Leiter Reports: A Philosophy Blog

Bertram on Singer's latest moral obtuseness

Concerning refugees--but it also betrays the conservative nature of how he thinks about the alleged moral dimensions of problems.

McMaster, diversity, and "crying wolf"

Jorge Humberto Sanchez Perez, a Peruvian human rights lawyer now studying for a PhD in philosophy at McMaster University in Canada (which is well-known for its legal philosophy program), asked me to share his response to a recent misleading column in the Huffington Post:  Download Crying Wolf Minorities Diversity and Philosophy Jorge Sanchez Perez

Philosopher who was serial plagiarizer makes it to...

...Retraction Watch.

Dopey Donald Chump and truth

It's a distant relationship.

The letters in the Stanford sexual assault case

From the victim and from the convicted assailant's mother.   They are both worth reading.  I guess I am more sympathetic to the view that the six-month sentence was light given the jury's findings, but I think far more ominous is the move to recall the judge for acting well within his legal discretion to take into account the defendant's past history.  Such a move will only result in more harsh sentencing by more judges, which is not what America, the world leader in incarceration, needs.

Thinking about a Major in Philosophy at WIU? Think again…

Let me begin by thanking all the people who signed the Change.org petition to save the WIU philosophy major. Though I have signed quite a lot of petitions, I used to think signing them was silly, and now I know they are broadly ineffective. But what I didn’t anticipate was the feeling of emotional and psychological support the kind words of friends and strangers from across the globe could provide. So, thank you.

It will come as no surprise to those paying attention that the Board of Trustees has voted unanimously to authorize the elimination of philosophy and three other programs at Western Illinois University, but readers may be interested in how this happened so quickly over the last two weeks.

Ban civilian ownership of the AR-15 assault rifle

No normal person needs to own one.  Some crazy people do:

The gunman was armed with an AR-15-type semiautomatic rifle and a handgun, Chief Mina said.

An example of an AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle. The make and model of the rifle has not been released.

The rifle is the same type of gun used in the mass shootings in Aurora, Colo.; Newtown, Conn.; and San Bernardino, Calif.

Gun control advocates contend that semiautomatic weapons like the AR-15 are a logical choice for mass shootings because of their ability to rapidly fire multiple high-velocity rounds. Defenders of the firearm [i.e., delusional morons] say it is misguided to blame a gun that is used by millions of owners across the country in a responsible manner.

The rifle is legal to buy in most states, including Florida. In 1994, Congress passed an assault weapons ban that prohibited manufacturing AR-15 for civilian sale with large-capacity magazines, bayonets or pistol grips. The ban limited, but did not end, sales of AR-15s. The weapons ban expired in 2004.

In a video taken by a bystander, more than 20 rounds can be heard being fired in rapid succession. This would indicate that the weapon had a magazine with a capacity commonly used in military service.

Like most states, Florida does not restrict the capacity of magazines. State bans have been ineffective: the shooters in San Bernardino used high capacity magazines despite California’s ban on semiautomatic rifles with magazines with more than 10 bullets.

Sunday Symphony: Mozart, "Jupiter"

 

Great moments in obscure rock 'n' roll: Thundermother, "Boogie Music," 1971

A group of British studio musicians got together for a weekend and recorded an album, and the standout is their rendition of this number:

 

Brown's David Estlund interviewed...

...at 3AM.

Three cheers for Mayte Lara Ibarra and Larissa Martinez...

...and may the racist sociopaths supporting Dopey Donald Chump harassing these admirable young women all go straight to hell.

WIU Board votes to eliminate philosophy major

I'm hopeful that Professor Pynes will post more about what's going on and what this vote will mean.  There are three philosophy faculty, including Professor Pynes, though theirs is also a unionized faculty, which provides more protection in a situation like this.  However, it is possible that those with less seniority may lose their positions as well.

