Brian Leiter's Blog, page 1428

Godfrey-Smith on Fodor & Piattelli-Palmarini on Natural Selection

Another patient and illuminating discussion, from the LRB. (Earlier items here, here, here, and here, among other places.)

Franks from Toronto to Yale

Paul Franks (Kant, German Idealism, Jewish philosophy, epistemology) at the University of Toronto has accepted a senior offer from the Department of Philosophy at Yale University, where he will start in fall 2011. This will give the Yale program very...

U of Vienna's Pauer-Studer Also Wins Major ERC Grant

Herline Pauer-Studer, a philosopher at the University of Vienna, has also won a major European Research Council grant for a project on "distortions of normativity" during the Third Reich. A brief description (in English) of the quite interesting project is...

Strawson on Free Will in the NY Times Blog

Here. It's an abbreviated version of the argument from his well-known paper "The Impossibility of Moral Responsibility," Philosophical Studies (1994). There's a reasonably interesting discussion by philosophers here. The comments at the Times site are, as usual, mostly hopeless, though...

"The Heidegger Song"

Amusing (in German). (Via Tim Crane.)

Why Are the Right-Wing Thugs So Effective at Policing the Major Media in the U.S.?

This is an astute analysis; an excerpt: The American right wing is achieving its long-term goal of becoming the nation's thought police. They are realizing this goal through the timeless practices of extremists...which are intimidation, slander and harassment. In the...

Writing Recommendations for your Philosophy Students Applying to Law School

Mark Decker (Nebraska/Omaha) writes: I have a question about writing recommendation letters for students who are applying to law school. When it comes to writing letters for graduate philosophy programs, I know what they're looking for and what to say....

Oxford's Marmodoro Awarded One Million Euros from European Research Council for Five-Year Project on Ancient Metaphysics

Story here. I don't think I've ever heard of such a generous grant for a project in ancient philosophy. Kudos to Dr. Marmodoro and the ERC!

How do you get scholars to take Ayn Rand Seriously? Pay them of course!

Seriously, there are important issues raised in this piece about corporate efforts to inject Ayn Rand into the curricula at different universities. (Thanks to David Auerbach for the pointer.) I'm curious what readers think about the issue of financial donations...

Rampant Socialism in America!

Something must be done!