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The SCOTUS decision on nationwide (or “universal”) injunctions
A reader asked me to comment on this case, which has garnered a lot of media coverage, mostly of uneven quality. As my colleague elsewhere aptly put it: "Is the Court's decision the end of the world, or will we get through it?" The short answer: too soon to say! It may not be that…
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Happy 4th of July from a Canadian professor
What he says sounds mostly right to me: It was 249 years ago, when the United States separated from the British Empire. Over the past year it has separated from the world order it built over those 249 years, and from basic sanity and decency as well. For Americans, the madness gripping their country is…
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Dover from UCLA to Rutgers
Daniela Dover (ethics, moral psychology, feminist philosophy), Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Los Angeles has accepted appointment as Associate Professor of Philosophy at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, to start this fall.
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The end of the Humboldtian ideal at Indiana University, Bloomington
This is pretty dramatic: Indiana University Bloomington is suspending or eliminating more than 100 academic programs across a wide range of disciplines ahead of the 2026-27 academic year. The programs are on a list from the Indiana Commission for Higher Education released on a PDF from the June 30, 2025 meeting. Universities across Indiana are…
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When you’re too much of a reactionary bigot even for the Lt. Governor of Texas
That's really something. But let's face it, it's only because his bigotry includes Jews as well as Muslims that all the local Republicans are turning on him. After all, that kind of rhetoric from "Bo French" doesn't fit with the Trump's valiant campaign to crush fake anti-semitism on campus (imagine if someone on campus had…
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RFK Jr’s plan to kill us all: measles edition
If he depresses vaccination rates further with his pathological ignorance, then we're in big trouble: Measles was eliminated in the U.S. decades ago, but millions of new measles cases could pop up across the country over the next 25 years if vaccination rates continue to fall, new modeling suggests. In a study published Thursday (April…
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The NYC mayoral race
Zohran Mamdani, a state assemblyman and democratic socialist, scored an upset victory in the Democratic primary over Andrew Cuomo (the former Governor, whose father had also been Governor of New York). He ran on an actual "populist" economic platform (not a fake Republican one), calling for rent freezes, free buses, free childcare, and making NYC…
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Philosopher and Kant scholar Paul Guyer elected to the American Philosophical Society
Here. The APS typically only elects one philosopher each year.
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Iran, Trump, Thucydides
As the Athenians spoke to the Melians, so too does Trump speak to Iran: "Let’s work out what we can do on the basis of what both sides truly accept: we both know that decisions about justice are made in human discussions only when both side are under equal compulsion; but when one side is…
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A celebration of the philosophical art work of Helen De Cruz
MOVING TO FRONT FROM JUNE 17–UPDATED A week from today, on Zoom, organized by philosopher Georgi Gardiner. Tragically, Professor De Cruz is now in hospice care with a terminal illness. UPDATE: Professor Gardiner reports at the link, above, that Professor De Cruz died yesterday. Next week's Zoom event will thus serve as a memorial conference. …
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Grzankowski from Birkbeck to KCL
Alex Grzankowski, Reader in Philosophy at Birkbeck College, University of London has accepted appointment as Senior Lecturer in Mind and Metaphysics at King's College, London, effective September 1. ADDENDUM: Dr. Grzankowski writes: It is old news that the state of higher education and its funding in the UK is extremely strained. Universities that do not…
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Another sordid tale of harassment of a visitor at the border for their lawful political speech
This guy was trying to visit the U.S. from Australia. Australia, not Afghanistan or some other officially disfavored country. He had engaged in lawful political speech in the psat, so was detained and then deported. What a disgrace.
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Some gallows humor from an Israeli academic friend
He writes: "A few hours ago a missile that was headed to Ben-Gurion University hit a hospital instead, and there is a lot of damage there. Many missiles are targeted at universities. (The joke among Israeli academics is that the Iranians understand the importance of higher education much better than the Israeli government does)."
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A measured and systematic critique of the AAUP’s Committee A on academic freedom…
…by law professor and academic freedom expert Matthew Finkin. Among other things, Professor Finkin documents how shoddy the work of Committee A is, in addition to its betrayal of core academic freedom principles. These days, FIRE and the Academic Freedom Alliance are leading the way in defending core academic freedom values.
