Leiter Reports: A Philosophy Blog

A new proclamation from the Ministry of Civility

Here.

Behme v. Chomsky on the evolution of language

Wow!  I'm curious what readers more knowledgeable about these issues think.

"Philosophy Referee Hand Signals"

MOVING TO FRONT FROM NOVEMBER 19, 2009 since a couple of folks recently asked about it, and it was a big hit when I first posted it.  (Click to enlarge.)

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Thanks to Landon Schurtz (Oklahoma) for permission to share this creation of his:

Advice for applying for political philosophy/theory in the UK?

MOVING TO FRONT FROM LAST WEEK IN LIGHT OF NEW COMMENTS--MORE WELCOME

A student in the UK writes:

I am applying for PhD programs this cycle but find it almost impossible to find useful resources on how to write a high-quality proposal specifically for political theory/political philosophy programmes. I am applying to UK universities. Could you recommend any resources or give any advice?

Comments are open for reader input.

Georgia State's Dan Weiskopf blogging...

...at The Brains Blog.

"Self-Knowledge for Humans"

The blog, from philosopher Quassim Cassam (Warwick).

Colorado Philosophy will admit graduate students for 2015-16

The official announcement here.

Death threat against feminist speaker in Utah...

... and Utah's concealed carry law prevents police from taking adequate precautions! 

More than two dozen Harvard Law faculty object to University's new approach to sexual harassment on due process and other grounds

A strikingly diverse group of signatories, and rightly so given the fundamental legal values at stake here.

More on Salaita's appearance at the University of Chicago

From the Electric Intifada (including additional video).

If Harvard can't afford journal subscription prices...

...who can?  (This is two years' old, but I just came across it.)

A medical anthropologist's perspective on ebola

This is worth reading.

Twitter's "civility police"

Apparently they're everywhere these days.

Yale's Verity Harte on a decade-long project devoted to reading through...

...Plato's Republic.

Reaction formation watch: religious conservatives and pornography

Dr. F knew!

The "virtual" is dropping out of "virtual reality"

Striking piece by journalist Robert Fisk:

Over and over, we have the evidence that it is not Isis that “radicalises” Muslims before they head off to Syria – and how I wish David Cameron would stop using that word – but the internet. The belief, the absolute conviction that the screen contains truth – that the “message” really is the ultimate verity – has still not been fully recognised for what it is; an extraordinary lapse in our critical consciousness that exposes us to the rawest of  emotions – both total love and total hatred – without the means to correct this imbalance. The “virtual” has dropped out of “virtual reality”.

At its most basic, you have only to read the viciousness of internet chatrooms. Major newspapers – hopelessly late – have only now started to realise that chatrooms are not a new technical version of “Letters to the Editor” but a dangerous forum for people to let loose their most-disturbing characteristics. Thus a major political shift in the Middle East, transferred to the internet, takes on cataclysmic proportions. Our leaders not only can be transfixed themselves – the chairman of the US House Committee on Homeland Security, for example, last week brandishing a printed version of Dabiq, the Isis online magazine – but can use the same means to terrify us.

 (Thanks to Christopher Morris for the pointer.)

Martha Nussbaum on loving one's ageing body

At The New Republic.

CMU Philosophy Department...

...and the mining of big biomedical data.

Evidential problems and inferences in psychology and parapsychology

An interesting discussion.

Descartes' skull

The philosophical significance of this is non-existent, but it's still curious!

(Thanks to Michael Swanson for the pointer.)

UK academics face pension cuts

Details here.  Very worrisome indeed.  Comments are open for links to more information and/or discussion of what's going on.

Of course the United States is a bigger threat to world peace...

...than the ISIS crazies.  Is this really a serious question?

Another Zizek plagiarism scandal!

Details here.

Evolutionary theory: the current scientific debate

There's so much nonsense about evolution in the public culture in the U.S. especially, that one shouldn't lose sight of the interesting debates among researchers.

MIT's Stephen Yablo interviewed...

...at 3AM.

