Our Survey Said

I didn't really learn much myself, but I was quite impressed at this attempt at public education by the BBC, teaching people to deal with damned lies and statistics. It's part of a series, the most recent of which explains why most people earn less than average. (Sadly, I can't find a way to link to the series as a whole - it doesn't appear to have its own page).

In a world where numbers are thrown around to make sensational headlines, and their meanign rarely scrutinized, this is a welcome development. Ironically, it comes at the same time as the BBC report this regional happiness survey, glossing over the admission "researchers stress that the variations between different places in Britain are not statistically significant".

Worse, they an attempt to infer causation from correlation, and probably get it back to front. "Another important factor in determining happiness was the length of time that a person spent living in a place. Staying in an area for five years or longer was an important indicator of well being, said the scientists." The scientists point out only that length of time is an indicator of well-being, which to me makes it sound more like the dependent variable (i.e. people stay because they're happy), rather than - as the BBC report - a 'factor determining happiness'.

While I repeat my admiration of their attempt at public education, this not the only recent example of shoddy reporting - I pointed out a contradiction in this other piece before (and I have seen errors in their football reporting too, even if they didn't actually do this). I'm certainly less impressed by and more critical of BBC reporting than I used to be.

Liverpool 1-0 Standard Liege (AET)

Well, I think we knew after the first leg that this wouldn't be easy. I expected it would either go one of two ways - either they'd be over-awed, concede an early goal and fall apart (losing something like 3-0) or, more likely, it would go all the way, in which case I feared that - particularly with an away goal, they might nick it.

As it turned out, there was only a single goal in it (1-0, not 2-1: the mistake is LFC.tv's as the BBC site has it right) and it took 117 minutes on the night. We'd again had Reina to thank for a couple of good saves as, while we managed to dominate possession it was probably Liege who enjoyed most of the clearer chances.

Tonight we seemed devoid of shape and ideas, which has been something of a problem all season (not that that's very long). As the clock ticked towards 90 minutes, I was reminded that we have yet to score in the first 80 minutes of any of our four competitive fixtures this season (though we have now scored four goals after that point!) In this game, things were a bit different because, although we pressed, the risk of an away goal made it too dangerous to throw everything forward: extra-time seemed safer.

Again, the commentators go on about our lack of width. It seems we're closing in on signing Riera, who at least should provide some natural width - I only hope he proves more effective than Nunez or Gonzales (and let's not forget we have another winger denied a work permit). I do think the return of Mascherano will help as well, giving us more balance in centre midfield and allowing the full-backs more licence to get forward.

Anyway, the goal when it finally game tonight involve Babel running at his full-back and then I thought the chance had gone as he had to cut back to cross with his right foot - nonetheless he was able to sent the ball over to the far post for Kuyt, playing his 100th game for the club, to slot home (when the full-back really should have cleared). It was no doubt a cruel blow for Liege, but whatever one might think was deserved over the previous 207 minutes of the tie, it's worth pointing out that we were denied what seemed a fairly clear penalty just moments before when El Zhar was felled in the box.

At the end of the day, we haven't always been convincing during CL qualifying (even in 2004-05 we only scraped through, beating Graz AK 3-2 on aggregate, before going on to win in Istanbul), but what matters is being in tomorrow's draw. Credit to Liege though - they're a side with plenty of good young players, and I'm sure bigger clubs will be after several of them after these two matches.

How Not to do How To

Phil Anon directs us to the so bad it's good WikiHow.

The entry 'How to Agree With a Majority' is particularly amusing.

Step 3 clearly provides a sufficient but not necessary condition: "If there are two thirds or more people siding with one topic, choose that one." It seems that the author may have been mislead by considering only one, six-person, example: "Make sure you do your math correctly. Three out of six is not a two thirds majority, four out of six is. Five out of six is also a majority."

Liverpool 2-1 Middlesbrough

I said it once after our late winner against Lazio in pre-season, and Kuyt said it too after our late(ish) winner against Sunderland, and today could just confirm it - we may have that knack of playing poorly and nicking results.

After starting fairly brightly, but being denied by late replacement goalkeeper Turnbull, we failed to create many clear chances and it wasn't so surprising when Mido put the visitors ahead - threatening their first win at Anfield in 30-something years.

Thankfully, while our play didn't improve too much, our determination got us through. Carragher scored a rare goal (deflected off Pogatetz) to level the scores on 86 minutes and then, having already been denied by a fine save from a free kick in injury time, Gerrard got onto a knock down around the edge of the box and fired in a not-really-deserved winner.

Two wins out of two is a good start - after all, we could have done an Arsenal and lost - but we do need to play better before we run up against big teams. A lot of commentators are saying we need width, and while a new winger would be welcome they're like gold dust - I'd rather see Pennant re-instated to the squad than El Zhar, who doesn't fill me with much confidence coming off the bench. On the other hand, maybe it's the 4-4-2 system not working. It'll be nice to welcome Mascherano back from the Olympics (with his second gold medal) and interesting to see what happens. One possibility is reverting to something like last year's 4-2-3-1 (with Gerrard, Keane and Babel in the three supporting Torres), but another is that we stick with 4-4-2 with Gerrard on the right - you won't find many better players there...

p.s. We do really need to work on our attacking set-pieces though. I've long thought Alonso should take more (if only because I'd rather have Gerrard on the end), but he in particular was woeful today.

Medal Orderings

Social choice concerns how to arrive at a social ordering of alternative policies or states of affairs based on individual preference orderings. Notoriously, Condorcet showed that majority voting over pairs of alternatives need not produce a transitive result - for instance, if there are three people (Alf, Betty and Charles) and three options (X, Y and Z) it may be that Alf ranks X, Y, Z; Betty ranks Y, Z, X; and Charles ranks Z, X, Y. In this case, X > Y (2:1), Y > Z (2:1), but Z > X (2:1)...

It has generally been assumed that we must make do with ordinal comparisons. That is, we only know the order in which each individual places the alternatives - we cannot say, for example, how much Alf prefers X to Z. The Borda count attempts to infer such cardinal information from the ranking of other laternatives (I've written about this here), but this method is notoriously vulnerable to manipulation. For example, if X seems the closest rival to Z then Charles may strategically misrepresent his preferences as Z, Y, X - giving Y more points at the expense of X, to ensure Z wins.

There's a lot of debate over whether there's any non-arbitrary way of ranking preferences, and I think it's interesting that something similar is exhibited in the Olympic medal tables - as brought out by this BBC feature.

The standard table exhibits what is known as 'lexical dominance', in which more golds trump any number of bronze and silver medals and more silvers trump any number of bronzes. This is sometimes compared to the ordering of words in a dictionary. AZZZZ comes before BAAAA because the first letter dominates the others. Another common instance is a football league table - points lexically dominate goal difference, since a superiority in the latter can never compensate for fewer points.

The Olympic table would therefore rank (1,0,0) ahead of (0,50,50), which seems distinctly suspect to me. I don't agree that one gold should make such a difference. (Even though, as pointed out in the BBC article, Britain's current success is largely based on golds - our nearest rivals have more silver/bronze).

On the other hand, it seems pretty silly to count all medals equally, as the totals in the first 'alternative' table do. (This puts Australia level with GB - unfortunately the BBC's story about this bet is contradictory as to whether what matter is the official table or total number of medals).

Perhaps a sensible compromise is to adopt something like the Borda count, as the BBC do in their second table. The question is, why rank gold = 3, silver = 2, bronze = 1. You may, for example, say points ought to extend beyond top three finishers or that, like in formula one, the increments ought to be spread out more - for instance, gold = 5, silver = 3 and bronze = 1.

Ultimately, it seems that any comparison is somewhat arbitrary. The problem is not simply one of measuring - for we know exactly how many golds, silvers and bronzes each country has - but one of how to compare gold to silver, or (10, 10, 10) to (9, 12, 9).

Haggling

Despite reports of a stagnant economy and lower consumer spending, I've been spending quite a lot over the last week - it's the usual preparing for return to Oxford routine, including an eye test and dentist's check up (£60! Ouch...) plus a substantial amount of new clothes.

I think my mum overestimates how smart academics typically do/need to look, although I should say she bought me a suit and shirts because she did for my brother when he started work.

