herkenbaar, juist en goed geschreven. Wat wil een mens nog meer van een column?

A variation: Scientists who claim they’re “not interested in causality” because they assume the term only applies to deterministic, law-like relationships that are unrealistic in their field. Instead, they’re interested in how “X drives Y”, the effects of X, the “extent to which X matters for Y”>

My colleague Krist Vaessen wrote a new book: “Neomania: How our obsession with innovation is failing science, and how to restore trust”. It's a great analysis how the drive for novelty hinders reliable scientific progress. Open Access, so read it here: books.openbookpublishers.com/10.11647/obp...

On both the right and left, reactions to technology end up having way too much to do with tribalism or broader ideological positions than the actual realities of those technologies. GMO and pharma are other great examples where people conflate failures of capitalism with issues with the tech itself

Call for papers for conference on "The Cultural Evolution of Migration and Diversity”. This is the 12th Annual WZB Conference on Migration and Diversity, to be held at the WZB Berlin Social Science Center, from September 25-26, 2026.

After 20 years as psychology's golden child, ego depletion collapsed. Now it's back...with a catch. The secret? Make people work for 30-40 minutes instead of 5. In other words, we finally discovered fatigue. New post on the redemption tour.

I like how doing philosophy w/ friends turns into a braided stream of views: confluence and collaboration on some; on others, the fun of productive disagreement 😉The special issue brings together a full range of positions on the concept & its future— all great contributions to the debate. #philsky

Preregistration is one of the great innovations in psychology in the last decade. But not surprisingly, they are currently often low quality, and this requires checking. Making this step easier is a game-changer. I know how hard Jamie has worked on this tool - and I suspect it will have huge impact.

We've got ISSUES. Literally. We scraped >100k special issues & over 1 million articles to bring you a PISS-poor paper. We quantify just how many excess papers are published by guest editors abusing special issues to boost their CVs. How bad is it & what can we do? arxiv.org/abs/2601.07563 A 🧵 1/n

Our new book on health and disease is now available for free for two weeks. Get it before it is gone and please share this post! #philsci

In his forthcoming 📃 in @jrnlofphil.bsky.social, Grant Ramsey shows that a long-standing thesis held by philosophers of biology & evolutionary biologists—that fitness depends on population size, n—is based on conceptual & mathematical errors 👇 philsci-archive.pitt.edu/27701/ #philsky #HPBio #evosky

My top five favourite words to pronounce like they’re Greek philosophers…   5. Monocles 4. Bicycles 3. Popsicles 2. Obstacles 1. Testicles

Heel veel goede ('excellente') aanvragen worden niet gehonoreerd. Gelukkig zijn er andere financiers. Zo lanceerde de Koning Boudewijn Stichting onlangs een oproep rond mentale gezondheid. 4 voorstellen kunnen worden goedgekeurd. Het aantal aanvragen zal rond de 80 liggen.

En ook veel goede moed gewenst aan alle onderzoekers die geen positief #FWO nieuws kregen. (Ik diende een project voor de 3e keer in, stuurde bij op basis van feedback. Ondanks lovende commentaren van de reviewers, is het ook nu niet goedgekeurd. Ik word er stilaan moedeloos van, eerlijk gezegd.)

ik wil dit boek voor Kerst, maar dan zal ik mijn gezinsleden wel moeten leren de titel correct te lezen.

New study finds that public health messages that acknowledge uncertainty and explain the scientific process lead to greater perceived trustworthiness and understanding compared to basic fact-based messages. journals.lww.com/jphmp/abstra...

UK Metascience Funding "The UK government has announced a major increase in funding for metascience over the next four years, including a more than trebling of investment in the UK Metascience Unit."

Mocht ik vandaag examens afleggen voor onze bachelorvakken, dan ik zou waarschijnlijk op hooguit een of twee van die examens slagen. Dat zegt ongetwijfeld veel over mij, maar misschien ook veel over onze opleiding en het vakgebied.

In his latest paper, Jamie Shaw discusses the pursuitworthiness of different types of Big Science—normal, revolutionary & socially oriented—with attention to funding allocation mechanisms, risks, benefits, pluralism & social responsibility 👇 link.springer.com/article/10.1... #HPS #metasci #philsky

🚨🚨 We're #hiring! 🚨🚨 Assistant Professor of Political and Social Philosophy @maastrichtu.bsky.social @fasosmaastricht.bsky.social @hdijkstra.bsky.social @ccmmody.bsky.social @masssimons.bsky.social www.academictransfer.com/nl/jobs/3566...

Stop making excuses for unclear writing open.substack.com/pub/bigifftr...

