Leiter Reports: A Philosophy Blog

Gardiner from Tennessee to Tulane

Georgi Gardiner (epistemology, meta-philosophy, social philosophy), Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Tennessee, has accepted appointment as Associate Professor of Philosophy and Gender & Sexuality Studies at Tulane University, effective this August.

Plato's burial place? And Plato's last evening

Here and here, according to newly deciphered scrolls thought unreadable due to volcanic ash.  Not sure what to make of this, other than Plato apparently was a stickler for rhythm (see the second link for more).

(Thanks to Eric Wolf and Thomas Smith for the pointers.)

A turn for the worse at Columbia University

Yesterday, protesters broke into a building on campus (smashing windows in the process), and have barricaded themselves inside.  They have now committed several crimes (vandalism/destruction of property, trespass, perhaps others) and will almost certainly be arrested.  An unfortunate turn of events. 

On recent protests and arrests at the University of Texas at Austin

A graduate student in philosophy there writes:

State troopers and big police presence did not return the next day, and students and faculty gathered again for protest. Criminal charges have been dropped against 57 people arrested, but DPS is launching a criminal investigation against the arrested Fox 7 cameraman. The university will allow arrested students full access to campus for now, but might still discipline arrested students after the finals.

Since you posted about letters and statements from Columbia and Yale, I thought I'd share an open letter by UT faculty expressing no confidence in President Hartzell, which will be sent out tomorrow at 8AM. Unfortunately only 3 faculty of the philosophy department have signed so far. Besides the actions taken on April 24, this letter also mentions the decision to fire 40+ employees of the Division of Campus and Community Engagement (DCCE) "without consulting with the faculty and under a shroud of secrecy". (To my mind this is strategically somewhat unfortunate.  I hope potential signatories will realize they don't need to have any particular view about that decision in order to have lost confidence in President Hartzell based on what transpired on April 24.)

And for events yesterday (after the above email was sent) see this news report on Twitter.

It's 40 years since the famous Davidson conference at Rutgers

You can see the remarkable program for the event organized by Ernie LePore here:  Davidson, Quine, Putnam, Kripke, Kim, Higginbotham, Dummett, Hacking, Antony, Tennant, McGinn, Bennett, Follesdal, Tye, Jackson, Chisholm, Harman, Johnston, Elster, Tversky, Bratman, Jeffrey, Grandy, Levi, Rovane, Bilgrami, Peacocke, A. Baier, Schiffer, Sosa, Lycan, McDowell, van Fraassen and many others.  The resulting two volumes of papers from the conference were essential books for those of us doing PhD work in the late 1980s, which was peak Davidson time in analytic philosophy.   (Davidson is less influential now, it seems to me, except perhaps in philosophy of action where the "Davidsonian" paradigm remains highly influential.) About five years after this conference, Rutgers catapulted into the top ranks of Anglophone philosophy programs with the appointments of Jerry Fodor and Stephen Stich. 

Comments are open for recollections of the event, or reflections on how Davidson's ideas have fared over time.

On the SCOTUS oral argument in "Trump v. United States" (i.e., the Presidential immunity case)

Apt commentary from Cornell law professor Michael Dorf; from the opening paragraph:

The positions staked out by the Court's most conservative Justices were themselves Trumpian, not so much in their audacity or mendacity but in their prolixity. It is impossible to interview Trump because while the interviewer tries to fact-check any given false statement (e.g., crime has skyrocketed), Trump's firehose of bullshit emits six or seven more lies. So too during the oral argument: Justices Thomas, Alito, et al made so many spurious arguments that attempting to deal with them one by one feels like a sucker's game.

"Parfit could make you eat shit"

Now I know that's some clickbait in the title, but philosopher Misha Valdman has a serious point to make (and some good anecdotes about Parfit) at his new substack with his wife, also a philosopher, Sarah Valdman.