We actually got some bargains in Asda, but perhaps it's a shame that we hadn't seen this article on haggling first. (Mr Saunders from Verdict Research is no relation, by the way). What really caught my eye, however, was the statement from Selfridges' press officer: "You pay the price on the ticket. Any department store would tell you that. Otherwise there would be anarchy." I'm not sure s/he really understands the meaning of anarchy... (Then again, we know what women shoppers can reputedly be like in sales!)

Now That's Exposure

Compared to the Leiters and Crooked Timbers, or even PJMBs, of this world this blog doesn't get much traffic so a decent comment thread - like this recent one - is pretty rare.

My friend Milan's blog, however, has achieved national press coverage! (See here for his relevant post)

Helicopter Parents

This piece on the BBC website is about increasing parental involvement in the lives of their children at university. Apparently universities and UCAS are now allowed to deal with parents directly rather than the students. I can understand parents wanting to be invovled, and coming to open days, but the idea of them actually coming to interviews - or even lectures - seems horrifying.

My comment was posted:
"I can understand parents coming with their children to open days and helping them makes choices - after all, not only is university a big choice, but many are still at school at the time and for many a lift with their parents may be the easiest way of getting to the university.

The idea that parents can be present at interviews and so forth seems to go a bit far, however. As for those that say they can't get information from their children - the answer is not to hand over a blank cheque. Make it plain that your financial support is conditional upon your involvement.
Ben Saunders, Oxford"

Philosopher Wins Silver Medal

Recent Oxford DPhil Acer Nethercott wins silver medal coxing the men's VIII in Beijing. (Via Leiter).

Despite liking academic cyclists, Chris is dismissive ("if you were that smart, it’s puzzling as to why you’d waste your time sitting in a boat").

Brooks on Publishing Secrets

Thom Brooks founded his own journal (the Journal of Moral Philosophy), so he should know a thing or two about what it takes to get published - having both done it and having editorial power over others. He's already offered extensive publishing advice for grad students, but now he offers five secrets here. (Available free and without any SSRN log-in). (Via Thom's blog).

Sunderland 0-1 Liverpool

Not a great performance, with Sunderland if anything having the better of the first-half, but then you'd expect them to be up for it. We restricted them to few chances, although without creating too many of our own. Sadly, Keane's most telling contribution was to block Torres' shot after both of them went for the same rebound. That's a partnership that needs more work...

Torres, however, proved that he's the type of player that can have a quiet game and then win it with one moment of brilliance (not that this was up with his best goals). Not pretty but first game of the season, away from home, I'll take a 1-0 win any way it comes. Maybe a little harsh on Sunderland, but then we were denied a penalty when Chimbonda bundled Benayoun off the ball in the first half (the ref bottled it and pulled play back for an earlier foul on Gerrard outside the area, despite seemingly having played advantage - and then allowed Diouf to encroach on and block the free kick).

Lectures

I was surprised to see that provisional lecture lists are already online for MT 08: Philosophy, Politics.

Minorities Rule

At least since Robert Dahl, it's often been said that democracy is not really rule of a monolithic majority but a coalition of minorities. The 'minorities rule' claims may be strengthened by the news that ethnic minorities are set to be a majority in the US by 2042.

Of course, this isn't decisive, because the point of the thesis is really to emphasize cross-cutting cleavages (others being, e.g., gender or class/wealth).

A Level Results

It seems that just about everyone is getting A grades these days. One of these BBC case studies is coming up to Jesus, Oxford though.

UPDATE: Slightly US-centric piece on grade inflation on CT.

Standard Liege 0-0 Liverpool

Something of an unknown quantity, but the Belgian champions were never going to be a pushover and we've seen in the past that the 3rd qualifying round can be tough. Before the game, I'd happily have taken a high-scoring draw with no injuries. As it is, we had to settle for a goalless stalemate and a number of players - Plessis, Alonso, Benayoun and Torres particularly - were given a tough time.

It could have been much worse for us though - Reina was by far the busier keeper, needing a great save to claw the ball off the line and saving a penalty (which shouldn't have been given anyway, Dossena handballing outside the box). I'd still say that we should win this game over two legs, but we'll need to raise our game at Anfield in a fortnight's time, knowing that to concede an away goal could be costly. Also with our squad already stretched, I worry that this wasn't ideal preparation for the start of the season at Sunderland.

Simpsons do Local Democracy

I remember skim-reading a paper a while back (I think it was in the journal Politics) about the potential of The Simpsons for engaging students with democracy. Springfield holds regular New England-style town meetings, which often demonstrate shortcomings of deliberation and the danger of demagogues - perhaps most memorably (for me) the one where a singing salesman convinces the townspeople to spend a windfall on a monorail.

In tonight's episode (which featured a guest appearance from U2), Homer got into an argument with the refuse collectors which eventually led to him running for sanitation commissioner, being elected on the basis of 'crazy promises', spending his year's budget in a month and then making up the financial hole by filling another - letting other cities bury their rubbish in a disused mine under Springfield until rubbish was literally popping up out of the ground. A fine example of local demcoracy in action...

Post Code Lotteries on CT

We already know that what's discussed on CT soon becomes government (in waiting?) policy (see here). And now they've finally brought their attention to the pressing issue of so-called 'post code lotteries'.

I also see that Martin O'Neill has another piece in the latest Philosophy & Public Affairs (arguably the top ranked journal in our field). Congratulations to him. Sadly I missed him presenting an earlier version at the Nuffield workshop, due to a job interview, which is a shame as - going my his acknowledgements - it must have been a terrirific seminar.

Grim Up North

I always knew it was grim up north, but I didn't know we'd reached the point of abandoning ship. I, of course, agree with the principle of internal freedom of movement, but somehow I think the mass evacuation of former industrial cities with people flocking to London, Oxford and Cambridge will only increase over-crowding in the south - in what are already three of the msot expensive places to live in the country. I would welcome the building of more affordable houses though!

UPDATE: Cameron rubbishes the report, as does Chris.

Journal Rankings

I am giving some thought to trying to publish this summer, although research is not so easy outside of Oxford. It's surprising how much time I'm spending looking for suitable venues. That's why I was happy to come across two discussion on CT - Harry on publishing for grad students and Ingrid on journal rankings for political theory (not philosophy).

I'm in reasonably close agreement with Jacob Levy:

A. Ethics, Political Theory, Journal of Political Philosophy, History of Political Thought, APSR

Review of Politics might be a close call between A and B. Ditto Political Studies, for Americans. (In the UK it would be A.)

B. Polity, Politics Philosophy and Economics, European Journal of Political Theory, CRISPP, Contemporary Political Theory, JOP, AJPS, Journal of Applied Philosophy [though AJPS just will be counted higher in American poli sci deparments, as it’s the 2nd-ranked overall journal in the discipline]

C. Nomos, Social Philosophy and Policy, Constellations, Social Research, Social Theory and Practice

And Chris Bertram:

1st tier: Ethics and PPA

then JPP
then PPE
then PT (prestige-wise, though IMHO it tends to be half-full with BS of various kinds)

(History of Pol Thought in there somewhere too for the specialists).

then STP, Utilitas, EJPT etc with Res Publica, Imprints etc not far behind.

Of course, both still leave a lot uncovered, and there must be distinctions to be made between lower ranks (D, E, etc) even if no one's really familiar enough to judge.

One thing I do find surprising is that impact factors apparently often focus only on the last two years. I agree with Tom Hurka that this isn't really long enough given the time it takes to read something in print (less of a problem to those well-connected, of course), write a response and publish it. More to the point though, I wonder why there should be any limits?

I suppose that if one wants to know what a journal's up to now a shorter time-span is useful, but I'd say that it's relevant to the overall assessment of a journal if it's published classics still being cited now. Of course, this raises a practical problem given that some journals have been running a long time - which gives them more potential to be cited but, because rankigns are divided by number of articles, it might skew the figures somewhat. (Though presumably we'd have to count the old citations to old articles - which may be problematic if older material isn't online).

New Job Cycle

It seems like I only just completed the last round of applications, and already I'm seeing adverts for JRFs starting Sept/Oct 2009! There is some hope for those still searching at this late stage though: Keele are advertising a one year lectureship in political philosophy starting this September (deadline 14th Aug):

The successful candidate will hold (or be very near to completing) a postgraduate research degree in Philosophy. Applicants should have experience of, and a strong commitment to, teaching political philosophy at undergraduate degree level. A Learning and Teaching in Higher Education qualification would also be desirable.

