Leiter Reports: A Philosophy Blog

Wycliffe Hall, Oxford

What do Oxford or UK readers make of this:

The college head thinks 95% of us are going to burn in hell. His new deputy believes it's wrong for women to teach men. Insiders are complaining about an "openly homophobic" atmosphere. A third of the academic staff have resigned. Others are unwilling to speak openly to the press because they fear disciplinary action. Is this perhaps the notorious Bob Jones University in South Carolina, where rock music and mobile phones are banned, where men must have short hair and where women can't wear trousers to class? No. Welcome to the University of Oxford.

Strictly speaking Wycliffe Hall is a permanent private hall of the University of Oxford, rather than a full college. But the difference is pretty academic. Wycliffe has control over its admissions policy and those who graduate do so with a full Oxford University degree. Which is why the thought that Wycliffe has been taken over by Christian fundamentalists is ruffling senior common room feathers all over the university. For having a cell of religious extremists succeed in claiming one of its precious institutions does little to enhance Oxford's reputation.

As always, post only once and be patient!

Callender to Stay at UCSD, Turning Down Both Rutgers and Pitt HPS

Craig Callender (philosophy of physics, philosophy of science, metaphysics) at the University of California at San Diego has turned down the tenured offers from the Department of Philosophy at Rutgers University at New Brunswick and the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh.  That's a significant retention coup for UCSD!

Darby from Texas A&M to Kansas

Derrick Darby (social and political philosophy, African-American philosophy), Associate Professor of Philosophy at Texas A&M University, has accepted a tenured offer (also at the Associate Professor rank) from the Department of Philosophy at the University of Kansas.

What is an "Area of Competence"?

So everyone familiar with the philosophy job market knows that your CV is supposed to list your "Areas of Specialization" (AOS) and "Areas of Competence" (AOC), and most jobs in fact mention one or both of these qualifications with regard to the applicants they are soliciting.  AOS, I take it, is usually fairly clear:  it is the area in which you have written your dissertation and might include closely cognate areas in which you plan to publish and in which you can do graduate-level teaching.

But I find that, invariably, philosophers have very different views about how a candidate determines his or her AOC.  I usually tell students that the AOC comprises those areas where you are willing and able to do advanced or upper-level undergraduate teaching.  That can, of course, cast the net quite widely, so sometimes it is advisable to limit the list by putting more weight on willing or emphasizing areas that naturally complement the AOS or areas where the student has substantial coursework background.  A very long AOC list (say, six or seven different areas) can look like over-reaching by the candidate, and raise questions about superficiality and seriousness.  Or so it has seemed to me.

I imagine many philosophers and job candidates would fine it useful to hear how others view the "area of competence."  (I'm happy to hear thoughts about "AOS" as well.)  Please post only once; non-anonymous comments preferred; and, as usual, comments may take awhile to appear.

Sider from Rutgers to NYU

Ted Sider (metaphysics) at Rutgers University at New Brunswick has accepted the senior offer from the Department of Philosophy at New York University, turning down, in the process, offers from Princeton and Yale.

Friday Poem: "Lesson One"

Lesson One

The lesson of objects
Is they do not mean
There is no wisdom in a thorn
Even if you bleed
No absolution in a stone
Though it be smooth
Stars neither dream nor grieve
The owl does not frown
No paragon of patience is the oak
Things do not teach or sign

Put mooing approbation by  Be strong
Your seeming mysteries are hollow
Nature although wonderful is shallow
Even the grandest poet may be wrong

7/21-8/3/96, 6/30/02

Copyright 1996, 2002 by Maurice Leiter

Posted with permission.

Sydney's Price Wins Second Australian Federation Fellowship

Huw Price (philosophy of science and physics, metaphysics) at the University of Sydney has now been awarded a second lucrative Australian Federation Fellowship.  He appears to have been the only philosopher awarded a Fellowship this time around.

Schueler from New Mexico to Delaware

G.F. Schueler (ethics, practical reason) at the University of New Mexico has accepted a senior offer from the Department of Philosophy at the University of Delaware, where he will also be Chair of the Department.  Delaware has had for some time one of the strongest research profiles among departments that do not grant graduate degrees in philosophy.

