Leiter Reports: A Philosophy Blog

Valparaiso University in Indiana axes philosophy program, major and minor,...

...and several other programs.  The lone tenured philosopher remaining, Aaron Preston, will lose his job at the end of 2024-25, so will be in the market for new positions.

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz

He's in the news as one of the contenders to be Harris's running mate, and I've now watched some clips of him:  he's a good talker, with a good pitch and interesting background (rural Minnesotan, public school teacher, Army National Guard, defeated a Republican incumbent in a rural congressional district, highly progressive and successful Governor).   Here's an example.  He'd make mince-meat with "weird" JD Vance.  Like Harris, he also likes to laugh, a nice contrast with the monster child.

The good news is that the race with Trump is now competitive, but Trump still leads by a point or two nationally and in many key states.  But he's also presumably still benefitting from the proverbial "convention bounce" and the aftermath of the assassination attempt.  Still, this race will be close, and the monster child could still prevail.

"Was Marx a degrowth communist?"

The answer to this absurd question is obviousy "no," but this Monthly Review essay sets out reasons for that conclusion (despite its somewhat idiotic hostility to G.A. Cohen's interpretation of historical materialism  [which has problems, but not the one this essay remarks on], it adduces the relevant textual evidence).  The "Saito Schtick" about Marx's ecological prescience is a classic case of trying to hitch one's au courant agenda to the authority of a "great thinker."  Marx had no idea about climate change, and despite reading about problems like deforestation, soil depletion, and 19th-century analogues of factory farming from the 1860s onwards, he never saw fit to write seriously about any of it in the multiple volumes of Capital.   And one would not know, from reading the "degrowth" hysterics, that the world population will start declinding well before this century is over.  The Marxian vision of productive abundance, even within the ecological constraints he was unaware of, remains quite realistic--and far more realistic than the sociological idealism of Saita & company.

Remembering Gareth Evans

i came across this interesting essay from a couple of years ago about Evans.  Philosopher Ian Phillips at Johns Hopkins is currently working on an intellectual biography of Evans.

UPDATE:   Professor Phillips writes:

That's a fun piece by Lincoln Allison, with some lovely anecdotes. For what it's worth, it contains quite a few errors. For instance: Evans died in 1980 not 1982, Evans was shot but not himself kidnapped in Mexico, and he married Antonia Phillips two months not two weeks before he died (on June 11; he died on August 10). I also don't think Gwynfor Evans was his uncle (though perhaps they were more distantly related). Lastly, though many obviously thought extremely highly of it, it's not true that reviewers of Varieties were unanimous that it was an important book. Notoriously, Putnam wrote a very unsympathetic review in the LRB (19 May 1983) leading to a fiery exchange with John McDowell (as well as letters from Francois Recanati and Julie Jack).

If you think it's worthwhile, feel free to post this. I'd of course be delighted to hear from any readers who knew Evans and haven't already been contacted by me.

In Memoriam: E. Jennifer Ashworth (1939-2024)

Professor Ashworth, a Distinguished Professor Emerita at the University of Waterloo, was a renowned expert on medieval logic and philosophy of language.  The Waterloo page has more about her work, and there is a brief memorial notice at the Medieval Logic Facebook group.   Comments are open for remembrances from those who knew Professor Ashworth or for those who wish to comment on the significance of her work.

(Thanks to Jack Zupko for the pointer.)

Bernstein, Nolan from Notre Dame to UC Santa Cruz

Sara Bernstein and Daniel Nolan, who both work in metaphysics at the University of Notre Dame, have accepted senior offers from the Department of Philosophy at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where they will start in fall 2025.  That's a big coup for UCSC, and should push the program into the top 50.

(Thanks to John Bowin for the information.)

Advertising update

Both top spots for August and October are booked, but there is still one top spot left in the other months this fall.  There is at least one second and/or third spot starting in August and through December.  September-December rates are $600 (top), $500 (2nd), $400 (3rd); August rates are $400 (2nd) and $350 (3rd).  August will still be a light blogging month, although traffic still runs over 7,000 unique visits per weekday.  Email me at bleiter-at-uchicago-dot-edu for more information.  

Hobart & William Smith politics professor to return to the classroom this fall...

...after her unlawful suspension for her lawful but "incorrect' extamural speech.   Professor Jodi Dean issued the following statement (which shows how Title VI can be weaponized by the right-wing against universities):

I want to thank everyone who signed, shared, and contributed to crafting the petition supporting academic freedom and calling for my reinstatement. The support of thinkers and scholars across a range of views helped demonstrate the egregious wrong of suspending a faculty member for speaking out in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle. Many who signed took real professional risk as the crackdown against the movement to end occupation and genocide intensifies such that having your name on a list can subject you to investigation and cancellation.

