Leiter Reports: A Philosophy Blog

SUNY Fredonia to close 13 undergraduate degree programs, including philosophy--which has only one tenure-stream faculty member, Stephen Kershnar

This will surely become an issue in Professor Kershnar's lawsuit against the university for violating his constitutional rights; philosopher Neil Feit (now emeritus at Fredonia) writes:

I thought I'd let you know that SUNY Fredonia's president and administration yesterday recommended the discontinuation of 13 undergrad degree programs, including the BA in Philosophy. With respect to Philosophy, Stephen Kershnar is currently the only tenured or tenure-track member of the department, and he is still banned from campus and teaching as his suit against the campus president and provost plays out. Until this academic year, I was the only other member of the department, but I retired as of 9/1/2023, sick and tired of being treated like crap by an incompetent and malicious administration. I link to President Kolison's bizarre "Roadmap to Financial Stability," and below that paste the list of programs identified for discontinuation.

https://www.fredonia.edu/about-offices/president/roadmap-financial-stability

1. BA Visual Arts and New Media, Art History
2. BA French
3. BA French: Adolescence Education
4. BS Industrial Management
5. BS Mathematics: Middle Childhood Specialist (grades 5-9)
6. BA Philosophy
7. BA Sociology
8. BA Spanish
9. BA Spanish: Adolescence Education
10. BFA Visual Arts and New Media, Ceramics
11. BFA Visual Arts and New Media, Photography
12. BFA Visual Arts New Media, Sculpture
13. BSED Early Childhood (Birth - Grade 2)

Blast from the past: PhD programs discouraging graduates from applying to non-research institutions?

Back in 2008, with reader discussion.  It would seem to me crazy in the current job market to discourage job seekers that way; but it seemed crazy back then too!

Hiring of non-US PhDs in US departments

A philosopher trained outside the US and UK (who now teaches in the UK) writes:

I appreciate that you recently brought up the Oxford DPhil post. One comment mentioned something about the UK vs US PhD issue. I do not wish to be identified, but if you find the issue worth discussing, I would like to see someone comment on whether non US PhDs have a disadvantage worldwide or specifically on the US job market. My question comes from my past and current institutions. I did my PhD at [a top Australasian program]. I currently teach at [a strong UK program].  Both are decent institutions. However, I looked at the placement records, and neither seem to have a remotely decent history of placing people in US Universities.

Reason I’m asking is because my course work students at [my current UK program] seem to be relatively uninterested in applying for US PhDs, and I’m deeply concerned whether this would limit their options in the future.

A few observations of my own, but I am very interested to hear from readers with relevant experience.   In philosophy, hiring is hugely affected by "familiarity," and that often counts against non-US PhDs, unless they come from one of the handful of overseas universities whose main faculty are well-known here in North America.  One of my kids is pursuing a PhD in a core natural science discipline, and while some of the pattern from philosophy repeats there, it is also striking, to me, how often it does not.  I assume this has something to do with non-subjective evaluations in the assessment of candidates (how often is your research being cited, for example).   One's research can get a lot of citations, even if one's advisor was not friends with the right people.

Self-destructing on Twitter, a continuing saga

A few weeks ago, a senior philosopher elsewhere emailed me:

I thought you might be darkly amused by the fact that Christa Peterson is every bit as vocal, and one-sided, on Twitter about Israel/Gaza as about trans issues. That’s not to express any overall take on the Gaza war – I think it’s hideous, as any reasonable person does....[b]ut that’s a long way from minimizing the original atrocities, or spinning Hamas as noble freedom fighters, or denying clear facts on the ground [as Peterson has been doing on Twitter].

I’m not suggesting you post about this...But I found it interesting in a perverse way because Christa is good at generating a blizzard of research ‘facts’ on any given issue, and it can be hard work to unravel them. I know the Israel/Palestine issue quite a lot better than the trans-rights issue: seeing the tendentiousness in the arguments on the former is at least very suggestive as to the latter.

I had, indeed, planned to ignore this, but then, more recently, a philosophically-minded economist, Itai Sher, whom I follow on Twitter, began highlighting increasingly bizarre posts from Peterson:

Or, more recently:

Rampant grade inflation at Yale...

...makes the NYT:  80% of grades are A or A-.  Discuss.

