Leiter Reports: A Philosophy Blog

Apt remarks about the difference in impact of Judith Butler inside philosophy, and outside...

...from philosopher Kathleen Stock (Sussex):

In my own discipline, philosophy, there is still - thank God – encouragement to treat every new theory you encounter with an attitude of grumpy suspicion. You have to test it for structural weaknesses, improbable consequences, inconsistencies, and other problems before you endorse it. Negative criticism is far more common than positive endorsement. To take a pertinent example I know very few people in my side of professional philosophy who treats Judith Butler as a serious intellectual figure. That is, her totalising version of social construction is thought of as naïve and simplistic as a metaphysical view. But in other areas like Gender Studies and some part of English, Art History, Sociology, and so on, Butler’s views, and those of others in the same vein, are treated as basically right, and then “applied” to some particular issue: queering the fruit fly in the laboratory, or queering Hildegard of Bingen, or whatever. In data science they say “rubbish in, rubbish out” but you could just as easily say that if you put in a junk philosophical view like Butler’s into a discussion of something else, you will get out exactly what you put in.

Seeking memories and anecdotes about Derek Parfit

MOVING TO FRONT FROM NOVEMBER 26, FOR READERS WHO MAY HAVE MISSED IT

David Edmonds--author most recently of The Murder of Professor Schlick (Princeton), as well as co-host of the popular Philosophy Bites podcast with Nigel Warburton--writes:

I am just starting research on a biography of my one-time supervisor, Derek Parfit.  I would be very interested in hearing from those who met or corresponded with him and have interesting memories/anecdotes.  I can be contacted by email at laspalmasdave@aol.com

"The Roles of Judges in Democracies: A Realistic View": the podcast...

...with Professor Brian Frye (Kentucky), regarding this article.  My thanks to Professor Frye for inviting me to discuss it!

Google, Twitter have been targetting the left for censorship well before high-profile cases like Alex "I'm as as crazy as I seem" Jones

A useful documentation of the systematic attempt to push in to cyber-oblivion left-wing websites, including the World Socialist Web Site that took the lead in exposing the mistakes in the NYT's 1619 Project.

(Thanks to Christopher Morris for the pointer.)

Colorado Summer Seminar in Philosophy for 2021

Philosopher David Boonin (Colorado) writes:

I’ve now finalized the topic for this summer: “Ethics and Epistemology” and am ready to start accepting applications. The link to the site containing all the information is here:

https://www.colorado.edu/philosophy/events/summer-seminar

I’d again appreciate it if you’d post something on your blog about it.

I've always heard good things about this summer program, so I urge undergraduate readers to take a look!

University of Chicago "responds" to the tantrum about Professor Abbot's views on diversity

The University responds correctly.   I'm sure it was triggered by this, which President Zimmer does not mention, also correctly.  Here is an excerpt from the President's response which should be copied and pasted into every President's response to tantrums from the right or baby left (i.e., the "hurt feelings" left):

[T]he University does not limit the comments of faculty members, mandate apologies, or impose other disciplinary consequences for such comments, unless there has been a violation of University policy or the law. Faculty are free to agree or disagree with any policy or approach of the University, its departments, schools or divisions without being subject to discipline, reprimand or other form of punishment.

That said, no individual member of the faculty speaks for the University as a whole on any subject, including on issues of diversity. In turn, the University will continue to defend vigorously any faculty member’s right to publish and discuss his or her ideas.

There's still more work to do at the University of Chicago, as I'll blog about soon, but I am pleased the President lived up to my expectations in this case.

(Thanks to Jerry Coyne for the pointer.)

New "public philosophy" series at the Pea Soup blog

They're seeking contributions!

Great moments in obscure rock 'n' roll: Highway Robbery, "Promotion Man," 1972

American hard rock/heavy metal trio, they were supposed to be the next Black Sabbath, but ended up recording only one album before being dropped by RCA.  This is the concluding number from that album:

 

When will the COVID pandemic end?

McKinsey, the business consultants, say probably in the third quarter of 2021 (July-September), maybe as late as the 4th quarter of 2021.  Their reasoning seems sensible enough.

