Leiter Reports: A Philosophy Blog

Feminist philosopher Ann Cudd, incoming Portland State President, gets $10 million "start-up fund" plus housing allowance...

...and everyone else gets cuts.  Not a good look.

Epistemology in the Andes and Amazonia

An interesting project.

Summer blogging plans, and thereafter

MOVING TO FRONT FROM JUNE 1--UPDATED

As usual, I'll be posting somewhat less in June (a few times per week), and even less in July and August (maybe once or twice per week, depending on what's happening).  August 3, 2023 will mark the 20th anniversary of the blog, and I am thinking that I will scale back my blogging going forward, although I won't stop altogether.   I'm still debating how much I will cut back (and how I will adjust the advertising rates for next year in light of that).  I'll make an announcement in August, perhaps on or around the 20th blog anniversary.   I sincerely appreciate all the intelligent readers I've been fortunate to attract over the years, and I've enjoyed the opportunity to correspond with many of you and to meet others in person.  While Twitter has taken a toll on blogs generally, this one is still going remarkably strong, averaging well over three million unique visitors per year, so it seems a good time to begin phasing into blog retirement while it's still widely read and influential (much to the chagrin of the Wokerati, of course).  But it will be a multi-year phasing, and come September I am sure I will still be posting a few times each week, but nothing like the volume in the past.  

Thanks, as always, for your interest and indulgence over many years!

UPDATE (6/6/23): Thanks to the many readers who wrote me after last week's post.  I should clarify that my phased blogging retirement may last a long time--I won't wholly abandon the philosophy blogosphere to the Wokerati and those hell-bent on destroying the field!  And as the enemies of academic freedom become more aggressive, I will continue to shine a light on those issues.   It's even possible that when I do retire from my actual job in 15 years, I may resume a more active blogging schedule.  I still haven't decided what the new schedule for September will look like, but it will be reduced from that of past years.

"Conversation and Democracy"

A nice graduation speech by my law colleague Tom Ginsburg, who has spent his career studying democracies and constitutions.

I talk about Marx, historical materialism, ideology and "socialism or barbarism"...

...at Robinson's Podcast.

Mismanagement leads to financial crisis at West Virginia University, which will now be "solved" by cutting tenured faculty positions

This sounds like a U.S. version of the Birkbeck disaster, and it really deserves more serious coverage in the traditional media.  A professor at WVU (not in philosophy) writes:

WVU is currently in an unprecedented financial crisis and the administration is starting the process of cutting academic programs and faculty, including tenured faculty. I'm writing to you because you've often written about administrative overreach and malfeasance in cases like this before, and that is definitely what we have going on here at WVU. I'm trying to keep my name out of the public eye, because my department is surely going to undergo personnel cuts and I'd rather not be a visible enemy of the administration. But I wondered if you might give us some visibility by posting about the situation on your blog, which I know is quite influential. 

Essentially, the administration has been advancing a narrative where the school is a victim of general demographic trends, Covid, and inflation, and now they have to cut lots of faculty to eliminate a structural budget deficit that isn't anybody's fault. What's actually happened is that the President and his protege (a VP of 'strategic initiatives') have pursued a reckless and utterly failed growth strategy for the last 10 years, during which time enrollment has shrunk considerably, which has put the university in a huge financial hole. Their malfeasance and dishonesty is documented in great detail in this anonymous investigation by WVU faculty: https://wvufacts.wordpress.com/ .... We're having trouble getting any publicity or media coverage on what's actually happening here, because faculty are scared to go on record with the media, given the autocratic and deeply corrupt nature of Gordon Gee's administration (this probably won't be news to anybody who's followed higher-ed over the last 40 years or so of Gee's checkered career). And Gee and his cronies have giant media operations who have managed to get more or less friendly stories placed in local and regional media (and even Inside Higher Ed), basically parroting their dishonest version of events. 

Life in the American apartheid terror state

If you subscribe to the NYRB, this review essay by the historian Eric Foner is worth reading.  It's a good, graphic reminder of the horrors of American apartheid, for which affirmative action, before it devolved into diversity blather, was one very modest remedial measure.

