Leiter Reports: A Philosophy Blog

On Brandom's philosophy

A lucid essay from earlier this year giving an introductory overview of the work of Robert Brandom (Pittsburgh).

On Schopenhauer's pessimism

A nicely written essay by philosopher David Bather Woods (Warwick).

In Memoriam: Judith Jarvis Thomson (1929-2020)

A longtime member of the MIT faculty, Professor Thomson was best-known for her contributions to applied ethics (most famously 1971's "A Defense of Abortion"), but also wrote widely in political philosophy, metaethics, metaphysics and other topics.  There is a brief biography here and a more philosophical biography here.  I will add links to memorial notices as they appear.

Philosophy (and History) under attack at Western Sydney University

Some background from Western Sydney historian Alison Downham Moore:

Today I was invited along with 6 of my history colleagues and 5 of my philosophy colleagues to meetings with our Dean in which we were told that our positions will be affected by a staff-change plan to be implemented by the higher administration of our university before the end of this year. This plan proposes that theses 7 historians and 5 philosophers must reduce their numbers to 5 and 3 respectively. If the university does not receive 4 voluntary retirements from among this group of accomplished scholars who are mostly in the 35-50 year age-range, then within next few weeks they will make ALL of our positions redundant and force us to apply in a competitive process for the newly reduced number of positions. 

To place this in context, Western Sydney University has NOT been dramatically financially impacted by the Covid-19 crisis, due in part to its high ratio of local to international students and to the large number of online teaching-units we have been offering for many years already.

Philosopher Rebecca Tuvel (Rhodes) talks about virtual sex, race, and gender...

...on the Brain in a Vat podcast.

Susan Haack exacts her revenge...

...under the guise of an intellectual autobiography.  Some of the revenge is amusing, but it does bring to mind the even more extreme "score settling" in Ted Honderich's autobiography.  Two things that lept out at me.  First, her praise for her own "independence" of mind often reflects a rather parochial conception of philosophy, and can look rather like the narcissism of small differences to someone with broader horizons.  (In other respects, she has indeed followed her own path, and avoided political fashions.)   Second, it struck me as funny that she proclaimed her own aversion to "self-promotion":  anyone of the right age can recall when the New York Review of Books ran month-after-month-after-month an ad for her book Evidence and Inquiry, an ad that no publisher would have paid for.   Self-promotion on social media can hardly hold a candle to that!

ADDENDUM:  In order to access Professor Haack's essay, you may need to create a free SSRN account:  go here, click to download, then follow the instructions.

On Brentano, the teacher

Linguist John Goldsmith (Chicago) comments.

ADDENDUM:  Two caveats:  (1) Professor Goldsmith treats "continental philosophy" as equivalent to 20th-century philosophy in the phenomenological tradition, which is an idiosyncratic usage, even if phenomenology was very important to one strand of philosophy on the European Continent in the 20th-century (it was largely irrelevant to the Marxian traditions in philosophy in the 20th-century); (2) what he calls "the Law of Dynasties" is almost certainly a sociological artifact, as he briefly suggests it might be, and there are many dramatic exceptions (e.g., Frege or Nietzsche).

The "Be Kind" mantra on the "left"

Philosopher Kathleen Stock (Sussex) comments.  We encountered related nonsense in philosophy cyberspace a few years back from Jenny Saul & co. at their now defunct blog:  as the late John Gardner remarked, "'be nice' is truly the new slogan of the vindictive and intolerant."

British Journal of Aesthetics celebrates 60 years...

...with commentaries on important papers that appeared in the journal; both the commentaries and paeprs are currently available for free.

(Thanks to Nick Riggle for the pointer.)

Richard Marshall interviews philosopher and novelist Rebecca Goldstein...

...at 3:16 AM.

The human need for art in desperate circumstances

Philosopher Sarah Fine (King's College, London) comments.

In Memoriam: William J. Wainwright (1935-2020)

Professor Wainwright, a leading contributor to philosophy of religion over the last half-century, was emeritus in philosophy at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, where he spent most of his career.  There is a brief memorial notice from the UWM department here, which links to an obituary.

On the will to truth and the will to meaning in Nietzsche

Philosopher Ken Gemes (Birkbeck) comments.

Richard Marshall interviews Steven French (Leeds)...

...at 3:16 AM.  Very interesting!

The Evans-Strawson debate comes from the archives of The Open University...

...which includes similar items!

Important philosophers/scientists who are theists and who weren't raised in religious households?

A mathematician elsewhere writes:

Are you aware of many (any?) good modern philosophers or scientists who are ardent theists, but who didn't have some kind of childhood religious indoctrination?  In my circle (mostly mathematicians), I haven't yet found such an example.  

