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Edouard Machery talks to David Wallace…
…about philosophy of quantum mechanics at the Pitt Center for Philosophy of Science podcast.
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A gifted public speaker who may soon be unable to speak
Philosopher John Corvino describes his ordeal. You can see some of his public speaking here. A real tragedy, although fortunately his mind and ability to write are unaffected.
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Jason Brennan *did* like Herman Cappelen’s book
It’s both an informative and amusing review. An excerpt: Herman Cappelen’s densely argued but eminently readable and engaging The Concept of Democracy…argues that the words “democracy” and “democratic” (what he calls the “D-words”) are so semantically, pragmatically, and communicatively defective that we should abandon them altogether. His book is not an argument against democracy but an…
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In Memoriam: Laurence Thomas (1949-2025)
Professor Thomas, who was emeritus at Syracuse University where he spent most of his career, wrote widely in moral and political philosophy, with a particular focus on moral psychology. There is an obituary here and you can read more about his work here. Comments are open for remembrances from those who knew Professor Thomas or…
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Lateral moves/retirements since the 2024 Philosophical Gourmet Report: 2025-26 edition
In addition to the separate posts announcing (generally tenured) faculty moves, I will keep a running list of all lateral moves (and retirements and deaths) not reflected in the faculty lists for the 2024 PGR (some moves that took place after the 2024 PGR were reflected in the faculty list, because the editors knew of…
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Chomsky and Epstein
Jeffrey Epstein strikes me as a massive distraction from any issue that actually matters, but the involvement of Chomsky in this sordid story has been a gift to the Chomsky haters. Chomsky, as most readers will know, suffered a serious stroke a couple of years ago, and can’t communicate. His wife has now issued a…
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Johnathan Bi interviews Tad Brennan…
…about fate and freedom in Stoicism.
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Which philosophers (and departments) have published in each of the “top 5” Anglophone journals?
Philosophers Nicholas Lakowski took a look. Obviously this is heavily titled towards certain areas of philosophy which are always over-represented in those journals.
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My top 50 songs of 2025 according to Spotify, #6: Joe Cocker, “Something’s Coming On,” 1968
Originally the b-side to Cocker’s first hit single, his cover of the Beatles’ “With a Little Help from My Friends,” it was added to later editions of his 1969 debut album. I discovered this by chance last year, having never heard it before: Feel free to add links to your Joe Cocker favorites, live or…
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Oklahoma Governor ends tenure for all future hires at all the state’s public colleges except…
…the two research universities, the University of Oklahoma at Norman and Oklahoma State University. There, faculty will be subject to post-tenure review, which even twenty years ago was already extremely common. Post-tenure review can be abused, of course, but it is not, in principle, inconsistent with tenure, which does not mean “life-time appointment,” as is…
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It turns out Christoph Schuringa knows very little about the “social” history of analytic philosophy
Peter Ludlow’s analysis is quite devastating. I’m surprised other reviewers didn’t pick up on these remarkable mistakes and omissions. UPDATE: A couple of readers sent this review by Pascal Engel, which I had not seen, and which makes points related to those discussed by Ludlow. (I should add that I do think much “analytic” philosophy…
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Hyska from Northwestern to Leeds
Megan Hyska (social philosophy of language, metaphysics & epistemology), assistant professor of philosophy at Northwestern University has accepted appointment as associate professor of philosophy at the University of Leeds, effective August 2026.
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Senior Lecturer fired by Texas A&M University…
…sues the university for violating her First Amendment right to academic freedom and her due process rights. She ought to prevail.
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Most cited Anglophone books in philosophy of mind since WWII (according to Google Scholar) (CORRECTED)
Looking at books misses very highly cited and important articles by philosophers like Ned Block and Tyler Burge, of course. At the same time, there are a large number of very influential books in this field. I list only those with at least 3,000 citations (rounded to the nearest 100). As usual, email me about…
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40% of Stanford undergraduates have disabilities?
This article makes it sound like a scam. Is it? I and readers would benefit from actual analysis and information, not emotive responses, which will not appear. Thanks.
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Most cited Anglophone books on Hume in the last century (according to Google Scholar) (CORRECTED)
Numbers drop off quickly here (even more than with Nietzsche!), so I list all books with at least 400 citations (rounded, as usual, to the nearest 100). Please email me about omissoins or corrections.
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The Texas war on academic freedom: University of Houston edition
The President of the University of Houston has decided that state law requires her to ask all faculty to affirm they are not “indoctrinating” students. Here are her letters to the faculty on the subject: first, second. The first letter states that, “Our responsibility is to give them the ability to form their own opinions,…
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Johnathan Bi interviews Axel Honneth…
…about the need for recognition.
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In Memoriam: David Weberman (1955-2026)
(MOVING TO FRONT FROM YESTERDAY, I PUBLISHED IT, BUT NOT TO THIS BLOG!) I was very sorry to learn from Kati Farkas that Professor Weberman has died. He was a serious scholar of 20th-century Continental philosophy, especially hermeneutics, who taught at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, Georgia State University, and then for the last…
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Do LLMs already have human-level intelligence?
Philosophers Eddy Chen and David Danks and two colleagues (in machine learning theory and linguistics) give an affirmative answer. Professor Chen kindly shared a “view-only” link for their article. What do informed readers think?
