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Fodor on McDowell
A reader tells me that Fodor’s review of McDowell’s Mind and World is available in his collection In Critical Condition which is available via this MIT site, but for a fee. Here’s the concluding paragraph of the review: “Ever since Descartes, a lot of the very best philosophers have thought of science as an invading…
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“Don’t Crap on My Car”
Tired of birds fouling your vehicle? Even if not, you’ll still laugh out loud at this site, courtesy of a British ad agency. Click on “View Highlights” and then “clip 1.”
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The Meaning of “Texas Taliban”
I have received a handful of irate e-mails protesting the use of the term “Texas Taliban,” including one from the spouse of one of those so criticized in an earlier posting. (UT law professors have more visibility than law professors at comparable schools in other states, I fear.) Why do I use the term “Texas…
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More Talibanism, American-Style
No parodies allowed in the Taliban’s America it appears. UPDATE: Two readers suggest that this site is, itself, in fact a parody! As one put it, “I think you’ve been had.” Indeed!
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Which philosophers will be read in 100 years?
I was struck by philosopher Chris Bertram’s remark, regarding Davidson’s death, that “a succession of philosophical giants” have died recently, mentioning David Lewis, John Rawls, Robert Nozick, and Bernard Williams. The death of David Lewis (1941-2001) was the first memorial notice posted on the Update Service, back on October 16, 2001. Since then the following…
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Oklahoma Taliban
A stellar graduate of the UT Law School writes in with the following story (from 1978): “Having wandered through your Texas Taliban archive, I thought you might enjoy a slightly-older anecdote: “In third grade at [name omitted] Elementary School in [city name omitted], Oklahoma (former HQ of [company name omitted] and so populated with a…
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Another Perspective on Last Year’s Hirings
Brian Weatherson, a philosopher at Brown, has offered his own comments about last year’s hiring, partly in response to some of mine. He offers a useful and somewhat different perspective, which prospective students may find helpful. Our main difference may have to do with breadth of coverage as an important feature of a strong graduate…
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More Derrida Jokes
A colleague in Australia writes that his infant daughter “is walking with ease, and starting to talk: only one-word phrases so far, but she can string meaningless noises into sentence-long strings with all the mannersms and facial expressions of understanding (she’ll grow out of that phase soon enough, and avoid ending up like Derrida!).”
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Houston Chronicle editorial on keeping creationism out of school textbooks
A solid editorial from the Houston Chronicle, which even borrows a few ideas from my Austin-Statesman essay from July. The Texas Taliban are bad for business.
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Jerry Fodor is great
Thanks to Brian Weatherson, I discovered that Fodor’s characteristically delightful demolition of one of Putnam’s recent confused forays in to philosophy of mind is on-line. Can someone point me to an on-line version of Fodor’s TLS (or was it also LRB?) dismembering of McDowell’s 1994 Mind and World? Many philosophers do good work in demolishing…
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Leiter’s Comments on 2002-03 Hiring Season
What follows are some personal observations on the significance and import of the faculty moves that have transpired in the last year. These reflect neither a survey nor vetting by the PGR Advisory Board. Rather, this is the kind of advice and analysis I would give to a student I was advising (and which I’ve…
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Philosophical humor
This is very funny: Louis Witteringswine, Tractatus Fuselagico-Umbilicus
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Indiana Tries to Shut Down Professor’s Blog, then Reverses Itself
Eugene Volokh, a UCLA law professor, has a good post on the subject here. Since then, IU has reversed its decision, and permitted IU Professor Rasmussen to keep his comments on the university blog site.
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Davidson Memorial Notices
You can find links to numerous obituaries for Donald Davidson here. The one from The Guardian has the most philosophical content, the one from The New York Times the most interesting biographical details.
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Two Notable Faculty Moves
Michael Smith, one of the half-dozen-or-so most significant philosophers working in metaethics in the world, has accepted the offer from Princeton University, to begin in 2004. He will there, of course, be reunited with his former ANU colleague Philip Pettit. (Smith also taught at Princeton in the 1980s.) With Smith, Pettit, Harman, and Johnston, Princeton…
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No new posts before Sunday…
…since I’ll be at what promises to be a very good Nietzsche conference.
