Leiter Reports: A Philosophy Blog

2021: Philosophers who passed away

The passing of the following philosophers was noted on the blog during 2021:  Lilli Alanen, Robert Ammerman, Frithjof Bergmann, Graham Bird, James Bohman, Jacques Bouveresse, Richard N. Boyd, Sarah (Waterlow) Broadie, Eugenio Bulygin, Louis Charland, John Corcoran, Richard Double, Jude P. Dougherty, J. Michael Dunn, Jim Edwards, Ed Gettier, José A. Giannotti, Jorge J.E. Gracia, Gilbert Harman, Katherine Hawley, Waheed Hussain, Kenneth Kipnis, Aryeh (L.A.) Kosman, Andrew Levine, Joseph Margolis, Storrs McCall, Charles W. Mills, Fabrizio Mondadori, Margaret Morrison, Kai Nielsen, Bernard Rollin, Gerasimos X. Santas, William Ralph Schroeder, Andreas Teuber, Salvatore Veca, Stephen J. White, Eddy Zemach.  You can find more information, including (often) links to obituaries by scrolling through the "Philosophy Updates" category (in which this post also appears).

(Note: I do not attempt to list the passing of every professional philosopher in a given year; I do try to record the deaths of thoselikely to be known to many others in the profession.  Apologies for oversights and omissions.)

PGR 2021 Preview: Summary of specialty rankings for programs tied at 19th (CORRECTED)

Continuing with the recent specialty rankings previews for programs outside the very top ranks, below the fold are the summaries of the specialty rankings for the three programs tied at 19th:  Cornell University; University of California at San Diego; University of Chicago.

PGR 2021 Preview: Summary of specialty rankings for programs ranked 22-24

Continuing with the recent specialty rankings previews for programs outside the very top ranks, below the fold are the summaries of the specialty rankings for the programs ranked 22 to 24:  University of Arizona and University of Wisconsin at Madison (tied at 22nd), and University of California, Irvine (24th).

2021 in review, 4th quarter: October, November, December

October

The study of philosophy in law schools, and JD/PhD programs in the U.S. (and elsewhere), 2021 edition

MIT cancels distinguished lecture by geoscientist who expressed "incorrect" views about diversity

On Macroeconomics, in the NYT (a discussion)

Charles Mills and his critique of Rawls (a discussion)

Yale's President is extremely confused about the role of academic freedom and his job

Talking about the Chinese Room argument with a chatbot

The attack on tenure in Georgia

SSHRC (in Canada) requiring "diversity" in research proposals (a discussion)

No wonder Schopenhauer was a pessimist!

PGR 2021 Preview: Summary of specialty rankings for programs tied at 25th

Continuing with the recent specialty rankings previews for programs outside the very top ranks, below the fold are the summaries of the specialty rankings for the programs tied at 25th:  Ohio State University and Washington University, St. Louis.

How many cases of infection by the Covid virus are asymptomatic throughout?

It's surprisingly difficult to find a clear answer to this question.  Many studies that report X percentage being asymptomatic actually mean only that at the time of testing positive, the person was asymptomatic, not that they never developed symptoms.  Does anyone know the answer?  Is there an answer yet for Omicron?  Please post links in the comments (no need to format them, just paste the URL).

2021 in review, 3rd quarter: July, August, September

July

Adoph Reed on Robin DiAngelo and the political economy of "race" politics (link fixed)

Percent of tenure-stream faculty who are female in PhD programs in philosophy increased about 40% since 2004

In Memoriam: Bob Moses (1935-2021)

August

Ranked philosophy departments that have no faculty specializing in the Continental traditions in philosophy after Kant

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

"Realism, Disagreement, and Explanation"

"The whole country is the Reichstag"

Philosophers Annual, ten top papers of 2020

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

New Hampshire legislator files bill that would require high school students to take a half-year introduction to philosophy...

...that would focus on epistemology, logic, ethics, and philosophy of science.  The sole sponsor is Julius Soti (R-District 7), who has a B.A. in philosophy and history from William Paterson University.

(Thanks to Glenn Branch for the information and pointers.)

PGR 2021 Preview: Summary of specialty rankings for programs tied 27th

Continuing with the recent specialty rankings previews for programs outside the very top ranks, below the fold are the summaries of the specialty rankings for the programs tied at 27th:   University of California at Riverside; University of Colorado at Boulder; University of Massachusetts at Amherst; and University of Pennsylvania.

