Leiter Reports: A Philosophy Blog

In Memoriam: Aryeh (L.A.) Kosman (1935-2021)

A longtime member of the philosophy faculty at Haverford College, Professor Kosman also taught as a visiting professor at several leading PhD programs.  He was well-known for his contributions to scholarship on ancient philosophy, especially Aristotle.  The Haverford memorial notice is here.

"Choosing the self we want to be"

Philosopher Laurie (L.A.) Paul (Yale) discusses.

When philosophers cozy up to authoritarian rulers...

...they get their own line of coffee shops!

(Thanks to David Zimmerman for the pointer.)

Philosophy as the "handmaiden of the human resources" department

Amusingly apt description of this, in an essay by philosopher Justin E.H. Smith (Paris 7) mostly concerned with literature.

Interesting UK decision under their Equality Act...

...which protects people from being discriminated against in employment for their "religious and philosophical beliefs"--in this case, beliefs in some tenets of gender critical feminism.  This is a much stronger employment protection than American workers enjoy.

(Thanks to James Ladyman for the pointer.)

Richard Marshall interviews Anya Plutynski (Wash U/St. Louis)...

...at 3:16 AM.  Quite interesting:  is cancer a natural kind? and other questions.

In Memoriam: Joseph Margolis (1924-2021)

A longtime member of the faculty at Temple University, Professor Margolis wrote very widely in philosophy, perhaps being best-known for his version of pragmatism and his contributions to aesthetics.  I will add links to memorial notices as they appear.

(Thanks to Noel Carroll for the information about Professor Margolis's death.)

Patricia Churchland talks about the neurophilosophy of non-conscious decisions and morality...

...at IAITV.

Philosopher Kathleen Stock (Sussex) talks about her new book "Material Girls"...

...at the Brain in a Vat podcast.

Unfortunately, when the podcast hosts posted the podcast link on the Teaching Philosophy Facebook page, some of the usual suspects--Rebecca Kukla (who now appears to go by "Quill" rather than Rebecca) (Georgetown), Mark Lance (Georgetown), Robin James (UNC-Charlotte), among others--protested its presence, and the page administrator Thi Nguyen (Utah) removed it.

This nonsense has been going on for awhile now, with a small noisy band of repeat players embarrassing the philosophy profession and consistently opposing basic academic freedom.  I have no idea whether most philosophers agree or disagree with Professor Stock, but I know most oppose these efforts to try to shut her down.    More philosophers need to speak up against these "living caricatures" with their "puritan outrage, the over-the-top sanctimony, moralizing, and preaching."  They represent everything philosophy as an academic discipline should oppose.

Interesting autobiographical interview with Amartya Sen...

...at the Harvard Gazette.

"The Stone" blog at the NY Times is dead

A reader points out that the new opinion editor at the NYT has cancelled the various special topics blogs, including the awful "Stone" blog that was ostensibly about philosophy.  (For earlier coverage of the "Stone" spectacle, see here, here, here and here.)  For every decent blog column it ran over the years, there must have been at least a dozen weak or embarrassing ones.  It also gave a highly misleading and selective sense of what philosophers work on, no doubt because of the hack moderating it, whose friends were over-represented as contributors. 

The basic problem is that too many of those who want to do "public philosophy" aren't very good at philosophy, and, so unsurprisingly, their public philosophy is no better.  The best public philosophy is by those who are really good philosophers who also have a talent for communicating their research with an educated public (think Tim Maudlin [NYU] or Hanna Pickard [Johns Hopkins].   No doubt that work will continue to appear, but fortunately the field will be spared the further embarrassment of mediocrities doing "public philosophy" under the NYT banner--as well as competent philosophers simply peddling their trendy and trite political ideas with a little philosophical garnish under the same imprimatur.

Martha Nussbaum talks about sexual harassment, the #MeToo movement, and her recent book...

...at The New Yorker.

In Memoriam: Frithjof Bergmann (1930-2021)

MOVING TO FRONT FROM YESTERDAY--UPDATED

A longtime member of the Department of Philosophy at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where he was emeritus, Professor Bergmann was a popular undergraduate lecturer in courses on existentialism and 19th-century German philosophy, and author of articles on Hegel and Nietzsche, as well as the book On Being Free (1977).  From the 1980s onwards, he became best-known as the proseltyzer for what he called "New Work" (see, e.g., this interview), which gained substantial attention in Germany in recent years.  There is an obituary in a German newspaper here. 

