Leiter Reports: A Philosophy Blog

2023: Philosophers who died

The passing of the following philosophers was noted on the blog during 2023:  Joseph Agassi, Hans Albert, Henry E. Allison, Maria Rosa Antognazza, Shlomo Avineri, Albert Borgmann, David Burrell, Robin Downie, Enrique Dussel, Edward Erwin, Harry Frankfurt, Stephen Gaukroger, David Gauthier, Kent Greenawalt, Jeroen Groenendijk, Ian Hacking, David Harrah (died in 2022), Ian Jarvie, Charles H. Kahn, Simo Knuuttila (died in 2022), Douglas C. Long, Peter Machamer, Jennifer A. McMahon, Richard W. Miller, J.N. Mohanty, Donald J. Munro, Stephen Nathanson, William Newton-Smith, Thomas M. Robinson, Mark Rollins, Mark Sagoff, Michael Scriven, John G. Slater, William J. Talbott, Benjamin Ross Tilghman, Ernst Tugenhadt, Gianni Vattimo, Bruce Waller, Fred F. Wilson, Paul Woodruff.

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 those likely to be known to many others in the profession. Apologies for oversights and omissions.)

Great moments in obscure rock 'n' roll (and obscure covers): the best finds of 2023

As readers will know, there were fewer new obscure finds this year (I think I have come close to exhausting what's actually worth flagging here!), so I expanded to posting some relatively obscure number as well as obscure "covers" of great rock numbers, and recycling "great moments" from prior years.  Here, in any case, are my four favorite really obscure discoveries from this past year:

Creepy John Thomas, "Ride a Rainbow," 1969

Frijid Pink, "State Line Boogie," 2011

Head Over Heels, "In My Woman," 1971

Sweetwater, "Why Oh Why," 1968

And here are four other obscure (but not as obscure) numbers I realy enjoyed from the past year:

Atomic Rooster, "Devil's Answer," 1971

Bonnie & Delaney & Friends, "Comin' Home," 1971

Budgie, "Homicidal Suicidal," 1971

Ry Cooder, "Billy the Kid," 1972

Feel free to add your own favorite "obscure" (or fairly obscure) rock 'n' roll finds over the past year; you can just cut and paste the URL into the comment, it will convert automatically.  I may take some of your suggestions for next year!  (Two of the four on this year's "really obscure" list were suggested by reader Dave Wasser.)

An informative memorial essay about the great European historian Arno Mayer

Here.

A very sensible piece on Harvard's mixed track record on free expression...

...and some sensible proposals for how to move forward, from the former Dean of Harvard Medical School.

de Beauvoir to Sartre: you do not understand the "lived experience" of women

Via philosopher Kate Kirkpatrick on Twitter, I came across this interesting exchange between Sartre and de Beauvoir:

 

Rashid Khalidi's open letter to the Columbia administration...

...and its efforts to suppress lawful political speech in support of the Palestinians.

Since Israel can't actually dismantle Hamas, what's the real goal?

When even the NYT acknowledges how unrealistic the stated goal of destroying Hamas (an organization, not a person!) is, it's natural to ask what the real purpose of the brutal attack on Gaza is?  This opinion piece in the right-wing Jerusalem Post may contain the answer:  ethnic cleansing.  (The piece is remarkable for, among other things, no mention of Israel's role in Gaza's misery.)

It's too bad for Israel that Robert Paul Wolff is not its leader

Despite the disclaimers he offers, this would have been a more humane and more effective response to the October 7 atrocities:

Leaving aside what Israel should have done 50 years ago or 30 years ago or even 10 years ago or one year ago, what could it have done on October 8 in response to the attacks? I do not think there was ever the slightest possibility that Israel would do any of these things, but it could have and here is what I say.

