Leiter Reports: A Philosophy Blog

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

Back in 2014.

Talk of eliminating or eviscerating tenure in Texas is already causing problems

From CHE:

“People turn down jobs for lots of reasons, but from what these candidates told me, the uncertainty around tenure was a big factor in our failure to hire this year,” said Daniel Brinks, chair of the government department at the University of Texas at Austin. 

Brinks said he’d made job offers to six candidates for two faculty openings this year, and all six declined. Another professor in the department informed Brinks last week that he’d be leaving.

In Memoriam: Albert Borgmann (1937-2023)

A longtime member of the Department of Philosophy at the University of Montana, Professor Borgmann established the field of philosophy of technology in the Anglophone world.  There is an obituary here.  Comments are open for remembrances from those who knew Professor Borgmann, or who wish to comment on the signficance of his work.

(Thanks to Armond Duwell for the information.)

America is not a civilized country

The latest easily preventable gun massacre should confirm that, at least for sapient beings.  The odds, currently, of being massacred by random maniacs in America is relatively low:  1 in 16,0000.   Of course, in civilized countries, the odds are more like 1 in a million.  As we learn from decision theorists (they do serve a purpose, right?), we should consider both the risk of a bad event and how bad the event is.   In the latest easily preventable gun massacre in Texas, a 6-year old boy lost both his parents and his 3-year-old brother.  Maybe I'm weird, but that seems to me catastrophically bad.  Another set of parents lost both their daughters, who were 11 and 8.   Again, that seems to me catastrophically, life-wreckingly bad, but maybe I'm not good at decision theory.

In normal, civilized countries, when grotesque events like this occur, the government changes the law.  That's what happened in Australia, which shows that these incidents can easily be prevented.  In America, these incidents are not easily preventable because the country is not civilized:  many of its elected leaders are barbarians.  It is not complicated.

I do fear this country is sick beyond repair.  I would be glad to be wrong.

UPDATE:   Reader Jonathan Turner reminds me of these routines about America's gun craziness by Australian comedian Jim Jefferies:  here and here.

ANOTHER:  look at the lifetime odds for gun deaths in the U.S.!

Blast from the past: Beiser on Hegel

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

Timothy Williamson talks about the "philosophy of philosophy"...

...at Parker's Pensees.

(Thanks to Aaron Preston for the pointer.)

What if the American Academy of Arts & Sciences returns to honoring faculty *exclusively* for scholarly achievement...

...rather than membership in professional networks (e.g., "Christian philosophers," "decision theorists," "Kant scholars," "friends of Sally"), or demographic diversity.   Over the years, I have been pretty good at identifying those who should be elected on the merits.  For example, on my 2010 list of "sins of omission," most have since been elected, although I'm still astonished that Larry Laudan, one of the major figures in philosophy of science in the last fifty years, did not; and there is still time to make up for some of the other omissions.  (Larry, I suspect, did not kiss up to the right people, but he was a far more important figure in the history of philosophy of science than at least a half-dozen folks who were elected over the last quarter-century.)

New bill making its way through Texas legislature would preserve "tenure in name only"...

...or a kind of pseudo-tenure, as Keith Whittington explains:

Section 3(c) defines the property interest in tenure as a single year salary. This is designed to allow university to fire tenured faculty without good cause so long as it pays out a single year salary. A mockery of meaningful tenure...

And then we have terms of good-cause dismissal of tenured faculty. Section 3(c-1)(2)(A)(iv) allows for moral turpitude. Would like to know how common this is in tenure policies. I suspect not very. Seems ripe for abuse in context of faculty position....

And then part (v) allowing termination for violating university policies. Could easily facilitate death penalty for misdemeanors, and leaves open possibility of university adopting lots of highly dubious policies — such as bans on teaching divisive concepts....

And then part (vi) allowing termination for “unprofessional conduct.” Much more sweeping than how university policies are generally written. I would not like to arm an unfriendly administrator with such an I’ll-defined power.

 

Masks actually work for reasons we have long understood

This essay makes an important point:

For masks, are randomized trials an appropriate way of evaluating a basic engineered safety system in the first place? We don’t rely on such trials for seat belts, bike helmets or life jackets, and the oft-cited randomized trial of parachutes is an old running joke. Why is that so hilarious? What do the engineers know that doctors don’t?