Statement from philosophy graduate students and alumni at Columbia on recent events

Their statement and list of signatories follows:

Statement on Recent Events from Graduate Students and Alumni of the Department of Philosophy at Columbia University

We, current and former graduate students of the Department of Philosophy at Columbia University, are appalled at the decision taken on April 18th by the University President to violate principles of academic freedom and free speech by authorizing the forcible removal and arrest of 108 of our students and colleagues.

On April 18^th, the President of Columbia University, in the name of “safety,” brought armed police into our campus to use physical force against students who had established a non-violent encampment in support of Palestine on Columbia’s South Lawn. The encampment did not disrupt classes. It did not block access to campus or buildings. Nevertheless, the police were called in after only a day. The President took this action against the recommendation of the University Senate, violating principles of shared governance established in the wake of the 1968 protests. As a result of these arrests and suspensions, students have sustained injuries, lost access to Columbia health services, and been evicted from student housing with less than 15 minutes to gather their belongings.

This followed months of tensions at Columbia since the horrifying events of October 7^th and the devastating aftermath. These events have been the topic of difficult and traumatizing discussion. Columbia’s administration could have responded by promoting dialogue and mutual understanding. Instead, the administration heavily restricted speech on campus and  disproportionately acted to silence one voice in particular – the voice of those protesting against the ongoing oppression and killing of Palestinians. It was in this environment of institutional repression that the student protesters decided to take action.

Deja vu all over again: the right-wing war on college campuses, from the 1960s/early 70s to today

Some apt comparisons.

(Thanks to David Ozonoff for the pointer.)

Yale faculty letter in support of students arrested by police

Here.  Philosophy signatories include Stephen Darwall, Robin Dembroff, Lily Hu, Brad Inwood, Thomas Pogge, and Jason Stanley, among the names I spotted.  Based on what I know about what happened at Yale, I would have signed this letter as well were I there.

Campus protests and excessive police responses

What we are witnessing on various campuses--Columbia, NYU, UT Austin, Emory and others--is a predictable consequence of the campaign by the awful Congresswoman Foxx to terrorize universities into suppressing pro-Palestinian speech.  This video from Emory is representative:  an economics professor, concerned by the way the police are manhandling a student, tries to intervene, which police cannot tolerate, and she herself is then thrown to the ground (literally) and handcuffed.  Student encampments in open spaces may violate university rules, although as one report I received from UT Austin indicated, the student protesters were not disrupting classes at all, whereas the heavy-handed police intervention (what else would one expect from the authoritarian-minded Texas Governor Gregg Abbott?) created such a ruckus (including endless bullhorn announcements and orders) that classes were disrupted.   But if encampments violate content-neutral university rules, the correct response is through the university disciplinary process, not mass arrests by the police.   Only where protests actually interfere with university business--teaching and research--might a police response be warranted, but that has not been the case at Columbia or UT Austin, the two cases I've learned the most about.  Will some university leadership finally have the courage to stand up to the Republicans?  After all, what the students are protesting--the ethnic cleansing of Gaza and the mass slaughter there--deserves protest, and goes to the alleged core of the First Amendment, namely, political speech.

(There has been some very bad behavior at Columbia, but not by students:  once the unnecessary police intervention last week turned Columbia into a media spectacle, area activists, many openly anti-semitic, descended on Columbia, but their antics have been confined to the streets outside the campus.   Many clueless folks on social media, who don't know the layout of the campus, are circulating videos which clearly show bad behavior by non-students on the streets outside the campus.)

ADDENDUM:  For those not on Twitter, you can see the full video of the police assault on the Emory economics professor here.

Tennessee school teachers may now carry guns

Remarkable.  When I think about what I hate most about this country, the gun craziness looms large.  No civilized society makes it so easy to carry guns.  If you think your kindergarten teacher needs to be armed to protect the little kids from mass murder by a gun-carrying maniac, that is decisive evidence that your gun laws are too lax.

