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U.S. military leaders make clear where they stand
A bulwark, for now, against much worse.
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The stormtrooper riot isn’t over, a reminder
This uprising continues. I fear political assassinations may yet occur. Reagan's revolution from the right is now coming to its final fruition: the evisceration of the working classes and nearly 30 years of lies and anti-government rhetoric from Newt Gingrich, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, the Murdoch media, Tucker Carlson etc. is now coming…
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University of Dallas appoints a philosophy professor as President
Jonathan Sanford, who works in virtue ethics.
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The real worry about the stormtrooper riot at the Capitol last week is what it portends
I agree with much of this author's take: This is all indicative of an incipient fascism, laying the cultural and political groundwork for a violent, extra-parliamentary mass movement of the right. It is a mistake to assume that fascism must take the form of dictatorship. Far-right movements today are shaped by the same factors: the…
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“Transient global amnesia” and the self
Philosopher Steven Hales (Bloomsburg) comments on his experience. I had not heard of this, it's quite remarkable.
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2020 in review
For those who missed it during the holidays, here are links to the end-of-year review of 2020, broken into four quarters: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th. A list of the philosophers whose deaths were noted in 2020 is here.
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Against the “anti-Stock letter”: an opposing open letter
Here. They are also accepting signatures. I strongly agree with this from the new letter: It cannot become our standard that where analysis and discussion of matters of public concern may cause offense, the social and institutional consequences of engagement are so costly that few will be willing to do the work. It cannot become…
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Where (untenured) tenure-track faculty at the U.S. “top 24” departments in 2020-21 got their PhD
As prior studies have confirmed, PGR rank is a rather good predictor of professional outcomes, even though that's not what the PGR suveys measure. (Of course, NYU and Rutgers placement, below, would have been wholly predictable from PGR rankings of faculty quality in years past!) I look here, as I've done before (also here), only…
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An interesting essay on Trump, fascism, “big lies,” and the future
A good piece of writing by historian Timothy Snyder (Yale), that many of you may have already seen, but if not, it's worth reading, even though it overemphasizes the racist aspects of all this (as real as it is, racism is largely epiphenomenal [type-epiphenomenal, for my philosophy readers!]). An excerpt from later in the…
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More on the plagiarism allegations against the new rector of Boğaziçi University
A more systematic analysis here. What an embarrassment!
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Great moments in obscure rock ‘n’ roll: Bang, “Mother,” 1972
Another great number (this from their second album) from the Philadelphia hard rock trio that deserved to be much more successful than, alas, they were:
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Petition in support of faculty and students at Boğaziçi University
Please sign. (Earlier coverage.) I'm told by people there that Turkey is very keen for the University to do better in world university rankings, so the prospect of being denounced internationally by faculty matters to them.
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There is no bottom to dumb, again
A friend of mine in New York City sent me this e-mail from the actual head of an investment firm. It is below the fold. No comment needed, the message speaks for itself.
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Here’s what the stormtrooper riot really looked like
I had not seen a lot of this footage before, some of it quite graphic.
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Some sensible comments on the anti-Stock letter
The error-ridden letter attacking Kathleen Stock now has several hundred signatures; strikingly, most signatories are students (some, I believe, undergraduate students), and maybe a third are actually philosophy faculty. (The majority of signatories, faculty and students alike, are active Twitter users, a notable aspect of this display, related to the "group polarization" phenomenon on Twitter…
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The injunction to be fully present “in the now”
Philosopher John Martin Fischer (UC Riverside) comments.
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God bless Denmark
A new Danish children's show about a man with a very long penis that can do all sorts of (non-sexual) things. Somehow I suspect PBS in America won't pick this one up.
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The monster-child is now running scared…
…as his decision to read this speech written by someone else makes clear. But until he is jailed or expired, no one is safe.
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An amusing tweet from yesterday…
…from philosopher Nate Charlow (Toronto).
