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On illness as a stimulus to philosophy
Here. (Thanks to Prabhu Venkataraman for the pointer.)
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Great moments in obscure rock ‘n’ roll: Leaf Hound, “Drowned My Life in Fear,”1971
This entire album (Growers of Mushroom) is extraordinary if you like bands like Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, etc. I'm told they've had a comeback in popularity in "Stoner Rock" circles.
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Marquette professor, threatened with being fired over a blog post about a philosophy instructor, replies to the University President
McAdams, the Marquette political science professor, is an unpleasant character, but he's in the right here, and Marquette is in the wrong, as we've noted before.
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Remembering Putnam, especially his political activism
Recollections from political theorist Alan Gilbert (Denver)–many interesting anecdotes! (Prof. Gilbert gives too much credit, however, to some of Putnam's weaker philosophical positions, like his supposed arguments against the fact-value distinction.)
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What is it like to be a philosopher? Janice Dowell edition
Here. (Thanks to Clifford Sosis for sending this along.)
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President Obama is at the University of Chicago Law School today discussing the Supreme Court and the nomination of Judge Garland…
…which you can watch here. And if you'd like to know the truth about what's really going on with Supreme Court nomination battles, read this. (I'm not there, I'm at home working, since the faculty have been thrown out of their offices for the day!)
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People on the autism spectrum in academia
Interesting piece by economist Tyler Cowen (George Mason) in CHE.
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Details of sexual harassment cases at Berkeley in recent years
A few involve faculty, most involve staff, all are on the spectrum from pathetic to creepy. What the heck is wrong with people that they behave in these ways in what is supposed to be a professional context? ADDENDUM: On the Choudhry case (the former Law Dean at Berkeley), this is relevant. He plainly should have…
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“Visit Mississippi…
…we're even worse than North Carolina."
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Ted Cruz gets the Bronx welcome he deserves…
…and The New York Post has fun reporting it.
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The place of philosophy of science in the profession (esp. its professional meetings)
An interesting post by Calgary's Ken Waters (taking up an issue Edouard Machery [Pitt] raised here awhile back).
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Pitt makes senior offer to North Carolina’s Laurie (L.A.) Paul
Students thinking about either program, especially those interested in metaphysics (or her more recent work on "transformative experience"), will want to take this into account. My best guesstimate is that if Paul goes to Pitt, that would (together with some other changes, or impending ones, since the last PGR) drop North Carolina from Group 3…
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A good year for philosophers in the Guggenheim competitions
Four faculty have won Guggenheim Fellowships: Victor Caston (Michigan), Anjan Chakravartty (Notre Dame), Daniel Garber (Princeton), and Richard Kraut (Northwestern). Caston, Garber, and Kraut are primarily historians of philosophy, Chakravartty is a philosopher of science. (Thanks to several readers for passing this on.)
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Philosopher Jerry Dworkin on John Mearsheimer on lying politicans…
…at the New Rambler.
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Tea Party crazy Rick Scott, Gov. of Florida, excoriated…
…by a constituent in a coffee shop.
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Blogging a book…
…philosopher Massimo Pigliucci (CUNY) will be doing it over the coming weeks.
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Economics as “the new astrology”
This needed to be written. (Thanks to Richard Marshall for the pointer.)
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Tennessee Taliban want Bible to be the official state book!
Pathetic, but this is the home of the Scopes monkey trial. Good to know there's been almost no progress in that benighted state despite 80 years.
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“Reply to Five Critics of WHY TOLERATE RELIGION?”
It's on-line now at the website of Criminal Law & Philosophy (though you may need to be at a university computer to access it) for those who may be interested.
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F.I.R.E. seeking student or institution as plaintiff in lawsuit to challenge regulatory overreach by the Office of Civil Rights (in the Dept of Education) regarding Title IX
An interesting development, one that could result in a case that ends up before the U.S. Supreme Court.
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Mind has new editors…
…and they are A.W. Moore (Oxford) and Lucy O'Brien (UCL); their initial editorial is here and indicates their intention to broaden Mind's coverage, which would be welcome given its very narrow conception of philosophy in recent decades. Mind still has a poor reputation for the efficiency of its editorial process, and hopefully the new editors will…
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How right-wing are elite American universities?
