Issues in the profession
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More on PhD admissions: waiting lists etc.
Some apt advice from philosopher Eric Schwitzgebel.
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LLMs and graduate education in philosophy
A philosopher elsewhere (who does more formal work) writes: [S]ince publicly available LLMs significantly reduce a lot of mechanical writing labor (great example: those who write in LaTeX needn’t spend hours and hours trying to code a complicated diagram, since even the medium-grade LLMs do it quickly and, with minimal back and forth, fairly accurately),…
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HTML or PDFs online?
MOVING TO FRONT FROM MARCH 19–SEE REPLY FROM OUP PHILOSOPHY EDITOR HENRY CLARKE IN THE COMMENTS Philosopher and logician Volker Halbach writes: Oxford University Press recently told me that “it appears that we no longer make individual pdfs of our works available for sale, as digital rights management is extremely challenging for that format.” Generally,…
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No wonder you’re paranoid, everyone really is out to get you
Philosopher Alex Byrne recounts a curious experience with a book review that was rejected by NDPR. I’ve been on the editorial board of NDPR from the beginning (25 yeras now!), and I think the current editor, Chris Shields, has done an admirable job. But Shields and his precedecessors almost never overrode the recommendations of members…
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Indemnification clauses in book contracts?
Philosopher Mark Navin writes: I just walked away from a book contract with Routledge over an indemnity clause. What do you think is going on with these clauses? Routledge recently approached me to write a second edition of my vaccine ethics book (Values and Vaccine Refusal). The contract contained an indemnity clause (Clause 14.2, pasted…
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Information about jobs in Asia?
Following up on this post, readers might also benefit from information about how to find out what jobs are available in Asia. It might also be useful to hear about the state of academic freedom in the various Asian countries for which there is job market information, especially China (which continues to invest in higher…
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New in online scams: “book clubs” that want to feature your recently published academic book (UPDATED)
I received the following regarding my new book: From: Heather Podruchny <info.sf.bestseller.book.club@gmail.com>Sent: Sunday, March 8, 2026 5:56 PMTo: Brian Leiter <bleiter@uchicago.edu>Subject: Invitation: Analyzing the “Realist Point of View” with the SF Bestseller Book Club Dear Brian Leiter, I hope this finds you well. My name is Heather Podruchny, and I’m the organizer of the SF…
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Limits on article submissions during a specified time period?
A reader calls to my attention the policy at Mind: “No more than one article may be submitted by any corresponding author during any twelve-month period.” This apparently includes articles that get desk-rejected fairly quickly. I can understand the reasons for such a policy, but I wonder (1) whether readers think they are justified? and…
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Texas has paused H-1B visas at its public universities (and agencies), and Florida appears poised to do the same
This will be very bad for the public universities in these states. According to the preceding CHE article, the University of Florida had 131 such visas approved just in 2025; Texas A&M had 121 and UT Soutwestern (a major medical research center in Dallas) had 119. Any university strong in the natural and biological sciences…
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Reflections on the academic career of a married couple
Interesting reflections from Rachel Laudan about her and Larry Laudan’s career and intellectual work. I had the good fortune to get to know them both when I worked in Austin, and to visit with them later in Mexico. I still remember the day Larry came to my office to introduce himself, and I said, “I…
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APA returning to in-person divisional meetings
The APA sets out the reasons here. In brief: online meetings attracted much lower rates of submissions and participation, and many who participated in them said they would not do so again.
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Graduate school admissions in the age of AI
This is going to become a very serious issue. PhD and MA admissions depend very importantly on the writing sample. What do programs do when they later come to suspect the admitted student used AI to produce the writing sample? I think all graduate programs need to adopt an absolutely draconian rule, namely, automatic expulsion…
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“The Lost Generation,” i.e., white guys who couldn’t get jobs they once might have gotten, starting around 2014
Several readers sent this article which clearly describes a real phenomenon, although I’m skeptical 2014 is the relevant start date, although the “Great Awokening” circa 2011 certainly accelerated an existing trend (2014 was also, perhaps not coincidentally, the year the online philosophy profession went crazy). But the article does adduce some striking numbers: White men…
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A public choice analysis of the new AI policy at the journal Ethics…
…from philosopher Nicolas Delon, a former Law & Philosophy Fellow here.
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A new Diamond Open Access Journal: Philosophical Logic
Wes Holliday, Thomas Icard, and Francesca Poggiolesi asked me to share the following announcement, which I am happy to do: All Editors-in-Chief and Associate Editors of the Journal of Philosophical Logic, currently published by Springer Nature, have informed Springer Nature of their resignation. Some of the editors will continue working for Springer Nature for a…
I first met Professor Hoy when I returned to UC Santa Cruz in Fall of ’92 to finish my undergraduate…