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Leading research universities sue Trump Department of Energy over unlawful withholding of monies
Complaint here. Plaintiffs include Brown, Caltech, Cornell, Michigan, MIT Illinois, Princeton, and others. Another hopeful sign, although only if the Trumpistas comply with adverse court decisions!
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Harvard Law School negotiation expert advises law firms: do *not* negotiate with Trump
Good advice for universities too.
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Some good news: Harvard will *not* capitulate
Harvard President Garber just sent out this message to the Harvard community: Late Friday night, the administration issued an updated and expanded list of demands, warning that Harvard must comply if we intend to “maintain [our] financial relationship with the federal government.” It makes clear that the intention is not to work with us to…
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The moment of truth has arrived: Trump Administration now openly defying a Supreme Court decision…
…regarding a man wrongfully deported to El Salvodor. The district judge handling this case needs to hold the lawyers in contempt, and then jail them and/or fine them personally until they comply. (The tinpot dictator of El Salvador is now just doing the bidding of the wannabe tinpot dictator of America. No one doubts that…
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Trump’s litany of tyrannical actions…
…so far, but a useful list.
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The “red line” for the universities with respect to Trump should be “academic freedom”
I agree with my colleague Tom Ginsburg's assessment, although disagree about Columbia: putting a program into receivership at the behst of the government for political reasons is a clear violation of academic freedom.
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Trump “doesn’t give a damn” about anti-semitism
This seems right: “Donald Trump doesn’t give a damn about antisemitism. If he did, he wouldn’t be dining with known antisemites,” Yohnka said. “What Donald Trump cares about is power and nobody criticizing him, and he realizes that academic institutions are going to study his failed policies.”
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“Little Marco Rubio” (as Trump dubbed him) tells court that the authoritarian government…
MOVING TO FRONT FROM APRIL 10, SINCE THE WICKED NEVER REST …can deport permanent residents of the U.S. if they have the wrong beliefs. Yes, seriously. How long before they get to citizens? UPDATE (4/12/25): These fascists are already talking about deporing U.S. citizens (only "criminals" of course, but even so, it's illegal, and they'll…
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Harvard AAUP chapter (and national AAUP) sue federal government over extortion of Harvard
The lawsuit is here; the "prelimimnary" statement of the facts sums up well the outrageous and unlawful misconduct of the Trumpistas.
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Can international students safely study in the US for an extended period of time?
Probably not. Please explore your options in more civilized countries, given what's happening here.
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Tariff humor
As most readers will know, the monster child, who is as ignorant as he is depraved, imposed tariffs on island countries inhabited mostly by penguins. Hence this amusing item making the rounds on social media:
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BBVA “Foundations of Knowledge” prize in humanities goes to Philip Kitcher…
…only the third philosopher (along with Noam Chomsky and Peter Singer) to receive this lucrative (400k euros) award, sponsored by the Spanish financial firm of BBVA.
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It’s been three weeks since Columbia University capitulated to Trump’s extortion
Is there any sign they are getting the $400 million? Please post links or information about where the university stands in its effort to recover the illegally withheld monies. UPDATE: As commenters point out, below, the NIH has also cut another $250 million in grants to Columbia since the capitulation! Surely now they have to…
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Andrews from York U/Toronto to CUNY Graduate Center
MOVING TO FRONT FROM APRIL 8–UPDATED Kristin Andrews (philosophy of mind and cognitive science, especially "animal minds"), who holds a Canada Research Chair in York and cognitive science at York University, Toronto, has accepted a senior offer from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, where she will start this fall. That's…
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Most cited works in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Courtesy of Professor Schwitzgebel. It will be interesting to see how this list changes over time.
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Brown University has a lot of staff (and some faculty) doing DEI work
A Brown undergraduate put together this list–since he's a bit clueless, he thinks these positions are "illegal" (they are not: just because the Trumpistas don't like DEI, doesn't make it illegal). What's stunning is how many there are.
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The latest targets of the Trumpistas
Cornell and Northwestern. Cornell faculty have initiated a letter to their Board of Trustees urging them not to capitulate. The Northwestern President, former Dean of the Law School here (he was a very good Dean), is a lawyer, and I am hopeful he will fight in the courts to put a stop to this lawlessness.
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Philosophy job applicants in 2024
Interesting data from philosopher Charles Lassiter.
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Suitably scathing assessment of the first two months of authoritarian government under Trump…
…from Andrew Sullivan; an excerpt: Trump has also abandoned habeas corpus and due process by invoking the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to seize mere suspects off the streets and transport them instantly to a terrifying foreign jail in El Salvador. The law has only been used twice before in wartime, and, ahem, we are not…
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The right to voluntary euthanasia
Philosopher Antony Flew discusses in 1980. (Thanks to Richard Marshall for the pointer.)