In Memoriam: William J. Talbott (1949-2023)

MOVING TO FRONT FROM MAY 19, 2023:  UPDATED

Professor Talbott was a longtime faculty member at the University of Washington, Seattle, where he was emeritus.   His initial work was in epistemology, but he then wrote influentially in moral, political, and legal philosophy.   I met him many years ago; he was a first-rate intellect.  I will add links to memorial notices as they appear.  Comments are open for remembrances from those who knew Professor Talbott, or those who want to comment on the significance of his work.

(Thanks to Matt Lister and Colin Marshall for information.)

UPDATE:  Professor Talbott's year of birth was 1949 (not 1950 as I originally had it); my thanks to his UW colleague Professor Jamie Mayerfield (in Political Science) for the correction.

ANOTHER UPDATE:   An obituary at the Seattle Times.  And a podcast with Professor Talbott on naturalized epistemology.  (Thanks to Professor Mayerfield for the pointer.)

In Memoriam: Ian Jarvie (1937-2023)

A longtime faculty member at York University, Toronto, where he was emeritus, Professor Jarvie was best-known for his work in philosophy of the social sciences (especially on anthropology) and in film theory.  Comments are open for remembrances from those who knew Professor Jarvie, or for those who would like to comment on the significance of his work.

(Thanks to David Gordon for alerting me to his death.)

In Memoriam: Peter Machamer (1942-2023)

A longtime faculty member of the History and Philosophy of Science Department at the University of Pittsburgh, Professor Machamer was perhaps best-known for his work on Galileo and on the concept of mechanism.    Comments are open for remembrances from those who knew Professor Machamer, or for those who wish to comment on the significance of his work.

The new Cambridge "Elements" series (UPDATED)

These short "booklets" are proliferating across many different subjects in philosophy, and while some have been pretty bad, others have attracted serious authors and look more promising.  The Elements volumes offer one very attractive feature for authors (especially junior authors), which is that the volume is made available for free downloads the first two weeks after publication.  But they have another feature which is very odd and very unattractive for more senior authors:  Cambridge does not pay royalties, just a flat fee ($250 recently).   Despite this, Cambridge University Press charges $20-25 per booklet!   

Which philosophers are mentioned in the most articles at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy?

It wasn't possible (due to false positives) to search smoe (like Berkeley, David Lewis, William James, and Bacon--Berkeley and Lewis would have surely been in the top 30), but for the rest the number of articles in which they appear tracks fairly well some earlier polls run here, though with an obvious skew to the major figures in 20th-century "analytic" philosophy.  I searched only philosophers no longer alive (some living figures would have made the top 30).

1.  Plato (1012)

2.  Aristotle (1001)

3.  Kant (801)

4.  Hume (590)

5.  Descartes (542)

6.  Leibniz (451)

7.  Locke (442)

8.  Frege (395)

9.  Socrates (391)

10.  Aquinas (374)

Nagasawa from Birmingham to Oklahoma

Yujin Nagasawa (philosophy of religion, philosophy of mind), currently Professor of Philosophy at the University of Birmingham, has accepted appointment as Professor of Philosophy and holder of the Kingfisher Chair in Philosophy of Religion and Ethics at the University of Oklahoma, Norman, effective January 2024.

The new best Szechuan restaurant in Chicago

This is it.  Learned of it through a visiting professor from Hong Kong.  Very casual, also BYOB.  The best Kung Pao Chicken and Twice Cooked Pork I've had in a long, long time.

Viktor DeSantis's war on higher education in Florida...this is what it looks like on the ground

A philosopher at a public university in Florida shares the email their Chair felt the need (no doubt correctly) to send out:

I wanted to give you a heads up about a recent law that has passed our legislature, SB 266, which goes into effect on July 1. For those of you who haven't followed the details, this law intervenes in higher education in a variety of ways that impact us, and I am happy to discuss any of this in more detail in person or over the phone/zoom. If anyone is interested, I can ask someone from the Counsel's office to attend our retreat to share their perspective on this with us. 

Chairs met with some of the university lawyers earlier this week, and they pointed out some of the sections of the law that might be important for us. 

While I would recommend that you familiarize yourself with the entire law, if you are teaching general education, you may want to attend to the section on general education that begins on line 528, with special attention to section c (line 556-561) and D2 (lines 567-571). I'm not sending this on because I anticipate problems, but simply for you to be aware of. 