UChicago geology professor under attack for raising mild criticisms of "diversity" initiatives

Dorian Abbot, a geology professor here at the University of Chicago (whom I do not know), had the temerity to express doubts about his department's "diversity" efforts.  You can see the slides that formed the basis for his presentations to his colleagues here,  here, here, and here; his own account of events is here.  I agree with some of what he has to say, and disagree with other parts.  But his views are not "hateful," "harmful" or out of place in a university that values free discussion on important issues.

For dissenting from "diversity" orthodoxy, Professor Abbot has now been subjected to a disgraceful public denunciation by postdocs and graduate students in Geology (and other UChicago science departments (complete with fictitious claims about "aggression" and "safety").  The public version of the letter omits the names of the benighted grad students and postdocs.  But some faculty and postdocs have gone public with their delusional responses:  for example, Assistant Professor Graham Slater's Twitter thread is here  (do review the actual slides to see how unhinged this take is), and the reaction of a geology postdoc at Chicago, Michael Henson (also here).

There is now a petition in support of Professor Abbott here which I encourage readers to sign.

There's very little extramural speech that ought to have any bearing on hiring or promotion decisions in universities, but open contempt like that above for academic freedom and lawful expression--which are foundational to the academic enterprise--probably should count against someone.  (We've touched on this issue before.)  If people like Slater and Hanson carry on like this now, what kind of damage will they do to their departments and disciplines once they have tenure?

UPDATE:  The University of Chicago President responds, correctly.

What is it like to be a philosopher? Adrian Moore edition

Here.  Remarkably candid.

Which living philosopher has exerted the greatest positive influence on your moral/political views? The results

MOVING TO FRONT--COMMENTS NOW OPEN FOR READERS TO EXPLAIN THEIR CHOICE

So with 1200 votes since yesterday, here are the results.

1.  None (21%; 252 votes)

2.  Peter Singer (12%; 144 votes)

3.  Alasdair MacIntyre (10%; 120 votes)

4.  Martha Nussbaum (9%; 108 votes)

5.  Elizabeth Anderson (7%; 84 votes)

6.  Christine Korsgaard, Thomas Nagel, Joseph Raz, T.M. Scanlon (5% each; 60 votes each)

10. Harry Frankfurt, Amartya Sen, Charles Taylor (4% each; 48 votes each)

13. Raymond Geuss, Jurgen Habermas (3% each; 36 votes each)

I chose "none":  I've read many of these philosophers with appreciation (and I have learned a lot from Nussbaum as a colleague), but none of them has had any impact on my moral/political views.  Since today is a holiday in the U.S., I'll open this for comments tomorrow from readers about which answer they gave and why.

Amy Coney Barrett, newest member of the super-legislature...

...delivers for her constituents, i.e., religious conservatives.   This is why she was chosen, it had nothing to do with intelligence or legal competence:  it was so she would exercise her power as a super-legislator on behalf of issues dear to religious conservatives, public health or the general welfare be damned.   Governor Cuomo should declare the Court mistaken, and ignore the ruling. After all, if Justice Ginsburg had not died, this case would have come out the other way, as everyone knows.  Her appointment in Samarra should not change constitutional law, a proposition even conservatives who profess commitment to the rule of law might agree upon.

Richard Marshall interviews Russell Blackford (Newcastle)...

...at 3:16 AM.

Which living philosopher has exerted the greatest positive influence on your moral and political views?

MOVING TO FRONT FROM THIS MORNING--ABOUT 650 VOTES OVER THE LAST SIX HOURS, MORE WELCOME!

John Tasioulas (Oxford) posed that query on Twitter, and in his poll offering four choices, Peter Singer won (which sums up the moral triviality of contemporary philosophers in my view).  In the comments, readers offered other possible answers.  So herewith a version of the poll with more choices (reflecting comments on Professor Tasioulas's tweet), plus the option of picking "none."  Have fun!

 

In Memoriam: Raimo Tuomela (1940-2020)

Best-known for his contributions to philosophy of action and philosophy of social science, Professor Tuomela was emeritus at the University of Helsinki, where he spent most ofhis career.  I will add links to memorial notices as they appear.

Mask-wearing: the Danish study

This study has gotten some attention, but the media accounts I've seen don't accurately report what it found (this one is typical).  First, the study did not control at all for what participants did and who they were with when not outside the home:  so it is possible that the participants (who wore masks outside the home) lived with folks who never wore masks and/or did careless things that exposed them to infection.  Second, the study also did not control for exposure to non-mask-wearers outside the home.  One possible takeaway from the study is that wearing surgical masks (the masks at issue) is not very effective when you're around others who are not wearing surgical masks as well, which seems plausible.