It is expected that teaching required (lecturing, tutorials and seminars) will be concentrated in our first, second and third year modules in Justice and Social Values (PIR-10024); Human and Moral Agency (PHI-10001); Political Concepts (PIR-20027) and Toleration (PHI-30014). An ability to contribute to other SPIRE modules would be desirable.

I expect that by now some people may have already accepted worse positions!

UPDATE: Phil Anon has also picked up on the coming meat market.

Pedantry

This is one of my favourite XKCD comics. The irony is that apparently it's wrong. That someone would go to the bother of pointing this out - including Google hit stats and polling their friends - points to the deeper truth however.

86 Wives

I'm amazed I haven't seen anyone pick up on this yet. A Nigerian man has 86 wives.

As one is quoted as saying: "I am now the happiest woman on earth. When you marry a man with 86 wives you know he knows how to look after them"!

Liverpool 1-0 Lazio

Before the match, the closest prediction from the fans interviewed on TV was 3-1. I was actually expecting something closer, although I wasn't aware that Lazio only finished 12th in Seria A last year (having qualified for the Champions League the year before).

The Italian league doesn't start until after ours, so Lazio were probably a bit behind on fitness and this was a fairly typical preseason game - almost descending into farce due to the number of substitutions in the second half. (We did change our whole team, but generally 3 or 4 players at a time - whereas Lazio opted to make individual substitutions seemingly every two minutes).

It looked like it would remain at 0-0 until a nice bit of skill in injury time. Ngog broke down the left, but I wasn't hopeful when he cut back onto his right foot - and, sure enough, the cross was headed away - but only as far as Spearing, whose one touch lifted the ball back into the box for Voronin to turn and volley a first time shot past the 'keeper. It was a nicer move than our first XI had managed, unfortunately. (Kuyt and Keane need to score asap for confidence - hopefully they're merely saving their goals for the season proper).

Within minutes we almost had an equalizer, but though Lazio found the back of the net the offside flag was raised - so we held on for a win. Maybe we now have that knack of nicking 1-0 wins from games we don't really deserve to win?

Maori Heads

This piece from the NY Times about return of Maori heads from France to New Zealand obviously raises a number of ethical issues. Also interesting in light of what I've been reading and thinking about recently though is the question whether they can be art.

Many tribal artifacts that were not intended as art, such as decorative shields intended to scare the enemy, are exhibited as art in Western galleries. Arguably their status is akin to Duchamp's readymades - i.e. they were not art until someone decided to exhibit them as such. Is this possible with human body parts?

I did have the idea that one could exhibit a human being (just a normal, living human - not doing anything special) with accompanied by Hamlet's "What piece of work is a man! how noble in reason! how infinite in faculty! in form and moving how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the world!" Would that be art?

Storms

I've been practically home along this week. My mum and her partner are away on holiday, so I've been looking after the house (my brother's still here too, but commutes to London each day - leaving before I'm up and not getting home until 7:30).

Yesterday was actually quite productive on that front - I fed the fish (twice), mowed the front lawn, defrosted the freezer and - since it was the only day that hasn't rained so far - water the plants. I needn't have bothered with that given the storm that hit us that evening.

I thought it was quite impressive, but what I saw didn't live up to these photos on the BBC.

Journal Refereeing

Currently I'm largely occupied by preparing teaching for next year, but I know that what I really need to be doing is sending chunks of my thesis off to journals (which, unfortunately, requires me to do considerable re-working of them, if I'm not just going to be wasting everyone's time).

It's hard to get a guage on what the expectations are on a young academic. The latest poll on the Brooks blog - actually, two polls (1), (2) - concerns how often people submit. It seems the vast majority submit papers more frequently than every 6 months (generally every 2-4 months), although it's not clear whether all of these are new papers. Someone could just have one paper than they keep submitting to new journals every 3 months as it gets continually rejected!

I'm also keeping a close eye on this Leiter thread. No comments as yet, but it's a question about reviewing from a young academic who's just started beign asked to do peer review. I suppose it's comforting if much that goes to journals isn't that good, assuming it's not my work s/he is talking about!

UPDATE: See also this on peer review (via).

Valeranga 1-4 Liverpool

Another four goals, although the same scorers this time as last. The starting line up, with the exception of Reina for Cavalieri in goal, is probably what I'd expect against Sunderland at the start of the season, barring injuries or the possibility of Gareth Barry finally arriving/Alonso possibly departing.

Speaking of injuries, the one negative of course was seeing Gerrard walking off after 28 minutes. Our pre-season has been hampered by niggling injuries to Gerrard (this looks like a recurrence of the groin injury that forced him to miss our training camp), Finnan, Degen and Skrtel. The positive is that Alonso looked in good form and willing to get forward, although perhaps that's only because he was allowed time on the ball and his influence did wane after Spearing replaced Gerrard.

In any case, it was Alonso being further forward that allowed him to receive a lay off from Keane around the D and score the opener from 25 yards. That was all that separated the teams at the break. Things soon changed after the restart though - Reina and Hyypia had just come on for Liverpool, which perhaps contributed to some slightly disorganized defending and a quick equalizer (47 minutes).

Thankfully, this seemed to galvanize a team whose dominance had waned since Gerrard's departure. Within a minute, Torres restored the elad - it took a slightly fortuitous deflection off a defender in the build up, but there was no faulting his clinical finish. On the hour, Benayound scored another with a mazy run around the edge of the box and a sweet left-footed chip into the far corner of the net.

This gave Rafa the cushion necessary to make more changes and bring on the kids: by the end of the game, Hyypia, Reina and Agger were the only players over 21, and the youngsters acquitted themselves well. Hopefully those that aren't on loan will get the chance to play in the league cup, and a few may even feature as squad players when we're hit by injuries (particularly with the seven subs coming in).

Ngog, who scored a second goal in three part-appearances (after only one in 18 for PSG last year), looks like - as Rafa predicted - he could be ready for the first team. Some of the others aren't quite ready yet, such as the much-hyped Pacheco (still only 17). Perhaps, with Gerrard now side-lined for a week or so and Mascherano and Lucas at the Olympics, Plessis or Spearing may get a chance to play a couple of games in the usually very competitive centre midfield. I wouldn't mind seeing more of Darby either, as I think he's one of four players vying for probably the most open spot in our team at the moment (right back).

Norrington Table

I've just seen the publication of an interim Norrington table (a semi-official ranking of Oxford colleges according to this year's undergraduate Finals results). It looks like my move from Jesus to Corpus Christi is a step down, from 8th to 11th based on this year's figures!

Fork Handles

I'm back in Essex for the summer - well, just over two months of it - and, though you might have thought nothing changed in Oxford, it seems the city will be almost unrecognizable when I return. Oxford now has a Weatherspoons.

Rangers 0-4 Liverpool

There had been some worry at only one goal scored in our last three friendlies, but this match went some way to silencing the doubters. Torres, in his first start (having only played 20 minutes of our previous friendlies) opened the affairs. Too bad Keane couldn't get off the mark but our other new striker Ngog did get his name on the scoresheet - which was welcome, as some had already been criticizing him on the LFC messageboards after only 45 minutes against Villareal! The rout was completed by Benayoun and Alonso, both goals made by Nemeth which was pleasing to see. There should be some competition between him and Ngog to break in to the first team this year...

Popular Culture and Philosophy

This post over at Philosophers Anonymous leads to two interesting links - one, two - on 'philosophy and X' series.

RJPP Update

I mentioned when bringing news about my second publication that the RJPP unfortunately has a rather poor net presence. Things seem to have changed with this snazzy new site. You can browse tables of contents - it seems they actually managed two issues in volume 6, both in practice on the same subjects, though my paper is in issue 1 (which seems to be the 'official' special issue). It also seems as if they've already assembled volume 7! Good going!

Villareal 0-0 Liverpool

So debuts for two new strikers (Keane and Ngog), plus a return for Torres, and sadly another blank. Still we were playing decent opposition and the team are still gelling and returning to fitness so I suppose not much to complain about. The real shame is, that with the likes of Nemeth, Pacheco, Plessis and Darby playing here our reserves lost a cup final to Man Utd. Perhaps the most pleasing thing about the match was that it allowed Pepe Reina a hero's return to his old club.