 

In many scientific disciplines randomized trial methods are fundamentally inappropriate—akin to using a scalpel to mow a lawn. If something can be directly measured or accurately and precisely modeled, there is no need for complex, inefficient trials that put participants at risk. Engineering, perhaps the most “real-world” of disciplines, doesn’t conduct randomized trials. Its necessary knowledge is well-understood. Everything from highways to ventilation systems—everything that moves us, cleans our air and our water, and puts satellites into orbit—succeeds without needing them. This includes many medical devices. When failures like a plane crash or catastrophic bridge collapse do occur, they are recognized and systematically analyzed to ensure they don’t happen again. The contrast with the lack of attention paid to public health failures in this pandemic is stark.

 

Ernest Lepore (Rutgers) talks about philosophy of language, slurs and other topics...

...at Robinson's Podcast.

What philosophical ideas should non-philosophers know about?

Philosopher Iskra Fileva posed this nice question on FB, and I thought it would be interesting to pose it here for a wider audience.  Professor Fileva asked her friends to pick just "three top" ideas, but I'm happy if readers want to propose more than three.  From many years of teaching philosophy to law students (and very good law students I might add), as well as talking to very smart law faculty, here are a few familiar philosophical ideas that I think are valuable for non-philosophers to understand:  the difference between justification and truth, and, relatedly, the difference between an epistemic and a metaphysical claim; the idea of a "natural kind," whether understood in the Kripke-Putnam way, or the earlier Whewell-Mill-Quine way (I prefer the latter); the difference between realism and anti-realism about some domain, and its relationship to ideas of mind- or attitude-independence.   I'm sure there are many others, so welcome reader perspectives on this.  I'd be particularly interested to hear from non-philosophy readers about what philosophical ideas they have found especially useful.  It's also fine to answer this question with an eye to philosophical ideas "ordinary" people might find important in their lives, and not simply those that are helpful in other areas of scholarship or study. 

Great moments in obscure rock 'n' roll: Tin House, "Be Good and Be Kind" (1971)

ORIGINALLY POSTED JANUARY 14, 2017

This hard rock/blues rock trio came out of Florida, their debut album, from which this tune comes, produced by Rick Derringer.  The guitarist Floyd Radford was, alas, hired away by Edgar Winter not long after the first album (he subsequently played with Johnny Winter as well).  But this is one of several strong numbers from the one and only album by the original lineup featuring Radford.

 

 

Scharp from Twente to Illinois/Urbana

Kevin Scharp (philosophy of language, philosophy of science, philosophy of artificial intelligence, ethics), currently at the University of Twente, has accepted appointment as Professor of Philosophy at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, beginning 2023-24.  He was previously Professor of Philosophy at Ohio State University, and Reader in Philosophy at the University of St Andrews.  This is the second senior appointment for Illinois this year!  These appointments stand a good chance of putting the department back in the U.S. top 50.

The Interim Head of the Department, Robin Kar, tells me that the Department has also voted out two other senior offers, and will be doing another senior search next year.  It's good to see the University investing so seriously in philosophy!

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

Back in 2018.

Someone actually read hundreds of mostly unmoderated blog comments...

...and wrote about what they reveal about the sociology of the philosophy profession.  It took real courage to do this, given the first and fifth laws of cyber-dynamics!  

(Thanks to Cora Diamond for the pointer.)

What is it like to be a philosopher? Valerie Tiberius edition

Here.

Philosopher Rachel Barney (Toronto) discusses the Sophists...

...at Robinson's Podcast.

Blast from the past: "On New York bluntness"

Back in 2017.

"Philosophy in the Open" from the Open University

 Philosopher Dan Cavedon-Taylor from the Open University writes:

A new online exhibition is being launched today on the Open University Digital Archive. Philosophy in the Open: The OU Philosophy Media Archive, contains over 30 hours of footage of interviews and debates between some of the most celebrated mid-to-late 20th century British philosophers (readers may be familiar with the Evans and Strawson debate on truth). These videos, many of which were originally broadcast on the BBC, were made in the early days of the Open University to support its teaching in Philosophy. They are a snapshot of a golden age of philosophy in Great Britain, made public here for the first time. 

Interviewees include: 

A. J. Ayer, Renford Bambrough, K. K. Baublys, R. B. Braithwaite, Gareth Evans, Allen Phillips Griffiths, Susan Haack, R. M. Hare, Rodney Hirst, A. J. P. Kenny, Martha Kneale, Stephan Körner, Anthony Quinton, Gilbert Ryle, Dennis Sciama, B. F. Skinner, Charles Taylor, Godfrey Vesey, G. J. Warnock, Alan White, Bernard Williams. 

