Leiter Reports: A Philosophy Blog

The increasingly strange Democratic field

On the one hand, we have candidates with actual, substantive positions that make clear they are not Republicans and not neoliberal Democrats--most clearly, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren--and then we have candidates who are selling their personality and life story and "feel good" blather, and not substantive agendas:  Senators Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, Kristin Gillibrand, and now Amy Klubochar.  I sure hope the substance wins, and the personalities go back to their mirrors.

UPDATE:  This is apt, from political theorist Corey Robin (Brooklyn College).  (Thanks to Dean Rowan for the pointer.)

Great moments in obscure rock 'n' roll: Buffalo, "Freedom," 1973

Here's another, heavier number from the second album of the Australian hard blues rock band, Buffalo that we featured a few weeks ago:

 

"The why of reality": A four-year old asks a philosopher

A nicely done essay by philosopher Nathanael Stein (Florida State).

Reality, perception, language

Philosopher Andy Clark, linguist John McWhorter, and others discuss.

"Annals of the TERF wars"

A bit long, some of it is rather funny and does aptly capture both the vitriol and irrationality of some of the on-line exchanges.

(Thanks to Steven Hales for the pointer.)

"Twitter is public"

A philosopher in California sent me this funny essay by Hamilton Nolan from several years ago:

In light of certain arguments currently taking place on the internet, we would like to issue a gentle reminder of a fact: Twitter is public.

The things you write on Twitter are public. They are published on the world wide web. They can be read almost instantly by anyone with an internet connection on the planet Earth. This is not a bug in Twitter; it is a feature. Twitter is a thing that allows you to publish things, quickly, to the public.

Most things that you write on Twitter will be seen only by your followers. Most things that you write on Twitter will not be read by the public at large. But that is only because the public at large does not care about most things that you have to say. It is not because the public does not have "a right" to read your Twitter. Indeed, they do. They can do so simply by typing Twitter dot com slash [your name] into their web browser. There, they will find a complete list of everything that you have chosen to publish on Twitter, which is a public forum.

SUNY-Fredonia philosophy department off the chopping block, at least for now

Philosopher Steve Kershnar (SUNY-Fredonia) writes:

Dear Professor Leiter:

Yesterday, the president of SUNY-Fredonia (Virginia Horvath) announced that she is suspending PEPRE (Fredonia’s procedure that sets up the elimination of academic programs) and, thus, the decision on whether to eliminate the philosophy major has been put on hold.

I strongly suspect that your coverage of it and the letter from the SUNY-Chairs played a significant role in her decision. 

We are very grateful to your help.

Thank you,

Steve Kershnar, Chair

Athens Review of Books under threat from politically motivated legal action by fascist former minister Nikolaos Kotzias (UPDATED)

MOVING TO FRONT FROM JANUARY 31--LETTER UPDATED WITH NEW SIGNATORIES

Philosopher Alexander Nehamas (Princeton) wrote a useful account last year of what has transpired.  In the United States, this libel action by a public official would have been tossed immediately; but Greek law is at another extreme, and, together with corrupt courts, they have supported the fascist Kotzias's case.  (Even under Greek law, as best as I can understand it, Nehamas is right:  Kotzias was not accused of being a Nazi, although he's certainly a fascist!  Under official EU principles regarding freedom of expression, this guy should have no case.)

The ARB asked me to share this letter to the European Union--signed by myself and many academics internationally--about this attack on fundamental free expression rights the EU supposedly protects:   Download ARB letter current february 5

Folks at the ARB wrote to me:

Please note that the list of signatories is not complete and that we are still in the process of collecting signatures. The full list will be held and updated regularly on the website of the Athens Review (www.athensreviewofbooks.com). Whoever wants to add their signature they can email their name and affiliation to info@athensreviewofbooks.com until the end of February when the letter will be sent officially to Presidents Tusk and Juncker.

We lodged an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights (which incidentally has on two prior occasions condemned Greece in similar cases involving violation of freedom of speech following appeals by its editor-in-chief). However the case will be heard in 2020 and so the journal will be shut down before the hearing and that is why we are trying to make our case known and bring it before the European parliament for discussion. 

The handling of our case has been sharply criticised by renowned professors and distinguished legal scholars. It is referenced in the Reporters without Borders’ 2017 annual report for Greece as well as in statements by the Association of European Journalists. In addition, four different MEPs from different political parties have submitted questions to the European Commission.

Freedom of the press and democracy in Greece are in jeopardy, in fact, Greece tops the list of European countries found guilty by the ECHR in cases concerning freedom of speech and violation of Article 10 of the Treaty of Rome. We ask that Greece finally respects the rule of law and EU Human Rights law. Our case shows is that the fight is never over and that for evil to triumph, all it takes is for good men to do nothing. This is not a struggle to merely defend ourselves; it is about defending principles and freedoms which we strongly believe are precious to all.

I have asked the ARB editors about whether they can set up a fund to which readers can contribute in support.  I will post more information about this as it becomes available.

Who would bike 1,000 miles in the Alaskan winter?

Philosopher Jose Bermudez, for charity.  Wow!

Algorithms, bias and justice

Nice essay at Slate by law and philosophy student Danny Li.

Cory Booker is not a progressive candidate either

What a disgrace.

Ancestry tests based on DNA

Identical twins submitted their DNA to several different companies, and got different results (although a fair amount of overlap).  Pretty weird!

"The Death of God and the Death of Morality"

The final manuscript version is here, for those who are interested.  It will appear in a special issue of The Monist later this year devoted to Nietzsche and being edited by Ken Gemes and Andrew Huddleston.

Senator Warren's proposed wealth tax

This is informative, from USC law professor Michael Simkovic.

Adolf Grünbaum memorial at Pitt, May 11, 2019

Details here.

Vienna's Elisa Freschi interviewed (about Indian philosophy)...

...at 3AM.

Blast from the past: on criticizing students, why is academic law so different than academic philosophy?

Back in 2015.

U of Georgia investigating options for disciplining philosophy grad student for his clearly constitutionally protected speech

Same old, same old.   F.I.R.E. has more details and has intervened in defense of the student.

(The academic who called this to my attention last weekend--sorry for being slow, a hectic week as noted Monday--asked not to be named; it's worth quoting why: "I work at a religious school with no prospect of tenure, so if you do decide to comment on this, please do not mention the fact that I sent this along.")