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New Books in February
Authors and/or publishers kindly sent me these new books this month: Understanding Ethics, 3rd edition by Torbjorn Tannsjo (Edinburgh University Press, 2013). A World Without Why by Raymond Geuss (Princeton University Press, 2014).
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In addition to Title IX action, Northwestern student has filed a lawsuit against Peter Ludlow personally in state court
There is a brief account here, I have not yet seen a complaint in this matter. UPDATE: A bit more information here. ANOTHER: A link to the Illinois Gender Violence Act, which the prior story describes as (at least part of) the student's basis for a cause of action against Ludlow. AND ANOTHER: The Northwestern…
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O’Callaghan from Rice to Wash U/St. Louis
Casey O'Callaghan (philosophy of mind, metaphysics), Associate Professor of Philosophy at Rice University, has accepted a senior offer from the Department of Philosophy and the Program in Philosophy-Neuroscience-Psychology at Washington University, St. Louis. This will further consolidate Wash U's status as one of the two or three best programs in philosophy of cognitive science in the…
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Why study philosophy?
An interview with philosopher and novelist Rebecca Goldstein.
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Chalmers & Clark interviewed at…
…New Philosopher. (Thanks to Dirk Felleman for the pointer.)
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Oxford philosopher accused of harassing behavior…
…and the philosophy graduate student who was its target ended up committing suicide after a number of difficult personal events, though it is hard to tell from this account (bear in mind it is The Daily Mail) what role, if any, the harassment played in the horribly tragic outcome. In this case, the philosopher, Jeffrey Ketland, was,…
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Sexual harassment in philosophy, once again
An interesting post by philosopher Heidi Lockwood.
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Walton to visit at Stanford in Spring Quarter for three years
Kendall Walton, a leading figure in philosophy of art who is currently emeritus at Michigan, will be the Bonsall Visiting Professor in the Department of Philosophy at Stanford University for the Spring quarters of 2015, 2016, and 2017.
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“Thinking the unthinkable”
A discussion that includes philosophers Mark Rowlands (Miami) and Simon Saunders (Oxford), among others.
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Transferring from a foreign to a North American PhD program as an advanced student
A student in a PhD program in Europe, who has completed a BA (three years) and MA (two years), and is now in the third year of a PhD program and in his/her mid-20s writes: Being dissatisfied with my program, I am looking for ways to transfer my Ph.D. abroad or even to start a…
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“The Truth is Terrible”–hopefully final version…
…or penultimate until copy-editing. A few significant revisions to this version in light of excellent feedback received at UC Riverside a few weeks ago.
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Colorado Site Visit Committee was given access to ordinarily confidential sexual harassment complaints
Some members of the Philosophy Department are not happy about it.
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Oppression of the ugly?
Johnny Thakkar comments.
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I succumb…
…I'm on Twitter, for the time being, and after much urging. I'm not sure how much use I'll make of it. Advice welcome.
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“It’s tragic and embarrassing”
It sure is. Disgraceful is more like it.
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Northwestern answers complaint in Title IX lawsuit
I have been sent a copy of Northwestern's answer to the Title IX lawsuit noted earlier. (Filings in lawsuits like this are public documents.) Note that the admissions in the lawsuit represent Northwestern's position, not Professor Ludlow's. According to the answer: 1. Northwestern admits that it "substantiated some, but not all, of [the plaintiff's allegations…
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Pickard from Oxford to Birmingham
Hanna Pickard (philosophy of mind, philosophy of pyschiatry), currently Wellcome Trust Biomedical Ethics Clinical Research Fellow at Oxford University, will take up a half-time Readership in Philosophy at the University of Birmingham, effective January 2015. She will continue with the other half of the time her work as a clinical therapist.
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Barnes, Cameron from Leeds to Virginia (UPDATE: and Walter Ott from Virginia Tech)
Elizabeth Barnes and Ross Cameron, both Associate Professors of Philosophy at the University of Leeds, and both leading young figures in metaphysics, have accepted tenured offers from the Department of Philosophy at the University of Virginia, where they will start this fall. That's a big investment in metaphysics for UVA and, given its existing strengths,…
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Roger Scruton, paid shill for the tobacco industry?
Bizarre. UPDATE: Faux Philosophy News to the rescue! ANOTHER: David Gordon points out to me that this is an old news story, not current.
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First there was the sensationalistic UK tabloid “The Daily Mail”…
…and now there is "The Philosopher's Mail." (Thanks to Rob Tempio for the pointer.)
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A new open access journal: “Science, Religion & Culture”
Here. A timely topic, as readers of this blog will know, and an impressive editorial board (which is why I was honored to be asked to join).