A new ranking of philosophy journals, based on surveys and also "objective" metrics

This new study is making the rounds on social media.  It uses a 2018 online survey on this blog as one of its benchmarks, as well as its own survey of philosophical authors.  As the author notes, "the survey-based ranking [conducted by the author] correlates highly with" the 2018 ranking on this blog.  It seems to correlate even more highly with the 2022 online survey on this blog.  I confess I was surprised that an online, opt-in survey here should correlate so well with a more methodical approach, like that used by the author.  I do wonder whether there isn't a feedback effect, given the prominence of this blog and the high level of interest in the journal surveys, but that is just speculation.  In any case, the new study is worth a look for those interested in these kinds of things.

Lateral moves/retirements since the 2021 Philosophical Gourmet Report: 2024 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, and the 2023 list is here.)  Unless otherwise noted, the appointment (or retirement) takes effect in 2024.  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.

*Gwen Bradford (ethics) from Rice University to the University of Toronto.

*Monima Chadha (Indian philosophy) from Monash University to Oxford University.

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

*Edward Elliott (philosophy of mind, decision theory) from the University of Leeds to the University of Notre Dame.

*Samuel Fletcher (philosophy of science, philosophy of physics) from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis-St. Paul to Oxford University.

*Warren Goldfarb (logic, history of analytic philosophy, Wittgenstein) will retire from Harvard University at the end of calendar year 2024.

*Simon Goldstein (philosophy of language, epistemology, AI safety) from the Dianoia Institute/Australican Catholic University to the University of Hong Kong (effective January 2024).

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

*Jeremy Goodman (metaphysics, epistemology, philosophical logic) from the University of Southern California to Johns Hopkins University (effective January 2024).

*E.J. Green (philosophy of mind & cognitive science) from Massachusetts Institute of Technology to Johns Hopkins University (effective January 2024).

*Jessica Isserow (metaethics, ethics, moral psychology) from the University of Leeds to the University of Notre Dame.

*Simon Kirchin (ethics, metaethics) from the University of Kent to the University of Leeds (effective January 2024).

Blast from the past: Helen Vendler dissing philosophy

Back in 2004.

Faculty fleeing Viktor DeSantis's Florida

Not surprising.

Brains improve functioning with age!

SEE UPDATE BELOW--ALAS, IT ISN'T SO!

Philosopher Galen Strawson (who turns 71 this year) sent me this with the quip, "I certainly feel I’m beginning to get the hang of a few things in philosophy....":

SOURCE: New England Journal of Medicine.

The director of the George Washington University School of Medicine argues that the brain of an older person is much more practical than is commonly believed.  At this age, the interaction of the right and left hemispheres of the brain becomes harmonious, which expands our creative possibilities.  That is why among people over 60 years of age you can find many personalities who have just started their creative activities.

  Of course, the brain is no longer as fast as it was in youth.  However, it gains in flexibility.  Therefore, with age, we are more likely to make the right decisions and are less exposed to negative emotions.  The peak of human intellectual activity occurs around the age of 70, when the brain begins to function at full strength.

  Over time, the amount of myelin in the brain increases, a substance that facilitates the rapid passage of signals between neurons.  Due to this, intellectual abilities increase by 300% compared to the average.

Also interesting is the fact that after 60 years, a person can use 2 hemispheres at the same time.  This allows you to solve much more complex problems.

Professor Monchi Uri, from the University of Montreal, believes that the old man's person’s brain chooses the path that consumes less energy, eliminates the unnecessary and leaves only the right options to solve the problem.  A study was conducted involving different age groups.  Young people were very confused when passing the tests, while those over 60 years of age made the right decisions.

Now, let's look at the characteristics of the brain between the ages of 60 and 80.  They are really pink.

