Leiter Reports

I’m pretty ambivalent about this, so have been sitting on it for a few days. The details are here, and readers might as well decide for themselves whether it’s worth their time. The competition has a panel of good judges, albeit with a skew to fairly technical areas of philosophy, where one might expect LLMs […]

Hayley Cotter, an English professor at U Mass/Amherst, shares the latest gem: Von: Thomas Pynchon <thomaspynchon.author8@gmail.com>Date: Do., 3. Sept. 2026 um 03:17 UhrSubject: Appreciation for Your WorkTo: [email address omitted] Dear Hayley, I hope this note finds you well. I recently spent time with Poetics of the Legal Sea in English Renaissance Literature, and I was moved […]

…which aims to train natural scientists, social scientists, and philosophers to communicate with the public (with support from the Templeton Foundation and led by philosopher Christian Miller).

The PGR editors, Professors Kar and Pynes, tell me the plan is to do a new set of PGR surveys in fall 2027 (the last report was for 2024-25). I’ve been tracking faculty moves since then (see this post and follow the links therein). I know from email correspondence that students are very interested in […]

Philosopher Eric Winsberg shares this gem. He contacted the real Professor Bernofsky at her university email address who confirmed this is a fraud (note, once again, the gmail address): From: Susan Bernofsky <bernofskysusan@gmail.com>Sent: 27 August 2026 07:50To: Eric Winsberg [omitted]Subject: A German-language opportunity for *Philosophy and Climate Science* Dear Eric, Your book Philosophy …

A quite interesting essay by philosopher Duncan Pritchard (UC Irvine); some excerpts: I grew up in what was once the industrial heartlands of England, in the Midlands city of Wolverhampton. The industry is now long gone, and in its wake there’s a lot of economic hardship. Growing up I didn’t know anyone from where we […]

MOVING TO FRONT–THIS EVENT IS COMING UP NEXT WEEK This upcoming roundtable at the UK chapter of the IVR (the international association for legal philosophy), organized by Daniel Murata (Surrey), will be online, for those who might be interested:

Jonathan Cottrell (early modern philosophy, esp. Hume), previously a permanent member of academic staff at the University of Edinburgh and, most recently, a visiting faculty member at York University, Toronto (where his wife, the philosopher of law Maggie O’Brien, teaches), has taken up a tenured position this fall as Associate Professor at the University of […]

MOVING TO FRONT FROM AUG. 24–A LIVELY AND INTERESTING DISCUSSION IN THE COMMENT THREAD (ADDITIONAL CONTRIBUTIONS WELCOME) Philosopher Dan Kaufman writes: Over the last year, philosophy social media has discussed a number of academic philosophers who are actively embracing AI in their research. Perusing these posts — and the comments that follow —  reveals a […]

The journal responds, appropriately, here. Folks should be a lot more cautious before throwing these accusations around!

Galen Strawson kindly shared this address John Searle gave at a memorial for Peter Strawson, which includes, among other things, a charming description of tutorials with Strawson: Early on, Searle writes that while studying at Oxford in 1954-55, I attended lectures and seminars not only by Peter, but by J L Austin,Paul Grice, Isaiah Berlin, […]

A more nuanced assessment (than my title) from UCLA professor Dov Waxman: 1. We must unequivocally condemn antisemitic acts against Jews and not make excuses for those who commit them. 2. We also need to acknowledge that Israel’s actions fuel much (but not all) of the anger and hatred directed against Jews nowadays. 3. Conflating […]

There is at least one first or second spot available each month this fall at present. Email me at bleiter-at-uchicago-dot-edu for more information.

To be clear, American has done this kind of authoritarian shit before, but far less of it since the 1970s.

Dr. Taylor, who spent her career at Oxford University, where she was a fellow and tutor at St. Anne’s College, was best-known for her work in moral psychology and the philosophy of emotions. The St. Anne’s memorial notice is here. Philosopher Roger Crisp, who called this to my attention, notes that, “Her collected essays, as […]

Back in 2024, and, sadly, it was prescient. While Title VI has, indeed, played a very large role, I did not anticipate the sheer lawless way the Trumpistas would deploy it (i.e., no investigation, no process, just going straight to suspension of federal monies).