Leiter Reports: A Philosophy Blog

Paul Campos's confusions about higher education spending

Campos is a notorious clown and charlatan in legal academia, but he outdid himself with his bizarre op-ed claiming that state spending on higher education has increased, not declined.  Amazing.

Blasts from the past: Colin McGinn didn't like Ted Honderich's book and Kerry McKenzie did not like Colin McGinn's book

Here and here.

Arsene or Aristotle?

Amusing (Arsene is the manager of the Arsenal football team in the UK, he is apparently known as "Le Professeur").

(Thanks to David Ross for the pointer.)

Monash's Graham Oppy on 60 years of atheist philosophy

Here.

Oxford's Luciano Floridi interviewed...

...at 3AM.

Open thread on issues in the profession for the week of April 6, 2015

Have at it.

Rice's George Sher interviewed...

...at New Books in Philosophy.

Warwick to begin outsourcing some teaching (including in philosophy)...

...in order to cut costs, dodge the faculty union, etc.  The University of Warwick has one of the best philosophy departments in the UK.  A move like this will so damage the university's reputation it seems it could only have been cooked up by clueless bureaucrats.  (Thanks to the several readers who forwarded this in the last 24 hours.)

Do any readers know more about this?  Is there any explanation for why the University would do this that does not reflect poorly on its motives?  Comments are open.

MA programs: with or without a thesis?

A student investigating terminal MA programs writes:

At Ohio University every student does a thesis (there is no non-thesis track). Texas A&M almost every student does the thesis track over non-thesis; Western Michigan is the opposite with almost all students doing non-thesis track. Texas Tech less than half do the thesis track, the rest do a non-thesis track and are examined on their best term paper. I am unsure about the programs at Brandeis, Tufts, Georgia State, and others.

They all boast placement with funding in PGR-ranked top 20 schools. What surprises me is that though their tracks differ quite widely, they all have very similar placement records -- in no way predictable on the basis of how they structure their tracks.

Given that some admissions committees do not necessarily even give preference to MA over students applying straight out of undergrad, I am doubtful the difference between MA tracks is significant.

What are your thoughts? Perhaps you could ask this question on your blog?

It would be interesting to hear from faculty at the MA programs, faculty who have recently done PhD admissions and had experience with terminal MA programs, and graduates of MA programs about their experiences.

Gaza, ISIS, the Ukraine...

...philosophical essays at The Critique.

Simon Critchley's bizarre Wikipedia page

Periodically, readers call my attention to the bizarre Wikipedia page on Critchley, which if he didn't write it himself, must have been written by his research assistants or students.  (He links to it from his homepage, a giveaway.)  There are serious philosophers profiled on Wikipedia (see, e.g., Quine or Adorno), and their entries do not contain summaries of all their books, as Critchley's does, as though they were significant works of philosophy.   Nothing is included that would indicate his actual reputation as a lightweight hack, even among scholars of the Continental traditions.  Wikipedia is often a disaster when it comes to profiles of living people, but this is really an embarrassment.  (I should note that his Wikipedia entry was first called to my attention long before his drinking buddy at the New York Times brought him on as "moderator" of The Stone blog.  It has been this ridiculous for awhile.)

(Earlier items on Critchley here.)

"Legal Realism and Legal Doctrine"

This piece may be of interest to readers interested in legal philosophy and law.

More on "social justice warrior" and the rush to be offended

A propos our topics du jour, this mildly amusing piece:

Western culture as a whole has become an increasingly reactionary mob of self-centered narcissists who all have their own personal lines drawn in the sand. A comedian is fine unless he crosses their particular line, which, of course, in the mind of a self-centered narcissist, is the only line that matters.

Of course, there are things that genuinely warrant moral outrage, but the coin of outrage has been cheapened by overuse.

Republican attack on UNC-Chapel Hill continues

A bill is introduced to require all professors to teach eight courses per year (rather than four).   This would, among other things, involve a massive breach of contract, I expect, and it would, within a year, destroy the university as faculty fled.  But since the legislators who propose measures like this have no conception of what research is, or what a scholarly reputation is, they may not care.

Apropos absolutely nothing, but still amusing...

...babies under water.

University of Southampton cancels conference on international law and Israel

MOVING TO FRONT FROM YESTERDAY, SEE 4/2 UPDATE.

Disgraceful, if accurate.  IHE reports that the University is denying they are cancelling the conference.  My guess is that the University is overstating the safety/security issues (and understating its ability to address them) in order to make it appear that the organizers pulled the plug. 

The larger issue, of course, is why some supporters of Israel feel the need to shut down critical speech.

(Thanks to Taylor Carman for the pointer to the first item.)

UPDATE:  Chris Bertram (Bristol) calls my attention to this pertinent piece.

APRIL 2 UPDATE:  The University now admits it is cancelling the conference.  Disgraceful, disgraceful, disgraceful.

How blind is "blind review" a grad student wonders?

A graduate student writes:

As a grad student trying to publish before I get my PhD, I've noticed something strange that happens every time I submit a paper to a journal.  Every time I submit, I get a hit on academia.edu that day. My academia.edu profile is pretty sparse and seldom gets hits, so this could be a coincidence, but that seems unlikely.  I also tend to get hits shortly after my paper changes from "Submission Approved" to "Editor Assigned."  It's possible that this is mere paranoia on my part, but it also seems possible that some of the journals I'm submitting to (about six or so) aren't as blind as they claim to be.  

This isn't something that an established philosopher would necessarily notice, as I'm sure you guys get hits all the time.  But I'm wondering if other grad students and junior philosophers have noticed this phenomenon.  It would be interesting to see if my guess has any merit. 

Readers?  Have others have had similar experiences?

Faculty unhappiness with the Chancellor at Vanderbilt

The Chancellor is a law professor; one philosophy professor is quoted in the linked article.

(Thanks to Michael Swanson for the pointer.)

The blog just had it's 30 millionth visit in the last few minutes...

...thanks for reading.  My reflections at the 10 million mark.

The parable of the butcher and the analytic philosopher

Courtesy of Robert Paul Wolff.