Leiter Reports: A Philosophy Blog

Blast from the past: "Generation Wuss"

Back in 2014, in the early days of the "Great Awokening."

Blast from the past: Oxford DPhil or American PhD?

A reader discussion back in 2013.

Blast from the past: What areas are most important for a strong PhD program in philosophy?

Back in 2012, with reader discussion.   A useful data point for sociologists and historians of the Anglophone profession.

Blast from the past: Personal ads of the philosophers

Back in 2006 and 2005, including Kant, Nietzsche, Socrates, Hume. [Hume link fixed.]  Feel free to add your own in the comments.

Blast from the past: On academic "cranks"

Back in 2010.

Blast from the past: What kind of background needed for graduate work in philosophy of physics?

Back in 2009, with reader discussion.

Blast from the past: How to dissuade students from pursuing graduate work in philosophy

Back in 2013, with reader discussion.  I agree especially with this comment.  My basic rules of thumb for advising students are:  (1) don't go if you're not getting full funding; and (2) don't go if you're not admitted to a strong program overall (e.g., roughly top 20 in U.S.) or a program very strong in your area of particular interest (e.g., UC Irvine for philosophy of science, UC Riverside for philosophy of action or Continental philosophy).

Blast from the past: the APA's "Code of Conduct" on Anonymity

Back in 2016.  The good news is the absurd (and unethical) Code of Conduct has proven to be wholly irrelevant.  If anyone knows of a case where it was used to punish lawful speech, do let me know.

Blast from the past: How many letters should a job seeker have?

Back in 2013, with reader discussion.

Blast from the past: Best Anglophone moral philosophers since 1945

Back in 2016, with reader discussion.

Blast from the past: Log rolling in our time, the Plantinga/Nagel saga

Back in 2012.

Blast from the past: Good career paths for undergraduate philosophy majors? (LINK NOW FIXED)

Back in 2011, with reader discussion.

Blast from the past: Crispin Wright on becoming a philosopher

Back in 2009.

Blast from the past: Dick Cavett on Paul Weiss

Back in 2016.  (See also.)

Blast from the past: Some observations about twitter, esp. philosophy-related twitter

Back in 2020, and still apt, alas.  The only good news is Elon Musk seems to be destroying Twitter, so maybe it will go away?

Blast from the past: SEP's coverage of Marxism and feminism, a revealing study in contrasts

Back in 2019, and still relevant, although there has been some improvement (there is now an entry on Gramsci, for example).

Blast from the past: "Bullying and harassment" at UBC

Back in 2015.  I wonder if it is still as dysfunctional today?

Blast from the past: Jobs at Oxford, a Guide for the Perplexed

Back in 2007, with reader discussion.  Opening comments here in case there are any updates that would be relevant.

Blast from the past: Inflated letters of recommendation

Back in 2011, with reader discussion.

Blast from the past: "The Twitter Cesspool"

Back in 2018.  Some of this no doubt explains the low opinion Americans increasingly have of universities (although right-wing anti-intellectual propaganda is probably the main factor.)  (Twitter is still a cesspool, of course, but proactive blocking does make it useable now.)

Blast from the past: "the feminist cause"

Back in 2018.

Blast from the past: The political orientation of readers of the blog

Back in 2010.  I'll have to run one of these surveys again.

Blast from the past: Mark Taylor (Columbia Religion Dept.) is an ignorant menace

Back in 2010.

Blast from the past: the Dover decision on "Intelligent Design" (and the unfortunate intervention by Professor Alschuler)

Back in 2005.

Blast from the past: "Ignorance of philosophy, identity politics, and the cosmopolitan ideal"

Back in 2014.

Blast from the past: Beiser on Hegel

Back in 2012.  The full interview is still available here.

Blast from the past: co-author of APA Code of Conduct violates it without any sense of embarrassment

Back in 2018.

Blast from the past: "On New York bluntness"

Back in 2017.

Blast from the past: Reworking some articles into a book: a bad idea for junior faculty?

No it is not!  A discussion back in 2013.

Blast from the past: Green on conservatives on campus

Back in 2017.

Blast from the past: Descartes and Teresa of Avila

Back in 2017, with expert reader discussion of the relationship.

Blast from the past: A conversation about guns

Back in 2012, still relevant of course given that America is still nuts on this subject.

Blast from the past: Another keynote speaker rebuked, this time at the midwest meeting of the Society of Christian Philosophers

Back in 2016.  Happily, this kind of stuff has not happened recently to my knowledge.

Blast from the past: The sexual harassment crisis in philosophy, the poll about student disruption of teaching and the sometimes toxic cyber-environment in which these issues are discussed

Back in 2014.   The concluding paragraph of that post was more prescient than I would have liked it to be.  (An earlier version of the post had referred to Rachel MacKinnon as "singularly unhinged," which back then was "controversial," although everything since has confirmed the aptness of the characterization.)

Blast from the past: the 20 most important philosophers of all time

Results of a poll back in 2009, along with reader comments. 

Blast from the past: the surprising positives/negatives about becoming a professional philosopher

Back in 2015, with many comments from readers.

Blast from the past: how should we respond to "analytic metaphysics"?

Back in 2016.

Blast from the past: On the pursuit of "novelty" in jurisprudence and normative philosophy

Back in 2015, and as true today as then.

Blast from the past: What is cancel culture?

Back in 2020, a useful substantive characterization.

Blast from the past: "Generation Wuss"

Back in 2014, around the time also of the "Great Awokening" (better described, of course, as the latest ideological gift to the capitalist class).

Blast from the past: Good career paths for undergraduate philosophy majors?

Back in 2011, with many suggestions from readers.  I'll open comments here if readers want to add more, but please look at the earlier thread first.

Blast from the past: Double majors for a philosophy PhD?

Back in 2016, with reader discussion.

Blast from the past: The importance of doing unfavorable tenure reviews

Back in 2012, with reader discussion.

Blast from the past: when Jordan Peterson threatened to sue philosopher Kate Manne....

...back in 2018 (with a guest appearance by the dishonest weasel Jonathan Ichikawa).

Blast from the past: In defense of English departments!

Back in 2014, with discussion.

Blast from the past: Twitter "believe it or not" part 3: the Twitter kids can't figure out why no one is taking them seriously

Back in 2019.  I imagine most of these benighted folks are as ridiculous and clueless today as they were then.

Blast from the past: the most significant moral philosophers in the history of Western philosophy

A poll and discussion, back in 2013.

Blast from the past: Why academic freedom?

Back in 2017, but still relevant, needless to say.

Blast from the past: Applying twice to the same graduate program?

A discussion back in 2008.