Leiter Reports: A Philosophy Blog

Summer quasi-hiatus is ending, more regular blogging resumes next week

Thanks, as always, for reading.

"Marx" will be published on September 5

MOVING TO FRONT FROM AUGUST 14

UPDATE:  The book is out in the U.S.; I received my copies today, and I know a professor at Northwestern who also got his copy.  Thanks again to all those wh pre-ordered, I hope you will have your book in hand very soon.

=====August 14 post follows======

But I'm told it may ship even sooner, so order now.  Two of the referees for Routledge kindly identified themselves and agreed to blurb the book.  Allen Buchanan (emeritus Duke; Laureate Professor, U Arizona), author of Marx and Justice:  The Radical Critique of Liberalism (1982), said:

"A tour de force. Not only the best available introduction to Marx’s thought and to post-Marx Marxist theories, but also of interest to specialists. The organization is excellent, and the writing is always clear and jargon-free. It covers all the main topics that a book on Marx should address. It is remarkably fair and balanced, sympathetic to Marx’s ideas, but also appropriately critical of them." 

David Leopold (Oxford), author of The Young Karl Marx (2007), said:

"A philosophical introduction to Marx which manages to be genuinely accessible without avoiding controversy or consigning its subject to history. Edwards and Leiter bring Marx into a productive conversation with current work in the social sciences in order to develop and defend distinctive accounts of his views on history, ideology, and capitalism. A very welcome addition to the literature." 

I want to share a further set of comments from another referee report (whose author we do not know), not only because it is laudatory, but because it gives a really good sense of the book:

The blog started 21 years ago today

What I wrote on the 10th anniversary is perhaps worth reading.  In the first ten years, the blog averaged 2.3 million unique visits per year; the blog still averages 3 million unique visits per year, notwithstanding the summer hiatuses of recent years.  Thanks, as always, for reading.

ADDENDUM:  A follower on Twitter posted the following:  "i started reading in maybe 2008 as an undergrad at a small commuter school with 1-2 phil faculty. the blog and PGR is how i learned about the professional aspects of philosophy, where to apply for phd etc. - i think it may have been how i found out PhDs were funded and i could go."  

Summer quasi-hiatus and advertising

MOVING TO FRONT FROM MAY 29

As I've done in recent years, I will reduce blogging substantially during June and July and to a lesser extent in August as well.  I'll still post periodically, especially about things that are time-sensitive (like the expected draft faculty lists for the fall 2024 PGR), but please do not expect more than a few posts per week starting next week (the pace will pick up a bit in August).   Advertising rates will be reduced accordingly ($500 for top spots, $400 for 2nd from the top, $350 for third spots).   Thanks, as always, for reading.

Marx book, redux

We returned the corrected proofs of the Marx book to Routledge today, so we are on track for publication in early September.   For those curious, here is the index for the volume, very ablely prepared by Kate Petroff, a PhD student here:  Download MARX Index final   It gives a good sense of the range of topics covered, and the range of literature we drew upon or discuss.

 

I'd settle for this as an epitaph

I've been fortunate over the last few years to have a steady ally on issues pertaining to academic freedom, and UChicago's Kalven Report, in the eminent biologist Jerry Coyne, now emeritus here.  A propos a recent misrepresentation of the Kalven Report and my rejoinder to it, Jerry offered these kind words:   "I’ve worked with Brian on Kalven, and although he can be brusque, he’s also efficient, eloquent, and, by [God], gets things done!"  

(At Jerry's blog, he says not "by God" but "by Ceiling Cat," a standing joke for all the atheists there who try to avoid reference to the non-existent deity.)  

 

The "Marx" book has been delivered to Routledge, and will appear (in paperback) in September

It's even got a cover:

We delivered the final manuscript to the press today.   We've also received from the press some of the endorsements for the volume from some of those who acted as referees for the press:

“A tour de force. Not only the best available introduction to Marx’s thought and to post-Marx Marxist theories, but also of interest to specialists. The organization is excellent, and the writing is always clear and jargon-free. It covers all the main topics that a book on Marx should address. It is remarkably fair and balanced, sympathetic to Marx’s ideas, but also appropriately critical of them.” - Allen Buchanan, Duke University/University of Arizona, USA

“A philosophical introduction to Marx which manages to be genuinely accessible without avoiding controversy or consigning its subject to history. Edwards and Leiter bring Marx into a productive conversation with current work in the social sciences in order to develop and defend distinctive accounts of his views on history, ideology, and capitalism. A very welcome addition to the literature.” - David Leopold, University of Oxford, UK

Advertising update

All the top spots are now booked through April, so the next open top spot is in May.  There are still some 2nd and 3rd spots open in the January through April period, as well as thereafter.  Please note the new rate structure announced last August.