Leiter Links

I guess what I should be doing, probably right now (though getting much done at home is difficult) and certainly over the next two years, is sending more stuff to journals. (Which will, unfortunately, require some substantial re-writing of bits of my thesis). Therefore this thread about single submissions and timeliness of reviews is of interest. (As is this Wiki).

Another, unrelated, thread on Leiter discusses whether senior professors have any obligations to retire to make room for 'new blood' is also very interesting. I didn't realise that tenure means no mandatory retirement age, as here in the UK. I wonder if anti-age discrimination laws mean that things will go the same way here?

Hertha Berlin 0-0 Liverpool

I only have LFC.tv's not necessarily impartial report to go on, but it sounds like tonight's performance was one of those that stops us really challenging - not too bad, just without creating too much. You know Man Utd or Chelsea will probably nick a late 1-0 win, whereas we tend to puff and puff away without result. Apparently the new full backs contributed well going forward, but we still didn't create much. I'm really worried by our lack of cutting edge without Torres (and I think that would be true even if we signed Keane - we need an out and out striker should Torres be rested, suspended or - hope it doesn't happen - injured).

Another Publication

I have a piece on 'Acts of Self-Harming Protest and the Definition of Terrorism' in the lastest issue of the Review Journal of Political Philosophy. (Sadly, minimal online presence, though table of contents here). Congratulations to my friend Rob, who's also represented in this special issue on terrorism, torture and the use of violence. And thanks again to Thom Brooks for bringing the CFP to my attention.

UPDATE: They have a new website (see my subsequent post).

PhD Studentship

It seems that I now get emails asking me to advertise stuff, so here it is:

*AHRC PhD Studentship in Political Philosophy at the University of Exeter*

We are looking to appoint to a fully-funded 3 year PhD studentship in Political Philosophy as part of an Arts and Humanities Research Council project on luck-egalitarian and left-libertarian theories of justice. The project is being led by Dr. Keith Hyams and Dr. Robert Lamb in the Department of Politics, University of Exeter. It aims to investigate the moral foundations of luck-egalitarian and left-libertarian theories of justice, to consider their political implications, and to address questions about the nature of justice and moral justification in general.

The successful applicant will work on a doctoral thesis related to the project and will play a role in the organisation of annual workshops and a conference on these themes. Candidates should have:
- First Class or Upper Second Class Honours degree in an appropriate discipline.
- Masters degree in Political Philosophy or a related field (desirable but not essential).
- Background in Anglo-American political philosophy, with knowledge of and interest in contemporary egalitarian theories of justice.

The studentship will begin in October 2008 and *the closing date for applications is August 4th 2008*.
For further details, please follow this link:http://www.huss.ex.ac.uk/politics/news_item.php?id=267<https://owa.ex.ac.uk/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=https://owa.ex.ac.uk/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.huss.ex.ac.uk/politics/news_item.php?id=267>

Terrible news

Cases of systematic bias can now be referred to as lotteries. So much for lotteries as a solution to such!

Wislaw Krakow 1-1 Liverpool

This was Liverpool's sternest test of pre-season so far, against the current Polish champions (who, btw, played their first team and are only a week away from the start of their season proper).

It was pleasing to see a bit more of some fringe players, but I have to say that aside from Pacheco (and maybe Insua) none have really caught the eye while the new signings have yet to impress. Buying Cavalieri for £3m and selling Carson for £4m hardly strikes me as good business, even if the former will presumably be happier on the bench. Can't really comment on Dossena after one game (even Skrtel looked shaky at first), but with Degen ruled out tonight after a minor knock I think it was evident Derby and Hobbs offer less going forward but are more solid defensively. I wonder if Degen may get tried at right midfield, if we stick with 4-4-2 - or if Rafa is planning to try playing wingbacks again as we seem to have the players for it.

Leto's lack of final product is frustrating. Spending so much time on the sidelines probably hasn't helped his development but with his permit/passport problems apparently not yet solved I'd be tempted by the rumoured £1.3m offer from Olympiakos. I also hear that Voronin is attracting interest from Germany and, while he's looked quite good in pre-season (this his second goal), a bid of £3m for a player we signed on a free last summer does look good business - although we'll need another striker (at least) until Nemeth and Pacheco are ready to step up. The worrying thing is that players like Voronin and Benayoun have looked a class above most of those they're playing with so far, but they're not up to the standard we need.

So far, not too impressed with the summer's transfer business then, or on-going wrangling over Alonso, Barry and Keane, but there's still some time so room for hope I guess.

More Computer Problems

Lastweek I had a working PC with no internet, now the internet's fixed and the computer's given up the ghost. It's not my PC, thankfully, but the 'family' one - so I still have my work, but my PC isn't online here at home. Guess my internet access will continue to be a bit scarce.

Lucerne 1-2 Liverpool

I only got to see the first half, but things looked ok - Liverpool controlled the game, without quite carving the opposition open at will. Two good goals: one nice interplay from Pacheco and Leiva around the box and the second a sweet volley from Voronin. The goal conceded was disappointing, but I'll put it down to lack of communication between new teammates. Good to see Leto playing again after being sidelined by work permit problems too.

Parenting Incentives

I know a number of people who are advocates of basic incomes, whereby everyone would get paid something like a state pension, which would enable them to pursue whatever activities they wanted (whether it be working or education, care-giving, etc) without having to worry about covering basic needs. I've also proposed incentive payments for voting myself. Now it seems that in NYC they're paying disadvantaged parents to make sure they do basic parenting things, like taking children to the dentist.

Tranmere 0-1 Liverpool

One advantage of being back home was I was able to watch this game live on TV. Good to see several young lads get a run out, although striking (pardon the pun) how short of strikers we are without Torres and Crouch. Mind you, Babel didn't feature (he's back in training I believe, but perhaps wasn't to be risked) and ditto Nemeth (playing in the U-19 Euros). I was planning a more detailed post on transfers, but for now I'll just leave it at we need another striker and a decent attacking midfield type.

Offline

Something's fouled up with our internet at home, so I won't be online much until we get it sorted.

Organ Sales on BBC 1

Long-running readers will probably remember the review I wrote of Fabre's Whose Body Is It Anyway? (see here). In the book, she tackles issues such as whether we have obligations of justice to donate organs and whether there are any objections to markets in organs. Readers interested in these issues, and with access to BBC 1, may be interested to know there's a documentary 'Buying Hope: Selling Illegal Organs' on BBC 1 at 22:45 (BST) tonight. Here's a link.

Markets, Stocks and Jobs

After yesterday's pointer to the ever-gloomy prospects of PhD candidates at the Philosophy Job Market Blog, I thought I should follow up by drawing attention to Brian Leiter's recent, equally pessimistic, forecast on the academic job market during recession.

Leiter predicts a market crash taking us to something like the early 1990s, when apparently there were 2.3 candidates per job advertised (as opposed to 1.4). His main piece of advice, for current PhDs, is to sit on their dissertation a bit longer and hope to wait out the recession, before going on the market later on when prospects are better. It's true that graduating can cut you off from support enjoyed at university, such as teaching opportunities offered to postgraduates, but this particular recommendation only really seems applicable in the US, where PhDs regularly take 5-7 years+ and involve considerable flexibility in when one actually finishes. Here in the UK, people are generally expected to finish in no more than 4 years, especially if they have funding bodies chasing up after them.

I'm not entirely sure economic recession will be as catastrophic here as Leiter predicts. Of course, that partly depends how bad it is, but universities aren't directly dependent on economic markets for much of their revenue and I'm not sure how many students would be put off going to university by recession - after all, for many it will probably seem more attractive to spend another three years studying and to hope that the economy improves in the meantime. Moreover, numerous people had told me this year that I was job-hunting at a bad time in the RAE cycle, so hopefully that means more UK universities will be looking for relatively junior hires over the next few years anyway, even if perhaps not quite as many as in more prosperous times.

I guess the best-case scenario, for me, is that in 18-24 months' time the signs of economic recovery and RAE cycle leave universities looking to hire, while house prices are still depressed enough to let me get on the property ladder. On the other hand, it could all go terribly wrong. One of the problems with the future is uncertainty, which makes temporary jobs all the more dangerous.