Statement by the Columbia Philosophy Department about recent events on their campus

Pretty sensible and seems quite right:

The Philosophy Department is concerned for the safety, academic progress, and rights of our students. We condemn all forms of hate speech, harassment, and incitements to violence. We also regard it as quite implausible that erecting a tent on a lawn constitutes a clear and present danger, and we urge the lifting of suspensions of students whose charges stem from that act. Thus we support the joint statement by the Columbia and Barnard Chapters of the American Association of University Professors and the letter from the Columbia College Student Council. We want President Shafik to succeed, and for mutual trust between all parties on campus to be regained. Such success and trust requires visible engagement by the President and Trustees with the procedures of faculty governance.

Cambridge University college (Emmanuel) dismisses philosophy Fellow because his views conflict with DEI (UPDATED)

MOVING TO FRONT FROM APRIL 23--UPDATED

Peter Singer describes what happened here, and a brief news item is here.  Emmanuel College has really disgraced itself; will Cambridge University follow suit?  (We've discussed Dr. Cofnas's views before.  His views do conflict with DEI, but any college that thinks that justifies rescinding an appointment has no commitment to academic freedom.)

UPDATE:  Philosopher Jeff McMahan writes:

In your post on April 23 about the expulsion of Nathan Cofnas from Emmanuel College, Cambridge, there is a link to a short piece by Peter Singer, in which he quotes from the letter Cofnas received informing him of his impending dismissal:

"The Committee first considered the meaning of the blog and concluded that it amounted to, or could reasonably be construed as amounting to, a rejection of Diversity, Equality and Inclusion (DEI and EDI) policies. … The Committee concluded that the core mission of the College was to achieve educational excellence and that diversity and inclusion were inseparable from that. The ideas promoted by the blog therefore represented a challenge to the College’s core values and mission."

It is worth noting one implication of the claim that the achievement of educational excellence is inseparable from policies of diversity and inclusion – namely, that there could not have been educational excellence anywhere until quite recently, when these policies were first introduced.

"No one buys books"

This is depressing, based on data revealed during a DOJ suit opposing a book publisher merger.

Emerson on Trump

Political theorist Michael Bacon calls my attention to this passage from Emerson's essay "Demonology": 

It would be easy in the political history of every time to furnish examples of this irregular success, men having a force which without virtue, without shining talent, yet makes them prevailing. No equal appears in the field against them. A power goes out from them which draws all men and events to favor them. The crimes they commit, the exposures which follow, and which would ruin any other man, are strangely overlooked, or do more strangely turn to their account.

As this NYT piece the other day made clear, Trump's prospects for winning again in November are very real.   None of this is surprising once one bears in mind the lessons of Achen and Bartels on how democracy really works.

 

Seven philosophers elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences

They are:  Cora Diamond (Virginia, emerita), John Martin Fischer (UC Riverside), Jim Joyce (Michigan), Eva Feder Kittay (Stony Brook, emerita), Gideon Rosen (Princeton), Paul Taylor (UCLA), and Catherine Wilson (U of York [UK]).  Professors Diamond and Fischer were long overdue!   (Professor Diamond was so overdue that I had assumed she was a Fellow for many years already!)

(For some background, see this earlier post.)

German Chancellor: Putin has no right to be invoking Kant

True, but neither does the German Chancellor.  Of course, Kant, like all famous philosophers, has had a lot of odd lip-service loyalists and fans, including many Nazis.

(Thanks to John Styles for the pointer.)

Federal antidiscrimination law does not require campus crackdowns

This piece by Cornell law professor Michael Dorf is worth reading.  The Title VI arguments are spurious.

Blast from the past: Ronald Reagan, the President who sent America off the rails

Back in 2011.  His legacy, of course, now includes the monster-child Trump and his Republican Party.