Henderson from Memphis to Nebraska

David Henderson (epistemology, philosophy of social science), currently Professor of Philosophy at the University of Memphis, has accepted the Robert R. Chambers Distinguished Professorship of Philosophy and the Moral Sciences at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, to start this fall.  This is the second major senior hire for Nebraska this year, after David Sobel (ethics, metaethics) from Bowling Green State University.  We will need to put Nebraska back in the surveys for the 2008 PGR.

Brand-Ballard on Kamm

I thought this an unusually effective review--generous and gracious in its praise for Kamm's work, but also perceptive and efficient in criticisms of a certain kind of approach to moral philosophy.

Nolan from Cal State/Long Beach to Marquette

Larry Nolan (early modern philosophy), Associate Professor of Philosophy at California State University at Long Beach, has accepted a senior offer from the Department of Philosophy at Marquette University.

Funny Comment of the Day...

...is due to Alastair Norcross (Rice currently, moving to Colorado):  "I have long thought that being a famous professor of economics is quite consistent with being a complete idiot."  Nothing like cross-disciplinary contempt!

Koslicki from Tufts to Colorado

Katherin Koslicki (metaphysics, philosophy of language, ancient philosophy), Associate Professor of Philosophy at Tufts University, has accepted a tenured Associate Professorship in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Friday Poem: "Lauded Poet at Home"

Lauded Poet at Home

The gardener does not know me
I drop the coins my fingers will not hold
My food I take from a tin
Soon letters will be coming
To tell me I am loved

My days were always numbered
Now they are numberless
Although I make myself ready
It is better just to live
Nor am I done forgetting

See you my slippers of gold
My medals prizes worthless amulets
Come we will exchange forgiveness
Come we will share a joke

7/30-8/24/96

Copyright 1996 by Maurice Leiter

Posted with permission.

Three More Hires for Northwestern (Two Tenured, One Tenure-Track): Mills, Lackey, Reed

Happily, I have now received confirmation of three more hires by the Department of Philosophy at Northwestern University:

Charles Mills (political philosophy, critical race theory, African-American philosophy), currently Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the University of Illinois at Chicago, has accepted a position as John Evans Professor of Philosophy at Northwestern University.   Professor Mills will have a joint appointment with African-American Studies.

In addition, Jennifer Lackey (epistemology, philosophy of mind), Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Northern Illinois University, has accepted a tenured position at Northwestern, and her spouse, Baron Reed (epistemology, modern philosophy), an Assistant Professor of Philosophy also at Northern Illinois, has accepted a tenure-track position at Northwestern.

Northwestern Makes Senior Offer to UVA's Green

The Department of Philosophy at Northwestern University has made a senior offer to Mitchell Green (philosophy of language and mind), who is currently Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Virginia.  In addition to the recent appointment of Sanford Goldberg (epistemology, philosophy of language and mind) from the University of Kentucky, as well as several other appointments (on which I'm awaiting confirmation from those involved before announcing) in areas like epistemology, the Northwestern Department appears to be rebuilding in a very different form from its prior incarnation (a form which probably had much to do with the Department's implosion a half-dozen years ago). 

Interview about Legal Philosophy

I've posted at SSRN the text of an interview with me about legal philosophy, which will appear in the volume Legal Philosophy:  5 Questions, due out later this year.  The questions that all those interviewed address are the following:

1. Why were you initially drawn to the philosophy of law?

2. For which of your contribution(s) to legal philosophy so far would you most like to be remembered, and why?

3. What are the most important issues in legal philosophy, and why are they distinctively issues of legal philosophy rather than some other discipline?

4. What is the relationship between legal philosophy and legal practice? Should legal philosophers be more concerned about the effect of their scholarship on legal practice?

5. To which problem, issue or broad area of legal philosophy would you most like to see more attention paid in the future?

I hope some readers might find this interview, as well as the volume as a whole, of interest.

New Philosophers' Carnival is...

...here.

2nd Annual On-Line Philosophy Conference Has Begun!

Although I don't do conference announcements, I have to make an exception, as I did last year, for this virtual conference organized by Thomas Nadelhoffer (Dickinson) and Eddy Nahmias (Georgia State).  Features this week include a video of the keynote address by Ernest Sosa (Rutgers), and papers by Meredith Williams (Johns Hopkins), Delia Graff Fara (Princeton), Shaun Nichols (Arizona), and Juan Comesana (Wisconsin).