Law & Philosophy Fellowship at Chicago for 24-25

The full ad (and application links) are here.  Here's the basic description (please note the Workshop theme, it's essential that the candidate be able to contribute to that, even if the dissertation was on a different topic):

The University of Chicago Law School seeks a Law and Philosophy Fellow, appointed with the rank of Lecturer, for the academic year 2024-25. This is a twelve-month appointment and is expected to begin July 1, 2024. A Ph.D. in philosophy—with fulfillment of all substantial requirements (including successful defense of dissertation) by appointment date—is required. In unusual cases, a Ph.D. in a related discipline, or a J.D. accompanied by strong training in philosophy, will be considered. Applications welcome from new or recent PhDs or tenure-stream faculty interested in spending a year at the Law School. The Fellow will co-teach the Law & Philosophy Workshop with Brian Leiter on the theme of “The Philosophy of Legal Realism.” AOS:  Philosophy of law (the dissertation does not need to be on legal realism, but the successful candidate must demonstrate knowledge of legal realism at least in the American tradition).  AOC:  open.  The Workshop will meet approximately 10 times over the course of the academic year, with several sessions devoted to discussing with students classic works by Cardozo, Llewellyn, and Levi, and other sessions devoted to visiting speakers presenting works related to legal realism.  The Fellow will also be asked to supervise student papers and to contribute to the intellectual life of the Law School, as well as pursue his or her research. Salary $65K benefits superb research environment.

Our current Fellow is Alma Diamond; past Fellows include Justin Coates, Amanda Greene, Sarah Conly (who combined her Fellowship with a sabbatical), Ben Laurence, and Adam Hosein, among others.  Please email me with questions.

Israel/Gaza links for December 4

Families of hostages demand meeting with Netanyahu, as Israel resumes bombing Gaza while hundreds are still held captive.

Now Israel is invading the South of Gaza--where are the people supposed to go?

Israel knew Hamas's attack plan last year, but ignored it.

Israel drawing up plan to assassinate Hamas leadership worldwide, which is what they probably should have done at the start (along with making a deal for the hostages) instead of the mass killings of civilians in Gaza.

How do North American graduate programs evaluate foreign GPAs? (And a question about "World Education Service")

A reader who teaches philosophy in Asia writes:

One of my students, who is currently studying at a university in East Asia and who is applying for graduate study in North America this year, was required by one institution to submit a GPA evaluation together with their other documents, presumably to allow for more objective comparisons between GPAs from different countries or institutions. In this case, the evaluation was done by the World Education Service (WES). Perhaps there are other such services that are also sometimes used, I do not know. WES evaluated the student's GPA as being 0.1 points higher than the original; the original GPA is 3.83/4, the WES figure is 3.93/4. Now I am wondering whether I should perhaps recommend using this service to other students.

My relatively uninformed expectation would be that country differences alone mean that, for example, GPAs from my student's country may generally be upgraded by WES. One issue is money. The evaluation service itself costs around $150, and having an official copy delivered costs another $50 or so per delivery. But I am guessing that, for applications that do not require a WES evaluation, students could just put the WES figure on the CV, perhaps also add a non-certified copy of the evaluation document, and, in this way, potentially benefit from the WES evaluation with respect to all their applications, without paying too much extra (considering the total cost of making applications for graduate study in North America).

The more important issue seems to me to be the following. Will WES-adjusted GPAs tend to help students or not? For example, should my student state the WES-adjusted 3.93/4 or rather the original 3.83/4 on their CV? In general, how do graduate admissions committees in North America treat GPAs from other countries?

Comments are open for those with relevant experience with either WES or the general question about how programs interpret foreign GPAs.

Peter Momtchiloff, legenday OUP philosophy editor, leaving OUP after 30 years

I was both surprised and saddened to learn that Peter M., the Oxford-based philosophy editor for OUP who has made OUP the indispensable philosophy catalogue during his tenure, will be leaving OUP December 15 after thirty years of working with the press.  Like many others, I can attest to the great value of Peter's support, judgment, and well-timed encouragement.  About a quarter-century ago, he invited me to edit the Oxford Handbook of Continental Philosophy, and then agreed when I wanted to ask Michael Rosen to work with me on it. He has kindly supported several Nietzsche projects of mine over the years, and he has made sure that OUP has the strongest catalogue of Nietzsche monographs over the last several decades (including, e.g., important books by John Richardson, Christopher Janaway, and, most recently, Mattia Riccardi).  OUP in Oxford is now searching for his replacement.  (Peter Ohlin, as far as I know, is continuing as the editor of OUP's New York office, and he is also well-known to academic philosophers, so there will be some continuity at the press.)