OU has also commissioned some new essays and videos by contemporary philosophers discussing these older ones.

Logician W. Hugh Woodin elected to the National Academy of Sciences

Here.  He has appointments in both mathematics and philosophy at Harvard.   There are not many faculty in philosophy departments elected to the NAS; the only other living ones are Allan Gibbard (Michigan) and Brian Skryms (UC Irvine).  Past members from philosophy include W.V.O. Quine and Patrick Suppes.

Not all philosophy journal experieces with Wiley have been bad

I reached out to philosopher Ernest Sosa, who has long been involved with three Wiley journals: as Editor of Philosophical Issues, and Editor-in-Chief of Nous and Philosophy & Phenomenological Research.  I wanted to know what his experience had been like, given the unhappy reports that have recently surfaced in connection with Journal of Political Philosophy and Philosophy & Public Affairs.  Professor Sosa replied:  "Our experience with Wiley’s editorial representatives has been uniformly excellent in every way. In particular, we have never experienced any pressure to adjust our editorial policies and procedures to any business objectives. At all three journals we have always enjoyed complete editorial autonomy."  This is encouraging to hear.   Other editors involved with Wiley journals are also invited to comment on their experiences.  Full name required, and valid email address (the latter will not appear).

Saul Kripke Memorial Conference, May 8-9, 2023

The final schedule is here.  More information here about how to register for livestream of the event, and the "Building Access Policy" for those who want to attend in person.

(As an aside, as longtime readers will know, I do not generally post conference announcements, but I make an exception for memorial events for philosophers like this one.)

CHE offers a few more details on the Wiley/JPP fiasco

Following up on the events we first reported on here, CHE offers a couple of new details, in particular:

Christian Barry, one of the co-editors, told The Chronicle that he and the two other co-editors discussed among themselves and with Goodin what they should do. While they strongly disliked how Goodin was treated, they also recognized the work Goodin had poured into the journal and its important role in academe, which felt like it was worth preserving. With Goodin’s blessing, Barry said, they began discussing with Wiley representatives the contours of an agreement to take over editorship of the journal.

The conversation turned to numbers. Ed Colby, a Wiley spokesperson, told The Chronicle in an email that “a moderate increase of two additional articles per year had been proposed” to the co-editors. “Wiley is always looking for sustainable ways to grow our journals in close consultation with our editors, especially as we transition to open access and research becomes more international.”

"Research finds no gender bias in academic science"

This is striking:

Claims of widespread gender bias in tenure-track hiring, grant funding and journal acceptances in the academic sciences are not supported by the data, a new study finds.Is

The paper published in Psychological Science in the Public Interest looked at two decades of research regarding biases that tenure-track women have faced since 2000. In the end, the authors determined tenure-track women in science, technology, engineering or math were at parity with men in tenure-track positions in the same fields when it comes to grant funding, journal acceptances and recommendation letters.

Women did have an advantage in the hiring process for the tenure-track jobs, though the evidence did show a bias against women in teaching evaluations and salaries. The salary gap, according to the report, was concerning but smaller than the oft-quoted statistic that women in STEM fields make 82 cents for every dollar that men earn. On average, the gap was 9 cents on the dollar, although the gap shrank to less than 4 cents when controlling for experience, type of institution and productivity, among other factors.

If anyone has examined the methodology of this study carefully, I'd be interested to know whether it seems sound.  I have neither the time nor competence to evaluate it.

"Wokeness" in Chile

Longtime reader S. Wallerstein, another man of the actual left in Chile, writes (a propos yesterday's post):

I have a friend, a feminist academic, with the equivalent of a tenured position in a Chilean university of excellent academic quality.   She has been a feminist activist since I met her 40 years ago, long before feminism became fashionable,  during the Pinochet dictatorship when it was,   if not exactly dangerous, at least not profitable.  

She complains about how woke the students and younger generation of feminists are, on how they emphasize trans rights as somehow more important than the issues that she is concerned with, unequal pay, unequal distribution of household work and childcare, domestic violence,    abortion rights.  etc., on how intersectionality dictates that her concerns as a middle class white feminist  are seen as trivial compared to the concerns of women from racial minorities, even though most Chilean women undoubtedly see themselves as white and have more or less the same concerns as she does.       

The pressures to conform are not as strong as those in the U.S., but woke is very present.   

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.

Was the "Great Awokening" a global phenomenon?

Some evidence it was.