I will add links to other memorial notices as they appear.

ANOTHER:  A video memorial from one of those influenced by Bergmann's ideas about "new work" (in German, but with English subtitles).

UPDATE:  The Michigan memorial notice is here.

In Memoriam: Robert Ammerman (1927-2021)

Professor Ammerman was emeritus in philosophy at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where he spent his career.  Philosopher Mike Titelbaum at Wisconsin shared an obituary written by Professor Ammerman's son:

Robert R. Ammerman joined the Department of Philosophy at the University of Wisconsin in 1957. He was born in Buffalo, New York in 1927, and moved to West Chester, Pennsylvania in 1937. In 1945, he enlisted in the U.S. Army and was assigned to the 88^th Infantry Division in Italy. In 1947, he participated in the first U.N. Peacekeeping Mission in Trieste. Discharged in 1948, he enrolled at Swarthmore College in 1949, graduating with highest honors in 1953. After a year pursuing graduate studies in philosophy at Princeton University, he transferred to Brown University. He received his doctorate in 1956, completing his dissertation under the guidance of Richard Taylor.  He joined the Department of Philosophy at the University of Wisconsin later that year, achieving the rank of professor. He focused his scholarly activities on the works of Ludwig Wittgenstein. He was passionate about teaching and introduced new and popular courses in diverse topics in and related to philosophy. He was a close colleague of William Hay, Marcus Singer, and Claudia Card.  With Dr. Singer, he edited Introductory Readings in Philosophy in 1962, which was widely adopted as a textbook around the country. His Classics in Analytic Philosophy, first published in 1966, is still in print. He retired in 1989. After living in Italy for a year, he settled in Florida until 2001, moving then to Cincinnati, Ohio to be closer to his son and grandchildren. He died on May 28, 2021 and is greatly missed by family and friends.

VALEP: Virtual Archive of Logical Empiricism

Courtesy of the Vienna Circle Institute at the University of Vienna.  Note that VALEP welcomes contributions to the archive from readers.

Ludlow v. Haspelmath on naturalistic inquiry, language, and generative linguistics

If, like me, you don't know who Haspelmath is, you may still find this discussion interesting.

Philosopher Claire Kirwin (Clemson) talks about value realism...

...at the great Elucidations podcast run by Matt Teichman here at the University of Chicago.

How a gay philosopher's book ended up changing Canada's law on the importation of pornography

An interesting tale.

(Thanks to Christopher Morris for the pointer.)

Turmoil in the Bowling Green philosophy department

MOVING TO FRONT FROM YESTERDAY

What a mess.  One thing not noted in the CHE article:  Kevin Vallier and Brandon Warmke are both Arizona PhDs (and Arizona is, as readers will know, a strong program), so it's not exactly unusual for graduates to prefer graduates of their own programs.  But that just scratches the surface of what seems a rather unhappy situation.  I'll say a bit more tomorrow.

UPDATE:  The more I learn about this, the less I want to try to say more about it.  The CHE article says:  "Though the investigator [brought in by the Ohio AG's office] did not find 'nefarious misconduct' or actions made in bad faith, she wrote that the rifts within the department ran deep and could at times be toxic."  Others now claim that this investigator's report was also part of the "corruption," that it ignored evidence, and so on.   It does seem the trouble in the department predated any money from the Koch Foundation, although this story will no doubt be taken as a cautionary note about accepting such money.

Since I'd rather not have to be deposed in a dispute that seems likely to end up in court (or be subpoenaed for IP information!), I will refer interested readers to the discussion being hosted at another philosophy blog (Daily Nous)--you might start here.  Professor Christian Coons from Bowling Green participates in the discussion (he figures prominently in the article), and he is challenged by other commenters.  I found the comment by Professor Molly Gardner (who had the good sense to decamp) particularly interesting.

An intellectual autobiographical interview with K.A. Appiah...

...at IAITV.

Helen Steward (Leeds) discusses free will and responsibility...

...with Ricardo Lopes at The Dissenter.

"The Dangers of Thought Experiments"

Roy Sorensen (Texas) discusses at Brain in a Vat.

In Memoriam: Eddy Zemach (1935-2021)

MOVING TO FRONT FROM YESTERDAY--MORE REMEMBRANCES WELCOME

A longtime member of the philosophy faculty at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he was emeritus, Professor Zemach was well-known for contributions to aesthetics, metaphysics, philosophy of language, and other areas.  I will add links to memorial notices as they appear.