“Because the Undergraduates are Better” (J. Stanley)

I spent the first five years of my teaching career at Cornell, and greatly appreciated both my colleagues and my students; if my personal situation had allowed it, I would almost certainly have remained for my career. If someday an Ivy League institution were to develop a philosophy department that could provide the sort of colleagues Rutgers now can, I might want to go there. But I am often surprised at what I hear from some educators at these institutions. For example, one comment I hear from acquaintances who teach at such institutions despite intellectually or personally more beneficial opportunities elsewhere is that they do so “because the undergraduates are better”. I find this comment, especially made by liberal arts professors, disturbing. It uncritically accepts a value system that it is our purpose as educators to challenge and critique. It also reflects a misunderstanding about how many educated youth think.

When I applied for college, I was spending my junior year in high school abroad in Germany. I had no idea how the application process worked, and simply quickly handwrote some essays on whatever forms I could get by mail. At the time, I was a rebellious 15 year old; though I had read (and not understood) a lot of Marx, I fancied myself an anarchist, and was particulary fond of Michail Bakunin. As I was an adolescent, my taste in literature was determined largely by what I thought revealed the most authenticity of experience. When I thought about it (which was rarely), it did not at all seem that attending an Ivy League University was a necessary step in crafting a virtuous life. All of my friends growing up had the same attitude. In the end, I was accepted at SUNY Binghamton. Many of my fellow students were just like me. I don’t recall a single conversation involving status anxiety. But I do recall many about ideas. As a result of the intellectual environment, when I discovered philosophy, I didn’t conceptualize it at as a career path, a way to achieve some abstract marker of success. Rather, the life of the mind seemed both authentic and meaningful.

The kind of student that ends up in an Ivy League Institution nowadays is perhaps not as often someone who rejects conventional definitions of success and achievement. But those who are drawn to books and ideas by their suspicion of conventional values and their desire to lead a life crafted by decisions of their own are no less compelling as students. The few students I have kept track of from my freshman year at Binghamton have gone on to careers that would be considered beneath the station of many Ivy League graduates; for example the one I spent the most time with went on to become a high school English teacher. Perhaps one difference between my fellow students at SUNY Binghamton and the students at Ivy League institutions is that the former for the most part did not grow up thinking of career success as a value in and of itself. Students passionate about career success no doubt will be better at achieving it; I’m sure there are few future high school English teachers at Harvard. But to claim that such students are better is doubly in error. First, it is a misunderstanding of the motivational structure of many talented individuals. Secondly it is tantamount to giving our endorsement to a value system we as educators should be trying to expose.

UPDATE: This post must have been a bit heavy handed, since it has generated my personal record number of anonymous furious comments (which I haven't published) and angry emails. I did not in any sense mean to demean Ivy League students; there are obviously a huge group of terrifically intelligent and morally engaged students at Ivy League schools. The reason I wrote the post is because too many academics act as if teaching at an Ivy League School is obviously a superior teaching experience. In countering this, I produced the absurd unintended implicature that that Ivy League students were in some sense deficient. My only point was that, given the structure of college admissions, some very interesting students do not pursue that life path.

CUNY Makes Offer to Neale at Rutgers

MOVING TO FRONT FROM MAY 4--SEE UPDATE

The City University of New York Graduate Center has offered a Distinguished Professorship and the Kornblith Family Chair in the Philosophy of Science and Value to Stephen Neale (philosophy of language, philosophical logic) at Rutgers University, New Brunswick.  Two other Rutgers faculty are currently entertaining senior offers:  Ted Sider (metaphysics) from New York University, Princeton University, and Yale University; and Dean Zimmerman (metaphysics, philosophy of religion) from Princeton University.

UPDATE:  Professor Neale has accepted the Kornblith Chair at the CUNY Graduate Center.  That's a very major appointment for CUNY--with Michael Devitt and Saul Kripke, among others, already there, CUNY is going to be one of the very top choices for students in philosophy of language. 

ONE MORE:  A reader points out that Saul Kripke, according to the CUNY homepage, has not supervised any PhD students there, and he supervised relatively few during his many years at Princeton.  But he is offering regular seminars.  Prospective students should, as always, talk to current students at the programs they are considering to find out about faculty accessibility and related issues.

