 1. Harvard University (9) 1. Princeton University (9) 3. Yale University (7) 4. New York University (6) 4. University of California, Berkeley (6) 6. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (4)…
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To follow this blog via RSS
Use https://leiterreports.com/leiterlawschoolreports/feed (Thanks to Michael Risch for the information.) UPDATE: A couple of readers report the link above goes to “comments” on this blog, not to the main posts. I’ve asked my web design person to look into this and will post what I learn.
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More thuggish tactics by ICE, worthy of the Gestapo
Disgraceful: https://www.democracynow.org/2025/9/23/kat_abughazaleh (I’m pasting the URL, so that the link is visible even to readers who do not click on the “read more” tab.)
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Marx day at Amsterdam
Coming next month:
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The engine on the airplane fails, and the importance of “giving reasons”
What a great talk at Williams College by philosopher Jeffrey Kaplan. Definitely worth watching! (Thanks to several readers who sent this along.)
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Naval Academy cancels talk by philosopher Alec Walen…
…because he had criticized the monster child on social media. Since the military academies, under the authoritarian Trump regime, no longer educate, I wonder whether U.S. News & World Report will drop them from their “liberal arts colleges” rankings? (Thanks to Matt Lister for the pointer.) [This post was not part of the export file…
Everything you say is true, but what is the alternative? I don’t think people are advocating a return to in-class…