Leiter Reports: A Philosophy Blog

PGR Surveys End in 2 Hours and 30 Minutes!

Over 250 philosophers have now participated in the 'overall' and specialty evaluations, and at least another two dozen in just the specialty evaluations.  All the specialty areas noted in prior posts that had had low response rates have had significant increments in the total number of evaluators over the last couple of days, for which my special thanks.   In corresponding with evaluators, I am always impressed by the care and seriousness with which they take this task.   

I will start posting some excerpts from the results next week.

Thanks again to all the philosophers who have lent their time and expertise to this round of evaluations.

In Memoriam: Edward P. Mahoney (1932-2009)

There is a memorial notice on the Duke Philosophy Department's homepage.

UPDATE: A nice remembrance of Professor Mahoney from a former student, Richard Garnett, who is now a law professor at Notre Dame.

Philosophy Wiki at York

The University of York maintains a philosophy wiki as a research tool for philosophers--I've only just browsed it, but there is some useful content.

Do Young Philosophers Have a "Sense of Entitlement" or Are They Just Internalizing the Expectations of Their Teachers?

A tenured philosopher writes:

I read with interest the piece by Gregory Pence you excerpted on your blog. I think that he may be misinterpreting the data. That is, he takes the dissatisfaction of young scholars as evidence of their sense of entitlement.  But it may just be that their expectations were mis- set by their graduate faculty. When I was a grad student at [an Ivy League university] it was obvious that everything short of a job at a research one was, if not an embarrassment, something to be viewed as a temporary step on the way up the ladder. One unnamed but famous philosopher, when I told her of my offer from my current employer, asked me about the teaching load. I told her it was 4-4. She looked at me with pity and said-- I kid you not-- "I'm sorry." This was my only tenure-track offer, which I was ecstatic to get. When, as a grad student I and some others were grousing about the poor adjunct pay at a local state college, another household name who overheard the conversation asked us why we even took a job with such poor wages. Why not simply refuse? He couldn't grasp that we needed to pay the rent and eat, and didn't have a 6 figure salary like he did. I remember staring at him in stunned silence. If you spend several years around folks with quarter million dollar salaries, minimal teaching duties, palatial offices, and brilliant undergrads, you start to think that your first job, if not that grand, ought to be better than teaching 8 courses a year to unprepared slackers at some underfunded State U. in fly-over country.

Thoughts from others?  Anonymous comments are O.K. here, as long as accompanied by a real e-mail address (which won't appear).  Post only once; comments are moderated and may take awhile to appear.

PGR Surveys End Tomorrow (Friday, January 9) at Noon (Central Standard Time in the U.S.)

As of this morning, 214 philosophers have completed the "overall" evaluations plus one or more specialties, while an additional two to three dozen (I haven't tallied it precisely) philosophers have completed evaluations in their areas of specialization only.  Thanks to everyone for their time and conscientious efforts.  I will begin posting some previews of the results next week, and the new PGR should be on line by early February.

Speaking of Careers in Philosophy,

this essay by bioethicist Gregory Pence (Alabama) is both wise and timely.  An excerpt from the end:

[A]s I look back, my major feeling, after teaching for years as an adjunct and working 80-hour weeks in real estate, is great satisfaction in having any job at all in philosophy. Because for many years, I never expected to get one — and even after I did, I kept looking over my shoulder at the shadow of what might have been.

I now believe that too many graduate students feel entitled to a great job. That attitude sets them up to fail. Some of the graduate students I knew at NYU's philosophy department, then a program of slight stature, eventually forged careers because they endured — they moved, they compromised, they published, they would not give up. They had the right attitude.

Some colleagues from elite Ivy League programs who say they are "stuck here in Alabama" feel as if life has passed them by, that they missed the boat because they never got a job at Yale or Berkeley. Maybe the current economic downturn, which is already affecting universities, will make those young professors more thankful for their tenure-track jobs, no matter how imperfect.

To be happy as a professor, you don't need to teach in buildings that win architectural awards. You don't need a two-course-a-semester load to publish (I published during my first years in Birmingham, despite teaching nine or 10 courses a year). You don't need your university to give you a dedicated blog site or IT personnel to support your home computer. You need a tenure-track job, and then you need to work hard at the three things we are expected to do: teach students who want to learn, publish about things you care about, and be a good academic citizen through service to your institution and field. That's the deal. If it doesn't sound good enough, then maybe you should try bartending in San Francisco. And when you do, lots of adjuncts will apply for your job.

It's Offical: Philosophy is the 12st Best Job Anyone Can Have!

