Will Wilkinson - Latest Comments in Some Reflections on Leiter’s Insult

Re: Some Reflections on Leiter’s Insult

---------- — Wed, 20 May 2009 22:21:47 -0000

Brian Leiter is a sad little man with serious psychological problems. This doesn't make his arguments bad (all the time), but it certainly makes him a petty, sniveling whiner---and an asshole. He allows his resentment of anyone with a different opinion than him to force him to act like a total baby (who is the Nietzschean here? Aren't we supposed to be Yes-sayers!?). No one...no one has ever read anything he's ever written other than his bullshit blog which is the only reason he is of the mistaken opinion that he is a 'serious' scholar. His interpretation of Nietzsche is third rate---at best. And unimaginative. It is motivated by the kind of stupidity that only a pernicious ideologue who was neglected as a child can muster. Don't take it too hard that he's attacked you for trying to do something interesting and important. He is the worst kind of philistine--that is, one who does not know that he is tasteless, uninteresting and--overall--a schmuck.

Re: Some Reflections on Leiter’s Insult

GilM — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 23:39:46 -0000

So, it seems like Leiter has done a BloggingHeads.tv diavlog, but with Scott Shapiro on the Hart-Dworkin debate, rather than on Free Will.

Re: Some Reflections on Leiter’s Insult

daniel1 — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 01:39:36 -0000

Enough of this. Let it roll off. Some people have a talent for sucking you into their own morass of insecurity.

Re: Some Reflections on Leiter’s Insult

The Drunken Priest — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 22:56:23 -0000

Leiter! Well...what a tarantula, in Nietzsche's phrase, always resentful of the superior. In a word, Leiter's piss-poor reasoning powers are the outcome of years and years of peer-reviewed servility, chasing credentialist pats on the head.

What a hypocrite! Nietzchean neither in philosophy nor wit.

Re: Some Reflections on Leiter’s Insult

Bobcat — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 16:18:23 -0000

If anyone should be held responsible for the comments section on something, perhaps it is Leiter when writes on his blog, in response to an (admittedly silly) article by Ross Douthat: "I invite my many knowledgeable philosophical readers to give this silly man the intellectual drubbing he needs on this subject." See http://leiterreports.typepad.com/blog/2005/02/n....

Re: Some Reflections on Leiter’s Insult

Bobcat — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 16:08:04 -0000

Leiter's work is well-regarded enough to have made an appearance (twice, I think) in Philosopher's Annual, the collection of the top 10 philosophy articles of the year.

Re: Some Reflections on Leiter’s Insult

Usyless — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 15:47:38 -0000

It seems Leiter wants Will to "take responsibility for the comments section of his blog" before he can talk with "grown-ups" like himself or Jerry Dworkin. Execrable condescension aside, can someone explain why Will is responsible for the comments of other people on an essentially open forum?

Re: Some Reflections on Leiter’s Insult

strangedoctrines — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 12:42:40 -0000

Will, I think you pointlessly dissed Leiter and Dworkin (and they you), but your Bh show is great. Fugedaboudit.

Re: Some Reflections on Leiter’s Insult

GilM — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 12:40:07 -0000

Man, I just saw the update A FINAL THOUGHT at Leiter's blog.

I'm afraid he had his final good thought long before he wrote that.

He's not worth any emotional energy. Seems like a jerk who's jealous of Will's popularity and was offended by "professional philosopher." I'd be offended too, if it leads people think of behavior like his.

Re: Some Reflections on Leiter’s Insult

stuart — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 11:55:38 -0000

I agree with the fans of Free Will. I didn't study any philosophy at college but I've tracked down several books written by guests on the show, which I would not have done otherwise.

I'm guessing I'm not the only one. Since Leiter seems to like Will's guests, he really should be pleased by their increased exposure. And like Will says, it's not like each of them would have spontaneously appeared on Blogginheads, I imagine it takes some organising.

Re: Some Reflections on Leiter’s Insult

John Meredith — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 11:16:53 -0000

I have finally strolled over to check out the Leiter blog and it is a peculiar piece of foot stamping, isn't it? Too much time in the Senior Common Room seems to have an infantalising effect on some people. But not even an attempt to address any of the points you raise? I think that is a pretty clear capitulation.

