Leiter Reports

A CHE editor asked me to redo this post as a “letter to the editor” which they have published here, and which I reprint below: To the Editor: In the interview with four authors of the “Report on the State of the Humanities and Humanistic Social Science” (hereafter “the Report”), New York University philosopher Paul […]

….including the Dewey Lecturers (Kittay, Sober), Rescher Prize (K. Fine), Romanell Lecture (Ismael), Sanders Lecture (G. Rosen), and Sosa Prize (Kornblith), among others.

These are non-clinical/non-LRW appointments that will take effect in summer or fall 2026 (except where noted); (new additions will be in bold.)  Last year’s list is here.  (Link fixed.) *Ted Afield (tax) from Georgia State University to Stetson University. *Yonathan Arbel (commercial law, consumer law, law & economics, AI & law) from the University of […]

As the reader who sent this to me observed, this amusing piece seems inspired by “that other philosophy blog and how it reflects some troubling trends in the profession.”

The response is here. It states that, Historians, literary scholars, and anthropologists are singled out for caricature while the authors fail to acknowledge their own public biases against scholarship performed in the name of social justice. No evidence is adduced that scholars in these fields were caricatured, so we are left wondering why we should […]

Here. An excerpt: It was on #3 that the Report, unnecessarily, overclaimed, even though it’s clearly true that some scholars treat skepticism about objectivity as licensing careless or overtly politicized scholarship. 1, 2 and 4 all have clear instantiations across the humanities and humanistic social sciences.

…given its budget crisis? As this petition notes (I have signed it), only one tenured economics professor has been fired, and he was an outspoken critic of the administration and its financial mismanagement. That is, to put it gently, highly suspicious, and I hope Professor Reddy takes legal action. There is another petition in support […]

Two editors at CHE have interviewed four of the authors of the “Boghossian Report” (including the NYU philosophers Paul Boghossian and Anthony Appiah). Professor Boghossian says in the interview, “We say how we are taking the term ‘relativism’ to mean the very narrow view that epistemic values are always relative to nonepistemic values, to moral […]

…now that the authoritarian Orban is gone. (My own view is that no one did more philosophical damage to Marxism in the 20th-century than Lukács, but there should obviously be a  Lukács archive in the city that was his home for so long.) (Thanks to J.P. Loo for the pointer.)

…on both sides of a case! All were sanctioned by the court. And one of them is a repeat offender who has been sanctioned before for this in another court. Oy veh.

The Financial Times has always represented the prudent wing of the capitalist class, unlike the imprudent wing that has overwhelmed the Republican Party in America. This piece by one of its regular opinion columnists (who is quite scathing about Trump et al., but knows which class he represents) is revealing: When they go low, we […]

Back in 2020, when the Wokerati and the New Infantilism still reigned supreme (including in philosophy). Compared to the predations of Trumpian authoritarianism, one feels almost nostalgic for those annoying, juvenile characters of yesteryear.

These are non-clinical/non-LRW appointments that will take effect in summer or fall 2026 (except where noted); (new additions will be in bold.)  Last year’s list is here.  (Link fixed.) *Ted Afield (tax) from Georgia State University to Stetson University. *Yonathan Arbel (commercial law, consumer law, law & economics, AI & law) from the University of […]

The arrival of the “Boghossian Report” reminds me of this post from several years back, in which English faculty are, alas, over-represented.

He explains at CHE. An excerpt: [O]ne of my main takeaways from gig work [for AI companies] over the last few months is just how hard it is to catch the most sophisticated frontier LLMs in philosophical blunders. When ChatGPT first emerged, a common pastime among my philosopher friends was posting screenshots on social media of its […]

A hit in Britain (but not the U.S.), “Hotlegs” subsequently rebranded (and enjoyed considerable success) as the band 10cc.

It was a pleasure and privilege to teach such talented young men and women. I join all my colleagues in wishing you much happiness and success in the years ahead!

The full report is here, and there is a collection of choice excerpts here. Readers of Professor Boghossian’s Fear of Knowledge* will recognize themes from that book in the report. (Of course, it has to be open to scholars to defend relativism and constructivism, especially since relativism and constructivism in some domains are probably true!) […]