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Memorial events for Larry Sklar at the University of Michigan
Philosopher Laura Ruetsche writes: Next week we're having a few events in Larry Sklar's memory. One is a celebration of life held in Ann Arbor, June 5, with an option for zoom participation. Another is a June 6 workshop featuring talks by Larry'sstudents. All interested parties are welcome to attend either!
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Republican budget bill would eliminate Pell grant eligibility for about 20% of students who currently get them
Not surprising that the Republicans are doing this (they're having a lot of trouble being the "working class party," aren't they?), but in addition to creating financial distress for students it will prove another budgetary problem for many universities.
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Can there be a “theory of everything”?
Philosopher Stephan Hartmann comments.
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On leaving America
The NYT put together a video about three Yale professors–two historians and philosopher Jason Stanley–who are leaving Trump’s America to go to the University of Toronto. I had repeatedly urged Jason to take the Toronto job, because of the direction this country is going, and because he himself had elicited abuse from Trump’s “communications” hatchet…
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The latest lawlessness by the Trumpistas against Harvard
The Department of Homeland Security informed Harvard that it can no longer enroll international students, and Harvard has sued for this brazen First Amendment violation and will seek, and get, a temporary restraining order against the government. What is extraordinary and frightening about the behavior of the miscreants in Washington DC is that they do…
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In Memoriam: Alasdair MacIntyre (1929-2025)
Professor MacIntyre, who was emeritus at the University of Notre Dame, wrote widely and influentialy in ethics and the history of ethics over his long career, which also included tenured teaching posts at Boston University, Duke University, Vanderbilt University, and Brandeis University, among other schools. There is a remembrance here and a link to an…
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My summer blogging quasi-hiatus has already begun…
…as readers may have inferred. There will continue to be posts, but not as frequently as in prior months. With lots of grading on the immediate horizon for me, I will also be even less responsive to email than before, but I still welcome suggestions, and will try to respond, if not right away.
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A federal judge in Boston finds that his order was defied by the Trumpistas
It sure sounds like it was. Now he needs to put some people in jail or levy fines on the defiant actors personally, or this will continue.
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Richard Marshall interviews Jeremy Bentham…
…at 3:16 AM.
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Blast from the past: Which journal’s book reviews have the most influence?
A poll, back in 2018. Although NDPR has been publishing fewer reviews in the last few years (although more this year), I still suspect they have the most impact for the reasons noted in the original post.
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An apt take-down of Anthony Appiah’s “Ethicist” column at the NYT…
…although the critique applies to lots of moral philosophy as well (which is also a moral etiquette manual for the bourgeosie). As the abstract at the start puts it: The New York Times advice column, where snitching liberal busybodies come to seek absolution, is more than a mere annoyance. In limiting our ethical considerations to…
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Chinese Huayan metaphysics of reality
Interesting.
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University of Utah goes crazy
Philosopher Cynthia Stark (Chair of the Department) describes the mayhem created by dumb legislation; an excerpt: The state has…banned Pride flags in public spaces (and in faculty offices if they can be seen through a window), and now requires faculty to post their syllabi in a publicly searchable database… [A]s the coup de grâce for academic freedom…
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Richard Marshall interviews Henry Sidgwick…
…at 3:16 am.
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Peter Carruthers discusses his new book, “Explaining our Actions”…
…at the Brains Blog.
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Great moments in obscure rock ‘n’ roll: Terry Reid, “Tinker Tailor,” 1968
Terry Reid was the British blues rock singer who was Jimmy Page's first choice as lead singer for the band he was forming that became Led Zeppelin. Reid turned Page down, and recommended Robert Plant, and the "rest is history" as they say. Reid recorded many albums and singles, but never achieved significant success. But…
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Lange from North Carolina to Rutgers
Marc Lange (philosophy of science and physics), currently Professor of Philosophy at the University of North Carolinat at Chapel Hill, has accepted a senior offer from the Department of Philosophy at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, where he will start this fall.
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Pavese from Cornell to Oxford
Carlotta Pavese (philosophy of mind & cognitive science, epistemology, philosophy of language), Associate Professor of Philosophy at Cornell University, has accepted a professorship at Oxford University, with a Fellowship at St. Catherine's College.
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APA announces Spring prizes…
…including the Dewey Lecturers, the Lebowitz Prize, and the Romanell Lecture, among others.
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“Against the Metaphysical Turn in Recent American Jurisprudence”
A new paper that may be of interest to those who follow literature in jurisprudence; it will appear in my forthcoming book, From a Realist Point of View (Oxford University Press, 2026), which will include previously published papers (some revised a lot), plus new material (including this chapter), all related to realism in legal and…
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Princeton, the richest university in the U.S., asks all departments to make plans for permanent 5-10% budget cuts, warns of possible lay-offs
Yikes! The linked article suggests the looming increase in endowment tax is the culprit, since Princeton would pay the highest rate: [The House bill] still uses the same $500,00 per-student threshold for the original 1.4 percent endowment tax, which was passed during the first Trump administration in 2017. From there the tax rate increases in…
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Legal challenges to the actions of the Trump Administration
All in once place, via thje Just Security site! (Thanks to John Bullock for the pointer.)
