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Five important books in philosophy of language…
…lucidly described by Scott Soames (USC).
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Demand for testing knowledge of the classics is now so great…
…that they're setting up tents on street corners:
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Great moments in obscure rock ‘n’ roll: Blues Creation, “Atomic Bombs Away,” 1971
Japanese hard/blues rock band, this is the lead number from a 1971 album:
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Cambridge University adopts robust free expression policy
MOVING TO FRONT FROM YESTERDAY–UPDATED Cambridge philosopher Arif Ahmed played a role in the policy. (Thanks to Nick Zangwill for the pointer.) UPDATE: As reader Joe Cairns points out to me, despite this laudable endorsement of free expression, Cambridge has also adopted a tendentious defintion of anti-semitism that can clearly be deployed to restrict debate…
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The quality of reporting at Inside Higher Ed is really getting awful
We've noted this before, but this latest piece offers more evidence of declining standards at IHE. Reading this article, you'd get no sense of the appalling defamatory harassment to which classicist Thomas Hubbard was subjected: being falsely called a pedophile is defamation per se, meaning no damage needs to be proved for Professor Hubbard to…
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Trump’s attempted coup and America’s future
As usual, Robert Paul Wolff makes the right points: We are now watching a full-scale fascist coup attempt in slow motion with assorted comic interludes. The attempt will almost certainly fail, thank God, but we are coming a great deal closer than most people, myself included, would have thought possible. In order to seize control…
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Now ZAS Berlin is flat out lying about the no-platforming of Professor Stock
Here on Twitter they have the audacity to claim: @ZASBerlin Replying to @Docstockk ZAS had to retract the abstract because it did not fit to the scientific theme of the workshop (oppressive speech & communication) and contained language that was inconsistent with the values of the ZAS. We regret that the abstract went online. 11:38…
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Leibniz-Zentrum Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft (ZAS) is a disgrace, cancels philosopher’s talk for political reasons
UPDATED BELOW WITH IDENTITY OF ACADEMIC WHO INITIATED THE COMPLAINT Philosopher Kathleen Stock (Sussex) was invited to speak in a session on "Bodies, Gender Identity, and Misogyny" at a conference, whose main them is "oppressive speech," with a sub-theme on free speech. After first accepting Professor Stock's abstract for the session, the organizer of…
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What is wrong with people in Boise, Idaho?
They're watching too much Fox TV I guess, but this is still grotesque: In Boise, Idaho, public health officials about to vote on a four-county mask mandate abruptly ended a meeting Tuesday evening because of fears for their safety amid anti-mask protests outside the building and at some of their homes. One health board member…
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Philosopher Torbjörn Tännsjö (Stockholm) wins the “Ethics Prize” from the Swedish National Council on Medical Ethics
The announcement, in Swedish, is here. What makes this particularly notable is that, as Professor Tännsjö told me, "Thirty years ago the leader of the Swedish Christian Democratic party, Alf Svensson, demanded that I be sacked from my position as 'dozent' at Stockholm University, since I was a utilitarian who defended the right of free…
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I discuss “Moral Psychology with Nietzsche” at Trinity College Dublin…
…here, with Professors Donna Lyons (TCD), Brian O'Connor (University College Dublin), and Alexander Prescott-Couch (Oxford). If you haven't read the book (which will be out in paperback in Spring 2021), my essay for the Oxford Handbook of Moral Psychology will give you a pretty good overview of the main themes. (As an aside, Professor Lyons…
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Vaccine update
The Pfizer vaccine is very effective, the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine only moderately so. Since the UK government got its act together to purchase large amounts of the Pfizer vaccine, we'll find out in the next month or two whether there are any rare side-effects (the second dose of the Pfizer vaccine does seem to produce modest…
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“Should we continue to honor George Washington?”
Philosopher Thomas Carson (Loyola/Chicago) comments.
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Brandon Warmke (Bowling Green) talks about “moral grandstanding”…
…on Brain in a Vat.
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Canadian Association of University Teachers passes motion of censure of University of Toronto…
…for permitting outside political interference in the appointments process at the Law School. CAUT censure means all faculty are discouraged from attending conferences at Toronto, collaborating with faculty there, etc. A shame the Law School's misconduct may bring this sanction down on the entire university in six months. (Earlier coverage.)
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Blast from the past: Kitcher on the need for “reconstruction in philosophy”
Back in 2011, with a lively discussion in the comments, including contributions from David Wallace, Peter Ludlow, Colin Farrelly, Laurie Paul, Keith DeRose, and many others, and replies from Philip Kitcher.
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Historian of logic…and personal secretary and bodyguard toTrotsky
An interesting life.
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Alexa site rankings
Browsing wikipedia, I discovered an entry for the Daily Nous blog run by philosopher Justin Weinberg (South Carolina), to which we occasionally link. In that entry, there was a link to the Alexa ranking, which in turn took one to Alexa traffic rankings for other philosophy-related sites. I don't know how accurate these are, but…
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In Memoriam: Raimo Tuomela (1940-2020)
MOVING TO FRONT FROM NOVEMBER 25–UPDATED Best-known for his contributions to philosophy of action and philosophy of social science, Professor Tuomela was emeritus at the University of Helsinki, where he spent most ofhis career. I will add links to memorial notices as they appear. UPDATE: A memorial notice from the International Social Ontology Society, including…
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Another ominous sign for New York’s post-COVID future
Goldman Sachs looking to move some of its operations to Florida or Texas.