First, they could have mobilized their military and paid attention to their intelligence services to make sure that such attacks did not happen again. Second, they could have worked as hard as they could to carry out a hostage swap, releasing as many of their prisoners as they needed to to get back the hostages. Third, Israel could have stopped supporting Hamas by green lighting transfers of funds to the Hamas operatives in Gaza from Qatar and elsewhere. Fourth, Israel could have launched a full-scale effort to support the creation of an independent Palestinian state. Fifth, Israel could have ordered its legendary security forces to start carrying out targeted assassinations of Hamas leaders, in Iran, Qatar, and anywhere else they could be found. They could make it clear that this was not a knee-jerk response to the attack but a full-scale assault on Hamas from the top down that would continue so long as there was anywhere in the world a Hamas leader who was still alive. Sixth, Israel could have launched constant Secret Service attacks on Hamas leaders in Gaza, after the hostages had been returned. Seventh, Israel could have pulled some of the settlements in the West Bank back into Israel and created the genuine possibility of a real Palestinian state. Finally, as part of this effort, Netanyahu could have kicked the extreme right wing parties out of his government and struck a deal with the centrist parties which included keeping him out of jail, this being his price for all of the above.

As I say, there was never the slightest possibility that the Israeli government would doing any of these things but they could have and it would have saved 20,000 or more Palestinian lives, gained them the immediate and undying support of the world community, and actually strengthened Israel and made it more secure.

 

 

"What would Socrates do?"

Philosopher Tamar Gendler discusses at the Hidden Brain Podcast.

The public health disaster in Gaza may become a public health disaster for Israel

Perhaps this prospect will lead the Israelis to stop the brutal assault on Gaza, if only for reasons of self-interest.

Need a last-minute gift for a philosophy student?

Vice in Ancient Philosophy by Karen Margrethe Nielsen is available for free download from CUP until January 3!

Happy Xmas to those who celebrate!

And a bit of philosophy-related dark humor for the day:

Looking back at the uneven record of elite colleges regarding speech

A useful overview by Len Gutkin at CHE, charting some of the more notorious incidents I often associate here with "the New Infantilism."  Many of the events noted were discussed here in the past, from the Yale Halloween fiasco (which begins Gutkin's narrative), to the Princeton craziness in the wake of George Floyd's murder.   What remains to be seen is whether university leadership, in the wake of the "anti-semitisim" hearings, will commit to a consistent and principled approach to free expression, or whether they will cave to the authoritarians in Congerss who want to see pro-Palestinian speech on campus suppressed and punished.

 

The current atrocities being committed in Gaza are too much even for Thomas Friedman

Friedman is a good barometer of elite imperial opinion, so Israel should take note:

It is time for the Biden administration to give Israel more than just gentle nudges about how it would be kind of, sort of nice if Israel could fight this war in Gaza without killing thousands of civilians.

It’s time for the U.S. to stop wasting time searching for the perfect U.N. cease-fire resolution on Gaza.

It’s time for the U.S. to tell Israel that its war’s aim of wiping Hamas off the face of the earth is not going to be achieved — at least not at a cost that the U.S. or the world will tolerate, or that Israel should want.

And here's a recent report on the scale of the destruction wrought by Israel.

Great moments in obscure rock 'n' roll covers: Parker James, "High Falootin' Woman," 2019

Parker James has only a couple of dozen listeners on Spotify, but he sure does a fine rendition of this number from the Grand Funk "Red Album" from 1969:

 

The bloodbath at SUNY Potsdam (with echoes of West Virginia)

The latest; an excerpt:

It is too late for philosophy, or the liberal arts in any meaningful sense, at SUNY Potsdam. Our Provost has finally admitted that they plan to retrench faculty in discontinued programs. We were told, and I quote, “with the discontinuation of the program, the plan is to decrease the number of faculty by 1.” (Interim Provost Alan Hersker, 12/05/2023). So no hope here at Potsdam. But the disease spreads.  SUNY Fredonia has released an eerily familiar plan to cut 13 programs.​

 

Nonetheless, there is still hope for other public institutions of higher learning if we can spread the word.  What is happening at SUNY Potsdam (and WVU and SUNY Fredonia, among others) is just a sign of the times to come for public higher education. The sign is not a good one. A tide of forces threaten the future of liberal arts education in the U.S., but they go unacknowledged, and hence unaddressed. 

