Leiter Reports: A Philosophy Blog

Janaway on Schopenhauer

A nice introductory lecture by Christopher Janaway (Southampton), also discussing Schopenhauer's influence on Nietzsche and Freud:

(Thanks to Richard Marshall for the pointer.)

What if Trump is elected President again?

Oy veh.  What state one lives in in America will become even more important than before.  If we're lucky, mortality or morbidity will intervene, although even then the deranged Republican Party will still be a threat to the polity.

(Thanks to Ruchira Paul for the pointer.)

Shields from Notre Dame to UC San Diego

MOVING TO FRONT FROM JUNE 24, 2022--UPDATED

Christopher Shields (ancient philosophy, metaphysics), currently at the University of Notre Dame has now accepted the Allison Chair in History of Philosophy at the University of California, San Diego, where he will start in July 2023.  That's a major hire for UCSD!

UPDATE:   Shields will start January 2023, rather than next summer.

What is it like to be a philosopher? Justin Caouette edition

An interesting trajectory, with many obstacles overcome!

How to write a philosophy paper

Robert Paul Wolff's take.

Cedric Robinson's "Black [Anti-]Marxism"

Adolph Reed calls my attention to what reads like a  devastating critique of Professor Robinson's misnamed Black Marxism, which, unsurprisingly, has been popular with race-centric academics.  An excerpt:

What are the core underlying claims of Black Marxism?  In a nutshell, Robinson argues that Marxism or historical materialism is a European ideology that that has proven to be blind to racialism; that the epistemology of historical materialism, along with the political premium it places on proletarian struggle, does not apply to Africans and other non-European peoples. “It is still fair to say that at base, that is at its epistemological substratum, Marxism is a Western construction – a conceptualization of human affairs and historical development which is emergent from the historical experiences of European peoples mediated, in turn, through their civilization, their social orders, and their cultures."  Robinson’s follow-up work, published in 2001, An Anthropology of Marxism,[6] consummates the diatribe against Marxism.   In place of the alleged “grand narrative” of Marxism, Robinson gives us a “grand narrative” of the “Black Radical Tradition.” “Robinson literally rewrites the history of the rise of the West from ancient times to the mid-twentieth century, tracing the roots of Black radical thought to a shared epistemology among diverse African people,” notes approvingly Robin Kelly in his oft-cited Foreword to the 2000 edition of Black Marxism, “and providing a withering critique of Western Marxism and its inability to comprehend either the racial character of capitalism and the civilizations in which it was born or mass movements outside of Europe.”[7]

In Memoriam: Bruno Latour (1947-2022)

A French "anthropologist" and "sociologist" of scientific practice, his work was quite influential in the field of "science and technology studies."  Latour earned his Ph.D. in "philosophical theology," and his work in science studies has had some influence in philosophy of science, although it is mostly discussed critically (see, e.g., Philip Kitcher's The Advancement of Science [1993]).   The Guardian obituary is here.  

(Thanks to Eric Wolf for the pointer.)

Why you can't tickle yourself

At last, an answer!

(Thanks to Dean Rowan for the pointer.)

Is Wittgenstein truly a "hero" of philosophy? Or can we do without his "wankings"?

Ayokunle Afuye, a longtime non-academic reader of the blog from Nigeria who is interested in philosophy, writes with the following provocatively put question:

I am here to pose an honest question to you and your readers. One that has left me disconcerted and conflicted over the years. The question is this: Is Ludwig Wittgenstein (“LW”) truly a hero of philosophy? I am of the opinion that we can do our analytic philosophy (all fair and square) without bothering ourselves with the wankings of Mr Wittgenstein!

I should add the following:

(i)  I do think that a lot of people do not regard him as a true hero of philosophy and are too afraid to speak up because everyone else thinks he is a hero of philosophy. By “hero of philosophy” I mean ‘someone that has made invaluable, peerless contributions to philosophy’. David Lewis comes to mind! Lewis is in my opinion, a quite special dude and one of the most exceptional people to ever exist in philosophy.

(ii)  Even if we agreed LW probably is a hero, he did not make any ingenious contributions in the fields he worked- language, mind, logic, etc. When I think of heroes in the field of language, I am thinking: Frege, Russell, Montague, Lewis, Davidson, Grice, etc. In mind: Nagel, Chalmers, Searle, Putnam, Ned Block, etc. In logic: Frege, Russell, Godel, Church, Tarski, etc. LW’s contributions are lightweight and are more like things already out there in the world (“The Picture Theory of Meaning,” for example, is an absolute scam!). In other words, in the more analytic aspects of philosophy: Formal Epistemology, Philosophy of Science, Analytic Metaphysics, Philosophy of Language and Linguistics, LW is of absolutely no use!

