online archive

From Abstracta, Michael Esfeld (Lausanne): The Impact of Science on Metaphysics and its Limits; Patrick Spät (Freiburg): A Pill Against Epiphenomenalism; and Daniel O’Brien (Birmingham): Gullible Yet Intelligible pdf. A review of Plato: Political Philosophy by Malcolm Schofield. The anthropologist Mary Douglas, who has died aged 86, produced a framework for understanding society that should be part of the mental furniture of every educated adult.

From Qualitative Social Research, a special issue on "From Michel Foucault's Theory of Discourse to Empirical Discourse Research", including an interview with Ruth Wodak: "What is Critical Discourse Analysis?" A review of The Shadow of the Antichrist: Nietzsche's Critique of Christianity by Stephen N. Williams. From Cross Currents, a series of articles on theology, democracy, and the project of liberalism. Is Levinas' challenge to the Western philosophical tradition philosophically tenable? More on Emmanuel Levinas' challenge to the modern European identity. The prologue to Enlightenment in the Colony: The Jewish Question and the Crisis of Postcolonial Culture.

From Wired, in the event of global disaster, the ultimate crop backup system. North America is fine for rewilding but Europe may be a better candidate thanks to close living relatives of its extinct megafauna. From Discover, an article on Science’s Family Tree: A visualization showing the structure of scientific knowledge. Scientists should form a closer alliance with mainstream religion in order to better fight extremism, says Martin Rees, the president of the Royal Society—Richard Dawkins warns against "buying into fiction". Talk to foreigners and we will view you as a spy, Iran warns academics.

From Dissent, Britain's 120,000-strong University and College Union votes to endorse a call to boycott Israeli universities. Martha Nussbaum argues against all forms of the academic boycott ( and more on the academic fallout from the Middle East). Michael Yudkin and Denis Noble on why an academic boycott of Israel would be selective, disciminatory and counterproductive, or will the boycott of Israel give voice to a people whose freedoms have long been repressed?

From The Guardian, cash for clichés: Graduation speeches in US universities are expensively short on substance. More schools are ditching final exams: A number of campuses use oral presentations to determine if students have earned promotion. Move Over, Ann Coulter: Meet Emily Mitchell, the woman behind ASU's Caucasian American Men's Club. Too sexy for my students: She was fired from her teaching job after expanding her students' sexual vocabulary. The Abstinence Gluttons: Meet the religious conservatives at the faith-based feeding trough who are getting rich controlling sex education in America.

From The Weekly Standard, a world without public schools: If the consensus underlying American public education has disappeared, why shouldn't the institution? A review of Can We Talk About Race? And Other Conversations in an Era of School Resegregation by Beverly Daniel Tatum. A review of The Kings of New York: A Year Among the Oddballs, Geeks and Geniuses Who Make Up America’s Top High School Chess Team. Margaret Soltan of University Diaries joins Inside Higher Ed.