Reader email

Many readers have kindly written recently to express appreciation for the Israel/Gaza link roundups, which I'm glad have been of value to others.  I'll try to keep them up at least once or twice per week going forward.   I got a particular kick out of this email from a reader:

I just wanted to thank you for posting on the blog the variety of points of view on the very horrible situation Israel and the world faces....I’m not as disparaging of [Thomas] Friedman as you are (but I get it) but you tipped the hat.  This —your task--can’t be fun. I think it’s a service to what’s left of the American intellectual community.

My home page

After a two-year hiatus, it is finally updated with a new book, recent and upcoming talks (one or two more may be scheduled for spring), and updated links for the former students I had the privilege of working with.

"Marx" in the Routledge Philosophers series

Jaime Edwards and I delivered the penultimate draft of our manuscript on "Marx" to the press yesterday.  I'm sure we'll be making revisions after getting referee reports and feedback at a conference on the manuscript in early January, but with luck the book will appear in fall 2024 or at the latest by spring 2025.  Thanks to those who have written over the years inquiring about the book.  Here's the tentative table of contents, for those who might be interested:  Download Toc edwards leiter marx

 

Twitter update

I made my Twitter account private a couple of weeks ago after an infestation of religious zealots, which grew tiresome.  I have to say I'm enjoying Twitter much more this way, without encounters with random stupid Twitterati, some of whom leave me feeling like I need a shower.  I'm happy to approve follower requests from philosophers, academics, and other normal folks with non-anonymous accounts.

"Realist Jurisprudence: Selected Essays" in Spanish

Coming this fall, courtesy of Professor Francisco Mora-Sifuentes (a legal philosopher at the University of Guanajuato in Mexico) and published by Zela Grupo Editorial, the leading South American publisher of legal philosophy.  These are Spanish translations of different English essays of mine on realist jurisprudence from the last dozen years or so:

This blog started 20 years ago today

You can see my remarks on the 14th anniversary (in the wake of the rise of the Wokerati in philosophy [see #6 in particular]) and the 10th.   The biggest change since 2017 (the 14th anniversary) has been the rise of Twitter, which now dominates social media in a way blogs did around the 10th anniversary of the blog.   If Twitter implodes (it's usage has been in decline, but it is still dominant), I doubt there will be a return to blogs as the primary social media outlet, but who really knows?  As I mentioned this past June, I am going to reduce my blogging schedule--a kind of long, phased retirement as it were--starting this September (I will continue, of course, my reduced summer blogging schedules, which I've utilized for a couple of years now).  Starting in September, I'll aim for new blog material at least 3 and maybe 4 days per week, but there will be fewer days with multiple postings, unlike in prior years.  Reader contributions of suggested links will still be very welcome, and I am grateful for the many reader contributions over the last two decades. 

The advertising rates will also be adjusted downwards by $100 per spot to reflect the lower activity:  top spots will be  $600 (instead of $700), 2nd from the top $500, and 3rd from the top $400.  I'll still offer 10% discount for bookings of three months or more.  Email me for information and to book spaces.  (Right now both top spots in September are taken, but there is at least one top spot open every month thereafter, as well as 2nd and 3rd spots.)   Unlike many blogs, my visitor statistic are public; even with my summer hiatuses, the blog is still running more than three million unique visits per year.  (This blog is not formatted to inflate "page view" by turning every visit to the blog into at least two page views, but even without that, page views continue to average more than four million per year.)  My guess is the adjustment to the blogging schedule may reduce blog traffic by 5-10% over the course of the (northern hemisphere) academic year. 

Thanks, as always, dear readers for your continued interest and support.