Several readers have sent me links to this curious item from The Wall Street Journal.  As philosopher Brandon Look (Kentucky) wrote:

I will grant that being either a mathematician (#1) or an historian (#7) would be OK, too; but that actuary (#2) and accountant (#10) come out higher is a clear slap in the face to anyone devoted to the life of the mind.  Still, the point is, we've got it good.  And given the current job market, we can only hope that our PhDs don't end up as nuclear decontamination techs (#186), roustabouts (#193), or lumber jacks (#200).

Get to Work! And Keep Your Trousers On!

Jonathan Wolff (UCL) comments on the working habits of philosophers.

Reminder: PGR Surveys End This Friday at Noon Central Standard Time!

We're now approaching 200 evaluators (many thanks!), but we are definitely in need of more evaluators in some of the specialty areas, where your vote will count even more!  Those areas with 10 or fewer respondents so far include:   Philosophy of Religion; Philosophy of Action; Philosophy of Physics; Philosophy of Biology; Philosophy of Social Science; Decision, Rational Choice & Game Theory; Mathematical Logic; Philosophy of Mathematics; Applied Ethics; Philosophy of Law; Philosophy of Art; Medieval Philosophy; Early Modern Philosophy:  17th Century; History of Analytic Philosophy; Feminist Philosophy; American Pragmatism; Chinese Philosophy.

We've had especially good response rates so far (compared to 2006) in Philosophy of Language (34 votes cast), Metaphysics (36 votes cast), General Philosophy of Science (24 votes cast), Ethics (35 votes cast), Political Philosophy (23 votes cast), and 19th-Century Continental Philosophy (17 votes cast), among others.

May I remind evaluators to review their scores once they are in the "Completed" section of the survey, where they will be organized by "Overall" score.  This will afford you an opportunity to see whether you've been consistent by your lights in assigning scores.

Please also see the earlier posting for some important bits of advice about the surveys.

History, English Job Markets Off 15-20% This Year

Story here.  I've not seen reliable data on Philosophy, but the anecdotal evidence is consistent with a similar decline in positions--and there is still the risk, alas, that positions will disappear or be frozen before being filled.  I wish there were some hopeful news to report, but at present there isn't.  I am expecting next year to be at least as bad if not worse than this year (schools budget a couple of years into the future, so last year's financial crisis will start to be reflected in budgets going forward especially).  If there is some sign of economic recovery in 2009, then 2010-11 may show some recovery in the academic job market, though it is doubtful it will be sufficient to deal with the backlog of unsuccessful candidates from this year and next.  So the bottom line, as I see it, is that we are in for several years of very difficult job markets.  Thoughts/data from others?  Ideas about strategies for job seekers?  Non-anonymous comments preferred, but anonymous comments must utilize real e-mail addresses (they will not appear).

McGinn Reviews Bill Maher's New Film on Religion...

...and concludes:   "We indeed don’t know everything, but some things we know quite well—and the complete falsity of religious doctrine is one of them."

International Law and Gaza

Here is an informative analysis of the legal issues.  The legality or illegality of the Israeli actions is, of course, wholly independent of their immorality.

Friday Poem: "Among the Philistines"

  Among the Philistines

When the bombs fell I pulled down the shades
Settled comfortably in my warm home
Lowered the lights to rest my eyes
Watched a movie listened to music
Made early dinner of a generous salad
Orange pepper three kinds of lettuce
Cucumber tomato all freshly chilled
Country dressing upon my feast
Cool water from a brimming pitcher
An apple and a cookie to complete the meal
Filed some papers wrote a letter
Read a poem or two at random
Thought of Milton's  Samson Agonistes
"Eyeless…at the mill with slaves…"
Of dramatic ironies that blind us all
Brushed my teeth when I was done
My lids drooping as night grew deep
I bedded down beneath my quilt
Wind howling rain tapping my windows
Tomorrow I said to myself tomorrow
I will write a poem about Gaza
Tomorrow will be soon enough

12/29-12/30/08

Copyright 2008 by Maurice Leiter

Posted with permission.

More on the "Uselessness" of the APA

David Velleman (NYU) writes:

A more significant symptom of the APA's uselessness is the annual appearance of news items like this one.  A professional organization that was worth the dues would help visiting journalists to understand the central concerns and accomplishments of the discipline, so that they could write more than a hodgepodge of caricatures and titillating tidbits from the program. I have never seen any indication that APA represents us as a discipline to the world at large. It's just an organizer of meetings -- a task for which we could hire a convention-planning service that would be cheaper and more efficient.

Of course, the journalist in question here is a bit notorious for both ignorance of and hostility to philosophy.  Yet Professor Velleman's general point surely stands:  wherever the APA is hosted, silly news items like this tend to appear in the local press.  Perhaps the APA should send out a new release to local journalists about the conference, explaining its function, and highlighting some sessions and their significance.  That would likely yield more substantive items in at least some newspapers.

