Leiter Reports: A Philosophy Blog

A new website for discussing philosophy pre-prints...

...courtesy of philosophers Filippo Contesi and Giulio Pietroiusti (both Barcelona); they write:

In some academic disciplines, publication and discussion of articles
before journal submission is generally much more widespread than in philosophy. Indeed, most journal publishing houses are publicly
committed to considering pre-archived papers for publication. You can double-check this for your journal of choice here:

https://v2.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/

Philosophers already can make their pre-prints publicly available at
any point on at least one pre-print repository: PhilArchive.org.
However, currently existing web platforms for public discussion of
scientific pre-prints (e.g. PubPeer.org) cannot be used to discuss PhilArchive-d papers.

So, we have created a website that allows anyone to comment freely on
papers present on PhilArchive and/or PhilPapers:

https://freelosophy.github.io/

On Freelosophy, scholars can add comments to a paper (and read them) by using its PhilPapers/Archive ID, an identifier present on the page
of each paper on PhilArchive. Each paper on PhilPapers also has its
own PhilPaper/Archive ID (in the URL).

Everyone interested is most welcome to start using our service, which
is currently in public beta. Please do not hesitate to contact us at
philfreedback@gmail.com for any comments or feedback.

Professor Contesi tells me they will moderate the discussion forum to make sure it does not degenerate into a metablog!

Great moments in obscure rock 'n' roll: Blonde on Blonde, "All Day All Night," 1968

Another great tune from the Welsh band we featured last fall; very 1968, complete with sitar!

 

In Memoriam: Hugh S. Chandler (1930-2022)

Professor Chandler, who wrote on a wide range of philosophical issues (including in ethics, philosophy of religion, and metaphysics) taught for decades at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  The Illinois memorial notice is here.

(Thanks to Jeff McMahan for the pointer.)

Orwell on reviewing books

This is funny and apt:

Until one has some kind of professional relationship with books one does not discover how bad the majority of them are. In much more than nine cases out of ten the only objectively truthful criticism would be “This book is worthless”, while the truth about the reviewer’s own reaction would probably be “This book does not interest me in any way, and I would not write about it unless I were paid to.”

Advertising update

The next top spot available is in April (there may be one also in March), but there is one second and/or third spot open over the next couple of months.   Because I won't be doing much blogging in May this year (busy teaching quarter in Spring), I won't be selling advertising exclusively for that month, but will offer, on a first-come, first-serve basis, those who book for April or June the opportunity to run their ad through May as well.  E-mail me for details.

On the meaning of statutes and the passage of time

An interview with legal philosopher Martin David Kelly (Edinburgh).

Blast from the past: the 2014 attempt to take down the Philosophical Gourmet Report

It failed obviously.

All the ranking data for the 2021-22 Philosophical Gourmet Report...

...is now available at the Wiley-Blackwell site.   Some of the other pages are still being updated, but all the ranking data is there.

Legal philosopher Leslie Green retires now from Queen's U in Canada

A nice write-up here.  We noted previously the significance of his retirement last fall from Oxford (a result borne out by the recent PGR surveys, where Oxford was no longer in a group by itself).

(Thanks to Gregoire Webber for the pointer.)

University in Calgary fires tenured professor...

...and it rather looks like they did so because of her political views and speech.  (This is espescially ironic in light of this.)  If anyone has seen details of allegations of misconduct against the fired professor, please share links in the comments.  Absent that, this seems an egregious violation of the free speech rights of the professor.

The FBI file on Foucault

Our tax dollars being put to work.

Richard Marshall interviews Ruth Boeker (University College Dublin)...

...at 3:16 AM.

PGR Update

Professor Pynes tells me all the main ranking data should be online before the week is out.  I'll post a link when it is available.

"How Doctors Die"

MOVING TO FRONT FROM JANUARY 3--SOME INTERESTING COMMENTS AND  LINKS, MORE WELCOME

I recently came across this striking article from 2013; an excerpt:

It’s not a frequent topic of discussion, but doctors die, too. And they don’t die like the rest of us. What’s unusual about them is not how much treatment they get compared to most Americans, but how little. For all the time they spend fending off the deaths of others, they tend to be fairly serene when faced with death themselves. They know exactly what is going to happen, they know the choices, and they generally have access to any sort of medical care they could want. But they go gently.