I seem to be catching on in Asia

Last year, a Japanese translation of Nietzsche on Morality came out, and now I've learned a Chinese translation is in the works, to be published by the Shanghai People's Publishing House.  (There was a Greek translation about a decade ago, and that was the only translation of that book prior to these.)  Earlier this summer, I learned that a Chinese translation of Naturalizing Jurisprudence (2007) will be published by The Commercial Press in Beijing.  (A Spanish translation appeared from Marcial Pons about a decade ago.)   I've also seen an uptick in requests to translate my articles (some on jurisprudence, some on Marx) into Chinese in the last couple of years for journals.  I don't know what explains this, but I'm certainly pleased to have the work available to students and scholars working in Chinese or Japanese.

Summer blogging plans, and thereafter

MOVING TO FRONT FROM JUNE 1--UPDATED

As usual, I'll be posting somewhat less in June (a few times per week), and even less in July and August (maybe once or twice per week, depending on what's happening).  August 3, 2023 will mark the 20th anniversary of the blog, and I am thinking that I will scale back my blogging going forward, although I won't stop altogether.   I'm still debating how much I will cut back (and how I will adjust the advertising rates for next year in light of that).  I'll make an announcement in August, perhaps on or around the 20th blog anniversary.   I sincerely appreciate all the intelligent readers I've been fortunate to attract over the years, and I've enjoyed the opportunity to correspond with many of you and to meet others in person.  While Twitter has taken a toll on blogs generally, this one is still going remarkably strong, averaging well over three million unique visitors per year, so it seems a good time to begin phasing into blog retirement while it's still widely read and influential (much to the chagrin of the Wokerati, of course).  But it will be a multi-year phasing, and come September I am sure I will still be posting a few times each week, but nothing like the volume in the past.  

Thanks, as always, for your interest and indulgence over many years!

UPDATE (6/6/23): Thanks to the many readers who wrote me after last week's post.  I should clarify that my phased blogging retirement may last a long time--I won't wholly abandon the philosophy blogosphere to the Wokerati and those hell-bent on destroying the field!  And as the enemies of academic freedom become more aggressive, I will continue to shine a light on those issues.   It's even possible that when I do retire from my actual job in 15 years or so, I may resume a more active blogging schedule.  I still haven't decided what the new schedule for September will look like, but it will be reduced from that of past years.

If you follow me on Twitter, please also follow me on Mastodon

That account is here.   Currently all Twitter content appears there as well, but given the way Twitter is going, I may soon post only at Mastodon (including, of course, links to the blog).

Amusingly, Twitter is now blocking any attempt to link to Mastodon accounts, a pretty clear sign that they're worried about the exodus.

 

"Feedburner" is defunct

For those who enjoy receiving blog posts delivered to your email account each day, I'm sorry to report that the service known as Feedburner has been discontinued by Google.  As an alternative, you can use an RSS reader, and still subscribe to this blog via Feedly, NewsBlur, or Inoreader.

New York City these days

MOVING TO FRONT FROM THIS MORNING:  UPDATED (AND COMMENTS OPEN FOR THOSE ALSO FAMILIAR WITH NYC OVER TIME TO SHARE THEIR VIEWS)

Last week I was at the NYU Colloquium in Legal, Social & Political Philosophy presenting work on Marx (that was great, the best intellectual experience I've had in a long time [special thanks to Sam Scheffler and Jeremy Waldron for making it so!]), and as part of the invitation NYU kindly gave us an apartment for the week, which was the first time my wife and I had been in NYC together in quite a number of years (it was also the first time I was there since the pandemic).   Now I was born in Manhattan, and still have distinct traces of the Brooklyn/Manhattan accent I acquired from my father and listening to a lot of Lenny Bruce as a kid, and I later practiced law in NYC and lived there again between 1991-1993 with my wife while finishing my PhD.  So I have warm feelings towards my hometown, although it has changed a lot since the 1960s/early 1970s of my youth.  (Films that give you a feel for the "look" of Manhattan then include Serpico, The 7-Ups, and, most notoriously, Death Wish.)   

