Leiter Reports: A Philosophy Blog

Social liberals need not be moral relativists

Philosopher Thomas Hurka (Toronto) comments.

More signs of the times: the case of Baker University

Story here; an excerpt:

Several faculty with over 20 years of employment at Baker were offered an early retirement incentive created by the Human Resources department. In addition, three faculty members’ contracts were terminated.

Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Darcy Russell explained that program reductions were determined on the basis of low enrollment numbers in comparison to other programs. As a result, Baker will no longer offer a major or minor in French or German, leaving Spanish as the only option for a world language major. Further, Theatre and Philosophy programs will be reduced to a minor only.

(Thanks to Marcos Mendoza for the pointer.)

Richard Marshall interviews Samuel Newlands (Notre Dame)...

...at 3:16 AM.

"The Practical Origins of Ideas: Genealogy as Conceptual Reverse-Engineering"

The new book by philosopher Matthieu Queloz (Oxford) is completely open-access!  (Dr. Queloz got a grant that enabled him to purchase the permanent open-access option from OUP.)

Newspaper published an editorial about John Rawls

Remarkable.  This is not an op-ed, but a statement by the editorial board!

(Thanks to Robert McGarvey for the pointer.)

New editors of the journal "Analysis" announced

Philosopher Ben Colburn (Glasgow), Secretary to the Analysis Trust, asked me to share this announcement, which I'm happy to do:

The Analysis Trust is delighted to announce that it has appointed Dr Stacie Friend, Dr David Liggins and Dr Lee Walters as joint editors of Analysis from September 2021 onwards. We would like to thank David for his excellent work as editor over the past five years, and look forward to working with him, Lee and Stacie to maintain Analysis's exciting and distinctive role in the philosophical ecosystem.

Richard Marshall interviews Jean-Philippe Deranty (Macquarie)...

...at 3:16 AM.

Williamson on the "necessity of realism"

Once again at IAITV.

In Memoriam: Fabrizio Mondadori (1943-2021)

MOVING TO FRONT FROM FEBRUARY 22--UPDATED

A specialist in early modern philosophy, metaphysics and philosophy of language, Professor Mondadori spent most of his career at the excellent terminal MA program in philosophy at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee.  An obituary is here (although it states wrongly he taught early on at Penn State--it was at the University of Pennsylvania).

(Thanks to Ed McCann for the pointer.)

UPDATE:  The UWM memorial notice is here.  (Thanks to John Koethe for the pointer.)

In Memoriam: Richard N. Boyd (1942-2021)

MOVING TO FRONT FROM FEBRUARY 22--UPDATED

A longtime member of the philosophy faculty at Cornell, where he was emeritus, Professor Boyd was especially well-known for his forms of scientific and moral realism.   I will add links to memorial notices as they appear.   

UPDATE:    The Cornell memorial notice is here.  (Thanks to John Doris for the pointer.)

MC Hammer, rapper and online defender of philosophy

Sometimes philosophy finds friends in surprising places.

(Thanks to Mark Brenchley for the pointers.)

Sarah Braasch's legal battle with Yale continues

Readers will recall that Ms. Braasch was the victim of an Internet-fueled "cancellation"--the fake "napping while Black" case at Yale--and that she is now locked in a legal battle with Yale to release the police bodycam footage that she believes will vindicate her account of what happened.  Ms. Braasch writes about the status of the case here; as her legal costs mount, please consider supporting her either with payment directly to her lawyers (put "Sarah Braasch" in the reference line) or through her GoFund me page.

(For a useful short account of what happened to Ms. Braasch, see this New York Daily News piece by Cathy Young.)

In Memoriam: James Bohman (1954-2021)

MOVING TO FRONT FROM JANUARY 20--UPDATED

Well-known for his contributions to political philosophy (esp. democratic theory), Professor Bohman spent almost his entire career at Saint Louis University, where he was emeritus.  I will post links to memorial notices as they appear.

UPDATE:  The St. Louis memorial notice is here.  (Thanks to Nick Zavediuk for the pointer.)