2021 in review, 2nd quarter: April, May, June.

April

New philosophy rankings released (April 1)

Philosopher and cognitive scientist John Sutton explains his decision to take "volutnary [sic] redundancy" at Macquarie University

A list of people "cancelled"

A curious, passing remark about Bernard Williams

"The New Ptolemaism" in the humanities and social sciences

On the motives of academics and administrators in promoting faux "social justice" initatives

"Public philosophy" is not scholarship (and not simply because most of it is bad qua philosophy)

Peter Singer, scholarship, and "equity" in citations

Lindfield University is a disgrace

 

What do you remember about characters from fiction (novels, films, comics, games etc.)?

MOVING TO FRONT FROM XMAS EVE:  PROFESSOR LAVOCAT WELCOMES MORE RESPONSES; THANKS TO THOSE WHO HAVE ALREADY COMPLETED THE SURVEY.

Professor Françoise Lavocat (Paris III), a distinguished literay scholar (more about her here), is undertaking a cross-cultural study of what people remember about characters they encounter in fiction (whether books or comics or games or films etc.).  You can participate in her survey here.  It should take 10 or 15 minutes.

Philosophers on the bodily and other pleasures

Max Hayward (Sheffield) comments at The Atlantic.

PGR 2021 Preview: Summary of specialty rankings for programs tied 31st

Continung with the recent specialty rankings previews for programs outside the very top ranks, below the fold are the summaries of the specialty rankings for the programs tied at 31st:   Georgetown University and Johns Hopkins University.

2021 in review, 1st quarter: January, February, March

January

An intelligent discussion of "systemic racism"

Dominic Berry is drawing a line!

The "Anti-Kathleen Stock" letter is full of mistakes, fact-free speculation and misleading innuendo

Where (untenured) tenure-track faculty at the U.S. "top 24" PhD programs in 2020-21 got their PhD

The real worry about the stormtrooper riot at the Capitol lasts week is what it portends

Graduate students afraid to support the open letter on academic freedom

Christa Peterson's "Hit Piece" on Kathleen Stock

PGR 2021 Preview: Summary of specialty rankings for programs tied 33rd

Continung with the recent specialty rankings previews for programs outside the very top ranks, below the are the summaries of the specialty rankings for the programs tied at 33rd:   Duke University, Indiana University at Bloomington; University of Connecticut at Storrs; University of Miami; University of Virginia.

Great moments in obscure rock 'n' roll: the five best finds of 2021...

...in my opinion, anyway. Glad to hear yours in the comments (click on the category, "Great Moments in Obscure Rock 'n' Roll" [in which this post appears] to see this year's selections from which to choose).

Here's my top five:

Bang, "Mother," 1972

Blodwyn Pig, "Same Old Story," 1970

The Damnation of Adam Blessing, "The Last Train to Clarksville," 1969

Steamhammer, "Contemporary Chick Con Song," 1969

Tucky Buzzard, "She's Meat," 1971

And a few runners-up that could just as well have been the top five:

Bang, "Feels Nice," 1973

Blonde on Blonde, "Conversationally Making the Grade," 1969

Tucky Buzzard, "Time Will Be Your Doctor," 1971

Zior, "I Really Do," 1971

PGR 2021 Preview: Summary of specialty rankings for programs tied 38th

Continung with the recent specialty rankings previews for programs outside the very top ranks, below the are the summaries of the specialty rankings for the programs tied at 38th:  Northwestern University and University of Maryland, College Park.

America is doomed, part 414: millions of armed individuals may revolt if Trump doesn't win in 2024

That's the short version; here's a longer excerpt:

If armed violence erupts the 2024 elections, quelling it could fall to the U.S. military, which may be reluctant to take arms against U.S. citizens. In that case, the fate of the nation might well be decided by a simple fact: a big subset of one of the two parties has for years been systemically arming itself for this very reason.

"I hope it's just too crazy to happen here," says Erica De Bruin, an assistant professor of government at Hamilton College, who studies coups around the world. "But it's now in the realm of the plausible"....

What is it like to be a philosopher? Yujin Nagasawa (Birmingham) edition

Here.

The proposed "restructuring" at the University of Sydney

This is alarming:

Student newspaper Honi Soit reported it had seen a leaked list of units and enrolment numbers which revealed that at least 252 of 748 (33.7 per cent) undergraduate units were at risk of being cut.

Among the vulnerable subjects were Hebrew, biblical and Jewish studies, visual arts and philosophy, it reported.