Turri study of views about the relationship between traditional areas of philosophy and the empirical sciences

John Turri (Waterloo), whose survey we announced last month, has now completed the analysis of the results.  The abstract:

Six hundred and three people completed a survey measuring perceptions of traditional areas of philosophical inquiry and their relationship to empirical science. The ten areas studied were: aesthetics, epistemology, ethics, history of philosophy, logic, metaphysics, philosophy of language, philosophy of mind, philosophy of science, and political philosophy. For each area, participants rated whether it is currently central to philosophy (centrality), whether its centrality depends on integration with science (dependence), and whether work in the area is sufficiently integrated with science (integration). Centrality judgments tended to be high. Participants viewed nine of the ten areas as central to philosophy (the exception being aesthetics), although they made this judgment more confidently for some areas. Dependence judgments were more varied, ranging from clear disagreement (for logic and history of philosophy) to clear agreement (for philosophies of science, mind, and language). Integration judgments were also varied but exhibited more uncertainty. Some areas whose centrality depended on integration were judged to be well integrated (philosophies of science and mind), but a central tendency for all other areas was ambivalence. Demographic factors had small but statistically significant effects on all three sorts of judgment. Higher age predicted higher centrality judgments and higher integration judgments. Higher socioeconomic status predicted lower dependence judgments and higher integration judgments. Men recorded higher integration judgments. 

Video of Salaita events in and around Chicago

There is a video of my introducing Salaita at University of Chicago the other night, and on the right-hand side you'll see links to videos of Salaita's talk at Northwestern, which I am told was essentially the same as the talk at U of C (I watched only a bit of it, and that seems right).  That talk is in several parts, starting here. There's also a brief news video about the case from what I am told is a pro-Palestinian on-line news service.

(Thanks to John Dworkin and Jonah Rubin for the various links.)

 

PGR Update #3: PGR 2014 will go forward

Folllowing up on last week, the Advisory Board and I have agreed on the following statement regarding the plan for the PGR:

The 2014-15 PGR will proceed as planned, with Berit Brogaard joining Brian Leiter as co-editor and taking over responsibility for the surveys and the compilation of results, with assistance as needed from Brian and the Advisory Board.  At the conclusion of the 2014-15 PGR, Brian will step down as an editor of the PGR and join the Advisory Board.  Berit will take over as editor until such time as a co-editor can be appointed to assist with future iterations of the report.  After 2014, Berit will have ultimate decision-making authority over the PGR.  Upon completion of the 2014-15 PGR, Berit will appoint a small advisory transition committee that she will consult on possible improvement, both substantive and operational, in the PGR going forward.

Of the 50 members of the Advisory Board, 45 voted in favor of this plan, none voted against, and 2 Board members abstained (believing, as I understand it, that I should not have agreed to step down, or not in these circumstances).  I supported it as well and made that clear prior to the vote.  Three Board members were simply not on e-mail in recent days.  (Five Board members resigned over the past two weeks, some because of the controversy, and some because of unrelated concerns about the PGR methodology.  I thanked each of them for their help and service.)  The current members of the Advisory Board are Rachel Barney, Cristina Bicchieri, Ned Block, Christopher Bobonich, Berit Brogaard, John Carriero, David Chalmers, Justin D'Arms, David Davies, John Deigh, Keith DeRose, Lisa Downing, Julia Driver, Delia Graff Fara, John Martin Fischer, Graeme Forbes, Michael Forster, John Gardner, Don Garrett, Alvin Goldman, Anil Gupta, Christopher Hitchcock, John Horty, Shelly Kagan, Pierre Keller, Michelle Kosch, Scott MacDonald, Edouard Machery, Cheryl Misak, Calvin Normore, Laurie Paul, Peter Poellner, Greg Restall, Michael Rosen, Alexander Rosenberg, Jonathan Schaffer, David Schmidtz, Christopher Shields, Susanna Siegel, Brian Skyrms, Ernest Sosa, Jason Stanley, Stephen Stich, Iain Thomson, Bryan van Norden, Katja Vogt, Ted Warfield, Michael Weisberg, Timothy Williamson, Allen Wood.  (Changes in the composition of the Board were announced earlier in the summer here.) 