Of course, doctors don’t want to die; they want to live. But they know enough about modern medicine to know its limits. And they know enough about death to know what all people fear most: dying in pain and dying alone. They’ve talked about this with their families. They want to be sure, when the time comes, that no heroic measures will happen—that they will never experience, during their last moments on earth, someone breaking their ribs in an attempt to resuscitate them with CPR (that’s what happens if CPR is done right).

Blast from the past: when philosophers and other academics spoke out in defense of Rebecca Tuvel and in condemnation of the former associate editors of Hypatia

Back in 2017.  The good news is there has been less of this bad behavior in philosophy since 2017 (alhough not none).

"Universal Basic Income," Alaska-style

And it works quite well:

In 1976, the voters of Alaska approved a Constitutional Amendment establishing the Alaska Permanent Fund. Powered by investments fueled by oil royalties, the Fund pays out dividends (the Permanent Fund Dividend) annually to Alaska residents. This year, the Permanent Fund Dividend will amount to $1,114.

This puts Alaska in the unique position of having run a UBI program for more than four decades. While the program isn’t nearly as generous as Yang’s proposed UBI ($1,000 monthly for adults) or the CTC ($3,600 annually for each kid under 6 and $3,000 annually for each kid ages 6 to 17), it does offer opportunities to study the impact of unconditional government cash transfers.

That’s what Washington State University sociologist Mariana Amorim decided to do. She analyzed dividend payments between 1996 and 2015, curious about how the payments changed parents’ spending calculus. The results were published at the end of October in the journal Social Forces.

In Memoriam: Michael (M.J.) Inwood (1944-2021)

A longtime member of the Oxford philosophy faculty, he was especially well-known for his work on Hegel and on Heidegger, at a time when few Oxford philosophers were interested in either.   There is a brief memorial notice from the Oxford philosophy faculty here.

(Thanks to Roger Crisp for the pointer.)

UPDATE:   Cambridge University Press has made available this article (on Hegel and Aristotle) by Professor Inwood.

The breathtaking repression of speech and political dissent in Hong Kong

Professor David Law--a well-known comparative constitutional law and empirical legal studies scholar at the University of Virginia, who taught previously at the University of Hong Kong--gave permission to share these observations he posted on Facebook, which uses this article as a reference point; they make tangible and clear how bad things are now in Hong Kong:

The political crackdown in Hong Kong is so comprehensive and severe that it’s hard even to list what’s happened since Christmas. So instead here’s a list of the ways in which a law professor like me has personally felt its effects, over just this past week. Nothing abstract about it.

 

— A criminal defense lawyer pulls out of the Zoom conference I’m organizing for UVA to talk about the situation in Hong Kong after the “National Security” Law, citing concerns that Hong Kong’s longstanding independent bar is now in the cross hairs (now that the opposition parties, labor unions, and media have been crushed).

 

The sad thing is, I can’t blame him.  Now criminal defense lawyers in Hong Kong fear consequences just for doing their jobs, if they take on clients who expressed the wrong political views. Just like in mainland China.

 

Amy Wax and "the Asians"

At my law school blog, I comment on the latest travesty from Professor Wax.  She is certainly pushing the envelope on her academic freedom rights.

"Bernard Williams: Philosopher"

The website, courtesy of philosopher Paul Russell (British Columbia/Lund).

"The Most Important Problem of Contemporary Legal Philosophy"

Papers from an international conference last May are now out in Annals:  Belgrade Law Review, with contributions by Pierluigi Chiassoni (Genoa), Tomasz Gizbert-Studnicki (Jaggellonian U, Krakow), Frederick Schauer (Virginia),Torben Spaak (Stockholm), and myself.  My paper, "Back to Hart," can be downloaded here; the abstract:

The essay addresses two different senses of important “problems” for contemporary legal philosophy. In the first case, the “problem” is having forgotten things we learned from H.L.A. Hart, and, partly as a result, encouraging pointless metaphysical inquiries in other directions that take us very far from questions about the nature of law and legal reasoning. In the second case, the “problem” is to attend more carefully to Hart’s views and his philosophical context to think about the problem of theoretical disagreement, and to understand the way in which later commentators have misunderstood his behaviorist (Rylean) analysis of “accepting a rule from an internal point of view.”