In Memoriam: Mark Rollins (1947-2023)

A longtime member of the Department of Philosophy (and the Philosophy-Neuroscience-Psychology Program) at Washington University, St. Louis, where he was emeritus, he was also an important Chair of the Department.  His philosophical work was in aesthetics and philosophy of cognitive science, and often their intersection.   The Wash U memorial notice is here.  Comments are open for remembrances from those who knew Professor Rollins or for those who wish to comment on the significance of his work.

(Thanks to Ron Mallon for the pointer.)

In Memoriam: Shlomo Avineri (1933-2023)

A longtime faculty member (in political science) at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Professor Avineri was best-known among philosophers for his work on Hegel and on Marx.   The Haaretz obituary testifies to his importance as a public figure and intellectual in Israel.  Comments are open for remembrances from those who knew Professor Avineri, or for those who wish to comment on the significance of his work.

(Thanks to David Gordon for the pointer.)

From the annals of unlikely similes: "Religion is like a penis"

From the bowels of Twitter:

 

Kissinger

Here,  here (apt title), and short and sweet from Robert Paul Wolff (also an earlier personal recollection).

Crowdsourced "cancellation insurance"...

...for the "cancel culture" kind.  This appears to be real!

How "open access" turned into a cash cow for publishers

Oy veh!

(Thanks to David Velleman for the pointer.)

Philosophers in The Daily Mail?!?

And not for a social media brouhaha, but for a philosophical book on immortality (by Stephen Cave and John Martin Fischer)!

Speaking of the Wokerati...

...even broken clocks are right twice a day:

It’s become increasingly evident to me that American adolescence and young adulthood — especially for those who wind up at elite schools — now happen within a specific kind of ideological atmosphere.

It centers on a hard-edged ideological framework that has been spreading in high school and college, on social media, in diversity training seminars and in popular culture. The framework doesn’t have a good name yet. It draws on the thinking of intellectuals ranging from the French philosopher Michel Foucault to the critical race theorist Derrick Bell. (For a good intellectual history, I recommend Yascha Mounk’s recent book, “The Identity Trap.”)

The common ideas associated with this ideology are by now pretty familiar:

• We shouldn’t emphasize what unites all human beings; we should emphasize what divides us.

• Human relations are power struggles between oppressors and oppressed groups.  [BL:  this of course is true in all human societies to date, which have been class-based societies; what is distinctive of the Wokerati, is that they focus mostly on epiphenomena]

• Human communication is limited. A person in one group can never really understand the experience of someone in another group.

• The goal of rising above bigotry is naïve. Bigotry and racism are permanent and indestructible components of American society.

• Seemingly neutral tenets of society — like free speech, academic freedom, academic integrity and the meritocracy — are tools the powerful use to preserve their power.

There are many teachers and administrators who believe that they best serve society not by being open and curious and searching for the truth but by propagating this ideological framework.

Blast from the past: "Generation Wuss"

Back in 2014, in the early days of the "Great Awokening."

Middle East Center at Penn prevented from showing film sponsored by progressive Jewish student group

More signs of the times.   Penn has been under pressure from rich alumni to suppress speech critical of Israel.  (This is not, strictly, an issue of academic freedom, but free expression.  Only those with a scholarly discipline have academic freedom claims, and student affinity/political groups do not represent a scholarly discipline.)

Those who know Trump best endorse him for President!

Obviously not.   But we are living in America at an odd moment, to put it mildly.  There are only two viable political parties in the U.S.  One of them is so attached to power they will support a psychologically unbalanced, vaguely senile, Mafia Don, no matter what.  This is one of those moments when American federalism--i.e., that the states have powers that the federal government cannot infringe--looks pretty good!  (The Covid catastrophe was another example of the virtues of federalism, where many states instituted public health measures that the maniac party would not support.)  Will federalism and state autonomy survive Trump's reelection?  If the monster-child is restored to the Presidency, then the fate of the country will hinge on that.

"Pragmatist quietism" in metaethics

Philosopher Andrew Sepielli offers a kind of precis of his book on the subject.  He writes:

Morality is objective, but it neither requires nor admits of a foundation. It just kind of floats there, along with the evaluative realm more generally, unsupported by anything else. Parts of it can be explained by other parts, but the entirety of the web or network of good and evil is brute. Maybe you think that’s weird and even worthy of outright dismissal. 