We have always observed the rule that Board discussions are confidential, but I want to thank the Board for finding a constructive resolution, one that involved compromises on many sides, not only mine. 

What follows are now my own reflections on recent events and an explanation of my reasons for endorsing this plan of action.  I speak here for myself, obviously, and no one else.

Support Steven Salaita...

MOVING TO FRONT FROM SEPT. 24--PLEASE CONSIDER DONATING

...with donations to support his legal case.  I have donated and would urge others to do so.  My understanding is that if legal fees are recouped, donated money will go to the Center for Constitutional Rights, a worthy organization that has been helping Salaita since this started.

Philosopher Fritz Allhoff recognized by Western Michigan for his scholarship

Story here.

Illinois Chancellor professes a commitment to civility...

...but is now facing allegations about her own academic integrity.

(Thanks to Eric Schliesser for the pointer.)

"Why Tolerate Religion?" at the Veritas Forum at Northwestern

A discussion between me and Penn law professor David Skeel.

Against prison

Philosopher Thomas Wells (Groningen) comments.

Spiros calls for boycott of Pacific APA in Vancouver...

...to protest raunchy, Satanist art!

Steven Salaita interview on "Chicago Tonight"

Here.

Ruth Chang (Rutgers) on making decisions...

...in the Chicago Tribune.

On Salaita's possible legal remedies

This is a more informative piece than I've seen previously, and fits with much that we discussed earlier, including the possibility of defamation claims.  One new possible claim is for tortious interference with contract, a claim that might also be brought against those donors who pressured the University to fire Salaita.  (Readers my age or older may recall the most famous [or infamous] tortious intereference with contract case in modern times, Penzoil v. Texaco, won by legendary [and legendarily ferocious] Texas plaintiffs' lawyer Joe Jamail.  [Just as an amusing sidenote, this video of Jamail taking a deposition often makes the rounds--Jamail is off camera on the right, you can only occasionally see his hands.)

Notes from the One-Party State: Democrats committed to "endless war"

Greenwald comments.

Regarding the boycott statement

Over 600 philosophers have signed it, and about a hundred of those have also signed a petition to boycott all rankings.  But of the the signatories, only about 55 of them are actually among those nominated as evaluators for the current PGR (the spread sheet has about 560 nominees).   I do not begrudge anyone for signing; given the dramatic misrepresentation of what transpired, I would have signed too if presented the narrative that way.  I will note that nearly half the members of the University of British Columbia Department did not sign, despite a departmental meeting being called for that purpose.  This, by itself, ought to alert signatories to the fact that there is a lot more to the story.  I expect it will come out in time.  And hopefully some signatories will think better of it in time as well, especially if the Board and I are successful in coming up with a plan for the future in which I step down as editor after the 2014 PGR.  We have made considerable progress the last few days.

Salaita appearance at U of Chicago tonight

I'm just returned from that event, and it appears they were taping it, so if it's on-line subsequently I will post a link.  Prof. Salaita was, in person, exactly as he seemed at his Urbana-Champaign press conference:  friendly, warm, and admirably composed and cheerful considering the terrible ordeal of persecution he has been through.  The real person is a powerful counterweight to the campaign of demonization to which he has been subjected.  It clearly helps that he has a strong sense of moral purpose.   My introductory remarks to the event, for anyone who is interested, are below the fold (nothing surprising for those who have followed my Huffington Post columns):

Wisconsin's Elliott Sober wins 2014 Hempel Award from the PSA

Details here.

"Civility" now a job requirement at Cal State/Fresno

Yikes!

Salaita at U of Chicago today

I'll be making some brief introductory remarks about why this is the most significant free speech case in academia in living memory.

Drastic cuts at University of Southern Maine...

...including some that will affect Philosophy.

Facebook's courtroom

This is apt and amusing, in a perverse kind of way.

(Thanks to Brit Brogaard for the pointer.)

A Canadian-Iranian philosopher in prison in Iran

What an ordeal.

(Thanks to Phil Gasper for the pointer.)

The "logic of prayer" in football (soccer)

Leftow v. Oppy.