Other subjects with low enrollments included areas as diverse as classics and ancient history, Chinese, Spanish, Latin American, Indonesian modern Greek, and Arabic languages and culture.

Philosophy at Sydney has long been one of the top programs in Australasia, and a program of international distinction.   What's going on?  Comments are open.

University of Chicago delays start of Winter Quarter one week...

...and the first two weeks of instruction thereafter will be online.  (The Law School is not delayed, so we will be online for three weeks.)   Chicago recorded over 5,000 new cases today, double from what it was a week ago, and five times what it was two weeks ago.   I'm sure the story is similar in many other places.  If the Omicron surge follows the South Africa pattern in and around Johannesburg, then we'll peak in about two weeks or so (at 20,000 new cases per day?) and it will start to decline...so we hope!

PGR 2021 Preview: Summary of specialty rankings for programs tied at 46th

Continuing with the recent preview, below the fold are the summaries of specialty rankings for the five schools tied at 46th:   University of California at Davis; University of Illinois at Chicago; University of Minnesota at Minneapolis-St. Paul; University of Rochester; and University of Utah.

PGR 2021 Preview: Summary of specialty rankings for U.S. programs ranked 44th

Following up on yesterday's preview, below the fold are the summaries of specialty rankings for the two programs tied for 44th in the U.S.:  Florida State University and Rice University.  The remainder of the top fifty should follow later today.

In dead of night, University of Hong Kong removes "Pillar of Shame" statue...

...commemorating the Tiananmen Square massacre.  The University's official statement effectively acknowledges that the University removed it because of the Beijing-imposed laws that criminalize dissent.

This is the latest in a series of incidents that indicate Hong Kong is being crushed by the authoritarians in Beijing.

(Thanks to Chris Fraser for the pointer.)

Setting health-care priorities during pandemics and other mass casualty events

The entire conference, featuring many philosophers, is online here.  The topic, alas, is rather obviously timely!  The schedule is below the fold:

The Israeli General and Deleuze & Guattari

A strange story.

(Thanks to Aaron Garrett for the pointer.)

PGR 2021 Preview: Summary of specialty rankings for U.S. programs ranked 40th

Lower-ranked (overall) programs often have strength in particular specialties, which it is useful for prospective students to know about.   Today, I list the specialty rankings for the programs ranked 40 overall:  Boston University, Carnegie-Mellon University, Syracuse University, and University of California at Santa Barbara.  I'll fill out the rest of the top 50 over the next couple of days, unless of course the full report goes live before then.  

Remember that the rankings in the specialties include ALL Anglophone programs, not just the U.S.

PGR 2021 Preview: The U.S. top 50

Since Wiley-Blackwell still has not gotten the full 2021 report online, an since deadlines are fast approaching (in some cases, they have passed), I wanted to share the top 50 overall in the U.S. from the 2021 surveys (the online report will include the medians and modes, as well as the rank in prior years, I list below only the mean score):

Colorado Summer School in Philosophy, 2022

Philosopher David Boonin (Colorado) writes:

I’ve now finalized the topic for this summer: “Parts and Wholes," understood broadly to include issues involving individuals and groups, like intergenerational ethics and statistical profiling, as well as more straightforwardly part/whole subjects like issues in mereology and set theory, and am ready to start accepting applications. The link to the site containing all the information is here:

https://www.colorado.edu/philosophy/events/summer-seminar

I've heard good things about these summer seminars over the years, so I encourage undergraduate readers, especially those thinking they might be interested in graduate school, to take a look.

Wittgenstein's Tractatus at 100

Philosophers A.W. Moore (Oxford), Marie McGinn (emerita, York), Jose Zalabardo (UCL), and others comment at IAITV.

Richard Marshall interviews Rene Descartes...

...at 3:16 AM.

Harvard and the SAT

Another amusing, over-the-top rant from Freddie deBoer; an excerpt:

College admissions exist to serve the schools. Period. End of story. They always have, they always will. College admissions departments functioned as one big anti-Semitic conspiracy for decades because that was in the best interest of the institution. Guys who the schools know will never graduate but who run a 4.5 40 jump the line because admissions serves the institution. Absolute fucking dullards whose parents can pay - and listen, guys, it’s cute that you think legacies are somehow the extent of that dynamic, like they won’t let in the idiot son of a wealthy guy who didn’t go there - get in because admissions serves the institution. Some cornfed doofus from Wyoming with a so-so application gets in over a far more qualified kid from Connecticut because the marketing department gets to say they have students from 44 states in the incoming class instead of 43 that way, because admissions serves the institution. How do you people look at this world and conclude that the problem is the SAT?