I cannot think of any, although I can think of several philosophers who are atheists who were raised in religious households.   Readers?

ADDENDUM:  Just to clarify:  we're looking for cases of people who had no religious upbringing who ended up becoming theists.  People who converted from one religion to another are not relevant in this context. Thanks.

And now for a different perspective

My esteemed former philosophy colleagues from Texas, Daniel Bonevac and Robert  C. Koons, discuss the election here.  They are a bit to my right, hence their different take (scroll into the comments).

(Thanks to a mutual friend who flagged this for me.)

Richard Marshall interviews Paul Woodruff (Texas)...

...at 3:16 AM.  Woodruff is a gem, both as a person and a scholar.  If the American Academy of Arts & Sciences weren't really a "friends of friends" academy, he would have been elected long ago.

Hume and Trump

When Hume observed that, "It is not contrary to reason to prefer the destruction of the whole world to the scratching of my finger," he was not thinking of a Trump humiliated. Let us hope the military professionals will be alert over the next three months.

Crispin Wright on the Evans-Strawson debate about truth

An interesting essay, a propos this.   I read a lot about this in graduate school in the late 1980s and early 1990s (Wright taught at Michigan during part of that time), but coming back to it many years later some of the unargued-for assumptions do leap out at me:  e.g, "it should be a priority to hang on to a uniform account of truth, applicable to all the kinds of indicative sentences that permit of congruent substitution within that schematic platitude"; "since Evans has agreed that we should seek an undifferentiated account of truth, a challenge arises to explain its generality, to explain what accounts for its applicability throughout the wide variety of contents that discomfort the simple correspondence thought."  I wonder how well they will age in another thirty or forty years.  (Wright himself takes issue with the explanatory demand as Strawson understands it.)

Rosenberg v. Dennett on naturalism

An exchange of letters.

Philosophy job postings in 2020 down by roughly 50% from 2019 and 2018

Philosopher Charles Lassiter (Gonzaga) looks at the grim numbers.

When all you have is a hammer...

...everything looks like a nail, redux.   A well-known philosopher in the UK, a more serious and alert Twitter user than me, shared the following regarding what he aptly called "Kate Manne's non-falsifiable thesis" (he asked not to be credited for his find!):

Re the limits of Kate Manne's one trick: "Without misogyny as a factor, I fully expect Tuesday to be a landslide for Biden."

...she has now contorted the pony 180 degrees: "We can never again underestimate the political appeal of toxic masculinity. It inspires loyalty like nothing else."

And see this response to a challenge: https://twitter.com/kate_manne/status/1324034496639979521

(Amusing interlude from November 1: "I don't think I'm often wrong tbh. (And it's hardly apocalyptic to predict a Biden win, as I did yesterday.) But I'm the first to admit it when I am.")

Marxists are sometimes chided for "class reductionism," but as reductionist explanations go, it seems a better bit of tunnel vision in the political realm than "gender reductionism."  Indeed, one might think class plays some role in explaining the fixation on the latter.

ADDENDUM:  Even the Twitter Red Guard is making fun of Manne's claim!

Against explanations in terms of "luck"

Philosopher Steven Hales (Bloomsburg) comments.

Richard Marshall interviews Robin Attfield (Cardiff)...

...at 3:16 AM.

Philosophers of Asian descent write about their experiences in the APA Newsletter...

...in an issue dedicated to the late great Jaegwon Kim.

On "anti-hypocrisy"

Philosopher Susanna Siegel (Harvard) comments.

In Memoriam: J. Adam Morton (1945-2020)

MOVING TO THE FRONT FROM OCTOBER 27--UPDATED

Professor Morton's work ranged widely across epistemology, philosophy of mind, philosophy of the emotions and other areas.  He taught in the 1970s at Princeton University, where he also took his PhD, and then for more than two decades at the University of Bristol, and then held a Canada Reserch Chair at the University of Alberta and taught as a visitor at the University of British Columbia through much of the 2010s.  You can learn more about him and his work at his personal page.  I will add links to memorial notices as they appear.

UPDATE:   A very nice memorial from the UBC department.  (Thanks to Dominic McIver Lopes for the pointer.)

Another philosopher on the autism spectrum...

...reflects on the issues we've been discussing.

Where should students interested in post-Kantian German Idealism be applying this year in the US...

