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Lateral moves/retirements since the 2024 Philosophical Gourmet Report: 2026-27 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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Three philosophers in Europe win ERC grants
The ERC announcement is here. The recipients are: Piotr Bystranowski (Jagellonian University, Poland) here: https://en.uj.edu.pl/en_GB/news/-/journal_content/56_INSTANCE_SxA5QO0R5BDs/81541894/161451667 Caspar Jacobs (Leiden University, Netherlands) here: https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/news/2026/09/caspar-jacobs-investigates-what-physical-theories-actually-tell-us-about-the-world Matthew Rachar (Free University of Berlin, Germany) here: https://www.fu-berlin.de/en/presse/informationen/fup/2026/fup_26_108-erc-rachar-solidaritaet/index.html
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A survey seeking responses from philosophers about “exploitation”
Roberto Veneziani and colleagues write: We are conducting a survey about academic philosophers’ views of (1) the effect of exploitation on subjective wellbeing, (2) how morally wrong exploitative relations are, and (3) norms around that wrongfulness, by asking you to evaluate various abstract scenarios. It takes roughly 10 minutes to complete the questions, with the…
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An experience with feedback from an LLM
A colleague elsewhere, who subscribes to Astra, Open AI’s high end LLM model (at least $100/month), told me that he has found it useful for giving feedback on early drafts–he compares it to the feedback one gets from a good first-year graduate student. Not doing any historical work, he was curious how it would perform…
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The decline in humanities majors
The latest from the AAAS. The decline has a simple explanation: the extravagant cost of college education.
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A survey of academics about their AI use…
…from Oxford University Press. Does this ring true to readers based on their experiences?
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2026 Kluge Prize for the “Study of Humanity” goes to Martha Nussbaum
I’m pleased to report that my friend and colleague Martha Nussbaum has been awarded this year’s Kluge Prize. Past philosophy winners include Anthony Appiah, Charles Taylor, and Jurgen Habermas. (Martha joked with me a few days ago that she hoped Trump wouldn’t try to take over the Library of Congress after this, but I assured…
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How Trump will try to steal the midterm elections (not on November 3, but January 3)
An important (and alarming) piece by former federal judge Michael Luttig (younger readers will not know how conservative Judge Luttig was as a member of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit–this was befor “conservative” meant fascist or authoritarian). He writes: Everyone knows that the greatest threat to the upcoming midterm elections is…
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“What if mental disorders aren’t defects”?
Philosopher Justin Garson has a new substack, which draws on his published work on these topics.
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Editors (!) of higher education journal publish editorial about academic freedom…
…with multiple fake references! I trust these editors will soon be ex-editors. (Thanks to Moti Gorin for the pointer.)
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Pittsburgh’s John Norton wins Lakatos Award…
…for his two recent books on induction. (Thanks to Peter Carruthers for the pointer.)
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AIs are not conscious…
…argues Microsoft’s head of AI; an excerpt: AIs are not conscious. They do not feel, experience, or suffer. They do not have innate preferences or underlying motivations. They are sequence completion engines, internally hollow, designed to follow instructions, and accomplish goals set by humans…. There is no evidence to suggest that AI is conscious today,…
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Blast from the past: What to look for in a book contract with an academic press?
Back in 2018, with reader discussion. Opening comments here for those who have additional thoughts, especially given changes in academic publishing over the last eight years.
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California AI company seeks “research scientist” knowledgeable about philosophy to work on “alignment” issues
Salary range is $230,000 to over $900,000, depending on experience. Seriously. (Thanks to James Mahon for the pointer.)
