Leiter Reports: A Philosophy Blog

Blast from the past: L'Affaire Swinburne and the now-defunct "Rightly Considered" blog

Back in 2016; this bit is worth quoting again:

[L]ife is short, the world is fully of idiotic arguments that depend on absurd premises, this is particularly true when it comes to arguments inspired by religious dogma, therefore adults with real jobs and limited time devote their time to challenging arguments.  Of course, it's possible that I'm wholly wrong in treating Swinburne as an  instance of awful arguments for bigotry.  It is also possible, as Quine says in Pursuit of Truth, that telepathy works and empiricism is false.  Many things are possible, but efficient allocation of effort is a virtue, and not only in matters of intellectual labor.

Blast from the past: the QS university rankings, a debate with their PR person

Back in 2013.

Blast from the past: inflated letters of recommendation

Back in 2011, with a discussion by readers.

Blast from the past: editors removing philosophers from a book based on "allegations" of sexual misconduct

Back in 2016.  I imagine these  kind of star-chamber judgments are still affecting the editing of books and maybe even journals.

Blast from the past: What is analytic philosophy? Thoughts from Fodor

Way back in 2004.

Blast from the past: publishing while in graduate school

Back in 2016, with comments from readers.

Blast from the past: hot topics in epistemology?

Back in 2007.

UPDATE:  The comments on the 2007 thread may take a half minute or more to load, please be patient.

Blast from the past: the strange saga of the white feminist vs. her African-American colleague at Northwestern

Back in 2016 (and also here and here, with a cameo by philosopher Sally Haslanger.)  Both the protagonists remain at Northwestern.

Blast from the past: Some students is not writing good

Back in 2015.

Blast from the past: In defense of English Departments!

Back in 2014, including a discussion.

Blast from the past: Going to law school? Thinking about law school? What should you read?

Back in 2016.

Blast from the past: philosophy of journalism?

Or:  "Why is Brian Leiter so mean to me," asks Carlin Romano back in 2009.

Blast from the past: when it turned out the primary test of implicit bias was worthless

Back in 2017 (and also).

Blast from the past: a discussion of reader polls about the importance of different parts of philosophy

Back in 2014.  (Some later polls:  experimental philosophy; feminist philosophy; history of analytic philosophy.)

Blast from the past: what counts as 'service to the profession' at your university?

A discussion, back in 2010.

Blast from the past: Maintaining a personal web page while on the job market

A discussion in 2012.  By now, such pages are pretty much required.

Blast from the past: Transparency in refereeing

A discussion, back in 2019.

Blast from the past: "TheTwitter cesspool"

Back in 2018.  Still a cesspool, of course, though more bearable now that I don't engage with the rabble!

Blast from the past: Dennett trashes much of contemporary philosophy, esp. "analytic metaphysics"

Back in 2016.

Blast from the past: PhD admissions and the job market for "older" students/candidates

A discussion back in 2008.

Blast from the past: "Weapons of math instruction"

Way back in 2003, when weapons of mass destruction were in the news.

Blast from the past: On the "pathologically self-righteous people" using social media to suppress thought and speech

Back in 2016, but still relevant, alas.  (Link fixed.)

Blast from the past: "the Right-Wing Blob"

Back in 2011.

Blast from the past: Does Wall Street produce anything of value?

Back in 2010.  Still relevant, unsurprisingly.

Blast from the past: How to prepare for job interviews at schools with a primary emphasis on teaching?

Back in 2008.

Blast from the past: Best Anglophone political philosophers since 1945?

Back in 2016, with a discussion of the poll results.

Blast from the past: best Anglophone scholars of ancient Greek and Roman philosophy since WWII?

Back in 2016.

Blast from the past: How have other universities handled budget crises without destroying entire departments?

Back in 2010, when the precipitating cause was the global crisis of capitalism in 2008, rather than COVID.

Blast from the past: Lawrence Krauss vs. the Philosophers

Back in 2012.

Blast from the past: Carrie Jenkins, Alan Soble and "the chasm of crap"

Back in 2018.

Blast from the past: five favorite Americans of the 20th-century?

Mine and those of readers, back in 2018.

Blast from the past: recruiting female students to the major at a liberal arts college

A discussion back in 2014.

Blast from the past: double major for a philosophy PhD?

A discussion back in 2016.

Blast from the past: the Ward Churchill case at the University of Colorado

Back in 2005.  Remarkably, the charlatan Paul Campos is still teaching at Colorado, while Churchill, after being wrongfully fired, has never taught again.   Churchill was an early victim of right-wing cancel culture aimed at the universities.

Blast from the past: what kinds of obligations do philosophers have to referee papers?

Back in 2009, with discussion.  Have things changed in the interim?  Comments here are also open.

 

Blast from the past: underappreciated philosophers active in the U.S. in the first half of the 20th-century

Back in 2012, poll results and a discussion.

Blast from the past: placement in PhD-granting programs...

...based on a 2017 report (albeit by a not always reliable researcher).

Blast from the past: the "progressive" contradiction when it comes to crimes in general vs. sex crimes

Back in 2016.

Blast from the past: best Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entries

Back in 2019.

Blast from the past: the ultimate "esoteric" reading of Plato

Back in 2010 (and due see the comments from several ancient philosophy experts).

Blast from the past: Bret Stephens on Heidegger and Chomsky

He was a know-nothing back in 2011 too.

Blast from the past: against "secret" waitlists in PhD admissions

Back in 2017, but timely again.  Do see the discussion as well.

Blast from the past: the most important Western philosophers of all time?

A poll and discussion, back in 2017.

Blast from the past: Best Anglophone philosophers of the last 60 years?

Back in 2017.

Blast from the past: Liberal "bias" in philosophy?

A discussion back in 2006.

Blast from the past: Tenure reviews and the length of articles

Back in 2014.

Blast from the past: T.M. Scanlon, "teenage logical positivist"

Back in 2017.

Blast from the past: Is philosophy in the doldrums? A poll and discussion

Back in 2015.

Blast from the past: when the religious right was obessed with "bathroom bills"

Back in 2016.

Blast from the past: citation networks in philosophy

Back in 2013.