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Another Letter to Holt, Rinehart
Biologist and philosopher Sahotra Sarkar received a similar letter from Judith Fowler, President of Holt, Rinehart to the one I received. Professor Sarkar’s reply is available here:Download file
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The Alabama Taliban (with thanks to Brannon Denning)
The Ballad of Chief Justice Roy Moore (sung to the tune of “The Ballad of Jed Clampett” and with apologies to Flatt and Scruggs) Brannon P. Denning Come ‘n listen to my story ‘bout a judge named Moore Had a rock so big could barely fit it through th’ door Had it installed in the…
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Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them–Round 4
Terri Leo is the leader of the Texas Taliban faction on the State Board of Education; she even exercised her perogative as a Board Member to make a speech before the last public hearing of the Board in Austin to profess her commitment to creationist-inspired skepticism about Darwin’s theory of evolution (and this before hearing…
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Department of tasteless comments
Try this, courtesy of Matthew Yglesias.
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Donald Davidson dies
IN MEMORIAM Donald Davidson (1917-2003) Professor Davidson died yesterday in Berkeley. As soon as memorial notices are available about his distinguished philosophical career and seminal contributions, I will post them here and on the Update Service. Much useful information about Davidson and valuable links to philosophical work about him are available here.
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US News Undergraduate Rankings
The new U.S. News rankings of undergraduate institutions once again tie the University of Virginia and the University of California at Berkeley as the top state schools in the country…which brings to mind something I wrote on an earlier occasion, inspired by the parochial journalists at The New York Times. The University of Pennsylvania also…
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The Taliban Aren’t Only in Texas
That’s what makes this present moment in American history so scary. For example…
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Correction
Cornel West’s PhD was earned in philosophy at Princeton. Since the other points stand, all I can say is: so much the worse for the Philosophy Department at Princeton. Of course, the University of Texas has the misfortune (during the Silber era, long ago, happily) of having awarded a PhD in philosophy to William “shame…
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Larry Summers and Harvard Law School
The New York Times Magazine here profiles Larry Summers, the unusually blunt President of Harvard University. Two aspects of the article are likely to be of interest to readers of this site: (1) The discussion of the dispute between Summers and Cornel West makes for a good read, though West is described, I am dismayed…
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Derrida and Bullshit
It was John Searle who famously remarked that Derrida’s work is the kind of stuff that gives bullshit a bad name. And now we have yet another case in point, thanks to interviews with Habermas and Derrida about the September 11th attacks on the U.S. Although I have my reservations about Habermas as a philosopher,…
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“Some Philosophers are Really Strange,” Part II
I confess I’m with Brad DeLong: Richard Heck is very strange, and he gets stranger as time goes on. I was perplexed initially when the guy who claimed–after the fact, of course (Richard is the master of post-hoc revisionism)–that he simply wanted to “initiate a discussion” then failed to discuss almost all my detailed responses…
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Other Arguments for Intelligent Design
My colleague Herb Hochberg has reminded me of Ben Franklin’s argument for intelligent design: As for the human elbow, Franklin explained, it was important that it be located at the right place, otherwise it would be hard to drink wine. If Providence had placed the elbow too low on the arm, it would be hard…
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Major Law Faculty Moves, 2003-04 (with corrections)
THIS IS A CORRECTED VERSION OF AN EARLIER POSTING Here it is, by school, for 2003-04. This list attempts to be comperehensive for the top 30 schools (as measured by faculty quality); updates or corrections would be welcome. (Most, but not all of the moves noted below, took place before the survey on faculty quality;…
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An Exchange with Holt, Rinehart about Changes to Their Biology Textbook
Judith Fowler, President of Holt, Rinehart, defends the decision to make changes in their biology textbook (up for adoption in Texas) in response to suggestions from the Discovery [sic] Institute here: Download file I have replied to Ms. Fowler here: Download file
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A New Letter to the State Board of Education
My colleague Sahotra Sarkar is professor of both philosophy and biology here at UT Austin; indeed, he is, to the best of my knowledge, the only philosophy PhD in the U.S. to have published work of such significance in peer-reviewed biology journals that he has now been appointed half-time and with tenure in a top…
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Why the Holt Biology Textbook Change Matters
Philosopher John Holbo has a useful post documenting exactly why the change Holt is proposing to make in its biology textbook in response to a “suggestion” from the Discovery [sic] Institute is so worrisome. (I will be posting Holt’s letter to me, and my own response once I’m back in the office.)