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From uncertainty to knowledge
Philosophers Simon Blackburn, Phillip Goff, and others discuss.
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“Good jobs”
Interesting paper prepared by the political philosopher Joshua Cohen, now at Apple University (and part-time at Berkeley as well).
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Morton from North Carolina to Penn
Jennifer Morton (philosophy of action, moral & political philosophy, philosophy of education), Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, has accepted a tenured offer from the Department of Philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania, where she will be Presidential Associate Professor of Philosophy, starting July 1, 2021.
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Great moments in obscure rock ‘n’ roll: The Human Instinct, “Black Sally,” 1970
New Zealand rock band, active since the late 1960s, this is probably their best-known tune from their second album (and what a great psych/acid rock number it is):
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Artist sues Vermont Law School to prevent destruction of murals depicting the underground railroad
The murals were deemed "offensive" by benighted students flexing their muscles, and the school caved, hence the lawsuit. As Nietzsche observed: the "secret desire to be tyrants is [often] wrapped up in virtuous words!" Here is the image in question (not sure it will all fix here, but enough will):
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Philosophers, unsurprisingly, overclaim what philosophy accomplishes
Case in point from the interesting interview with Rebecca Goldstein noted a couple of weeks ago: Philosophical advances in epistemology and in ethics profoundly shape our points of view. We don’t see them precisely because we see with them. It’s like the fish who responds to the question “How’s the water today?” with “Water? What’s…
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Signs of the COVID times in the academy: cuts, cuts, cuts
At the University of Colorado, Boulder: "[W]e propose to rebalance the ratio of tenure-track faculty to instructors. Currently, that ratio, by head count, is 3.3:1 (TTT to instructors). Reducing tenure-track faculty by 50 and adding 25 instructors would yield a new ratio of 2.8:1. Accounting for related savings, making this move would free $6.2 million…
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Blast from the past: Brian Bruya makes things up
Five years ago, I predicted that Bruya's fraudulent and confused criticisms of the PGR and the whole Bruyahaha spectacle (and here) would have no influence on the PGR, and it didn't. Meanwhile, Metaphilosophy was discredited by its handling of the matter, but we did learn a few useful lessons.
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In Memoriam: Judith Jarvis Thomson (1929-2020)
MOVING TO FRONT FROM NOVEMBER 21–UPDATED A longtime member of the MIT faculty, Professor Thomson was best-known for her contributions to applied ethics (most famously 1971's "A Defense of Abortion"), but also wrote widely in political philosophy, metaethics, metaphysics and other topics. There is a brief biography here and a more philosophical biography here. I…
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Students at McGill demand the university revise and restrict its notion of academic freedom
At least these not so crypto-fascists are direct about what they want! Since McGill's status as a serious research university would evaporate over night were they to heed these demands, I assume nothing will happen…this time, anyway. But that the students are not ashamed by their demands is stunning.
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“Finding Meaning”
A series of essays at 3:16 AM, with contributions from Mark Anderson (Belmont), Ken Gemes (Birkbeck), Simon Glendinning (LSE), Daniel Kaufman (Missouri State), Paul Moser (Loyola/Chicago) and others.
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List & Valentini from LSE/KCL to LMU Munich
Christian List (decision theory, philosophy of action, philosophy of social science), Professor of Philosophy and Political Science at the London School of Economics, and Laura Valentini (political philosophy), Professor of Philosophy, Politics & Economics at King's College London, have both accepted senior offers from the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, to start in early 2021. …
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Berg on Manne and “public philosophy”
An interesting critique of the work of Kate Manne (Cornell) by philosopher Anastasia Berg (Hebrew University) at CHE. I was particularly struck by this: Many of Manne’s critics have seized on elements in her style and method, or pointed out the ways in which her ideological commitments limit her analysis. They are not wrong: Manne…
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GPT-3 bot posts on Reddit for a week, and no one realized it was a bot
This may tell us more about Reddit than AI, however. (Thanks to Blake Myers for the pointer.)
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White English professor at Pomona accused of “literary blackface” by colleagues for teaching Ralph Ellison
He recounts this episode and offers reflections on some of the current derangement in the academy. (Thanks to Michael Clune for the pointer.)
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Blast from the past: when Robin James reported some important “theorizing”…
…that still hasn't seen the light of day alas.
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Hobbes on Trump
Political theorist David Lay Williams (DePaul) comments.
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“Cancel culture”: the Venn diagram
This is amusingly apt: (Thanks to Howard Berman for the pointer.)
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On (4), and with the usual caveat that I’m not an expert here: The US has 400 land-based ICBMs, carrying…
In itself, not much. (A few quibbles: the estimates of deployed warheads are implausibly precise; the assessment of nuclear winter…
I’ve looked only quickly at the linked piece, but I did notice a factual mistake in point 5. Point 5…
Very interesting interview with Professor Schwarcz on the latest episode of Ipse Dixit podcast: https://shows.acast.com/ipse-dixit/episodes/daniel-schwarcz-on-ai-and-human-legal-reasoning
*Yes, you are correct that the synthesis task required participants both to read the source material and draft a memo.…
Thank you, Dan. Your “synthesis task” required students to both read the packet and write a legal memo on a…
In theory, the US retains a launch-on-warning *capacity* for the ICBMs. But I’m pretty sure they’re not on an actual…