Leiter Reports: A Philosophy Blog

The end of Oxford's dominance in jurisprudence: Leslie Green to leave Oxford

Leslie Green, Professor of the Philosophy of Law at Oxford University since 2006, has resigned his Chair effective the end of September.  (He will continue with his part-time appointment at Queen's University in Canada.)  With the untimely death of John Gardner in 2019,the filling of his prior Chair with a moral philosopher, Timothy Endicott's taking up the Vinerian Chair in English Law (which will focus his energies and supervision in administrative law, rather than jurisprudence), and now Green's departure, the senior ranks in jurisprudence will have been decimated.  There still remain many very good younger legal philosophers at Oxford, but since the Professors have primary responsibility for supervision of graduate students, Green's retirement marks the end of an era, that began with H.L.A. Hart's appointment as Professor of Jurisprudence in 1952.  Oxford is expected to fill Green's Chair, although I don't know how soon.  I can count on one hand (with fingers to spare) the number of appointments that would suffice to sustain Oxford's leadership role in this field.   Prospective students will want to watch this carefully.

Schools with "mandatory" mask policies: what is the enforcement mechanism?

MOVING TO FRONT FROM YESTERDAY--ADDITIONAL COMMENTS WELCOME

A professor elsewhere  at a school with a "mandatory" mask policy is wondering about how he should go about enforcing it, and is looking for suggestions.   Obviously asking for compliance is the first step, but what of the student won't comply?  What about a student who wears the mask inproperly (e.g, the nose is exposed) or frequently removes it to take a drink of water?   For those already teaching, how are you handling these issues?  If your school lacks a mandatory mask policy, what are you doing?

Zheng from Yale-NUS College to Glasgow

Robin Zheng (ethics, moral psychology, feminist philosophy), currently Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Yale-NUS College, will take up a permanent post as Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Glasgow, effective January 2022.

(Thanks to David Bain for the information.)

Is COVID vaccine efficacy waning?

This is an informative overview of what we know; some excerpts:

“[Vaccine] efficacy drops with Delta. That is indisputable,” says Leif Erik Sander, an infectious disease expert at the Charité University Hospital in Berlin. But exactly how much it drops differs across studies. In a report this week analyzing weekly reports on nursing home residents across the United States, researchers found that the messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines made by Pfizer and Moderna had an efficacy against all infections that went from 75% pre-Delta to 53% after it took over. (The variant accounts for more than 90% of U.S. cases now.)  

A large study from the United Kingdom, posted as a preprint yesterday, used the Office for National Statistics COVID-19 Infection Survey, which regularly tests more than 300,000 randomly selected people across the United Kingdom. The study compared the numbers of fully vaccinated and unvaccinated survey participants who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 during two time periods: December 2020 until 16 May, when the Alpha variant dominated, and 17 May to 1 August, when Delta was dominant. The researchers found that for the two main vaccines in use in the United Kingdom—the Pfizer mRNA vaccine and the adenovirus-based shot developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca—protection against symptomatic infection decreased significantly for the Delta period, to 84% for Pfizer and 71% for AstraZeneca. They also found, consistent with other studies, that compared with breakthrough cases due to the Alpha variant, people with Delta breakthroughs had, on average, much higher viral loads in the nose or throat, suggesting they are more likely to spread the virus to others.

Philosopher's Annual, ten top papers of 2020

Professor Grim and the other editors sent this out to the Nominating Editors not long ago (I've added school affiliations):

Our thanks to the Nominating Editors for a wonderful set of initial nominations and for extremely useful survey input and comments. 

This year’s final selection:

The Philosopher’s Annual volume 40

from the literature of 2020

Zach Barnett (National University of Singapore), “Why You Should Vote to Change the Outcome,” from Philosophy and Public Affairs

 Susanne Bobzien (Oxford and Simon Shogry (Oxford), “Stoic Logic and Multiple Generality,” from Philosophers’ Imprint

Renée Jorgensen Bolinger (Michigan), “The Moral Grounds of Reasonably Mistaken Self-Defense,” from Philosophy and Phenomenological Research

Christopher Fowles (Oxford), “The Heart of Flesh: Nietzsche on Affects and the Interpretation of the Body,” from the Journal of the History of Philosophy

Jane Friedman (NYU), “The Epistemic and the Zetetic,” from the Philosophical Review

An interview with philosopher Sophie-Grace Chappell (Open U)

Intelligent and illuminating, as one would expect!

