November 2025
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In Memoriam: Stephen R. Munzer (1944-2025)
Professor Munzer, a longtime member of the law faculty at UCLA, where he was recently emeritus, wrote widely on topics in jurisprudence, especially the philosophical foundations of property, as well as other legal and bioethical topics. Comments are open for remembrances from those who knew Professor Munzer or for those who would like to comment…
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Great moments in obscure “classic” rock ‘n’ roll albums: Leaf Hound, “Growers of Mushroom,” 1971
For heavy blues rock, it doesn’t get much heavier than the debut album by Leaf Hound, which went largely unnoticed at the time, but enjoyed a revival of interest with the “stoner rock” crowd in the 1990s, leading Peter French, the original lead singer, to reform the band in the 2000s. There are so many…
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Today in Trump’s extortion of the universities
Northwestern ponies up $75 million in the fake anti-semitism crusade of the Trump Administration, an Administration that is awash with ties to actual anti-semites.
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Most cited living moral & political philosophers (with Google Scholar pages) [CORRECTED AGAIN–moving to fron from November 17]
Fortunately, most of the most prominent living moral & political philosophers have such pages, although some who would surely be on the list do not (e.g., Allan Gibbard, Thomas Nagel, Martha Nussbaum). I only count those most of whose citations are in moral and political philosophy. (I excluded those primarily working in bioethics, which has…
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On the decline in academic freedom at Texas public universities
Philosopher Jake Beck (who used to teach in Texas) comments.
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Sexual harassment at Oxford (a continuing saga, alas) (UPDATED)
Hard-hitting article, which mentions one philosopher, John Tasioulas, who recently stepped down from the “Ethics in AI” project at Oxford to return to his native Australia. (When I ran into an Oxford person recently, she said they were instructed by lawyers “not to talk about” Tasioulas’s departure.) UPDATE: Professor Tasioulas denies the allegations, and says…
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A mother of young children, a terminal diagnosis…
…and a cousin who is the imbecile RFK Jr. This is a good, but very sad, read.
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Free philosophy audiobooks
Here (this links to Nietzsche books, but you can search any philosophical or other author you want).
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Most cited living philosophers of science (including physics and biology) with Google Scholar pages (CORRECTED–MOVING TO FRONT)
As before, some important living philosophers of science who would surely be on the list (like John Earman and Philip Kitcher) do not have Google Scholar pages. Only those with a clear majority of their citations to philosophy of science work are listed (this is an issue for some, like Sahotra Sarkar, most of whose…
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Most cited living philosophers with Google Scholar pages who work in decision, game and rational choice theory (and cognate areas like philosophy of probability)
As before, only philosophers with most of their citations to work in these areas are listed. Because the numbers drop off fairly quickly, I only list the “top ten.”
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Great moments in obscure “classic” rock albums: Budgie, “Bandolier,” 1975
This great Welsh hard rock trio never made it big in either the U.S. or Europe, but have long had a strong following among hard rock afficionados (helped no doubt by Metallica covering a couple of their songs, most famously “Breadfan“). Their best album, in my view, is 1975’s Bandolier (their fifth album), from the…
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Farewell Larry Summers…
…I, at least, will not miss him after his evisceration by the Harvard Crimson. Senator Warren, who was a law professor at Harvard before election to the Senate, got it exactly right: For decades, Larry Summers has demonstrated his attraction to serving the wealthy and well-connected, but his willingness to cozy up to a convicted sex offender…
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“Rawls the Redeemer”
Political philosopher Alexander Lefebvre discusses.
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Most cited living philosophers with Google Scholar pages working on free will & moral responsibility (CORRECTED)
Some philosophers who would have made the top ten in all likelihood do not have Google Scholar pages (e.g., Carl Ginet, Gary Watson, Susan Wolf). Once again, only those with a clear majority of their citations to work in this area are listed (Neil Levy [Macquarie] was a close case.) I list only the top…
Giovanni Molteni Tagliabue (Italy) Rationalized and Extended Democracy – The REDemo Project. Foreword by Gilberto Corbellini. Firenze University Press 2023.…