In Memoriam: Robert H. Kane (1938-2024)

Professor Kane, emeritus at the University of Texas at Austin (where he spent almost his entire career), died this past weekend.   He was internationally known for his revival of the libertarian position on free will in the 1990s, although he had wide-ranging philosophical interests in value theory and philosophy of religion.  He was one of my favorite colleagues when I was at UT Austin, a lovely human being as well as talented philosopher.   Professor David Sosa, Chair of the Texas Department, kindly shared this memorial announcement:

The Department of Philosophy at UT Austin mourns the passing of its longtime member Robert Kane, who was University Distinguished Teaching Professor and Professor of Philo­sophy (Emeritus).

The author of seven books and more than eighty articles on the philosophy of mind, free will and action, ethics, value theory, political philosophy and philosophy of religion, inclu­ding Free Will and Values, Through the Moral Maze, The Signifi­cance of Free Will (inaugural winner of the Hamilton Faculty Book Award), A Contem­pora­ry Introduction to Free Will, and Ethics and the Quest for Wisdom, Kane was also editor of The Ox­ford Handbook of Free Will.

Kane was the recipient of seventeen major teaching awards at the University of Texas, including the “Presi­dent’s Excellence Award,” and was in 1995 named one of the initial members of the Universi­ty’s Aca­demy of Distin­guished Tea­chers. 

Long a leading defender of a traditional “libertarian” view of free will, Kane was known for his attempts to reconcile such a view with modern science, and to articulate its implications for ethics, politics, and law.

Comments are open for remembrances from those who knew Professor Kane or for those who wish to comment on the significance of his work.

AAUP report on the (terrible) state of academic freedom in Florida public higher education

Here.  Governor Viktor DeSantis has done real and perhaps lasting damage.

(Thanks to Jason Stanley for the pointer.)

How Netanyahu's government is endangering Israel's survival

This rings true to me, alas; some excerpts:

War is a military means for achieving political aims, and there is one key yardstick by which to measure success in war: Were the political aims achieved? Following the horrendous massacre of October 7, Israel needed to liberate the hostages and disarm Hamas, but these should not have been its only aims. In light of the existential threat posed to Israel by Iran and its agents of chaos, Israel also needed to deepen its alliance with Western democracies, strengthen cooperation with moderate Arab forces, and work to establish a stable regional order. However, the Netanyahu government ignored all these aims, and instead focused on revenge. It has failed to secure the release of all the hostages, and has not disarmed Hamas. Worse, it intentionally inflicted a humanitarian disaster on the 2.3 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, and thereby undermined the moral and geopolitical basis for Israel's existence....

After six months of war, many of the hostages are still in captivity and Hamas is still on its feet, but the Gaza Strip is devastated, many thousands of its people have been killed, and most of its population are now famished refugees. Together with Gaza, Israel's international standing is also in ruins, and we are now hated and ostracized even by many of our former friends....

Refereeing frequency, redux

Last week's thread on frequency of refereeing and the subsequent poll generaetd more than 500 responses; here are the results:

How many journal articles do you referee in a typical year?   Selection   Votes  none  2% 12  1-6  48% 261  7-12  31% 171  13-24  15% 81  25-50  3% 18  50 or more  1% 5  548 total

If these results are representative, then it's clear a minority of referees are refereeing a majority of the papers.  Thoughts from readers?

The Columbia University disaster

The administration has completely caved in to the Republican Congressional campaign to suppress pro-Palestinian speech on campus.  What an embarrassment. And this will spread until some university has the courage to stand up and say, "No."

(For more on Columbia, see this discussion by a Columbia law professor of some of the dubious decisions of the administration.)

Parmenidean oneness vs. common sense and human life

Michael Della Rocca vs. Tim Maudlin and Kathleen Higgins at IAITV.

In Memoriam: Charles D. Parsons (1933-2024)

Professor Parsons, who was emeritus at Harvard, died yesterday evening.   He taught for many years at Columbia University, before returning to Harvard (where he had taken his Ph.D.) in 1989, and where he spent the remainder of his career.  He was well-known for his work on Kant and in the philosophy of mathematics.  Comments are open for remembrances from those who knew Professor Parsons or for those who wish to comment on the significance of his work.

