News
CategoryAPA Issues Statement on 2016 US Presidential Election
The board of officers of the American Philosophical Association (APA) today issued the following statement on the 2016 U.S. presidential election:
Leading up to the United States presidential election one month ago and in the weeks since, the nation has experienced increasingly divisive rhetoric and a rise in bias-based attacks on members of vulnerable groups. In..
Cosmopolitan Racism, Trump, and Philosophy (guest post by Bharath Vallabha)
The following is a guest post* from Bharath Vallabha, former assistant professor of philosophy at Bryn Mawr College.
“Trump is actually much more aligned with the dominant norms of academic philosophy in America than with the KKK”
Orwell, Rawls and Trump: Citizenship and Democratic Culture (guest post by Martin O’Neill)
The following is a guest post* from Martin O’Neill, senior lecturer in politics at the University of York.
“A necessary condition for the long-term survival of a liberal, democratic regime is the lived commitment of the people to their shared political values.”
Hoping against Hope: a Perspective on the US Elections from the Periphery (guest post by Loubna El Amine)
The following is a guest post* from Loubna El Amine, assistant professor of political science at Northwestern University.
“If a Trump election feels tragi-comical to many Americans, this has been true of elections in our own countries for so long that both the tragedy and the comedy are now lost on us.”
Beyond Bullshit
The following is an excerpt from an essay by Jacob Levy, Tomlinson Professor of Political Theory, Professor of Political Science, and associate member of the Department of Philosophy at McGill University, published by the Niskanen Center. (more…)
IPFW Faculty Declares No Confidence in Chancellor
The faculty at Indiana University – Purdue University, Fort Wayne (IPFW) have published a notice of no confidence in the university’s chancellor, Vicky Carwein, following Carwein’s decision to close several departments, including the Philosophy Department. (more…)
U. Miami Settles Lawsuit With Grad Student Over Its Handling Of McGinn Case
A philosophy graduate student who last year sued the University of Miami for failing to properly investigate her allegations that (now former) professor of philosophy Colin McGinn sexually harassed and then retaliated against her has now settled that lawsuit with the university, according to her attorney. (more…)
Chicago State’s Sudden Layoffs Include A Tenured Philosopher
Chicago State University has been facing a financial crisis. It relies on the state of Illinois for about 30% of its budget, but, owing to the previous financial and budgeting decisions the university’s administrators had made, along with the state’s “budget stalemate that left higher education without a dime for most of last year—and then provided only partial fu..
Boxill Denies All Allegations
In October of 2014, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill published the results of an internal investigation into an academic fraud scheme in place for years, accusing philosophy faculty member Jan Boxill of involvement in directing students to take “fake” classes and providing them with impermissible degrees of assistance. This was followed by a report by..
Academic Purges In Turkey
The government of Turkey appears to be using the recent attempted coup as an excuse to purge universities of opposition. According to recent reports, the licenses of approximately 21,000 teachers have been revoked, nearly 1,600 deans have been ordered to resign. Additionally, the government has banned academics from travelling abroad. (more…)
Philosopher Becomes Romania’s Minister of Education
Mircea Dumitru, until recently dean (which in the Romanian context is a title more akin to university president, I’m informed) and professor of philosophy at the University of Bucharest, has been appointed the Minister of Education of Romania by the country’s Prime Minister, Dacian Ciolos. (more…)
Amazon Prime for Academics
Today is Amazon.com’s “Prime Day,” which is just a big sale for it’s Prime members. You can become a member here, and then take advantage of the sale. Anything that’s good for academics at a good discount? (more…)
Police Shootings of Blacks in the U.S.; What Can Philosophers Do or Say in Response?
News from the past week:
- July 5th, 2016:Â Police officer shoots and kills Alton Sterling, a black man, while he was seemingly pinned to the ground, unable to move.
- July 6th, 2016: Police officer shoots and kills Philandro Castile, a black man, after he was pulled over for a broken tail light.
- July 7th, 2016: Five police officers killed by sniper fire durin..
How Will Brexit Affect Philosophy in the UK?
