Leiter Reports: A Philosophy Blog

Study at Northwestern Found Students *Slightly* More Likely to Take More Courses (and do *slightly* better) when taught by non-tenure-stream faculty

This commentary seems apt.  

The Adjunct Crisis (UPDATED)

MOVING TO FRONT FROM YESTERDAY--SEE UPDATE

Interesting infographic, courtesy of Jack Kelle. One point to bear in mind is that the less well-regarded the PhD program you attend, the higher the probability of ending up an adjunct.

UPDATE:  My colleage Michael Kremer writes:

The page to which you linked on the adjunct crisis overstates things by *a lot* in one crucial respect.

He reports over 140,000 doctorates awarded last year. That seemed incredibly suspicious, so I checked the link he gave for that datum.

The 140,000 figure "Includes Ph.D., Ed.D., and comparable degrees at the doctoral level. Includes most degrees formerly classified as first-professional, such as M.D., D.D.S., and law degrees." footnote 1 at  http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=72

The number of actual PhDs is actually closer to 50,000.  http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/infbrief/nsf10308/

So it is more like one "professorship" position (whatever that means; I didn't check further) for every three PhDs rather than one position for every 10 PhDs.

I don't want in any way to diminish the problem with adjuncts making up the majority of the teaching faculty, their poor working conditions, miserable pay,lack of benefits, etc. But I don't think falsehood in the service of laudable goals is a good strategy.

AND ANOTHER:  Kathryn Norlock (Trent) writes:

I have heard from students, colleagues, and reporters here in Canada yesterday and today, who wanted me to confirm the number on the infographic to which you recently linked, that the "AVG." salary of tenure-track professors in the USA is $120,000.

I do not find any evidence that this is the case, and rather than continue fielding individual emails myself, I would ask that you clarify on your blog that the data from this table:

http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d11/tables/dt11_275.asp

suggests that the infographic's "avg" comes closest to reflecting the average salary of Full Professors at doctoral institutions, that is, our most senior colleagues, and the smallest segment of "tenure-track" instructional faculty.  I find it shockingly irresponsible of the infographic authors to suggest otherwise.

I agree this is misleading, though full professors are sometimes said to be "tenure-stream," and it may be that an adjunct of comparable seniority (I do not know) might indeed earn an average of 20K.  In any case, these two examples suggest that the 'infographic' be approached with some caution.

Three Philosophers Elected to Royal Society of Canada

They are:  Joseph Heath (Toronto), Carlos G. Prado (emeritus, Queen's), and Evan Thompson (British Columbia).

Johns Hopkins University embarrasses itself internationally

A pathetic story, having more to do with dopey administrators than the fascist state--but who knows?  What made the administrators so dopey, after all?

"The Methodology of Legal Philosophy"

The essentially final (and citable) version of this paper (co-authored with Alex Langlinais) is now on-line.

A discussion of law, philosophy & neuroscience at Huffington Post Live...

...with (among others) philosophers Jonathan Cohen (UC San Diego), Susan Schneider (U Conn/Storrs), and Walter Sinnott-Armstrong (Duke).

Why Legal Positivism (Again)?

I gave a very short talk on this topic a few years ago, but this new draft paper is a much expanded and more systematic discussion, given as a keynote address in August for the annual meeting of the Australasian Society of Legal Philosophy in Sydney.  I hope it will interest some readers, and I would especially encourage those outside general jurisprudence but with some interest in the philosophy of law to take a look, since I hope it clears up some common confusions about positivism and about Dworkin's theory of law.

Update on PGR Plans

As of now, I'm not planning on organizing a new set of PGR surveys until fall 2014.  This is partly because I have a research leave this fall, and do not want to get derailed from the work I need to complete.  But it is partly because the amount of movement has declined in the last couple of years.  I will be posting a detailed update about moves, retirements, etc. since the 2011 survey shortly.

Republican Congressman Paraphrases Nietzsche at Hearing on Syria!

Here, a bit past 30 seconds in.  The paraphrase is fair, though the context is not one Nietzsche was thinking about!  But for any Republican to be talking about telling the truth...well, another Nietzsche quote might be apt in this context as well, from The Antichrist, section 38:

Where has the last feeling of decency and self-respect gone when even our statesmen, an otherwise quite unembarrassed type of man, anti-Christians through and through in their deeds, still call themselves Christians today and attend communion?

 (Thanks to Christopher Ro for the pointer.)