"The whole country is the Reichstag"

A bracing essay from Adolph Reed, Jr., who really is our most astute socio-economic critic these days; a couple of excerpts, below, but I encourage folks to read it all.

The right-wing political alliance anchored by the Republican party and Trumpism coheres around a single concrete objective—taking absolute power in the U.S. as soon and as definitively as possible....

It wasn’t such a big step from Rick Santelli’s faux populist 2009 meltdown calling, from the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade, of all places, for a Tea Party rising to the January 6, 2021 Capitol insurrection. McConnell’s openly declared strategy of stalemating Democratic initiatives of whatever sort made clear that the Republicans have no commitment to democratic government; every move they made was directed, consciously or not, toward takeover via putsch or putsch dressed up as election. The outcome of the 2000 presidential election was an early augury, as the George W. Bush campaign strongarmed a victory by means of actively partisan intervention by Katherine Harris, the Florida Secretary of State, mobilization of corporate goons to storm the Miami-Dade recount, and turning to a reactionary bloc of Supreme Court Justices to place a fig leaf of legitimacy onto theft of the election....

Some of the reactionary, authoritarian tendencies that condensed around Trump and Trumpism have been festering and growing in American politics at least since the end of World War II. First Barry Goldwater, then Ronald Reagan brought them out of the shadowy underworld populated by such groups as the John Birch Society, the World Anti-Communist League, various McCarthyite tendencies, Klansmen and other white supremacists, America Firsters, ultra-reactionary groups with ties to shadowy international entities like Operation Condor that has specialized in state-centered terror and death squads in Latin America and its equivalent in other regions, Christian Nationalists, anti-Semites and Islamophobes....  They’ve been joined in the Trump years by a cornucopia of more or less organized thugs, militant racists and misogynists, open fascists, reactionary libertarians, delusional conspiracists, damaged true believers, and utterly venal grifters—a category that cuts across all the others—and they’re bankrolled by the American equivalent of German Junkers....

There is no such thing as “right-wing populism;” it is an invention of bourgeois propagandists in the punditry and academy. Its principal intent is, on the domestic front, to discredit the left by association with a putatively dangerous irrationalism, e.g., by equating Sanders and Trump....

Guess who's 251 today?

And we're still not rid of him!

Blast from the past: what are "cognate faculty" for PGR purposes?

Back in 2014, but timely again.  Professor Pynes asked me to share this, in light of his current efforts to finalize the faculty lists for the 2021 PGR.

Martha Nussbaum's amicus brief in New York case in support of habeas corpus petition of elephant

Here.

Virtue signalling and public morality

Philosopher Anthony Appiah (NYU) and others discuss at IAITV.

Blackburn v. Parfit

Back in 2011, and it led to a good discussion in the comments which are worth reading!

Can science explain "near-death experiences"?

Various scientists and philosopher John Martin Fischer (UC Riverside) comment in this article.

Is NYU Shanghai really part of NYU?

Or is NYU merely a "minority shareholder" in a Chinese university?   Anyone thinking about working or studying there will want to look into this.

"Seeing Clearly: A Buddhist Guide to Life"

Ricardo Lopes interviews philosopher Nic Bommarito (Simon Fraser) at The Dissenter.

Who is vaccinated against COVID and who is not?

Interesting poll (based on self-reports, however) of the demographic breakdown of those who say they have been vaccinated against COVID:

• Whites: 66 percent
• Blacks: 76 percent
• Latinos: 71 percent
• Urban residents: 79 percent
• Suburban residents: 67 percent
• Rural residents: 52 percent
• White evangelicals: 59 percent
• Democrats: 88 percent
• Independents: 60 percent
• Republicans: 55 percent
• Republicans who support Trump more than party: 46 percent
• Republicans who support party more than Trump: 62 percent
• Democratic Sanders-Warren voters: 88 percent
• Democratic Biden voters: 87 percent
• Biden voters in 2020 general election: 91 percent
• Trump voters in 2020 general election: 50 percent
• White non-college grads: 60 percent
• White college grads: 80 percent

 

Philosophy of rhinos?

Philosopher Craig Callender (UC San Diego) suggested to me that this category should be added to the PGR; I assured him I'd raise it with Professors Brogaard and Pynes!  The suggestion did remind me of an old essay by my colleague (now Judge) Frank Easterbrook on why there was no course on "The Law of the Horse."

Blast from the past: Nihilistic password security questions

Back in 2019.