Quite, judging from this: they support, overwhelmingly, the 1970s Republican over the New Deal liberal. Wow! And silly too: Clinton doesn't need their nickels and dimes, she's got Wall Street!
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Another Title IX “due process” fiasco out of Brandeis
MOVING TO FRONT FROM SATURDAY (APRIL 2) Brandeis's motion to dismiss the lawsuit brought by a gay student found to have violated the school's sexual harassment policies was denied; an excerpt from the linked article (which includes further links to the opinion): A judge rebuked Brandeis University for denying fundamental due process rights to a…
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Trends in doctoral education in the U.S.
Interesting data via IHE. 75% of PhDs awarded in the U.S. are in the sciences and engineering! I was also surprised by the debt figures for humanities PhDs: that is not wise!
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Identity politics and neoliberalism
This is a nice summary account, with quotations, of a view developed systematically over many years by the Penn political scientist Adolf Reed. UPDATE: And see also this. (Thanks to Jason Walta for the pointer.)
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“Periods for Pence”
A brilliant response by Indiana women to their rabidly anti-abortion Governor Mike Pence.
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Great moments in obscure rock ‘n’ roll: Orang-Utan, “If You Leave,” 1971
(You will be reminded of Free, a contemporaneous and better-known band, but these guys [known on the touring circuit then as "Hunter"] were better.)
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Why a contested Republican convention is likely, why the delegates matter, and why all this spells trouble for Trump
The specter of the quasi-fascist narcissist looms over everything these days, even outside the U.S.–when I was recently in Rome and Calabria, discussion invariably turned to Trump (and also to the corrosive and destructive effect years and years of Berlusconi had on Italy). Nate Silver has a useful analysis of how things can, and are…
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On the job market for lawyers
Since I know a good number of philosophy undergraduates and graduates think about law school, this piece in The New York Times by my co-blogger at the Law School Reports might be of interest, since it offers a more nuanced look at changes in employment in the legal sector over the last 15 years more or…
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Trump and the psychology of crowds
An interesting piece (with some appearances by philosopher David Livingstone Smith [New England] as well).
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A French Sokal Hoax, involving the journal (there really is one!) “Badiou Studies”
Details here (in French). (Thanks to Edouard Machery for the pointer.)
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Thanks, readers!
Last month was the highest traffic month since I switched to Stat Counter in January 2015 (after Sitemeter went beserk). Thank you!
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First issue of a new open-access on-line journal…
…S.Phi. Essays and Explorations, its conception described here.
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This sums up the tiresome infantilism of large parts of philosophy cyberspace perfectly
Jason Brennan (Georgetown) on his experience replying to critics (most recently, of his views about the adjunct problem): The philosophy blogosphere has quite a few people, writing anonymously, who write nasty, angry, and dishonest invective against others, but then faint and cry if anyone says anything back to them in response, even if the responses are…
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Announcing guest bloggers for April
I've got a wonderful and diverse line-up of guests at the blog this month. In rough order of appearance guest bloggers and their topics will include: David Velleman (NYU): "How to find out everything you need to know about graduate programs in philosophy in only 12 weeks, 40 hours per week." Noelle McAfee (Emory): "Tips for Writing…
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.
Matthew Ratcliffe. 2023. Grief Worlds: A Study of Emotional Experience. MIT Press (open access with no time limit) https://direct.mit.edu/books/oa-monograph/5524/Grief-WorldsA-Study-of-Emotional-Experience “Experiences…
Free Robot Labour: Marx, Automation, and the Future of AI by Jamie Terence Kelly https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-032-26782-5 Palgrave Macmillan, 2026 Permanently Open…
Nietzsche’s Ecce homo, Notebooks and Letters: 1888-1889. Translation by Daniel Fidel Ferrer. ©2023 Daniel Fidel Ferrer. All rights reserved. Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs…
I only just learned of Barry’s passing, and I’m enormously saddened at the news. I wrote my PhD on his…
I am reading 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗕𝗼𝗴𝗵𝗼𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗮𝗻 𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁 with mixed feelings. It is, in various ways, moderate and careful, and it certainly…
I respond to this report here https://jasonstanleyantifascist.substack.com/p/on-the-philosophical-muddle-that
Cambridge makes new volumes in its Elements series freely available for a couple of weeks following publication. My own “Innateness…