Independent Scholarship

This comments thread over a PJMB has some interesting thoughts on the obstacles to independent scholarship.

Two Things from TV

I've previously gone on record as a fan of the Simpsons. Tonight's Channel 4 show (actually one I'd commented on before) was particularly educational - offering re-tellings of Homer's Odyssey, Joan of Arc and Hamlet. One glaring inaccuracy though, that needs to be pointed out, is groundskeeper Willie showing up in the Hundred Years War, between the French and English, and declaring himself a great English hero!

Afterwards, as I flicked through the channels - wondering what to watch without Wimbledon - I caught the end of the quiz show Eggheads, where the decisive final question was 'where was political theorist Machiavelli from? Florence, Rome or Milan'. Reminds me of the time I saw 'What was Wittgenstein's first name?' for £125,000 on Who Wants to be a Millionnaire? - if more quiz questions were about philosophers and political theorists, I could probably do them, but as it is I'd use up all my life-lines not knowing soap actors!

In Print

Ben Saunders 'The Equality of Lotteries' Philosophy, Volume 83, Issue 03, July 2008, pp 359-372.
doi:10.1017/S0031819108000727, Published online by Cambridge University Press 01 Jul 2008. Direct link here (subscription required).

Is it Art?

I've been thinking a bit about aesthetics lately. There was one piece - that I remember being told about in lectures and that recently came up in conversation with a friend - where Michael Craig-Martin turned a glass of water into an oak tree with the sensible properties of a glass of water. It's in the Tate Modern, and you can read more about it here.

Just yesterday I read about another new exhibit at the Tate Britain, featuring people running about. The press release quotes artist Martin Creed as saying “I like running. I like seeing people run and I like running myself… running is the opposite of being still. If you think about death as being completely still and movement as a sign of life, then the fastest movement possible is the biggest sign of life. So then running fast is like the exact opposite of death: it’s an example of aliveness” - which doesn't sound like quite the deep, intellectual justification you might expect from someone like Duchamp.

I remember a fairly standard exam question being 'could X be art?' where X might be, say, natural scenery, graffiti or a faulty lightswitch. I suppose the answer are fairly formulaic: a run through problems defining art, Wittgenstein on language games, the institutional theory, and a vague conclusions - perhaps it could be.

Brave New World

Today is the first day of the BNW conference in Manchester (blog here, schedule here). I'm not there, no longer being a grad student, and indeed I'm sorry to say I only ever went the once. I did have a really good time though, and heartily recommend it to any current grad students for next year.

I'd also like to point out that the annual Philosophy Faculty graduate conference in Oxford has a call for papers out.

Euro 2008

Because of yesterday's jaunt to Oxford, I still haven't got round to posting on Sunday's Euro 2008 final (which, thankfully, passed without further transmission breaks). Suffice to say, the better team - both on the night and throughout the tournament - won and I'm glad for the four Liverpool players involved, particularly Torres who rounded off a perhaps disappointing tournament with the goal that won it. Too bad they don't get much of a break - those players get 3 weeks, but Liverpool's first preseason friendly is on the 12th...

UPDATE: For more on Euro 2008, see Chris(!) and Thom.

To Oxford and Back

Yesterday I paid a flying visit back to Oxford, taking advantage of my last day of free rail travel. I hope - fingers crossed - that I now have both accommodation and employment for next year sorted out (more details to follow). I was also able to catch up with several friends, including wishing my former housemate Pavel a happy birthday and congratulating Miriam on passing her viva. Sorry to those I missed, but hope to see you in September!

Rights Talk Gone Too Far?

We're already familiar with some dubious seeming human rights, such as that to paid holiday. Now it seems that not being invited to a classmate's birthday may be a violation of human rights! (Via BBC news)

How is this a Lottery?

Lexus SUV crushes Porsche in car park. BBC headline 'Lexus rollover in parking lottery'. Is anything bad now called a lottery, or were they just desperate to use a rollover pun?

What Happened to Jones?

Those familiar with Scanlon will know that one of his famous examples, used against utilitarianism, is of Jones who falls into a TV transmitter during the world cup final. He's in fairly severe pain although not at risk of long-term damage or death. The only way to rescue him involves interrupting transmission. Scanlon says we should save him, regardless of how many are watching the match.

I mention this because although tonight's match was only a European championship semi-final, there were two disruptions to the BBC coverage, one of which included Klose's goal. (Since there was a replay later, presumably it was only the transmission rather than recording of pictures affected). They claim it was a world-wide picture loss caused by storms disrupting power in Vienna. Well, that's what they say - who knows whether they were really rescuing some unfortunate individual from the transmitter room...

Contrary to all expectations, it was a very entertaining match, which the Turks thoroughly deserved to win. The loss of pictures did make me wonder whether Scanlon's obviously right. It's not really clear how much pain Jones is in, and some of the many millions of viewers probably do care an awful lot about the result. Indeed, at the extreme, it's not unusual for people to suffer heart attacks during football matches - what if the break in transmission actually imposed a greater risk of death on at least some spectators (more nervous because not being able to see what's happening ruins the illusion of control)?

Anyway, the BBC's online commentary suggests a more practical solution:
2106: Don't worry people of the UK, we are not alone. The TV pictures have gone all around the world. They are still playing though - which is a bit selfish. Jens Lehmann collects Sabri's shot comfortably.
Why don't they just pause the game?

I Had A Dream

We're all familiar with what to do when 'raptors attack (if not, see here). This morning I woke up from a pretty weird dream in which a rhino somehow entered the house. Having had more time to think about potential escape routes, I now reckon the best responses would be either:
1) run into my brother's bedroom, from where I can attempt to climb out the window onto the conservatory roof - a potentially risky escape that would get me outside
or
2) if given time at the top of the stairs, climb into the loft, where I'm presumably out of reach but have nothing to do but sit and wait (either for help or the rhino to leave).
I'm not sure which strategy would be best, and I don't really want to waste time thinking about it - I just hope this doesn't come back to haunt me...

University Degrees in the News

Each summer we're used to another set of record A level (and GCSE) grades and the consequent media furore about whether or not the exams are getting easier. Just lately, however, the spotlight seems to have been on university degrees.

First, one 'whistle-blowing' academic admits that foreign students are awarded degrees - often at Masters level - without even a decent command of English. I'm guessing that may be easier in the natural sciences than for arts and social sciences, but in fact the allegation is that a blind eye is turned to plagiarism or even supervisor writing essays for their students!

I have to say I can think of one or two students I've known who seem to have struggled with the course - perhaps due only to their English being not up to scratch. My experience suggests the problem isn't as prevalent as made out, but then it's reasonable I suppose to assume that the students you see in seminars or down the pub are the ones with a reasonable grasp of English, and it's the people you never see that we should be worried about...

Now the QAA watchdog has apparently issued a warning that degree classifications are arbitrary. (Perhaps they should be assigned by lottery?). To a certain extent, this is an obvious and unavoidable problem. Not only does marking essays involve an amount of inherent subjectivity, calling for difficult adjudication as to whether students are wrong or merely arguing for something you personally disagree with, but the banding of all students into 1st, 2:i, 2:ii, 3rd, pass and fail is an attempt to divide a continuous spectrum into very few distinct groups. Of course the top 2:i will almost certainly be considerably closer to the bottom 1st than to the bottom 2:i.

Then, of course, there's variation between institutions, hinted at in the article. I'm sure that if any Oxbridge student went elsewhere and did a similar amount of work they could get a first, but can we give all students - or even the majority of them - firsts? The fact is a 2:i from Oxbridge isn't perceived to be equal to a 2:i from an ex-Poly red brick, and that's probably the reality in most cases too.

All this is complicated by rising fees that raise the question whether students are merely learners or customers. Faced with increased costs, they're increasingly required to see their degrees as investments and want to be sure of a return for their money - which means at least a decent degree and chance of profitable employability.

Croatia v Turkey

Last night was my last in Oxford before going home for the summer, so I went out for a drink with an old friend - someone who did a masters in my first year, but who I hadn't seen since - and missed the football. When I got home, I saw that it was half-way through extra time, so I decided to head into college to watch the likely penalty shoot-out. I turned the TV on just in time to see replays of the Croatia goal - which left me somewhat disappointed. Needless to say, I was pretty happy when the Turks - for the third time in four games - scored an injury time goal to send the game to penalties, which they won. I thought the outcome was pretty obvious, given the Croats thought they'd won and were clearly dealt a huge psychological blow. Bilic, however, claims penalties are a lottery. In some sense, I guess they are, but it's not like the match was decided by the toss of a coin.

