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Paired Comparisons of Philosophy Journals
Thom Brooks (NewCastle) has put together a second paired comparisons survey with just 50 major philosophy journals (his first one had almost three times as many, which would require 100,000 votes or more to get any meaningful results). So if every reader casts 25 votes, in no time we should have some reasonable outputs.
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“Obama has won the War on Terror debate–for the American Right.”
More change we can't believe in.
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The BBC’s Documentary on Nietzsche: Not Recommended
This one leaves a great deal to be desired. As a guide to his philosophical work, it is worse than useless, and full of bromides that make Nietzsche out to be a proto-existentialist or self-help pop psychologist, and it even resurrects various myths about Nietzsche. The problem results primarily from the fact that the film-makers appear to…
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Guess who finally has a personal homepage?
Brian Leiter, that's who–everything you didn't want to know, and a Steve Pyke photo! Another Brian Leiter (really, some guy in Maryland) got the .com, so I got the .net. (It appears the .com has been colonized by advertising connected to the .net Leiter, however!)
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Philosophical Poseur Bernard-Henri Levy on Stephen Colbert Show
Reader Blake Taylor flagged this episode for me, in which Levy suggests that he and Colbert are both "public intellectuals," which is probably about right. As I wrote to Taylor: "Levy has the distinction of being a bigger charlatan than Derrida," to which Taylor aptly replied: "At least Derrida wrote about other philosophers who are…
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APA Will *Not* Refund Registration Fees for Those Who Could Not Attend Due to the Blizzard
Philosopher Dustin Locke (Claremont-McKenna) writes: I just found out that the APA has adopted a "no refund" policy for people who pre-registered for the Eastern APA but could not make it due to the weather. This seems wrong to me. Maybe there could be a discussion on your blog?
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The Future of “Public” Higher Education: the Oregon Model
It's worth watching this one. (The University Preident, Richard Lariviere, was Dean of Liberal Arts for a time at UT Austin, and was one of the few Deans I've ever encountered with a backbone, who couldn't be steamrolled by corrupt departments selling him a 'bill of goods.')
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Remember to check out the “open” thread on philosophy news…
…it contains links to some pieces readers have recently sent me (scroll towards the end), including Slate's pretty good piece on Nietzsche and the obituary for Matthew Lipman, a leader in introducing philosophy into the lower school curricula.
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Why the Right is beside itself about being called out about the Arizona shootings
MOVING TO FRONT FROM 1/13–A FEW UPDATES OF INTEREST The Arizona shooter was clearly in the grips of anti-government paranoia of a kind not uncommon on the right in America, though he may simply have been in the grips of paranoia simpliciter. But given the former, it was natural and obvious to point out the…
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BBC Documentary on Heidegger
This is actually quite interesting, and tells a plausible story about the connection between his work of a philosophical nature and his Nazism. This isn't, to be sure, the Americanized Heidegger of Hubert Dreyfus (who defends a cogent, if not correct, anti-skeptical position about the relationship between theory and practice), but arguably closer to the spirit…
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“The Civility Diversion”
This seems to me exactly right. (Thanks to Aaron Baker for the pointer.)
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Hitler and Wittgenstein (Maybe) as Schoolchildren
Via Peter Ludlow, I learn of this extraordinary photograph. Is it for real? Does anyone know if their teacher ever recorded recollections of his/her pupils? And as Peter asked, "I wonder what they talked about during recess?" Of course, the photo also brings to mind Szymborska's brilliant poem "Hitler's First Photograph."
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Paired Comparisons of Philosophy Departments: The Results After More than 100,000 Comparisons…
…and with apologies to Kenneth Arrow and with the caveats noted earlier, here's the top 25 in the U.S. (a slightly eccentric, but remarkably plausible ordering given the problems with the method–perhaps a useful reminder not to take small ordinal differences in the PGR or here too seriously!): 1. New York University (90) 2. Rutgers University,…
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New Intellectual Biography of Habermas Reviewed…
…by intellectual historian Peter Gordon (Harvard), who overstates, as is common, Habermas's philosophical importance, but tries to tell a narrative connecting the philosophical work and Habermas's admirable role as a genuine public intellectual. A key bit: The project [of refashioning modern social theory] would demand that Habermas reconsider the major philosophers of world-rationalization—Kant, Hegel, Weber—to wrest from…
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Why is there no philosophy news?
Please post in the comments all the important stuff I'm missing.
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More on the terrorist incident in Arizona
Krugman (who notes that the issue isn't about civility–of which there is far too much in our political discourse) and Cole (who is quite good on America's most popular crypto-fascist politician, Sarah Palin). UPDATE: Recollections from the shooter's philosophy teachers! (Thanks to David Estlund for the pointer.)
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Anscombe in the NY Times…
…albeit in a piece by their religion writer. It is clearly true that there's more interest in Anscombe than, say, 20 years ago–some of it is driven by renewed interest in Intention, and some of it by conservative Catholics looking for intellectually weighty authorities. My colleague Candace Vogler (who is part of the former movement)…
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A History of Political Violence Over the Last 2 1/2 Years
An informative timeline, taking us to the horrible present.