ACLS awards to philosophers

Johnny Brennan at the ACLS has kindly sent alone the results of the latest competitions:

As our current competition season has come to an end and all fellows have been announced, I wanted to let you know of the 11 philosophers who were awarded one of our fellowships for their outstanding work. I thought you and your readers would be interested to know of their impressive accomplishments:

• Roger Ariew, Professor, University of South Florida (with Erik-Jan Bos, Independent Scholar) ACLS Collaborative Research Fellowship A New Critical Edition and Complete English Translation of the Correspondence of René Descartes
• Lauren Ashwell, Associate Professor, Bates College Frederick Burkhardt Residential Fellowship for Recently Tenured Scholars (for residence at Harvard University) Projection and Desire
• Brendan de Kennessey, Doctoral Candidate, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Completion Fellowship Joint Practical Deliberation

• Joy Gordon, Ignacio Ellacuría, S.J. Chair in Social Ethics, Loyola University Chicago ACLS Fellowship Perfect Injustice: The United Nations Security Council and the Question of Legitimacy

• Tyler Huismann, Doctoral Candidate, University of Colorado Boulder Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Completion Fellowship Aristotle on Accidental Causation

• Mary Kate McGowan, Luella LaMer Professorship of Women’s Studies and Professor of Philosophy, Wellesley College ACLS Fellowship Just Words: Speech and the Constitution of Harm

• Andrew J. Mitchell, Associate Professor, Emory University (with Kevin C. Karnes, Professor of Music, Emory University) ACLS Collaborative Research Fellowship Wagner and the Subject of Redemption: Politics, Erotics, and Religion in the Music Dramas

• Samuel Reis-Dennis, Doctoral Candidate, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Completion Fellowship I Do Blame You: Responsibility in Real Life

• Julia Staffel, Assistant Professor, Washington University in St. Louis ACLS Fellowship Unsettled Thoughts: Reasoning, Uncertainty, and Epistemology

• Daniel Ludwig Sutherland, Associate Professor, University of Illinois at Chicago ACLS Fellowship Kant's Philosophy and the Question of Mathematical Knowledge

ADDENDUM:  The list Mr. Brennan sent omitted one other recipient of a Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Completion Fellowship, to Adriana Solomon, a PhD student in the History and Philosophy of Science program at the University of Notre Dame working on Newton.  (Thanks to Graham Clay and Mousa Mohammadian for flagging this for me.)

More on controversy about budget cuts at the University of Chicago...

...at IHE.  There are a number of dubious claims in the article.  None of what is happening is a conspiracy by the Board of Trustees; the leadership comes from President Robert Zimmer, a mathematician, who has a definite vision, and who has been, by all accounts I've heard, the real decision-maker who enjoys strong support from the Board.  It is reasonable, in retrospect, to wonder whether all the building was a good investment, though I think it probably was.  More controversial, and debatable, was the decision to make a massive investment during the past five years in an Institute for Molecular Engineering, a field where the University of Chicago had no investment previously.  The cost of a couple of dozen faculty, many senior, and their labs must have been tens of millions of dollars.  The IHE article also misstates the budget:  the budget of the university (including the medical school but excluding the hospital) is about $2.6 billion.  (The hospital actually makes a profit.)  

In Memoriam: Morton White (1917-2016)

A philosopher and historian of ideas, Professor White spent the bulk of his academic career at Harvard University and then the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton; the IAS memorial notice is here.   His 1949 book Social Thought in America:  The Revolt Against Formalism was probably his most important and influential, enjoying a wide audience among intellectual historians, legal scholars, and others.

The Swedish grad students who stopped the sexual assault on the unconscious victim at Stanford

Identified at last; admirable people they are.

A nice review of Don Garrett's "Hume"...

...in NDPR; an excerpt:

This is an excellent book. Garrett provides a comprehensive yet concise introduction to Hume's thought that should be accessible to newcomers to Hume, including upper-level undergraduates. It is not especially ground-breaking; much of the book is based on work Garrett has published in papers over the past two decades and in his 1997 book, Cognition and Commitment in Hume's Philosophy. Nonetheless, even those already familiar with his work will find it illuminating to see how interpretations that were previously published separately fit into his unified interpretation of Hume's thought.

You can get your copy here!  (And, yes, this is in the series I edit, so I am not an impartial observer.)

Soteriou from Warwick to King's College, London

Matthew Soteriou (philosophy of mind), Professor of Philosophy at the University of Warwick, has accepted appointment as Professor of Philosophy at King's College, Lond, to start this fall.

High school student in Afghanistan interested in philosophy seeks guidance and a correspondent

A young reader in Afghanistan writes:

​Hi Professor ​Leiter,

Let me introduce​ myself - I am Esmat Zeerak, a high school student based in Kabul, Afghanistan. I am really interested in learning and reading philosophy. I started reading philosophy books at an early age, around 11 years old, starting with the ancient texts of Aristotle and dialogues of Plato, from books that my brother had brought back from his college years in the U.S. Though I have learned a lot, and have immersed myself in these books, I know that I still have a lot more to read and understand. 