Boston Review marks the centennary of Rawls's birth...

...with a collection of essays here.

JHP Article Prize for 2020

Deborah Boyle (Charleston), the editor of Journal of the History of Philosophy, writes:

The Journal of the History of Philosophy is pleased to announce that its sixteenth annual prize for the best article to appear in the pages of the JHP over the past year has just been awarded to Jari Kaukua for “Avicenna’s Outsourced Rationalism” JHP 58.2 (April 2020): 215–40. The prize comes with a cash award of $1,500. The article can be read at https://muse.jhu.edu/article/752857

Condescension from below watch: Matt Taibbi edition

It's clear the silly Taibbi--who is sometimes an amusing polemicist but is equally obviously a lightweight--did not understand a word he read, and didn't even read the "Repressive Tolerance" essay in its entirety (he doesn't realize that Marcuse is a Millian, and that his dispute with Mill is about the background conditions under which liberty actually produces good consequences).   I do not recommend reading the essay, unless one wants to be reminded that anti-intellectual hatchet jobs are not wholly proprietary to right-wing pundits.

(Thanks to Prabhu Venkataraman for the pointer.)

Richard Marshall interviews Jenann Ismael (Columbia)...

...at 3:16 AM.

"The Other Woman"

Pleasingly quirky and evocative reflections by my colleague Agnes Callard.

In Memoriam: Andreas Teuber (1942-2021)

A longtime member of the philosophy faculty at Brandeis University, Professor Teuber was best-known for his work in political philosophy and aesthetics, especially the aesthetics of Stanley Cavell.  The Brandeis memorial notice is here.

"Meaning in Life"

Philosophers Thaddeus Metz (Pretoria) discusses at Brain in a Vat.

"The Argument for Anarchism"

Philosopher Michael Huemer (Colorado) discusses at Brain in a Vat.

"Be Here Now"

More thoughts from philosopher John Martin Fischer (UC Riverside).

"Impossible colors"?

Following up on our earlier discussion of the new pigment of blue, philosopher Michael Newall (Kent) calls my attention to a new paper of his.  He writes:  "My article is about another 'new' shade of blue: yellowish blue, a particular kind of impossible colour, which philosophers and scientists have traditionally viewed with suspicion. For those who'd like to see these colours, it includes some examples - I found these worked on about 70% of the subjects in my study. Anyone without institutional access is welcome to get in touch with me directly (m.b.newall@kent.ac.uk)."

Putnam on Quine, ontology, and abstract objects

 

Norms for job hunting by faculty recently hired into the tenure-track

MOVING TO FRONT FROM YESTERDAY--MORE COMMENTS WELCOME

A philosopher elsewhere recently wrote to me wondering about what norms there are (or should be) regarding junior faculty in tenure-stream or equivalent positions shopping around for other jobs.  Of course, academia operates on something like a "free agency" system:  while schools may have obligations to tenure-stream faculty regarding continued employment, faculty do not have comparable legal obligations to schools.  But aside from legal obligations, faculty presumably have some at least modest obligations of loyalty to their institutions.   If a school, for example, makes special accommodations for a new faculty member (e.g., in teaching load, or in support for an external fellowship, etc.), then is it bad form for that new faculty member to immediately begin shopping for a new post?   But what if the new faculty member is asked by a school elsewhere to apply, is it then acceptable to apply for that post?  Does it depend on the reasons a junior faculty member is shopping around:  e.g., is it more acceptable when the junior faculty member is trying to solve a "two-body" problem, then if s/he is just trying to land a "better" job along some dimension.  Thoughts from readers?  Submit comments only once, they may take awhile to appear.

Richard Marshall interviews Philip Goodchild (Nottingham)...

...at 3:16 AM.

On meritocracy and Michael Sandel's Harvard-centric view of the universe

Apt analysis by philosopher and law professor Christopher Kutz (Berkeley).

Philanthropy and the ideal of "civil society"

Political philosopher Chiara Cordelli (Chicago) comments.

