Leiter Reports: A Philosophy Blog

In Memoriam: Graham Bird (1930-2021)

Graham Bird was Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of Manchester, and Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the University of Liverpool. He was a leading Kant scholar for nearly 40 years, and the author of Kant's Theory of Knowledge (1962), William James (1986), and The Revolutionary Kant (2006). He was President of the Aristotelian Society and Chair of the UK Kant Society.  With Howard Williams, he founded the Kantian Review in 1997.  

I will add links to memorial notices as they appear.

(Thanks to Sally Sedgwick [BU] for this information.)

Great moments in classic blues and their rock 'n' roll covers: Henry Thomas, "Bull Doze Blues," 1928

In summer 2018, I did a series on the blues roots of rock music; as I wrote then:  "All the best rock 'n' roll is indebted through and through to the blues music produced by African-Americans, first in the American South in the first half of the 20th-century and then moving a bit north (to cites like Chicago) after WWII."  Thanks to the sickness of American apartheid, it largely fell to British and Irish musicians to recapture it and popularize it, although a couple of American bands (e.g., Canned Heat, The Allman Brothers Band) helped.  For the rest of the summer, I'll feature some of the classic blues originals, along with some of the more famous covers.  We'll start with what was the "Bull-Doze Blues" by Henry Thomas (1874-1930), but became far more famous in the 1960s as "Going Up the Country."

And here's the Canned Heat version (very indebted to the original), which became a hit in 1968:

Schools with the *most* philosophy majors and the highest percentage of philosophy majors among undergraduates

Fascinating data, courtesy of Professor Schwitzgebel.

Michigan philosophy will not be accepting PhD applications this fall, but will resume accepting applications the following year

Announcement here; they had unexpectedly large yields the last two years, so want to get back to a more normal size for the graduate program.

(Thanks to Abdul Ansari for the pointer.)

Memorial events for philosopher Joseph Margolis

Professor Espen Hammer, chair of the department at Temple University, kindly shared the following information about memorial events for Professor Margolis:

The memorial ceremony for Professor Joe Margolis is planned for Sunday July 25, 12:00PM-3:00PM, at Banca, 600 Spring Garden Street in Philadelphia.

In addition to that, the Temple Department of Philosophy will be hosting a memorial event on Friday September 17 at 3pm (Women's Study Lounge, 8th floor Anderson Hall; if necessary we will be using zoom).

Right-wing cancel culture watch: Scientific American removes pro-Palestinian opinion piece...

...by doctors lamenting the medical crisis wrought by the most recent Israeli bombardment of Gaza.  Suppression of speech critical of Israel and in support of the Palestinians has been the one consistent thread in "cancel culture" for decades now (recall Steven Salaita, Norman Finkelstein, etc.).  Scientific American has disgraced itself.

(Thanks to Fábio Shecaira for the pointer.)

Five most notable lateral moves in 2020-21

Since July 1, 2020, there have been 27 lateral moves reported on this blog:   12 women, and 15 men.  (The prior year, for comparison, there were 48 lateral moves noted--my sense is that is more typical of yearly movement.)  Based on what I've heard from readers together with my own judgment, these were probably the five most significant pick-ups in this year's lateral market:  

Fascists in Idaho target the public universities

CHE story here.  They should target me, since I am promoting Marxism and anti-Americanism, albeit not really in my classes (sorry), but at least on my blog!  And I favor repeal of the absurd Second Amendment.  (On the other hand, I don't "attack law enforcement" [the armed faction of the working class, after all] and unlike the Idaho fascists, I actually believe in free expression, especially in the universities.)

Open letter from philosophers at University of Liverpool in support of the work stoppage protesting the Administration's firing of faculty in Life & Health Sciences based on citation metrics and grant capture

The letter is here, and includes concrete suggestions for how academics can offer support.  (Prior coverage.)  It would be fair to say that the administrators at Liverpool who cooked up this scheme deserve to be consigned to oblivion and kept far away from any serious university.

Being an academic philosopher in Ghana

It's not easy.   Also has some interesting remarks on Ghanian philosophers.

Finding academic mentor(s)

A junior philosopher on tenure-track writes:

I wonder if you could put a question -anonymously- to your readers, which might interest other (early career) scholars as well. How would you go about finding an academic mentor, specifically to discuss and strategize about scholarly and career-related questions at the tenure-track level? I’d be interested to learn what people in a position to be a mentor think about this: do you consider it something worth your while? Under what conditions? Of course, relationships could develop through research-related activities. But I reckon that there could be mentor-mentee relationships outside of primarily research-related interactions, too. Have some of your readers established such relationships, and have they been fruitful for both parties?

The indictment of Trump Org CFO is not about "fringe benefits," but criminal "fraud"

An illuminating breakdown of how serious the allegations are by tax expert Daniel Shaviro (NYU).

Blast from the past: publishing while in graduate school

Back in 2016, with comments from readers.

Great moments in live (in the studio) rock 'n' roll: Albert King & Stevie Ray Vaughn, "Born Under a Bad Sign," 1983

I'd never seen this clip before, a recording of a live studio session with two great blues guitarists:

(Thanks to Frank Saunders for the pointer.)

 

The U.S. is a "young," not an "old," democracy

Apartheid was only dismantled in the U.S. a half-century ago, after all:

We sometimes brag that we are the world’s oldest democracy, and that is true enough in a technical sense. But if you use a more modern definition of democracy, one that includes voting rights for women and minorities as a prerequisite, then we are one of the world’s younger democracies.

“For me, as a democracy scholar, it’s ridiculous to say America is the oldest democracy in the world,” Lindberg said. “The U.S. did not become a democracy until at least after the civil rights movement in the ’60s. In that sense, it’s kind of a new democracy, like Portugal or Spain"....

"Harm" and academic freedom in Australia

Three philosophers--Luara Ferracioli (Sydney), Matthew Lister (Deakin), and Sam Shpall (Sydney)--comment.

Blast from the past: hot topics in epistemology?

Back in 2007.

UPDATE:  The comments on the 2007 thread may take a half minute or more to load, please be patient.

UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Trustees votes 9-4 to approve tenure recommendation by journalism school...

...for Nikole Hannah-Jones, following weeks of controversy.   Note that 4 trustees still voted against!  The message here is clear:  Republican-appointed Boards of Trustees will continue to pose a threat to the academic freedom of departments to hire based on their own disciplinary standards.

Kierkegaard as the father of existentialism

Philosopher Alastair Hannay (Oslo) comments.