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Here’s an amusing way to respond to scam invitations
Philosopher Jason Brennan kindly gave permission to share his response: Dear Cara, Thank you so much for reaching out. I’d ordinarily be delighted to do the interview, but unfortunately the timing may be difficult. I’m leaving shortly for Antarctica, where I’ll be spending the next six years studying whether penguins have a sufficiently robust conception…
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AI takes down “effective [sic] altruism” (and longtermism)
Produced, according to the author, with the help of advancedd LLMs, “Sol” and “Astra”: be mediscover effective altruismapparently normal charity is inefficientwhy donate to random sad thing when spreadsheet can tell you optimal sad thingfair enoughbuy mosquito netssave livesnumbers look goodfeel powerful couple years latersomeone asks an innocent questionwhy only count people alive todayhuhfuture people…
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UCLA Law School hosts a conference on the legal consequences of the response to 9/11…
…on the 25th anniversary of the attacks. Right-wing garbage media go crazy, and UCLA Chancellor issues statement condemning the event at his own law school! UCLA law faculty issue their own statement in response. The Chancellor should resign, he has no business leading a serious research university.
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Trump Translator
Useful, and basically correct:
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Here’s why we should be worried about AI
As often happens, philosopher David Wallace gives the clearest statement of a point (from the earlier thread): Let me have a go at the “normie” case for worrying about catastrophic if perhaps not quite existential risks, avoiding science fiction as much as possible. (The best science fiction is written by smart people who try hard…
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On the current “polycrisis” confronting wealthy capitalist democracies
Like the American Randall Collins, the German sociologist Wolfgang Streeck is a keen observer of the current situation, without too many illusions, and with a plausible analytical framework. An excerpt: Under an increasingly undemocratic capitalism, the countries of the rich world all confront a similar bundle of crises that have sprung up more or less…
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Does AI really pose an existential risk?
MOVING TO FRONT FROM SEPTEMBER 14–UPDATED This is much in the news now. One “godfather” of AI, Yann LeCunn, famously thinks they are overblown, while another, Geoffrey Hinton, disagrees. This Axios piece offers a simple overview [link fixed]. This law professor thinks the “existential” risks are a bit of a distraction from much more immediate…
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“Teach Philosophy,” an online resource
Philosopher David Sackris, the editor of this resource, writes: The teaching resource Teachphilosophy101.org has recently been updated in a collaboration between the journal Teaching Philosophy and the Philosophy Documentation Center. TΦ101 presents strategies and resources for faculty members and graduate assistants who teach philosophy courses, especially at the introductory level. It also includes material of interest…
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On AI and the universities
An interesting piece by philosopher Anastasia Berg (UC Irvine) at CHE. Once again (given reader interest), I’m opening comments for discussion and reactions to Professor Berg’s essay.
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Canonical thought experiments and interactive “Socratic” dialogues…
…powered by AI, via philosopher Nat Hansen. I learned about it via Joshua Knobe on Twitter. If you try it out, please share your thoughts in the comments about the utility of this for teaching or other purposes.
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Philosopher Harvey Lederman talks about AI “welfare” and related topics…
…with Johnathan Bi. (There’s a transcript here, if you subscribe to Mr. Bi’s substack [BUT see Jeremy Goodman’s comment below about the transcript!].) I have only listened to some of this, but I find Harvey’s position genuinely surprising. If readers listen to the interview, or read the transcript, feel free to discuss.
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A conference in memory of Virginia Held at CUNY
Friday, October 16.
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A sensible policy about refereeing in the age of AI
Philosopher J.P. Messina (Purdue) kindly gave permission to share what he posted on FB recently, and it seems to me his policy is a good one: I have refereed two papers this week that were pretty clearly written or heavily revised by LLMs. New policy: unless editors have an AI-use policy which requires AI-use disclosure…
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“A Severe Misalignment of AI in Mathematics”
A statement by 25 Fields Medalists in mathematics. Some of their case applies, I would venture, to philosophy. An excerpt, but do read the whole statement: [T]he push by AI companies to solve mathematical problems as a benchmark is detrimental to the science of mathematics, and to the mathematical community. The goals of the AI…
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Blast from the past: September 11, 2001 in Austin, Texas
Back in 2006 on this day.
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The “availability bias” and myths about universities
Philosopher Steven Hales makes the point effectively.