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Philosopher Alex Guerrero talks about lottocracy…
…at Brain in a Vat.
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Republican proposals for endowment tax coming into focus
CHE reports (drawing on various sources, which have slightly different details): [T]he proposed new system would be tiered, and only colleges with endowments valued at more than $750,000 per student would pay a higher tax rate. (Currently, colleges that have endowments valued at $500,000 or more per student — and meet certain other conditions —…
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Spacetime, Einstein, and the Hole Argument
Philosopher John Norton discusses at IAITV.
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Trumpistas threatening to suspend habeas corpus for migrants
Trump's henchman Stephen Miller, who not only thinks like Joseph Goebbels but looks like him (see below the fold), has indicated that they are "thinking" [sic] of suspending habeas corpus for migrants. Law professor Stephen Vladeck has a clear explanation of why Miller's claims are false, misleading and dangerous. Habeas corpus and courts are all…
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Great moments in obscure rock ‘n’ roll: Family, “Emotions,” 1969
ORIGINALLY POSTED APRIL 23, 2016 These Brits are not quite as obscure as some of the others recently featured, but they hardly achieved the success they probably warranted. Psychedelic, "progressive," even some British folk influences. This is one of my favorite tunes by the band, though their first album, Music in a Doll's House, is…
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Federal judge orders immediate release of Turkish Tufts student detained…
…because of her lawful political speech. Three cheers, again, for the courts!
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A memorable “funding statement” in the Journal of Value Inquiry
A philosophically-minded political scientist, Professor Michael Munger, was asked to review an OUP book of political philosophy for the Journal of Value Inquiry, published by Springer. Here is his required "funding statement": For reasons that are literally incomprehensible, the publisher is insisting that I include a “funding statement” in the manuscript. It is worth pointing…
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Tenured philosophy professor at West Point will resign in protest over the attack on education at the military academies by the Trumpistas
Professor Graham Parsons explains what's going on here; an excerpt: Mr. Trump’s order prohibited any educational institution operated by the armed forces from “promoting, advancing or otherwise inculcating” certain “un-American” theories, including “gender ideology” and the idea that “America’s founding documents are racist or sexist.” Mr. Hegseth’s memo went further, adding that the service academies…
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Stanford, one of the three or four richest universities in the country, preparing for possible budget cuts…
…on the order of 10-15%, thanks to the Trump war on the universities. Stanford has a huge medical school and a huge investment in the life sciences, so is a top recipient of NIH money (and, I would expect, also NSF money). Notice the possible cuts are across the board.
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Stanford, one of the three or four richest universities in the country, preparing for possible budget cuts…
…on the order of 10-15%, thanks to the Trump war on the universities. Stanford has a huge medical school and a huge investment in the life sciences, so is a top recipient of NIH money (and, I would expect, also NSF money). Notice the possible cuts are across the board.
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Blast from the past: “Ayn Rand defended” (not by me!)
Back in 2009. Of the three cults that afflict philosophy and philosophy-adjacent fields–the Derrida cult, the Strauss cult, and the Rand cult–the last one is certainly the weirdest and most pernicious.
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As expected, the NSF has cut “indirect cost” reimbursements to 15%…
…and many universities have filed suit. As with the cut to NIH funding, the problem is the way the Trumpistas did it, without following any of the required procedures under the Administrative Procedure Act. I expect the courts to enjoin this as they did the NIH cuts. But the fact remains that unless the Democrats…
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Legal actions on behalf of those whose NEH grants have been terminated?
MOVING TO FRONT FROM APRIL 16–UPDATED A scholar elsewhere writes: Though I haven’t been notified, so I am not completely sure, it seems [my NEH Fellowship] has been terminated. At least that is what I have just now gleaned from the website for my grant. Are you aware of any legal actions by individuals or…
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Richard Marshall interviews Dennis Diderot…
…at 3:16 AM. I don't know how he manages to land these guys!
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The imbecile RFK Jr. ramping up his war on vaccines, one of the great public health triumphs of the 20th-century
He's interfering with vaccine development (which may interfere with updated Covid shots in the fall, unbelievably); and instead of a massive vaccination campaign for measles, the imbecile is directing a study for miracle treatments, including vitamins. Of all the awful and unqualified Cabinet appointees, I still suspect RFK Jr. is the most dangerous. Just horrible.
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Harvard “fights” Trump in court, but does his bidding on campus
Revealing report from the Harvard Crimson. Of course, these changes are relatively benign compared to the outrageous demands the Trumpistas were making.
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A strong piece by the Columbia philosophy student unlawfully detained by the Trumpistas in Vermont
Here; an excerpt: The American government accuses me of undermining U.S. foreign policy, a patently absurd pretext for deportation for political speech that the Trump administration dislikes. The government is scraping the bottom of the barrel in its attempts to smear me. My only “crime” is refusing to accept the slaughter of Palestinians, opposing war…
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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.
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…