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2025 in review, 1st quarter: January, February, March (moving to front from Dec. 26, for those who may have missed it)
January What articles in general jurisprudence form the first quarter of the 21st-century should you read? PGR in the real world, an ongoing saga The monster child’s first day with political power Should book authors consent to have generative AI train on their work? Tonight we’ll learn something about the next four years in America
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Academic freedom in Hong Kong
As I mentioned a few weeks back, I was in Hong Kong in December for, among other things, a conference on “Academic Freedom in Asia.” There I met Professor Cora Chan, a public law scholar at Hong Kong University, who kindly sent me her bracing paper on “Scholarship in Times of Constitutional Transformation: A View
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Most cited books of Anglophone (analytic) political philosophy over the last hundred years, according to Google Scholar (CORRECTED)
I list only those books with at least 4,000 citations.
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Graduate school admissions in the age of AI
This is going to become a very serious issue. PhD and MA admissions depend very importantly on the writing sample. What do programs do when they later come to suspect the admitted student used AI to produce the writing sample? I think all graduate programs need to adopt an absolutely draconian rule, namely, automatic expulsion
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What it’s like having the ICE thugs in your neighborhood
This account comes from an elderly woman, Diane Graham-Raff, who lives in a suburb of St. Paul, Minnesota; I reprint her account in full: We live in a tidy 1950s suburb of St. Paul, the smaller, more practical twin city. We are a pretty sedate community, nothing ICE should be interested in if it weren’t
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Philosopher Jason Stanley (now at U of Toronto) urges Canadians not to send their kids to U.S. universities
Stanley, who decamped from Yale to Toronto after just a few months of Trump’s reign of lawlessness, advises Canadians not to send their children to U.S. universities. An excerpt: I have heard Canadians hope their children might attend university in the U.S., apparently unaware that they would be plunged into an unfree society and subject
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My top 50 of 2025 according to Spotify, #2: Santana, “Everybody’s Everything,” 1971
Early in the year, I started listening to some Santana, which I had not done in a number of years. Those first three Santana albums are gems, a fusion of blues rock and Latin musical styles. This song, which I apparently listened to more than any other, comes from Santana III in 1971: Feel free
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Professor Peterson at Texas A&M revises his syllabus.
A propos the story we broke a few days ago, Professor Peterson kindly shared the new syllabus: https://leiterreports.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Syllabus-PHIL-111-S-2026-_-Peterson_censored.pdf He wrote to his Chair, Professor Sweet, as follows: Dr. Sweet, As you may have noticed, I believe it is important to document that philosophy professors at Texas A&M University are not permitted to teach Plato at
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ICE killing of protester Renee Good in Minneapolis (UPDATED)
It’s easy enough to find the videos of this horrible event. The ICE officer who fired the fatal shots is Jonathan Ross. It is quite clear he was not firing in self-defense. What seems to me to have transpired is that he was “firing for failure to comply with an order,” which isn’t lawful. But
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“The Lost Generation,” i.e., white guys who couldn’t get jobs they once might have gotten, starting around 2014
Several readers sent this article which clearly describes a real phenomenon, although I’m skeptical 2014 is the relevant start date, although the “Great Awokening” circa 2011 certainly accelerated an existing trend (2014 was also, perhaps not coincidentally, the year the online philosophy profession went crazy). But the article does adduce some striking numbers: White men
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Tennessee university will pay $500,000 to professor wrongfully fired over Charlie Kirk comments
Thank goodness for lawyers, who are sometimes successful at holding these miscreants to account. (Thanks to Ruchira Paul for the pointer.)
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“Great Stories in Bioethics”…
…from philosopher Gregory Pence.
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Blast from the past: Five favorite Americans of the 20th-century?
Back in 2018–with my views and those of readers.
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Texas A&M University is no longer a real university
Martin Peterson, a very prominent philosopher at Texas A&M (an expert in decision theory and cognate topics), is slated to teach “Contemporary Moral Issues,” a standard undergraduate course. Here is his syllabus: Texas A&M, engaging in a kind of anticipatory obedience in response to laws enacted by the Texas Taliban in the legislature and executive
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The mainstream media reacts predictably to Trump’s latest violation of domestic and international law…
…as the World Socialist Website aptly notices. Meanwhile, Trump’s chief fascist theoretician, Stephen Miller, echoes Thucydides (but without noticing what happened to the Athenian empire): “We live in a world, in the real world…that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power. These are the iron laws of the
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Federal appeals court agrees that the change to indirect funding by the NIH was unlawful.
CHE has the story. Like so much that the Trumpistas do, this was done in a blatantly illegal way. Unfortunately for universities, they could change the funding formula lawfully, but that will take longer. But unless these gangsters are removed from power in Washington, universities will have to plan for a massive reduction in federal
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Does “consciousness” require more than computation?
Sean Carroll discusses with philosopher Ned Block.
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What can philosophy contribute to the effort to make AI helpful in the empirical sciences and mathematics?
Reader Matteo Bianchetti writes: Thanks very much for your list of the most cited books in the philosophy of empirical sciences. Reading that list made me think of the following. Several prominent AI companies are promoting the use of AI to advance the empirical sciences and mathematics. This is an example. These companies collaborate with
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A public choice analysis of the new AI policy at the journal Ethics…
…from philosopher Nicolas Delon, a former Law & Philosophy Fellow here.
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On Trump’s neo-mercantilism: the Christian Right meets Silicon Valley
This is an informative interview.