Section c: "(c) General education core courses may not distort significant historical events or include a curriculum that teaches identity politics, violates s. 1000.05, or is based on theories that systemic racism, sexism, oppression, and privilege are inherent in the institutions of the United States and were created to maintain social, political, and economic inequities."

Blast from the past: The political orientation of readers of the blog

Back in 2010.  I'll have to run one of these surveys again.

Happy Memorial Day to U.S. readers!

Here's a story about the 1937 Memorial Day massacre of striking workers in Chicago.

Tenure in Texas: the aftermath

Tenure will remain at public universities in Texas, but new standards for revocation of tenure have been codified, including "moral turpitude" (without any definition or requirement for a criminal conviction) and "unprofessional conduct" that "adversely affects the institution."  What if a faculty member participates in a drag show?  Is that "moral turpitude"?  What if a faculty member tweets something controversial or vulgar, that attracts unfavorable media attention:  is that "unprofessional conduct" that "adversely affects the institution"?  There will be First Amendment challenges to some of the potential applications of these new standards, which are highly unusual and not at all part of standard AAUP criteria for tenure revocation.  Here's what the Texas chapter of the AAUP had to say:

"We do not believe that such a codification is necessary; furthermore, we are concerned with dangerously broad grounds for termination in the bill as well as the lack of the due process provisions recommended by the AAUP and adopted by more than 1,300 colleges and universities nationally, including many in Texas," said Brian Evans, vice president of Texas chapter of the AAUP. "Nevertheless, the legislation passed by the House and Senate improves dramatically on the original bill, and we are grateful to the legislators, faculty, staff, students, and professional organizations whose work contributed to the amended bill."

More on North Carolina's war on tenure and the universities

Informative.

Great moments in obscure rock 'n' roll: Poobah, "Mr. Destroyer," 1972

ORIGINALLY POSTED DECEMBER 15, 2018

Youngstown, Ohio hard rock/heavy metal outfit (think Black Sabbath) led by guitarist Jim Gustafson.  They had a big Ohio following, but thanks to bad luck and lack of smart management, never made it nationally or internationally.   Hard to understand why this song, from their debut album, isn't a standard of "classic rock" radio, for example:

 

Simon Blackburn on the biography of Parfit

A more appreciative review of the biography than Mulhall's, and more philosophically substantial as well, including some sharp and what seem to me correct criticisms of Parfit's views.

What is it like to be a philosopher? Eric Winsberg edition

Here.

97 years ago today Sholem Schwarzbard assassinated a Ukrainian nationalist and butcher of Jews

He was later acquitted by a French court.  A different world, still a stunning story.  (A longer, scholarly treatment here.)

The war on tenure (and abortion) comes to North Carolina

Philosopher David Austin (North Carolina State University) writes:

North Carolina House bill HB715 would eliminate tenure for all future UNC system faculty hires, replacing it with 1-4 year contracts.

The joint effect of the restrictions on abortion (SB20, effective July 1) and elimination of tenure would be enormous damage to NC's economy. Most women will not want to attend post-secondary education in states that restrict access to abortion. Most female faculty and those whose partners are women, as well as those who have female children, will want to avoid states that restrict access to abortion. Many businesses will leave or avoid such states. (If travel to another state or country to get an abortion can be criminalized by a woman's state of residence, business offers to cover any travel expenses won't help.) Some supporting detail is in the attached:   Download NCRestrictsAbortionTenure

I've seen little or no discussion in the media of the inevitable joint effects of limiting or eliminating tenure plus restricting access to abortion; maybe I missed it. I've looked for and not found comments by any economists of education. Perhaps they believe that it would be wasted effort because Republican legislators care only about their own re-elections and those who voted for them are ignorant or indifferent even if not favorably disposed towards the restrictions and the elimination.

Stephen Mulhall did not like Derek Parfit's way of doing philosophy...

...so, unsurprisingly, he did not much like a biography of Parfit.  There were a couple of apt criticisms of the philosophy and the philosopher.  For example:

[A]lthough Parfit’s favoured method for pursuing and refining ethical thinking presents itself as open to all whatever their ethical stance, it actually incorporates a subtle but pervasive bias against approaches to ethics that don’t focus exclusively or primarily on the outcomes of individual actions.