The propaganda film shown at the Trump rally preceding the stormtrooper riot

Philosopher Jason Stanley (Yale) comments on it here.   He's certainly right about the echoes of fascist rhetorical tropes and themes, although he overstates the supposed anti-semitism (e.g., "Hollywood" has been the conservative code word for "liberal elites" for decades now, not for Jews; indeed, most of the best-known "liberal" representatives of Hollywood who attract reactionary ire are not Jews).   Of course, fascist-like rhetoric emanating from Trumpworld is not the same as fascist ideology or practice, as others have noted.  (This may be closer to how fascism really works.)

Is the self an illusion?

Philosophers Lisa Bortolotti (Birmingham), Dan Zahavi (Oxford & Copenhagen), and others discuss.

On Hume's racism, again

I came across this interesting if somewhat curious essay by philosopher Mazviita Chirimuuta (Edinburgh), prompted by the renaming of the Hume Tower at her university.   Professor Chirimuuta tries, rather implausibly I thought, to draw a connection between Hume's naturalism and his racism.  She does so by claiming it is difficulty to pin down what naturalism involves (I'm not so sure it is), and suggesting that it is mainly defined by opposition to the supernatural:

The question we contemporary philosophers need to ask ourselves is whether there is a legitimate notion of the “naturalistic worldview” that does not require, for its own self-definition, a contrast with the “superstitious worldview” of the “primitive” other. We need also to ask seriously whether the unreflected notion of what is a naturalistic, and hence intellectually respectable explanation, is still being used to de-legitimise explanations offered by various indigenous peoples concerning events in the natural world, events which include the symptoms of an ever more crushing ecological crisis. Such accounts are still regularly categorised as “spiritualistic”, and with that certain voices are still summarily dismissed, as expressed by the Māori individuals interviewed in this news report of a mass whale beaching.

Supernatural claims are explanatorily otiose, which is why supernatural entities drop out of a methodologically naturalistic conception of the world (i.e., one modeled on the successful empirical sciences).  "Primitive" peoples have false views about cause and effect, as do their present-day descendants, like evangelical Christians:   are we really not supposed to dismiss these kinds of supernatural-infused views about how the world works?

Did Frege plagiarize the Stoics?

Philosopher Susanne Bobzien (Oxford) argues that he did in both his philosophy of logic and language.

UPDATE:   Justin Weinberg (South Carolina) has compiled useful excerpts from Professor Bobzien's article.

Richard Marshall interviews Robert Stecker (Central Michigan)...

...at 3:16 AM.

On appreciating the work of "immoral" artists

Philosopher Noel Carroll (CUNY Grad Center) comments.

Which of the "top 25" PhD programs in the U.S. have Black faculty in tenure-stream positions?

Philosopher Jason Stanley (Yale) recently remarked on Twitter that in 20+ years, he had taught at four leading departments--Cornell, Michigan, Rutgers, Yale--and had only one Black colleague on tenure-track during that time (Howard McGary at Rutgers, who is now retired).   I'll return to the question of causation and racism (which seems to have overwhelmed the online discussion [and here]), but the facts are indisputable.   Very few of the leading PhD programs have any Black faculty, and even fewer have African-American faculty.  I list below the "top 24" PhD programs with the names of their Black tenure-stream faculty, when there are any.  Please e-mail me with any corrections.

NYU:                 Anthony Appiah

Rutgers:            Derrick Darby

Princeton:        ---

Michigan:        ---

Pittsburgh:       ---

Yale:                ---

MIT:                 ---

In Memoriam: Waheed Hussain (1972-2021)

A moral and political philosopher, particularly concerned with markets, Professor Hussain was an Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Toronto, where he had taught since 2014.   The Toronto memorial notice is here.

On the difference between political philosophy and political theory

Philosopher Jason Brennan (Georgetown) comments.

On realism (in the metaphysical sense)

Timothy Williamson (Oxford) comments.