Blast from the past: "Academic freedom" for Larry Summers?

Back in 2005.  Although this incident probably helped shorten his tenure as Harvard President (there are no academic freedom rights to administrative appointments), it had no effect on his actual academic freedom, his tenured position at Harvard, and so on.

A Nobel mystery

So the 2022 Nobel season is over.  In many articles, there is the obligatory reference to the surprise call the winner got, often in the wee hours of the morning in the case of American winners.  And here's the mystery:  often the call comes to their cell phone.  How does the Nobel foundation know the cell phone number of the winners?   Any ideas?

(Comments on this year's Nobel Prizes are also welcome.)

An interview with Ronald de Sousa (Toronto) about the philosophy of the emotions

Here, courtesy of Andrew van Wagner.

Three philosophers write about climate change...

...in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.  The authors are Daniel Steel (British Columbia), Tyler DesRoches (Arizona State), and Kian Mintz-Woo (University College Cork).

Great moments in obscure rock 'n' roll: Budgie, "Breaking All the House Rules," 1975

ORIGINALLY POSTED AUGUST 6, 2016

This Welsh heavy metal trio never made it big in the U.S. (though Metallica's 1998 cover of their 1973 "Breadfan" song gave them more visibility), though continued to have a steady following in Europe into the 21st-century (with vocalist/bassist Burke Shelley being the only continuing member [he died earlier this year, 2022]).   1975's Bandolier was their best album, but 1997's Best of Budgie (not to be confused with two earlier "best of" collections!) gives you all the most memorable tunes from that album plus a few others (also from early-to-mid 70s albums).  Like the early Judas Priest, they often have a strong sense of melody--especially during the interludes that often follow the main riff--and I find them quite listenable in a way that I can not abide the "heavy metal" of the 1980s and after.

 

 

Memorial for Joseph Raz at Balliol College, Oxford

Professor Ruth Chang (Oxford) has shared the following about the planned memorial event for Joseph Raz:

It will be held in Balliol College Hall in Oxford on December 10th, 2:30p.m. There will be six speakers (Dr. Penelope Bulloch, Justice Aahron Barak, Professor Leslie Green, Professor Sam Scheffler, Professor John Hyman, and Ms. Cecile Degiovanni) talking about different periods in Joseph's life and about his work, interwoven with songs from Mahler sung live by professional musicians. Some of Joseph's photographs will be on display in a nearby room. After the event (which will run about 2 hours), there will be a reception hosted by the Master open to all. The event will be recorded and posted on the Oxford Law Faculty and Oxford Philosophy Faculty websites. Unfortunately, the event will not be livestreamed. 

Also in the works are two scholarly conferences on Raz's philosophical contributions, one to be held at Columbia Law School, and one at King's College London.  Calls for papers for each are forthcoming, and the events will take place in 2023.

Blast from the past: Simon Critchley rides to the defense of Derrida

Back in 2007.

China has told EU it is strongly opposed to use of nuclear weapons by Russia

Hopefully this report is correct, since it will weigh more heavily on Russia's decisions than opposition from the West:

In recent conversations with their Chinese counterparts, EU officials say they have detected cracks in Beijing’s support for Russia. Chinese diplomats have removed their talking points blaming NATO for the conflict in Ukraine and made clear that the use of nuclear weapons by Russia would be viewed as totally unacceptable in Beijing.

Meloni and Scruton

Giorgia Meloni, the expected next Prime Minister of Italy and political descendant of Italian fascists, is a big fan of Roger Scruton!

[I]t is not the writings of Benito Mussolini, the journalist and revolutionary socialist who founded fascism, that inspire Meloni today, but those of the late British conservative philosopher Sir Roger Scruton.

Meloni is president of the Conservatives and Reformists group in the European Parliament. In a eulogy to Scruton in the Milan daily Il Giornale last January she wrote: ‘As president of the ECR Party, the party of European conservatives, it is my intention to promote the figure of Sir Roger Scruton as one of the pillars of European conservatism, above all among the young.’

(Thanks to Boris Dagaev for the pointer.)

Richard Marshall interviews Gottfried Wilhelm Leibinz (independent scholar, Hanover)...

...at 3:16 AM.

Vida Yao (Rice) talks about her path into philosophy and the nature of moral philosophy...

...at Dialexicon.

