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In Memoriam: Elizabeth Spelman (1945-2025)
Professor Spelman, who was emerita at Smith College, where she taught for many years, died at the end of 2025. She was an early, and influential, figure in feminist philosophy, where she wrote widely. There is an obituary here. Comments are open for remembrances from those who knew Professor Spelman or for those who wish…
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AI generates Trump’s “state of the union” address
Not bad, and probably more coherent than what he will say this evening. I do not plan on listening. UPDATE: Philosopher Peter Klein asked ChatGBT5.2 to write the Democratic response. It follows: Democratic Response to the 2026 State of the Union Delivered by Governor Abigail Spanberger Good evening. I speak to you not only as…
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In Memoriam: Hide Ishiguro (1931-2026)
(MOVING TO FRONT FROM LATE FRIDAY AFTERNOON, 2/20/26) Professor Ishiguro, who was emerita at Kyoto University in her native Japan, also taught for many years at University College London and Columbia University, before returning to Japan. She was best-known for her work on Leibniz, and also wrote on Wittgenstein. Comments are open for remembrances from…
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Profiles in real courage: Sophie Scholl (and the “White Rose” student movement)
These young people paid with their lives for opposing the monster Hitler and the Nazis. She and her brother are really quite remarkable.
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Colin McGinn on philosophers throughout history
He’s a mysterian about philosophy itself it appears. ADDENDUM: Perhaps not!
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Hey “guys,” get a load of this!
Sent out by a senior philosopher at a major department in the UK to TAs: What I don’t understand is why this senior professor didn’t just tell the student that “guys” in colloquial spech is not gender specific.
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Texas war on academic freedom: University of Texas edition
Regents approve new policy “requiring its universities to ensure students can graduate without studying ‘unnecessary controversial subjects’….The rule also requires faculty to disclose in their syllabi the topics they plan to cover and adhere to the plan, and says that when courses include controversial issues, instructors must ensure a ‘broad and balanced approach’ to the discussion.”…
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Johnathan Bi interviews Rachana Kamtekar…
…about Plato and living well.
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In Memoriam: Malcolm Budd (1941-2026)
Professor Budd, who was the emeritus Grote Professor at University College London, was best-known for his work in aesthetics, but had wide-ranging philosophical interests, ranging from philosophy of mind to Nietzsche and Wittgenstein. There is a bit more about his work and career at the British Academy page. I never met Professor Budd, but was…
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This is what the rule of law looks like
Federal judge in West Virginia blasts ICE tactics: Antiseptic judicial rhetoric cannot do justice to what is happening. Across the interior of the United States, agents of the federal government—masked, anonymous, armed with military weapons, operating from unmarked vehicles, acting without warrants of any kind—are seizing persons for civil immigration violations and imprisoning them without…
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Today in Trump’s violations of international law and human rights
What they’re doing to Cuba and its people probably qualifies.
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Deputy AG in New Jersey acknowledges the federal government violated more than 50 court orders!
She claims the violations were inadvertent. She’ll probably be fired for acknowledging the truth. Until a federal court starts putting some Trump administration officials in jail for contempt, this lawlessness will continue.
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Korsgaard’s 2022 Dewey Lecture now available…
…at the APA website.
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State Rep. James Talarico, candidate for Senate in Texas, on the Colbert show
CBS didn’t air it, over fear of persecution by the FCC, which has all of a sudden discovered the “fairness” doctrine again. But the show is on YouTube: Talarico is way too religious for my taste, but this schtick may work in Texas. And generally, he articulates the Bernie Sanders line about what ails the…
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Frithjof Bergmann and “New Work”
When I was applying to PhD programs as an undergraduate at Princeton, with an interest in German philosophy, especially Nietzsche, my very kind senior thesis advisor T.M. Scanlon told me that the late Walter Kaufmann’s favorite student was Frithjof Bergmann at Michigan. Raymond Geuss, from whom I was taking a course on “Marx, Nietzsche, Freud,”…
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How LLMs write
This is a very apt diagnosis by philosopher Luciano Floridi; an excerpt: Hedging — compulsive softening to avoid commitment. “It’s worth noting,” “arguably,” “in many ways,” “to some extent,” “it could be said that,” “it’s important to remember,” “there’s a sense in which”…. Throat-clearing — long preambles before getting to the point. “Before we dive…
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The Mellon Foundation’s campaign to destroy the humanities?
From Tyler Harper in The Atlantic: Today, no single entity, including the federal government, has a more profound influence on the fiscal health and cultural output of the humanities than the Mellon Foundation. The National Endowment for the Humanities’ grant budget was $78 million in 2024 (its overall budget was less than half of what…
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Inside Trump’s concentration camps
This is worth reading.
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The imbecile’s war on vaccines…
…is causing vaccine manufacturers to cut back. God forbid there’s a bird flu pandemic with RFK Jr. running HHS. Since Senator Cassidy’s reward for voting for this imbecile was to have Trump back a candidate to run against him in the primaries, perhaps the Senator might try to do the right thing now and get…
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Trump nominates white supremacist and anti-semite for an Assistant Secretary of State position
Yes, this really happened. Fortunately, this may be too much for even some Republican Senators.
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Jonathan Lear’s final interview
Here. He does an especially nice job explaining the connection between psychoanalysis and his interest in Greek philosophy. But the whole thing is worth reading.
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Block on Pollan’s popular book on consciousness
“[A] wonderful phenomenological travelog, but…less reliable as a guide to the science of consciousness.”
