Leiter Reports: A Philosophy Blog

Great moments in obscure rock 'n' roll: Elias Hulk, "Yesterday's Trip," 1970

Short-lived British "progressive" blues rock band of the late 1960s and early 1970s, this comes from their debut album:

 

In Memoriam: Maj. Ian Fishback (1979-2021)

Major Fishback earned a PhD in philosophy at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and also taught philosophy at West Point.  Unlike most philosophers, however, he was actually morally courageous, exposing military abuse of prisoners in Iraq back in 2005.  His end was tragic.

(Thanks to Cheyney Ryan for the pointer.)

PGR 2021 Preview: Top 4 in Medieval Philosophy

Continuing with the specialty previews, below the fold are the top 4 programs in medieval philosophy (with median and mode scores in parentheses after each school's name):

The Omicron variant of the coronavirus

MOVING TO FRONT FROM THIS MORNING--UPDATED

Oy veh.

UPDATE:  The W.H.O. has named the new variant Omicron, rather than Nu, as initial reports had suggested.

ANOTHER UPDATE:  From the European analogue of the CDC (my bolded emphases):

The variant is characterised by 30 changes, three small deletions and one small insertion in the spike protein, of these, 15 are in the receptor binding domain. This variant was first detected in samples collected on 11 November 2021 in Botswana and on 14 November 2021 in South Africa. As of 26 November 2021, travel-related cases have also been detected in Belgium, Hong Kong and Israel. The Omicron variant is the most divergent variant that has been detected in significant numbers during the pandemic so far, which raises concerns that it may be associated with increased transmissibility, significant reduction in vaccine effectiveness and increased risk for reinfections. As of 26 November 2021, ECDC has classified this variant as a variant of concern (VOC) due to concerns regarding immune escape and potentially increased transmissibility compared to the Delta variant.

ANOTHER (5 PM CST):   A typically informative analysis from Statnews.  Do read this.

2021 PGR Preview: Top 5 Programs in Early Modern Philosophy: 18th Century

Continuing with the specialty previews, below the fold are the top 5 programs in early modern  philosophy:  18th Century (with median and mode scores in parentheses after each school's name):

Class, education and political divides across different countries

This is an interesting resource.

Richard Marshall interviews G.W.F. Hegel (Berlin)...

...at 3:16 AM.

PGR 2021 Preview: Top 3 Programs in Applied Ethics

Continuing with the specialty previews, below the fold are the top 3 programs in applied ethics (with median and mode scores in parentheses after each school's name):

PGR 2021 Preview: Top 6 Programs in Mathematical Logic

Continuing with the specialty previews, below the fold are the top 6 programs in mathematical logic (with median and mode scores in parentheses after each school's name):

PGR 2021 Preview: Top 11 in Metaethics & Moral Psychology

Continuing with the specialty previews, below the fold are the top 11 programs in metaethics and moral psychology (with median and mode scores in parentheses after each school's name):

In Memoriam: Bernard Rollin (1943-2021)

MOVING TO FRONT FROM NOVEMBER 21--UPDATED

A longtime member of the Department of Philosophy at Colorado State University, where he was emeritus, Professor Rollin was well-known for his work on animal rights and ethics.  I will add links to memorial notices as they appear.

UPDATE:  An informative obituary here.  (Thanks to Moti Gorin for the pointer.)

New Open Access Journal: The Journal of Spinoza Studies

The Journal of Spinoza Studies (from the University of Groningen Press) will be edited by Professors Andrea Sangiacomo (University of Groningen) and Kristin Primus (UC Berkeley):

JSS is open access and authors will retain copyright under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 License. JSS does not charge any submission fees.

JSS will publish two issues per year. The first issue, a collection of invited short essays on the future of Spinoza scholarship, will appear on Spinoza’s 390^th birthday, November 24, 2022.

JSS is now accepting submissions for the second issue and beyond. Submissions should be no longer than 10,000 words (including references and footnotes). Although all articles will appear in English, submissions may be written in Dutch, English, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish. Please visit the JSS website for more information on the journal’s review process and language policy.

(Today marks the 389th anniversary of Spinzoa's birth!)

PGR 2021 Preview: Top 9 Programs in Decision, Rational Choice, & Game Theory

Continuing with the specialty previews, below the fold are the top 9 programs in decision, rational choice, and game theory (with median and mode scores in parentheses after each school's name):

"Cancelling Professor Tenure Act" in South Carolina

That's  literally the name of the legislation sponsored by 22 Republicans that would end tenure going forward, replacing it with 5-year-contracts.   (At least some lawyers explained to them that revoking tenure for existing faculty would be a breach of contract!)   It would also require all faculty (except in graduate-only departments, like law schools or medical schools) to each 2 courses each semester, which is not the norm in the natural sciences, where most faculty run labs. 