I'm still in the "that's weird and even worthy of outright dismissal" camp, but his very readable essay is worth a look!

 

Blast from the past: Oxford DPhil or American PhD?

A reader discussion back in 2013.

Israel/Gaza links for November 27

This Al Jazeera columnist certainly hates Israel, but his observations are not without substantial elements of truth.

Details are emerging about conditions for the hostages during their captivity by Hamas.

Peter Beinart on "anti-Palestinian" bigotry.

Gender-based violence as a "weapon of war" in the Hamas attack of October 7, from Physicians for Human Rights.

The Israeli woman who wrote the heartbreaking plea for her children held hostage (noted last week) was reunited with her freed children yesterday.

Power-hungry philosophers: a puzzle

From today's Guardian, due to logician Joel Hamkins (Notre Dame).

John Martin Fischer on the latest scientist's foray into free will

Here; an excerpt with a couple of interspersed comments:

The view that causal determinism is true is not new, nor is the view that this entails no free will or moral responsibility, but Sapolsky collates and marshals the evidence (some of it recent and cutting-edge) as it bears on these issues. The cumulative effect of the discussions and Sapolsky’s analyses can be an overwhelming sense that we might be wrong about our very foundational beliefs in free will and moral responsibility, and even our selfhood. He writes, “…put all the scientific results together, from all the relevant scientific disciplines, and there’s no room for free will” (8; emphasis in text) [footnote omitted]....

Surprisingly, in a book about free will, Sapolsky offers no definition of it (or, for that matter, determinism—or even moral responsibility!). He writes, “What is free will? Groan… I’ll do my best to mitigate the drag of this” (14). Although he does not present a full definition proper, it is clear that he holds that free will requires the falsity of determinism—by definition (not as a result of argumentation):  "[To establish free will] [s]how me a neuron being a causeless cause in this total sense. …Show me a neuron (or brain) whose generation of a behavior is independent of the sum of its biological past, and for the purposes of this book, you’ve demonstrated free will." (15)

This is problematic in various ways. First, it claims that “being a causeless cause” or “independent of the sum of its biological past” would be sufficient for a choice/action’s being an instance of free will. This is however surely false; pure randomness is incompatible with the control involved in free will. (In his discussion of quantum indeterminacy, Sapolsky is aware of this.) More plausibly, we should interpret him (here and throughout the book) as contending that, as a matter of definition or “meaning,” indeterminism is a necessary condition of free will. Note that the indeterminism of “causeless cause” or “independent of the sum of its biological past” is a very strong kind of indeterminism, leaving out the more appealing idea of not being fully determined by antecedent causes. (Sapolsky elides the distinction between causation and deterministic causation and thus does not consider indeterministic causal accounts of free will).

Billionaire anti-semite files frivolous lawsuit against media watchdog that points out the obvious

Story here.  The only question, I suspect, is whether he and the lawyers get sanctioned for filing this lawsuit.  I note that his regular lawyer, Alex Spiro of Quinn Emmanuel, had nothing to do with this lawsuit, probably for a reason!

Harvard Law Review "on-line" pulls article that expressed incorrect views about Israel and Palestine

What an embarrassment.   When one considers all the actual crap published by Harvard and other student-edited law reviews, the idea that this decision has anything to do with the "quality" of the essay, as opposed to its point of view, is beyond absurd.

Blast from the past: What areas are most important for a strong PhD program in philosophy?

Back in 2012, with reader discussion.   A useful data point for sociologists and historians of the Anglophone profession.

Great moments in obscure rock 'n' roll covers: Paul Gilbert, "Great White Buffalo," 2016

Paul Gilbert is probably best-known as the guitarist for the 1990s hard rock band Mr. Big, but this cover comes from a more recent solo album.  His version of the old Ted Nugent/Amboy Dukes song is really quite good, I think (unlike Nugent, one can understand the lyrics in Gilbert's rendering--although I usually prefer not to understand rock lyrics, given the low intellectual level of the genre, to put it politely):

Feel free to add links in the comments to either your favorite Ted Nugent covers, or to your favorite Gilbert or Mr. Big songs/performances.

Dutch Le Pen wins big in election in Netherlands

Pretty wild:  

Anti-Islam populist Geert Wilders won a huge victory in Dutch elections, according to a near complete count of the vote early Thursday, in a stunning lurch to the far right for a nation once famed as a beacon of tolerance.