Thoughts on this and other APA issues?  Non-anonymous comments preferred; post only once.  Defenders of the APA also welcome!

Gaza Petition and More Resources

Philosopher Yitzhak Melamed (Johns Hopkins) calls my attention to this petition about the atrocities in Gaza, and adds:  "if you are interested, here are two links to the only two Israeli/Jewish groups that came out unequivocally against the barbarism of the Israeli operation in Gaza":  here and here.  (The latter is the site of an orthodox group opposed to Zionism generally; the former that of a secular, progressive Israeli organization.)

Good Essay by Robert Fisk on the Gaza Situation

Here.

Reminder: PGR Surveys End a Week from Tomorrow!

The PGR surveys end on Friday, January 9 at noon Chicago time (Central Standard Time in the U.S.):  that's 1 pm in New York, 10 am in Los Angeles, 6 pm in London, and some time in the early morning hours of Saturday, January 10 in Sydney.

Many thanks to the 150 philosophers who have already completed some or all of the surveys as of the morning of January 1, 2009:  Roger Ariew, Lynne Rudder Baker, Jose Bermudez, Christopher Bobonich, Bill Brewer, Iain Thomson, Peter Carruthers, David Chalmers, Ruth Chang, Andy Egan, Jonathan Dancy, Michael Della Rocca, Dan Devereux, Michael Devitt, Paul Katsafanas, James Dreier, Julia Driver, Gerald Dworkin, Marc Ereshefsky, Gail Fine, John Martin Fischer, Berys Gaut, Tamar Gendler, Paul Guyer, Quassim Cassam, Gilbert Harman, William Harper, Aaron Zimmerman, Christopher Hitchcock, Brad Hooker, Brad Inwood, Terence Irwin, Robin Jeshion, Jim Joyce, John Kearns, Sean Kelly, Jeffrey King, Brian Leftow, Barry Loewer, Peter Ludlow, Penelope Maddy, Stephen Mulhall, Alan Nelson, Timothy O'Connor, Alex Oliver, David Papineau, George Pappas, Laurie Paul, Derk Peereboom, Peter Poellner, Huw Price, Graham Priest, Michael Rea, C.D.C. Reeve, Arthur Ripstein, Gonzalo Rodriguez-Pereyra, Michael Rosen, Alexander Rosenberg, Nathan Salmon, Jonathan Schaffer, Dan Kaufman, Ted Sider, Alison Simmons, Brian Skyrms, Nicholas Smith, Ernest Sosa, Jason Stanley, Georgia Warnke, Stephen Stich, Eleonore Stump, Michael Tye, Michelle Kosch, Eric Watkins, Ralph Wedgwood, Robert Wilson, Jonathan Wolff, Stephen Yablo, Christopher Gauker, Taylor Carman, Zoltan Szabo, Tad Schmaltz, Jane Heal, Peter Kail, John Dupre, Paul Noordhof, Gregory Currie, Daniel Nolan, Robert Stern, Julian Young, Craig Callender, Jonathan Cohen, Matthew Kramer, Ram Neta, Kathrin Koslicki, Juan Comesana, Jennifer Lackey, Jon Kvanvig, Alfred Mele, James Bohman, W.J. Waluchow, William Edmundson, Peter Vallentyne, David Braun, Aldo Antonelli, Robert Talisse, Duncan Pritchard, Hud Hudson, Michael Strevens, Michael Lynch, Richard Fumerton, Patrick Greenough, Jeffrey Barrett, Robert Stainton, Berit Brogaard, Hilary Kornblith, Howard Sankey, Lawrence Sklar, Adrian Moore, Michael McKenna, Manuel Vargas, Thomas Carson, Allan Silverman, Ron Mallon, Daniel Rothschild, Jeremy Fantl, Eric Swanson, Mark Schroeder, Jennifer Saul, Peter Kail, Ken Gemes, John Norton, Edouard Machery, Alan Nelson, Roger Crisp, John Tasioulas, P.J. Ivanhoe, Andrew Williams, Dennis Patterson, David Sedley, Thomas Johansen, Allan Silverman, Jeff Brower, Robert Pasnau, Steven Nadler, Lisa Shapiro, Stephen Houlgate, Cheryl Misak.

I hope those of you who have received invitations but not yet completed the surveys will consider doing so in the remaining week.

Nietzsche Blog for your New Year

Did you know the other Brian Leiter has a blog on Nietzsche?  New stuff there, too, including links to papers and review essays. Check it out.  Happy New Year!