And also:

You don’t have to be Nietzsche to see in Parfit’s adult life a particularly stark version of an ascetic ideal that has its historical roots in the religious framework his family inhabited, but which has mutated into a variety of avowedly secular cultural forms, in science, art and philosophy. These ideals attribute a transcendent value to truth and truthfulness, and so to forms of human life that seek it, no matter what costs they impose. To the martyred Galileo and the abused avant-gardiste, we can now add the moral philosopher who cloisters himself within a cloistered institution whose founding purpose was to pray for the faithful departed. All these exemplary figures exhibit a sadomasochistic structure of self-denial, in which most of what makes life worth living is sacrificed to one’s intellectual calling. 

UPDATE:  Dr. Roger Albin writes:

Thanks for linking to Mulhall’s interesting review of the Parfit bio.  Having read Reasons & Persons, I agree with several of his criticisms.  His comment about Parfit’s personality and adult life, however, particularly the “…sadomasochistic structure of self-denial, in which most of what makes life worth living is sacrificed to one’s intellectual calling” remark may be misleading.  At an earlier point in the review, he notes that Parfit’s biographer suggested that Parfit might have had an autism spectrum disorder (though disorder is something of a misnomer).  Based on what I’ve read about Parfit, I’d say this is more than plausible.  But if that is the case, then spending his life in the cloistered environment of All Souls College, and Parfit’s apparently obsessive conduct, would not be “sadomasochistic denial.”  Many of the ordinary demands, pleasures, and uncertainties of conventional life may well have been distressing for Parfit.  His life would be uncomfortably demanding for the great majority of us, but it may well have been the most comfortable for him. 

A celebration of the life and work of Maria Rosa Antognazza on June 14...

...at King's College, London.  (The earlier memorial announcement.)

Poitier meets Plato

MOVING TO FRONT FROM MAY 22--SEE UPDATE

From his 1964 album:

(Thanks to Rob Tempio for the pointer.)

UPDATE:  There is a digital version of the full album here.   (Thanks to Neil Jahren for the pointer.)

 

Lateral moves/retirements (etc.) since the 2021 Philosophical Gourmet Report: 2023 edition

In addition to the separate posts announcing (generally tenured) faculty moves, I will keep a running list of all lateral moves (and retirements and deaths) not reflected in the faculty lists for the last PGR (some moves that took place after the last PGR were reflected in the faculty list, because the editors knew of them).  I will start a new list for each academic year, so that the list does not get unwieldy.  (The 2022 list is here, with a couple of late additions in bold.)  Unless otherwise noted, the appointment (or retirement) takes effect in 2023.  I will move this to the front periodically, putting recent additions in bold.  Untenured lateral moves will be noted as such, otherwise the move is with tenure.  A lateral move is one from one tenure-stream position to another either into or out of a program offering the PhD or terminal MA.  In addition I will list retirements and also deaths of non-emeritus faculty.  Please e-mail me with additions or corrections.

*Richard J. Arneson (political philosophy) is retiring from the University of California, San Diego at the end of the 2022-23 academic year.

*William Bechtel (philosophy of cognitive science and neuroscience) is retiring from the University of California, San Diego at the end of the 2022-23 academic year.

*Juliana Bidadanure (political philosophy) from Stanford University to New York University.

*Martha Bolton (early modern philosophy) will retire from Rutgers University, New Brunswick in July 2023.

*Robert Bolton (ancient philosophy) will retire from Rutgers University, New Brunswick in July 2023.

*Pascal Brixel (social & political philosophy, ethics, Marx & Marxism) from Clemson University to Northwestern University (untenured lateral).

*Brookes Brown (social & political philosophy) from Clemson University to the University of Toronto (untenured lateral).

*Justin Bruner (social & political philosophy, PPE) from University of Arizona (Political Economy & Moral Sciences) to the University at Buffalo, State University of New York.

*Lu Chen (philosophy of mathematics & physics, metaphysics, philosophical logic) from Koç University (Turkey) to the University of Southern California (effective January 2024) (untenured lateral).

*Patrick Connolly (early modern philosophy and science) from Lehigh University (untenured) and University of Wisconsin, Madison (visiting) to Johns Hopkins University (effective January 2023).