The result will send shockwaves through Europe, where far-right ideology is on the rise, and puts Wilders in line to lead talks to form the next governing coalition and possibly become the first far-right prime minister of the Netherlands.

With nearly all votes counted, Wilders’ Party for Freedom was forecast to win 37 seats in the 150-seat lower house of parliament, two more than predicted by an exit poll when voting finished Wednesday night and more than double the 17 he won at the last election.

Is "far-right ideology" on the rise in Europe?   Not in Poland, where the far right party (with the Orwellian name "Law and Justice") lost recent elections.  Not in Spain, where the far right "Vox" party saw its support decline significantly in recent elections.  Portugal is still governed by the Socialist Party (and in the last elections, parties of the left, including hte communists, got a majority of the votes), while the far right party, Chega, got only 7% of the vote.  (A corruption scandal in the Socialist Party leadership may affect things in 2024, but at least now, the far right is not on the rise in Portugal.)  Only in Hungary and Italy are parties of the "far right" dominant, although it is true "far right" parties in France and Germany have gained electoral support in recent elections.

Heideger, Carnap, and nothing

Philosophy Graham Priest comments.

Blast from the past: Personal ads of the philosophers

Back in 2006 and 2005, including Kant, Nietzsche, Socrates, Hume. [Hume link fixed.]  Feel free to add your own in the comments.

Colorado summer school in philosophy for 2024

Philosopher David Boonin (Colorado) tells me the topic for 2024 will be "Natural Questions," which will deal with "questions involving the distinction between the natural and the artificial or conventional. Specific issues to be discussed may involve claims about human nature, the state of nature, or natural rights; realism about such subjects as moral principles, political authority, aesthetic judgments, quantum mechanics, mathematical truths, and ordinary material objects; the metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics of artificial intelligence; and the relationship between mental states and formal models in epistemology. Readings will cover a wide range of philosophical subfields and include both contemporary and historical sources."

There are more details here:   https://www.colorado.edu/philosophy/events/summer-seminar

I've heard good things about these summer seminars over the years, so I encourage undergraduate readers, especially those thinking they might be interested in graduate school, to take a look.

Goldstein from Dianoia/ACU to Hong Kong

Simon Goldstein (philosophy of language, epistemology, AI safety), currently Associate Professor of Philosophy at the soon-to-be-disbanded Dianoia Institute at the Australian Catholic University, has accepted appointment as Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Hong Kong, effective January 2024.

(Thanks to Justin Tiwald for the information.)

In Memoriam: Jeroen Groenendijk (1949-2023)

A longtime member of the faculty at the Univeristy of Amsterdam, where he also did his degrees, Professor Groenenduk was especially well-known for the application of logical methods in the semantics and pragmatics of natural language in works that were of great interest to linguistis and philosophers of language.  The Amsterdam memorial notice is here.  Comments are open for remembrances from those who knew Professor Groenendijk, or for those who wish to comment on the significance of his work.

In Memoriam: David Gauthier (1932-2023)

MOVING TO FRONT FROM NOVEMBER 12--UPDATED

Via his former student Claire Finkelstein on Twitter, I learned that Professor Gauthier died on November 9.   He was emeritus at the University of Pittsburgh, whose department he joined in 1980 after more than twenty years at the University of Toronto.  He was well-known for his contributions to political and moral philosophy, and its history (especially Hobbes and Rousseau).   You can learn a bit more about his work here.  Comments are open for remembrances from those who knew Professor Gauthier, or for those who wish to comment on the significance of his work.  Please feel free to submit links in the comments to obituaries and memorial notices as well.

UPDATE:   A memorial notice from the University of Toronto, and another from the University of Pittsburgh.

Khalidi v. Benhabib on the "Philosophers for Palestine" letter

Philosopher Muhammad Ali Khalidi has responded to Seyla Benhabib's response (excerpted here) to the original "Philosophers for Palestine" letter (noted and discussed here).   Professor Khalidi contests certain attributions that Professor Benhabib made about what the letter signatories believe, accusing her of an "intention to mislead" and also a "smear."   I assume Professor Benhabib would argue that she was drawing implications from the positions defended in the letter (e.g., the letter called for a ceasefire, which would benefit Hamas, ergo the letter effectively supports Hamas), but I think Professor Khalidi is right to contest the accuracy of that.