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“AI and the University”
Following up on this, philosopher Dan Kaufman, who taught for a quarter-century at Missouri State University, shares a draft of his provocative remarks being presented today at Florida Gulf Coast University. Some of this seems to me right, some debatable, all interesting. Comments are open, and signed comments will be preferred. Professor Kaufman’s text follows:…
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The “Leiden Rankings” of world universities are absurd…
…and stand out even in a field dominated by nonsense. For example: It’s true that Chinese universities have made remarkable strides, and some of them host superb centers of research and education. However, they aren’t nearly as dominant as those rankings suggest. To borrow a phrase from Mao Zedong, many Chinese universities are paper tigers:…
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The President of the United States is (in the words of his first Secretary of State) a “fucking moron”
He’s now threatening to cut off trade with any country that maintains a trade imbalance, unless he gets his way on interest rates. He doesn’t understand the causes of trade imbalances. Trump’s extraordinary ignorance, his extraordinary narcissism, and his Mafia mentality explain almost everything he does. Even the NYT, which acknowledges that Trump is a…
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Welcome to Rutgers! (Welcome to any serious university)
Via Alex Guerrero on FB, I came across this well-done “welcome” address by Rutgers President William Tate (it’s called “My Hopes for You,” September 8, in case it gets displaced by other “community messages” on the linked page). He even works in Dolly Parton, and in a nice way. Anyone starting college should read it.
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Bureaucracy, capitalism, AI, and climate change
Reader Howard Berman called my attention awhile ago to this fascinating essay by sociologist Randall Collins, which I recommend to everyone looking for some informed “big picture” analyses of what we face. He makes many astute observations: for example, that LLMs produce “not a human-like intelligence at all but a statistical memory bank which estimates…
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Nisenbaum, Noble from Syracuse to Berkeley
Karin Nisenbaum (Kant, German Idealism, Jewish philosophy) and Christopher Noble (ancient philosophy), both Associate Professors of Philosophy at Syracuse University, have accepted appointments at the University of California at Berkeley, effective January 1, 2027. Nisenbaum will be an Associate Professor in the Philosophy Department and the Eda Pell and Moses David Kuflik Professor of Jewish…
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Scam watch: “Book Carnival”
Linguist Geoffrey Pullum (Edinburgh) shares another: The WAMC scam is aimed at tempting authors to think they have a publicity opportunity. A recent novel version of it involves an independently established website rather than one filched from some other organization. Yet it is just as much of a fraud. I recently received an email containing a polished and glowing summary of…
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The declining “labor share” of income
A central forecast of Marx’s was that capitalism would produce technological innovations that would displace human labor, gradually immiserating those who have only their labor power to sell. Marx thought this would happen much sooner than it actually has, but it has started to happen. We discussed this in Chapter IV of our Marx, including,…
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“The Basics of Philosophy,” a new film from Paul Schrader…
…who wrote the screenplays for Taxi Driver and Raging Bull, among other movies. Philosopher Cheyney Ryan kindly shared this description of the plot (spoilers!): The film centers on John Jorrisen, played by Jack Huston, a respected philosophy professor at a liberal-arts college. He teaches philosophy as though it can clarify the basic moral questions of…
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In Memoriam: Robert Alexy (1945-2026)
Professor Alexy, who was emeritus at the University of Kiel in Germany (where he spent most of his academic career), was better-known and quite influential throughout the civil law world (and especially in South America) for his formal theory of proportionality and balancing in constitutional adjudication. He was also a defender of an anti-positivist theory…
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Dear John, I hope you’re sitting down. I knew John Hagelin when I was in high school fifty years ago.…
> These are obviously two different things, but my sense is that part of the…paradigm shift that resulted in infinitely…
In memory of the inventor of this ingenious argument and its faithful reporter, both recently lost: “Is the ontological argument…
I did not know Timothy Smiley well, and his pioneering joint book on Plural Logics is sitting on my shelves…
Smiley cowrote the single best introduction to his field (formally and otherwise) I think will ever be written. I’m grateful…
Worldly Indeterminacy, by Chien-hsing Ho, at Oxford University Press. Available at: https://academic.oup.com/book/63418. Description The book provides a framework to support…
Modern logic is a branch of philosophy and ALSO a branch of mathematics, but the profession of logic seems to…