The "Forum for Philosophical Studies" is *not* the reputable journal "Philosophical Studies"

A well-known senior philosopher elsewhere received the following invitation:

From: Rakel Lee <[email protected]>

Subject: [FPS] Invitation to join the Editorial Board as Section Editor for “Forum for Philosophical Studies”

Date: December 21, 2023 at 2:16:32 AM EST

To:  [omitted]

Dear Prof. [omitted],

Hope this e-mail finds you well.

We are setting up “Section Collections”, which are collections of papers that concentrate on specific multidisciplinary topics and are organized and led by category experts who take on the role of Section Editor of the project. With diverse backgrounds that cover the various facets of the research topic, we believe that the project “Section Collections” offer an effective way to present your research, thereby help readers and authors to search the publications with congeneric topics.

On behalf of the Editorial Office, we are contacting you to find out whether you are interested in serving as Section Editor of the below mentioned Sections. You may invite your friends or colleagues to co-edit and set the submission deadline according to your time schedule.

Philosopher Jason Stanley to take up regular visiting professorship at Kyiv School of Economics

He will donate his entire salary for the visiting professorship (for several weeks each summer) to an organization supporting Ukraine in its fight against the Russian invaders.  (We noted his visit last summer here.)  This is a truly admirable commitment by Professor Stanley.

(I do disagree with Stanley's characterization of what's happening in Ukraine as the "center" of a "global fight against fascism."   It is a just fight against an illegal war of aggression, but the aggression has nothing to do with fascism and everything to do with Russian strategic interests, as many have pointed out.) 

Blast from the past: Letters for students applying to U.S. programs and those "top 1%," "top 5%" etc. comparisons

Back in 2015, with reader discussion.

Mass shooting at Charles University in Prague

Several readers have called this horrible event to my attention, since it does have a philosophy "connection." The shooter appears to have been a 24-year-old philosophy student, who killed his father before coming to the Faculty of Arts building at Charles University, which houses several departments, including philosophy.  He killed at least 15 people, and wounded dozens of others, before killing himself.  It is unclear at this time whether he specifically targeted faculty or students in the philosophy department.  The shooter appears to have acquired the gun legally; perhaps Czech authorities will now revise their relatively liberal laws regarding gun ownership.

Comments are open for any other relevant information or links.

APA announces various prizes...

...including the Book Prize, Barwise Prize, Gittler Prize, Dewey Lecturers, and others.

CNN's Fareed Zakaria's critique of American universities

Critiques like this, whatever their merits (which are mixed), probably do reflect the Zeitgeist, and maybe will even have a salutary effect by putting an end to the "diversity" mania in American higher education.  Some excerpts, with a few comments interspersed:

American universities have been neglecting excellence in order to pursue a variety of agendas — many of them clustered around diversity and inclusion. It started with the best of intentions. Colleges wanted to make sure young people of all backgrounds had access to higher education and felt comfortable on campus. But those good intentions have morphed into a dogmatic ideology and turned these universities into places where the pervasive goals are political and social engineering, not academic merit.

An overstatement, but unfortunately, there is some truth to it, although it varies by field.

As the evidence produced for the recent Supreme Court case on affirmative action showed, universities have systematically downplayed the merit-based criteria for admissions in favor of racial quotas. Some universities’ response to this ruling seems to be that they will go further down this path, eliminating the requirement for any standardized test like the SAT. That move would allow them to take students with little reference to objective criteria. (Those who will suffer most will be bright students from poor backgrounds, who normally use tests like the SAT to demonstrate their qualifications.)

In the humanities, hiring for new academic positions now appears to center on the race and gender of the applicant, as well as the subject matter, which needs to be about marginalized groups.

Quantum mechanics and determinism

Philosopher of science Eddy Keming Chen comments in Nature.  I'm curious to hear from philosophers of science about this analysis.

van Fraassen on Glymour and bootstrapping...

...at van Fraassen's philosophy blog (from a few years ago, but I only just came upon it).

