Leiter Reports

Reader Dave Trevor kindly calls my attention to this useful account of the early critique of AI by Hubert Dreyfus and its aftermath.

The landscape has changed in the last few years for Anglophone students who want to get a solid philosophy education and still be able to study the post-Kantian Continental traditions in philosophy.

MOVING to front from late August The last thread garnered 22 submissions, so I thought with fall approaching, it would make sense to open a new thread.

A useful account.

This question has an easy answer: one month is reasonable, two weeks is absurdly unreasonable, and anything less than a month should be justified by some pressing consideration, e.g., it’s late in the season and the school must fill this curricular slot.

A former editor of a scientific journal recounts his experience.

Emeritus at both Columbia and Stanford Law Schools (he taught at Stanford from 1979, and then split his time between both from the 1990s onwards), Professor Gilson was a leading figure in corporate law scholarship.

A nice profile of the Department’s successful undergraduate program; an excerpt: Since the 2005-2006 academic year, the number of Arts and Humanities concentrators of all kinds at Harvard has decreased by 12.6 percent overall, according to data from the F…

An understatement.

We’ve noted some alarming scenarios that take place long after election day by which the criminal-in-chief might try to steal the election.

On Twitter, philosopher Brandon Warmke noted that just in the last 48 hours, six jobs were posted seeking philosophers with AI-related interests.

A senior philosopher at a top 20 PhD program writes: I was talking to a few grad directors recently, and all report some growing concerns about ongoing effects of no-GRE requirements for Philosophy PhD programs.

Reader Blake Myers calls to my attention this story about the mathematical proofs released by OpenAI.

I was teaching Kelsen last year (a big chunk of the 2nd edition of the Pure Theory), and while doing background research I came across this remarkable story (that called to mind Isaiah Berlin’s infamous “recommendation” of H.L.A.

For a long time (in the 1990s and into the early 2000s) that was standard practice, but more and more I hear from job seekers who have been told that their writing sample can’t be their job talk.

As I noted, I was in Rome last week for a day-long workshop (which was great), but also had an opportunity to be a tourist.

Here; the key bit: The closer you look, the more you see doom loops everywhere.

DOJ announcement here.

Back in 2015.

A propos this, philosopher Johannes Steizinger calls my attention to this remark of Hans Reichenbach’s in The Rise of Scientific Philosophy (p. 297): Whoever wants to study ethics, therefore, should not go to the philosopher; he should live in the communi…

Marx did have a doctoral degree in philosophy (he wrote a dissertation on Democritus and Epicurus), and was for a period of time under the influence of Hegel (the decisive account of his break with Hegel is this one).

…from Vanderbilt’s Karen Ng.

The saga continues.

…as the financial catastrophe in UK higher education continues.

Via Moti Gorin: “At Dartmouth, Dr.

Felipe de Brigard (philosophy of mind and cognitive science) at Duke University was the lone philosopher among this year’s winners.

The ERC announcement is here.

Roberto Veneziani and colleagues write: We are conducting a survey about academic philosophers’ views of (1) the effect of exploitation on subjective wellbeing, (2) how morally wrong exploitative relations are, and (3) norms around that wrongfulness, by a…

A colleague elsewhere, who subscribes to Astra, Open AI’s high end LLM model (at least $100/month), told me that he has found it useful for giving feedback on early drafts–he compares it to the feedback one gets from a good first-year graduate student.

The latest from the AAAS.

…with a prompt and a blog post from Will Baude.

…from Oxford University Press.

I’m pleased to report that my friend and colleague Martha Nussbaum has been awarded this year’s Kluge Prize.

An important (and alarming) piece by former federal judge Michael Luttig (younger readers will not know how conservative Judge Luttig was as a member of the U.S.

Philosopher Justin Garson has a new substack, which draws on his published work on these topics.

…with multiple fake references!

…for his two recent books on induction.

…argues Microsoft’s head of AI; an excerpt: AIs are not conscious.

Back in 2018, with reader discussion.

Salary range is $230,000 to over $900,000, depending on experience.

Lawprof Derek Muller (Notre Dame) comments.

Philosopher Jason Brennan kindly gave permission to share his response: Dear Cara, Thank you so much for reaching out.

Produced, according to the author, with the help of advancedd LLMs, “Sol” and “Astra”: be me discover effective altruism apparently normal charity is inefficient why donate to random sad thing when spreadsheet can tell you optimal sad thing fair enough buy

These are non-clinical/non-LRW appointments that will take effect in summer or fall 2027 (except where noted); (new additions will be in bold.)

…on the 25th anniversary of the attacks.

Useful, and basically correct:

I’m trying to register, which requires me to update my password, but when I do that, I get a message of “error, token not recognized.”

As often happens, philosopher David Wallace gives the clearest statement of a point (from the earlier thread): Let me have a go at the “normie” case for worrying about catastrophic if perhaps not quite existential risks, avoiding science fiction as much as

Like the American Randall Collins, the German sociologist Wolfgang Streeck is a keen observer of the current situation, without too many illusions, and with a plausible analytical framework.