America is doomed, Part 413: the U.S. military may also fall prey to polarization

Three retired generals sound the alarm in the Washington Post:

As we approach the first anniversary of the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, we — all of us former senior military officials — are increasingly concerned about the aftermath of the 2024 presidential election and the potential for lethal chaos inside our military, which would put all Americans at severe risk....

[W]ithout constant maintenance, the potential for a military breakdown mirroring societal or political breakdown is very real.

Do students read the syllabus?

Here's a way to find out!

2021 JHP Book Prize to Prof. Karen Ng (Vanderbilt)

Philosopher Jean-Luc Solère (Boston College), the book review editor of JHP, asked me to share that the Journal of the History of Philosophy 2021 Book Prize goes to Karen Ng (Vanderbilt) for her Hegel’s Concept of Life: Self-Consciousness, Freedom, Logic (Oxford University Press, 2020).   Congratulations to Professor Ng!

Fricker from CUNY to NYU

Miranda Fricker (ethics, epistemology, feminist philosophy), currently at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, has accepted a senior offer from the Department of Philosophy at New York University, to start next fall.   This is a significant move, especially for prospective students interested in Professor Fricker's work who will need to submit their applications soon!  It would surely affect the overall ranking of CUNY (which came in at #12 in the recent PGR surveys, but without Fricker, CUNY would almost certainly drop out of the tie with Columbia et al. at #12--although it should still remain solidly in the top 20), and will make NYU an attractive choice for students interested in feminist philosophy, as well as strengthening ethics and epistemology.  (CUNY will still be a viable choice for students interested in feminist philosophy.) 

Great moments in obscure rock 'n' roll: Zior, "Rolling Thunder," 1971

British hard rock/blues band,whose best song we featured earlier this year, but the concluding number of their debut album isn't bad either:

 

So much for "artificial intelligence"

Philosopher Jeffrey Ketland (Warsaw) writes:

I made an account and had quick chat with the AI bot, GPT-3.

Here’s the output [below the fold] for the da Vinci engine, which is the smartest. Since it’s called da Vinci I asked a simple pendulum problem, which it got wrong.

It got all the answers wrong. Not very encouraging, in my opinion!

I repeated this chat one more time, getting different answers, but still basically wrong.

Blast from the past: Carrie Jenkins, Alan Soble, and the "chasm of crap"

Back in 2018.

"Democracy or Ameri-cracy?"

This is a Chinese propaganda video, which is mostly correct about the U.S., even though its purpose, of course, is really to offer an apology for the authoritarianism of the CCP (which the CCP wants, in classic Stevensonian "persuasive definition" fashion, to dub "democracy"):

 

PGR 2021 update

Professor Pynes has delivered all the key files to Wiley-Blackwell, and gone to great lengths to present it in a format that should make preparing it for release on the Internet fairly simple.  He tells me that W-B has been working on getting it live, but has not confirmed a release date.  I hope by early next week!

The latest on Omicron, and the universities

Unfortunately, COVID continues to dominate the news.  Here's a round-up of some useful information:

(1)  Omicron infection symptoms are a lot more like the common cold than previous variants according to UK data:

“As our latest data shows, omicron symptoms are predominantly cold symptoms, runny nose, headache, sore throat and sneezing, so people should stay at home as it might well be Covid,” Spector said in Zoe’s latest report Thursday.

Fatigue was also mentioned.  Not mentioned as much:  fever and cough.  In the best-case scenario, this means Omicron is more like the coronaviruses that have long circulated without killing 1% of those infected.  But it's too soon to know if that's the case, or if the milder symptoms reflect the "immunity wall" built up in populations by vaccination and prior illness.  (See also this less hopeful report about Omicron severity from Imperial College London.)

AI bot, GPT-3, now available for anyone to utilize

Philosopher Blake Myers (see earlier discussion) points out that the AI bot, GPT-3, is now available for anyone to use. Click on “GET STARTED” at the link, below, and quickly create an account:

https://openai.com/api/

Dr. Myers adds:  "Also, if people just want to quickly chat with GPT-3 once they make their account and sign in, they can just click on the reddish-pinkish box that says 'Examples,' then click on 'Chat,' and finally click on 'Open in Playground.' But there are also many other things people can explore that can be done now."

