Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter @BrianLeiter Twitter profile

Last Seen Profiles

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

3 years

Correlation is *not* causation

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

3 years

Natural language pragmatics can be challenging:

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

2 years

"The Wizard of Oz," from the prespective of the witches:

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

4 months

A well-known philosopher of physics writes about his experiences with schizophrenia over the last several decades...

A well-known philosopher of physics writes about his experiences with schizophrenia over the last...

A remarkable and fascinating account, which we should all be grateful Professor Dickson chose to share. (Thanks to Nathan Ballantyne on Twitter for calling this to my attention.)

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

3 years

How to write a Zizek essay:

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

3 years

In lieu of veal, they're offering...

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

2 years

Advice you didn't need:

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

8 months

Another scholar has to take a new job for having "incorrect" views about gender.

Carole Hooven

@hoovlet

8 months

I'm no longer employed by ⁦ @Harvard ⁩ (but do have an affiliation in the Psych department) & in this convo⁩ I explain why. And very happy to announce that I have a new (mostly remote) home at ⁦ @AEI ⁩, as a Senior Fellow.

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

2 years

Exactly.

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

23 days

In Memoriam: Daniel Dennett (1942-2024)

A longtime member of the philosophy faculty at Tufts University, Professor Dennett was best-known within philosophy for his work in philosophy of mind and on free will, although outside philosophy he...

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

1 year

If philosophical work inspired sensationalistic journalism:

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

3 years

The Republican approach to water safety when sharks are around:

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

3 years

This is a funny meme, for anyone who has encountered Rawlsian "political liberalism" of the 1990s and after.

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

2 years

This just isn't true. I find these kinds of tweets mystifying.

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

3 years

God's selective protection...

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

11 months

A public university cannot hire a faculty candidate because of their views on political or policy questions. This is straight up unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination if it really factored into the decision not to hire the candidate.

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

2 years

Sesame Street has changed since I was a kid. Of course, so has America!

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

3 years

First Routledge, now Oxford!

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

3 years

Dostoevsky's manuscript for The Brothers Karamazov. Someone didn't pay enough attention to handwriting in lower school!

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

3 years

On the value of learning philosophy:

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

3 years

A genealogy of Foucault:

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

8 months

@SandisBertaitis It requires that you not lose your job because of your views on scholarly questions.

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

2 years

Schopenhauer's pessimism made (way too) simple:

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

9 months

If "nihilism" means denial of all objective values, then N. is a nihilist. If "nihilism" means being unable to value in the absence of a metaphysical sanction for value, then N. is not a nihilist. If "nihilism" means judging life not worth living, then N. is not a nihilist.

Gabe Gottlieb

@xgabegottliebx

9 months

Nietzsche's not nihilistic.

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

2 years

In Memoriam: Joseph Raz (1939-2022)

In Memoriam: Joseph Raz (1939-2022) (Updated)

MOVING TO FRONT--ORIGINALLY POSTED MAY 2, MANY NEW UPDATES After H.L.A. Hart (his teacher), Raz was the most important figure in Anglophone legal philosophy, and also made significant contributions...

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

3 years

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

2 years

Clever lecture title, via Huw Price:

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

3 years

This pretty much sums up the Benighted States of America in the age of COVID:

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

3 years

Incelephant

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

3 years

Saw this on FB:

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

3 years

Open letter from UK philosophers in support of academic freedom for Prof. Kathleen Stock and at the University of Sussex...

Open letter from UK philosophers in support of academic freedom for Prof. Kathleen Stock and at the...

Here. Additional UK-based philosophers (faculty and graduate students) are invited to sign. A distinguished group of signatories already, including Crispin Wright, Timothy Williamson, David Papineau,...

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

3 years

On the mind of many professors right now:

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

1 year

Oy veh, just heard from another well-known senior philosopher (who has published a lot with Oxford U Press), who also had a manuscript (not related to transgender issues) rejected on grounds of "sensitivity." I hope to have permission to share more soon. But this is alarming!

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

2 years

Joseph Raz's final wishes

Joseph's longtime partner, Penelope Bulloch, kindly gave permission to share this message she had sent to various friends (earlier memorial notice): Joseph did not want a funeral. He left his body to...

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

3 years

National literatures made simple:

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

3 years

@ProfWootton That's ridiculous, he is openly asserting that he will commit scholarly malpractice!

