Leiter Reports: A Philosophy Blog

Note to readers re: my academia.edu page

I created one early on, but never use the site any longer, because they're hucksters and they want too much information just to utilize it.  I mention this because I recently discovered many messages there, going back years.  Folks who want to reach me need to e-mail me at my university e-mail.  Thanks.

Blast from the past: the most important philosophers of the past two hundred years

Back in 2009;  the top ten:  Wittgenstein, Frege, Russell, Mill, Quine, Hegel, Kripke, Nietzsche, Marx, Kierkegaard.  The ordinal listing aside, a plausible "top ten."

Another classic psychology "result" bites the dust

Class, not willpower, predicts the ability to delay gratification and do well in school.

A nice profile of Bryan Magee...

...who probably did more than anyone to bring serious philosophy to a wider public (especially in the UK).

In Memoriam: Baruch Brody (1943-2018)

A leading figure in bioethics, Professor Brody taught for several decades at Rice University, as well as running a bioethics center at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.  The Rice memorial notice is here.

Annual summer blogging quasi-hiatus

For June, July and August, I will be doing less blogging, though will try to get time-sensitive items up promptly--but expect a few posts each week, maybe more sometimes.  Advertising rates are reduced accordingly (there are still top spots in each of July and August).

Faculty votes "no confidence" in President and Provost at Catholic U

Hardly surprising given the michief afoot there.

"Triple jeopardy" (!) in a Title IX case at Michigan State

The tide is clearly turning on the procedural irregularities of Title IX proceedings at universities when the New York Times runs a story plainly sympathetic to the accused rather than the accuser.

(Thanks to Gregory Mayer for the pointer.)

Great moments in obscure rock 'n' roll: Hawkwind, "Mirror of Illusion," 1970

This British band--a mix of psychedelic, blues, and progressive rock--had modest success in the UK (and continues to this day), but never made it in the US.  This is the great concluding number of their debut album, which will grow on you with each listen:

 UPDATE:  A couple of readers point out that Hawkind's bassist, "Lemmy," went on to later fame and fortune with Motorhead (for example).

Durham's Phillip Horky interviewed...

...at 3AM.

Bennett from Cornell to Rutgers

Karen Bennett (metaphysics, philosophy of mind), Professor of Philosophy at Cornell University, has accepted a senior offer from the Department of Philosophy at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, where she will begin this fall.

"Important"=expresses the "correct" view

Jenny Saul (Sheffield) does this all the time:  "important" doesn't mean well-argued, insightful, philosophically creative or significant, it means "expresses the correct views accepted by all right-minded people who share my epistemic bubble."  That's why I'm sure she won't note the "important" reply to Professor Bettcher's rather weak piece.

ADDENDUM:  Now she's at least linked to Stock's response, though it was not deemed "important" of course.

Annals of ridiculous villainy: Niall Ferguson redux

Seriously, what was he thinking?   (Prior coverage of this embarrassing individual.)

(Thanks to Daniel Buk for the pointer.)

What is it like to be a philosopher? Simon Kirchin edition

Here, courtesy of Clifford Sosis as always.

PhilPeople is here

I tested some earlier versions  at the request of the editors, but now David Bourget (Western) and David Chalmers (NYU) have announced the public version:

PhilPeople's main features include:

1. Personalized profiles for every philosopher, including customizable publication lists and graphical elements.
2. A comprehensive directory of departments offering an array of department-wide statistics.
3. A powerful search engine for searching PhilPeople’s database of philosophers based on topics, location, demographics, and other criteria.
4. The news feed, a social networking system that allows you to follow the publications, appointments, updates, paper recommendations, blog posts, and other activities of philosophers.
5. The radar, a tool to discover people traveling near you, and for announcing your own travels.
6. A discussion sessions feature allowing you to share a paper for discussion among as many or as few people as you want, with extensive on-screen commenting and group discussion features.

PhilPeople replaces the social and profile features of PhilPapers. Your PhilPapers profile has automatically been converted into a PhilPeople profile. Your login on PhilPeople is the same as on PhilPapers.

In order to make sure that your profile is complete and reflects your preferences, please follow the following link, which will take you through a simple transition wizard:

https://philpeople.org/wizard

We especially encourage you to complete the demographics section of the wizard. This information will be usable by philosophers searching for members of demographic groups, and will also help us gather better information on the demographics of the profession worldwide. You may choose between different levels of privacy in how various aspects of your demographic information are used: e.g. included in your profile, used in determining search results, or used only in overall demographic statistics.

We also encourage you to make sure that of all your papers are included on your profile and are categorized in the appropriate topic areas. This will ensure that your name shows up when people are searching for philosophers who work on those topics. Finally, we encourage you to upload a cover picture for your profile.

Please take a look at the profile page for your department. Your departmental administrators (Gabriel Richardson Lear, Jessica Barbaro) have already been contacted and given access to manage departmental information. If your department's profile is inaccurate or incomplete, please encourage them to correct it. Note also that your departmental administrators may have added information to your profile. You can see edits made by administrators by visiting the “Recent changes” page accessible from the Options menu in your profile.