When Thatcher eliminated tenure at the universities in the UK in the late 1980, Parliament enacted a law protecting academic freedom.  Don't expect that to happen in the South Carolina case, although faculty at public universities could still assert a constitutional right to academic freedom.  The argument against eliminating tenure that seems to succeed most often with legislatures is cost and competitiveness:  tenure is important non-monetary compensation for faculty, and it will be hard to recruit them without paying them a lot more if the state schools do not offer tenure.

None of these "fictions" have anything to do with "leftism"...

...which Professor McWhorter would know if he read more Adolph Reed, but that aside, he's plainly correct and it's good to say it out loud in the NYT; an excerpt:

That selective schools regularly admit Black students with adjusted standards is undeniable. Examples include “Harvard’s race-conscious admissions program” — as U.S. Circuit Judge Sandra Lynch described it last year — and the circumstances of the well-known Gratz v. Bollinger Supreme Court decision, where this aspect of the admissions process was widely aired, as among a number of other cases over the past few decades....

PGR 2021 Preview: Top 5 Programs in 20th-Century Continental Philosophy

Continuing with the specialty previews, below the fold are the top 5 programs in 20th-century Continental philosophy (with median and mode scores in parentheses after each school's name):

PGR 2021 Preview: Top 5 Programs in Philosophy of Biology

MOVING TO FRONT--ROUNDED MEAN SCORES WERE OMITTED ORIGINALLY

Continuing with the specialty previews, below the fold are the top 5 programs in philosophy of biology (with median and mode scores in parentheses after each school's name):

Blast from the past: MIT's ups-and-downs in the Philosophical Gourmet Report

Back in 2018, but the lesson there should be borne in mind this time around too (not specifically with regard to MIT, which continued to do well, but with regard to other departments that moved up or down).

PGR 2021 Preview: Top 10 Programs in Normative Ethics

Continuing with the specialty previews, below the fold are the top 10 programs in normative ethics (with median and mode scores in parentheses after each school's name):

The Covid wave in Europe will soon be coming to America

Dr. Eric Topol (Scripps) is worth following on Twitter for informed Covid news, and, alas, he's surely right about this too.  In Chicago, for example, daily new cases have doubled in the last two weeks (although are still well below where they were last November, a consequence of the vaccine no doubt).  This is increasingly an epidemic of the unvaccinated, of whom there are still at least one million in the city of Chicago.  UChicago requires everyone to be vaccinated, with limited exceptions for health and actual religious reasons.  In the law school, 99% of the students are vaccinated, and while there have been breakthrough cases among students this fall (classes are meeting in person, students sitting next to each other), they haven't turned into clustered outbreaks, no doubt due to the vaccine and the continued masking requirements.

 

PGR 2021 Preview: Top 4 Programs in Philosophy of Religion

Continuing with the specialty previews, below the fold are the top 4 programs in philosophy of religion (with median and mode scores in parentheses after each school's name):

In Memoriam: Gilbert Harman (1938-2021)

MOVING TO FRONT FROM NOVEMBER 14--UPDATED

Emeritus at Princeton University, where he taught for more than a half-century until his retirement in 2017, Professor Harman made significant contributions to epistemology, philosophy of language, philosophy of mind and cognitive science, and metaethics, among other areas. He also supervised many PhD students who became well-known philosophers in their own right, including Stephen Stich, R. Jay Wallace, James Dreier, Nicholas Sturgeon, Joshua Knobe, and Richard Joyce, among others. 

I am personally grateful to him for his standard practice in his undergraduate "Systematic Ethics" class of permitting students to revise their papers after receiving comments:  a great learning experience, but a lot of work for the instructor! 

The profile of him at the time he took emeritus status is informative about his work and career.

I will add links to memorial notices as they appear.

UPDATE:  The Princeton memorial notice is here.

A comment on the Kyle Rittenhouse case in Wisconsin

As legal positivists like to say: What the law is, and what it ought to be, are two separate questions.  The law permitted Rittenhouse to interject himself into the scene of a civil disturbance, to carry a powerful rifle openly, and to defend himself against others.  The acquittal is not surprising, quite apart from the fact that the judge in the case was not very competent and a bit of a buffoon.  The problem here was not the trial, but the law:  the law should not permit civilians to own, let alone carry, military weapons, and it should impose a much higher standard for the use of deadly force for self-defense.  But this is America, and America is a very sick country alas.