One of the means of oppression of faculty in the United States is Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. The Department of Education has issued several "Dear Colleague" letters instructing university administrators to be vigilant in ensuring that campuses are free from discrimination and harassment. My institution interpreted this to require removing me from the classroom in case there might have been students who felt threatened by an essay published on the Verso blog. The institution then hired an outside investigator who repeatedly solicited complaints about me from HWS students. Over 100 members of the community were contacted and asked if they had information relevant to an investigation as to whether I had violated HWS policies or standards prohibiting harassment and discrimination. The investigator called this “targeted outreach.”  My lawyer complained about this repeated solicitation but it went on and on. These efforts failed to turn up a single complaint of any illegal conduct on my part (although it did turn up reports of feeling hurt, threatened, and frightened). The investigator concluded that I did not harass or discriminate against anyone and I have been exonerated of these charges. 

$2.5 million from Templeton for PPE at Buffalo

Press release here.

Six philosophers elected to the British Academy

They are:  Adrian Moore (Oxford), Lucy O'Brien (UCL), and Lea Ypi (LSE) as UK Fellows; and Anthony Appiah (NYU), Joseph Chan (Academia Sinica), and David Chalmers (NYU) as International Fellows.

Philosopher (and PGR co-editor) Christopher Pynes on the Monty Hall Puzzle...

...in Scientific American.

"Marx" (Routledge Philosophers) coming September 4

The production editor at Taylor & Francis has confiremd that it will be published on September 4, and one can order it via Routledge at a discount currently.  In addtion, via Rob Sica on Twitter, I learn that anyone with access to a library that subscribes to ebooks from Taylor & Francis (the Routledge parent company) can read the book now:

 

Teamsters union president speaks at Republican convention

This is actually worth watching, once you get past the pablum about Trump:  it's pure class war and pro-union advocacy  The look on the faces of some of the Republican stalwarts in the audience is amusing--I'm sure the old-timers have never heard anything like this.

ADDENDUM:  This was amusing too.   The Democrats ought to dump Biden and nominate this guy.

"Foucault as a Kind of Realist: Genealogical Critique and the Debunking of the Human Sciences"

This paper is now out in a special issue of Inquiry on "Genealogy and Political Philosophy" edited by Janosch Prinz (Maastricht) and Paul Raekstad (Amsterdam).  There are also contributions by Bernard Reginster, Daniele Lorinzini, and others.

In Memoriam: Chung-Ying Cheng (1935-2024)

Professor Cheng, who spent most of his career in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Hawaii, was well-known for his many contributions to the study of Confucian and Neo-Confucian philosophy.  Comments are open for remembrances from those who knew Professor Cheng or from those who wish to comment on the significance of his work.

(Thanks to Michael Forster for alerting me to his death.)

McGinnis from Missouri/St. Louis to Toronto

Jon McGinnis (medieval philosophy), Professor of Philosophy at the University of Missouri, St. Louis, will become Professor of Classical Islamic Philosophy at the University of Toronto, with appointments in the Department of Philosophy and Centre for Medieval Studies, effective August 1.

Jing Huang on Nietzsche's Nachlass and the question what notes he wanted "burned"

For those interested in Nietzsche studies, a discussion of a 2019 article.

An interview with Neuhouser on Rousseau and amour-propre

Another interview by Johnathan Bi, as part of his series on great books and ideas we noted previously.  Mr. Bi has a nice way of connecting the philosophical ideas to meaningful events in his own life, in a way that I imagine will resonate with other young people.   The interview is worth watching, and is a good introduction to Rousseau.

Happy July 4th to my American readers!

Celebrate freedom, burn the flag.

Another ACU philosopher gets the axe

The ACU disaster isn't over, it appears.   Stephen Finlay's employment at ACU has reportedly been terminated effective June 14th, and he is now unexpectedly unemployed for the 2024-25 academic year. He has put out an announcement on Facebook saying that he is looking for emergency stop-gap employment, including temporary and part-time roles.  You can contact him via the email address here.

Proof, yet again, that tenure does not exist at the Australian Catholic University.

 

The Trump immunity decision

Two views:  less alarmed, very alarmed.  The DC Circuit decision in the same case represents the (sensible) road not taken.  Suffice it to say, the U.S. is doomed, especially if Biden doesn't drop out of the race--if he does, we still might not dodge the Trump bullett (or bomb).  But the next civilized President really needs to wage war on the current super-legislature.

Glasgow's Alan Weir: from the brink of death to a festschrift nearly a decade later!