#winactie: ik geef dit weekend 3 boeken weg van ‘Oproer en omwenteling’ van Bram de Ridder en Joost Van Meerbeeck. Boeiend om de Opstand door de ogen van een tijdgenoot te zien. Dank @ertsberg.bsky.social! Kans maken? Doe het volgende: 1. Volg @ertsberg.bsky.social 2. Volg mij 3. RT dit bericht

While we've been quite good at predicting life-expectancy gains, we've systematically been too optimistic about future fertility trends. That means there's a significant risk we're underestimating population ageing today too. We better prepare pension systems for a low-fertility future. 2/4

De linkse dominantie aan de universiteit is nefast voor de academische vrijheid. Op 4 december verdedig ik die stelling, terwijl Eric Fassin (Paris 8 St-Denis) mijn ongelijk zal proberen (!) aan te tonen. Iedereen is welkom, maar (gratis) registratie is verplicht.

new paper by Sean Westwood: With current technology, it is impossible to tell whether survey respondents are real or bots. Among other things, makes it easy for bad actors to manipulate outcomes. No good news here for the future of online-based survey research

Are you a Dutch-speaking psychologist looking for an accessible introduction to #philosophy — one that also addresses topics such as the mind-body problem, #evolution & #psychopathology? Then look no further: Pieter Adriaens’s book is for you! 👇 www.pelckmansuitgevers.be/denken-over-... #HPS #cogsci

" 60 per cent of UK university libraries are considering dropping their big deals with the five major academic publisher" Many call for diamond open access. A new organisation with many partners, @ojcollective.bsky.social , is launching in January. www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-v...

"For instance, randomized controlled trials could explicitly manipulate multilingualism"

Pretty much no one can make their ideas clear to others on the 1st attempt. The two main reactions are "let's painstakingly clarify this with some back and forth", and "doesn't matter as long as the various interpretations are themselves interesting", leading to the 2 main branches of philosophy.

In the new #openaccess companion on student notes from Latin Europe (@leuvenup.bsky.social), our own Lorenz Demey, together with collaborators, contributes a chapter arguing that student notes hold great promise as sources for intellectual #history 👇 lup.be/book/student... #HPS #earlymodern #philsky

Is the psychology replication crisis (at last) catching up with animal cognition? "Our results indicate low statistical power and inflated effect sizes in both primary studies and meta-analyses." Preprint here: ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v...

*Globalizing Wildlife*, a book edited by @vbateman.bsky.social, Tom Quick, and myself, is now available for pre-order with @uncpress.bsky.social! Using code 01SOCIAL30 at checkout, you can save 30% www.uncpress.org/book/9781469...

"The Riddle of Organismal Agency" is now available as a paperback version! Edited by @alejandrofabregastejeda.com, Jan Baedke, Guido Prieto and Gregory Radick, the volume puts together reflections from #HistSci and #PhilSci on the topic of organismal agency. #HPBio www.routledge.com/The-Riddle-o...

Research funds are scarce & competition is fierce. A recent paper by @andreasdeblock.bsky.social & colleagues explores how this competition shapes science—its practices, risks & ethics—and proposes ways to make funding fairer & more effective👇 www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... #AcademicSky #HPS #scipol 🧪

"If the groups we rely on for information are, in fact, more ideologically captured than they were fifty years ago, then -- assuming we were right to trust them in the first place -- we are now justified in trusting them less."

Why are so many professors so afraid to speak their minds? @amnauncensored.bsky.social & I discuss this question with UPenn historian of education Jon Zimmerman. Inspired by "Why Aren't Professors Braver?" by @paulbloomatyale.bsky.social in @chronicle.com. banished.substack.com/p/are-too-ma...

De combinatie lage kost voor de student en zeer brede toegang is gewoon vreemd (problematisch). HO in Scandinavië is gratis voor student maar wel (erg) selectief. Vgl. bijv. deze cijfers voor Zweden met VL waar bijna iedereen met diploma secundair aan HO start.

Each generation seems to rediscover the riddle of organismal agency: are organisms agents that pursue intrinsic goals—and how could we know? Our 📕 gathers historians, philosophers & scientists to explore this debate—now available in paperback!👇 www.routledge.com/The-Riddle-o... #philsky #HPS #evobio

1-11% success rates for arts, humanities, and social science grant applications in the UK. What a monumental waste of time and energy.

"The decline in success rates is absolutely not satisfactory, because it sometimes borders on a lottery” Nature 17 October 2025 Well, an honest lottery would IMHO be far better. For the reasons outlined here: blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsoci...

The academic publishing industry is an oligopoly, an inefficient market. Oligopoly actors force us to buy a long list of crap so we can read the dozen journals we want. Anti-trust action would be rational. Let's hope at least that exploitative bundle deals are refused. We can walk away!

Fully-funded 4-year #PhD in Cultural Evolution! Join my @erc.europa.eu project exploring how compression & compositionality drive cultural innovation: hmc-lab.com/ERCPhDCultur... Apply by Nov 12! Maybe of interest to folks from #COSMOS2025 or @eslr.bsky.social? Please feel free to share! 🙏

Latest by my colleague Tim Lewens. Most envious of people who manage to pack in arguments into 3000 words, especially such meaty arguments as this one #philsci #philsky

🚨 Deadline to submit an abstract for our IUSSI winter meeting in beautiful Leuven, 18-19 December has been extended to 31st October 2025 🚨 Please register at: www.iussi-nweurope.org/meetings Come and join us - will be great fun & great lineup of speakers! Plenaries by Ido Pen & @rmash.bsky.social

“96% of statistical errors directionally supported scientists’ hypotheses, suggesting credulity among scholars toward favorable outcomes.”

Are you curious about what computational methods can offer to #HPS? Then check out the edited volume by Grant Ramsey & @andreasdeblock.bsky.social, published by @upittpress.bsky.social, showcasing key tools, questions, and investigative perspectives 👇📕💻 upittpress.org/books/978082... #philsky #DH

Next time an institution tells you how seriously it takes research misconduct, ask them if it's *this* seriously. www.bmj.com/content/297/...