The problem however is that I need guidance and recommendations and someone who I can regularly discuss the topics that I am reading with. I was hoping if you could be the person I could ask for guidance. I know that you might be a very busy person, and you may not have the time to have these discussions with me, however I would really appreciate it if you could share this email with your students or anyone who might be interested to have these discussions and provide guidance. 

Please let me know and I would gladly answer any questions you may have!

​(Plus. I also write a blog here - https://esmatzeerak.com)​

I corresponded with Mr. Zeerak, and got his permission to post this.  You may contact Mr. Zeerak at esmat@akidwithgreatambition.org (which is a great e-mail address!).  I hope some readers will reach out to him.

Apparently part of "Everyday Feminism" is old-fashioned intolerance

Writer Alice Dreger recounts her experience with the website, where she is persona non grata not for the article she submitted, but for holding verboten views on other topics.

(Thanks to Andrew Vierra for the pointer.)

WIU Philosophy Prof. Powell: "In Defense of Philosophy"

Philosopher Brian Powell (Western Illinois) asked me to share this statement he wrote, and I am happy to do so:

In Defense of Philosophy

I first discovered philosophy in a public library in Kansas. I was wandering the stacks looking for something; I didn’t know what. All I knew was that I did not feel at home in the world—I didn’t care about the same things that the people around me cared about. I found Plato’s Republic and it saved my life. I’m here to testify that this sort of thing happens all the time: philosophy saves people’s lives. My best friend from Grad school found philosophy at a community college in rural Virginia. Having been introduced to Plato, Aristotle, Nietzsche, Marx, and Sartre, he stopped doing drugs and counted these, the great thinkers, as his new community—the community of scholars in which one lives the life of the mind.

Western Illinois University’s administration has recommended the elimination of the philosophy major. The Board of Trustees will vote on the matter Friday, June 10. I write in defense of the philosophy major.  

As a philosophy professor at Western Illinois University, I have the privilege of introducing hundreds of students to philosophy each year. Most of these students didn’t know there was such a thing as philosophy before entering my class, and many of them leave transformed. In the philosophy classroom they are lead to think more deeply and rigorously than they have ever done before. Some of these students find philosophy so transformative that they decide to pursue it as a major. These students, the majors and non-majors alike, become better thinkers and more reflective people. That’s what we do—philosophy professors—we show people how to think better and deeper and become more reflective people.

Philosophy is about asking the most fundamental questions: How should I live? What is justice? What is truth? How can we tell science from pseudoscience? In this way, we follow Socrates. After asking these questions we pursue the answers with the rigorous methods of careful reasoning. Good reasoning—that’s our real expertise—the study of good reasoning is called logic, and Aristotle was its most important ancient practitioner.  

All of this has always been central to the academy. The academy even gets its name from the study of philosophy. It was the name of Plato’s school. Still today the highest degree conferred by any university is the Ph.D.—the doctor of philosophy. The university, higher education, the academy, the life of the mind—these began with philosophy. This is why the Provost’s Academic Enhancement Task Force identified philosophy as one of six foundational disciplines for Western Illinois University in the fall of 2015. A university that turns against philosophy appears to turn against its very foundation. This is why many of WIU’s most prominent emeriti professors have come out publicly against the elimination of the philosophy major.  

Please consider contacting those listed below and asking them to retain the philosophy major at WIU.

Brian Powell

Associate Professor of Philosophy

Western Illinois University

President Thomas: J-Thomas2@wiu.edu

Provost Neumann: K-Neumann@wiu.edu

Trustees:

Roger D. Clawson: clawsonr77@gmail.com

Yvonne Savala: y-savala@wiu.edu

Lyneir R. Cole: lyneir.cole@illinois.gov

Cathy E. Early: CE-Early@wiu.edu

Carolyn Ehlert Fuller: ehlertfuller@gmail.com

Todd Lester: todd.lester@mortonbank.com

Michael Quigley: MW-Quigley@wiu.edu

Humanities Dean at U Chicago steps down amid demand to slash spending by 8% this coming year

Crain's has the basic facts, and notes (in an earlier piece linked in the new one) that the new cuts come on top of earlier ones.  The article attributes the cuts to the building spree on the U Chicago campus, which has added a lot of attractive new facilities, though other sources around campus say much of this results from the huge investment in the new Institute for Molecular Engineering, a field in which the University previously had no presence at all.   The Social Science Division is also facing an 8% cut as well.  