Blast from the past: Requiring faculty to be *on campus* five days per week

A discussion back in 2018.

The return of Mandeville (in the Wall Street Journal, of course)

Political theorist David Lay Williams (DePaul) comments.

New editor at "Locke Studies"

Philosopher Daniel Layman (Davidson College) hash been appointed as the new Editor of Locke Studies.  . 

(Further information about Locke Studies is available here: https://ojs.lib.uwo.ca/index.php/locke/)

(Thanks to Shelley Weinberg for the information.)

Raz as a political philosopher

Philosopher David Owens (King's College, London) offers an illuminating synoptic account, of a kind Raz himself never produced.  An excerpt from near the start:

What most clearly distinguishes Raz's social thought from its surroundings is the absence of justice. The agenda of Anglophone political philosophy of the last few decades was set by Rawls's ‘A Theory of Justice’ when he wrote that ‘justice is the first virtue of social institutions.’2 Rawls thereby made justice the master value of political philosophy. By contrast, in the index of Raz's most realised work of political and moral philosophy ‘justice’ merits no entry.3 What is at stake here? How does making justice your master value shape your thought about society and why would anyone take a different tack? The notion of justice has long been important to political theory and prevalent in political discourse but its current pre-eminence among Anglophone political philosophers is, at least in part, due to many of them conceiving of it as what I shall call a formal rather than a personal value.4 Whilst I take the notion of ‘personal value’ from Raz, ‘formal value’ is my coinage. Raz's theoretical motivations become clearer once we read him as denying the existence of formal values.

Sinclair from Roehampton to Queen's U/Belfast

Mark Sinclair (post-Kantian Continental philosophy, history of modern philosophy, metaphysics) was offered a new position at Roehampton during the recent administrative assault on the unit (and others), but has chosen to take up instead a post in philosophy at Queen's University, Belfast. This is the cost of trying to dissolve a unit and making people re-apply for their jobs:  many of the best people will leave.  (Professor Sinclair, by the way, did the very nice Bergson volume in my Routledge Philosophers series.)

NYU fires organic chemistry teacher for being too demanding, after student protest petition

I wish there were another gloss on this, but that seems to be the only one that is plausible.  It's not that the guy is emeritus at Princeton (until recent years, Princeton was not very strong in chemistry), or that he authored a widely used textbook.  It's that the guy taught organic chemistry for 15 years at NYU (after retiring from Princeton), without a problem, until....well, here's what the aritcle says:

After retiring from Princeton in 2007, he taught organic chemistry at N.Y.U. on a series of yearly contracts. About a decade ago, he said in an interview, he noticed a loss of focus among the students, even as more of them enrolled in his class, hoping to pursue medical careers.

“Students were misreading exam questions at an astonishing rate,” he wrote in a grievance to the university, protesting his termination. Grades fell even as he reduced the difficulty of his exams.

The problem was exacerbated by the pandemic, he said. “In the last two years, they fell off a cliff,” he wrote. “We now see single digit scores and even zeros.”

After several years of Covid learning loss, the students not only didn’t study, they didn’t seem to know how to study, Dr. Jones said.

A lot of students have been suffering because of the pandemic, no one doubts that.  And the Internet certainly started making people stupider and lowering their attention spans in the early 2000s.  But firing a professor who has been teaching for 15 years because of al this stinks to high heavens, and means the "inmates" (sorry, the "clients") run the "asylum" (sorry, the "business").

"Race reductionism" threatens to doom the left

This is the best piece I've seen in Counterpunch in awhile; an excerpt:

A debate rages on the left between the practitioners of identity politics and alleged “class reductionists,” but the latter seem to be decidedly in the minority. This is unfortunate, because in order to defeat the threat of the far-right—whether it’s called white nationalism, Christian nationalism, white supremacy, neofascism, or proto-fascism—we’re going to have to build a movement on the basis of class struggle. This doesn’t mean denying the legitimacy of the grievances of groups defined by race, ethnicity, gender, or sexuality, but it does mean incorporating them in a broader movement organized around the old Marxian dualism: the working class vs. the capitalist class.

Advertising update

There's been a flurry of bookings recently, so now the next open top spot is in March (one left), and the next open spots (2nd or 3rd) are in February.  Please email me (bleiter-at-uchicago-dot-edu) for more information.  Thanks.

Blast from the past: Philosophers, eating, ethics--a discussion of poll results

Back in 2012.