Who Should Tell the President?

Over on his Dilbert blog, Scott Adams suggests that in the future bacteria may be able to convert rubbish into oil. This in itself would be great, but what caught my eye was his proposal for who should tell the President of Venezuala: "I fantasize that someday the United States will hold a national lottery to see who gets to tell the president of Venezuela that we no longer need his oil."

Abortions and Ageing

Rob briefly touches on abortion here. This comes at the same time as shocking figures about how many under 14s are having abortions. There's also a very interesting piece about ageing on Colin Farrelly's blog. If I understand him rightly, all those under 14s reproducing early are diminishing the effects of natural selection and thereby preventing humans living longer...

Eating More or Better?

I recently used my piece on J. S. Mill and higher/lower pleasures, currently under review, as a writing sample for a job. That's only of passing relevance to this interesting discussion of food portions on CT. Someone, way down at comment 82, however, makes the following point: American restaurants are just another example of Americans concern with quantity rather than quality. Quality requires taste and is considered elitist, but anyone can judge quantity. No wonder Mill is often considered elitist!

Oxford Grad Conference in Philosophy

Details of the 12th Annual Oxford Philosophy Graduate Conference are now online here. Selections are pretty tough, but they're usually rather light on political philosophy, so I'd encourage readers to apply if that's what they're interested in.

More on Job Applications

I recently posted the BBC's discussion of interviews. More helpful, particularly for academics, are the following two threads on Crooked Timber:

1) The importance of a web presence. I hope that's fulfilled, between this blog and my academic page, which people occasionally find via searches.

2) Laying out a CV. There doesn't actually appear to be much consensus, merely personal preferences (e.g. whether to list papers under review and whether working papers should be separate from publications).

I wish this advice had come before, rather than after, most of this year's round of applications. Nonetheless, I now have three interviews lined up over the next two weeks - so maybe it's the interview advice I need...

Of course, there's always general job-related discussion here.

Exams

Via CT, here's the ideal exam paper for any philosophy student. And, via their comments, here are some more funny (though sometimes well-known) stories about exams and answers.

Interviews

Since I'm still currently job-hunting, I thought this BBC article on interviews might be informative. As it was, it wasn't much help, but good for a laugh, or at least a bit of mild amusement. I note they couldn't resist mentioning Oxbridge admissions interviews, in light of today's news about how we're still failing to admit enough state school applicants.

MPS Update

As I announced yesterday, I was giving a talk at the well-established Moral Philosophy Seminar in Oxford (where I've previously seen the likes of Scanlon, [Bernard] Williams, Pogge, Sen, Parfit, Raz, etc). I'm happy to say that my talk drew a fair-sized audience and good questions, particularly from Raz and Broome, who both pushed their point a bit. I'm grateful to all who attended.

After the seminar, I got taken to dinner at Cafe Zouk. I could get used to be a speaker and having meals (and drinks) bought for me, given the chance...

There is now a discussion thread up at Ethics-Etc (direct link to the paper here). Any further comments welcome.

(It's also apparent that this talk has led to people searching for me online)

Moral Philosophy Seminar

Today I present the main arguments of my thesis to the Moral Philosophy Seminar - 4:30 in the Philosophy Faculty. Here's an abstract:

This paper challenges the common assumption that democracy requires majority rule. I assume that we can adopt a contractualist approach to uncover the demands of political equality and argue that contractors would not necessarily accept majority rule to make decisions in their society. I first reject broadly consequentialist arguments, arguing that firstly no procedure guarantees ideally best outcomes, secondly that in cases of pluralism there is no need to suppose there is a uniquely best outcome, and thirdly that we need to be fair between different individuals. I develop this need for fairness into a case for weighted lotteries, drawing on the Taurek-Scanlon 'saving the greater number' debate. This leads to my conclusion that democratic ideals can be realized by selecting a random vote to determine the outcomes of decisions.

Another Sunnyvale gig

Tonight I saw Sunnyvale Noise Sub-Element for not only the third time this term but my third successive gig. I might not have bothered, given that I had no one to go with, but I wanted to pick up their new remix album and they'd announced that it would be their last gig before a break to work on new material.

The email advertised a start time of 8pm, but in fact when I got the Wheatsheaf at half-past that was the time on the posters, and in fact it was almost another half-hour before we could get in. I always like to catch the support bands, but I'm not surprised so many people choose to arrive late.

Von Braun 6/10
As it is, I'm there in time to see supposedly hotly-tipped new local band Von Braun. To be honest, I didn't see what the fuss was about - they were perfectly adequate, in a Franz Ferdinand kind of way, and get better through the set, but nothing struck me as special. Even though they were the most convential band line up of the night, my attention was still rather focused on the screening of Metropolis in the background.

Space Heroes of the People 8/10
The second band are a rather unusual threesome - keyboardist, electric double bass and drums. I very much enjoyed a rather energetic set, including a performance of their Sunnyvale remix 'I Love You Every Time You Struggle Heroically Against Imperialist Oppression' and end up buying their CD too. I have to say it's not quite as good on CD as live, but a nice momento.

Rothko 5/10
The most established band of the night, I hadn't heard of Rothko before despite a string of albums to their name. It's more instrumental post-rock, with the frontman noodling away at some keyboard like device. To be honest, I didn't find either the music or stage presence that interesting - though I notice the background movie had now switched from Metropolis to Godzilla.

Sunnyvale Noise Sub-Element 7/10
The problem with seeing Sunnyvale live on a regular basis is that - the odd technical hitch aside - they're remarkably consistent because most of it's pre-recorded anyway. Maybe it's only worth turning up for the announcements, which are punctuated by slabs of noise like 'Godzilla vs Kathleen Hanna' (appropriate given the video in the background). Still, I suppose the good side of consistency is that you're rarely disappointed, but to be honest I would welcome some new material. I guess I have the remixes to keep me amused in the meantime...

UPDATE: Though they had said it'd be their last gig for a while, they've just announced a support slot to The Kills at the Carling Academy 15/06/08.

Viva

Well, the final (oral) examination of my thesis is now complete. Things didn't get off to an auspicious start, when the room supposedly booked ended up being in use for a meeting, so we had to relocate to Adam's office. After that, I enjoyed most of the discussion, although it of course raised a number of problems for my thesis. How urgent these are, and how much has to be addressed in corrections and how much later, I'll have to wait for the official reports to find out. I do know that, at least in some sense, I passed though!

Friends in High Places

My friend Sonia - who did the MPhil in Politics at the same time as I did - has obviously gone on to make quite a name for herself at the IPPR. Here she is talking about her latest report on BBC News.

Graduate Junction

I already have an academic webpage here, but now there's a new(ish) social networking resource for graduate students (via).

If I Was Running Eurovision...

Belgium - Front 242 - Moldavia (I wanted the C-Tec side project, but couldn't find them on YouTube)
Finland - Nightwish - Wish I Had An Angel OR HIM - Buried Alive By Love
France - Avril - Like Everybody Else (not a live video as it was hard enough finding something that wasn't Avril Lavigne)
Germany - Rammstein - Du Hast OR Guano Apes - Pretty In Scarlet
Italy - Lacuna Coil - Our Truth
Netherlands - The Gathering - Amity
Norway - Apoptygma Berzerk - We're In This Together OR Leaves Eyes - Ocean's Way
Portugal - Moonspell - Vampiria
Sweden - Covenant - Go Film OR Opeth - The Grand Conjuration

I'm sure I should be able to think of more. Suggestions welcome.

Cohen Conference

Details here:
Friday 23rd January 2009 (1st wk HT), 09:30

Conference: The career of G. A. Cohen
On January 23-24 2009, with the generous support of Philosophy and Public Affairs, we will be hosting a conference to celebrate the career of G.A. Cohen, who is retiring after 23 years as Chichele Professor of Social and Political Theory. We have assembled a team of distinguished contributors; those already confirmed include:
Professor David Estlund (Brown University)
Professor Cecile Fabre (Edinburgh)
Professor Michael Otsuka (UCL)
Professor Joseph Raz (University of Oxford)
Professor John Roemer (Yale)
Professor Seana Shiffrin (UCLA)
Professor Philippe Van Parijs (Louvain)
Professor Andrew Williams (Warwick)
Professor Gerald Dworkin (UC Davis)
Professor Joshua Cohen (Stanford)
Professor Tim Scanlon (Harvard)

Summer

You can tell it's summer because we had a week of nice sunny weather and now it's raining again. Nonetheless, we pressed on with our MCR Pimms and croquet events this afternoon.