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Finlay, formerly of ACU and Southern California, will join Illinois/Urbana
Stephen Finlay, a leading figure in metaethics, will become Professor of Philosophy at the Univeristy of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (from which he received his PhD many years ago) this fall. Finlay was formerly Professor of Philosophy and Director of the ill-fated Dianoia Institute of Philosophy at the Australian Catholic University, and, before that, Professor of Philosophy…
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More than 380 books purged from the Naval Academy Library…
…which is what fasicsts do when they don't simply burn books. Philosopher George Yancy tells me his books were among the purged, as were books by other philosophers, including Linda Alcoff and Charles Mills, among others.
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The Multi-Day In-Class LockDown Browser Essay Assignment
Interesting proposal from philosopher John Robison: Download Lockdown browser post 3.30.2025
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Universities must make a collective commitment to fight the lawlessness of the Trumpistas in court
A sensible proposal from three law professors (Samuel Bagenstos [Michigan], Ryan Doerfler [Harvard], David Pozen [Columbia]). Faculty should send a link to this piece to their university leadership!
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Another journal (this time in math) abandons Wiley
In this morning's email, a letter from the former editors of Mathematical Logic Quarterly: Today, 7 April 2025, the entire editorial board of the journal "MLQ: Mathematical Logic Quarterly" published by Wiley-VCH GmbH has announced its coordinated resignation. The editors (with the exception of those still under contract with Wiley) have simultaneously launched a new English-language…
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If you could change one thing in the world…
…what would it be? Academics, including philosophers, discuss on this podcast.
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With students being blacklisted and rounded up…
…philosopher Mathias Risse issues a "call to action."
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The Trump war on universities
The targets so far: Columbia, Penn, Harvard, Princeton, Brown. All but Princeton have medical schools, and research medical schools get very large amounts of money from the federal government through the NIH. Major research universities without med schools–like Princeton, but also Berkeley, MIT, and Caltech–may be somewhat less vulnerable precisely for this reason, although they…
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Now the Trumpistas come for Brown University…
….let's hope they also don't capitulate.
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The ruling class can’t be happy with Trump’s destruction of global markets…
…and there are signs they've been speaking to their bought-and-paid-for Senators. Manuavering in the House of Representatives may be trickier, but I will bet the votes are there.
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NEH grants cancelled
It starts. Garbage people like Musk and the Trumpistas have no use for culture, of course.
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Anti-government speech no longer allowed at NYU…
…or at least at the medical school. The fear of medical schools of losing government support has been a thread in many of these capitulations.
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National Endowment for the Humanities under attack from Musk & the Trumplodytes
Several philosophers have asked me to share this message from the National Humanities Alliance: "I am reaching out from the National Humanities Alliance to give you an important update on the NEH. On Monday, March 31, 2025 we learned that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is targeting the National Endowment for the Humanities…
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FBI agent turned philosopher testifies before Congress
Philosopher Luke Hunt testified about the FBI and the "rule of law" (his testimony starts at 1:11:55). You can read the written testimony here: Download Hunt.WrittenTestimony.4.2.2025
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Getting ChatGPT to take a stand
Philosopher Paul Studtmann writes: A while back I was asking ChatGPT about the history of columns – ionic, doric, corinthian – and began to wonder whether I could get it to give an aesthetic ranking of them. This of course is a question of aesthetic value, and I initially suspected that it wouldn’t do so.…
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WilmerHale law firm sues Trump Administration…
…and is represented by Paul Clement, a prominent and very conservative lawyer, who is not, happily, a fascist. Kudos to WilmerHale for not capitulating and to Mr. Clement for taking the case. Perhaps Columbia University should retain him?
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“living organisms alter their own heredity”
Biologist James Shapiro comments. Curious to hear what knowledgeable readers think of this. (D'o not comment unless you are knowledgeable about the relevant biology and/or the relevant philosophical issues.)
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On “appeasement” at Columbia University
Philospoher Dhananjay Jagannathan comments.
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An open letter calling for unity among schools targetted by the Trumpistas
More than 2500 signatures already . Among the calls are for universities to: Refuse to comply with illegal governmental overreach that undermines a university’s academic decision-making and self-governance. Defend freedom of inquiry by faculty and researchers from government censorship. Provide full legal representation for all illegally detained or targeted international students. Refuse to share student records or…
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Do university presidents now serve at the pleasure of the Trump Administration?
Columbia law professor David Pozen comments on recent events at Columbia University.
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