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A mysterious surge in visits last week from Vietnam
It lasts several days, and involved thousands of unique visits, some of whom visited multiple pages of the blog. I am guessing the blog must have been linked from some popular website or discussion board in Vietnam. Can any readers from Vietnam shed light on this? Thanks.
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A new philosophy journal? “Germ”
Philosopher Bryan Frances writes: Here’s an idea for a new philosophy journal, called “Germ”. All it publishes are the germs of ideas. No development, no stage-setting, no detailed arguments, no treatment or even mention of the relevant literature, and so on. Max word length would be something like 500. When submitting to the journal, the…
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Great moments in rock ‘n’ roll memorials: Sly Stone and Brian Wilson edition
Two major figures of 1960s and 1970s rock music, Sly Stone ("Sly & the Family Stone") and Brian Wilson (primary songwriter and arranger for "The Beach Boys") both died this week. I confess to not having been a big Beach Boys fan, but they undoubtedly had some splendid songs. I was more partial to Sly…
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More signs of the times: Northwestern announces hiring freeze, other cuts
Northwestern University has announced a faculty and staff hiring freeze, as well as (so far unspecified) cuts to employee tuition benefits and healthcare. (The latter is a bit shocking, frankly.) Northwestern is on the "hit list" for the fake anti-semitism campaign of the Trumpistas, and has already lost nearly $800 million in federal monies.
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Connell from Birkbeck to Notre Dame
Sophia Connell (ancient philosophy, history of analytic philosophy), Reader in Philosophy at Birkbeck College, University of London, has accepted a tenured appointment as Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame, effective January 1, 2026.
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Quantum mechanics, realism, and idealism
This essay in Nature by philosopher Alyssa Ney is quite informative and lucid (especially for those, like me, with a limited understanding of the physics), but you will have to register (for free) to read the whole thing.
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We are heading into an even more dangerous moment under the tyrant Trump
Protests against ICE, against the persecution of immigrants, and against the military invasion of Los Angeles are spreading–including to Chicago–and this is likely to increase exponentially with each Trump provocation. Trump would love nothing better than to send the national guard and military into Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, etc. That will, of course, put…
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RFK Jr’s plan to kill us all: vaccine approval edition
The dangerous imbecile strikes again: Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the U.S. health secretary, on Monday fired all 17 members of the advisory committee on immunization to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, saying that the move would restore the public’s trust in vaccines…. The C.D.C.’s vaccine advisers wield enormous influence. They carefully review data…
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On the shameless lies undergirding the military invasion of Los Angeles
This is right: Administration officials like Stephen Miller are pushing the idea that Los Angeles is “occupied territory,” as evidenced by the foreign flags some protesters are carrying. Americans who still have hope for democracy should be saying, as loudly and as often as they can, that this is an insultingly stupid lie to justify…
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A serious, rather than rhetorical, Trump-Hitler comparison…
…from law professor Matthew Finkin, who examines the legal mechanisms by which the Nazis consolidated power, with comparisons to Trump (as well as noting some importance differences). Before Orban, there was Hitler, and it's worth paying attention to some of the unnerving parallels. One "difference" is that Hitler openly ridiculed Western democracies and liberal values;…
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The shift away from humanities towards STEM in graduate education at UChicago
This data, compiled by the UChicago AAUP chapter, is pretty alarming. The last President was a mathematician (Bob Zimmer, whose gross mismanagement of the finances has left the university in a vulnerable position); the current one a chemist. Is that part of the explanation for this shift? I'm not sure.
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American NeoNazis ramping up activities and training…
…for the obvious reasons.
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Signs of the times: Johns Hopkins announces staff hiring freeze, pay freeze
Hopkins runs huge medical and life sciences research programs, heavily dependent on federal monies, so this is not surprising. The University of Chicago (which gets much less NIH money) has not announced a hiring freeze, but has announced a freeze on salaries, the second time in five years. Thanks Bob Zimmer (the President who ruined…
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Berkeley’s lawsuit against the Trumpistas for unlawful termination of grants
Here. It's a good survey of the multiple ways in which almost everything Trump is doing to the NSF, NIH, NEH etc. is blatantly illegal. (Thanks to Dean Rowan for the pointer.)