Tolstoy's explanation for why Kant was such a bad writer

He smoked too much!

(Thanks to David Gordon for the pointer.)

"Do you have to reply to this paper?"

Philosopher Saul Smilansky (Haifa), ever the contrarian, argues, "Yes!"

Blast from the past: what is an "area of competence" for CV purposes?

Back in 2007.

On the changing demographics of who is voting Democratic and Republican in the US

Two interviews with David Shor, one at Politico, one at New York Magazine (thanks to Benj Hellie for flagging the latter).  Shor doesn't seem to know much about the empirical literature on voter behavior, but there are still many interesting observations.  Some highlights from the first interview:

Politics is fundamentally about splitting the country in half. And if college-educated white people are 4 percent of the electorate, like they were in the immediate post-World War II era, you can’t do that. But if they are 38 or 40 percent, suddenly you can. So, it’s unsurprising that as the education share has gone up, we’ve seen this happen.

If you think mechanically about the reinforcing currents that caused this, as college-educated white people enter the Democratic Party and become an increasingly large share of the Democratic Party while the reverse happens to Republicans, that naturally is going to influence who wins party primaries and what kind of people win internal party fights. In practice — given the fact that college-educated whites donate at disproportionate rates and volunteer at disproportionate rates — I think it’s going to be very hard for Democrats to resist the pull of catering to their preferences, which is naturally going to lead to losing votes among people who aren’t them: not just non-college educated whites, but, as we as we saw this cycle, also non-white voters....

There is a broader trend, though, that as college-educated white people become a larger share of the Democratic coalition and a larger share of the Democratic voice, they do pull the party on cultural issues. Non-college educated white people have more culturally in common with working-class Black and working-class Hispanic voters. So, it should be unsurprising that as the cultural power of college-educated white people increases in the Democratic Party, non-white voters will move against us.

On Brandom's philosophy

A lucid essay from earlier this year giving an introductory overview of the work of Robert Brandom (Pittsburgh).

Blast from the past: smoking a liability on the job market?

Back in 2008.  The comments go on to discuss other odd habits, like being a vegan!

Wuhan after the lockdown

An interesting study; among the findings of note:

(1)  "All city residents aged six years or older were eligible and 9,899,828 (92.9%) participated. No new symptomatic cases and 300 asymptomatic cases (detection rate 0.303/10,000, 95% CI 0.270–0.339/10,000) were identified."

(2) "The detection rate of asymptomatic positive cases was very low, and there was no evidence of transmission from asymptomatic positive persons to traced close contacts. There were no asymptomatic positive cases in 96.4% of the residential communities.  Previous studies have shown that asymptomatic individuals infected with SARS-CoV-2 virus were infectious³, and might subsequently become symptomatic⁴. Compared with symptomatic patients, asymptomatic infected persons generally have low quantity of viral loads and a short duration of viral shedding, which decrease the transmission risk of SARS-CoV-2⁵. In the present study, virus culture was carried out on samples from asymptomatic positive cases, and found no viable SARS-CoV-2 virus. All close contacts of the asymptomatic positive cases tested negative, indicating that the asymptomatic positive cases detected in this study were unlikely to be infectious."

(I came across this via the Twitter feed of the word's dumbest journalist, Alex Berenson, who (1) didn't realize that the study shows, among other things, that lockdowns work, something dumb-dumb likes to deny [how could they not work, we know how the virus is transmitted, and it requires people to come into contact with other people; that doesn't mean lockdowns are also worth the costs]; and (2) dumb-dumb also declared that the study shows that, "Asymptomatic spread isn’t real = masking healthy people is useless," but the study shows nothing of the kind:  it shows that asymptomatic people who don't go on to develop symptoms appear not to infect others; as the study notes, we have evidence that asymptomatic people who go on to develop symptoms are infectious.)

Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine: 70% effective on average

Another two-dose vaccine, that was 90% effective in the group that got a half-dose first, and then a full dose second (but less effective in the group that got a full dose each time).  Note that in this trial they also checked for asymptomatic infections.   Various experts comment here.

On Schopenhauer's pessimism

A nicely written essay by philosopher David Bather Woods (Warwick).

