Philosopher Alex Byrne recounts a curious experience with a book review that was rejected by NDPR. I’ve been on the editorial board of NDPR from the beginning (25 yeras now!), and I think the current editor, Chris Shields, has done an admirable job. But Shields and his precedecessors almost never overrode the recommendations of members of the editorial board, especially when the review in question, as here, is well outside their competence. Byrne links to the “offending” review, and readers can judge for themselves whether this was a meritorious rejection, or whether this was more ideological policing.




In his book “Science-Mart,” Philip Mirowski notes that the legacy of the Bayh-Dohl Act of 1980 was to commodify academic…