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More philosopher videos: Stephan Hartmann
Once again, courtesy of the Humboldt Foundation.
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A statement from U of Colorado female faculty in the Philosophy Department
Here; I would highlight one bit in particular: We faculty women strongly believe that none of our currently untenured male colleagues or current male graduate students has engaged in sexual misconduct (nor, indeed, have most of our tenured colleagues). UPDATE: A related article from a Boulder newspaper. I have heard multiple reports about what's going…
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Nicholas Kristof on academics
This is funny.
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Social epistemology case studies: the Kitty Genovese myth
Interesting. Many readers will be too young to remember Abe "I'm writing as bad as I can" Rosenthal, a classic product of New York Times in-breeding, who rose to be editor and then brainless and barely literate columnist. He combined the insight of David Brooks with the literary talent of Thomas Friedman!
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In Memoriam: Israel Scheffler (1923-2014)
A longtime member of the Harvard faculty, Professor Scheffler passed away yesterday. He was well-known for his contributions to the philosophy of science and the philosophy of education. His Harvard page has some additional information. I will link to memorial notices as they appear. UPDATE: A memorial notice from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
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Last week’s discussion of the Site Visit Committee report: a poll
Since last week's post highlighting some criticisms of the Site Visit Committee's report about Colorado, I have been struck by the divergent reactions, both in comments, in e-mail, on Facebook, and on some other blogs. Some readers appeared to think the criticisms never should have been aired at all; others thought it was salutary to…
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Philosopher videos: Michael Forster
A charming piece on my colleague and friend Michael Forster, courtesy of the German Humboldt Foundation. (For background, see here.)
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Missing Platonic Dialogue found: “On Dirt”
Details here. (Thanks to Phillip Horky for the pointer.)
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Hopkins from Sheffield to NYU
Robert Hopkins (aesthetics, philosophy of mind, also Nietzsche), who had been vistiing at New York University from the University of Sheffield, has now officially accepted a permanent post there. That will make NYU just one of a handful of top departments with a senior scholar working in aesthetics.
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New preface to the forthcoming paperback edition of…
…Why Tolerate Religion? (Princeton University press, cloth edition 2013, paper edition forthcoming 2014).
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If you thought nothing stupider could possibly be written about the gender problems in professional philosophy…
…you were wrong. As far as I know, this is the only document in existence that concludes that Linda Alcoff's objections to the PGR (which are, indeed, utterly specious and self-serving!) shouldn't be taken seroiusly because I hate Republicans. Baudelaire: "anywhere out of this world."
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Ludlow sues several news organizations for defamation for falsely reporting that he had been accused of rape
Scroll down to the UPDATE for corrections to Ms. Schuman's misrepresentations I was sent the complaint but, unfortunately, can not upload it (this has been an ongoing typepad problem recently, anyone with advice, I would welcome it). But the case is, or at least ought to be, a "slam dunk," since, as we noted previously,…
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Statement from Peter Ludlow’s Attorney regarding the lawsuit against Northwestern
Scroll down to the UPDATE for corrections to Ms. Schuman's misrepresentations Kristin Case, Prof. Ludlow's attorney, sent me the statement to which The Daily Northwestern article alludes. I post it below in its entirety, but have replaced the plaintiff's name with "P" for plaintiff. Mr. Ludlow denies P's allegations that he sexually harassed or assaulted…
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A more detailed statement by Ludlow’s attorney…
…as reported in The Daily Northwestern: Ludlow released a statement through his attorney, Kristin Case, on Thursday afternoon disputing the student’s allegations. Ludlow denies he sexually harassed or assaulted the student, Case said in the statement. “We have corroborating evidence that (the student) propositioned Mr. Ludlow,” Case said in the statement. “He refused her advances.”…
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Florida State’s Al Mele wins 2013 APA Sanders Book Prize…
…for a book in philosophy of mind, metaphysics, or epistemology.
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I respond to this report here https://jasonstanleyantifascist.substack.com/p/on-the-philosophical-muddle-that
For what it’s worth, I agree. I have, with some trepidation, given it a bunch of my papers and asked…
Looking at some of the AI-amplified cranks on philpeople, it is hard to agree with the assessment of this article.…
Perhaps a useful distinction here is between replacing philosophers and changing the conditions under which philosophical work gets done. LLMs…
Conditional on the hypothesis that journal editors sometimes desk reject high-quality papers written and commended by world experts on a…
Some users seem to have conflicting impressions about the (absolute level of) abilities of current iterations of the LLMs. But…
I only just learned of Barry’s passing, and I’m enormously saddened at the news. I wrote my PhD on his…