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My legal philosophy blog is coming back to life…
…here, stimulated partly by the advanced class in general jurisprudence I’m teaching this quarter (readings from Dickson, Dworkin, Enoch, Leiter, Toh, Kelsen, Atiq and others). Readers interested in legal philosophy may find some of the posts of interest.
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Iran is not an anti-imperialist force
Two philosophers make sensible points.
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A proof without content
Linguist Geoffrey Pullum calls this to my attention. What say you logicians and philosophers?
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My top songs of 2025 according to Spotify, #5: REO Speedwagon, “Roll with the Changes,” 1978
These midwestern boys from Champaign, Illinois started as a blues rock band in the early 1970s, but only made it big in the late 1970s. This song was arguably the turning point for them (in terms of fame and fortune), although they soon adopted a more saccharine pop sound I did not care for. But…
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A new policy on advertising MA and PhD programs
Going forward, I am only going to take ads from programs that I think are worth considering (the PGR will be a pretty good benchmark for that, but schools should feel free to ask me). Because many prospective students look to the blog for guidance on quality, including the quality of programs, it occurs to…
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Texas has paused H-1B visas at its public universities (and agencies), and Florida appears poised to do the same
This will be very bad for the public universities in these states. According to the preceding CHE article, the University of Florida had 131 such visas approved just in 2025; Texas A&M had 121 and UT Soutwestern (a major medical research center in Dallas) had 119. Any university strong in the natural and biological sciences…
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Garcia from Free University to Frankfurt
Manon Garcia (feminist philosophy, Continental philosophy), currently a tenure-track professor at the Free University of Berlin, has acccepted a tenured appointment as professor of philosophy (a W3 professorship in the German system) at Goethe University Frankfurt, to begin March 1. (Professor Garcia is under contract to write the book on Simone de Beauvoir in my…
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Profiles in real courage: Liviu Librescu
Holocaust surviver, Ceaucescu survivor, he died shielding his students at Virginia Tech from a gunman.
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Leibniz, proto-panpsychist?
Philosopher S. Siddarth discusses. What do readers think?
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Williamson vs. Thomasson
Philosopher Amie Thomasson is a leading figure in “deflationary” and neo-pragmatist approaches to metaphysics and ontology, along with other philosophers like Huw Price, Jenann Ismael, Matthieu Queloz, Jose Zalabardo, Cheryl Misak, and Michael Williams. (This is a useful and illustrative collection.) Timothy Williamson, by contrast, is a stalwart friend of “inflationary” metaphysics. Unsurprisingly, he did…
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What the NYT analysis of the shooting of Mr. Pretti reveals
It’s a good piece of work, for which the NYT deserves credit. Here’s what I think we learn from this. First, and as background, we know that police in general are paranoid, because they are tasked with policing a society that is heavily armed, since the U.S. does not have civilized gun laws. Second, ICE…
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Steven Levitsky on “competitive authoritarianism” in Trump’s America
A lecture at UNC-Chapel Hill here. (Thanks to someone at UNC for the pointer, but that person asked not to be identified, given the politics of the moment and in North Carolina in particular. I respect that decision, but it is certainly telling.)
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Most cited post-WWII books on ancient Greek and Roman philosophy written by philosophers (according to Google Scholar again) (CORRECTED)
Books are not, in fact, the most important vehicle for scholarship in this area, as the absence of scholars like Myles Burnyeat, Alan Code, G.E.L. Owen, and Gisela Striker, among others, would suggest. But there are some very important and influential books, as the list shows. I have excluded translations with commentaries on important ancient…
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“Why does philosophy have a history?”
A lecture by Michael Rosen at the Royal Institute of Philosophy in London.
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Emory fires tenure-track professor of medicine…
…because her father is a senior official in the Iranian government. The last time I looked, the “sins” of the parents were not grounds for removing a tenure-track faculty member from their job. Please email me if you have more information about what looks like a pretty blatant violation of the contractual rights of a…
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Reflections on the academic career of a married couple
Interesting reflections from Rachel Laudan about her and Larry Laudan’s career and intellectual work. I had the good fortune to get to know them both when I worked in Austin, and to visit with them later in Mexico. I still remember the day Larry came to my office to introduce himself, and I said, “I…
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“Philosophy Talk” archives are now open access, all 600 episodes
Here. I participated in three episodes over the years, including on Nietzsche and on religious liberty. It was great fun each time. John Perry and Ken Taylor were congenial and smart hosts. Feel free to post links to your favorite “Philosophy Talk” episodes, and perhaps say something about why you particularly like it.
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Abolish ICE
Consider the reign of terror in Minnesota in the last few weeks: Since early January, when Immigration and Customs Enforcement expanded its operation in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minn., federal officers have: killed Renee Good, a white middle-class mother; menaced a pregnant immigration lawyer in her firm’s parking lot; detained numerous U.S. citizens, including one who was dragged out…
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News and views about philosophy, the academic profession, academic freedom, intellectual culture, and other topics. The world’s most popular philosophy blog, since 2003.
I met David in 1981 when I was a grad student at Princeton. Although no longer on the faculty he…
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