Travels abroad, and some observations about philosophy

In June, I traveled overseas for the first time since 2019 (and I managed not to get Covid!).  London, Dublin, Amsterdam, and Bucharest were my airport destinations; Oxford University, University College Dublin, University of Amsterdam, and Dimitri Cantemir Christian University my academic hosts.  The events were ISNS in Oxford; a mini-conference on Nietzsche at UCD (papers by me, Tsarina Doyle [NUI-Galway] and Brian O'Connor [UCD]), and then an afternoon workshop on draft chapters of my co-authored Marx book; an anti-moralist conference on capitalism in the 21st-century in Amsterdam; and the IVR (international legal philosophy event) in Bucharest.

I'll start with travel stuff, which may be of some practical value to readers, and then move to intellectual substance.

May blogging

As I mentioned awhile back, this is a very busy month--with the end of our Spring quarter looming, grading, and various other deadlines.  As a result, I will be doing less blogging this month, although I will still put things up.

Email apologies

I do try to reply to emails, but this quarter I''m not doing so well.  One of my two courses involves a new preparation this quarter, in addition to other obligations.  My apologies if your email is greeted with silence.

Mysteries of Twitter

This funny photo that I posted on Twitter went "viral" as they say:  more than 11,000 retweets, 65,000 "likes," more than 350 comments, and, according to the fake Twitter data, nearly 4,000,000 "impressions" and more than 330,000 "engagements."  (The "impressions" data is much inflated, and should really be called "possible impressionns"; "engagements" is a better metric of those who actually saw it.)  What a strange medium!   As I've mentioned before, you can follow me on Twitter for links to blog posts, plus some Twitter-specific comments and gags.

After a two-year hiatus...

...my homepage is updated, for anyone who's interested--that includes talks (many of which were obviously derailed by the pandemic), video and audio interviews, former students, etc.

Best of the summer blog

MOVING TO FRONT FROM YESTERDAY--LINK FIXED, BELOW

Here are some popular blog posts from the summer months you may have missed:

June

The Stone blog at the NY Times is dead

"Two Pessimisms in Mill"

The final nail in the coffin for the failed science of "implicit bias"?

July

Michigan Philosophy not accepting PhDs apps this fall, but will resume next year

Adoph Reed on Robin DiAngelo and the political economy of "race" politics (link fixed)

Percent of tenure-stream faculty who are female in PhD programs in philosophy increased about 40% since 2004

In Memoriam: Bob Moses (1935-2021)

August

Ranked philosophy departments that have no faculty specializing in the Continental traditions in philosophy after Kant

In Memoriam: Sarah (Waterlow) Broadie (1941-2021)

"Realism, Disagreement, and Explanation"

"The whole country is the Reichstag"

Philosophers Annual, ten top papers of 2020

The end of Oxford's dominance in jurisprudence:  Leslie Green to leave Oxford

"Moral Psychology with Nietzsche" should be out any day now in paperback...

...and you can preorder it now.

And from a recent review by Paul Loeb in the January 2021 Journal of the History of Philosophy:

Brian Leiter’s second book on Nietzsche brings together ideas and arguments that have already had a significant influence on the field through their earlier formulations in his articles from the past two decades. It is thus indispensable reading for anyone interested in Leiter’s evolving project of showing that Nietzsche has the correct naturalistic approach to issues in moral philosophy and moral psychology. As usual with Leiter’s scholarship, this monograph is extremely clear, densely argued, and philosophically sophisticated.

Somewhat lighter blogging...

...as readers may have noticed. It's the last week of the quarter here, and I've got papers to grade for graduating students, letters of recommendation to write, and lots of student appointments.   Things will start to pick up next week.  Thanks for your patience.

"Derrida made simple" and other Twitter delights

As I've noted before, I do post links to items on the blog on Twitter, so you can follow the blog there (if you participate in that godforsaken medium of the resentful and never-ending condescension from below!).  And I post a few other things that don't make it to the blog, like "Derrida made simple."

Alexa rankings of philosophy blogs, redux

We first noticed these a few months ago, so I took a more recent look to see if there were any changes for the philosophy blogs/sites (there were some in the overall rankings, but not many in the order):

Leiter Reports:                    340,106

Daily Nous:                          556,133

APA Online:                         918,916

Philosopher's Coccoon:      1,047,537

Digressions, Impressions:   1,404,354

PeaSoup (ethics blog)        2,469,935

Talking about Marx tomorrow...