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Why is it so easy to get tenure in law schools?
So asks a colleague in philosophy, who was recently a tenure referee for a law professor at a very reputable law school who got tenure, notwithstanding what struck the colleague as quite weak work. The answer is somewhat complex, and perhaps a bit speculative, but it goes something like this: (1) Up until roughly the…
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The Discovery [sic] Institute, R.I.P.
We bid farewell to the conmen and pathological liars at the Discovery [sic] Institute, who, like history itself, began in tragedy, but have now ended in farce. Their August 19, 2003 press release informs us that “two dozen professors from seven Texas universities have signed an open letter to the State Board of Education…urging it…
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More Real Scientists Wiping the Floor with the “Discovery [sic] Institute” Creationists
There is an amusing exchange in the Boston Review between biologist Allen Orr and Discovery [sic] Institute propagandist William Dembski. (The debate begins with Orr’s demolition of Dembski’s latest book here.) Orr, who is a good writer as well as smart, delivers this scathing and apt conclusion to the exchange: “Dembski, Behe and associates may…
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How Students Use the PGR
The following letter from a student (who gave permission to post it) well expresses how students actually use the PGR in my experience and the experience of everyone I’ve talked to about this (except, of course, that “really strange” guy). Here is what the student wrote: “I am a reader of the Philosophical Gourmet Report…
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Vanderbilt Prof Says “No” to Northwestern
Vanderbilt University’s Nancy King, one of the leading criminal procedure scholars of her generation in the legal academy and co-author of the leading treatise in the field, has turned down an offer from Northwestern University School of Law. That’s a big coup for Vanderbilt, which in the past has tended to lose hiring battles with…
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New Development in the Texas Textbook Wars
I have just received, via e-mail attachment, a letter from Judith Fowler, the President and CEO of Holt, Rinehart, responding to the criticisms here.It is a long and detailed letter, which I won’t be able to digest right away because of other pressing duties (involving my *real* job). If I can secure her permission, I…
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Debating Intelligent Design
[Note: a first version of this posting disappeared from the site, for reasons I don’t understand…This is my attempt to recreate it.] Some readers have remarked on my recommendation of Michael Rea’s book World Without Design, a stimulating critique of philosophical naturalism that suggests, ultimately, that ours may be a “world with design.” At the…
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Christian Philosophers and Creationism
Keith DeRose—famed philosopher at Yale, valued member of the PGR Advisory Board, and creator of the Epistemology Page (highly recommended!)—writes with the following comments on one of my earlier posts about the attack on biology textbooks in Texas: ”Regarding your recent post on the treatment of evolution in textbooks by the ‘Texas Taliban’: Since you…
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.
If much of the interest of high-quality papers lies between the lines—in the metaphorical fire that a paper lights in…
I would also recommend that potential grad students make inquiries into how far the compensation package actually goes towards cost…
It’s a mix. I’m still in the UAE with my family, and we feel safe. But some students and faculty…
In the above comment, Michel wrote: “As an aside, every once in a while I check out how the chatbots…
I could imagine LLMs having saved me a *ton* of time in graduate school–e.g., by having supplied reasonable answers to…
The McMaster Department of Philosophy has now put together the following notice commemorating Barry: Barry Allen: A Philosophical Life Barry…
My former colleagues at another university in Middle East have also been moved to online teaching indefinitely, with the students…