(I never met Professor Parsons, but I did enjoy corresponding with him occasionally, as he was a reader of the blog, and would occasionally share news or perspective.)

UPDATE:   Philosopher Gila Sher (UC San Diego) kindly shares this lovely remembrance of Professor Parsons:  Download Charles Parsons - Appreciation by Gila Sher

An interview with Dennett...

...at IAITV.  And here is a much better obituary of Dennett (i.e., no philosophical mistakes!) than most of those in the popular media (including the NYT).

In Memoriam: Daniel Dennett (1942-2024)

A longtime member of the philosophy faculty at Tufts University, Professor Dennett was best-known within philosophy for his work in philosophy of mind and on free will, although outside philosophy he was famous as one of the "New Atheists" and as a champion of evolutionary explanations.  Comments are open for remembrances from those who knew Professor Dennett or for those who wish to comment on the significance of his work.

(Thanks to Eric Schliesser for the information about his death.)

More on stipends for Canadian PhD students

A propos yesterday's post, note that the dollar figures are Canadian dollars, not U.S. dollars.  A graduate student in philosophy at University of Toronto writes to say their stipend--in Toronto!--is only $26,000 (Canadian).  How are Canadian graduate students managing?  Do you take out loans?  Do most students work part-time in addition to studies and TAing?

Graduate teaching assistant strike at the University of Western Ontario ("Western") (UPDATED)

4th year PhD student Charles Bakker at Western writes:

The reason that I am writing to you is because I know that you have a soft spot for helping potential graduate students discern which schools/programs to apply for, and I was hoping you could help spread the word about how things are right now for graduate students at Western. 

As it stands, the graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) are on strike at Western, as you can see here: https://globalnews.ca/news/10417515/graduate-teaching-assistants-on-strike-western-university/ The reason we are striking is because the average graduate student at Western is only guaranteed to receive roughly $23,000 per year, even though the University itself recognizes that the cost of living in our beautiful city of London, Ontario is now over $40,000 per year. While it is true that our hourly wage as GTAs is competitive, as well as over twice what the minimum wage is here in Ontario, the fact remains that GTAs are only allowed to work 10 hours a week (overtime is frowned upon). What is further, what we earn as GTAs is part of our guaranteed funding package. So, it is not like we are earning money that is additional to our funding package. Even if we were allowed to work more hours, this would only cut into the amount of time that we have to work on our own research.

Blast from the past: Fun with the smear merchants at "Campus Watch" and Daniel Pipes

Back in 2017.  Still quite amusing.

"We are not a school--we are a hospital with a football team"

Sound familiar?  

(Thanks to Arthur Smith for the pointer.)

When it rains, it pours--and a question about refereeing for journals

I've received four different referee requests in the space of two days this week (two legal philosophy related, two Nietzsche related), and have had to decline them all, as I have an outstanding referee report that is now a couple of days late (plus, on the quarter system, the big grading crush is coming up imminently).  It's pretty rare to get so many requests at the same time, but it does make me wonder how much refereeing tenured faculty are doing in a given year--by which I mean, refereeing journal articles (not book proposals etc.).  We had a thread on this topic back in 2009, and it might be interested to see if anything has changed.  Please use a real email address, but instead of your name, just describe your position, e.g., "Full Professor for 20 years at R1 university," "Associate Professor, recently promoted, liberal arts college," "Full Professor, liberal arts college with heavy teaching load," "Associate Professor, state university," etc.

UPDATE:  A commenter, below, suggested a poll might be more informative, so here goes.  Respond to the poll only if you get asked to referee papers.

How many journal articles do you referee in a typical year?

none

 

1-6

 

7-12

 

13-24

 

25-50

 

50 or more

 

 

pollcode.com free polls

 

AFTER ABOUT 2 1/2 HOURS AND 200+ VOTES:  here are some preliminary results:

 

How many journal articles do you referee in a typical year?   Selection   Votes  none  1% 3  1-6  48% 98  7-12  31% 63  13-24  14% 29  25-50  5% 10  50 or more  0% 1  204 total

The actual William F. Buckley, Jr.

