Philosophers: is it important to reply to a paper? A recent paper in an excellent journal is a response to me. In favor of replying: it badly mischaterizes my views. Against, the first-order is a junior scholar who doesn't deserve dunking (and I can't see a way to gently point out how wrong it is).

Reform's polling means I get to experience just a faint echo of what trans people, asylum seekers and immigrants experience regularly and much more strongly: the feeling that my right to exist is on the ballot. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Everyone's doing it.

Yesterday, I found the die on the left lying on the ground. Today I found the one on the right. Alea jacta est, I guess.

Big week starts today. Tomorrow Chinese New Year starts, and, of course, today is Bungo’s birthday. youtu.be/1Qpj1MikAsc?...

This annoys me more than is reasonable.

Great replacement theory vindicated.

I get emails.

Sanity check: am I off base in thinking that these defections are good news? A big part of the attraction of Reform is that they're seen as 'outsiders'. My sense is that every ex Tory hurts them a bit more.

The Odyssey: A "mythical" literary work "deemed by some to be superior to the Lord of the Rings."

This is the content I needed today.

I've been struggling to come up with a charitable reading of this headline that could actually go with the article.

It's all coming true, just as Gary Larson predicted. www.theguardian.com/science/2026... @cowtoolsdaily.bsky.social

"Neil Levy is not a philosopher. He is classifed under Applied Ethics". Et tu, ChatGPT?

Most barbers seem to be in their 20s and 30s. There are few in their 50s and even fewer older than that. My hypothesis that as they grow older, multiple barbers fuse into a single super barber. In other news, I had a haircut.

Just struck me that 'Jason' is a pretty odd name for a Greek hero. Heracles, Odysseus, Achilles, Perseus....and Jason? Here's how I imagine them.

Unsettling experience last night: I heard disembodied voices arguing over the causes of World War One and the interpretation of Hölderlin. . I think I might have Poltergeisteswissenschaften.

A coauthor has asked me what the norms are in philosophy regarding preprints (when a paper is under review ). I think they’re changing. So: preprints - yea or nay?

I dare you to come up with a worse name for this group of researchers. I double dog dare you.

Yes, but did you read the others too?

Miss Marple and Poirot both use psychology to solve crimes. They have different but equally ludicrous methods (Miss Marple recognizes people as types, based on her experience of life in a village). So why don't we experience imaginative resistance reading the books?

For reasons, I've now watched many youtubes of AI boosters. A commonly cited benefit of LLMs is ....planning your holidays. I think if we got to the bottom of why these people feel a need for someone to plan their holidays, we would understand their motivations a lot better.

Analog clocks are basically a thing of the past. No one uses coins anymore. If Ford stops making cars, epistemology will be over.

It’s about time someone started giving philosophers ratings out of five. Admittedly, they’re only rating importance, but it’s a start. www.philosophes.org/biographies/...

It is vital we never complete the felicific calculus.

I’m at a loss to explain why this is the thumbnail for Daily Nous on my iPad.

“So responsibility is hereditary —not just biologically, but ethically.” I found this (apparent) quote online, attributed to one Neil Levy. Not sure who he is, but he seems to be full of shit.

Philosophers love cognition dissonance. Here’s another nail in its coffin. Here’s the first nail. journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

What I like about this post is the implication that a good cat impression had practical uses in former times.

A proper head scratcher, this one.

I really think I’ve got a shot at this.

In which I throw a small and very timid cat amongst some large and aggressive pigeons. philpapers.org/rec/LEVTWO-10

The case for instant runoff voting is overwhelming. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Big news: a companion to gorilla glue is coming.

In my mid 20s, I was working on Foucault and Heidegger and accepted a strong social constructionism of scientific facts. I have a terrible memory: protects me from ever solidifying.

I think this is exactly how Bruce Willis found out he isn't real in the Sixth Sense.

We crap on them, but academic publishers do it tough. I know from experience. For around a decade, I edited the journal Neuroethics. When I stepped down, Springer scraped together money to send me a gift. Sadly, Springer couldn't afford not to consume the tea that was in it when they bought it.

The virtue signaling literature predicts ever more escalation, driven by status competition. My sense is woke views have de-escalated in the past few years. Do the signaling accounts have an explanation?

They’re playing Coltrane on the plane as people board. It’s not demanding Coltrane. But still, Coltrane.

Straight acceptance - my first in more than 20 years IIRC.

@dailynous.com shouldn't be the Daily Mail. Posting things that promote outrage because people are prone to misunderstand them isn't a good look.

Family member triumphantly concludes an argument. "I think he knows better than you, Neil. He's a professor at Oxford University".

@emilyherring.bsky.social might like to know the epigraph to this paper.

I’m cited in the Washington Post. In the “style” section, which is unexpected www.washingtonpost.com/entertainmen...

I just discovered there are recordings of Zora Neale Hurston singing. youtu.be/18elVaG8G2M?...

Makes me happy that I was thrown out of Exeter.

I just played a game of chess against ChatGPT5. I gave up when it captured one of its own pawns.

Is there any upside at all for me if I agree?

Those visiting Oxford can now stay in a boutique hotel in what was formerly the Victorian-era public toilets in St Giles Street. For me, this is a dream come true. I have always yearned to sleep in an underground toilet in the middle of a busy intersection. thenetty.co.uk