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

5 months

The lesser-known sequel:

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

3 years

Problem of Evil, driving edition:

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

2 years

How to write a dissertation and get your PhD:

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

2 years

Translation failure for "jerk chicken"?

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

3 years

Dangerous Halloween candy, philosophy edition:

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

1 month

My review of a recent book Law is a Moral Practice

Law is a Moral Practice

In the first chapter of his often entertaining but rather exasperating book, Scott Hershovitz gives two different formulations of its central thesis tha...

ndpr.nd.edu

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

3 years

Listen to your Mom!

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

3 years

Typical day at the tautology store!

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

2 years

Happy American Thanksgiving!

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

2 years

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

2 years

Peak Princeton philosophy, 1979: Back: G Harman, JW Smith, M Frede, G Pitcher, R Jeffrey, R Rorty; Middle: M. Wilson, W Kaufmann, Steph. Lewis, DK Lewis, J Burgess, T Nagel; Front: R Geuss, S Kripke, P Benacerraf, N. Salmon, A. Szathmary, T Scanlon, C Normore.

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

2 years

"Forgive and forget" is not their approach; Yitzhak Melamed (Johns Hopkins), a distinguished Spinoza scholar gave permission to share this:

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

3 years

Signs of the impending cat revolution:

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

3 years

Rare photo of Dumbo the Elephant in the wild, with his parents:

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

3 years

Dorothy Parker's review of "Atlas Shrugged":

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

2 years

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

2 years

This is a very good paper. The Uncertain Judge @SSRN

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

3 years

Aristotle made simple

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

2 years

Duck's best friend too it turns out!

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

5 months

This made me laugh pretty hard

Revista Hénadas

@revistahenadas

5 months

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

11 months

Note to students: do not try this, the odds that you are the next Wittgenstein are infinitesimal.

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@myetcetera

11 months

When Wittgenstein submitted an essay for his BA degree at Cambridge, he did not include a preface and notes indicating the sources that he had used. When asked to supply these, he wrote this letter to G.E. Moore. (Wittgenstein in Cambridge: Letters and Documents 1911-1951, 76.)

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

3 years

Political and economic positions explained with "Amazon"

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

2 years

"France is bacon": the mystery solved!

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

3 years

"Philosophy & Public Affairs," aka, "The Journal of Rawls Worship":

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

2 years

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

1 month

The safety of literally no one depends on the university answering this question. What an embarrassment this guy is.

Shai Davidai

@ShaiDavidai

1 month

To the President of @Columbia University: To accurately assess our safety on campus, your Jewish and Israeli faculty deserve to know: Does Columbia University acknowledge that Hamas is a terrorist organization responsible for the October 7 massacre? Sincerely, Shai Davidai

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

10 months

In Memoriam: Harry G. Frankfurt (1929-2023)

Professor Frankfurt, who was emeritus at Princeton University, also taught for many years at Yale University and, before that, at Rockefeller University and Ohio State University. Early in his...

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

1 month

Dunning-Kruger tweet of the day. (As an aside, the most important language for philosophy in each era tends to be the language of the dominant imperial power.)

achrēstoi toîs polloîs ☦️🧃

@RightHegelian

1 month

Philosophy has never spoken English. For a thousand years it spoke Greek. Then Latin for a thousand more. Then German briefly. But never English. (Locke and Hume hardly count as philosophers.) Philosophy has yet to learn English.

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

3 years

These kids win Halloween:

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

3 months

I will share an anecdote: I was recently asked to referee a paper by a top law review (not Chicago); I explained why the paper was "sophomoric" and "not publishable"; the journal accepted it nonetheless. The author is a professor at that school. Welcome to American law reviews!

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

2 years

I guess this counts as an endorsement of the book:

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

9 months

Nearly 200 years ago David Strauss exposed the entire New Testament as a fraud. The non-existence of God has been clear for almost as long. Educated people know these things. Reactionary hacks on the other hand…

Yoram Hazony

@yhazony

9 months

The Bible doesn’t appear in most high school and college curricula because it’s prestige has been utterly destroyed and most educated people are embarrassed to be associated with it.

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

3 years

Practical solutions to parenting problems:

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

3 years

But they've still got work to do...

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

3 years

Commas matter.

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

3 years

Dominic Berry (LSE) once again threatening gender critical feminists...

Dominic Berry (LSE) once again threatening gender critical feminists

When we last heard from Dr. Berry, he was busy severing Twitter ties (seriously) with anyone who was merely "following" Nigel Warburton on Twitter--Warburton's "thought crime" had been including...