*Ann Cudd (feminist philosophy, social & political philosophy) from University of Pittsburgh (where she is Provost) to Portland State University (to become President).

*Stephen Daniel (early modern philosophy) is retiring from Texas A&M University in June 2023.

*Stewart Duncan (early modern philosophy) from the University of Florida, Gainesville to the University at Buffalo, State University of New York.

*William Edmundson (political, legal, & moral philosophy) retired from Georgia State University in December 2022.

*David Enoch (moral, political & legal philosophy) from Hebrew University, Jerusalem to Oxford University.

*Rachel Fraser (philosophy of language, epistemology, feminist philosophy) from Oxford University to the Dianoia Institute, Australian Catholic University.

*Stacie Friend (aesthetics, philosophy of language & mind) from Birkbeck College, University of London to the University of Edinburgh.

*Michael Garnett (social & political philosophy, ethics, philosophy of action) from Birkbeck College, University of London to King's College, London.

*Ken Gemes (philosophy of science, Nietzsche, Freud) will retire from Birkbeck College, University of London in July 2023.

*Robert Gooding-Williams (social-political philosophy, philosophy of race, 19th- and 20th-century Continental philosophy) from Columbia University to Yale University (effective July 2024).

*Charles L. Griswold (18th-century philosophy, ethics, political philosophy, ancient philosophy) is retiring from Boston University at the end of the 2022-23 academic year.

*Paul Guyer (Kant, aesthetics) is on phased retirement at Brown University (he will retire fully no later than the end of June 2025, and perhaps sooner).

*Thimo Heisenberg (19th-century German philosophy, social & political philosophy) from Bryn Mawr College to Rice University (untenured lateral).

*Robert Howell (philosophy of mind, metaphysics) from Southern Methodist University to Rice University.

*Thomas Hurka (ethics), who has been on phased retirement at the University of Toronto, is retiring at the end of the 2022-23 academic year. (This information was included in the 2021 PGR surveys, so should, in principle, have been taken into account by evaluators.)

*Susan James (early modern philosophy, feminist philosophy) will retire from Birkbeck College, University of London in July 2023.

*Hrishikesh Joshi (moral & political philospohy, metaethics, PPE) from Bowling Green State University to the University of Arizona (untenured lateral).

*Hannah Kim (aesthetics, metaphysics, Asian philosophy, existentialism) from Macalaster College to the University of Arizona (untenured lateral).

*Claire Kirwin (ethics, metaethics, aesthetics, Nietzsche) from Clemson University to Northwestern University (untenured lateral).

*Katharina Kraus (Kant, philosophy of mind and psychology) from the University of Notre Dame to Johns Hopkins University (effective January 2023).

*Michael Kremer (history of analytic philosophy, logic) will retire from the University of Chicago at the end of the 2022-23 academic year.

*N.G. Laskowski (ethics, metaethics, social philosophy) from California State University, Long Beach to the University of Maryland, College Park (untenured lateral).

*Harvey Lederman (logic, epistemology, philosophy of language, Chinese philosophy) from Princeton University to the University of Texas, Austin (effective January 2023).

Wash U/St. Louis professor being recruited for UT Austin's new "free enterprise" think tank...

...turns down offer because of the attack on tenure.  Will the awful Texas Lt. Governor, who championed the think tank and the attack on tenure, pick up this market signal?

(Thanks to Humphreys McGee for the pointer.)

St. Norbert College philosophy professor strikes it rich...

...on the game show Jeopardy!  A quarter million dollars!

(Thanks to Phil Gasper for the pointer.)

The Republican war on K-12 education: South Carolina edition

Here, with interesting history of race relations in South Carolina, and an appropriate skewering of Viktor DeSantis's slimy and stupid hitman Christopher Rufo.

(Thanks to Jason Stanley for the pointer.)

Year-long initiative on free speech and academic freedom at UC Irvine

Announcement here.  UC Irvine Chancellor Howard Gillman has written widely on these issues.  University of Chicago recently created a new "Forum" on these topics, to be led by my law colleague Tom Ginsburg.  He has already been running a series of talks on these issues (I gave one on "The Law and Philosophy of Academic Freedom").  Hopefully we will see more such initiatives proliferating, including in states facing threats from Republican Governors and legislatures.