Norbert Hornstein (Maryland) on linguistics, rationalism, Chomsky, and more

MOVING TO FRONT FROM SEPTEMBER 28--A VERY INTERESTING COMMENT FROM A LINGUIST IN RESPONSE TO MY (ADMITTEDLY) OPEN-ENDED REQUEST.  I HOPE OTHERS KNOWLEDGEABLE WILL WEIGH IN NOW.

The interview continues (earlier).  I would be interested in reactions from readers knowledgeable about these issues.

"The Life of Arthur [Schopenhauer]"

The video game!

(Thanks to Boris Dagaev for the pointer.)

Crustaceans, insects, sentience, well-being

An interesting talk by philosopher Peter Godfrey-Smith (Sydney) at IAITV, especially the last twenty minutes (after some initial stage-setting, much of the first ten minutes was given over to what I found a rather unsatisfying discussion of meta-ethical questions, but tastes may vary!).   Crustaceans are sentient, insects probably are, plants are probably not.  But what if we dropped sentience as the sole consideration of moral relevance, and asked about "well-being" regardless of conscious experience, perhaps, in terms of "health" or "preferences"?  That would get plants, bacteria, indeed all cellular life into the circle of moral concern.   To be clear, Godfrey-Smith does not treat that as a reductio of the position, although one could imagine someone going that route. Anyway, I found that discussion interesting and, as one would expect, empirically well-informed.

A big day for Brazil

For all my friends there, I dearly hope the fascist loses on the first round, and that he goes more peacefully than our monster-child.

UPDATE:  Unfortunately, there will have to be a run-off in a month between Lulu and the fascist.  I hope the next month is not as bad as some fear it will be.

Sleepwalking into Armageddon: Russia, Ukraine, and nuclear weapons continued

I would urge readers to at least look at comments #76 and after on the earlier, extremely informative thread about Russia, Ukraine, and nuclear weapons.   This is a very grave situation, and I now think it's highly likely Russia will use tactical nuclear weapons.  That was one natural takeaway from Putin's speech the other day:  if the U.S. can use nuclear weapons to make a point towards an enemy (the U.S. use of atomic bombs in Japan), so can Russia, to put it rather simply.   I'm going to open comments here for further discussion of these issues, since the last thread has gotten very long, although I commend all the participants there for the high level of discussion and invite them to continue here (and to offer a more optimistic interpretation).

As I'm teaching Thucydides tomorrow, I'll just conclude with a comment he made about the horrors of the civil war in Corcyra:  "The cause of all this was the desire to rule out of avarice and ambition, and the zeal for winning that proceeds from those two” (p. 92).  That was the cause of Athens's downfall as well, and it may be the cause of ours and Russia's.

Typepad, the blog service provider, was out from yesterday evening until midday today, more or less

It was a system-wide problem, so all Typepad blogs were down.  Apologies for the inconvenience.  This was the worst outage in nearly 20 years of using this blog platform, so hopefully it won't happen again.  

Great moments in obscure rock 'n' roll: Dizzy Man's Band, "Truck Driver," 1970

Dutch rock band of the 1970s, this decent number comes from their debut album:

(Thanks to Dean Rowan for the pointer.)

Things are about to get much worse when it comes to Ukraine

MOVING TO FRONT FOR LAST TIME, ORIGINALLY POSTED SEPT 21--THERE CONTINUES TO BE TIMELY UPDATES AND INTERESTING LINKS AND COMMENTARY ON THE EVOLVING SITUATION 

Start with this:

Russia on Tuesday paved the way for the formal annexation of swathes of Ukrainian territory, backing referendum plans in areas of Ukraine its soldiers control in a direct challenge to the West that could sharply escalate the war....

In what appeared to be choreographed requests, Russian-backed officials across 15% of Ukrainian territory - an area about the size of Hungary or Portugal - lined up to request referendums on joining Russia.

The self-styled Donetsk (DPR) and the Luhansk People's Republics (LPR), which Putin recognised as independent just before the invasion, and Russian-installed officials in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions have asked for votes over less than 24 hours.

Luhansk, Donetsk and Kherson officials said the referendums would take place in just days - on Friday Sept. 23 through to Monday Sept. 27. Russia does not fully control any of the four regions, with only around 60% of Donetsk region in Russian hands.

If Moscow formally annexed a vast additional chunk of Ukraine, Putin would essentially be daring the United States and its European allies to risk a direct military confrontation with Russia, the world's biggest nuclear power.

"All this talk about immediate referendums is an absolutely unequivocal ultimatum from Russia to Ukraine and the West," said Tatiana Stanovaya, founder of the political analysis firm R.Politik.