According to Times Higher Education (THE), there is some concern among higher education leaders in the UK about the effect that the successful referendum to leave the European Union will have on academic funding. (more…)
Philosophers Discuss Trump
The Chronicle of Higher Education has a “Trump Issue” (may be paywalled) in which several academics, including three philosophers, comment on the U.S. presidential candidacy of Donald J. Trump. They include Jason Brennan (Georgetown University), Aaron James (UC Irvine), and Matthew Meyer (University of Scranton). (more…)
Western Illinois University Loses Its Philosophy Major
The Board of Trustees of Western Illinois University (WIU), following up on its previously announced plans, ignored substantial opposition and voted unanimously this past Friday to eliminate its school’s philosophy major (along with majors in African-American studies, religious studies, and women’s studies).
Western’s interim provost and academic vice president, ..
Pogge Attempted To Halt Investigation
Thomas Pogge (Yale), who has been in the news recently regarding allegations of sexual harassment, tried to halt the investigation into his treatment of and interactions with former Yale student Fernanda Lopez Aguilar, according to a report at The Huffington Post: (more…)
“Students Against Pogge” Group Forms
A Facebook group has been created in the wake of allegations against Yale professor Thomas Pogge called “Students Against Pogge.”
The page states: (more…)
Chair in Atheism and Secular Ethics Endowed at Miami
Retired businessman Louis J. Appignani has donated $2.2 million to the University of Miami for an endowed chair in “the study of atheism, humanism and secular ethics,” reports the New York Times. It is the first position of its kind in the United States. (more…)
Jan Boxill’s Side of the Story
In February of 2015, Jan Boxill resigned from her teaching professorship in the Philosophy Department at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, following allegations of her involvement in a massive, 18-year long period of academic fraud in which some student athletes were steered towards phony classes that never met and assigned papers that were graded—whe..
Hilary Putnam Donates Brain To Harvard
I was going to make an April Fool’s post titled “Putnam Changes Mind About Dying” but sometimes the news gets in the way of a good joke. According to a report from The Boston Globe, the will of Hilary Putnam, who died last month, included the provision that his brain be donated to Harvard University and displayed in a large glass container on the second floor of Eme..
Prof. Suspended for Mistreatment of Philosophy Grad Student
Marquette University, based on recommendations from a faculty panel, has imposed a punishment on John McAdams, associate professor of political science at Marquette University, for his mistreatment of philosophy graduate student Cheryl Abbate in the Fall of 2014 (see here and here for background), according to a report from Inside Higher Ed. From the article:
A l..
Philosophy Professor Displays Sign Opposing Concealed Weapons on Campus, Gets Arrested
Amy Donahue, assistant professor of philosophy at Kennesaw State University in Georgia, was arrested at the Georgia Capitol this past Friday as she tried to display a sign opposing legislation that would permit concealed weapons on college campuses. According to the Savannah Morning News:
State Troopers handcuffed and arrested Kennesaw State University philosophy..
New Wittgenstein (updated)
Previously unpublished notes taken by Yorick Smithies at lectures by Ludwig Wittgenstein between 1938 and 1941 at Cambridge University will be published later this year, according to a press release from the Austrian Science Fund FWF.
The notes have been edited and organized by Volker Munz (University of Klagenfurt, Carinthia) and his assistant, Bernhard Ritter. ..
Philosopher to Sue NYC Police for 4th Amendment Violation
Damion Scott, a PhD student in philosophy at SUNY Stony Brook and an adjunct professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, claims his Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable searches was violated, as was a city code against racial-profiling, by two New York City police officers, according to an article in The New York Times (via Shelley Tremain at Discr..
Crispin Sartwell Removed from Dickinson Campus (updated with responses from Nehamas and Zagzebski)
Crispin Sartwell, associate professor of philosophy at Dickinson College, reports today that he has been “removed from campus” for posting a video of Miranda Lambert’s song, “Time to Get a Gun.”
Over the past several days, Professor Sartwell had launched accusations at his blog that his work had been plagiarized or at least had gone wrongfully uncited by Alexande..
“Bunny-Drowning” University President Resigns
Simon Newman resigned from his position as president of Mount St. Mary’s University this afternoon, according to a message posted on the university’s website. Newman, you may recall, demoted two philosophers from their administrative posts and tried to fire both a tenured associate professor of philosophy, Thane Naberhaus, and an untenured communications professor, ..
Mount St. Mary Faculty Reinstated / Update: Faculty Ask President To Resign By Monday
This afternoon Mount St. Mary’s University announced that its president, Simon Newman, had agreed to reinstate Thane Naberhaus and Edward Egan, the two faculty members who were fired for “disloyalty” earlier this week, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education.  CHE also reports on Naberhaus’s response:
But one of those faculty members—Thane M. Naberhaus, ..