(Thanks to Alon Harel for informing me of his death.)

APA announces Spring 2021 prizes...

...including the Barwise Prize, the Dewey Lecturers, the Romanell Lecture, and others.

Anya Plutynski (Wash U/St. Louis) wins 2021 Lakatos Award in philosophy of science

The LSE announcement is here.

Does OUP have a "prestige monopoly" in Anglophone philosophy?

Robert Pasnau (Colorado) suggests it does, and considers the possible costs.  While OUP publishes many excellent books in philosophy, it's primary monopoly is in volume:  with 200 new books per year, OUP publishes as much as just about all the other leading presses combined.

How to include transgender athletes in competitive sports

A proposal from philosopher Chris Suprenant (New Orleans).

"Review of Analytic Philosophy"

A new journal out of Japan, but with a number of Anglophone philosophers involved as well.

The use-mention distinction and the N-word

Philosopher Gerald Dworkin comments.

The work of philosopher and psychologist U.T. Place

A new page devoted to his career and contributions.

(Thanks to George Graham for the pointer.)

On what is truly important to oneself

Robert Paul Wolff reflects on the question.

1st NYU undergraduate philosophy conference coming up next weekend

I don't usually post announcements of these kinds of events, but this one is on Zoom and welcomes registrants from outside NYU and offers an excellent line-up of speakers, many drawn from NYU's outstanding department--so I imagine others will be interested.

(Thanks to Paul Jin for the pointer.)

In Memoriam: Louis Charland (1958-2021)

A longtime member of the philosophy faculty at Western University in Ontario, Professor Charland was best-known for his contributions to philosophy of psychiatry and mind and bioethics.  The Western memorial notice is here.

(Thanks to Anthony Skelton for the pointer.)

In Memoriam: Jacques Bouveresse (1940-2021)

One of the most prominent analytic philosophers in France over the last half-century, Professor Bouveresse was eventually a professor at the College de France, the most prestigious academic appointment in the French academic system.  An obituary (in French) is here, and an earlier interview (also in French) is here.

Richard Marshall interviews Paul Neiman (Webster State)...

...at 3:16 AM.

Sanders Prize in Metaethics for 2021

The winner is Graham Bex-Priestly (Leeds) for a paper on "Expressivists Should Be Reductive Naturalists," and the runner-up is Claire Kirwin (Clemson) for a paper on "Value Realism and Idiosyncrasy." 

(As a point of personal privilege, let me say I'm especially pleased to see Professor Kirwin's work recognized, since I had the good fortune to work with her here at Chicago.)

Lateral hiring in philosophy since 2003 in schools with graduate programs...

...based on information collected on this blog over the years.

In Memoriam: Eugenio Bulygin (1931-2021)

An Argentinian legal philosopher, and longtime member of the law faculty at the University of Buenos Aires, Professor Bulygin enjoyed an international reputation for important contributions to all aspects of jurisprudence (see a collection of his papers from OUP for a sense of the range of issues he worked on); his most famous and influential work was probably 1971's Normative  Systems.  I will add links to memorial notices as they appear.

On a personal note, I had the great honor of meeting him a number of years ago when he came to my lecture at the University of Torcuato Di Tella in Buenos Aires.   A great legal philosopher and a very gracious man.

(Thanks to Luís Duarte d'Almeida for calling his death to my attention.)

UPDATE:   An obituary in Spanish is here.

Philosopher Samantha Matherne (Harvard) talks about her new book on Cassirer...

...at the New Books in Philosophy podcast.  (There's an ad for the book in the right-hand column on this blog.)

 

Shostakovich and his music in Leningrad during WWII

Philosopher Alex Miller (Otago) tells the story.

Callard v. Paul on reasoning about transformative decisions

Here.

Equity-cum-demographic diversity is not a value in scholarship, redux

A young scholar recently shared with me a referee report he received that was, in many ways, complimentary, although it ultimately recommended rejection.  But here was the very first comment:

1.      One of the first things I noticed is that not a single female author is being referenced or cited in this piece. Given that this is generally seen as problematic, I urge the author to make an effort to engage with some women scholars, such as [female professor X], who I believe wrote on [the topic of the essay] fairly recently.

