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Richard Marshall interviews Fraser MacBride (Manchester)…
…at 3:16 AM. A fascinating overview of MacBride's revisionary view of the history of analytic philosophy. And here's a good quip from the interview: Metaphysicians are confidently putting forward hypotheses about the nature of reality a priori once more, holding forth from their armchairs about the categories as though none of this had happened, appealing to…
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“Nietzsche on Morality” to appear in Japanese
I'm really happy to have learned a couple of weeks ago that the second edition of my Nietzsche on Morality (Routledge 2015; 1st ed., 2002) will be published in Japanese by Shunjusha Co., Ltd. in Tokyo. I owe this to the efforts of Nietzsche scholar Yuma Oto of Keio University (who has also studied at…
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Symptoms of COVID-19 based on tens of thousands of cases in China
News reports give somewhat mixed accounts of the typical symptoms, so I thought it would be useful to call attention to this from an earlier post about a systematic study of thousands of patients in China: The most common symptoms are fever (88%) and dry cough (68%). Exhaustion (38%), expectoration of mucus when coughing (33%),…
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“Social distancing”: what it requires
Useful perspectives from clinicians.
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“Zoom,” the song for the day (for teachers)
Courtesy of Fat Larry's Band. (Thanks to philosopher Diane Michelfelder [Macalester] for the pointer.)
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Social distancing and closures really do “flatten the curve” of illness spread
Take a look at this striking data from two towns in Northern Italy that took different approaches at different times to the spread of coronavirus.
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Coronavirus, serious illness/death, and co-morbidities (60% of American adults have at least one of the co-morbidities)
This is based on the systematic data from China we've noted before, but this is a clean summary: After taking into account the patients’ ages and smoking status, the researchers found that the 399 patients with at least one additional disease (including cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, hepatitis B, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, chronic kidney diseases, and…
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Message to toilet paper hoarders, from a friend in the UK
"I can’t comprehend this toilet paper stockpiling. I can’t improvise coffee, wine, and red meat but I can improvise toilet paper!" On Twitter, Enzo Rossi (Amsterdam) notes this is especially true if one has a large philosophy library.
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2020 Schock Prize in “Logic and Philosophy” goes to two Swedish logicians…
…Dag Prawitz and Per Martin-Löf, both emeritus at Stockholm University.
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Richard Marshall’s interviews with philosophers…
…organized by broad categories at 3:16 AM. Useful for browsing the hundreds of interviews he has done. What a great service to academic philosophy, Mr. Marshall should get a prize!
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I know many U.S. readers are worried given that the President of the U.S. is an incompetent idiot…
…but the good news is that (1) the U.S. is a federal system, and state officials have much more immediate authority over and effect on public health measures–in many states (e.g., California, Washington, New York, Illinois, Ohio), these officials have been proactive; and (2) the "national emergency" declaration the monster-child issued frees up other actors…
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Psychological effects of quarantine
Worth a look given the current circumstances.
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Coronavirus: mild, moderate, severe
A useful definition of the terms that are being used so widely.
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How long does coronavirus survive on surfaces?
I found this informative piece via Professor Marc Lipsitch, an epidemiologist I follow on Twitter and who is a good resource. I also recommend following Dr. Scott Gottlieb, a former head of the FDA. I also still follow Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding, but he's a bit less restrained and sober than the other two, but still…
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Coronavirus 2020 in context of an earlier pandemic
This is fascinating. Read it!
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Great moments in obscure rock ‘n’ roll: Groundhogs, “Groundhog,” 1971
Another excellent number from the sadly forgotten British blues band:
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New blog category for “coronavirus”
Since the coronavirus has taken over the academy and all our lives to varying degrees, I figured it would be useful to add a separate category for posts related to it (this post appears in that category as well). I've tried to add all the past posts related to coronavirus to this new category (some…
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Growth in COVID-19 cases by country
This is a useful data source.
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Matt and Noah Colvin should be arrested for endangering public health
They're apparently too stupid to realize that being featured in the NYT is going to bring the wrath of people and law enforcement down on them.
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Maryland makes bid for UC Santa Cruz’s Orlandi
Nico Orlandi (philosophy of mind and cognitive science), Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Santa Cruz, has a tenured offer from the Department of Philosophy at the University of Maryland, College Park. Maryland is poised to be back in the U.S. "top 30" given recent hires, and this appointment would solidify that. …
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University of Chicago students are not happy that finals are proceeding as if everything is still normal
Can't say I blame them; some of these steps would be easy to take and would help alleviate stress for the students. UPDATE: Late on March 13, the Provost and Dean of the College announced that all undergraduate exams for Winter Quarter (which are next week) will have to be on-line or takehome. A good…
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“Socialism, social democracy, and capitalism: which is right for America?”
