The leprechauns have won.

Philosopher John Searle has died. He was known for his work on the philosophy of mind (including the famous Chinese Room thought experiment); he was also stripped of his emeritus status at Berkeley for sexual harassment. A brief write up from the Daily Nous: dailynous.com/2025/09/28/j...

“Although some differentiate AI and non-AI systems by appealing to generative models versus other types of AI, we are convinced that this does not bring clarity …, and we can fall head first into misuse of terminology and fostering industry hype (see … Figure 1)” zenodo.org/records/1706... 7/🧵

Michael Servetus (Span. Miguel Serveto) who, discovered the small or pulmonary blood circulation, was born 29 September 1511 #histsci #histmed thonyc.wordpress.com/2012/09/29/n...

It's the scientific community's duty to fight misinformation, bioessentialism, and eugenics That's why we're launching Beyond X&Y, an educational campaign combating the rise of unscientific political propaganda used to attack trans and intersex people Subscribe to our newsletter at beyondxandy.org

It’s fascism. masked armed agents kidnapping ppl. racially and politically motivated oppression. There are death camps, people are being disappeared. Law has broken down. I feel like I’m losing my mind when colleagues blithely talk about going to conferences or archives like it’s a normal country.

Rupert Murdoch owns a media empire that has platformed many articles disparaging Covid vaccines but he was one of the first to get one. www.reuters.com/article/worl...

We are grateful to have had @ufeest.bsky.social join for this week's HPS Seminar, where she discussed work from her new book Operationism in Psychology: An Epistemology of Exploration. A stimulating and insightful session. Thanks a lot, Uljana! #iHPS

Hybridization and introgression are major evolutionary processes. Since the 1940s, the prevailing view has been that they shape plants far more than animals. In our new study (www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... ), we find the opposite: animals exchange genes more, and for longer, than plants

Do notions like “programmed #cell death” (PCD) and the endogenous–exogenous death distinction apply to microbes? In our new chapter, we argue that an evolutionary concept of PCD extends across the tree of life, including microbial taxa 👇📃 link.springer.com/chapter/10.1... #evosky #HPbio #philsci 🦠 🔬

Autism is back on the front pages. Why not read the book that my excellent @manchester.ac.uk @manchstm.bsky.social colleague Dr Bonnie Evans has published on the history of autism? It's open access and you can read it online for free. www.manchesterhive.com/display/9781...

So, I am trawling through the literature (thank you, BHL!) from the late 17th century to the mid 20th century on the development of the discipline and name of "systematics". This will become one or more papers. If anyone has suggestions other than what's found in Mayr, Cain, or Stevens, let me know.

The main study cited by race scientists in favor of “high IQ heritability” is the 1990 “Minnesota Study of Twins Reared Apart” Science Magazine IQ article. In that study, the researchers hid their control group data to avoid a within-group 0% IQ heritability conclusion. Classic p-hacking maneuver.

Check out the first instalment as part of my wider investigation exposing the influence of MAGA race science into the heart of British politics. This hypernormalisation of anti-Black racism is happening under our nose.

This is factual, right?

This week, we’re joined by Professor Miriam Solomon to discuss stigma and its impact on psychiatry — how it has shaped diagnoses, DSM revisions, and ideas of what counts as disorder linktr.ee/thehpspodcast #hps #philsci #psych

Gerd Gigerenzer delivering his keynote lecture at #CBEN, Antwerp on Ecological Rationality and Evolutionary Psychology. "Modelling a world of uncertainty by simple risk problems is a waste of time" #evosky #heuristics #philcogsci 🧪

Yesterday was the 130th anniversary of the #ICZN, the International Commission for Zoological Nomenclature. It was founded during the zoology congress in Leiden, organized by the then director the Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie, Frederik Jentink.

A well-done essay on an unjustly ignored woman philosopher, Susan Stebbing. The debate reminds me of arguments about evolution tracking truth or utility (fitness).

this is not hyperbole. if you're cis you may not see it. when you are in a position of authority and disapprove of trans kids transitioning, what you are doing is increasing their likelihood of suicide. it sounds stark. it is. that is reality.