University of Iowa reverses course on what faculty can say about COVID matters

Iowa is another ass-backwards state (like Alabama), where the Repug leadership cannot cope with the reality which the public health catastrophe of COVID presents.   Fortunately, the University of Iowa decided to rescind purported restrictions on faculty speech related to masking and vaccines.  (Thanks to a philosophy professor there for the pointer.)  This presents a somewhat odd academic freedom issue.  Academic freedom does not authorize faculty to speak in the classroom about subjects unrelated to the discipline they are teaching; but the First Amendment prohibits public universities from dictating what viewpoints can be expressed.  For a  sober assessment of the First Amendment and academic freedom issues, see the comments of Keith Whittington (Princeton); an excerpt:

Signs of the COVID times: Rice shifts to on-line classes for now

MOVING TO FRONT FROM AUGUST 20--UPDATED

Here.  Texas, like Florida, is a disaster area, thanks in large part to Republican Governors who have thrown up obstacles to all sensible public health measures.

UPDATE:   Testing errors led to Rice administrators thinking the situation was worse than it really was.  (Thanks to Matt Lister for the pointer.)

Draft faculty lists for UK, Canadian, and Australasian departments for 2021 PGR

MOVING TO FRONT FROM YESTERDAY

Professor Christopher Pynes, co-editor of the PGR, has now shared with me the draft faculty lists for Anglophone departments outside the U.S. for the 2021 PGR, on which he welcomes feedback ASAP (his contact information is on the draft, and please direct all questions and comments to him):   Download PGR faculty lists non-US Departments 19August2021.   Only faculty in the departments should email Professor Pynes about changes that need to be made.   The faculty lists aim to include those with a tenure home in the philosophy department, with all others involved in training graduate students listed as "cognate" faculty.  "Part-time" faculty are half time, unless otherwise noted.  See the other details in the prior post about the draft US faculty lists.

Please also note that decisions have not yet been taken on what additional programs to include in the 2021 PGR:  the aim is to include programs that might make it into the U.S. top 50, the U.K. top 15, and the Canadian and Australasian top 5s.

Blast from the pasts: favorite books/articles that appeared in 2013?

Back in 2014.

Richard Marshall interview Samuel Fleischacker (Illinois/Chicago), Part 2...

...here.  (Part 1 here.)

Two philosophers win Australian "Future Fellowships"

They are:  Amanda Johnson (Macquarie) and Seth Lazar (ANU), and Magdalena Zych (Queensland).

(Thanks to Nic Southwood for the pointer.)

UPDATE:  Philosopher Toby Meadows (UC Irvine) points out to me that Professor Zych's was not a philosophy project; she is a physicist, although the project sounds very much like one a philosopher of physics might have undertaken.

New UK study of declining effectiveness (against infection) of the Pfizer vaccine

Story here; an excerpt:

DAYS SINCE SECOND DOSE	EFFECTIVENESS AGAINST HIGH VIRAL BURDEN INFECTIONS
	Pfizer-BioNTech shot	AstraZeneca shot
14	92%	69%
30	90%	67%
60	85%	65%
90	78%	61%

By roughly four and a half months after the second dose, Pfizer’s shot will probably be about on par with Astra’s at preventing infections with a high viral burden, said Koen Pouwels, an Oxford senior researcher who helped lead the study. There wasn’t a statistically significant difference in the Astra shot’s effectiveness over time. 

"Realism, Disagreement, and Explanation"

MOVING TO FRONT FROM YESTERDAY--UPDATED

This essay is my contribution to a forthcoming symposium in Philosophy & Phenomenological Research on Justin Clarke-Doane's important book Morality & Mathematics (Oxford, 2020).  (Some of the themes are related to a just published article in a special issue of Ethical Theory & Moral Practice [edited by Richard Rowland] on "Moral Disagreement.")

UPDATED:  Springer has now provided this link for the Ethical Theory & Moral Practice paper.  Not sure how long it will be good, but this should take you to the full paper that is referenced in my contribution to the symposium on the Clarke-Doane book.

Virtual Dissertation Groups, once again

From philosopher Joshua Smart (Southern Illinois/Edwardsville):

What it is: VDG is a free service for those currently working on their doctoral dissertations in philosophy departments. Since 2014, we’ve connected students from over 30 countries to provide peer feedback on dissertation work with a minimal time commitment.