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

1 year

I'm not sure this is accurate, but...

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

2 years

Typical audience at a philosophy talk:

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

2 years

The birth of philosophy:

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

2 years

Spinoza made simple

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

2 years

You couldn’t make this one up.

Sahil Kapur

@sahilkapur

2 years

Former President George W. Bush: “The decision of one man to launch a wholly unjustified and brutal invasion of Iraq. I mean of Ukraine.”

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

3 years

Once upon a time a guy like this could be a major newspaper columnist even in America:

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

22 days

In Memoriam: Charles D. Parsons (1933-2024)

Professor Parsons, who was emeritus at Harvard, died yesterday evening. He taught for many years at Columbia University, before returning to Harvard (where he had taken his Ph.D.) in 1989, and where...

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

3 years

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

1 year

Chuck Berry died six years ago yesterday. I'd never seen this before, which is kind of neat:

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

2 years

Socrates meets his match!

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

3 years

Dunning-Kruger Effect, Covid edition:

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

3 years

When highway signs editorialize:

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

1 year

God Bless the Chinese!

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

3 years

Natural language pragmatics are tricky, part 2

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

3 years

The inclusive "or"

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

11 months

@MeganTStevenson The University can proclaim any belief it wants, but that doesn't change the law. The University can proclaim that "anti-communism" is essential to "merit," as it once effectively did. It's still unconstitutional to not hire faculty for not being sufficiently anti-communist.

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

11 months

The French and Italian legal realists diagnosed this along ago: in the unreviewable court “anything goes” and the only recourse comes from the other branches of government or the streets.

Eric Segall

@espinsegall

11 months

It’s not a court. Courts take prior law at least minimally seriously. SCOTUS doesn’t and hasn’t since 1857. It’s an institutional problem.

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

2 years

The English never disappoint..

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

2 years

In Memoriam: Saul Kripke (1940-2022)

MOVING TO FRONT FROM SEPTEMBER 16--UPDATED Professor Kripke was one of the 20th-century's major figures in philosophy of language and logic (see, for example). There are a handful of analytic...

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

3 years

MIT cancels distinguished lecture by geoscientist who expressed 'incorrect' views about diversity...

MIT cancels distinguished lecture by geoscientist who expressed 'incorrect' views about diversity

Dorian Abbot, here at the University of Chicago, had been invited by MIT's Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences to give their distinguished "Carlson Lecture." Professor Abbot, as...

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

3 years

This should be a best-seller:

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

3 years

Google is hiring philosophers...

...to work on ethical issues related to artificial intelligence. Since Google is, like very capitalist enterprise, fundamentally about profit maximization, we'll see how much ethics they can abide!...

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

2 years

Must have been a disciple of Schopenhauer!

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

9 months

Coming soon, thanks to @morasifuentes10 !

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

4 months

Academic freedom includes the freedom of faculty to design courses and their content. Only a massive violation of academic freedom could change this, but that of course is what some may want.

Nicholas A. Christakis

@NAChristakis

4 months

"Harvard online course catalog has a search box. Type in “decolonize.” That word is in the titles of 7 courses and the descriptions of 18 more. “Oppression” and “liberation” are in the descriptions of more than 80 courses. “Social justice” is in >100."

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5 months

Badiou really took bullshit to a new level.

Badiou

@beingandevent

5 months

“It is one of Mao's strengths to have insisted that the revolutionary Marxist is the lookout for the vanishing term, emblem of the new within the old. He or she is the active guardian of the future of the cause.” —Theory of the Subject

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@BrianLeiter

1 year

"Politics by Other Means: The Jurisprudence of 'Common Good Constitutionalism'" ...

"Politics by Other Means: The Jurisprudence of 'Common Good Constitutionalism'"

This forthcoming essay may interest some readers; the abstract: Adrian Vermeule proposes an alternative to the two dominant schools of constitutional interpretation in the United States: originalism...

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Brian Leiter https://universeodon.com/@BrianLeiter

@BrianLeiter

2 years

Conference organizers may want to think twice before inviting Professor Carol Hay (U Mass/Lowell) to their event...

Conference organizers may want to think twice before inviting Professor Carol Hay (U Mass/Lowell)...

This bizarre case of unprofessional behavior occurred while I was in Rome, and so I only just caught up on this nonsense in the last day. On November 4, philosopher Alex Byrne (MIT) presented a paper...

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