Leiter Reports: A Philosophy Blog

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.

Blast from the past: Does academia, including philosophy, exclude people based on class?

Back in 2009, with discussion.  (My original correspondent gave permission to be identified:  he is philosopher Joshua Preiss, who directs the PPE program at Minnesota State University in Mankato.)

Blast from the past: Tips on teaching a graduate seminar for the first time?

Back in 2012.

Blast from the past: On academic bad manners

Way back in 2003.

Blast from the past: Should philosophers referee papers for free for for-profit journal publishers?

A lively discussion back in 2009.

Blast from the past: Farewell to the Eastern APA, Hello to Skype!

Back in 2010.  This one came to pass:  the Eastern APA no longer meets between Xmas and New Year, and it is no longer the locus of most initial job interviews, having been overtaken by Skype and then Zoom, as well as an increasing number of searches that move straight to campus visits based on the file.

Blast from the past: Regulating speech on campus

Back in 2015, but the law hasn't changed.

Blast from the past: Best post-1945 Anglophone philosophers of art

Back in 2016, with a reader discussion.

Blast from the past: "The duty of harsh criticism"

Back in 2014 (actually 1914!).

Blast from the past: "Who is Sam Duncan, and why does he think I stole his milk money?"

An amusing item from 2019, which also touches on a recurring confusion about free speech.

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

Back in 2015, and it led to a "lively" discussion!   The only point I'd make differently is that often administrators want their departments to offer the PhD (regardless of what the faculty want), even when the program would be more competitive as a terminal MA program (a point philosopher Douglas Portmore makes, correctly, in the comments).

Blast from the past: the best Western philosophers of all time?

Back in 2017, with reader discussion.

Blast from the past: Best post-WWII Anglophone scholars of ancient Greek and Roman philosophy

A poll back in 2016, with discussion.  (Only living scholars over the age of 60 were included.)

Blast from the past: Peter Hacker did not like Timothy Williamson's book

Back in 2009, with discussion.

Blast from the past: Steve Pyke's "philosophers" on philosophy

Back in 2011.

Blast from the past: "The tragedy of student suicide"

Back in 2018, with reader discussion.

Blast from the past: "Demolishing Gertrude Himmelfarb"

Way back in 2004.

Blast from the past: Rosenberg on the threat to our self-understanding posed by neuroscience

Back in 2018, with reader discussion.

Blast from the past: Smoking habit a liability on the job market?

Back in 2008, with discussion.

Blast from the past: Should one not teach philosophers guilty (or possibly guilty) of sexual harassment?

A discussion back in 2017.  My view is unchanged:  it is pedagogical malparctice not to teach an author whose work is important to the subject because the author has engaged in personal or professional misconduct (other than scholarly fraud that implicates the work in question obviously).

Blast from the past: Observations on philosophy by a journalist at Scientific American

Back in 2017, with a lively discussion in the comments.

Blast from the past: 25 "must read" books before starting graduate school

Back in 2015, with many suggestions from readers.

Blast from the past: Is aesthetics underrepresented in leading departments?

Back in 2014.  I think it's fair to say it's still underrepresented, just like 19th-century German philosophy and several other areas.

Blast from the past: 2011 in review

The Synthese scandal, Linda Alcoff's fake "Climate for Women" report, and more.

Blast from the past: How "professional" is the data analysis of Carolyn Dicey Jennings?

Back in 2016.

Blast from the past: Wright on McDowell...and the nature of "analytic philosophy"

Back in 2007, with discussion by readers.

Blast from the past: Best introductory books in philosophy of science and/or philosophy of particular sciences

Back in 2019, with reader suggestions.

Blast from the past: Advice on "personal statements" for PhD admissions

Back in 2007, with reader comments as well.

Blast from the past: Nietzsche and Ayn Rand: a brief comment

Originally posted in 2009, and it still gets a fair bit of traffic all these years later.

Blast from the past: "Academic freedom" for Larry Summers?

Back in 2005.  Although this incident probably helped shorten his tenure as Harvard President (there are no academic freedom rights to administrative appointments), it had no effect on his actual academic freedom, his tenured position at Harvard, and so on.

Blast from the past: Simon Critchley rides to the defense of Derrida

Back in 2007.

Blast from the past: Requiring faculty to be *on campus* five days per week

A discussion back in 2018.

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

Back in 2012.

Blast from the past: Gutting on "analytic" and "Continental" philosophy

Back in 2012.

Blast from the past: "Jewish poker" philosophy

A classic from 2010.