Female professor X was not a philosopher, and her work was not actually relevant to the topic of the essay.  Indeed, since I know something about this topic, I can't think of any female authors who have done relevant work.  (I can think of one Black author who has done quite relevant work, but that wasn't the issue here.)  If I were an editor of the journal for which a referee started his comments with something this irrelevant, I would never use that referee again.  As I wrote recently:

[R]acial or demographic equity in citations is not a value in scholarship; truth and knowledge are the only values. If past racism has resulted in neglect of scholars who can contribute to truth and knowledge in a particular domain, then the demand should be to name those scholars so that they can be studied. But equity-qua--demographic-diversity per se is not a scholarly value. It has a stronger claim to be a value in pedagogy....

Philosopher Pamela Hieronymi (UCLA) discusses Strawson's "Freedom and Resentment"...

...at The Polonsky Salon with philosopher Daniel Telech (Van Leer Institute, Jerusalem). It's this Thursday, May 13.

Philosopher Jane O'Grady reviews Kathleen Stock's new book...

....at The Telegraph (you may need to register for a free trial).

UPDATE:   The full text of the review is available at this Internet chat forum.  (Thanks to David Zimmerman for the pointer.) (Link now fixed.)

In Memoriam: Katherine Hawley (1971-2021)

MOVING TO FRONT FROM APRIL 28--UPDATED

Professor of Philosophy at the University of St Andrews, Professor Hawley was known for wide-ranging contributions to metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, and philosophy of science.  She died, tragically, of cancer.  I will add links to memorial notices as they appear.

(Thanks to Matt Kramer for letting me know about Professor Hawley's passing.)

UPDATE:  Professor Hawley talks about her book How to be Trustworthy here.

ANOTHER:  The St Andrews memorial page is here, which also includes space for readers to contribute remembrances and appreciations.

Curious elections at the American Academy of "each other's friends" in the Arts & Sciences

I've heard from several readers puzzled about the recent annoncement of newly elected Fellows.

As I've mentioned before, most Fellows in philosophy are elected in their 60s or later (exceptions include philosophers like David Chalmers, Miranda Fricker, John MacFarlane, and Martha Nussbaum--all unusual cases I imagine most readers would agree); the average age is even older for those who are philosophers teaching outside the United States.   All the new U.S.-resident Fellows in philosophy fit the normal pattern:  Cristina Bicchieri, Michele Moody-Adams, Angela Davis, Frederick Neuhouser, Stewart Shapiro, R. Jay Wallace are all in their 60s or 70s.   Davis aside, they are all clearly distinguished contributors to different areas of philosophy.  Davis is an admirable and courageous person, and although she did a PhD in philosophy under Herbert Marcuse, she has not been a major contributor to philosophy since.  It's proof that this is still a free country that she should be recognized, even if this category isn't the obvious one.  (John Etchemendy, the Stanford logician who is almost 70, was elected in the category for accomplished academic leaders [he was Provost for many years at Stanford].)

Richard Marshall interviews Samuel Fleischacker (Illinois/Chicago)...

...at 3:16 AM.  Professor Fleischacker's book on Adam Smith will be out this summer in my Routledge Philosophers series.

Philosopher Cheyney Ryan (Oxford) to receive honorary doctorate from Quinnipiac University...

...in recognition of his "impact as a leading scholar on the frontier of peace and conflict studies and numerous awards for human rights activism." 

Co-editor of Schlick's collected works now flirting with crypo-fascism...

...which would have been appalling to Schlick.   Philosopher Martin Kusch (Vienna) kindly gave permission to share this statement:

JOINT STATEMENT REGARDING HANS JÜRGEN WENDEL'S PUBLIC SUPPORT FOR THE GERMAN FAR-RIGHT "ALTERNATIVE FOR GERMANY" (AfD) PARTY

As has been widely reported in the German media, the current co-editor of the Moritz Schlick Gesamtausgabe, prof. em. Hans Jürgen Wendel, has joined the German far-right AfD party, and given interviews in support of the AfD. This action completely contradicts the life and work of Moritz Schlick and the philosophy of the Vienna Circle generally. The Institute Vienna Circle and the Vienna Circle Society are committed, in their objectives and principles, to the values of the historical Vienna Circle. Together with the Moritz Schlick Forschungsstelle at the University of Rostock and the Springer Verlag Wiesbaden, we are aiming to reorganize the editing of Schlick's works.

Prof. Martin Kusch, Institute Vienna Circle

Prof. em. Friedrich Stadler, Vienna Circle Society, Co-editor of the Schlick Gesamtausgabe

 

A 1961 lecture by A.J. Ayer on "the concept of a person"

(Thanks to Richard Marshall for the pointer.)