...with Dr. Donna Lyons (Law, Trinity College Dublin) and Prof. Brian O'Connor (Philosophy, University College Dublin).  Details.

January 2021: another record

As I noted last month, 2020 was a banner year for blog readership.   And that continued last month:  January 2021 saw 346,000 visits (and more than 435,000 page views), compared to 300,000 visits (and 371,000 page views) in January 2020.  The blog is currently in its 18th year, so it's gratifying that readership continues to grow.  Thanks, as always, for reading!

(A note on the terminology:  every visit counts as one page view; but if during a visit, one clicks on a "continue reading" for a post because some of it is "below the fold", that counts as another page view; so too if one follows a link to another page on the blog, that counts as another page view.   One can maximize page views by putting the content of almost every post below the fold [so every visit ends up being at least two page views]; obviously I don't do that so, e.g., one can read multiple posts in a single visit, and that will all count as one page view.)

Joe Walsh meets Xmas

40 years ago, in my misspent youth, I had planned to be a rock star, as it were.  I played a passable rhythm guitar, I sang more in tune than Bob Dylan or Neil Young (not by much), and I wrote lots of songs.   I was also fortunate to know a real rock musician, Tommy Williams. Tommy took my simple songs, arranged them, and added lead guitars, bass, keyboards, drums and lead or backing vocals.   Some weren't bad, and once we get around to digitizing them, I'll put them online.   Unlike me, Tommy has made a real career as a musician, since he is a very good one.  Anyway, all this is a prelude to the main point:  each Xmas, Tommy and his wife and son, record Xmas versions of well-known rock songs, in this case, Joe Walsh's "Rocky Mountain Way."  Tommy is playing all the guitars--do check out his Xmas twist on the famous guitar "talk box" solos.

(You can find this song and more at Tommy's YouTube channel.)

Alexa site rankings

Browsing wikipedia, I discovered an entry for the Daily Nous blog run by philosopher Justin Weinberg (South Carolina), to which we occasionally link.   In that entry, there was a link to the Alexa ranking, which in turn took one to Alexa traffic rankings for other philosophy-related sites.  I don't know how accurate these are, but according to Alexa here's how several philosophy blogs/sites rank worldwide:

Crooked Timber              197,362 (group blog, including some philosophers)

Leiter Reports                224,454

APA website                   405,598

Daily Nous                      529,875 (although 90 days ago, it ranked #362,241)

Philosophers' Cocoon       547,311

Digressions, Impressions  939,895

Pea Soup (ethics blog)   1,573,961

By way of comparison, The New York Times website ranks #76, Pornhub ranks #56 (!!!), The New York Review of Books site ranks #46,383, while the London Review of Books site ranks #94,741.

This blog averages over 10,000 unique visits per day, but I don't know how that translates into differences in ranking, assuming they are actually sensitive to differences in traffic.  (The odd fluctuation for the Daily Nous blog leads me to think either that Alexa isn't reliable or that small differences in traffic have huge effects on a site's rank; on the other hand, this blog was ranked only slightly higher, around 216,000, three months ago according to Alexa).

 

Drudge Report had only 1.4 million unique visitors in August

That detail is buried in this NYT story (the subject of the latter was obviously lifted from this blog!).  According to my public stat counter, this blog had a quarter-million unique visits in August (and that was coming off my July hiatus when I only posted a few times), and 300,000 last month.  In a typical year, there are several months with 360,000 to 400,000 unique visits.  Somehow it seems like I should be a lot richer given these numbers!

Belated blog annivesary post

I started the blog 17 years ago on Monday, August 3--I forgot!   Reflections on the 14th and 10th anniversary are still relevant. I note that at the 10-year mark the blog had averaged 2.3 million visits and 3 million page views per year.  In the last five years, the blog has averaged more than 3.5 million visits and more than 4.5 page views per year. 

Thanks for reading--some of you for a very long time!  

Twitter redux

With some more regular blogging resumed, I will also resume linking posts here on Twitter, for those who prefer to follow the blog that way.  In addition, I also post some things exclusively on Twitter (e.g, making fun of America's current most malevolent jackass, Alex Berenson, or choice quotes, and even bits of philosophy).