The decline of religion in America

Biologist Jerry Coyne (Chicago) collects the latest evidence.

PGR 2021 Preview: Anglophone programs by "mode"

Following up on programs by "median" score, below the fold are the modes of 3.5 or higher for the top Anglophone programs:

Yale undergraduate calls out Yale's obscene wealth

The same story could be told about Princeton, Stanford, or Harvard of course:

When I arrived at Friday’s Sophomore Holiday Dinner, I was stunned at how the already-striking Commons had been transformed. The chandeliers that illuminate the dining hall were dimmed to set an elegant scene, and the wooden tables and chairs that usually fill Commons were replaced by massive buffet lines. Meal stations with copious amounts of food lined the walls, and a dessert table featuring an ice sculpture dragon sat in the middle of the space....

The event’s emcee...took a moment to note the sheer abundance of food at the dinner — 1,000 shrimp, pounds and pounds of fish, crab, lobster, lamb, turkey and pork and cakes with too many layers to count — all for Yale. Once his speech ended, the Parade of Comestibles began. Dining hall workers, most of whom were Black, marched around Commons carrying the flags of the 14 residential colleges and carrying elegant food displays as a local drumming band, all Black, played triumphant beats. They circled Commons several times touting, among other things, a 10-foot loaf of bread, an ice-sculpted sleigh stuffed with the aforementioned shrimp and a rack of lamb decorated with mint and berries. Students swayed to the beat of the drums, excitedly watching the performance and recording it on their cell phones.

Blast from the past: Tales from the American oligarchy

Back in 2008.

"Why Omicron is scaring me"

Philosopher Gregory Pence, a leading bioethicist at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, gave permission to share these concerns:

The fact that cases of the Omicron variant are doubling every 2.5 days in England and Europe worries me, and the cases seem to be doubling despite 89% of the English having one “jab” and many others having natural immunity.

Yes, Omicron is less likely to hospitalize or kill you, but Pfizer-vaccinated people like me are 70% of the break-through infections, and who wants such an infection (and possible Long Covid)?

With 50+ million unvaccinated Americans, and break-through infections, 1000 cases in 25 days could create a million cases in America, and in another month, that’s potentially … well, you do the math.

What worries me is that folks like me who get infected will want anti-viral drugs or monoclonal antibodies all at the same time as millions get infected  in January/February and as burned-out staff at hospitals face a tsunami of hospitalized cases.

And what about all the people with “normal” problems like attacks of stroke, heart disease, cancer, and injuries?

I fear that we are going to need a triage system in place.

*************************************************************

Am I missing something here? Being too alarmist? I hope so.

British government data showed that two shots of Astra Zeneca, the primary vaccine in the UK, provides zero protection against infection by Omicron; two shots of Pfizer provides 35% protection.  However, Pfizer booster shots raise that to 75% (compared to 95% for Delta), at least for some period of time (we don't yet know how long the raised antibody levels last).  Of course, booster levels are low in the U.S.

I'm opening this for comments/links from readers about the issues raised by Professor Pence.

Dennett on Rorty's newly published "unpublished" papers

An appreciative (perhaps generous) review:

I’m also a bit chagrined to now acknowledge that the definition in my Philosophical Lexicon of ‘ a rortiori’ (adj. ‘for even more obscure and fashionable Continental reasons’) has probably contributed to a caricature of Rorty’s work that is all too convenient: an idea of the analytic philosopher turned Continental belle-lettrist. On the contrary, as this volume shows, Rorty was always keenly alert to the historically-blinkered vision of his fellow analytic philosophers, and after his ‘Continental turn’ he continued to compose masterful analyses of later stars of the analytic discipline – Kripke, McDowell, Mackie, Hacking, Kim, Brandom, Davidson, Searle, Nagel, Goldman and Fodor, to name a few highlights – well seasoned with his growing confidence about how they fit into the larger project of human inquiry. His 1994 paper, ‘The Current State of Philosophy in the United States’ should be required reading for every graduate or prospective graduate student in philosophy in the US (and elsewhere), since it’s full of observations that I believe are as true today as they were twenty-seven years ago: for instance, about the attempt by philosophers to escape the humanities and join forces with the sciences; about the gravitational attraction of problems that can be addressed with little or no historical understanding; and about the pinched perspective on the issues that has resulted from this trend.

Earlier posts on Rorty and his legacy.

Richard Marshall interviews Spinoza (independent scholar)...

...at 3:16 AM.