How it works: Each dissertator is placed in a group of three on the basis of a short survey about their project/area of work. About once a month, one member sends some work to the others—3,000 – 6,000 words—who then return feedback and comments in a week or so. (While this has typically been in the form of written comments, the survey now includes an option to indicate a preference for holding video discussions.)

Vaccine boosters are coming

The evidence out of Israel is sobering.  As Dr. Eric Topol notes, boosters are already having an effect against Delta in Israel.  And boosters will be coming here as well.   Once the FDA officially approves the Pfizer vaccine (expecting in September, not sure when the others will get the seal of approval), you can ask your doctor to prescribe it for you.  I got my second shot in early April, and I plan to seek the "booster" not later than October.  Until then, I'm acting like it's May again (always masking indoors etc.), and you should too!

(Thanks to Michael DeNiro for the pointer to the first link.)

Consciousness, space and time

Philosopher Craig Callender (UC San Diego) and others discuss at IAITV.

Tenured philosophy professor resigns position over university's mishandling of the COVID crisis

Jeremy Fischer, an Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Alabama at Huntsville, resigned his position today because of the university's failure to take adequate health and safety precautions in light of the terrible COVID situation in the state.  Professor Fischer's resignation letter is here:  Download 8.16.2021 Fischer Resignation StatementFINAL.   Professor Fischer had previously drafted a petition signed by more than 130 faculty and staff:  Download 000 UAH COVID Petition with Signatures to Administration FINAL UPDATED 8.16.21.

What a failure of leadership by the administration at Alabama/Huntsville.

ADDENDUM:  Professor Fischer kindly offered some details about what the university has and has not done in response to COVID (there is no vaccine mandate, of course): 

Blast from the past: the Sokal hoax, redux

Back in 2018.

Obama's birthday bash

Taibbi doesn't know much, but he can be amusingly scathing; to wit:

A former president flying half the world’s celebrities to spend three days in a maskless ring-kissing romp at a $12 million Martha’s Vineyard mansion, at a moment when only a federal eviction ban prevented the outbreak of a national homelessness crisis, was already an all-time “Fuck the Optics” news event, and that was before the curveball. Because of what even the New York Times called “growing concerns” over how gross the mega-party looked, not least for the Joe Biden administration burdened with asking the nation for sober sacrifice while his ex-boss raised the roof with movie stars in tropical shirts, advisers prevailed upon the 44th president to reconsider the bacchanal. But characteristically, hilariously, Obama didn’t cancel his party, he merely uninvited those he considered less important, who happened to be almost entirely his most trusted former aides....

Delta variant producing different symptoms than earlier variants?

I've heard anecdotal reports to this effect, and reader Dean Rowan kindly sent along this news item, and the NYT has also reported on it.  The main takeaway is that some vaccinated people infected with Delta have mostly cold-like symptoms:  headache, stuffy nose, sore throat (as compared to fever, cough, and shortness of breath).

Wicked restaurant review (and avoid the Polo Lounge at the Dorchester Hotel!)

This one is a gem, and it's funny too.

ADDENDUM:  Philosopher Colin Macleod calls to my attention another amusingly blistering restaurant review!

Great moments in classic blues and their rock 'n' roll covers: Bukka White, "Parchman Farm Blues," 1940

This will be the final installment of classic blues performances that were later covered by rock 'n' roll performers.   The regular "Great moments in obscure rock 'n' roll" will resume the first Saturday in September.

Bukka White (1906-1977) was another Delta bluesman, who served time in the infamous Parchman Farm prison in Mississippi, memorialized in his probably best-known song:

In 1957, the blues and jazz pianist Mose Allison did his own version, which had a more direct influence on later covers:

Blast from the past: can U.S. faculty be forced to teach in person in the fall?

From summer 2020, but (unfortunately) timely again.

Blast from the past: the "novelty fetish" in jurisprudence and normative philosophy

Back in 2015, but still exactly right, to wit:  "one can be pretty sure that the next general theory of law will be more daft than the last one."  And Dworkin's final one was pretty daft!  But he's been overtaken.

On the current Stoicism fad in parts of popular culture

Here, with quotes from philosophers Angie Hobbs (Sheffield), Nancy Sherman (Georgetown) and others.