Doris Wins Stanton Award from Society for Philosophy & Psychology

John Doris, Associate Professor of Philosophy at Washington University in St. Louis and a leader in the experimental philosophy movement and the integration of psychology and ethics, has won the 2007 Stanton Award which "is given to a scholar in Philosophy or Psychology who has begun making significant contributions to interdisciplinary research and has been active in the SPP."

Past winners of the Stanton Award include Kathleen Akins (Philosophy, Simon Fraser), Paul Bloom (Psychology, Yale), David Chalmers (Philosophy, ANU), Shaun Nichols (Philosophy, Arizona), and Jesse Prinz (Philosophy, North Carolina).

Rube Goldberg Epic (Edmundson)

Innocent fun here, for Rube Goldberg fans, pyromaniacs, and anyone in need of a laugh.

German Academia (J. Stanley)

I am currently in Germany giving some talks. These are my first colloquium talks in German philosophy departments, and so I am just now encountering the state of German academia as a fellow professor, rather than as the ignorant philosophy student I was in Tuebingen in the 1980s. At the time, I had the impression that being a Professor in a German philosophy department was pretty much the highest position imaginable. But I have been shocked by the amount of work that German universities require of German academics. German professors at the highest rank must teach 9 hours of classes per week, which translates to a 5-4 teaching load in two 15 week semesters. Furthermore, they seem to do most if not all of their own grading. Finally, the courses they teach range over many areas of philosophy; even if you occupy the chair in metaphysics, you still need to teach classes on ancient philosophy and Kant's aesthetics. In the states, a 5-4 teaching load is widely considered inconsistent with the possibility of a fruitful publishing career, and I have no idea how they manage it here.

UPDATE: I have received a rather surprising number of emails about what I thought was a relatively innocent post. The most frequent question seems to be about the relation between 9 hours weekly and the 5-4 teaching load. After verifying this again with my hosts, it turns out  this is because a Proseminar or a Vorlesung is two hours per week. So 9 hours weekly amounts to 5 preparations in one semester, 4 in the other. So while many American research universities have teaching loads of 6 hours per week, this just amounts to 2 preps per week, given the 3 hour class times. Furthermore, unlike private liberal arts colleges, the classes can be very large. So it does seem to me be a truly demanding job.

Philosophy Departments That Advertise Through the APA But Violate Its Anti-discrimination Policies

Charles Hermes, a PhD student at Florida State University, invited me to post the following letter he has sent to the APA:

I applied to a position at Westmont College that was posted in the American Philosophical Association’s Jobs for Philosophers.  When Westmont decided to pursue my application further, they requested that I sign a statement of ‘faith’.  Part of their statement of faith includes the clause:  “The college will not condone practices that Scripture forbids. Such activities include…homosexual practices.”  To avoid offending those Christians who love their neighbors, and who leave the judging for God, I will hereafter refer to statements like these as statements of discrimination instead of statements of faith.

While I am happily married, with no intention of engaging in homosexual practices, I cannot endorse a policy that discriminates against homosexuals.  For that reason, I withdrew my application.  A version of this prohibition against homosexuality from Westmont College can be found at:  http://www.westmont.edu/_faculty_staff/pages/employment/index.html

After withdrawing my application, I began to worry that I have not completely withdrawn my consent of these discriminatory policies.  After all, I belong to the American Philosophical Association which advertised for a position that requires signing a statement of discrimination. 

While I found Westmont’s restriction deplorable, they were not the only position advertised in the 2006-2007 JFP which required signing a statement of discrimination. 

Wheaton College requires its applicants to sign a form with the following statement. “We believe that these Christian standards will show themselves in a distinctly Christian way of life, an approach to living we expect of ourselves and one another. This lifestyle involves practicing those attitudes and actions the Bible portrays as virtuous and avoiding those the Bible portrays as sinful…Scripture condemns the following:…homosexual behavior and all other sexual relations outside the bounds of marriage between a man and woman.” A version of this form can be found at:

https://www.wheaton.edu/HR/Application.pdf

Bethel College, also posting in the 2006-2007 JFP, has its applicants sign a statement of discrimination which includes the clause: “The Bible also identifies character qualities and actions that should not be present in the lives of believers.  For example, …homosexuality”.  A copy of this application can be found at:

http://www.bethel.edu/human-resources/apps/bu-faculty-appl.pdf

While I am not overly proficient in using internet search sites, it took only fifteen minutes to discover Wheaton’s and Bethel’s anti-homosexual policies.  Perhaps, someone more proficient could discover other programs we advertise for who practice similar policies. 