Great moments in obscure rock 'n' roll: Kaledeiscope, "Banjo," 1969

We last featured this eclectic California band last year, and this is another number, an instrumental, from the same album, featuring the versatile David Lindley:

 

PGR 2021 Preview: Top 7 Programs in Philosophy of Cognitive Science

Continuing with the specialty previews, below the fold are the top 7 programs in philosophy of cognitive science (with median and mode scores in parentheses after each school's name):

PGR 2021 Preview: Top 8 Programs in Metaphysics

Continuing with the specialty previews, below the fold are the top 8 programs in metaphysics (with median and mode scores in parentheses after each school's name):

Blast from the past: On defending the powerless and vulnerable, and giving them a voice

Back in 2018.

PGR 2021 Preview: Top 14 Programs in Philosophy of Law

Continuing with the specialty previews, below the fold are the top 14 programs in philosophy of law (with median and mode scores in parentheses after each school's name):

University of Chicago Law School will hire a Law & Philosophy Fellow for 2022-23

The ad will appear by early December (with a closing date for applications in late January).  The theme of the Law & Philosophy Workshop in 2022-23 will be "Political Realism, "covering both historical (e.g., Thucydides, Hobbes, Machiavelli) and contemporary figures and themes.   AOS:  Political philosophy, with knowledge of Workshop theme essential."  When the ad is live, I will post again about it.  Please email me with questions.

PGR 2021 Preview: Top 11 Programs in Philosophical Logic

Continuing with the specialty previews, below the fold are the top 11 programs in philosophical logic (with median and mode scores in parentheses after each school's name):

New Zealand's Royal Society has contempt for academic freedom and scholarly debate

This story is unbelievable--what's going on in New Zealand that would explain this craziness?

Two authors of a controversial letter on the scientific status of Māori knowledge may be expelled from a prestigious academic society, following several complaints.

News of the disciplinary process within Royal Society Te Apārangi has led some of the winners of its most significant award to threaten their own resignations over what they see as an impingement on academic freedoms.

A July letter in The Listener, signed by seven professors from the University of Auckland, raised concerns about an NCEA working group’s proposal to give mātauranga Māori (Māori knowledge) parity with other forms of Western knowledge.

The open letter said the working group's description of one potential course, as promoting “discussion and analysis of the ways in which science has been used to support the dominance of Eurocentric views (among which, its use as a rationale for colonisation of Māori and the suppression of Māori knowledge); and the notion that science is a Western European invention and itself evidence of European dominance over Māori and other indigenous peoples”, perpetuated “disturbing misunderstandings of science emerging at all levels of education and in science funding”.

“Science itself does not colonise. It has been used to aid colonisation, as have literature and art. However, science also provides immense good, as well as greatly enhanced understanding of the world.”

Unexplored questions in philosophy?

A rather eclectic group of philosophers addresses the topic.

PGR 2021 Preview: Top 6 Programs in 19th-Century Continental Philosophy

Continuing with the specialty previews, below the fold are the top 6 programs in 19th-Century Continental philosophy (with median and mode scores in parentheses after each school's name):

PGR 2021 Preview: Top 8 in Early Modern Philosophy: 17th Century

Continuing with the specialty previews, below the fold are the top 8 programs in Early Moern Philosophy:  17th Century (with median and mode scores in parentheses after each school's name):

PGR 2021 Preview: Top 4 Programs in Philosophy of Mathematics

Continuing with the specialty previews, below the fold are the top 4 programs in philosophy of mathematics (with median and mode scores in parentheses after each school's name):

University of Austin: Who is in charge?

Pano ("Peter") Kanelos, the founding President of the University of Austin, has a curious history.  Reader Caleb Owens writes:

For a few years, he was Dean of the honors college at Valparaiso University. It's no coincidence that his time there  ended shortly after this went down: 

https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/post-tribune/ct-ptb-charter-hearing-chesterton-st-0914-20160915-story.html

In short, he tried to start a charter school, and it was a total flop, meeting public resistance from all angles. (The one thing I have ever seen to local left and right in that town unified over, in fact!) In hindsight, this can be seen as a comical sort of warm-up act for Austin U, although there are some other very telling parallels. For instance: 

PGR 2021 Preview: Top 9 Programs in Political Philosophy

Continuing with the specialty previews, below the fold are the top 9 programs in political philosophy (with median and mode scores in parentheses after each school's name):

PGR 2021 Preview: Top 4 in Philosophy of Action

Continuing with the specialty previews, below the fold are the top 4 programs in philosophy of action (with median and mode scores in parentheses after each school's name):