More oddities about the 2013-14 edition of the fake "Pluralist [sic] Guide"

A philosopher elsewhere writes:

Prompted by your post, I was looking at the "pluralist guide".  It has all the problems you mention, but more too.  The most obvious or important is when the person leading to a ranking isn't at the institution.  You noted some of those in the "continental philosophy" section, but there are others, too.  So, in the "Latin American philosophy" section they note Temple for "Caribbean philosophy" because of Lewis Gordon, even though Gordon isn't at Temple any more.  (I think you had noted he moved to U Conn.)  The also have a listing of undergrad programs for this area, despite the fact that this would be a close to insane reason to pick between undergrad program, not least because the schools listed are really wildly different. 

There's a strange second guessing of rankers in the "GLBT Philosophy" section, especially in
the second part.  I'd think that you'd either want to trust the rankers or not.  It's an odd situation. 

The "feminist philosophy" section is odd for many reasons.  SUNY Albany is "recommended", though only one (untenured) person there works on feminist philosophy at all.  That's the same level of recommendation as Stanford, which has both Deborah Satz and Helen Longino.  (I think that only ideology could justify placing Stanford, which I'd take to be a top lace for this stuff, below many of the "highly recommended" places.) 

The "race and ethnicity" bit is very odd, too.  Both UNC and Harvard have one main person who works in this area- Bernard Boxill and Tommie Shelby, respectively.  But, UNC is "highly recommended" while Harvard is just "recommended".  The same goes for Rutgers.  (Princeton is also in the "also recommended", but that might be more reasonable given that I'm not sure that Appiah is working on race much these days.)  Kansas isn't ranked at all, even though one of their best philosophers, Derrick Darby, works directly on these issues.  (He's visiting at Michigan, though, so maybe he won't stay there.)  Most oddly, there is a ranking for both "Rutgers" and "Rutgers University-New Brunswick".  I have no real idea what' s going on there- perhaps the first means Rutgers-Newark, which does have an interesting philosopher working on race (Anna Stubblefield) but no grad program.  Anyway, she's an "affiliated" faculty member at New Brunswick, so it's a bit nuts in any case.

Anyway, as you already know, the quality control level there isn't very good.  I suppose I should not be surprised, but still, it's surprising to find something so shoddy put up on the web. 

LSE's Morgan to be Regular Visitor at Penn

Mary Morgan, a leading scholar of the history and philosophy of economics at the London School of Economics, will be a regular Visiting Professor (roughly quarter-time) for each of the next three years (at least) at the University of Pennsylvania, where she will work with students in philosophy, history, and the sociology of science.

Charles from Oxford to Yale

David Charles (ancient philosophy [esp. Aristotle], philosophy of mind), Professor of Philosophy at Oxford University, has accepted a senior offer from the Department of Philosophy at Yale University, effective July 1, 2014.  (Yale is also engaged in an additional senior search, joint between Classics and Philosophy, for someone working in Hellenistic philosophy.)

Australian opposition party (the right-wing party) attacks funding of philosophy!

Thom Brooks (Durham) has the sordid details.  What an embarrassment for Australia!

Oxford's John Gardner interviewed...

...at 3AM.

Axel Honneth (Frankfurt/Columbia) interviewed...

...but not at 3AM.

A mature student talks about why he chose to study philosophy

Here.

The SPEP Ranking (i.e., the fake "Pluralist" [sic] Guide) of Continental Philosophy Programs for 2013-14

It's now on-line, though lists so many programs in just two broad categories, that it will probably be of limited use even to those who want to enter the SPEP universe.  Some of the earlier caveats still apply, especially that a PhD from many of the programs listed will limit your professional opportunities.  On the other hand, the SPEP Guide has expanded the lists, and so there is more overlap with the PGR surveys of scholars working in the 19th- and 20th-century Continental traditions than previously.  (There are still some inexplicable inclusions--e.g., both Schacht and Schroeder are emeritus at Illinois/Urbana now, and have been since last year--and omissions--e.g., Columbia, with Carman, Goehr, and Neuhouser is one of the very top places for Continental philosophy in the U.S.)  The bottom line remains that for a strong philosophical education and serious work on the Continental traditions, the best bets remain (in no particular order) Columbia, Chicago, Northwestern, Georgetown, UC Riverside, and Notre Dame in the U.S.--and maybe also Brown, Syracuse, BU, NYU, Johns Hopkins, Princeton, and a couple of others, depending on a student's interests (consult the PGR specialty rankings, linked above.) 

(As to why this is correctly called the "SPEP Guide" for Continental programs, see the earlier discussion.)