Physicist Rovelli on philosophers

Interesting interview; an excerpt:

Horgan: What’s your opinion of the recent philosophy-bashing by Stephen Hawking, Lawrence Krauss and Neil deGrasse Tyson?

Rovelli: Seriously: I think they are stupid in this.   I have admiration for them in other things, but here they have gone really wrong.  Look: Einstein, Heisenberg, Newton, Bohr…. and many many others of the greatest scientists of all times, much greater than the names you mention, of course, read philosophy, learned from philosophy, and could have never done the great science they did without the input they got from philosophy, as they claimed repeatedly.  You see: the scientists that talk philosophy down are simply superficial: they have a philosophy (usually some ill-digested mixture of Popper and Kuhn) and think that this is the “true” philosophy, and do not realize that this has limitations.

Here is an example: theoretical physics has not done great in the last decades. Why? Well, one of the reasons, I think, is that it got trapped in a wrong philosophy: the idea that you can make progress by guessing new theory and disregarding the qualitative content of previous theories.  This is the physics of the “why not?”  Why not studying this theory, or the other? Why not another dimension, another field, another universe?    Science has never advanced in this manner in the past.  Science does not advance by guessing. It advances by new data or by a deep investigation of the content and the apparent contradictions of previous empirically successful theories.  Quite remarkably, the best piece of physics done by the three people you mention is Hawking’s black-hole radiation, which is exactly this.  But most of current theoretical physics is not of this sort.  Why?  Largely because of the philosophical superficiality of the current bunch of scientists.

Horgan: You have written about the Greek thinker Anaximander. Who was he, and why do you find him interesting?

Rovelli: He is the guy who understood that the Earth is a stone that floats in the middle of the Sky without falling down. He understood that the Sky is not just above out head: it is also under our feet. It surrounds us in every direction.   He is the only one in the history of our planet who understood this, and convinced everybody else that this is the case. In fact, he has done much more than this, but this is his greatest achievement.  I find him immensely interesting because he represents one of the main steps in the development of scientific thinking.  He is a giant.

Horgan: Do you agree with philosopher Thomas Nagel that science needs a new paradigm to account for the emergence of life and consciousness in the cosmos?

Rovelli: No.  When we do not understand something, people are tempted to think that “some new paradigm” is needed, or a “great mystery” is there.   Then we understand it, and all fog dissolves.

(Thanks to Michael Bramley for the pointer.)

In Memoriam: Fred Sommers (1923-2014)

An important contributor to metaphysics, philosophy of language and logic, Prof. Sommers, who passed away yesterday, held the Harry A.Wolfson Chair in Philosophy at Brandeis University before his retirement in 1993.  His son, the philosopher Tamler Sommers (Houston), writes that, "The service will be Monday October 6 at 1 PM at Ohev Sholom Synagogue, 1600 Jonquil Street, NW Washington, DC 20012.  It is open to all.  My brother and I, and my stepmother Christina Hoff Sommers, will sit Shiva all of next week at his home."

I will add links to additional memorial notices as they appear.

Philosophy compared to other fields where women are under-represented

Benj Hellie (Toronto) wrote to the researchers mentioned in Wednesday's story about fields in which women are under- and over-represented among doctoral recipients to inquire "where Philosophy falls in the ranking of the 'Gender Imbalance' paper."  One of the researchers, Courtney Tannenbaum, wrote back and gave permission to share her response:

Thank you for your interest in the paper. I shared your inquiry with Andrew [Gillen] who led the analysis for the brief. He shared he following with me, which I hope answers your question:

The best CIP code for Philosophy is probably 38.01, which has the figures below:

ipfam.4digit  38.01(N)

doc.total.m     957

doc.total.w     375

doc.avg.m        319

doc.avg.w        125

bac.total.m     32076

bac.total.w      14792

bac.avg.m        5346

bac.avg.w        2465.333333

dp100b.m        5.967078189

dp100b.w         5.070308275

ratio                   84.97137316

doc.total          1332

bac.total           46868>

This shows a bit of over-representation of men. Relative to other fields, it was 80 out of 135 fields when ranked from least to most male over-representation.