(Thanks to Benj Hellie for the pointer.)

"Top ten" departments hiring junior faculty with PhDs from outside the "top ten"

University of Southern California hired tenure-track assistant professors this year with PhDs from SUNY-Buffalo, U Mass/Amherst, and British Columbia.   That's striking and quite unusual for a "top ten" program, but demonstrates a clear confidence in judgment and careful reading of files.  Of course, U Mass/Amherst and British Columbia are strong departments at the international level (both top 40 in the Anglophone world), but they rarely place graduates at this level.  Other examples are harder to come by (e.g., Harvard hired Samantha Matherne (PhD, UC Riverside), who works on Kant and post-Kantian philosophy, an area where UCR is excellent), and certainly not three in one year.   Looking over other "top 10" departments in the U.S., the only other case I find of tenure-stream junior faculty without PhDs from "top 10" programs is at Michigan (Emmalon Davis [PhD, Indiana], Sonya Ozbey [PhD, DePaul]), although those junior faculty were hired in different years. 

Tenure now under attack in North Carolina

Here.  None of this is surprising in the neoliberal world:  any form of employment guarantee is obviously an offense to the "demands of the market," unless the market is foresighted, which almost none are.  

(Thanks to Adrian Barton for the pointer.)

Petition to "Save the Journal of Political Philosophy"

Here.  Sensible demands and concrete proposals.  Anyone working in political philosophy/theory and cognate areas (including ethics and philosophy of law) should sign.

 

Reader question: DEI litmus tests for appraisal and promotion?

MOVING TO FRONT FROM APRIL 26--MORE COMMENTS WELCOME

A reader in the UK writes:

The latest trend is academic appraisal and promotion criteria designed to reward DEI enthusiasts and disadvantage those with heterodox views. Several readers have sent me examples from a set of appraisal guidelines under consideration at an unnamed University. The proposed guidelines would require deans and department heads to grade academics based on whether they ‘champion initiatives to promote diversity and fairness’, ‘embed and develop inclusive teaching practices’, and work for ‘fairer outcomes’.

Certain more elite institutions are bucking this illiberal trend. Oxford Magazine ( Download Oxford EDI Article copy) last year related the V-C’s ‘unequivocal’ stand against this new fashion for policing the thoughts of scholars. Since then, Oxford has reportedly ditched a plan to require DEI statements from job applicants. Proposals to add ideological standards to appraisal and promotion guidelines there are likewise thought to be dead in the water.

In the comments, please ask your readers to share what is afoot in terms of incorporating ideological criteria into appraisal and promotion guidelines elsewhere (U.S., U.K., Australia, etc.). It would also be good to know about similar experiences in other institutions.

Recall that the Academic Freedom Alliance has opposed the use of "diversity statements" in appointments.  And Professor Matthew Finkin, an expert on academic freedom at the University of Illinois College of Law, has recently authored an excellent critical analysishttps://www.journaloffreespeechlaw.org/finkin.pdf of related proposals at his own university, from which there is much to learn for those facing these attacks on academic freedom elsewhere.

Comments are open for readers to report what's going on at their universities.  Use a valid email address, and identify the university, even if you do not use your full name.

Dumb and dumber: Twitter on the OUP/Byrne fiasco

Dr. Rebecca Colesworthy, an acquisitions editor (!) at SUNY Press (authors, take note!), thinks a pattern of possible editorial decisions based on an author's controversial viewpoint is not worrisome, but "nonsense"!  (She was prompted, it appear, by Alex Bryant's clueless comments on the earlier post [Mr. Bryant, another benighted PhD student, was last seen demanding that Kathleen Stock be excluded from a volume].)

Mr. Bryant's tweet also inspired Professor Benjamin McKean, a political theorist at Ohio State, to offer this profound insight:

Fascists appointed to New College of Florida Board of Trustees reject tenure bids of five faculty...

...for no reason at all, except that the Board members are fascists and plan to "remake" the college.  I hope the faculty who are victims of this political purge--that's what it is--will sue for violation of their constitutional rights.  They are being punished for their actual or perceived "viewpoint" in violation of the First Amendment.

What's going on in Florida generally is the most serious attack on academic freedom and free speech in the U.S. right now, far more important than infantile pseudo-leftists preventing conservative judges from speaking on campus (that's idiotic too, but does not compare in terms of ruining lives and chilling speech).  The fact that the right-wing press isn't up in arms about this tells you everything you need to know about their actual interest in free speech and academic freedom.