Re: Some Reflections on Leiter’s Insult

DWAnderson — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 10:44:49 -0000

I don't know what Brian Leiter said (and am not really that interested in finding out), but I wanted to add that one of the great things about the Free Will segments on BloggingHeads.tv is not just the accessability of the diavlogs but more importantly that (i) you cover a lot of ground with your guests in a relatively short period of time, and (ii) the interactive nature of the discussion does a nice job of bringing out the strengths and weaknesses of various positions.

Re: Some Reflections on Leiter’s Insult

Jud Dorvits — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 10:44:39 -0000

Your program on BHTV is much more intellectual than anything on Leiter's blog, which is consists almost entirely of academic gossip and political rants (and occasionally amateurish poems). It's not surprising that Leiter is too cowardly to agree to an interview.

Re: Some Reflections on Leiter’s Insult

Tim — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 06:46:57 -0000

You describe Free Will as a "fairly intellectually high-brow show, yet relatively accessible to non-experts." Right on, my friend. The fact that no one would be talking to these folks - or at least not at this level, for this audience - can't be overlooked. If Leiter, whatever his stature, would rather go talk only to philosophers and thinks others should do the same, so be it.

Re: Some Reflections on Leiter’s Insult

razib — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 05:23:12 -0000

it's in the scorpion's nature to sting, no? plenty of people have complained about leiter's blog-thuggishness, but does he behave like this in real life? some people at UT told me he was very different in person.

Re: Some Reflections on Leiter’s Insult

John Meredith — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 04:57:50 -0000

"It’s certainly true that I decided I did not want a career as a philosophy professor. But I do think of myself as a practicing philosopher"

Wittgenstein would have approved.

Re: Some Reflections on Leiter’s Insult

Oxonian — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 03:38:18 -0000

Burton's blog is now defunct, but you'll find the exchange here.

Re: Some Reflections on Leiter’s Insult

Oxonian — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 03:30:19 -0000

Brilliant.

Re: Some Reflections on Leiter’s Insult

wcyee — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 02:28:10 -0000

You throw the word "hackery" out there and then get miffed when an insult is returned. I don't get it. I'm not saying you're wrong, just that you need to get tougher skin or be excessively polite in your critiques. At any rate, this is all silly. Free Will and Science Saturdays are the only BHTV bits I watch and they are good.

Re: Some Reflections on Leiter’s Insult

hyperpape — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 01:59:59 -0000

It's not credible to claim that Leiter's work is marginal in philosophy (check google scholar--those are better than average numbers for a top philosophy program, especially for a historian).

However, his public persona is that of an absolute asshole. He is also rather incompetent as a political commentator, as nicely illustrated by his student Neil Sinhababu. For all of his philosophical training, he resembles nothing so much as Michael Moore, unleashing his rhetorical fury on anything that moves.

The world would be a much better place if he kept to work on legal philosophy, Nietzsche, and the Gourmet Report.

Re: Some Reflections on Leiter’s Insult

Unit — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 01:38:08 -0000

Go Will!

And I hope you'll keep your show accessible to us ignoramuses.

Re: Some Reflections on Leiter’s Insult

Micha Ghertner — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 00:00:38 -0000

When playing pin the blame on the deregulators, one should start not with Ayn Rand, but with Brian Leiter, for offering this passionate critique of government regulation:

[T]here is no reason to have confidence that the agents of the state in America will excerise their regulatory powers in the service of human well-being and enlightenment.

Brian Leiter, meet Ronald Coase.

Re: Some Reflections on Leiter’s Insult

Jen — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 23:57:09 -0000

Brian Leiter is notoriously cranky and has gotten into it on the internets with several notables (at least on the legal blogs I read) so....congratulations? You're in good company.

Re: Some Reflections on Leiter’s Insult

Micha Ghertner — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 22:02:43 -0000

Subtle, All Too Subtle

Re: Some Reflections on Leiter’s Insult

Jud Dorvits — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 21:25:43 -0000

Cheer up, Will --- Leiter's ad hominem dismissal of you is far less contemptible than the time that Steve Burton on the "Right Reason" blog wrote a post that was entirely a pastiche of rude things Leiter had said, and Leiter's immediate comment was to 1) attempt to "out" Burton as a homosexual, and 2) pretend to be upset that Burton (apparently an old classmate of Leiter's) had never gotten an academic position. Now THAT was a classic example of Leiter snottiness.