Texas tenure battle continues

We'll find out by Friday whether Texas will destroy its public research universities or not.  The bill that passed the Texas Senate will eliminate tenure for all new hires; the bill that passed the Texas House preserves tenure, but permits termination for some non-traditional reasons that are ripe for abuse, such as “conduct involving moral turpitude” or “unprofessional conduct that adversely affects the institution.”  The latter is especially egregious.  Some schools do have "moral turpitude" clauses, but defined in terms of criminal conviction for a felony.   The final bill will be worked out in a somewhat opaque "negotiation" process that I never understood even when I lived in Texas.  If the House version prevails, it will not be an immediate disaster, although if the vague clauses are weaponized by some schools, it will become a disaster.  If the Senate version prevails, the major research centers in the public university system (e.g., UT Austin, UT Southwestern in Dallas, Texas A&M) will be decimated over the next ten years.

Silicon Valley, Elon Musk, and the popularity of eugenics

Interesting and creepy.  To be clear, I'm not wholly opposed to eugenics:  people like Elon Musk should not be allowed to reproduce.

(Thanks to Phil Gasper for the pointer.)

Blast from the past: Best Anglophone political philosophers since 1945

Back in 2016.

Would you choose to live forever?

Philosopher John Martin Fischer discusses the topic for a popular audience.

Great moments in obscure rock 'n' roll: The Third Power, "Gettin' Together," 1970

Another number from this Michigan band's only album, this is the lead track:

 

UC Santa Cruz being sued over its unlawful "diversity" statement requirement for job applicants

A news release here, and the complaint is here.   The plaintiff claims that the state is imposing unconstitutional conditions on job applicants in violation of their First Amendment rights, as well as engaging in unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination (I have emphasized the latter).

One philosopher elected to American Philosophical Society

He is philosopher of science and biology John Dupre at the University of Exeter.

APA announces prizes....

...including the Dewey Lectures, the Gittler Prize, and others.

Humanities (including philosophy) at risk of being totally gutted at the University of Brighton in the UK

The proposed cuts are draconian!  At the prior link, there is also a link to an open letter that readers can sign in support of their Brighton colleagues.

(Thanks to Pascal Brixel for the pointer.)

Students in the UK are still trying to deplatform philosopher Kathleen Stock

MOVING TO FRONT FROM YESTERDAY--UPDATED

It's apparently not enough to have run her out of her job, some of them still can't abide her being invited to speak.  The latest incident was at Oxford.  Philosopher Jeff McMahan (Oxford) kindly shared the very good letter he and other Oxford academics (including many philosophers [e.g., Timothy Williamson, Joel Hamkins, John Tasioulas, etc.]) sent to The Telegraph.  An excerpt (I added bolding to the crucial point):

Professor Stock believes that biological sex in humans is real and socially salient, a view which until recently would have been so commonplace as to hardly merit asserting. Whether or not one agrees with Professor Stock’s views, there is no plausible and attractive ideal of academic freedom, or of free speech more generally, which would condemn their expression as outside the bounds of permissible discourse. Unfortunately, the position of her opponents seems to be that Professor Stock’s views are so illicit that they cannot be safely discussed in front of an audience of consenting and intelligent adults at the main debating society at the University of Oxford. If this were the case, it is doubtful that they could be safely expressed anywhere – a result that, as her opponents are no doubt satisfied to find, would amount to their effective prohibition.

Anyone who disagrees with the bolded bit is really not fit for university life.

UPDATE:  The Oxford Student Union has sent out a message to its members denying that severing its financial relationship with the Oxford Union was related to the invitation to Professor Stock:

Hello Students,

We refer to the recent commentary in the national media regarding the decision of Oxford SU, the student union of the University of Oxford, to suspend its commercial and financial relationship with the Oxford Union, the private members’ club and debating society.

The press coverage erroneously conflates the recent motion passed by the Student Council of Oxford SU in relation to the Oxford Union with the Oxford Union’s decision to invite Dr Kathleen Stock as a speaker. The motion was unrelated to Dr Stock’s intended talk. It did not mention Dr Stock or any other speaker at the Oxford Union, instead citing long-standing concerns relating to alleged bullying, sexual harassment, discrimination and data privacy breaches which affect students. The motion was democratically passed at a meeting of students, following a debate which also did not mention Dr Stock.