Israel/Gaza links for November 20

Israel's "options" for Gaza after Hamas.  None are particularly realistic, it seems to be, but it seems increasingly clear that emptying Gaza (or most of Gaza) of Palestinians is what the Israeli right wants.  Biden has proposed an international force, to be followed by the Palestinian Authority, which "controls" the West Bank.  The latter will be bitterly opposed by the right-wing fundamentalists in Israel, who fear that will ultimately lead to Palestinian statehood.

Israeli report finds that the Hamas "pillage and murder" raid on October 7 had not planned to attack the music festival (which was only discovered after the raid began), where more than 360 were killed (a higher figure than previously reported), and 40 were kidnapped.

70-year-old grandfather defended his Kibbutz on October 7 for 12 hours with a rifle:  another remarkable story of resilience under extreme circumstances.

Head of mission for Gaza for Doctors without Borders describes the horrific medical and humanitarian situation.  

Some relatives of victims of the October 7 atrocities do not support the attack on Gaza:  “'We are just drowning in our own violence and blood,' Yonatan Zeigen, Silver’s 35-year-old son, told Al Jazeera. 'Israel won’t cure our dead babies by killing more babies.'  Silver was one among several victims known to regularly volunteer to drive sick Palestinians from the Gaza border to hospitals in Israel for treatment."

Philosopher and former Stanford Provost John Etchemendy on how Stanford confronted the Westboro Baptist Church on campus...

...and it didn't require a DEI office.

Great moments in obscure rock 'n' roll covers: Popa Chubby, "What Is and What Should Never Be," 2010

"Popa Chubby" is the stage name of Ted Horowitz, a nice Jewish boy from the Bronx, who has been active since the late 1980s as a rock blues guitarist.  This is his very fine cover of the Led Zeppelin number:

Feel free to add other Popa Chubby favorites in the comments.

Russell from Dianoia/ACU to the ANU

Gillian Russell (logic, philosophy of language & logic), Professor of Philosophy at the soon-to-be disbanded Dianoia Institute of Philosophy at the Australian Catholic University, has accepted appointment as Professor of Philosophy in the School of Philosophy at the Australian National University, effective July 2024.  Despite the best efforts of the benighted ACU Vice-Chancellor, Australian philosophy will at least retain her presence in their distinguished philosophical community!

"The Politics of Language"

Philosopher Jason Stanley talks about his new book (co-authored with David Beaver) on PBS.

America is not a civilized country, part 492: how is it possible that private individuals can purchase an AR-15?

The Washington Post has shared photos of the aftermath of an AR-15 attack (the weapon of choice in most of the mass shootings in the US); they are not for the faint-hearted.  But they do drive home the indefensible insanity of a country that permits these kinds of weapons to circulate.  No other civilized country on the face of the earth permits this.  How it is possible for a fringe group of fanatics at the NRA and their bought-and-paid-for-representatives in Congress to defy the will of the vast majority for real gun control in an alleged democracy will itself make a remarkable case study in the pathologies of "democracy" and "freedom" for future scholars. 

Israel/Gaza links for November 16

"If Gaza was in your city, how much would be destroyed?"  Some gripping visuals, to drive home the scale of the destruction.

"Does Israel have the [legal] right to defend itself [under international law]?"   An international law scholar brings out the surprising difficulties of the question.

There's more to "massive state violence" than the question of what is lawful.

Support of American citizens for Israel is declining amidst assault on Gaza.  In an actual democracy this might lead to a change in policy!  We'll see...

The latest move in the right-wing war on higher education: the "General Education Act"

The proposed text of this ideologically motivated legislation is here, and some of its, shall we say, "peculiarities" are discussed here.  It probably is constitutional for state legislatures to impose this on public universities in their states, but it would, of course, involve a massive infringement on the academic freedom of faculties to determine course conduct and requirements, but probably not one that the courts will invalidate.  Some of the mandated "general education" courses would increase demand for philosophers (although with hiring invested in a political hack chosen as Dean, this might not mean actual philosophers).  Overall, the whole thing is vaguely Orwellian I fear.

(Thanks to Jeff Roland for the pointer.)