Probably the most important claim is the last one about Ryle's influence on Hart's characterization of the "internal point of view."  As I put it in the paper:

The mechanics of stealing a U.S. Presidential election in 2024

This succinct account comes in this profile of Congressman Jamie Raskin (D-Maryland):

These next three years will test our democracy in ways it hasn’t been tested since the 1860s, or maybe ever. The scenario is pretty straightforward. The Republicans retake the House in the midterms. Immediately, any chance of Biden passing meaningful legislation is dead, but that’s the least of it. The GOP will launch hearing after hearing, issue subpoena after subpoena; they will find some flimsy rationale on which to impeach Biden, and they will stretch it out as long as possible. Trump will run—as Raskin put it, “for psychological, political, and financial reasons”—and he will be the GOP nominee, Raskin has little doubt. Assuming Biden seeks reelection, the election will probably be close, because elections just are these days. If Biden wins by a matter of several thousand votes in a few states, as he did in 2020, the Trump machinery will kick into gear to steal the election. Republican election commissioners and state legislators and even some governors will put forward pro-Trump electors. The House of Representatives will not vote to certify Biden’s win in January 2025, which will toss the election to the House, which will make Trump president. (When a presidential election gets thrown to the House, under the Twelfth Amendment, the vote is by state delegation, so North Dakota has the same voting power as California; Republicans now control, and will likely in 2025 still control, a majority of state delegations, and Liz Cheney will probably be gone, meaning that Wyoming will go pro-Trump.) For the second time in the history of the United States, the other time being 1824, Congress will have installed as the president a candidate who did not win a plurality of votes in either the Electoral College or the popular vote.

Do your own research on how to "do your own research"

Philosopher Nathan Ballantyne (Fordham) and psychologist David Dunning (of Dunning-Kruger Effect fame) comment.

Extended effect of psychedelic drug use on metaphysical beliefs

Less belief in materialism, more in pansychism.  Seriously!

(Thanks to Alex Parrish for the pointer.)

2021: Philosophers who passed away

The passing of the following philosophers was noted on the blog during 2021:  Lilli Alanen, Robert Ammerman, Frithjof Bergmann, Graham Bird, James Bohman, Jacques Bouveresse, Richard N. Boyd, Sarah (Waterlow) Broadie, Eugenio Bulygin, Louis Charland, John Corcoran, Richard Double, Jude P. Dougherty, J. Michael Dunn, Jim Edwards, Ed Gettier, José A. Giannotti, Jorge J.E. Gracia, Gilbert Harman, Katherine Hawley, Waheed Hussain, Kenneth Kipnis, Aryeh (L.A.) Kosman, Andrew Levine, Joseph Margolis, Storrs McCall, Charles W. Mills, Fabrizio Mondadori, Margaret Morrison, Kai Nielsen, Bernard Rollin, Gerasimos X. Santas, William Ralph Schroeder, Andreas Teuber, Salvatore Veca, Stephen J. White, Eddy Zemach.  You can find more information, including (often) links to obituaries by scrolling through the "Philosophy Updates" category (in which this post also appears).

(Note: I do not attempt to list the passing of every professional philosopher in a given year; I do try to record the deaths of thoselikely to be known to many others in the profession.  Apologies for oversights and omissions.)

PGR 2021 Preview: Summary of specialty rankings for programs tied at 19th (CORRECTED)

Continuing with the recent specialty rankings previews for programs outside the very top ranks, below the fold are the summaries of the specialty rankings for the three programs tied at 19th:  Cornell University; University of California at San Diego; University of Chicago.

PGR 2021 Preview: Summary of specialty rankings for programs ranked 22-24

Continuing with the recent specialty rankings previews for programs outside the very top ranks, below the fold are the summaries of the specialty rankings for the programs ranked 22 to 24:  University of Arizona and University of Wisconsin at Madison (tied at 22nd), and University of California, Irvine (24th).