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The 100 “most significant” figures in history…
…as compiled by Time magazine using various data sources. Here are the philosophers who made the list (with their rank): 8. Aristotle 14. Marx 25. Plato 42. Nietzsche 59. Kant 64. Voltaire 68. Socrates 72. Augustine 79. Cicero 80. Rousseau 81. Francis Bacon 90. Aquinas 92. Descartes 100. Locke Aristotle ahead of Plato must surely
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Statement by Senator Sanders on Trump’s illegal attack on Venezuela
As usual, he makes the right points: Donald Trump has, once again, shown his contempt for the Constitution and the rule of law. The President of the United States does NOT have the right to unilaterally take this country to war, even against a corrupt and brutal dictator like Maduro. The United States does NOT
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My top 50 of 2025 according to Spotify, #1: Rumplestiltskin, “Make You Make Me,” 1970
I think I’ve finally exhausted the “great moments in obscure rock ‘n’ roll” that do not deserve their obscurity (arguably some I’ve posted also deserved it!). So for 2026, each Saturday, I’ll post the tunes Spotify tells me I listened to most in 2025; those who enjoyed the “obscure moments” postings will probably like many
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Today in Trumpian violations of domestic and international law
Authoritarian leader of the world’s most dangerous nation attacks sovereign nation with large oil reserves and kidnaps its authoritarian leader. Supine legislative branch of the aggressor nation expected to do nothing.
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“Notes on American Fascism”
Philosopher Colin Marshall comments on an essay by Harold Brodsky.
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The worst person in the United States in 2025
Trump is too easy and obvious a choice, but part of his awfulness has to do with the power he invested in the imbecile RFK Jr., who will kill us all unless he is stopped or removed from power. In a civilized country, this man would be confined to ranting on street corners. Putting Trump
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Misinformation now has the government seal of approval…
…on websites like the CDC
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Philosophers who died, 2025 edition
Memorial notices for the following philosophers were included on the blog this past year: Barry Allen, Karl Ameriks, George Bealer, Tom Beauchamp, Paul Benacerraf, Margaret Boden, Harry Deutsch, Michael Friedman, Paul Kalligas, David Keyt, Jonathan Lear, Andrew Lugg, Alasdair MacIntyre, George Pappas, John Searle, Krister Segerberg, Lawrence Sklar, Joseph Ullian, Robert Paul Wolff. Memorial notices,
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2025 in review, 4th quarter: October, November, December
October On dreading the AI future Journals that publish symposia on recent books? Still more on the authoritarianism unfolding daily Williamson “the bullet-biter” The U.S. “Insurrection Act” is our “Enabling Act” “Bloodless pedantry“ H1-B visas and the $100,000 fee: the latest November What is the University of Chicago’s “Committee on Social Thought”? Most cited living
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2025 in review, 3rd quarter: July, August, September
July The SCOTUS decision on nationwide (or “universal”) injunctions Let’s remember some facts, the propaganda barrage of the Trumpistas notwithstanding The worst President in the history of the U.S. has now ruled for six months (a list of his malfeasance) Does your university/college have a faculty hiring freeze? August It did happen here The University
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2025 in review, 2nd quarter: April, May, June
April OUP’s policies on providing books for review An interview in the Shanghai Review of Books Information on the European job market? Getting ChatGPT to take a stand The Trump war on universities Another journal, this time in math, abandons Wiley Suitably scathing assessment of the first two months of Trump War on the universities,
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Great moments in obscure rock ‘n’ roll: Mick Abrahams (1943-2025) memorial edition
Mick Abrahams was the original guitarist for Jethro Tull, but left after their first album, This Was, in 1968 because Abrahams wanted to push the band in a more blues rock direction, and Ian Anderson did not. On that first album, Abrahams did the arrangements for the instrumental “Cat’s Squirrel,” perhaps his most memorable contribution
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Elise Stefanik: Good riddance!
A humorous farewell to a despicable politician.
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Most cited Anglophone philosophy books on Nietzsche according to Google Scholar
Only books with at least 600 citations are listed; citations are rounded to the nearest hundred, as before.
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Here’s the CBS episode on deportees to El Salvador…
…that Trump’s water girl Bari Weiss didn’t want you to see.
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Most cited Anglophone books on Hegel according to Google Scholar
I list every book with at least 700 citations (since numbers drop off here pretty quick).
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“Grumpy Chinese Guy”
Somehow I fell upon this guy on FB (the link is to his YouTube page). He does sensible class-based analysis of various topics in the news, and he’s pretty good! Some readers may enjoy this.
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Here’s a little holiday cheer: really wicked book reviews!
Quite a collection.
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Most cited Anglophone books on Kant according to Google Scholar (CORRECTED)
I list only those books with at least 1,000 citations.
Leiter Reports: A Philosophy Blog
News and views about philosophy, the academic profession, academic freedom, intellectual culture, and other topics. The world’s most popular philosophy blog, since 2003.
My department (NYU) is very concerned about the issue of applicants using AI to help with writing samples, which have…
It is worth noting that prospective graduate students, like undergraduate students, cannot take their own judgment. In submitting anything, whether…
Grad students are aspiring professionals and so in California his sort of thing is inarguably within the ambit of California’s…
Surely no LLM writes as badly as Hegel!
If the annoying tendency to list things in threes is a tell-tale sign, then surely Hegel’s Encyclopedia Logic and much…
I don’t think we’d want to do just any subject in philosophy for such a test, as many incoming undergrads…
As a future Philosophy PhD applicant I am curious if it is plausible to assume that this will increase the…