Quebec's "war" on its Anglophone universities (including McGill)

This is pretty perverse.  Curious to hear from readers in Quebec about what's going on and how this is expected to play out.

An informative essay on Larry Laudan's contributions to history and philosophy of science...

...from philosopher Stathis Psillos.

"Saved by Infinite Jest"

A beautifully written, and very personal, essay about depression, suicide, and the writing of David Foster Wallace, by legal philosopher Mala Chatterjee.

Blast from the past: the job market and the "stale" PhD issue, once again

Back in 2012, with reader discussion.

Rebecca Goldstein on Spinoza, atheism, and philosophy of literature...

...at Robinson's Podcast.

The Obamas' film about the great Bayard Rustin is as bad as one would expect

Adolph Reed explains.  (For earlier Reed on Rustin, see this.)

Advertising update

All the top spots are now booked through April, so the next open top spot is in May.  There are still some 2nd and 3rd spots open in the January through April period, as well as thereafter.  Please note the new rate structure announced last August.

Israel/Gaza links for December 18

No wonder the bombing looks "indiscriminate":  nearly half the Israeli bombs are unguided

The most dangerous place in the world to be a child is Gaza

The "theology" of Hamas

"On human shields" (thanks to S. Wallerstein for the pointer)

A dying mother pleads for the release of her daughter, kidnapped by Hamas.

ADDENDUM:   "No safety for children in Gaza"  (Thanks to Ruchira Paul for the pointer)

In Memoriam: Mark Sagoff (1941-2023)

A leading contributor to environmental philosophy and ethics, Professor Sagoff spent several decades with the Institute for Philosophy & Public Policy, first at the University of Maryland, College Park and then at George Mason University.  The Institute's memorial notice is here.  Comments are open for remembrances from those who knew Professor Sagoff or for those who wish to comment on the significance of his work.

Oxford University Press, recent experiences?

MOVING TO FRONT FROM DECEMBER 13--A COUPLE OF COMMENTS WERE CAUGHT IN THE SPAM FILTER, AND HAVE NOW APPEARED

A number of readers have wondered why Peter Momtchiloff is leaving.  I do not know his reasons, he only told me he is not, at present, taking another full-time job.  30 years is a long time to work for any employer, of course.  Still, some folks have speculated, not implausibly, that changes in the academic publishing houses, including OUP, may have made the job less appealing than it once was.  One senior philosopher, for example, shared this:

Production on [my book] was appalling. Over two hundred catches on the proofs, with many repeated errors on the same point, often accompanied by "it's fixed and you can't review it again."

Of course that's the luck of the draw with the subcontractor you get, but marketing is in house, and they were equally appalling.  As usual, I filled out the tedious form about where to send it, and only after I checked with a couple of folks, and asked OUP why they didn't get it, did they say they hadn't sent it anywhere.  Apparently, they just send around a "newsletter" with a list of titles.  I had to beg them to send a few copies around.  Basically their marketing is non existent, but condescending.  

Great moments in obscure rock 'n' roll: Frijid Pink, "State Line Boogie," 2011

We haven't featured this Detroit-based blues rock band of the late 1960s and early 1970s in several years (e.g., here and here).  This number only appers, to my knowledge, on this 2011 collection by a reformed version of the band, although I believe it's one that was part of their much earlier live sets--it certainly soundsl ike it could have come from the "original" band.

Feel free to add links to other favorite Frijid Pink numbers (and if anyone knows the origin of this particular number, please feel free to add that too).

 

Surge in violent threats against public officials in the U.S.

It is, indeed, a threat to democracy, civil liberties and social order.

A "radical" proposal for Penn's future

Here: 

Many institutions today deliver research and teaching mixed with other social and political agendas, somewhat like the religious agendas of elite Universities of the 1700s.

To recommit to Franklin’s vision, Penn’s sole aim going forward will be to foster excellence in research and education. This aim is in the best long-term interest of all members of society. 

Even more radical, the proposal suggests that faculty appointments be based on merit!  (Imagine believing in meritocratic criteria?  Very radical.)   I note that, as of now, not many Penn faculty have signed.