2021 in review, 4th quarter: October, November, December

October

The study of philosophy in law schools, and JD/PhD programs in the U.S. (and elsewhere), 2021 edition

MIT cancels distinguished lecture by geoscientist who expressed "incorrect" views about diversity

On Macroeconomics, in the NYT (a discussion)

Charles Mills and his critique of Rawls (a discussion)

Yale's President is extremely confused about the role of academic freedom and his job

Talking about the Chinese Room argument with a chatbot

The attack on tenure in Georgia

SSHRC (in Canada) requiring "diversity" in research proposals (a discussion)

No wonder Schopenhauer was a pessimist!

PGR 2021 Preview: Summary of specialty rankings for programs tied at 25th

Continuing with the recent specialty rankings previews for programs outside the very top ranks, below the fold are the summaries of the specialty rankings for the programs tied at 25th:  Ohio State University and Washington University, St. Louis.

How many cases of infection by the Covid virus are asymptomatic throughout?

It's surprisingly difficult to find a clear answer to this question.  Many studies that report X percentage being asymptomatic actually mean only that at the time of testing positive, the person was asymptomatic, not that they never developed symptoms.  Does anyone know the answer?  Is there an answer yet for Omicron?  Please post links in the comments (no need to format them, just paste the URL).

2021 in review, 3rd quarter: July, August, September

July

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

New Hampshire legislator files bill that would require high school students to take a half-year introduction to philosophy...

...that would focus on epistemology, logic, ethics, and philosophy of science.  The sole sponsor is Julius Soti (R-District 7), who has a B.A. in philosophy and history from William Paterson University.

(Thanks to Glenn Branch for the information and pointers.)

PGR 2021 Preview: Summary of specialty rankings for programs tied 27th

Continuing with the recent specialty rankings previews for programs outside the very top ranks, below the fold are the summaries of the specialty rankings for the programs tied at 27th:   University of California at Riverside; University of Colorado at Boulder; University of Massachusetts at Amherst; and University of Pennsylvania.

2021 in review, 2nd quarter: April, May, June.

April

New philosophy rankings released (April 1)

Philosopher and cognitive scientist John Sutton explains his decision to take "volutnary [sic] redundancy" at Macquarie University

A list of people "cancelled"

A curious, passing remark about Bernard Williams

"The New Ptolemaism" in the humanities and social sciences

On the motives of academics and administrators in promoting faux "social justice" initatives

"Public philosophy" is not scholarship (and not simply because most of it is bad qua philosophy)

Peter Singer, scholarship, and "equity" in citations

Lindfield University is a disgrace

 

What do you remember about characters from fiction (novels, films, comics, games etc.)?

MOVING TO FRONT FROM XMAS EVE:  PROFESSOR LAVOCAT WELCOMES MORE RESPONSES; THANKS TO THOSE WHO HAVE ALREADY COMPLETED THE SURVEY.

Professor Françoise Lavocat (Paris III), a distinguished literay scholar (more about her here), is undertaking a cross-cultural study of what people remember about characters they encounter in fiction (whether books or comics or games or films etc.).  You can participate in her survey here.  It should take 10 or 15 minutes.

Philosophers on the bodily and other pleasures

Max Hayward (Sheffield) comments at The Atlantic.

PGR 2021 Preview: Summary of specialty rankings for programs tied 31st

Continung with the recent specialty rankings previews for programs outside the very top ranks, below the fold are the summaries of the specialty rankings for the programs tied at 31st:   Georgetown University and Johns Hopkins University.

2021 in review, 1st quarter: January, February, March

January

An intelligent discussion of "systemic racism"

Dominic Berry is drawing a line!

The "Anti-Kathleen Stock" letter is full of mistakes, fact-free speculation and misleading innuendo

Where (untenured) tenure-track faculty at the U.S. "top 24" PhD programs in 2020-21 got their PhD

The real worry about the stormtrooper riot at the Capitol lasts week is what it portends

Graduate students afraid to support the open letter on academic freedom

Christa Peterson's "Hit Piece" on Kathleen Stock

PGR 2021 Preview: Summary of specialty rankings for programs tied 33rd

Continung with the recent specialty rankings previews for programs outside the very top ranks, below the are the summaries of the specialty rankings for the programs tied at 33rd:   Duke University, Indiana University at Bloomington; University of Connecticut at Storrs; University of Miami; University of Virginia.