Hong Kong's slide into a police state

This is appalling:

Hong Kong police claim they have received more than 2,500 tip-offs since the launch of a hotline for people to report suspected breaches of the city’s sweeping national security law.

The multi-platform hotline, which opened on Thursday, allows Hong Kongers to report information directly to national security police via text message, email, or WeChat.

A police spokesman told the Guardian that by Friday morning the force had received more than 2,500 pieces of information. The hotline can accept audio, videos, photographs and texts, and contributors will remain anonymous and receive no replies once they have submitted their tips, police said.

While many countries have law enforcement tip lines, Hong Kong’s has been denounced by critics as reminiscent of China’s Cultural Revolution, when neighbours were encouraged to monitor and inform on each other.

The broadly defined national security law, imposed on Hong Kong by Beijing in June, criminalises a wide range of acts on the grounds of subversion, secession, foreign collusion or terrorism.

Blast from the past: Inflated letters of recommendation

A discussion, back in 2011.

(The first link in the 2011 post isn't working:  it goes to this earlier post about the "code" in which letters of recommendation are too often written.)

North Dakota leads the world...

...in recent deaths per capita from COVID.  1 out of every 1,000 residents has died from COVID.  Unsurprisingly, North Dakota has done very little in the way of mitigation efforts throughout this catastrophe.

Great moments in obscure rock 'n' roll: Tucky Buzzard, "Time Will Be Your Doctor," 1971

British hard/progressive rock band active in the early 1970s and produced by Bill Wyman of the Rolling Stones.  This is probably their best-known number:

 

 

In Memoriam: Judith Jarvis Thomson (1929-2020)

A longtime member of the MIT faculty, Professor Thomson was best-known for her contributions to applied ethics (most famously 1971's "A Defense of Abortion"), but also wrote widely in political philosophy, metaethics, metaphysics and other topics.  There is a brief biography here and a more philosophical biography here.  I will add links to memorial notices as they appear.

How in the world does a serious university appoint a serial sexual harasser as Provost?

University of Michigan better do some serious self-scrutiny over this fiasco.  And how did he fly under the radar for so long?

Philosophy (and History) under attack at Western Sydney University

Some background from Western Sydney historian Alison Downham Moore:

Today I was invited along with 6 of my history colleagues and 5 of my philosophy colleagues to meetings with our Dean in which we were told that our positions will be affected by a staff-change plan to be implemented by the higher administration of our university before the end of this year. This plan proposes that theses 7 historians and 5 philosophers must reduce their numbers to 5 and 3 respectively. If the university does not receive 4 voluntary retirements from among this group of accomplished scholars who are mostly in the 35-50 year age-range, then within next few weeks they will make ALL of our positions redundant and force us to apply in a competitive process for the newly reduced number of positions. 

To place this in context, Western Sydney University has NOT been dramatically financially impacted by the Covid-19 crisis, due in part to its high ratio of local to international students and to the large number of online teaching-units we have been offering for many years already.

Philosopher Rebecca Tuvel (Rhodes) talks about virtual sex, race, and gender...

...on the Brain in a Vat podcast.

Susan Haack exacts her revenge...

...under the guise of an intellectual autobiography.  Some of the revenge is amusing, but it does bring to mind the even more extreme "score settling" in Ted Honderich's autobiography.  Two things that lept out at me.  First, her praise for her own "independence" of mind often reflects a rather parochial conception of philosophy, and can look rather like the narcissism of small differences to someone with broader horizons.  (In other respects, she has indeed followed her own path, and avoided political fashions.)   Second, it struck me as funny that she proclaimed her own aversion to "self-promotion":  anyone of the right age can recall when the New York Review of Books ran month-after-month-after-month an ad for her book Evidence and Inquiry, an ad that no publisher would have paid for.   Self-promotion on social media can hardly hold a candle to that!

ADDENDUM:  In order to access Professor Haack's essay, you may need to create a free SSRN account:  go here, click to download, then follow the instructions.

"How academia resembles a drug gang"

Perversely amusing.

The Governor of California should resign

What a disgrace.  It's pretty easy not to have a dinner in a restaurant while people are dying from an infectious disease and you're requiring everyone else to not do this.   He should be crucified for this selfish stupidity.

On Brentano, the teacher

Linguist John Goldsmith (Chicago) comments.