North Carolina vs. Alaska

NC Supreme Court says legislators can pick their voters, while Alaska Supreme Court says voters should pick their representatives.   So democracy in elections for the House of Representatives is over in North Carolina, but secured in Alaska.

Is there anyone left at Journal of Political Philosophy?

My original correspondent writes this morning:   "Overnight, it seems that nearly all of the board has quit (including me)."   Wiley has really done something remarkable, taking the best journal in its subfield (political philosophy) and destroying it.  What a tragedy.  The only way out, as far as I can see, is for them to restore Goodin with a succession plan approved by the editors.

Comments are open, but once again, a full name is required, as is a valid email address (which will not appear).

More on Wiley as a journal publisher

There's a stunning comment on the earlier thread from Professor Anna Stilz, a political philosopher at Princeton who is the EIC of Philosophy & Public Affairs, that deserves wide notice:

I am also a member of JPP's Editorial Board who wrote earlier today to resign. But I'd like to share my perspective as well as Editor-in-Chief of Philosophy and Public Affairs, another Wiley-owned journal. P&PA has experienced escalating unreasonable demands from Wiley, including a demand that we massively increase the number of articles per year that we publish, essentially abandoning our editorial judgment and our control over the quality of our content. A few years back we only succeeded in getting Wiley to back down from this demand by threatening to file a lawsuit. I have heard from Editors at JPP that they were experiencing similar unreasonable demands from Wiley. That's all to say that whatever difficulties in communication there may have been between Wiley and Bob Goodin, those difficulties weren't occurring in a vacuum. All political philosophers and theorists who care about the health of the journals in our field have an interest in showing Wiley that it can't get away with this. I suggest we need to create sufficient negative publicity around the JPP affair so that any academic with a decent reputation who is approached to edit JPP in the future will feel considerable social pressure to refuse. Wiley will then either have to come back to the Co-Editors of JPP and allow them to run their journal on their terms, or it will own a much less valuable journal going forward.

Comments are open, but will be moderated as always.  Full name preferred, and valid email address required.

Crisis at Journal of Political Philosophy: Wiley (the publisher) ousts longtime editor Bob Goodin (MULTIPLE UPDATES--INCLUDING A REPLY FROM WILEY)

MOVING TO FRONT FROM EARLIER TODAY

A member of the editorial board writes:

Wiley has decided to remove Bob Goodin as Editor as of the end of this year and not replace him with any of the co-editors who were part of the journal's succession plan.  Bob notified the editorial board yesterday, and now several prominent members have resigned [6 as of this morning, including Jeff McMahan and Philip Pettit (an Associate Editor)].  I wrote Wiley for an explanation but they did not give one other than to say that the decision was not taken lightly.  It's a phenomenal journal -- the most influential in political philosophy, I think -- so they are really messing with success. I personally have not decided whether to resign from the board but am following this closely.

JPP's success is, by every account I've heard, due to Goodin's excellent editorial stewardship, and the huge amount of time he personally has invested in offering editorial feedback to authors.  So this is simply bizarre.  Wiley will have to offer a real explanation before this journal goes down in flames.  Comments are open for readers with knowledge about what's going on; comments particularly welcome from current or former Board members.   Full name preferred, and valid email address required (it will not appear).

UPDATE:  Anthony Appiah and Tommie Shelby are also among those resigning from the Board now.  The number is beyond six resignations.

MORE:   Amia Srinivasan (Oxford), an Associate Editor, has resigned, and she tells me she was not consulted before Wiley announced the decision to remove Goodin.  Sally Haslanger and Anne Phillips, also Associate Editors, have also resigned.  Other members of the Editorial Board who have resigned, beyond those already noted, are:  Derrick Darby, Bruce Ackerman, Jon Elster, Victor Tradros, Patrick Tomlin, Jane Mansbridge, Chiara Cordelli, Jonathan Quong, abd Pablo Gilabert.

ANOTHER:  Jeff McMahan kindly shared his resignation letter to Wiley, which is below the fold:

Death may be near, but there's still living to do

Philosopher Paul Woodruff writes about his experience:

My death is close at hand...because of a lung condition called bronchiectasis, and I am on oxygen day and night. But I do not think of myself as dying. I am living each day with as much life as I can put into it. For me, that means going to bed each night planning at least one project for the next day — something worth getting out of bed and living for. As I think of dying, I make each day a time for living, for having something to live for.