2021 Rescher Medal for Contributions to Systematic Philosophy to go to Thomas Nagel (NYU)

Past winners include Ernest Sosa, Alvin Plantinga, the late Hilary Putnam, Ruth Millikan, and Philip Kitcher, among others. The 2021 Rescher Medal lecture will be held on February 5, 2021.  For more information, please contact Thomas Berry at tberry@pitt.edu.

Danks, Harrell from Carnegie-Mellon to UC San Diego

David Danks (philosophy of science and cognitive science, machine learning, ethics of AI), Professor of Philosophy and Psychology at Carnegie-Mellon University, and Mara Harrell (philosophy of science, philosophical pedagogy), Teaching Professor of Philosophy at CMU, have both accepted tenured offers from the Department of Philosophy at the University of California, San Diego.   Danks will be half in Philosophy and half in the Halıcıoğlu Data Science Institute; Harrell will be split between Philosophy and the new School of Public Health. Both will also be part of UCSD's Institute for Practical Ethics. They are expected to begin in fall 2021.

The latest in mysterious rankings

Reader Steve Kreizl kindly called my attention to the "Academic Influence" website.  Even after reviewing their supposed "methodology," I can't figure out the results.   Whatever it is, it is not a ranking of influence in the field of philosophy (otherwise Saul Kripke and Timothy Williamson would not be runners-up for the top twenty-five).  It's also not exactly cross-disciplinary influence either, although that goes some distance towards explaining the list (e.g., David Chalmers, Daniel Dennett and Martha Nussbaum in the top ten).   It clearly gives a lot of weight to references in the popular media, the only way to explain, e.g., George Yancy being in the top ten (he has published extensively at the NYT blog, "The Stone").  Yancy ranks ahead of Joseph Raz and Charles Taylor, for example, who don't write for the NYT blog (nor do I needless to say).   Who, one wonders, is the audience for this?

The mysterious "top 25" below the fold:

Richard Marshall interviews David Detmer (Purdue Northwest)...

...at 3:16 AM.

Lectures recorded because of COVID that might be available to the public?

MOVING TO FRONT FROM JANUARY 21--SOME INTERESTING CONTRIBUTIONS IN THE COMMENTS,  MORE WELCOME

Reader Neil Webb writes:

One of the consequences of Covid is that lectures have been delivered online.

While many of those lectures will only be available to students within an institution some are available to anyone with internet access.

Would you mind asking those who do have lectures available and are happy for them to be shared more widely to provide a link so that others can benefit from them?

As I explained to Mr. Webb, often these lectures can not be shared outside the university (that is the rule here, for example).  Often student privacy rights under FERPA are implicated in sharing recordings, another obstacle.   But readers can post links to lectures being recorded during COVID that are widely available (maybe there is already an archive with such links somewhere?).

New philosophy magazine: "The Raven"

Philosopher David Velleman (Johns Hopkins) writes:

I am writing to announce the launch of The Raven, a new magazine of philosophy edited by me and David Johnson with support from the philosophy department at Johns Hopkins. Our mission is to publish original philosophy written for intellectually curious readers with or without academic training in the discipline, reviving an essayistic style of philosophy that was more common in academic venues as recently as thirty years ago but has gradually disappeared.

More information about the magazine and its editorial board is available on our site:

        https://ravenmagazine.org

"Consciousness Live" with philosopher Richard Brown (CUNY)

Professor Brown has announced the line-up for season 4.

Using images to persuade COVID skeptics

Philosopher Nathan Ballantyne (Fordham) and others discuss.

Empathy as a basis for morality?

Dan Zahavi (Copenhagen & Oxford) discusses the problems.

In Memoriam: Jim Edwards (1939-2021)

A longtime member of the department at the University of 'Glasgow, Professor Edwards was well-known for his work in philosophy of language and epistemology.  The Glasgow Department has posted some memories from friends, colleagues, and former students here.

(Thanks to David Bain for the pointer.)

Richard Marshall interviews Walter Horn...

...at 3:16 AM.

MLK's philosophy of "Personalism"

Interesting essay by philosopher Aaron Preston (Valparaiso), about an aspect of King's thought I was not familiar with.