In the defense of the APA, we do have an anti-discrimination policy that reads: 

Further, The American Philosophical Association rejects as unethical all forms of discrimination based on race, color, religion, political convictions, national origin, sex, disability, sexual orientation, gender identification or age, whether in graduate admissions, appointments, retention, promotion and tenure, manuscript evaluation, salary determination, or other professional activities in which APA members characteristically participate. At the same time, the APA recognizes the special commitments and roles of institutions with a religious affiliation; it is not inconsistent with the APA's position against discrimination to adopt religious affiliation as a criterion in graduate admissions or employment policies when this is directly related to the school's religious affiliation or purpose, so long as these policies are made known to members of the philosophical community and so long as the criteria for such religious affiliations do not discriminate against persons according to the other attributes listed in this statement. Advertisers in Jobs for Philosophers are expected to comply with this fundamental commitment of the APA, which is not to be taken to preclude explicitly stated affirmative action initiatives. The APA Board of Officers expects that all those who use the APA Placement Service will comply with the letter and spirit of all applicable regulations concerning non-discrimination, equal employment opportunity and affirmative action.

As we can see from the examples of Westmont, Wheaton, and Bethel colleges, our expectation that advertisers comply with our fundamental commitments is not well grounded.  Hopefully the APA will begin to ensure that advertisers live up to our expectations.  If not, I suggest that the internet is a powerful tool.  I hope other members of the APA will help in the effort to make the APA’s anti-discrimination policy more than just words.

Should the APA bar these institutions from advertising in JFP?  Non-anonymous comments strongly preferred, as always; post only once, comments may take awhile to appear.

Goldberg from Kentucky to Northwestern

Sanford Goldberg (epistemology, philosophy of language and mind), Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Kentucky, has accepted a tenured offer from the Department of Philosophy at Northwestern University.

The Challenge of Chmess (J. Stanley)

Chmess, for those of you who haven't heard, is just like chess - except the king can move two squares in either direction. As Daniel Dennett has pointed out, Chmess provides a rich source of a priori truths to explore. However, the a priori truths of chmess are not particularly worthy of exploration. Dennett's challenge of Chmess is to explain the difference between describing the a priori truths of Chmess and practicing philosophy.

Most other disciplines in the university do not face the challenge of Chmess. There is no doubt that there are physical, biological, and social facts, and understanding them clearly can lead to human flourishing. The other humanities don't worry about the challenge of Chmess, for a very different reason. Most humanists do not see their central project as uncovering some domain of truths that have hitherto gone unnoticed. Rather, they see their role as galvanizing students into challenging what they have previously taken for granted, in an attempt to help them construct a value system that is genuinely their own. If an autonomous life is one that is the product of one's own free, informed deliberations, then the goal of the humanities thus conceived is to help young people gain autonomy. The process of challenging and breaking down assumptions and investigating different systems of thought is a necessary step in this process, and here the sciences can only play an indirect role.

In philosophy, as much as any other discipline, one engages in the practice of investigating alternative conceptual structures, be they systems of value or systems of belief. Such investigations may seem like theorising about Chmess, if we conceive of philosophy as a science. But if we regard philosophy instead as an activity intended to help those who learn it acquire the resources to lead a dignified life, it quite clearly does not.

Nano-espionage from the North (Edmundson)

Now it can be told:

the Canadian Mint's issuing of a quarter with red poppy highlights honouring th[e] country's war dead in 2004 ... created an uproar in the corridors of U.S. Intelligence. Officials down south had never seen anything like it and became suspicious when an agent found one in a rental car. Documents released under the Access to Information Act show concerned contractors described the coin as being "filled with something man-made that looked like nano-technology."

"It did not appear to be electronic (analog) in nature or have a power source," wrote one of those who examined the mysterious 'device'. "Under high power microscope, it appeared to be complex consisting of several layers of clear, but different material, with a wire like mesh suspended on top."

This analysis

led to a sensational warning from the Defense Security Service, an agency of the Defense Department, that mysterious coins with radio frequency transmitters were found planted on U.S. contractors with classified security clearances on at least three separate occasions between October 2005 and January 2006 as the contractors traveled through Canada. 