Typepad, the service provider for this and many other blogs, had one of its occasional meltdowns this morning...

...but everything is now OK.

Dopey Donald Chump will withdraw from the Presidential race before the November election

Early on, as readers will recall, I endorsed Dopey Donald Chump as clearly the most qualified of the Republican candidates, and I stand by that judgment.  I can not claim sole credit for his victory, but I can claim prescience.

Dopey Donald Chump, alas, is also afflicted with certain rather obvious deficiencies as a candidate and a person, including:  (1) he finds criticism, and especially humiliation, very painful, (2) he's a lifelong fuck-up, whose incompetence has been obscured by Daddy's fortune, lawyers, and bankruptcy, and (3) he hates to lose.

Ergo, I predict that as it becomes increasingly clear that he will go down in catastrophic flames and become the laughing stock of the entire world, he will withdraw from the race, blaming a "rigged" and "biased" system/media/dishonest people/Mexicans/Muslims/menstruating women for making a fair election impossible.  By doing so, he will avoid ending up like this guy, a real loser!

Boxer and philosopher, redux

A propos this story, Professor David Scott Kastan (English, Yale) kindly shares "another heavyweight champion and philosopher story" that is probably better-known than the one about Ali and Russell:

Oxford philosopher A.J. Ayer's classic work Language, Truth and Logic, in which he put forward the central theses of Logical Positivism, was published when he was just 24. Ayer is said to have been a man in whom "intellect and the senses were unusually highly developed at the expense of the faculties of feeling and intuition". He had a talent for picking up unlikely people, and while staying in New York had befriended the fashionable underwear designer, Fernando Sanchez. It was at a party being held by Sanchez that Ayer, like Kant before him, was required to use all his skills of reason. Ayer was standing near to the entrance of the designer's apartment, chatting with a group of young models and designers. There was a commotion as a young woman rushed in, saying her friend was being assaulted in the bedroom. Ayer went to investigate and found heavyweight champion Mike Tyson pestering a young model just embarking on her career, Naomi Campbell. Ayer asked the boxer to desist but he was unwilling. "Do you know who the fuck I am?", Tyson warned Ayer "I'm the heavyweight champion of the world". "And I am the former Wykeham Professor of Logic", Ayer replied calmly. "We are both pre-eminent in our field; I suggest that we talk about this like rational men".

Source: Ben Rogers, A.J. Ayer: A Life (2000)

Delft's Alfano to take up half-time post at Australian Catholic Univ as well

Mark Alfano (moral psychology), Associate Professor of Philosophy at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, will also take up a half-time post as Professor of Philosophy at the Australian Catholic University in Melbourne.

The collapsing humanities job markets

Grim but essential reading; here's the key chart, "job listings in the humanities":

Note, of course, that many listed jobs, especially around 2008-2010, may not have been filled due to budgetary pressures.   Philosophy listings are down 50% from their recent high a decade ago, and below where they were in 2002-03. 

Melbourne's Greg Restall interviewed...

...at 3AM.

Sunday Symphony: Mendelssohn, "Italian"

 

Muhammad Ali and Bertrand Russell

Thanks to philosopher Cheyney Ryan (Oxford) for sharing this anecdote from Ali's biography:

When Ali encountered a distinguished, ninety-something English fellow prior to his fight with Henry Cooper, he asked him his opinion on the outcome.

“Our ‘Enry’s capable but I think you’ll win.”

Ali responded, “You’re not as dumb as you look.”

He had no idea at the time he was addressing the eminent philosopher and pacifist Bertrand Russell and later wrote to him to apologise. Fortunately, the author of Principia Mathematica took no offence at Ali’s backhanded compliment and the pair exchanged correspondence until Russell’s death in 1970, with Russell writing Ali letters of encouragement concerning his stand on the Vietnam war.

(Russell corresponded with Ali offering material from his Vietnam War Crimes Tribunal for Ali's legal defense for refusing conscription.) 

As a kid in Manhattan, I can still recall huge posters advertising "Cassius Clay."   I'm pretty sure they were leftover from before he changed his name.