The economist Noah Williams (Wisconsin) who organized Wednesday's debate has now made available both his opening remarks, plus the opening statements by myself and Professor Bryan Caplan (George Mason). The event was recorded and that will be available at a later date.
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The COVID-19 catastrophe in Italy
What's happening in Italy is very frightening. As noted on an earlier thread, the problem there is due in part to the age of the population: Italy's population skews older, and we know age (along with hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes) are major predictors of serious illness with this virus. 21.69% of the Italian…
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Financial ramifications of coronavirus-related school closures
This is going to be a big economic issue for many colleges.
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“Teaching remotely”
The University of Chicago has created this page which others may find helpful. Good luck to everyone, faculty, staff and students, as we adjust to the "new normal" for the foreseeable future. (Although I don't see anyone discussing this yet, the fact is this will probably continue well into next academic year barring a significant…
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Pacific APA meeting cancelled
The right decision. Details (and information about refunds) here. (Thanks to Mike Morris from the APA for passing this along.)
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A great public service announcement from your Italian grandma
This is nicely done:
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“Critical theory” is dead, dead, dead, and Habermas killed it…
…and this review just confirms it. The Rawls-Habermas normative theory mash-up that now constitutes so-called "critical theory" is so far removed from Horhkheimer, Adorno, and Marcuse, not to mention Marx, that even associating this exercise in Kantian ethics with the Frankfurt School or Marxism should give rise to a defamation action (not sure who the…
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Philosopher Kathleen Stock (Sussex) on “academic feminist philosophy”
She writes: The problem with academic feminist philosophy is that it’s run like a fiefdom, not like a normal open philosophical discussion. There are things you are just not allowed to say, and people you are not allowed to offend. Quality suffers, and to rest of world, it shows. There are a lot of "fiefdoms"…
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How Taiwan averted a COVID-19 disaster
I've been advocating for putting the South Koreans in charge, but now we'd better put the Taiwanese in charge.
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Cancel the Pacific APA
That was the sentiment of a solid majority in yesterday's poll: Should the APA cancel the Pacific Division meeting scheduled for San Francisco in early April? Yes 77% No 11% Undecided 12% Total votes: 640 EasyPolls The APA says it will announce by Friday whether to cancel the meeting…
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New York area departments cancelling admitted student events (UPDATED)
This was posted by philosopher Alex Guerrero (Rutgers) in the comments on the earlier thread, but is worth elevating to a post as well to make sure affected students see this: In response to the continued spread of COVID-19 and to help in the collective effort to slow the rate of its spread, we will…
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Ken Taylor, “The Robots are Coming”
A posthumously published essay by Professor Taylor at Boston Review.
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Should the APA cancel the Pacific Division meeting scheduled for April in San Francisco?
Let's see what readers think. UPDATE: So after a few hours, here are the results so far: hould the APA cancel the Pacific Division meeting scheduled for San Francisco in early April? Yes 76% No 11% Undecided 13% Total votes: 462 EasyPolls
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Protestants, Catholics, Jews in philosophy
Daniel Kaufman (Missouri State) comments.
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The U.S. has 484 *discovered* cases of the new coronavirus, it clearly has several thousand people who are infected
This is exactly right, from a Harvard epidemiologist: "Media: you need to stop reporting on new cases in the US. They are newly discovered. I know you don't mean to but by saying the literal case numbers you are playing into the false narrative that things are under control in the US." ADDENDUM: This study…
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If much of the interest of high-quality papers lies between the lines—in the metaphorical fire that a paper lights in…
I would also recommend that potential grad students make inquiries into how far the compensation package actually goes towards cost…
It’s a mix. I’m still in the UAE with my family, and we feel safe. But some students and faculty…
In the above comment, Michel wrote: “As an aside, every once in a while I check out how the chatbots…
I could imagine LLMs having saved me a *ton* of time in graduate school–e.g., by having supplied reasonable answers to…
The McMaster Department of Philosophy has now put together the following notice commemorating Barry: Barry Allen: A Philosophical Life Barry…
My former colleagues at another university in Middle East have also been moved to online teaching indefinitely, with the students…