A good corrective to the recent whitewash documentary.

Blast from the past: In praise of terminal M.A. programs

Back in 2015, and still relevant.  If the massive increase in competition for PhD program slots we saw this year continues, these programs will become even more important.

Essays by philosophers who were the first in their family to go to university...

...including Christine Korsgaard and Graham Priest, among others.   The site's rationale is here.

In Memoriam: Robert M. Adams (1937-2024)

Professor Adams, a leading contributor to metaphysics, the study of early modern philosophy (esp. Leibniz), philosophy of religion and ethics, did graduate work at Cornell, taught briefly at Michigan, and then spent most of his career at UCLA, before taking over the Department of Philosophy at Yale, then in receivership, circa 1992.  He retired from Yale in 2004, and taught at Oxford where his wife, the philosopher and medievalist, Marilyn McCord Adams, had taken up a position.  After Oxford, he spent time in the departments at North Carolina/Chapel Hill and Rutgers.  Comments are open for remembrances from those who knew Professor Adams or for those who wish to comment on the significance of his work in any of the many areas he wrote in.

(As a rookie job seeker in 1992-93, I had an Eastern APA interview with UCLA.  Robert Adams was in the room, and his poker face in response to my answers to questions was unforgettable--whether the answers were good or not so good, his expression did not change!  I'll never forget it!)

Petition to the President of Hobart & William Smith Colleges regarding the illegal suspension of a professor for her legally protected speech

Here, with background here.  Please sign!  This case is egregious.

Some curious--and some alarming--facts about the U.S. Supreme Court...

...courtesy of law professor Eric Segall (Georgia State).

Mass resignations of editors from journals are happening in fields other than philosophy

Nature covers the story.  (Wiley is a culprit in one of the featured stories, as in philosophy.  And, yes, there is discussion about moving the PGR from Wiley given these events.) 

(Thanks to Nathan Ballantyne for the pointer.)

Why the huge increase in applications to top PhD programs this year? (Or was the increase more widespread?)

Following up on yesterday's post, a commenter there reported the following statistics:  "Yale had 580 applications, NYU had 450, Rutgers had 350, all for 9-10 admits. MIT purportedly had almost 500 applications--while having 300ish in the past--for 8 admits."   That is consistent with the anecdotal reports I have heard from elsewhere, also "top 10" programs.    Notre Dame, a top 15 but not top 10 program, reported a 21% increase in applications. 

What is going on?  Philosophy departments are closing left and right, tenured faculty are being axed, this doesn't seem an obvious time for a huge explosion of interest in graduate study of philosophy.   One possibility is that the difficult job market is leading more students to target the top programs, which have had and continue to have the best outcomes for graduates (i.e., not simply tenure-track jobs but tenure-track jobs at schools less likely to axe their philosophy programs--e.g., major research universities, elite liberal arts colleges).   Some data on applications at PhD programs outside the top 25 or 30 might shed light on this hypothesis.  Another possibility is that there is pent up demand for spots in PhD programs in the wake of the pandemic, when many students had their studies disrupted and some programs stopped accepting students.

Faculty involved in admissions can post without their name, but please use a real email address, which will not appear.  Students may also post anonymously, but please use a real email address as well.