A wonderful scholar and a good man. Vale Jon

Jakob von Uexküll was born OTD in 1864. Each animal inhabits its own individual "umwelt," comprising only those aspects of the world that are relevant to its survival and flourishing. 🌱🐋🦫🦋 #HistSTM #evolbio #philsci #psychsky 🧪

The new @ishpssb.bsky.social account is live! ISH (as we affectionately call it) is my intellectual home & the most welcoming international society i ever encountered - Follow for news & dialogue on the history, philosophy and social studies of biology #philsci #histsci 🧪 🧬 🐙 🌳 🌱 🦠 🐘 🐟 🌺

#HPS #HPBio #EvoBio

#hpbio #philsci #histstm #histsci #philbio #hbio #sts

ICE Opens New Supermax Detention Center For Most Hardened Toddlers

Keep an eye out for this: www.cambridge.org/core/element...

That was a very cathartic read.

Historian of science Janet Browne, author of the definitive biography of Charles Darwin (Voyaging, 1995; The Power of Place, 2002) will publish an abridged and updated one-volume version next year with @princetonupress.bsky.social: bit.ly/4mS7R0Q #HPS #histsci

A historian of science and New York Times reporter tries his hand at the 17th century Church and heliocentricity controversy and fails dismally. #histsci thonyc.wordpress.com/2025/09/03/a...

Hey, paleo people, is there a reason that Gigantopithecus is typically reconstructed with orangutan-like cheek pads (other than phylogenetic bracketting)?

Disabled people have been warning about this EXACT SCENARIO since 2016 and raising the alarm that if Trump installs a fascist government *this is what would happen* We very literally predicted all of this. None of it is a surprise. People just don’t listen to the disabled so you are caught off guard

Eugenics and the elimination of “weakness” is very literally at the core of every fascist regime that has ever existed. The Nazis were famous anti-science and the very first people they imprisoned were the disabled and chronically ill. This is absolutely classic fascism.

Apropos of nothing, here are some books on Eugenics worth reading: Adams, Mark B. The Wellborn Science: Eugenics in Germany, France, Brazil, and Russia. Monographs on the History and Philosophy of Biology. Oxford University Press, 1990. 1/3

bad news for countries still hitching their carts to expanding fossil fuel production

This issue's Editors' Choice paper: Inference to the Best Contradiction? – Sam Baron Abstract in alt text or read it for free here: www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/... #philsci #philsky

🎙️ New HPS Pod! I chat with Prof. Lydia Patton about HOPOS — the history of philosophy of science. From her editorship of the journal to the future of the discipline, Patton shares why a historical lens reshapes core philosophical questions. 🎧 Link in bio! #HOPOS

they think they can just erase trans joy and trans freedom. they can't. they can make things a lot harder and more painful. but that joy and that freedom is not theirs to take and it is incumbent on all good people to say so.

welcome to the era of Aryan public health. I imagine it will go about as well as Aryan physics, only with a vastly higher death toll

"Criticizing metaphysics is a tricky business, as one is in constant danger of reifying the ideas one employs in the critique, thereby in turn lapsing into a kind of metaphysics." Matthias Egg doi.org/10.1515/9783...

I can’t even imagine. 🗃️

“For decades, energy-starved countries largely had one default option when they wanted to add new power supply: import coal and gas. Now, for the first time, solar energy is emerging as the cheaper and greener way forward.” African countries are importing record numbers of Chinese solar panels.

Japan Post just announced they will no longer deliver mail to the United States, joining Germany, Austria, Denmark, Italy, France, and Sweden.

It’s okay. You don’t need to read the literature if you have such an encyclopedic understanding.

The entire lab smelled like rotten eggs. Everyone was sulfering. 🧪

Has anyone notified Netenyahu that the Australian PM is not a citizen of Israel?

there are people who claim that Terry Pratchett would have been a TERF if he was still alive to them I say two things: 1. are you fucking serious 2. go fuck yourselves

"Australia has the second-lowest public expenditure on tertiary education institutions in the OECD…This has resulted in an endless chase for dollars (international students & “the next big thing”) rather than thinking about what an educated Australia should look like” www.smh.com.au/national/nsw...

Not a doctor

1. The philosophy of science sometimes gets an unearned reputation as a purely academic exercise that offers little by way of concrete tools for advancing research. This is wrong. And today, as we grapple with how AI is changing the nature of scientific activity, it's desperately wrong.