Reminder about my July blogging hiatus

MOVING TO FRONT FROM JUNE 28

Just a reminder that I'm taking a break from blogging for July (so starting Wednesday), so as to make progress on a book and deal with some other matters.  I'll resume a reduced blogging schedule in August.   If there's something very time-sensitive I may post something in July, but otherwise please don't send me stuff for the blog until the very end of July.  Thanks as always for reading.

Coronavirus in Chicago (and Illinois): a timeline

MOVING TO FRONT, ORIGINALLY POSTED MARCH 14--VARIOUS UPDATES, MOSTLY FOR CHICAGO/ILLINOIS, FEWER NOW FOR NEW YORK CITY

Just a snapshot of what's going on in one metropolis, that hasn't (yet!) been hit as bad as NYC or Seattle or parts of Northern California; I'll update this periodically.  Illinois is doing a fair bit of testing, but not nearly enough.  Technically these are the numbers for Illinois, but almost all the cases are in the Chicago metropolitan area (9.5 million people are in the Chicago metro area, Illinois has 12.5 million altogether, Cook County, where Chicago is, has 5.2 million people; the data is broken out starting March 18):

Threadgill's in Austin closes

I saw the sad news from a friend on FB.  Janis Joplin sang here when she was a student at UT Austin in the 1960s, but, more importantly, the place served up really good Southern cooking (chicken-fried steak anyone?), and it was inexpensive and fun.  When we lived in Austin, from 1995 to 2008, we used to go there often with our kids, since as loud as they were, Threagill's was louder, plus it had tons of stuff they liked too.

A nice note from a philosopher in New York City, with two interesting twists

A NYC philosopher writes:

Just a quick note to thank you for the helpful information on your blog.  Even my upstairs neighbor, an immunologist in the thick of things, often finds your links helpful. It’s interesting to reflect on all the ways your blog has helped over the decades, going far beyond its original purpose.

I got a kick out of the fact that even the immunologist neighbor finds some helpful links!   And "over the decades":  I guess it's true, I did most of the aughts, all of the 10s, and now we're into the 20s.   And while I can recall covering the Iraq War, Hurricane Katrina, and other fiascos, this one really is in a league by itself.

Attention Democratic Party: the blog readers have spoken!

So with more than 800 votes since yesterday afternoon, here are the results:

Bernie Sanders:        49%

Elizabeth Warren:    20%

Amy Klobuchar:       12%

Mike Bloomberg:      10%

Pete Buttigieg:          6%

Joe Biden:                 2%

Tom Steyer:               1%

I've notified the DNC that the people who count have spoken! 

For those who use Twitter...

...I'm continuing my practice of tweeting out links to new posts on the blog, so you can follow the new links there.  I occasionally tweet out other stuff as well unrelated to the blog.

The rise of Twitter and Facebook as social media platforms...

...is often invoked as explaining the general decline of blogs, something we have certainly seen in the philosophy blogosphere.  With another year of blogging behind us, it's striking how stable things have been here, however.  

2019 saw almost the exact same number of visits to the blog as in 2018:  3,566,545 in 2019 compared to 3,566,762 the year before, so an average of nearly 10,000 visits each day, and that's including the lighter blogging summer months.  That's all the more striking (at least to me!) given that 2018 was the year of L'Affaire Ronell, which saw multiple newspapers and magazines link to the blog for the scandal we first exposed, while 2019 had nothing so sensational.  2019 even had slightly more visits (about 3%) than in 2017.

On the other hand, 2019 did see a small decline (about 5%) in total page views from 2018, but there were still 4,555,275 page views last year.  (Each visit counts for one page view, as I understand it, but every additional page viewed in the same visit (such as following an internal link, or going into the comments section) adds another "page view.")   Fewer comment sections would probably suffice to depress that number, and I have generally been running fewer of those over the years because of the time required to moderate them.

In any case, I'm pleased and grateful to you, dear readers, for contributing to the more than 3.5 million visits and more than 4.5 million page views last year.   Thanks, as always, for reading.