...given that two strong choices, Columbia and Chicago, have both suspended admissions.  Even if they hadn't, Johns Hopkins would be one of the top choices anyway (Michelle Kosch, Yitzhak Melamed, Dean Moyar), and deserves a serious look from all students interested in post-Kantian Idealism.  Other schools with tenure-stream faculty members (including at least one tenured) working on German Idealism that deserve a look include UC San Diego (Hardimon, Tolley, Watkins), UC Riverside (Keller, Newton), Harvard (Matherne, Rosen), Yale (Franks), Syracuse (Beiser), Northwestern (Alznauer, Zuckert), BU (Sedgwick), Berkeley (Novakovic), Georgetown (Pinkard), Purdue (Yeomans).  (Allen Wood at Indiana tells he may retire in the near future, so I don't think Indiana makes sense any longer.)

ADDENDUM:  Philosopher Karin Nisenbaum (Boston College) informed me that Frederick Beiser at Syracuse is no longer accepting graduate students.  It's also worth noting that Nisenbaum is one of two junior faculty at Boston College (the other is Elisa Magri) working on post-Kantian Idealism.

Law & Philosophy Fellowship at University of Chicago for 2020-21

The ad is here.  Fit with the Workshop theme (bolded below), as usual, is crucial.   Here's the core text of the ad:

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO LAW SCHOOL. The University of Chicago Law School seeks a Law and Philosophy Fellow, appointed with the rank of Lecturer, for the academic year 2021-22.  This is a twelve-month appointment and is expected to begin July 1, 2021. A PhD in philosophy is preferred, though in unusual cases a PhD in a related discipline, with a successful defense of the dissertation required before the appointment begins, or a JD accompanied by strong training in philosophy will be considered. Applications welcome from new or recent PhDs or tenure-stream faculty interested in spending a year at the Law School. The Fellow will co-teach the Law & Philosophy Workshop with Martha Nussbaum on the theme of “Asian Philosophy and Law,” which will focus on Indian (Buddhist and Hindu) and Chinese philosophy, both ancient and modern, and the ways these give rise to distinctive approaches to political and legal issues. AOS: Asian philosophy, with knowledge of relevant languages and of substantive issues in political and legal philosophy essential; AOC: open. Visiting speakers will be prominent scholars working on these issues. The Workshop with visiting speakers will meet roughly 8-10 times over the course of the year, but there will be initial student sessions devoted to giving students a grounding in basic texts and issues. The Fellow will also be asked to supervise student papers, and to contribute to the intellectual life of the Law School, as well as pursue his or her research. Salary $60K + benefits + superb research environment. 

On interpreting the works of great philosophers

Lots of wisdom here, as usual, from Robert Paul Wolff; an excerpt:

[I] you are presented with Hilary Hahn and Itzhak Perlman playing the [Beethoven Violin] Concerto, it would be absurd to say that one of them must be doing it wrong since they are doing it differently. I believe that the same can be said of the interpretation of a great work of philosophy. There can be endlessly many wrong ways of reading it but there is surely no single right way. Indeed, the case of interpreting a work of philosophy is even more complicated than that of playing a great work of music....

I have in my long life engaged deeply and seriously with the thought of only three great thinkers: Immanuel Kant, David Hume, and Karl Marx. In each case – I am not sure why – something in their writings seized me and virtually compelled me to struggle with those writings. As the Good Book says, Genesis chapter 32, in each case I have wrestled with the text and have refused to let it go unless it blessed me.

More thoughts on living with autism and social interaction

A very smart former student of mine from the University of Texas, Mark Engelson, who is on the autism spectrum, writes:

I read the post you shared on the blog with great interest, and I share your doubts about ableism.

There are things that I do (at times, not at others) that can be deeply unsettling to others. My voice has a tendency to crescendo without my conscious intention, for example. This is of a piece with a particularly verbose, larger-than-life manifestation of my autism which is, to be fair, a lot. This combines with a distinct lack of grace (I can't drive, and I once broke a partner's toe when I tried folk dancing as a college freshman). As much as I might like to believe otherwise, I can very much be the bull in the proverbial china shop.

While I had some sense of this about myself, it wasn't really clear to me just how unsettling these traits are until I saw them in someone else. I had the opportunity to meet one of my heroes in music - I don't want to call anyone out - but this gentleman does the exact same thing with his voice, and his affect was like a coiled spring that had just done a line of coke. When I spoke to him, I experienced a brief moment of uncertainty in which I was afraid the guy was going to go apeshit - possibly violent - on me; he actually hugged me. While I know of no history of violence by this individual, his bearing had that effect on me.

Richard Marshall interviews Henrik Lagerlund (Stockholm)...

...at 3:16 AM.

Writing a "trade book" in philosophy

Philosopher Tamler Sommers (Houston) recounts his experience and offers some advice.

