April 2026
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More on faculty fleeing Texas due to the war on academic freedom and free expression
Story at IHE. (Thanks to Ruchira Paul for the pointer.)
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Virtual APA, redux
Pacific APA Program Chair Colin Marshall reflects on the recent virtual APA, which may prove to be the last. Curious what readers who attend APA meetings more than I do think about all this.
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Greene on Guerrero on “lottocracy”
We’ve noted philosopher Alex Guerrero’s striking work on lottocracy in the past. I want to commend to interested readers the very informative and nuanced review by Amanda Greene. She makes one of the most interesting criticisms of lottocracy, one I had not seen elsewhere: Guerrero admits that it might seem that lottocratic institutions offer citizens…
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Someone once described SCOTUS as a “super-legislature”…
…and the recent NYT expose about the origin of SCOTUS’s “shadow docket” suggests he was right. As one reader put it to me in an email about the NYT article: Ultimate vindication of your “super legislature” moniker. Nothing in the story is particularly surprising, but it does establish that what we call the “shadow docket”…
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(Maybe) Great Moments in (what is definitely extremely) obscure rock ‘n’ roll: Holy Rockin’ Band, “Feel All Right” and “Who Am I?” (circa 1979-1980)
I mentioned a few years back that as a teenager, I used to write songs, and with my friend Tommy Williams, a real musician, we recorded them on a 4-track tape recorder owned by a friend, the late Richard Hegeman (who was our engineer, as it were–we recorded them in the basement of his house).…
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Lawyer to represent a tenant in a dispute with a landlord in the Cambridge, MA area?
If anyone has had a good experience with an attorney experienced in Mass. landlord-tenant matters, please shoot me an email at bleiter-at-uchicago-dot-edu. Thank you.
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In Memoriam: Dale Dorsey (1976-2026)
Professor Dorsey, who moved a couple of years ago from the University of Kansas to Oxford University, was perhaps best-known for his work in moral philosophy. Philosopher Aaron Garrett writes: It is with great shock and sadness that I report the sudden passing of Dale Dorsey. Dale recently moved to Somerville College Oxford after having…
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Good landlord-tenant lawyer in Somervile or Cambridge, MA to represent a tenant whose landlord is in material breach of the lease
Please email me (bleiter-at-uchicago-dot-edu) any recommendations. Many thanks!
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“Distinguished” Yale professors write report that indicts Yale for the public hostility towards higher education
The report is here. Many of the authors are, to my knowledge, distinguished in their field. Remarkably, the report never mentions the massive right-wing media propaganda campaign to discredit universities over the last 25 years–no mention of Fox, Tucker Carlson, The Daily Caller, etc. The positive proposals are mostly fine (universities exist to produce and…
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In Memoriam: Marc Galanter (1931-2026)
Professor Galanter, one of the most important figures in law & society scholarship over the past half-century, was emeritus at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, where he had taught since the late 1970s. Here is the memorial notice from the UW Madison Dean: It is with great sadness that I write to inform you…
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Open letter in support of Texas State philosophy professor wrongfully fired for his lawful political speech
Here (earlier coverage of this case).
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Schwenkler from Illinois/Urbana to UT Austin
John Schwenkler (philosophy of action & mind, ethics & moral psychology), Professor of Philosophy at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, has accepted a senior appointment as Professor of Philosophy in the School of Civic Leadership at the University of Texas at Austin, where he will also hold a zero-time appointment in the Department of…
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Canadian Journal of Philosophy is going “open access”
CJP has always been a very reputable generalist journal (on the edge of the “top ten”), but this development should increase its appeal to prospective authors!
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In Memoriam: William McBride (1938-2026)
Profesor McBride, who was emeritus at Purdue University, was especially well-known for his work on Sartre, as well as on Marxist theory and on topics in social and political philosophy as well. There is an obituary here. Comments are open for remembrances from those who knew Professor McBride or for those who would like to…
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Four law professors win Guggenheim Fellowships
They are: Justin Driver (Yale), Dov Fox (San Diego), Rick Hasen (UCLA), and Gerard Magliocca (Indiana/Indianapolis).
Both Pitt philosophy and Pitt HPS have informally discussed bringing back the GRE (from the 2027-8 admissions round, not this…