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A New Way to Rank: Pairwise Comparisons of Philosophy Departments
Two sociologists have set up an interesting ranking device for sociology departments, and have now, kindly, made one for philosophy departments. Give it a try! UPDATE (1/9/11): So with votes cast on more than 50,000 paired comparisons, here are some results–not utterly nutty, which is remarkable considering the strategic voting (you know who you are!),…
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Philosopher Now Only the 16th Best Career (Down from 12th)
But still better than economist! (Thanks to Eric Morton for the pointer.)
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From Professor of Metaphysics to Billionaire Hedgefund Manager
Here's a story one doesn't hear every day. Perhaps he might be persuaded to endow a few hundred teaching positions in philosophy around the country? (Thanks to Jeff Gordon for the pointer.) UPDATE: Steve Gross (Johns Hopkins) points out that, "According to PhilPapers, a Donald Brownstein published two papers in 2008. Assuming it's the same…
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APA Interviews vs. Skype: Survey Results
"Young Philosopher" has compiled a very informative document with the results of the survey; here are Word and RTF versions: Download APA vs Skype Survey Results Download APA vs Skype Survey Results "Young Philosopher" has also been invited by InsideHigherEd to write about these issues, drawing on the survey results. He welcomes feedback on the survey. …
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“A Philosopher of Religion Calls It Quits”
A nice write-up of last year's brouhaha about the decision by Keith Parsons (Houston) to stop working on philosophy of religion.
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Philosophy Thriving at LaGuardia Community College in New York!
A nice story here–kudos to the LCC philosophers! (Thanks to Matthew Pianalto for the pointer.)
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Why publish journal articles?
Thom Brooks (Newcastle) offers some answers, and invites others.
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How Other Academic Job Markets Are Faring This Year
English, History and Economics. My guess is that Philosophy is looking most like English at the moment. I'm sure it's a great relief to everyone that there are more jobs for economists this year, given the fabulous predictive track record of the discipline. And of course the biggest growth in demand was for "mathematical and…
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Which thinkers have had the most influence on the European left?
The results of this survey are quite curious, and not only because an American, Paul Krugman, ranks first. But there's Zizek at third (!), and a couple of other philosophers (Habermas, which makes sense, also David Held) make appearances.
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A survey about hiring practices and costs
MOVING TO FRONT FROM 1/1, IN CASE ANYONE MISSED IT Our "Young Philosopher"–whose argument in favor of using Skype stimulated an excellent and informative discussion–has now set up a survey aimed at both job seekers and those doing the hiring (search committee members and department chairs) intended to elicit both information about costs and views of…
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“The Offensive Internet: Speech, Privacy, and Reputation”
Stanley Fish actually has a pretty good overview of this new volume edited by my colleagues Saul Levmore and Martha Nussbaum, and to which I am one of the contributors. One caveat: Fish overplays the anonymity issue relative to its centrality in the volume (though it is central to Levmore's excellent paper, which I highly…
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Nazis Disproportionately Censored Philosophers
Details about a recent article here. (Thanks to Bernard Kobes for the pointer.) UPDATE: This is also relevant.
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Back to the Greeks: How to “Whoosh Up”
Judging from these two high-profile, popular reviews, that's a main theme of Hubert Dreyfus's and Sean Kelly's new book All Things Shining, which I've not read or seen in draft. Comments from readers who've actually read some or all of the book?
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Just a reminder, in case anyone forgot:
the Republican Party of 2011 is still a weird mix of clinical insanity and criminal irresponsibility.
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The Most Cited Articles from “Ethics” Over the Last Generation or So
Thom Brooks (Newcastle) has the details.
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Gaza’s Youth Manifesto for Change
You should read it.
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Excellent NY Times Memorial for Philippa Foot: Kudos to James Ryerson
I think this is the best and most accurate piece on a philosopher I've ever seen in the New York Times. Since we pick on journalists a lot, let us take a moment to extend congratulations to James Ryerson, the author, for having done an excellent piece of writing for a popular audience about a philosopher's life and work.
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2010: Philosophers Who Died
Here is a list of philosophers and historians of philosophy whose passing during 2010 was noted on the blog: Kurt Baier, Jacques Brunschwig, Richard Cartwright, Denis Dutton, Antony Flew, Philippa Foot, David Furley, Pierre Hadot, John Haugeland, Paul Hoffman, David Hull, Claude Lefort, Ralph McInerney, Ian Mueller, Brian O'Shaughnessy, Margaret Osler, Nelson Pike, Itamar Pitowsky, Anthony Quinton, James…
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Farewell to the Eastern APA, Hello to Skype!
A young philosopher writes: Given the on-going disaster at the Eastern APA, both in terms of the punishing weather and in terms of the brutal job market, I thought I would share my thoughts about a Skype interview I recently did. As someone who is fortunate enough to have a tenure track job that I…
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New Books in December
Here are the books that publishers and/or authors sent me this month: The Arc of the Moral Universe and Other Essays by Joshua Cohen (Harvard University Press, 2010). Thucydides and the Philosophical Origins of History by Darian Shanske (Cambridge University Press, 2007). Naturalism and Normativity edited by Mario De Caro and David Macarthur (Columbia University…
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APA Interview Issues: Cancellations, Reschedulings, Contact Info Etc.
MOVING TO FRONT FROM YESTERDAY Post on this subject here.
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.
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…
One thing I appreciate about Greco’s piece is the very helpful distinction between instrumental and intrinsic value, which he lays…
I respond to this report here https://jasonstanleyantifascist.substack.com/p/on-the-philosophical-muddle-that