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Some thoughts and questions the day after the Trump stormtrooper riot at the U.S. Capitol
1. If a mostly unarmed mob can so easily breach the Capitol, how hard could it be for a smaller number of armed "professionals" to do so? Presumably every country with grievances against the U.S. (a rather long list) is now exploring the possibility of an armed strike on the Capitol. Certainly domestic terrorists are…
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“Virtual Dissertation Groups,” once again
Joshua Smart asked me to share this, which I'm happy to do: What it is: VDG is a free service for those working on their doctoral dissertations in philosophy. Since 2014, we’ve connected students from over 30 countries to provide peer feedback on dissertation work with a minimal time commitment. How it works: Each dissertator is placed…
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Democrats win both Senate seats in Georgia…
…which is good news, assuming the man in the viking hat cedes control: "The Capitol seems to be under the control of a man in a viking hat." — Mark Leibovich, Chief National Correspondent, NYT
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APA announces 2020 prizes
The full list is here.
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Meanwhile, Trump’s stormtroopers are rioting at the U.S. Capitol…
…which has stopped the certifiction of the electoral votes. This is grotesque, but the predictable consequence of Trump's incitement and the endless lying by Rush Limbaugh, Alex Jones, Sean Hannity, and the others.
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The “Anti-Kathleen Stock” open letter is full of mistakes, fact-free speculation and misleading innuendo
Various folks have contacted me about the errors in the open letter defaming Kathleen Stock for being awarded an OBE. (I suppose no one should be surprised by this given the involvement of smarmy Jonathan Ichikawa in drafting this.) It might be useful to address the major errors in one place, so here goes: 1. …
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Georgia miracle?
The Democrats have claimed one of the two open Senate seats in Georgia, and are ahead in the other race as well by a very slim margin. With total control of Congress and the Executive, the Democrats cab accomplish some important things (e.g., adding a public option to the Affordable Care Act, which should have…
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PhD programs that have suspended admissions for 2020-21
CHE has a comprehensive list. Humanities fields dominate.
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Texas congressman: if the Georgia Senate seats go to Democrats…
…we'll go from "cold" to "hot" Civil War.
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Authoritarian crackdown at Bogazici U in Istanbul
Following up on this: welcome to Bogazici University in Istanbul this morning; remember this photo the next time you're filling out the surveys for the world university rankings. According to someone there, 9 students were arrested in raids beginning at 7:30 am, and there are arrest warrants out for 28 more students:
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The Anti-Kathleen Stock letter is now public
The one we alluded to the other day is now public. The first sentence reads: We are professional academic philosophers committed to the inclusion and acceptance of trans and gender non-conforming people, both in the public at large, and within philosophy in particular. I strongly agree with that and would have signed any statement whose…
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You heard it here first back in 2016: Trump thinks like a Mafia Don
The audiotape of Trump's "discussion" with the Georgia election officials just confirms that he's a mobster at heart.
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Another academic libel suit
Media and communications professor Mark Crispin Miller (NYU) is suing his colleagues for defaming him. If the statements at issue are, indeed, false, then he should prevail, since some are plainly factual and plainly damaging (some may even constitute per se defamation, meaning Professor Miller would not need to prove damage to recover). (See especially…
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Canadian citizens and permanent residents: please sign this petition to help those in Canada suffering from ALS
The petition is here, and this news article gives some context. The petition closes tomorrow, so time is of the essence. A dear friend is suffering with ALS; the availability of experimental treatments is quite literally a life and death matter.
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Political apparatchik appointed head of Boğaziçi University in Istanbul, students allege multiple instances of plagiarism in his work
It's bad enough that the fascist Erdogan has appointed a political flunkie to head one of Turkey's leading universities; now this e-mail from students is circulating (and I was sent a copy by a philosopher in the UK): I hope this e-mail finds you well. I am a student at Boğaziçi University (İstanbul/Turkey) and we,…
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The smarmy Jonathan Ichikawa is up to his usual mischief
Philosopher Kathleen Stock (Sussex) tweets: Professor Antony Duff (emeritus, Stirling), a distinguished philosopher of law, sent me the letter, with this apt observation: The draft "open letter" is of course disgraceful, though quite unsurprising, given its author(s), but I was particularly struck by the request that I not "pass on the details of this invitation, or…
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Dominic Berry is drawing a line!
MOVING TO FRONT FROM YESTERDAY: UPDATED As Professor Alice Sullivan (Sociology, UCL) notes on Twitter, Dr. Berry (LSE) was sufficiently outraged by the OBE awarded to Professor Stock, that he has announced on Twitter that he will not tolerate anyone even "following" Nigel Warburton on Twitter, since Dr. Warburton (host of the great PhilosophyBites podcast) had…
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Articles from the Journal of Aesthetic and Art Criticism…
…are currently open access (not sure how long this will last, however).
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