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Many Trump efforts to make America unlivable are “beneath the radar” as it were
Case in point, via political scientist Adam Bonica: The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) recently unveiled a "Merit Hiring Plan" that, despite its name, signals a profound departure from a cornerstone of American democracy: the non-partisan, merit-based civil service. Under this plan, every federal job applicant from GS-5 positions upward must now write essays explaining…
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Trump Education Department now trying to get Columbia University’s accreditation revoked
One good thing about this preposterous move is it should convince every other university in the country that there is no point to trying to appease the Trumpistas, which Columbia did with its initial capitulation. This got Columbia exactly nothing. Every school take note. Columbia should have gone to court back in March. Now they…
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Speaking of Marx, here’s a video of a “book talk” event at UChicago’s Stone Center on Inequality…
…hosted by Professor Steven Durlauf (an economist in the Harris School of Public Policy here), with remarks by myself and Jaime Edwards, and commentary by Professor Durlauf and Professor Geoffrey Wodtke (UChicago Sociology). It was a lot of fun and quite interesting (although I think Professor Wodtke was mistaken about the need for the labor…
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Lederman from Texas to NYU
Harvey Lederman (logic, epistemology, philosophy of language, Chinese philosophy), Professor of Philosophy at the University of Texas at Austin, has accepted a senior offer from the Department of Philosophy at New York University, where he will start in 2026-27. That's a big catch for NYU, and a big loss for Texas (which will very likely…
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Edwards & Leiter’s “Marx” volume now a “bestseller”…
…at least by academic standards; Routledge tells me the book has sold 1500 copies in just eight months! Thank you readers!
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A message to international students and faculty
Philosopher Gregory Fried kindly gave permission to share this very apt message about the lastest Trump stupidity that he sent to students and colleagues; I endorse its sentiments fully! Dear Students, Colleagues, Friends, I am writing to students and colleagues I have taught or worked with this year, plus students at Boston College I believe…
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RFK Jr’s plan to kill us all: bird flu edition
Unbelievable: The Trump administration has delivered its latest blow to vaccines, canceling a nearly $600-million contract to the drugmaker Moderna that was intended to develop a shot for humans against bird flu. The decision also forfeited the U.S. government’s right to purchase doses ahead of a pandemic, and canceled an agreement set up by the…
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Great moments in obscure blues that Led Zeppelin “borrowed”: Memphis Minnie and Kansas Joe McCoy, “When the Levee Breaks,” 1929
While poets, according to Harold Bloom, suffered from the anxiety attending the influence of earlier poets, Led Zeppelin suffered nothing similar, borrowing rather freely (and sometimes without attribution) from the American blues canon. The originals are often forgotten. Here's one, with the Zeppelin version below the fold:
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Apt remarks by economist Glenn Loury on the universities and their critics (like the imbecile Christopher Rufo)
Here: [T]hese universities, and Harvard is at the pinnacle of an exquisite system of intellectual production, are places of real mastery. That’s true in the sciences, the social sciences, and in the humanities. The people who get tenure at these institutions are custodians of the legacy of intellectual reflection and the production of ideas that…
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Harvard strips tenure from and fires embattled HBS psychologist Francesca Gino
Here. At one time, she was one of the five highest paid faculty at Harvard, earning one million dollars a year (business school professors are very good at ratcheting their salaries up!). I suppose so much money, which no doubt resulted from outside offers, could create a bad motive for producing striking experimental results no…
Leiter Reports: A Philosophy Blog
News and views about philosophy, the academic profession, academic freedom, intellectual culture, and other topics. The world’s most popular philosophy blog, since 2003.
An interesting, and in my view, entirely welcome dimension of the “new” PPA has been a return to discussion of…
Daniel says a lot I agree with but on a few of the issues I’d slightly disagree. We’re facing the…
I doubt enough experts have read enough of the articles published in the top 10 value theory journals over the…
It’s hard to see the old PPA publishing some of what the new PPA has been publishing, although that’s not…
Richard, this is all fair and certainly, impressions of the current quality of the discipline are a subjective matter. I…
The stigmatisation of certain theories, counter-intuitive to many, as ‘preposterous’ should be avoided. It is not ultimately conducive to discovering…
“given the actual number of career-worthy jobs (i.e. not per-course or adjunct positions)” The “id est” seems mistaken. Many tenure-track…