Leiter Reports: A Philosophy Blog

Blast from the past: How to write a cover letter for the U.S. job market

Back in 2011, with reader discussion.

Blast from the past: Why study history of philosophy?

Back in 2011, with reader discussion.

The "stormtrooper riot" at the Capitol was four years ago today

A few posts from that day, the day after, Trump's attempt at damage control, and what the stormtrooper riot portends.   (I always thought my label, "stormtrooper riot" was a more apt description than "insurrection.")  The big question, as I remarked previously, will be what happens after the 2028 election.

Blast from the past: the 10 "Most Important" philosophers of the early modern period

A poll back in 2009, with reader discussion.

Blast from the past: Adolph Reed on Robin DiAngelo and the political economy of race politics

Back in 2021.

Blast from the past: The five most common objections to the PGR

Back in 2012, but they still circulate, remarkably--no doubt because the critics aren't really concerned with methodological or epistemic reliability.  Self-deception is remarkable.

Blast from the past: Brett Stephens on Chomsky and Heidegger

Back in 2011.  What a foolish and ignorant man.  How the NYT decided to hire him is a mystery.  "No ideas and the ability to express them:  that's a journalist"--Karl Kraus.

Blast from the past: What to look for in a book contract with an academic press?

Back in 2018, with my own advice plus reader discussion.

Blast from the past: Why Trump won't be President

From January 2016, courtesy of Nate Silver, who needs to go away.

Blast from the past: applying to graduate school with an uneven academic record

Back in 2015, with reader discussion.

Blast from the past: Most significant moral philosophers of the 20th-century

A poll from 2010, with reader discussion.  The poll was limited only to philosophers no longer living at that time.

Blast from the past: Most significant philosophers of science of the 20th-century?

A poll from 2010, with reader discussion.  And the top Anglophone philosophers of science since 1945 (from 2016).

Blast from the past: Geuss on Rorty (and on Geuss)

Back in 2008, with some reader comments.  A great broadside against Gadamer thrown in as well.

UPDATE:  Here's the full Geuss essay. (Thanks to Peter Aronoff for the pointer.)

Blast from the past: Should graduate students use social media?

Back in 2013, with reader discussion (including, amusingly, comments from one of the bigger social media maniacs in professional philosophy of recent years).

Blast from the past: Transparency about refereeing

Back in 2019, with reader discussion.

Blast from the past: "Preposterous" philosophical views, poll results

Back in 2020.

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

Back in 2012.  I would guess the percentage of vegans and vegetarians among academic philosophers is even higher now.

Blast from the past: Why is so much philosophy so tedious?

Back in 2013, with reader discussion.

UPDATE:  Here's a working link to the paper by David McNaughton referenced in the 2013 post.  (Thanks to Gregory Mayer for the pointer.)

Blast from the past: Three cultures of Facebook

Back in 2016, with reader discussion.

Blast from the past: Why review a book of philosophy when you can sneer at it?

Back in 2006.

Blast from the past: Berit Brogaard on group polarization and the Internet

Back in 2015 [link fixed], but anyone who reads blogs or Twitter should refresh themselves on this post at least once per year.

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.

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

Back in 2017.  Still quite amusing.

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.

Blast from the past: "Back-up" plans for philosophy PhD students facing a bad job market

Back in 2010, with reader discussion.  A perennial topic, alas.

Blast from the past: How readers answer the "What's your philosophy?" question in casual conversation with strangers

Back in 2014.

Blast from the past: Class, rudeness, Trump, Biden

Back in 2020, and about to become very relevant again.

Blast from the past: an interview with a Dutch publication about Trump before the 2020 election

Came across this recently, and, alas, it is still relevant.

Blast from the past: Best philosophy book publishers in English

Back in 2013, and not much different now.  Palgrave has increased and improved its philosophy catalogue, and Wiley is now clearly focused on textbooks, those are the main changes.

Blast from the (recent) past: "Identity politics" neoliberalism meets millenial narcissism

True now, as in 2022.

Blast from the past: Adolph Reed on antiracist scholarship and activism

Back in 2018, and still very relevant.

Blast from the past: Greer, Green, and the Thought Police, Redux

Back in 2015.   What a spectacle that was; at least the biggest nut job in that episode has left the profession.

Blast from the past: Best introductory texts in political philosophy?

Back in 2019, with reader suggestions.

Blast from the past: Is an early defense (before the Eastern APA [then the Xmas week]) an advantage?

Back in 2013, with reader discussion.

Blast from the past: Is "secular" moral theory really relatively young?

Back in 2009, with reader discussion.

Blast from the past: Trump and the Russia distraction

Back in 2017.  With the monster-child poised to be the Republican nominee again, I hope that critics will this time stay focused on actual issues.

Blast from the past: Letters of reference and their "codes"

Back in 2003, still relevant (alas).

Blast from the past: Isaiah Berlin's letter of recommendation for H.L.A. Hart

Back in 2005.

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.

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

Back in 2012, with reader discussion.

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.

Blast from the past: Reader opinions of factory farming?

Back in 2017. 

Blast from the past: PhD programs discouraging graduates from applying to non-research institutions?

Back in 2008, with reader discussion.  It would seem to me crazy in the current job market to discourage job seekers that way; but it seemed crazy back then too!

Blast from the past: Helen Vendler dissing philosophy

Back in 2004.

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.