Leiter Reports: A Philosophy Blog
Leiter Reports: A Philosophy Blog
Brian Leiter
News and views about philosophy, the academic profession, academic freedom, intellectual culture, and other topics. The world’s most popular philosophy blog, since 2003.
Latest Posts
A statement by 25 Fields Medalists in mathematics. Some of their case applies, I would venture, to philosophy. An excerpt, but do read the whole statement: [T]he push by AI companies to solve mathematical problems as a benchmark is...
Back in 2006 on this day.
Philosopher Steven Hales makes the point effectively.
Following up on this, philosopher Dan Kaufman, who taught for a quarter-century at Missouri State University, shares a draft of his provocative remarks being presented today at Florida Gulf Coast University. Some of this seems to me...
…and stand out even in a field dominated by nonsense. For example: It’s true that Chinese universities have made remarkable strides, and some of them host superb centers of research and education. However, they aren’t nearly as dominant...
He’s now threatening to cut off trade with any country that maintains a trade imbalance, unless he gets his way on interest rates. He doesn’t understand the causes of trade imbalances. Trump’s extraordinary ignorance, his extraordinary...
Via Alex Guerrero on FB, I came across this well-done “welcome” address by Rutgers President William Tate (it’s called “My Hopes for You,” September 8, in case it gets displaced by other “community messages” on the linked page). He even...
Reader Howard Berman called my attention awhile ago to this fascinating essay by sociologist Randall Collins, which I recommend to everyone looking for some informed “big picture” analyses of what we face. He makes many astute...
Karen Nisenbaum (Kant, German Idealism, Jewish philosophy), Associate Professor of Philosophy at Syracuse University, has accepted appointment at the University of California at Berkeley, effective January 1, 2027, as an Associate...
Linguist Geoffrey Pullum (Edinburgh) shares another: The WAMC scam is aimed at tempting authors to think they have a publicity opportunity. A recent novel version of it involves an independently established website rather than one...
A central forecast of Marx’s was that capitalism would produce technological innovations that would displace human labor, gradually immiserating those who have only their labor power to sell. Marx thought this would happen much sooner...
Julian Nyarko took a look. From his summation of his findings (using Pangram, whose reliability he describes): In 2025, AI use was rare: 9 out of 273 articles (3.3%) have any AI signal, with 5 articles (1.8%) containing an estimated...
…who wrote the screenplays for Taxi Driver and Raging Bull, among other movies. Philosopher Cheyney Ryan kindly shared this description of the plot (spoilers!): The film centers on John Jorrisen, played by Jack Huston, a respected...
Professor Alexy, who was emeritus at the University of Kiel in Germany (where he spent most of his academic career), was better-known and quite influential throughout the civil law world (and especially in South America) for his formal...