I've been meaning to write this for *months*. I'm increasingly unhappy with the focus on epistemic injustice and cataloguing the various things that can go wrong in information exchange. But I suspect my reasons for being unhappy are different to the usual. open.substack.com/pub/rbnmcken...

funding lotteries have been waiting for this moment

You must be tempted to tell the story like this: phil. sci. and the core of analytic epistemology drifted apart; things got so bad that the residual "core" started to see "inquiry" as largely unstudied; by turning back to science we can set the record straight and solve the allegedly new problems.

Ramsey coming up with his mature theory of induction in the middle of a talk

Abundant Eocene fossils of plants and animals are found in the Green River Formation of Wyoming, Colorado and Utah. This fossil Pseudosalix Hanleyi, with stems, leaves and flowers preserved, is harder to find than a T-rex tooth!

This thread shows the extraordinary work that the Patient-Led Research Collaborative (working on Long COVID and other infection-associated chronic conditions) has done, incl. scientific work that has challenged and massively improved the research that people without Long COVID do on the disease 1/

In our latest, we look back at 2025, a year where normalization slipped into naturalization, as a cadre of villains who rose to prominence on the back of covid denial took the reins of the federal government to play out their revenge fantasies. It’s Covid Year Six. www.patreon.com/posts/145947...

In my new paper, I argue that conditionalisation, qua rule of inference, cannot be justified independently of the priors. In a nutshell, the argument is this. Conditionalisation says: stay as close as possible to your priors! This is good advice only if your priors are good priors

Great comment from @jefflubellc19.bsky.social in @annfammed.bsky.social. He argues for the value of patient and caregiver observations and hypotheses, saying journals should publish more case studies and hypothesis papers from those groups. Feat. @patientled.bsky.social! #MedSky #MECFS #hEDS

My Element on science denial is free to download until December 1st! Get it for free while you can! doi.org/10.1017/9781...

This trial enrolled this many participants this quickly because it’s designed to meet the needs of people with Long COVID, and it’s this well designed because it was designed by the amazing @julialmv.bsky.social who lives with Long COVID herself Patient participation in research is essential

LoCITT-T trial was covered by Wired today: www.wired.com/story/weight... My comments include: "For the long Covid population...if you’re requiring people to come into a clinic, you’re systematically excluding the most severely affected folks who are housebound or bedbound."

On this day thirty-two years ago. The Harlow Star, England. 11th November 1993. #mecfs #cfsme #myalgicencephalomyelitis #myalgice

New Comment Negative results in long COVID clinical trials: choosing outcome measures for a heterogeneous disease www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

Many Long COVID trials have reported negative results in 2024 and 2025. In our Comment for @thelancetinfdis.bsky.social we argue that inadequate outcome measures might have played a role. (1/12)

1/ I'm excited to share that Franz Knappik’s and my Cambridge Element on Hegel and Colonialism is finally out – open access below! We trace how Hegel defends European colonial rule, including transatlantic slavery, and how that defence runs through his entire philosophical system. Thread below ⬇️

Peirce’s not-at-all dramatic take on subjective interpretations of probability

In the second half of the twentieth century, Bayesians began to hold that they had a solution to the problem of induction. What is this solution exactly, what does it tell us about the problem of induction, and does the solution work? You can find out in my new paper! philpapers.org/rec/CANBAT-3

In the second half of the twentieth century, Bayesians began to hold that they had a solution to the problem of induction. What is this solution exactly, what does it tell us about the problem of induction, and does the solution work? You can find out in my new paper! philpapers.org/rec/CANBAT-3

I’d be grateful if more were written on RFK’s AIDS denialism—important context IMO when we hear him say things like, Long Covid docs are being ignored like docs were ignored in the AIDS crisis. I think he’s dog-whistling alternative therapies that posited lifestyle and not HIV caused AIDS.

In a @bmj.com survey of 183 patient/public #PeerReviewers assaying their experience, perspectives on payment (£50 or an online #BMJ journal subscription) (69% response rate), 84% reported a good/very good experience, 48% might be more likely to review @emmajdoble.bsky.social @amyprice.bsky.social

Hot off the press: Michael Kremer’s and my resurrection of Margaret Macdonald.

Really recommend this paper on the production of ignorance (agnotology) in medicine!

Powerful closing remarks from PLRC co-founder @ahandvanish.bsky.social at the Keystone Symposia on #LongCovid last week, reflecting on the state of research and the journey of the patient community: "In our immediate presence, time slows, while the world beyond speeds up, and moves without us”

This is why pwME get so upset when newcomers to the field don’t engage existing experts. We have lost so, so much time, and critical information, to people who refuse to build on existing knowledge.