Open letter in support of philosophy at Bloomsburg University

Philosopher Steve Hales at Bloomsburg has shared with me this excellent open letter to the Chancellor of the university system that he has drafted; I encourage everyone to sign, and I suspect other philosophy departments may want to adopt some of its language if they come under threat.  From the letter:

Authentic higher education is not just worker training for businesses. Philosophy has been the central discipline of universities since Plato’s Academy. We invented logic, systematic ethics, and the natural sciences—philosophy is not some ephemeral, boutique area of study but the heart of the university. Young Pennsylvanians deserve the chance to improve their lives through the study of philosophy, and not just if they are privileged enough to go to U. Penn or Swarthmore.

We are not requesting an “opportunity” to re-apply for the major, which would no doubt involve promising unattainable deliverables to meet arbitrary benchmarks. It does not matter how many students major in philosophy; we will never attract as many as fields that are the names of jobs. What matters is that students have the choice that you promised on November 5th. What matters is that Bloomsburg University retain the philosophy major as our students deserve. We request that you guarantee its continuance.

 

PGR 2021 Preview: Top 13 Programs in Kant

Continuing with the specialty previews, below the fold are the top 13 programs for Kant (with median and mode scores in parentheses after each school's name):

Why are only roughly one-third of academic philosophers women?

Interesting study summarized here; some excerpts:

Mainly because only about one third of students who either enroll in the undergraduate major or stay after introductory classes are women.  I.e., at least in North America, the main pipeline leak occurs at the first stage of a potential academic career....

Why, then, do women either not enroll in the first place or drop out after the introduction?  I.e., why is philosophy not an attractive major to women?

...The two most important factors turned out to be self-perceptions of brilliance and of belonging...

[T]he typical philosophy major perceives themselves as systematizing, as brilliant, does not value having a family, nor making money—all compared to the typical psychology major.  Fewer women than men show these self-perceptions and preferences.

The study is available from the authors, and there is lots more detail at the link, above.

 

PGR 2021 Preview: Top 8 Programs in Epistemology

Continuing with the specialty previews, below the fold are the top 8 programs in epistemology (with median and mode scores in parentheses after each school's name):

University of Austin implosion continues

Former Chicago President Robert Zimmer has resigned as an advisor, as has Steven Pinker.

PGR 2021 Preview: Top 5 Programs in Philosophy of Physics

Continuing with the specialty previews, below the fold are the top 5 programs in philosophy of physics (with median and mode scores in parentheses after each school's name):

Why hasn't Rupert Murdoch's media empire destroyed Australia the way it has destroyed America?

MOVING TO FRONT FROM FRIDAY (NOV. 12), SINCE IT HAS GENERATED A QUITE INTERESTING SET OF COMMENTS

The rise of Murdoch's Fox News in America since 1996 has coincided with the complete crazification of the Republican Party in the U.S., with the result that America is now ungovernable and teetering towards collapse as a democracy (I discussed some of this development in this recent paper).  Yet Murdoch's media empire has not had such deleterious effects in his native Australia.  Here's the program of the Australian Liberal Party, the party of the right in Australia.  With only a couple of exceptions, it's a set of proposals that would be associated with the more progressive end of the Democratic Party in the U.S.:  spend money on infrastructure, on the elderly, on families, on healthcare, on women.  Of course, Australian politics started from a different baseline, but the question that naturally arises is:  why didn't the Murdoch media wreck Australia too?

PGR 2021 Preview: Top 9 Programs in Ancient Philosophy

Continuing with the specialty previews, below the fold are the top 9 programs in ancient philosophy (with median and mode scores in parentheses after each school's name):

In Memoriam: Storrs McCall (1930-2021)

A longtime member of the Department of Philosophy at McGill University, where he was emeritus, Professor McCall was well-known for his contributions to metaphysics and philosophy of logic, math and science.  There is an obituary here.

(Thanks to Allen Hazen for the pointer.)

PGR 2021 Preview: Top 16 Programs in Philosophy of Language

Continuing with the specialty previews, below the fold are the top 16 in philosophy of language (with median and mode scores in parentheses after each school's name):

Richard Marshall interviews Mattia Riccardi (Porto) about Nietzsche's philosophical psychology...

...at 3:16 AM.

PGR 2021 Preview: Top 6 Programs in Philosophy of Mind

This week, I'll be posting previews of the results of the specialty rankings from the latest PGR surveys; once again, full results will be online at the official site around mid-December.

Here are the top six programs in philosophy of mind (after each school's name, in parentheses, are the median and mode scores as well):