What kind of project is worth living for? Not a project I could complete today. Worthwhile projects spread out over time. Writing this small essay and finding someone to print it will take at least a week, and today is only the first day. I will make sure that the last day for this essay will be the first day for something else. Thinking of death, I want to live every day as if it were the first for something.

(Thanks to Michael Sevel for the pointer.)

Trinity College's library will no longer be named after Bishop Berkeley...

...because he owned slaves.  Unlike Aristotle, he did not justify slavery, so one might have thought that would count in his favor.  More seriously, at the time he owned slaves, it was hardly uncommon for individuals of his class.  (Contrast the case of honoring Calhoun!)  Will this de-naming make the world a better place?   Was anyone in doubt in Dublin that chattel slavery was wrong?  Will scholars of Berkeley now apologize for writing about him?

Marx, ever the optimist, thought that things would be very different when we live in a "human" world, in which there are neither chattel- nor wage-slaves, in which people were not locked in life-and-death struggles for existence, and in which the human interest in creative work was allowed to express itself.  That must surely be right, but one might imagine that in such a humane world no one would care about dishonoring those who were otherwise great intellectual innovators because they were creatures of their times, because they acted exactly as their class position required.

Aly Corey, "Associate Director for Inclusive Learning" in the DEI office at Williams College, has apparently resigned from my fan club

Admittedly Dr. Corey must have led an exemplary life if having an undergraduate degree from the University of Chicago in music is the most embarrassing thing they have ever done.  Good to know "diversity" at Williams is in the hands of such a mature, balanced individual!

 

No more "logic" requirement at Yale, instead "formal methods"

Philosophers on Twitter have been abuzz with this news:

Yale philosophy has officially replaced the grad program “logic requirement” with a broader “formal methods requirement.” Students can choose which course to take (logic, probability, stats, game theory, etc.)

This seems like a sensible move.  When philosophy of language dominated Anglophone philosophy, logic seemed more important than it probably is today for many areas of the discipline.  Thoughts from readers?

F.I.R.E. report on attempts to sanction scholars for their speech or work, 2000-2022

Informative, and it shows, sadly, a marked increase in recent years.  From the "executive summary":

The key findings of this report include:
▪ 1,080 scholar sanction attempts occurred between 2000 and 2022.
▪ The annual number of attempts has increased dramatically over time, from four
in 2000 to 145 in 2022.
▪ Almost two-thirds of attempts resulted in sanction, including 225 terminations
(698 of 1,080, or 65%).
▪ Nearly three-quarters of terminations involved untenured, rather than tenured,
scholars (165 of 225, or 73%).
▪ More than one-third of attempts were initiated by undergraduates (402 of
1,080, or 37%).
▪ In 2021, 213 sanction attempts occurred, more than in any other year. This was
partially due to Turning Point USA calling on parents and students to contact
the institutions of 61 professors featured on their Professor Watchlist website.

 

Neurophilosopher Patricia Churchland profiled in El Pais

Here (in English).

James Madison University needs a new Provost

Provost Heather Coltman has just been the target of a damning resolution by the JMU Faculty Senate (more than 90% voted in favor of the resolution):  Download Jmuamendedresolutionofcondemnationmar30

American exceptionalism: guns and economic inequality...

...yields this:  "The average American my age, in his mid-to-late 30s, is roughly six times more likely to die in the next year than his counterpart in Switzerland."

 

 

Richard Marshall interviews Heinrich Heine...

...at 3:16 AM.

Free will and addiction in the NYT...

...discussing the work of philosophers Hanna Pickard (Johns Hopkins) and Chandra Sripada (Michigan).

Some happy news in the Benighted States of America

Fox News has fired Tucker Carlson.  Now they need to fire Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, and a few others, and they might actually be able to pose as a news network.

Big investment in PPE at Buffalo

The Department of Philosophy at the University at Buffalo, State University of New York, has made a half-dozen senior and junior hires this year, with a particular eye to building up in PPE.  Here are the lateral hires, senior and junior:

Stewart Duncan (early modern) from the University of Florida, Gainesville, coming in as Professor.

Justin Bruner (social & political philosophy, PPE), currently Associate Professor of Political Economy and Moral Sciences at the University of Arizona will be joining Buffalo as Associate Professor.

Alexandra Oprea (political philosophy, PPE) currently Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, will be joining as Assistant Professor of Philosophy.

Daniel Stephens (Chinese and comparative philosophy, moral philosophy), currently Assistant Professor at Duke Kunshun University, will be joining Buffalo as an Assistant Professor.