{"id":122,"date":"2025-06-12T10:29:42","date_gmt":"2025-06-12T10:29:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2025\/06\/12\/grok-on-brian-leiter\/"},"modified":"2025-06-12T10:29:42","modified_gmt":"2025-06-12T10:29:42","slug":"grok-on-brian-leiter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2025\/06\/12\/grok-on-brian-leiter\/","title":{"rendered":"Grok on Brian Leiter"},"content":{"rendered":"

I put the question to the Grok bot: Who first called Brian Leiter 'Ladder Man' and why? Grok shot back: <\/span><\/p>\n

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The earliest identified use of the nickname "Ladder Man" for Brian Leiter appears in a blog post by Bill Vallicella on <\/span>Maverick Philosopher<\/span><\/span> dated March 13, 2014. Vallicella used the term to criticize Leiter\u2019s perceived obsession with academic rankings and status, particularly through his creation and management of the Philosophical Gourmet Report (PGR), a controversial ranking of philosophy PhD programs. The nickname plays on the German word "Leiter," which means both "ladder" and "leader" (as in <\/span>Gauleiter<\/span><\/span>), suggesting Leiter\u2019s focus on climbing or promoting hierarchical structures in academia. Vallicella\u2019s post describes Leiter as a \u201ccareerist\u201d and links the nickname to his reputation for prioritizing professional status and rankings.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
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No earlier source is identified, so Vallicella likely coined the term. The context was a broader critique of Leiter\u2019s influence in philosophy, including his academic gossip site, <\/span>Leiter Reports<\/span><\/span>, and his perceived aggressive behavior, which some labeled as "thuggish." The nickname reflects a satirical jab at Leiter\u2019s role in shaping academic hierarchies.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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Not bad! But truth be told, I did not coin 'Ladder Man.' The honor goes to John J. Ray. See his blog Brian Leiter (Ladderman)<\/a>. I will check back later to see if Grok does an update. My impression thus far is that Grok crawls through substacks more assiduously than it does through blogs.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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Hegel wrote about objecktiver Geist<\/em>.  Your humble correspondent is but one subjective spirit making his contribution to the depositum philosophiae<\/em> subsisting in the aether of cyberspace.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I put the question to the Grok bot: Who first called Brian Leiter 'Ladder Man' and why? Grok shot back:  The earliest identified use of the nickname "Ladder Man" for Brian Leiter appears in a blog post by Bill Vallicella on Maverick Philosopher dated March 13, 2014. Vallicella used the term to criticize Leiter\u2019s perceived … Continue reading “Grok on Brian Leiter”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33,148],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-artificial-intelligence","category-brian-leiter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}