One of my oldest philosophy friends, Alex Miller (University of Otago), shared this remarkable story:

I was wondering if you would be able to note on your blog a Festschrift celebration of the work of my great friend Alan Weir that has just come out. Alan had to retire early from his post at Glasgow because of a near-fatal lung illness he contracted in 2013. The only "cure" for pulmonary fibrosis is a double lung transplant, and in the UK at least you can only get on the list for one of those if (a) you are about to die within weeks, but (b) are strong enough to survive the surgery (so a narrow window). When I saw Alan in the summer of 2016 he had only weeks to live, but luckily got the call saying there was a potential donor: and 8 years later he's still doing well (the average life expectancy after one of these transplants is 5 years). He's a much-admired and much-loved figure on the Scottish philosophy scene, and the fact that the Festschrift contains papers by the likes of Timothy. Williamson, Neil Tennant, Stewart Shapiro and Graham Priest attests to that. The Festschrift also starts with a long and very funny memoir by Alan that readers of your blog with an interest in the "sociology" of academic philosophy in the UK will find interesting. I know you don't normally plug Festschrifts on your blog, but in the light of Alan's remarkable story of recovery, I'm hoping you'll be able to do this. A brief pointer to the Festschrift's online page would be much appreciated by me and I'm sure by many of your readers (of whom Alan is a regular). It's at (which has a full list of contents):

https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-54557-3

"How to Cabin the Realist Indeterminacy Thesis: On Green, Positivism, and the Sources of Law"

The penulimate version on SSRN, for a volume that OUP will publish on the legal philosophy of Leslie Green.  The abstract:

Leslie Green raised an important challenge to my reconstruction of the American Legal Realist (ALR) arguments for the indeterminacy of law and legal reasoning:  how can those arguments be limited, as I claim, to mostly appellate cases?  The key, I argue, is to recognize that (1) the central ALR argument for indeterminacy appeals to the existence of equally "legitimate" but conflicting ways of interpreting valid sources of law, and (2) the relevant notion of "legitimacy" is sociological (i.e., what is actually accepted by lawyers and judges).  The ALR argument for indeterminacy being most apparent at the appellate level is then an empirical claim, which the ALRs supported with extensive evidence in many areas of law.  I also consider Green's suggestion that ALR takes most sources to be "permissive sources" (in Hart's sense), and criticize some misunderstandings of both ALR and Scandinavian Realism. 

Sleepwalking into disaster: the response to learning that Emperor Biden has no clothes

I've been tweeting various things about this all weekend, but let me summarize here:

1.  Biden was always a middling speaker with limited brainpower, but the disastrous debate performance took that to a wholly new level:  he has been hobbled by his age more than the Democratics had let on.  This was not just a "bad" or "weak" debate performance (like Obama's anomalously weak performance against Romney in 2012), this was a revelation about the extent of his cognitive decline.  A majority of the population has been concerned about his mental competence for months, and it turns out that concern was wholly warranted, and the attempt to dismiss it was a con job.   There's a reason Biden has given fewer interviews than any President in history; there's a reason his staff has been hiding him.  Now we all know.

2.  The day after the debate fiasco, Biden asserted:  “I would not be running again if I didn’t believe with all my heart and soul I can do this job.” What Biden believes is wholly irrelevant, a case study in self-serving biases.  Anyone who has tried to get an elderly parent to give up driving has heard this spiel. It's meaningless:  one has to look at the evidence.  We had 90 minutes of evidence that his mind isn't working, and he can't do the job, which includes advocating for your agenda in public, sometimes without a teleprompter.   That his policy achievements have been substantial for a Democrat is neither here nor there:  most of the work in making that happen is not done by the President.

3.  The repeated blather that "Joe and Jill will have to decide" is an insult to democracy:  this is not a fucking monarchy, this is a democracy, and it's the job of the Democratic Party, Biden's party, to get him to step aside given that the secret is now out.   The Democratic Party, so far, is proving itself as supine to its leader as the Republicans are to theirs.  That's a rather disturbing parallel.

4.  The reason this matters is precisely because a second Trump Presidency will be a disaster, a bigger disaster than the first was.  The Democratic Party effectively suppressed democratic opposition during the primaries, with the result that we have a Democratic nominee most don't want (as poll after poll reveals).  Polls also reveal that Biden is losing, not just nationally, but in almost all the key swing states (when he leads in some swing states in some polls, the leads are not reassuring, and they aren't consistent). 

Dorsey from Kansas to Oxford

Dale Dorsey (ethics, political philosophy), Professor of Philosophy at the University of Kansas,will become Professor of Moral Philosophy and Tutorial Fellow at Somerville College, Oxford, effective September 2025.