The alert was later rescinded as "a mistake."  Canadian officials have not yet been asked for an apology or for reparations.  Story here, more here.

Wisdom (Edmundson)

Love wisdom?  Sure: that's philosophy.  Got wisdom?  Not so sure?  See here.

Burge, Diamond Elected to American Philosophical Society

Tyler Burge (UCLA) and Cora Diamond (Emerita, Virginia) are the philosophers elected to the American Philosophical Society this year. The list of new members is here.  Judith Butler, who has a PhD in philosophy from Yale but teaches in the Rhetoric Department at Berkeley, was also elected.  There is more on philosophers previously elected here (and follow the links from there).

Of local interest, the distinguished mathematician Karen Uhlenbeck at UT Austin, a past winner of the National Medal of Science, was also elected to the APS this year.

How Can Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews Publish Nonsense Like This?

I want to start by saying that Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews is a wonderful resource, for which the whole profession is indebted to Gary Gutting who runs it so well.  I am also a member of the editorial board, but have responsibility, as it were, for only a limited number of topics.  But something has gone wrong when absolute nonsense like this appears in a review, in this case of a book on Derrida by Jason Powell; the review is by Professor Nancy Holland at Hamline University.  After noting some "weakness in the account of...analytic philosophy in the U.S. context," she offers this example:

One wonders, for instance, about the statement that philosophy in America "has the role of legitimating the US government and the scientific enterprise" leading to the suggestions that analytic philosophy "has as its telos the establishment of a universal culture for a static, totalitarian universal civilization" (pp. 124-125).  Intriguing, and possibly even largely justified, but surely in need of much more argument. 

"Intriguing, and possibly even largely justified"?  How about sophomoric prattle befitting a bad undergraduate's blog?  Since "analytic philosophy" does not even exist, how can it have a telos--let alone the telos in question?  Since most so-called "analytic philosophy" is consumed by other philosophers, how does "it legitimate the US government"?  (When was the last time you saw an "analytic" philosopher on Fox?)  And how exactly is it that "analytic" philosophers like Alvin Plantinga, George Bealer, Hilary Putnam, Michael Rea, and John McDowell, among many others, are "legitimating...the scientific enterprise"?  (Maybe the author was thinking of that famous "analytic philosopher" Descartes who was interested in "legitimating" the scientific enterprise?)

In any review, there is room for reasonable disagreement about many matters.  But NDPR, as an exemplary on-line service, really should not publish irresponsibly silly comments like those in Professor Holland's review.

"Rally for Reason" Protests "Creation Museum" in Kentucky

Long-time reader Rob Sica asked that I call attention to the upcoming "Rally for Reason" in Kentucky:

People from all over the country are invited to join outside of the gates of “Answers in Genesis” (AiG) in Northern Kentucky to let the world know that many rational Americans do not share the primitive world view that the Earth is only a few thousand years old, and that humans and dinosaurs existed at the same time, as presented by the 27 million dollar plus “Creation Museum” opening Memorial Day, May 28, 2007.  Various groups, representing both religious and secular orientations, will join together to protest this destructive world view.

"A Split Emerges as Conservatives Discuss Darwin" (Leiter)

So reports the New York Times in their trademark he said/she said manner, when, of course, the article might have been more aptly titled, "A Split Emerges as Ignorant Ideologues Discuss Darwin," since ignorance of evolutionary biology is almost evenly divided between the two sides:  on the one hand, the pathological liars from the Discovery [sic] Institute, the public relations arm of the "Intelligent Design" scam; on the other, Larry Arnhart, a professor of political science at Northern Illinois, and John Derbyshire, a pontificator at the National Review (who at least knows enough to know that "Intelligent Design" is bogus), who are championing a different intellectual muddle:

Darwin’s scientific theories about the evolution of species can be applied to today’s patterns of human behavior, and...natural selection can provide support for many bedrock conservative ideas, like traditional social roles for men and women, free-market capitalism and governmental checks and balances.

“I do indeed believe conservatives need Charles Darwin,” said Larry Arnhart, a professor of political science at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, who has spearheaded the cause. “The intellectual vitality of conservatism in the 21st century will depend on the success of conservatives in appealing to advances in the biology of human nature as confirming conservative thought."