I'd only ever played one game of croquet before, ending up on the winning side. Sadly that record's gone - I can't even claim to be undefeated - since we resumed after a rain-break (with different teams) and although we never actually finished, first and second had come in and I was bringing up the rear, having been caught up for the last few moves retaliating against black in third (they were closely chasing the lead, but I told them they didn't want to croquet me...)

If Music be the Food of Love...

Apparently wine actually tastes better with music. That's somewhat interesting in itself, because while I'd say many experiences are more pleasurable with music, this claim is actually stronger - that you have the pleasure of the music and more pleasure from the wine. It could thus be an example of something like G. E. Moore's organic unities (the whole being more than the sum of the parts).

A sceptic might wonder whether this kind of claim could be true. Can the wine really taste better? Surely its taste isn't affected by music, even if people's perceptions are somehow tricked. This is a case though where there doesn't appear much room for scepticism since, intuitively, what you taste is what you taste (if you get my drift). If it seem to taste good to you, then it tastes good, irrespective of 'objective quality' of the wine. In this respect, it's like pain - if you feel like you're in pain, you are.

I'd like to know more about what music might complement what wine. The report claims "cabernet sauvignon was most affected by "powerful and heavy" music", but it seems that they deduce this from Carmina Burana by Orff and go on to recommend All Along The Watchtower (Jimi Hendrix), Honky Tonk Woman (Rolling Stones), Live And Let Die (Paul McCartney and Wings), and Won't Get Fooled Again (The Who) - that seems slightly odd in itself to me, but I don't know the full details of the study.

In any case, I wonder what wine would suit my listening habits. Thom Brooks also picks up on the story, but has nothing to add about wine for Rammstein or Metallica.

Carrots

I'd seen this on Facebook, but I didn't go and buy carrots. Did anyone?

Cohen Jokes

I've only been to two of G A Cohen's Humour Seminars this term, but I thought this was much more interesting - and amusing - than the first. The idea of academics sitting around dissecting jokes doesn't actually sound all that funny, but when you actually see these people doing it - in All Souls' Old Library - it's actually pretty funny just because it's so ingruous. That, in fact, was part of Cohen's point: jokes need some bomination of incongruity and sense.

The puzzle comes with how these combine. He illustrated with a fairly routine example of two people complaining about restaurant food. The first says 'the food is terrible' and the second 'yes, and the portions are so small'. This, he said, could make sense, but at the same time it seems prima facie absurd to make both complaints. Interestingly, had the order of the two complaints been reversed, the joke doesn't seem as funny. Had the second merely said 'yes, and they've stopped giving jumbo portions' it would have been more absurd but made less sense. Taken to a limit, if the second said 'yes, and I'm going to the movies this afternoon', the joke wouldn't have made any sense.

I can't be bothered to type out many of the jokes in full, but hear are the bones of a few:

A husband and wife are trekking through the jungle when suddenly a giant ape jumps out and starts ravishing the woman. 'Quick! Do something!' she cries, to which her husband responds 'tell him you have a headache'.

A man rings the Jewish solicitors Cohen, Cohen, Cohen, Cohen & Cohen.
1: I'd like to speak to Mr Cohen please.
2: I'm afraid he's in court right now.
1: Ok then. Can I speak to Mr Cohen?
2: He's off sick.
1: How about Mr Cohen?
2: He's at lunch.
1: Then can I speak to Mr Cohen?
2: He's on holiday.
1: Well, in that case I'd like to speak to Mr Cohen.
2: Speaking.

Two men facing a firing squad. 'Any last words?' the captain asks. The first remains silent, but then the second starts hurling insults at them. The first nudges him and says 'Quiet down Pete; don't make trouble.

Why Moral Philosophers Can't Provide Answers

At least since Plato, many philosophers have pretended to have some sort of insight that makes them best placed to answer moral questions. Today, most take the more modest line that they can't really provide answers. The purpose of philosophy seems to be conceptual clarification and making distinctions. Thus we can, for example, isolate potential differences between (say) killing and letting die, and thereby clarify exactly what is at stake in a question. This may lead us to reject certain bad reasoning, but when it comes to deciding substantive issues philosophers are no more better than the proverbial man in the street.

There was a fine example after today's moral philosophy seminar. A visiting economist wanted to ask the five moral philosophers round the table whether one should tell a married friend that his wife is cheating on him. (I believe the example was fictitious). Assume all the normal caveats, about how the cuckold is unaware and will never find out. What should you do?

It seems that he genuinely wanted an answer to the practical question but, as philosophers of the modern/modest sort, we were reluctant to give one. By the time it reached my turn, we'd quibbled with what was being asked so much that all I committed myself to was 'I think being an unknowing cuckold makes his life in one way worse - though not necessarily worse all-things-considered - and this gives you a pro tanto reason to tell him'.

Spurs 0-2 Liverpool

Well, while there was still the title, a UEFA Cup spot and two relegation places to play for, none of that affected today's game - with nothing left for either team to play it was unlikely to be a classic. Things may have been different if some individuals had futures to play for, but Rafa has already revealed that Harry Kewell's time on Liverpool's books (read: treatment table) is coming ot an end. That none of Riise, Crouch and Alonso made the 16 man squad may also be indicative of their respective futures.

Voronin got a rare start, and scored. Some Liverpool fans have been very critical of him this season. I'd say he's been inconsistent, but shown some promising moments - the problem perhaps being that, like Kuyt, he's not an out-and-out goal scorer. Given that he was brought in on a free to replace Robbie as fourth striker, I'd say it's worth giving him another season - although if anyone was to put in a reasonable offer (and Celtic were rumoured to be interested) I'd be happy to make a profit. Even if Crouch also leaves, we can play Babel as a striker or promote Nemeth from reserves, so I think we have some options, as long as Torres stays fit.

Speaking of 'El Nino' it was our number 9 that not only set up Voronin's opener but scored his 24th league goal of the season, surpassing RvN's record for league goals by a foreign player in his debut season. All the more impressive given that they were all from open play - and this one away from home too! Let's hope he doesn't suffer from 'second season syndrome' now defenders will know about him (to be fair, I'd guess they've known about him for a while - but it doesn't help much).

Good also to see Reina keep a clean sheet and win the golden gloves for the third season running.

Penguin Attack

First they came for the pigeons, and I did not speak out as I was not one.

Then they came for the people.

Cambridge

I spent much of the last two days in, or travelling to/from, Cambridge. Never having been there during my time in Oxford, it was something of an adventure, but it seemed a very nice place - no doubt helped by the weather.

I stayed in Churchill college, which is a modern one set in spacious gardens - rather like a cross between St Catz and St Hugh's. I was also treated to lunch in Jesus, Cambridge by my friend Clare - much larger than Jesus, Oxford it also seemed a very nice place. Given the chance, I'd very much welcome the change of scenery.

Despite only leaving Jesus at 13:50, I managed to just catch the 14:15 train to Kings Cross and, from there, get back to Oxford - changing at Reading and despite a train being delayed (I realized it was worth switching platforms and jumping on a train to Bristol, despite the announcement telling other poor souls to wait where they were for 20 minutes) - and get back to Oxford station at 16:45, allowing me to make it up to the department to hear Richard Tuck give a paper for the political theory research seminar. Ironically, he's based in Jesus, Cambridge this year, and would have been there if it wasn't for the fact that he was in Oxford while I was in Cambridge...

UPDATE: Sadly I received notification that, as has been the wont with recent interviews, I was considered appointable but not the best applicant.

Liverpool 1-0 Man City

It's been a while since Liverpool were left with nothing to play for by May, but today - with a 4th place finish guaranteed (either way) - this game was somewhat over-shadowed by the battle for Championship promotion and relegation. With that in mind, I'm disappointed that Insua was the only one of our successful reserve side given a game, but maybe Rafa was keeping the reserve league play-off final (later this week) in focus.