Great moments in obscure rock 'n' roll: the five best finds of 2021...

...in my opinion, anyway. Glad to hear yours in the comments (click on the category, "Great Moments in Obscure Rock 'n' Roll" [in which this post appears] to see this year's selections from which to choose).

Here's my top five:

Bang, "Mother," 1972

Blodwyn Pig, "Same Old Story," 1970

The Damnation of Adam Blessing, "The Last Train to Clarksville," 1969

Steamhammer, "Contemporary Chick Con Song," 1969

Tucky Buzzard, "She's Meat," 1971

And a few runners-up that could just as well have been the top five:

Bang, "Feels Nice," 1973

Blonde on Blonde, "Conversationally Making the Grade," 1969

Tucky Buzzard, "Time Will Be Your Doctor," 1971

Zior, "I Really Do," 1971

PGR 2021 Preview: Summary of specialty rankings for programs tied 38th

Continung with the recent specialty rankings previews for programs outside the very top ranks, below the are the summaries of the specialty rankings for the programs tied at 38th:  Northwestern University and University of Maryland, College Park.

America is doomed, part 414: millions of armed individuals may revolt if Trump doesn't win in 2024

That's the short version; here's a longer excerpt:

If armed violence erupts the 2024 elections, quelling it could fall to the U.S. military, which may be reluctant to take arms against U.S. citizens. In that case, the fate of the nation might well be decided by a simple fact: a big subset of one of the two parties has for years been systemically arming itself for this very reason.

"I hope it's just too crazy to happen here," says Erica De Bruin, an assistant professor of government at Hamilton College, who studies coups around the world. "But it's now in the realm of the plausible"....

What is it like to be a philosopher? Yujin Nagasawa (Birmingham) edition

Here.

The proposed "restructuring" at the University of Sydney

This is alarming:

Student newspaper Honi Soit reported it had seen a leaked list of units and enrolment numbers which revealed that at least 252 of 748 (33.7 per cent) undergraduate units were at risk of being cut.

Among the vulnerable subjects were Hebrew, biblical and Jewish studies, visual arts and philosophy, it reported.

Other subjects with low enrollments included areas as diverse as classics and ancient history, Chinese, Spanish, Latin American, Indonesian modern Greek, and Arabic languages and culture.

Philosophy at Sydney has long been one of the top programs in Australasia, and a program of international distinction.   What's going on?  Comments are open.

University of Chicago delays start of Winter Quarter one week...

...and the first two weeks of instruction thereafter will be online.  (The Law School is not delayed, so we will be online for three weeks.)   Chicago recorded over 5,000 new cases today, double from what it was a week ago, and five times what it was two weeks ago.   I'm sure the story is similar in many other places.  If the Omicron surge follows the South Africa pattern in and around Johannesburg, then we'll peak in about two weeks or so (at 20,000 new cases per day?) and it will start to decline...so we hope!

PGR 2021 Preview: Summary of specialty rankings for programs tied at 46th

Continuing with the recent preview, below the fold are the summaries of specialty rankings for the five schools tied at 46th:   University of California at Davis; University of Illinois at Chicago; University of Minnesota at Minneapolis-St. Paul; University of Rochester; and University of Utah.

PGR 2021 Preview: Summary of specialty rankings for U.S. programs ranked 44th

Following up on yesterday's preview, below the fold are the summaries of specialty rankings for the two programs tied for 44th in the U.S.:  Florida State University and Rice University.  The remainder of the top fifty should follow later today.

In dead of night, University of Hong Kong removes "Pillar of Shame" statue...

...commemorating the Tiananmen Square massacre.  The University's official statement effectively acknowledges that the University removed it because of the Beijing-imposed laws that criminalize dissent.

This is the latest in a series of incidents that indicate Hong Kong is being crushed by the authoritarians in Beijing.

(Thanks to Chris Fraser for the pointer.)

Setting health-care priorities during pandemics and other mass casualty events

The entire conference, featuring many philosophers, is online here.  The topic, alas, is rather obviously timely!  The schedule is below the fold:

The Israeli General and Deleuze & Guattari

A strange story.

(Thanks to Aaron Garrett for the pointer.)