April 2026
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The United States was not really a country in which votes counted for most of its history…
…since many people couldn’t vote, but now its about to go back to that totally due to gerry-mandering. Everyone can thank the super-legislature.
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How to write a philosophy paper: 25 rules for undergraduates
These guides proliferate, of course, but this one is very detailed (maybe too detailed for the average undergraduate) and instructive for a student who wants to put in the time. (The author is Jazlyn Cartaya, a PhD student at Princeton.)
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The collapse of the lateral market in law schools during 2025-26
This year, the laterals list has about thirty moves, while last year there were more than 100! I assume this is an effect of the Trump war on universities, and the funding uncertainties it created, so that there was less money for hires. Professor Lawsky’s spreadsheet shows about 50 rookie hires as of now, but…
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Neuro-psychologist seeking advice on studying logic
Longtime reader Kyle Noll, an Associate Professor at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, writes about his interest in online opportunities for learning more about logic: For background, I majored in philosophy and completed a couple of undergraduate courses in FOL and ZF set theory (by your old colleagues at UT in the…
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Of all the malign actions of the right-wing super-legislature posing as a court…
…gutting the Voting Rights Act–one of the most decent and successful pieces of legislation aimed at counteracting the sorry history of American apartheid–on the basis of a “race neutrality” detached from reality may be among the worst. Justice Kagan’s dissent makes a lot of the correct points. What a disgrace. UPDATE: A useful critique by…
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Todd Blanche disbarment watch: the new Comey indictment
Even the Fox “News” [sic] legal commentator thinks it is absurd.
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Collapse of academic freedom in the U.S.
The 2026 Academic Freedom Index documents it clearly: Of course, there are differences between private and public universities in the U.S. in terms of the collapse of academic freedom, and also differences among public schools depending on whether they are in “blue” or “red” states. One might quibble with aspects of how the report characterizes…
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On the perils of comparing per capita GDP: the case of Canada and the U.S.
Capitalist ideologists love per capita GDP, and it inevitably comes up in discussions of the economies of Canada and the U.S. This essay makes some important points (including that most of the higher per capita GDP in the U.S. is due to greater wealth inequality and to Americans having to work about three weeks more…
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Arizona State using AI to chop up and repackage faculty lectures
Bizarre and pretty outrageous: Arizona State University rolled out a platform called Atomic that creates AI-generated modules based on lectures taken from ASU faculty by cutting long videos down to very short clips then generating text and sections based on those clips. Faculty and scholars I spoke to whose lectures are included in Atomic are…
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Kant’s women
An interesting, albeit lengthy, account of Kant’s social and romantic interests. (The essay starts, not aptly, with a famous line of Nietzsche’s from Beyond Good and Evil: “Gradually it has become clear to me what every great philosophy so far has been – namely, the personal confession of its author and a kind of involuntary…
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Profiles in real courage: Andrée de Jongh
She helped hundreds of downed airmen escape from Nazi-controlled territory, and even survived Nazi capture herself.
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The Republican war on academic freedom and freedom of expression: a survey of faculty
From CHE: Academic researchers’ self-censorship occurred across nearly all disciplines, the survey found. Twenty-nine percent of respondents who lived in states with a [prohibition on] “divisive concepts” law said they had altered their research, and 10 percent said they were looking for a job in a different state because of the political climate. Researchers in…
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The absurd indictment of the Southern Poverty Law Center by Trump’s corrupt DOJ
A solid explanation of how beyond the pale this is. Todd Blanche, the acting AG, should be disbarred.
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Statement by the DC shooter
Here. It is surprisingly cogent, considering that his actions were not.
I did not have any personal acquaintance with David Charles, but through his writings he did more than anyone else…