David Publishing, redux

A young philosopher tells me that he's been repeatedly solicited by the infamous David Publishing outfit.  Getting tired of the repeated solicitation, he replied that they should "fuck off" since he knows they're a scam.  This generated the following reply:

Sorry to disturb you.  But in fact, our company has been founded more than 10 years, our authors are from all over the world, our journals are indexed in some world famous databases such as 

EBSCO, CSA, CAS, Ulrich, ProQuest, Summon, CEPS and so on, can all the people be cheated by us? We admit our mistake or weakness at the begining of our set-up, but we are perfecting ourselves these years and we think every coins have two sides, which is what we cannot avoid. And we publish the papers,

upload them to our website and post hard copies to authors, which can say we are not a scam. Hope you can understand.

Best Wishes,

Vicky Chou

No comment.

MPs discuss Dopey Donald Chump

This is pleasing:

 

The New Infantilism clearly is a class-based phenomenon...

...and so has little to do with the experiences of the vast majority of students in higher education in the U.S.

A classic metablog moment

Every now and then, wading through the metablog pays off.  I won't link, since whenever I do, it turns out that somewhere on the thread is something defamatory or otherwise outrageous (or something like that will soon appear after linking).  But occasionally in reading the metablog, I do stumble on something very funny (I wish there were less ranting and raving about women and the job market, and more of the funny stuff!). 

This particular metablog moment starts with reactions to this post.  A note regarding terminology:  on metablog, Jonathan Ichikawa is referred to, apparently, as "Itchy" and his spouse, Carrie Jenkins, as "Scratchy."  Here's the highlights of the dialogue prompted by my post: 

Anonymous:   Surely the only way a rich woman can heal from torture by The Chicago Grinch is by purchasing a scooter.

Reply #1: or it [the e-mail about the scooter] had nothing to do with it at all, because it’s normal to send some emails that are about other topics even when something serious has happened?  for fucks sake, this is ridiculous.

Reply to #1:  Your trivializing this trauma is both inappropriate and problematic. This rich English lady was Grinched; she suffers Post-Grinchomatic Stress Disorder, and needs a scooter to recover.

Another Reply to #1:  “something serious has happened”? She got a cranky e-mail? “for fucks sake, THAT is ridiculous”

Reply to Another Reply to #1: Look, Scratchy suffers trauma from the cranky email. And needs a scooter to recover. Who wouldn’t? Also, the cranky email was inappropriate and problematic. Horrific, even worse than losing one’s tiara.

On the unreliability of teaching evaluations, and their gender bias

Once again. 

Bristol's Chris Bertram on Rousseau...

...at Five Books.

More mindless identity-politics attacks on the curriculum...

...in English at Yale.  But can philosophy be far behind?

ADDENDUM:  As if on cue, Audrey Yap (Victoria) (yes, that Audrey Yap).  At least the "battle lines" are clear, and many on the wrong side of these issues have identified themselves.

INDEED as this mindlessness migrates to philosophy, the results should be interesting.  The typical "intro" graduate seminar to 20th-century analytic philosophy would involve reading Frege, Russell, Strawson, Carnap, Quine, Kripke, maybe some Davidson or Putnam or D. Lewis too.  That course would have to go.  The study of German Idealism:  that's out too, all a bunch of white guys, Fichte, Schelling, Hegel etc.  19th-century German philosophy:  forget it, all white guys again, Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche, maybe also Feuerbach and Schopenhauer (and all Germans to boot--what a disgraceful lack of diversity).   Of course, the study of ancient Greek and Roman philosophy would have to go, once again all white guys (were they white?  I'm not even sure, but they were definitely guys!).  The future of academic philosophy is going to be interesting! 

Internet mobs gone crazy

The gorilla story is just the latest.   Until service providers like Facebook and Twitter can be liable for hosting this orgy of harassment and criminal threats, the problem will just get worse.

Dowling College, a liberal arts college on Long Island (in New York) is closing...

...which presumably means its one very accomplished philosophy faculty member, Christian Perring, will need a new position.  I hope some other school will seize the opportunity.

Harambe the Gorilla mauled by Cecil the Lion in animal heaven

This is about the only thing worth reading about these peculiar but insignificant incidents.

The self-segregation of the richest fifth of Americans...

...and what it means for democracy (it's not good).  I missed this when it came out last month, but it is definitely worth a read.