Also good news:  the absurd and unreliable "Climate for Women" listing has not returned!

Is an early defense (before the Eastern APA) an advantage?

Philosopher David Estlund (Brown) writes:

I've heard from some people that in the current market it's a significant advantage to have your PhD defended before the APA meetings in December. Traditionally, this would have meant being in your second round of applications. But candidates might feel pressure to finish up a semester early in their first round. I just don't know if there's any basis for the empirical claim. I can't see that making a significant difference to me if I were on a search committee, but that's a very small sample. This is just one way in which the market pressure is changing conventional wisdom, but there's a danger that some of the change is based more on conjecture and anxiety than on evidence. What do you think?

I am inclined to agree with David.  Letters of reference typically discuss how far along the candidate is.  To be sure, if someone has been in graduate school for eight or more years, then a set defense date is a good thing, but otherwise I would think it doesn't matter.  What do others think?  Signed comments strongly preferred, especially from faculty.

In Memoriam: Allan Gotthelf (1942-2013)

A highly regarded scholar of Aristotle (especially his philosophy of biology), Professor Gotthelf was emeritus at the College of New Jersey, and had taught more recently, with support from the Anthem Foundation, at the University of Pittsburgh and Rutgers University at New Brunswick.   His Rutgers page has some information about his work.  (He also (alas!) had a side interest in Ayn Rand--hence the Anthem Foundation support--though being much smarter and a much better scholar than Rand, he was capable of making her work seem more philosophically interesting than it actually was.  He was particularly good at developing NeoAristotelian themes that he claimed to find in her work.)  

UPDATE:  An informative memorial notice.

Moellendorf from San Diego State to Goethe University Frankfurt

Darrel Moellendorf (political philosophy), Professor of Philosophy at San Diego State University, is joining Ranier Forst's "Normative Orders" excellence cluster at the Goethe University Frankfurt as Professor of International Political Theory, with a primary appointment in the Department of Political Science, and an affiliation with the Philosophy Department.

Duke's Alex Rosenberg on market failures and the myth of "earned" inequalities

Here--it's a good read.

Robert Paul Wolff on Nagel's "philosophical malpractice"

This is both funny and apt, and it makes in pithier form one of the points Michael Weisberg and I made last fall in The Nation.  Meanwhile, while I was travelling 'down under,' Nagel wrote a short (and basically fair) summary of his book for a New York Times blog.  It was, unfortunately, prefaced with the utterly disingenous claim that Mind and Cosmos "has attracted a good deal of critical attention, which is not surprising, given the entrenchment of the world view that it attacks."  This implies, falsely, that the critical reaction was due to the "entrenchment of the world view" the book attacks as opposed to the extraordinarily poor quality of the book's arguments and knowledge of the relevant science.  Surely even Nagel realizes that were he, a formerly reputable philosopher, not the author of Mind and Cosmos, it never would have been published by OUP or any serious academic press.

JHP ad in the right-hand column

It is now current (an out-of-date ad had appeared originally)--for those who might be interested!

A blog symposium on the 3rd Edition of Churchland's "Matter and Consciousness"...

...at Brains.

Some philosophical reflections on criminal defense lawyer Jacques Verges

Here.

Floridi from Hertfordshire to Oxford

Luciano Floridi (philosophy of information, computer ethics, philosophy of technology), previously Professor of Philosophy of Information and Information & Computer Ethics at the University of Hertfordshire, has accepted appointment as Professor of the Philosophy and Ethics of Information in the Oxford Internet Institute at Oxford University, with affiliations to the faculties of Philosophy and of Computer Science.

The ABCs for Labor Day

Here.

Against "moral sentimentalism" in politics

This essay makes a lot of very good points.  Sadly, some philosophers traffic in the "moral sentimentalism" to which the author correctly objects.

Memorial for David Braybrooke at UT Austin

Professor Braybrooke's family asked me to share the following:

A Celebration of the Life of David Braybrooke (October 18, 1924 – August 7, 2013), professor Emeritus, Philosophy and Political Science, Dalhousie University and The University of Texas at Austin, will be held:

Thursday, September 19, 2013 at 5:00 p.m.

Jessen Auditorium, Homer Rainey Hall, UT at Austin

Reception to follow at the Carillon Restaurant, 1900 University Avenue

Warm thanks to guest-blogger Rebecca Kukla...

...for her excellent contributions over the last week while I was in Australasia.  I've invited Rebecca back, and I'm hopeful she will return later in the academic year.  I'm also in the process of inviting some other guest-bloggers for the coming academic year, about which more soon.