Study of vaccinated medical workers in Vietnam who got COVID

Interesting; from the abstract:

Findings: Between 11th–25th June 2021 (week 7–8 after dose 2), 69 healthcare workers were tested positive for SARS-CoV-2. 62 participated in the clinical study. 49 were (pre)symptomatic with one requiring oxygen supplementation. All recovered uneventfully. 23 complete-genome sequences were obtained. They all belonged to the Delta variant, and were phylogenetically distinct from the contemporary Delta variant sequences obtained from community transmission cases, suggestive of ongoing transmission between the workers. Viral loads of breakthrough Delta variant infection cases were 251 times higher than those of cases infected with old strains detected between March-April 2020. Time from diagnosis to PCR negative was 8–33 days (median: 21). Neutralizing antibody levels after vaccination and at diagnosis of the cases were lower than those in the matched uninfected controls. There was no correlation between vaccine-induced neutralizing antibody levels and viral loads or the development of symptoms.

Interpretation: Breakthrough Delta variant infections are associated with high viral loads, prolonged PCR positivity, and low levels of vaccine-induced neutralizing antibodies, explaining the transmission between the vaccinated people. Physical distancing measures remain critical to reduce SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant transmission.

In Memoriam: Sarah (Waterlow) Broadie (1941-2021)

MOVING TO FRONT FROM EVENING OF AUGUST 9--I HAD FORGOTTEN INITIALLY TO OPEN COMMENTS FOR THOSE WHO WISH TO POST REMEMBRANCES AND APPRECIATIONS

The eminent scholar of ancient philosophy has died.  Her colleague at St Andrews, Professor John Haldane, kindly shared this obituary:

It is with sadness that we report the death of our good friend and colleague Sarah Broadie. Sarah had suffered ill health in recent times, most recently being diagnosed with a respiratory condition that largely confined her to her home in St Andrews. She was, however, in good spirits and enjoyed conversation and continuing her work including with the Philosophical Quarterly which she much enjoyed and through which she first came to know Moira with whom she became close friends and who did much to look after her. I was closely involved, partly through the good offices of her stepson the philosopher Alexander Broadie, in her recruitment to St Andrews from Princeton in 2001, prior to that she held positions at Rutgers, Yale, Texas (Austin), and Edinburgh universities.

Hospitalization rates and death rates per 100,000 people for the vaccinated and unvaccinated

The NYT has produced a useful chart showing the relative rates of hospitalizations and deaths for COVID based on vaccination status.  In Illinois, for example, the rate of hospitalization for COVID for the vaccinated is about 1 in 5,000, while for the unvaccinated, it is about 1 in 100.  The death rate from COVID for the vaccinated is about 1 in 20,000,  while for the unvaccinated it is about 1 in 1,400.   There is variation, but in all the states, the vaccinated fare much, much better than the unvaccinated.

Great moments in Brown Philosophy Department rock 'n' roll...

...with an epistemology theme.  That's Ryan Doody on bass, Jamie Dreier and Nomy Arpaly on vocals, and David Estlund on guitar:

 

"What is love?"

Philosopher Raja Halwani (School of the Art Institute, Chicago) discusses the topic at Brain in a Vat.

Blast from the past: "unreliable" philosophers

A discussion back in 2013.

Given the fluid situation with COVID, these two Twitter doctor/scientists are worth following

Eric Topol (Scripps) and Bob Wachter (UC San Francisco).

Michelle Montague (Texas) discusses "the given," mental content and experience...

...with Ricardo Lopes at The Dissenter.

Advertising update

All the top spots are now booked through February 2022; the next open top spot (one left) is in March 2022, and then thereafter.  There is at least one second and/or third spot open, however, each month, including in September.  Email me with any questions.

"Do the ends justify the means?"

Arch-utilitarian philosopher Alastair Norcross (Colorado) discusses this question at Brain in a Vat.

Nina Turner did well among working-class Black voters in Cleveland and environs...

...which, according to this genius at Jacobin, shows that a progressive candidate can do well with working-class Black voters.  Not once does the author mention that Turner is Black, a rather large confounding variable.  These folks should read Achen and Bartels, Democracy for Realists.  As long as the Democratic party traffics in mindless identity politics, the economic identity that matters most will not become a locus for political mobilization.

A cautionary note about COVID and what the fall may hold

15 vaccinated people attend a house party; the host gets sick with COVID the next day, as do 10 of the 14 guests over the following days.  As the author notes:

It’s not clear if our group got sick because of a particularly virulent variant, because the vaccine is wearing off or for some other reason. Without good data, we’ll never know.

It could also be that the vaccine is no match for extended indoor exposure to the Delta (or Gamma?) variant.  (Recall the case of the miners in South America.)