Philosophy PhD didn't know Australia is a country, fails student for knowing that it is

Oy veh!

Survey on "The Concept of Representation in the Mind Sciences" seeking participants

I was asked to share the following announcement, which I'm happy to do:

I am Dr. Edouard Machery, Distinguished Professor in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh (www.edouardmachery.com). I would like to you to participate in a 15-minute research study about the meaning of the notion of representation. 

If you decide to participate in this study, you will be presented with four short scenarios describing a neuroscientific experiment and asked a few questions about each. You will also be asked a few general questions and a few demographic questions. The survey is entirely anonymous. There is no risk associated with participating to this study. Although we do not currently have plans to share the data, should we do so in the future, your data will be shared in an anonymous manner. Also, your data will anonymous in any related publications or presentations. Again, participation is completely voluntary. You can choose to be in the study or not. You are also free to withdraw from the study once you begin. However, if you withdraw, any responses you provided will potentially be used. 

Here is the link to the survey to please fill out as soon as possible, but no later than November 15, 2020: 

Amerliorative analysis [sic] and Humpty Dumptying

This is amusing.

ADDENDUM: And here's the 2005 paper by philosopher Nicholas Shackel (Cardiff) that introduced this terminology.  (Thanks to David Zimmerman for the pointer.)

On being a philosopher with autism

Parts of this interview are quite eye-opening; for example:

[I]t’s not that uncommon for people to tune me out completely in the way that people in a public setting tune ou[t nearby conversations. The result is that people often treat as empty the space that I occupy in a social situation. For example, they make eye contact with everyone else while their gaze merely passes over me or they fail to hear (literally) my contributions. This treatment is most noticeable when I’m trying to socialize with people who are all, for example, standing around chatting at a conference during a break. Often when a group of people are talking while standing, how they stand in relation to each other depends on the size of the group. A group of four people might be standing at the four corners of a rough square. If one person leaves, then the others temporarily remain standing where they are so that they appear to be standing at three corners of a square, with the fourth corner empty. If no one else comes to fill the space, they tend to move in closer to form a rough equilateral triangle.

Richard Marshall interviews Carlos Montemayor (San Francisco State)...

...at 3:16 AM.

On our remarkable sense of smell

Philosopher and cognitive scientist Ann-Sophie Barwich (Indiana/Bloomington) comments.

Philosophy course at Wesleyan gets a nice-write up in the NY Times

"Living a Good Life," taught by philosophers Stephen Angle, Steven Horst, and Tushar Irani.

Gideon Rosen (Princeton) answers "five questions"...

...about himself, his work, his conception of philosophy, his fears, as part of the podcast series run by philosopher Kieran Setiya (MIT).  I've listened to a couple of these, but this was one of the most interesting I thought.

"Grandstanding: The Use and Abuse of Moral Talk"...

...reviewed at the LARB.

Americans' engagement with the humanities during the pandemic

A new study from the AAAS, with some interesting results.  A bit further down the list was researching the ethical aspects of a choice--although it doesn't suggest the research was done with the help of philosophy.

(Thanks to Robert Townsend for the pointer.)

MA programs in philosophy with funding

Via Geoff Pynn's FB page, I discover this useful resource.  It lists both free-standing terminal MA programs and those embedded in PhD-granting departments.   But do see the guidance in the PGR on how to approach MA programs, especially those embedded in PhD departments.  I increasingly counsel students to avoid Tufts, notwithstanding the strength of the faculty, since they do not provide adequate financial aid for their MA students.

 

A better take on Schadenfreude and Trump...

...from philosopher Susanna Siegel (Harvard).  She makes two important points:  first, that Schadenfreude is the standard operating device of the American right; and second, Schadenfreude is symptomatic of a dysfunctional democracy (and perhaps corrosive of a functional one).   There's a substantive and interesting rejoinder here, to which Professor Siegel responds in the comments at that blog.

A philosophy prof came up with the idea for the MacArthur "genius" [sic] grants

F. Champion Ward, who taught at Denison University and was also a protege of Robert Hutchins at the University of Chicago, entered the foundation world and seems to have come up with the idea for the now-mysterious MacArthur windfalls.  Given the Hutchins connection, he almost certainly thought these should be awards to recognize genuinely exceptional achievement. 

(Thanks to Sam Cowling for the pointer.)

 

"The Murder of Professor Schlick" and the fate of the Vienna Circle...

...reviewed at The New Yorker.

"Who is entitled?"

Philosophers Dan Kaufman (Missouri State) and Robert Gressis (Cal State/Northridge) discuss.