ADDENDUM:  Two caveats:  (1) Professor Goldsmith treats "continental philosophy" as equivalent to 20th-century philosophy in the phenomenological tradition, which is an idiosyncratic usage, even if phenomenology was very important to one strand of philosophy on the European Continent in the 20th-century (it was largely irrelevant to the Marxian traditions in philosophy in the 20th-century); (2) what he calls "the Law of Dynasties" is almost certainly a sociological artifact, as he briefly suggests it might be, and there are many dramatic exceptions (e.g., Frege or Nietzsche).

What is wrong with the people in Farmington, Missouri?

Their local public health official  received threats because she is trying to implement simple measures to reduce the spread of COVID.  It got so bad, she resigned and moved.  Farmington is about 75 mile from St. Louis.  What is wrong with the people there?  I hope to God I never have to set foot in that place, or any place so benighted.

The "Be Kind" mantra on the "left"

Philosopher Kathleen Stock (Sussex) comments.  We encountered related nonsense in philosophy cyberspace a few years back from Jenny Saul & co. at their now defunct blog:  as the late John Gardner remarked, "'be nice' is truly the new slogan of the vindictive and intolerant."

"Benford's law" and the election results

In right-wing crazy land, one of the "ideas" floating around is that Benford's Law shows that there's something suspicious about the electoral results in Chicago for Biden.  This is a nice, patient explanation of why this is all nonsense, as one might have suspected:

 

The latest on the Pfizer vaccine...

...from Statnews.  Between Pfizer and Moderna's vaccine, it looks like about 6-7% of the U.S. population may get vaccinated before the end of the year, which is better than nothing of course.  Hopefully by summer, it will be possible to vaccinate most of the population that wants it (states can mandate vaccinations, and hopefully some will, with exceptions only for health reasons).

Still to be determined, of course, is how long the protective effect of the vaccine lasts.  Does anyone know of any preliminary data or informed estimates?

Right-wing paramilitary group in US, "Oath Keepers," says it will not recognize Biden Presidency...

...or the legitmacy of any laws it enacts.  This is par for the course for not-so-cryptic fascists and reactionaries, but one concern in this instance is that this organization claims to have members who are currently involved with law enforcement.  Most likely these are elected sheriffs in the boondocks, but no one really knows.

British Journal of Aesthetics celebrates 60 years...

...with commentaries on important papers that appeared in the journal; both the commentaries and paeprs are currently available for free.

(Thanks to Nick Riggle for the pointer.)

Richard Marshall interviews philosopher and novelist Rebecca Goldstein...

...at 3:16 AM.

The human need for art in desperate circumstances

Philosopher Sarah Fine (King's College, London) comments.

As long as we're on "myths" in legal philosophy...

...how about the myth that there is a problem for legal positivism presented by the so-called "normativity" of law or the more recent myth that Hart made any kind of "category mistake" in his account of social rules or the rule of recognition.  The former myth is somewhat understandable, the latter one not.  General jurisprudence--philosophical inqiry into the nature of law and the relationship between law and morality--has made a lot of progress since 1961, it's a shame to see it set back by confusions and sometimes nonsense.

 

The myth that H.L.A. Hart had a "practice theory" of rules

I sure hope this paper will retire the myth.

Far more rural whites thought Trump cared about "people like them" than thought Biden did

Is it because they're racist?  Some no doubt are, but it turns out the majority also want to create pathways to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, make police legally accountable for misconduct, and view white supremacists as a threat, among other striking findings.

The Moderna COVID vaccine

MOVING TO FRONT FROM YESTERDAY--SEE COMMENT BY NED BLOCK, WHICH NOTES A SERIOUS POSSIBLE OMISSION IN THIS STUDY

An informative report from Statnews:

The Moderna vaccine reduced the risk of Covid-19 infection by 94.5%. There were 95 cases of infection among patients who received placebo in the company’s 30,000-patient study. There were only five infections in patients who developed Covid-19 after receiving Moderna’s vaccine, mRNA-1273....

Moderna also released data about the number of patients who had severe Covid-19. There were 11 cases of severe disease, all of them in the placebo group — another point of encouragement for Fauci.

“There was always the concern … since the primary endpoint [of the trial] is just clinically apparent disease, how do we know it’s going to have an impact on severe disease? And the results with severe disease were striking — 11 to zero is very impressive,” he said. At the time of their data release, Pfizer and BioNTech had no severe cases in their study...