It is deeply unfortunate that the media has chosen to imply a connection between the Student Council’s vote and Dr Stock’s talk.  Oxford SU is a charity which exists to promote the interests and welfare of students and to provide social, cultural, and recreational activities and forums for discussions and debate. We are committed to freedom of expression and freedom of speech, and will defend the right of people to have controversial and unpopular ideas debated as an integral part of university life and the student experience.

Draft Minutes from Student Council

 

Blast from the past: Mark Taylor (Columbia Religion Dept.) is an ignorant menace

Back in 2010.

There should be severe liability for creating "counterfeit people" using AI

Philosopher Daniel Dennett in The Atlantic:

Today, for the first time in history, thanks to artificial intelligence, it is possible for anybody to make counterfeit people who can pass for real in many of the new digital environments we have created. These counterfeit people are the most dangerous artifacts in human history, capable of destroying not just economies but human freedom itself. Before it’s too late (it may well be too late already) we must outlaw both the creation of counterfeit people and the “passing along” of counterfeit people. The penalties for either offense should be extremely severe, given that civilization itself is at risk.

Ruse on Setiya on Kitcher (with Leiter's commentary)

Philosopher Kieran Setiya wrote a fairly critical review of Philip Kitcher's recent book, What's the Use of Philosophy.  A few excerpts:

What Kitcher finds in philosophy today is arid technicality, produced for an audience of insiders. He complains about the fetish for clarity and the needless use of formalism; he objects to a methodology that splices intuitions about fanciful cases with assertions of a priori knowledge (‘sprinkling fairy dust’); he accuses philosophers of not knowing enough about the sciences that pertain to their work and of failing to question whether their projects are worthwhile. What he wants is a philosophy of use to scientists, or which can be applied to social problems. He also wants new synthetic visions, ways of seeing the world that bring together different disciplines with an eye to human flourishing.

Scientists are useful people, but there is more to philosophy than being useful to science or solving "social problems," although I do think philosophy could do a lot more of the former, and has done almost none of the latter.   Genuine philosophers are legislators of value, as one 19th-century German observed (Kant and Hegel were not genuine philosophers on this view, merely "philosophical laborers" who "pressed into formulas" existing values:  see Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, section 211).  Perhaps that latter conception of philosophy falls under Kitcher's idea of producing "ways of seeing the world...with an eye to human flourishing."  Setiya continues:

Kitcher pleads for a ‘reconstruction in philosophy.' 

Blast from the past: the Dover decision on "Intelligent Design" (and the unfortunate intervention by Professor Alschuler)

Back in 2005.

Viktor DeSantis's war on higher education in Florida: the latest

He has now signed legislation that, among other things,

restricts certain topics from being taught in general education courses, the lower-level classes that all students must take for their degrees. It also expands the hiring and firing powers of university boards and presidents, limits protections for tenured faculty members and prohibits spending related to diversity, equity and inclusion programs beyond what is required by accreditors.

Regarding the restricted topics, the measure borrows language from last year’s Individual Freedom Act, also known as the Stop Woke Act. It targets “theories that systemic racism, sexism, oppression, and privilege are inherent in the institutions of the United States and were created to maintain social, political and economic inequities.” While those ideas will be kept out of general education courses on Florida campuses, they could be allowed in higher-level or elective courses, subject to review by the Board of Governors for universities or the State Board of Education for colleges.

I expect SB 266 to be struck down as unconstitutional by the courts.  The only action he's taken that is not unconstitutional, and actually protects constitutional rights, is eliminating the use of "diversity statements" in employment.  Of course, as his other actions make clear, his motivation for doing so has nothing to do with a commitment to constitutional rights or academic freedom.  It's just an accidental by-product of his illiberal agenda.

Git and Pandoc for managing your academic work

Philosopher Richard Yetter Chappell walks you through it!

On the legal import, going forward, of Trump's liability for defaming E. Jean Carroll

Law professor Tobias Wolff (son of philosopher Robert Paul Wolff) explains it clearly here.

Peter Singer is drowning in a pond...

...so it's time for a utilitarian calculation!

(Thanks to Phil Gasper for the pointer.)