For a different vision of Penn's future, this embarrassing call for the suppression of lawful speech by a Penn law professor makes for chilling reading.

Blast from the past: Oliver Kamm, Marko Attila Hoare, and the Importance of Being Able to Read

Way back in 2005.  One of my favorite eviscerations of the foolish from the past.

"Why you shouldn't use ChatGPT"

Philosopher Benjamin Mitchell-Yellin comments.

Dworkin's (and Leiter's) jurisprudence makes "Wheel of Fortune"

OK, maybe not, but a philosopher who teaches philosophy of law sent this to me:

Of course, he's not an "_D_OT" but he is a "_OPH__ST" (in the pejorative sense Plato popularized) who has had a pernicious influence on honest intellectual inquiry in the field of jurisprudence for decades.  His continuing influence is due to the perverse influence of moralism in legal philosophy (aided and abetted by the sociology of the academy--who, at least during that time, could ignore the Oxford "Professor of Jurisprudence"?).

Piccinini from Missouri/St. Louis to Missouri/Columbia

Gualtiero Piccinini (philosphy of mind, psychology & neuroscience), Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the University of Missouri, St. Louis, has accepted a senior offer from the Department of Philosophy at the University of Missouri, Columbia, where he will start in the academic year 2024-25.

On Harvard President Claudine Gay

I agree with this assessment by a Washington Post opinion writer.

Some good advice for philosophy referees...

...from Richard Yetter Chappell.

Knowledge, Wisdom, Philosophy: the differences explained

Via Scott Sturgeon on FB, I came across this illuminating explanation:

David Wallace talks about the "many worlds" interpretation of quantum mechanics...

...at Robinson's Podcast.

Blast from the past: Reader opinions of factory farming?

Back in 2017. 

The Kafkaesque world of the Pomona College English Department

Here.  Pomona is one of the most elite liberal arts colleges in the U.S. 

(Thanks to Michael Clune for the pointer.)

Israel/Gaza links for December 11

A new "open letter" calling for a ceasefire in Gaza (from the group that produced this earlier letter).

Israel's AI-supported "mass assassination industry" in Gaza (thanks to Daniel Star for the pointer):  

Compared to previous Israeli assaults on Gaza, the current war...has seen the army significantly expand its bombing of targets that are not distinctly military in nature. These include private residences as well as public buildings, infrastructure, and high-rise blocks, which sources say the army defines as “power targets” (“matarot otzem”).  The bombing of power targets, according to intelligence sources who had first-hand experience with its application in Gaza in the past, is mainly intended to harm Palestinian civil society: to “create a shock” that, among other things, will reverberate powerfully and “lead civilians to put pressure on Hamas,” as one source put it....The Israeli army has files on the vast majority of potential targets in Gaza — including homes — which stipulate the number of civilians who are likely to be killed in an attack on a particular target. This number is calculated and known in advance to the army’s intelligence units, who also know shortly before carrying out an attack roughly how many civilians are certain to be killed.  In one case discussed by the sources, the Israeli military command knowingly approved the killing of hundreds of Palestinian civilians in an attempt to assassinate a single to Hamas military commander.

President of Red Cross speaks out about the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza.

 

CNN Gaza reporter loses relatives and home in Israeli strike.

 

Great moment in obscure rock 'n' roll: Culpeper's Orchard, "Mountain Music (Part I)," 1970

Reader Ian York tipped me off to this Danish progressive rock band, that recorded several albums in the early and mid-1970s, with some modest success in Europe.  This comes from their debut:

Feel free to post links to other Culpeper's Orchard favorites.

 

JHP Book Prize for 2023

Giorgio Pini, reviews editor of the Journal of the History of Philosophy, writes:

The winner of the 2023 Journal of the History of Philosophy Book Prize for the best book written in the history of philosophy published in 2022 is Stephen Ogden (Notre Dame) for Averroes on Intellect: from Aristotelian Origins to Aquinas's Critique (Oxford University Press, 2021).