UPDATE:  Over night, some comments were submitted to yesterday's thread that bear on the question raised here; for example:

Got an offer from two top 5 programs (PGR). Beyond what has been mentioned above, I personally see three reasons:
1. Many top programs got rid of GRE's as a requirement. I didn't do those either, and it was a major reason why I applied to US programs in the first place. I still think it was a mistake to get rid of them. (Yes, this has already been so when Covid was around, but also... Covid was around. So you'd expect much less applications then)
2. MUCH more anecdotal: My sense lately has been that many people have been expressing a growing appreciation for rigorous philosophy; feminist and trans issues, scepticism against science, conspiracy theories, certain geopolitical happenings; basically the topics people constantly talk about, are highly philosophical, and my personal experience was that from journalists over scientists even to my parents, people have been appreciating philosophy as a field much more. I'm wondering if you had similar experiences.
3. Perhaps the supreme court decision against certain forms of affirmative action motivated a lot of additional students to take their shot. I don't think this is too plausible, but reality is often counterintuitive. Only the numbers could tell. I can also personally say that two years ago, I was very sceptical to apply because of many DEI related issues. Those worries have reduced massively since. But maybe that's an internal development, not an external one.

It would be interesting to hear from others about what role, if any, these kinds of considerations played.

NYU makes senior offers to Kosch, Lederman

Since today is decision day, and this has been made public at NYU, it seems important to get this out there for any students who might be affected:  the Department of Philosophy at New York University has extended senior offers to Michelle Kosch (Kant, post-Kantian philosophy [esp. Fichte, Kierkegaard]) at Cornell University and Harvey Lederman (logic, epistemology, philosophy of language, Chinese philosophy) at the University of Texas at Austin.  

This has been quite a PhD admissions season...

...or at least that has been my impression from students I was writing for or have met/corresponded with during the process.  According to one report from an admitted student at a top 5 program, that program had nearly double the number of applications from the prior year!   How widespread is this phenomenon?  And what would explain an increase in applications?    Curious to hear from those doing admissions as well as those who applied.  And congratulations to those who were admitted in this cycle!

AI comes full circle in education

First, the worry was that students were using it to write their papers; now it turns out instructors are using it to evaluate them!  What do readers think?  Have any of you used AI this way?

Brazen violation of contractual rights of a faculty member at Hobart & William Smith Colleges

Professor Jodi Dean, an anti-Zionist political theorist at Hobart & William Smith, a liberal arts college in upstate New York, wrote a blog post a few days ago expressing support for the Hamas attack on Israel last October, and has now been suspended from teaching by the college.  I am not, shall we say, a fan of this genre, but that is neither here nor there.  Professor Dean's college is committed to the AAUP academic freedom principles, and her speech is clearly covered by the AAUP protection for extramural speech.   Hobart & William Smith Colleges is now in breach of contract.  That the President is a lawyer, no less, is a case study in "the rules in the books, and the rules in action" are often two different things.  The President should be fired, and Professor Dean should be immediately restored to the classroom.  I fear neither will happen, but I hope FIRE and/or the AFA will provide legal assistance to challenge this lawless conduct by the college.

The message from the benighted President is below the fold.

Great moments in obscure rock 'n' roll: Universe, "Spanish Feeling," 1971

ORIGINALLY POSTED NOVEMBER 4, 2017

It doesn't get any more obscure than the British band "Universe" (background here); the whole album is worth a listen for fans of the rock of that period, but here's a favorite of mine:

 

Two philosophers win Guggenheim Fellowships

They are:   Jenann Ismael (Johns Hopkins) and Barbara Montero (Notre Dame).  In addition, classicist Gretchen Reydams-Schils (Notre Dame), who works on ancient Greek and Roman philosophy, also won a Guggenheim.

(Thanks to Steve Gross for the pointer.)

"Law is a Moral Practice"

I review a recent book of legal philosophy.  One puzzling feature of the book is that the author gives different formulations of its title thesis.  (The review has already been a "hit" on Twitter!)

Chat GPT does Hegel!

Philosopher Paul Studtmann was struggling through Hegel's Encyclopedia, and decided to ask ChatGPT for help with the "Absolute Spirit" chapter.  He offered the following instruction:  "Please rewrite the following passage from Hegel in language that a five-year-old can understand…."  He then entered each section of the chapter for ChatGPT to "translate" as it were.  The result is actually pretty remarkable:  Download Absolute_Spirit_5_ELI5