Anyway, the strong team gave Torres the chance to equal Ruud van Nistelrooy's record for a foreign player's debut season of 23 league goals. He also extended a club record, by scoring in his eighth successive home league match - in fact, I believe 21 of the 23 have come at Anfield: imagine what he'll be like if he starts scoring away next season!

Duties to Talents?

Arguments over social justice, inspired by Rawls and Nozick, are full of questions about whether people 'own' their talents or can legitimately expect to benefit from them (or, more properly, their exercise).

This interesting POV on the BBC website, focusing on Amy Winehouse and Snoop Dogg, suggests that people may have duties to their talents. The argument seems not to be a Kantian one, that we have a duty to ourselves to develop our own talents. Nor is it a claim that we have duties to others to exercise our talents for their benefits ("When people say that you have a duty to your talent, they all too often mean that you have a duty to them. But they're misstating the case.").

It's less clear what the argument is, but it seems to be based on a duty to the talents as such (if that's distinguishable from oneself). I suppose it's just about plausible that we might do wrong by destroying artworks, even if no one ever saw them - but it's surely less plausible that we have an analogous duty to create them (such an argument certainly wouldn't hold with respect to people). Moreover, the argument - such as it is - is tainted with religious ideas ("When that young woman sings, it's the revelation of a divine gift. But when she behaves as if the gift were hers to destroy if she feels like it, you can't help thinking of divine wrath.").

Whatever you think (and I'm still not sure what to make of it), it was still an interesting read.

The Rise of the Right

I have to admit, I didn't vote yesterday. I had kind of intended to, not that I had much preference, but - despite getting up at 6:30 - was busy for most of the day.

The BBC reports the BNP are growing in support. It's hard to know what to make of this - it could simply be protest voting, of a sort arguably encouraged by our FPTP electoral system where there's very little responsibility.

In any case, it's an excuse to link to Pop Will Eat Itself's classic warning about the 'rise of the right' Ich bin ein Auslander (video, lyrics).

May Day

Today was May Day in Oxford (and elsewhere, I believe). I didn't go down to Magdalen Bridge this year - much less stay up the night, as I had a busy day planned - but I did get up early for champagne and strawberry breakfast in college.

The rest of the day involved the applied ethics seminar in the morning, a tutorial on Republic, a post-interview meeting with one of the tutors in college (I came 2nd for the third time!) and the DPhil social in the department, before the real highlight: Jerry Cohen's Valedictory Lecture, which included his impersonations of the likes of Gilbert Ryle and Isaiah Berlin.

Chris Bertram, over at CT, also reports on the lecture, with photos, including my friend Kieran's banner. See also Virtual Stoa and Leiter.

The lecture was followed by a drinks reception in All Souls that (like the lecture itself) probably had a great concentration of eminent political theorists than most conferences I've been to - including what might as well have been an official MANCEPT outing - then many of us going to All Bar One and eight of us on for a curry. A thoroughly great night all round.

Chelsea 3-2 Liverpool (CL semi final, AET)

We were always going to be up against it after last week's disappointing draw, and so it proved - we were good enough to force the tie to extra time (which was more than I really expected, given our poor recent record at Stamford Bridge), but sadly then conceded a couple of quick goals.

It's hard to say what went wrong. Benitez's pre-match criticism of Drogba may have been ill-advised - he really was a disgrace in the first leg, but I'd rather have him diving than riled up the way he was tonight. I remember the way he destroyed us in the UEFA cup (playing for Marseille) yet, like Heskey, I think he's too often a sleeping giant given his pace and strength - tonight we saw the striker he can be when effective.

Even so, I think maybe we could have handled him had we not lost Skrtel to an early injury. Already without Agger and Aurelio, it was a big ask, even if few teams have a fourth choice centre back fit to lace Hyypia's boots. More problematic than the change of personel was that it cost us one of our substitutions, denying us the necessary attacking threat (Crouch) and fresh legs going into extra time.

Chelsea had the better of the first half and, despite a touch of off-side about their goal, I couldn't really complain. We came back well in the second, but I did wonder for a while where the goal was coming from. I was just wondering whether it should be Alonso or Benayoun to make way for an attacking change (Pennant or Babel) and thinking that Benayoun - though he'd been quiet - was the kind of player who could make a goal out of nothing, when he ghosted past several Chelsea players on the edge of the box and unleashed Torres for the equaliser.

At this point I hoped the momentum was with Liverpool and, indeed, I think it probably was, but there was to be no further breakthrough in normal time - so, as many had predicted, with scores at 1-1 (2-2 aggregate) the match went to extra time. Sadly, Chelsea seized the initiative - Essien had already had a goal ruled out for off-side before Drogba struck and then Lampard converted a penalty, all in the space of about five minutes and the tie was effectively over.

If there was any hope of recovering the two goal deficit, it was soon over when Torres was withdrawn - apparently suffering a tight hamstring. To be honest, I'd have been inclined to leave him on longer, thinking that half-fit he's still worth having, and there was little lost if he picked up an injury with our season heading to a premature end. Sadly, this left us a bit shapeless up front too.

Babel's long range shot past Cech restored a little hope, but it wasn't to be. I think Hyypia - though he couldn't complain about conceding an uncharacteristically clumsy penalty for chopping down Ballack - could feel slightly aggrieved not to have won one of his own. I also think we probably should have had more than a minute's added time (since extra time included at least two substitutions, a disllowed goal, a converted penalty and two further goals) with which to search for the equaliser that would take us to penalties. At the end of the day, I think we were at least as good as Chelsea over the two legs (I'd have been disappointed with a 1-0 lead from the first), but there clearly isn't much between the two teams so - after we got the better of them in 2005, 2006 and 2007 - I suppose it's only fair that they won through this time. I guess we might as well toss a coin in future...

Transitivity and Footballers, Old and Young

I've recently been thinking again about transitivity (you can find another example, also concerning football, here), due to writing a presentation for G A Cohen's Contemporary Political Philosophy course, focusing on this paper.

I was interested, therefore, to observe an intransitivity in the PFA player of the year awards: Ronaldo was voted player of the year, and Fabregas young player of the year, although Ronaldo was also eligible for that one! How can Ronaldo be the best out of all players but not best out of the young ones? (A subset of which he is a member). This seems to violate the Independence of Irrelevant Alternatives axiom - and that, presumably, is what happened - people who voted for David James, Adebayor or Gerrard for the main award (letting Ronaldo beat Fabregas) chose to back Fabregas rather than Ronaldo.

It's possible, therefore, that no individual has intransitive preferences. Then again, some footballers aren't too bright. Micah Richards reveals, in his BBC column, that he voted for both Ronaldo and Fabregas, rather than working out which was best and voting twice for him: that would have been complicated, since he's also quoted as saying "Liverpool's Steven Gerrard is the best player I have ever seen" (although, in fairness, that may not mean this year).

Miller Bites

My supervisor, talking about national responsibility (topic of his recent book) over at Philosophy Bites. Thanks to Sarah for the link.

See also G A Cohen - whose valedictory lecture will be given this Thursday. I'll also have to listen to Melissa Lane on Plato and totalitarianism soon.

Birmingham 2-2 Liverpool

Birmingham are a team we've struggled to beat in the league over recent years and, with very much a 'second team' (as at Fulham) and them fired up not only by their struggle to avoid relegation but to bounce back from a 5-1 derby drubbing. this was never going to be an easy game.

Even so, we had a decent defensive line - even if Hyypia, Finnan and Riise are all past their best - so I was disappointed to go two goals down. I was cheered somewhat by the way we bounced back - Crouch proving he's still in good scoring form with the first and Pennant again proving effective - he's got to play on Wednesday I feel. That Benayoun's equaliser came via a deflection off Jiadi was particularly pleasing, since his antics in front of Reina had arguably cost us the second by distracting him ahead of what was a great free kick.

Anyway, one point virtually guarantees 4th spot and CL qualification (theoretically if we lost our remaining two, and Everton won their three, we could slip out - but the blues would have to overturn a goal difference of fifteen in our favour in the course). Now hopefully we can put our focus into this year's competition - although, having heard how Chelsea beat Utd, I'm not too confident ahead of Wednesday. I'd rather Chelsea won the PL though, and think there are some signs (1, 2) United might be losing it...