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For those attending the Chicago APA, some restaurant recommendations
Easily walkable from the Hilton Palmer House: The Gage Longer walks (15-20 minutes) or short Uber rides: Umai (takes reservations for larger groups) Sunda (River North) Purple Pig Longer Uber ride (25 minutes or so) (but this is the best restaurant in Chicago in this price range): Han 202 Chicago readers, feel free to add…
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Most cited Anglophone *articles* in philosophy of mind since WWII (according to Google Scholar) (CORRECTED)
Following up on this list of books, here is a revised list of Anglophone articles in philosophy of mind (with thanks to commenters, below). Comments are still open, so please feel free to add others with at least 2,500 citations (and please include a link to the Google Scholar page with the citation data).
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AI developer warns the AI jobs apocalypse is closer than we realize
Here; an excerpt: [O]n February 5th, two major AI labs released new models on the same day: GPT-5.3 Codex from OpenAI, and Opus 4.6 from Anthropic (the makers of Claude, one of the main competitors to ChatGPT). And something clicked. Not like a light switch… more like the moment you realize the water has been…
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Ambitious class action lawsuit against academic publishers dismissed
Here. (Earlier coverage.)
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Edouard Machery talks to David Wallace…
…about philosophy of quantum mechanics at the Pitt Center for Philosophy of Science podcast.
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A gifted public speaker who may soon be unable to speak
Philosopher John Corvino describes his ordeal. You can see some of his public speaking here. A real tragedy, although fortunately his mind and ability to write are unaffected.
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Jason Brennan *did* like Herman Cappelen’s book
It’s both an informative and amusing review. An excerpt: Herman Cappelen’s densely argued but eminently readable and engaging The Concept of Democracy…argues that the words “democracy” and “democratic” (what he calls the “D-words”) are so semantically, pragmatically, and communicatively defective that we should abandon them altogether. His book is not an argument against democracy but an…
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In Memoriam: Laurence Thomas (1949-2025)
Professor Thomas, who was emeritus at Syracuse University where he spent most of his career, wrote widely in moral and political philosophy, with a particular focus on moral psychology. There is an obituary here and you can read more about his work here. Comments are open for remembrances from those who knew Professor Thomas or…
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Chomsky and Epstein
Jeffrey Epstein strikes me as a massive distraction from any issue that actually matters, but the involvement of Chomsky in this sordid story has been a gift to the Chomsky haters. Chomsky, as most readers will know, suffered a serious stroke a couple of years ago, and can’t communicate. His wife has now issued a…
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Johnathan Bi interviews Tad Brennan…
…about fate and freedom in Stoicism.
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Which philosophers (and departments) have published in each of the “top 5” Anglophone journals?
Philosophers Nicholas Lakowski took a look. Obviously this is heavily titled towards certain areas of philosophy which are always over-represented in those journals.
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My top 50 songs of 2025 according to Spotify, #6: Joe Cocker, “Something’s Coming On,” 1968
Originally the b-side to Cocker’s first hit single, his cover of the Beatles’ “With a Little Help from My Friends,” it was added to later editions of his 1969 debut album. I discovered this by chance last year, having never heard it before: Feel free to add links to your Joe Cocker favorites, live or…
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Oklahoma Governor ends tenure for all future hires at all the state’s public colleges except…
…the two research universities, the University of Oklahoma at Norman and Oklahoma State University. There, faculty will be subject to post-tenure review, which even twenty years ago was already extremely common. Post-tenure review can be abused, of course, but it is not, in principle, inconsistent with tenure, which does not mean “life-time appointment,” as is…
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It turns out Christoph Schuringa knows very little about the “social” history of analytic philosophy
Peter Ludlow’s analysis is quite devastating. I’m surprised other reviewers didn’t pick up on these remarkable mistakes and omissions. UPDATE: A couple of readers sent this review by Pascal Engel, which I had not seen, and which makes points related to those discussed by Ludlow. (I should add that I do think much “analytic” philosophy…
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Hyska from Northwestern to Leeds
Megan Hyska (social philosophy of language, metaphysics & epistemology), assistant professor of philosophy at Northwestern University has accepted appointment as associate professor of philosophy at the University of Leeds, effective August 2026.
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Senior Lecturer fired by Texas A&M University…
…sues the university for violating her First Amendment right to academic freedom and her due process rights. She ought to prevail.
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Most cited Anglophone books in philosophy of mind since WWII (according to Google Scholar) (CORRECTED)
Looking at books misses very highly cited and important articles by philosophers like Ned Block and Tyler Burge, of course. At the same time, there are a large number of very influential books in this field. I list only those with at least 3,000 citations (rounded to the nearest 100). As usual, email me about…
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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.
This is an awful loss, I’m crushed by it. Dale was one of my most important mentors, philosophical interlocutors, and…
(I won’t use my name or email address as this post is critical of other philosophers.) Bill was one of…
Although I didn’t know Dale well, I had the good fortune to meet and interact with him during graduate school…
I am shell shocked. Dale was an exemplary and creative moral philosophy, rigorously engaged with the most foundational issues across…
This is sharply at variance with my understanding of the situation. The general consensus for some while has been that…
This is shocking and tragic news. I’ve known Dale since we tried to hire him at Bowling Green State way…
This is incorrect. The incident involving Petrov occured on September 26, 1983. Petrov judged that the Oko early warning system’s…