Indeed. And further.. EVERYTHING👏DIAMOND👏OPEN👏ACCESS👏OR👏JUST👏FIND👏THE👏PREPRINTS/PIRATE👏IT👏

Just reupping this paper in which Chloé lays out systematically the reasons enlisting lived experience reviewers can help reduce errors that scientists without that experience are prone to. Why? No reason 🙃

“DecodeME shows the incredible level of support that the ME/CFS patient community can give to research that involves them on a deep and meaningful level. Without the community, we could not have achieved all that we have.” Andy Devereux-Cooke (PPI Member and Co-Investigator)

My paper has been assigned to an issue at Mind! I argue that the algebra of propositions on which an agent’s credences are defined cannot be relativised to their “awareness context”, but they can be relativised to what the agent considers possible academic.oup.com/mind/article...

Three prominent clinical trials targeting viral persistence in Long COVID with short treatment courses did not find the drugs helped improve people's health. But this is far from the end of the road for persistence trials. I unpacked the current state of the field @thesicktimes.org: (1/4)

My paper is forthcoming in Philosophy of Science! Drawing on the examples of HIV/AIDS and IACCs (incl. Long COVID), I argue that lay interference with the conduct of science can improve the accuracy of scientific outputs and propel science forward. Some main points ⬇️ philarchive.org/rec/CANTEG

Excellent reporting (featuring a quote from me!) on what happened to the hotly anticipated BC007 trial for Long COVID, which reported negative results despite reports of major improvements from some trial participants. Bad study design could have led to a false negative

New philosophy drag name dropped: Sue E. Generous

In my Inaugural Lecture at Groningen, on Halloween 2017, I reported that Descartes read Wittgenstein (please see below for video footage). On October 8, 2025, you are cordially invited to my Inaugural Lecture at Hagen University where I'll speak on "Reading as a Social Practice".

Congratulations to #HPS scholar Lorraine Daston (PhD History of Science '79) on receiving 2025 Centennial Medal (award given by Harvard Grad School to its alums for their contributions to society.) Her work crosses disciplinary divides & opens new fields of inquiry. gsas.harvard.edu/news/lorrain...

Paper is finally up and open access (www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...), it's a sequel to an earlier paper where we'd argued that there's not good evidence that pre-publication peer review is a net benefit (www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1093/...). So in this one we suggest an alternative.

Running notes on Schuringa's A Social History of Analytic Philosophy, pt. 1 open.substack.com/pub/digressi... with a shout out to @ksetiya.bsky.social

Open access

John Dupré has a bit where he's just blanketly against dualisms because two is a an inherently silly number for there to be types of things. Monism fine, pluralism fine, but exactly, neatly two? Gtfo.

A Social History of Analytic Philosophy is out today! Available from Verso via the link below, or from your favourite bookseller www.versobooks.com/en-gb/produc...

Cancer Research UK today published a report which highlights changes in cancer survival rates over the last 50 years. Many headlines (like this one from the Guardian) have chosen to report the ‘doubling of cancer survival rates’ since the 1970s. But that's misleading... 1/18

🚨 BREAKING: Long COVID research grants rescinded earlier this week have been restored, according to researchers & patient reps. Advocates organized quickly yesterday in response to the news, helping reverse the decision. Exclusive in @thesicktimes.bsky.social thesicktimes.org/2025/03/28/u...

The administration has canceled 45 RECOVER #LongCOVID grants. These grants examined pathology, & were vital to understanding infection-associated chronic illness as a whole. Half of those with #LongCOVID at 6 mo. meet criteria for #MECFS. 🧪 cen.acs.org/policy/resea...

The Trump administration is set to abolish the Office of Long COVID Research and Practice. The termination follows other steps that appear to target and erase federal responses to the Long COVID crisis. Read more from @betsyladyzhets.bsky.social and @mileswgriffis.bsky.social: bit.ly/4l0RZIT

I regret to information the Bluesky philosophy community that Michael Friedman, noted philosopher of science and ground-breaking historian of Kant, neo-Kantianism, and logical positivism has died. May his memory be a blessing. #philsci

On this Long COVID awareness day, here are some core facts compiled by the extraordinary @patientled.bsky.social. 400 million are affected w numbers growing, and reinfections making Long COVID more (not less) likely. This is a public health emergency patientresearchcovid19.com/storage/2025...

I spent more than a year working on this SEP entry on ideology, and I actually think it is some of the best work I've ever done. There are three parts of it that I am especially happy with: plato.stanford.edu/entries/ideo...

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was confirmed to lead the Department of Health & Human Services. The U.S. Senate has betrayed the American people, approving a dangerous conspiracy theorist with no scientific training who is obsessed with unfounded health claims to be our nation’s voice on public health.

Was comparing notes with an editor of Political Philosophy the other day, who confirmed our editors’ experience at Free & Equal: what a joy to work with a publisher @openlibhums.bsky.social who is *on your side*, whose interests are aligned with you, and not an adversary like in the bad old days