This, of course, confirms an observation Michael Weisberg and I made in writing about the misuse and mispresentation of evolutionary biology by some law professors:

As Professor Jones himself has noted, “the favored perspective on the causes of human behavior often reflects ephemeral enthusiasms wafted on the politics of the moment” [footnote omitted].  That summarizes we suspect, in a nutshell, the current fascination with “law and evolutionary biology,” which permits the patina of “science” to be enlisted on behalf of various hobby horses of the right: people are “selfish,” law can’t change everything, nature puts limits on utopian aspirations, and the like. Perhaps all of these are true, but right now evolutionary biology offers no support to any of them. But “ephemerical enthusiasms wafted on the politics of the moment” have made the science irrelevant. We hope to remind people that the science is relevant, indeed, crucial, and that, so far, the needed science is not there.

Professor Arnhart, himself, maintains a blog devoted to his hobby horse, which even permits comments.  Already someone has weighed in with a pertinent observation:

You will be better able to cross the divide if you stop refering to "Darwinism". The theory of gravity is not called "Newtonism".  Go over to the Physics Dept. at NIU and ask someone how gravity works. Now go over to the Biology Dept. and ask someone how natural selection works. Ithink you will find the answers illuminating.

I invite some of the many philosophers of biology out there among the readership to venture over to Professor Arnhart's site to find out to what extent he has a scholarly interest in evolutionary biology and to what extent he is really an ignorant ideologue.  Save a copy of your comments; if he doesn't post them, I'll post them here in due course.  But perhaps we shall be pleasantly surprised?

UPDATE:  A reader directs my attention to a useful short review of one of Professor Arnhart's books by philosopher of biology Roberta Millstein (UC Davis) from Ethics 110 (2000):  653.  As Professor Millstein notes, Professor Arnhart makes two characteristic mistakes of the ideologically motivated in this realm: first, in assuming, without argument, that natural selection is "the primary force in evolutionary change"; and second, in ignoring that variation is both a necessary condition and consequence of natural selection, such that no one set of phenotypic traits can be deemed the "natural" ones.  As she notes:  these points "call into question the appropriateness of grounding his [natural right] theory in modern Darwininian biology."

Friday Poem: "It Is Well To Be"

It Is Well To Be

A poem is always in me
I rhythm with it daily
It ticks in me
It is my true time
The world otherwise being
Nothing really winning

No lapse in living
Loses it
And all grief
Which shadows me
It grows
To tops of joy in being

Nor is it less
A well for loving
Which music
Poems my body
As my lover
Is my meter
My hands and lips
A diction of desire

Thus while not
Immortal made
I sense the how and why
This breathing business
Is well to be
Glowing me with dark elation
Lighting my soul's parade

n.d. (prob. 60's or thereafter), rev. 5/18/94
Copyright 1994 by Maurice Leiter
Posted with permission.

Neuhouser Declines NYU Offer

Frederick Neuhouser (German Idealism, political philosophy) at Barnard College and Columbia University has declined the senior offer from the Department of Philosophy at New York University.  If Neuhouser had joined Longuenesse and Richardson, NYU really would have been unbeatable for 19th-century German philosophy.

So what do you do for a living? "I'm a philosopher"

Jonathan Wolff (UCL) has an amusing column on the topic here, which starts with the following great anecdote:

Several philosophers claim to have had the following conversation on long-haul flights: "And what line of work are you in?" "Me? I'm a philosopher." "Oh, really? And what are some of your sayings?"

UPDATE:  A reader writes with another amusing anecdote:

My husband is very proud of my daughter's philosophy education.  When she was doing her master's degree a passenger on a plane asked us during chit-chat what our children were up to.  My husband said (a bit pompously, I thought) about our daughter, "She is a philosopher."

Our co-passenger answered without batting an eyelid ( she was kind enough to withhold the eyeroll): "Aren't we all?"

Evaluating the Finkelstein/Dershowitz Dispute

Frank Menetrez, a UCLA-trained lawyer and PhD philosopher, has published a very illuminating analysis of the main charges and counter-charges in this tenure battle about which we have written previously.   Not entirely surprisingly, it turns out that the rhetorical volume of Professor Dershowitz's charges is inversely proportional to their factual and analytical credibility.