Papers posted on-line in 2019

For those interested, here are links to the new and revised papers I posted on-line in 2019:

"The History of Philosophy Reveals that 'Great' Philosophy is Disguised Moral Advocacy:  A Nietzschean Case Against the Socratic Canon in Philosophy"

"Culture and Value in Nietzsche"

"Nietzsche's Naturalism:  Neither Liberal Nor Illiberal"

"Bernard Williams' Debt to Nietzsche: Real or Illusory?"

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

"Marx and Marxism" (with Lawrence Dallman)

"Legal Positivism as a Realist Theory of Law"

Reader poll: Do you use Twitter to follow this blog's content?

I try to post Twitter links to all new blog posts on my Twitter account, but I'm wondering how many readers rely on that for accessing blog content.  Let me know, thanks, by participating in this poll, whether you use Twitter or not (please, even if you don't use Twitter at all, please respond to the poll).

Do you use Twitter to follow the blog?

Yes: always, very often

 

Yes: sometimes, occasionally

 

No

 

 

pollcode.com free polls

UPDATE:   So here are the results of voting over the last six hours, roughly:

Selection		Votes
Yes: always, very often	5%	20
Yes: sometimes, occasionally	8%	34
No	87%	375

Now during this same period of time, there were about 2,500 visitors to the blog, so obviously most didn't respond to the poll (there's still time!).  But these proportions have been steady for a couple of hours now, and my guess is Twitter users are likely responding at higher rates.  In any case, it's clear that a minority makes regular or somewhat regular use of the Twitter links, and since they're easy enough to create I expect I'll continue them.

 

News of world-shattering importance

Hyde Park, where the University of Chicago is located, now has a really good Italian restaurant--please go there!  Nella Pizzeria is also excellent, but not as ambitious in its dishes.   For the local bourgeoisie, these are very good developments.

Talks, syllabi, CV, links etc...

...are all updated at my personal page, for anyone who's interested.  I look forward to meeting readers at some of my talks this coming academic year!

Belated 16th Blog Birthday

I've been so overwhelmed lately (see here)  that I forgot the blog turned 16 last Saturday, August 3 (and, even more seriously, I forgot to post a new "Great Moments in Obscure Rock 'n' Roll" video!).  You can see a bit about the blog's visibility here.   The 14th anniversary post noted some highlights of topics covered here over the years.  The 10th anniversary post includes some background about me and how the blog started.  Thanks, as always, for reading.

 

Light posting the next couple of days...

...lots of teaching, plus a family emergency.  Thanks for your understanding.

QUICK UPDATE:  Thanks to readers who have written; this does not involve my father (who is doing fine), and I'm hopeful things will work out fine in the next few days.  I appreciate your concern.

Blog traffic and the rise and fall of blogs

I see a lot of references, both in cyberspace and sometimes in traditional media, to the decline of interest in blogs.  This is attributed to two main factors:  the current popularity of Twitter and the growth of Facebook, which many users treat as de facto blogs.  Certainly in philosophy, relatively few blogs have survived the long haul, and in academic law, many once popular blogs have closed entirely.

Meanwhile, we trudge along.  Traffic is, I'm pretty sure, somewhat down from the highs of 2012-2013--peak blog readership generally--but unfortunately I had to change stat counters in 2015 as the old one ("sitemeter" I think) went beserk, so I no longer have official, comparble stats from then.  Here's the yearly data on visits from 2015 through 2018 according to the new StatCounter; note that "returning visits" can only be measured for readers who visit from the same computer, which no doubt many do, but many others don't.  But since StatCounter (click on "public stats" at the bottom of the left column) includes those figures, I include them here (note that 2017 was the first year I began my reduced summer blogging schedule, although its effect on traffic was only slight):

	Returning Visits	Unique Visits	Page Views
2015	1,686,680	3,686,038	4,972,397
2016	1,768,696	3,564,079	4,835,466
2017	1,651,053	3,455,946	4,747,474
2018	1,688,305	3,566,762	4,860,347

Returning visits in 2018 topped the 2015 figure, but missed the 2016 high.  Unique visits in 2018 were higher than the prior two years, but lower than in 2015--and the same for page views.  All the changes were surprisingly small year-in and year-out.

Anyway, I owe thanks to you loyal readers, some of whom I know have stuck with the blog for many years!