This semester I am teaching a course about technocracy and its discontents. It will be a mix of theory (what is technocracy, why do we have it) and case studies. Ideas for reading suggestions? They need to be relatively accessible, and make a good basis for discussion.

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...

I can tell I’m becoming some sort of political philosopher because now when I get the chance to order free books to not read I choose things like this rather than books like “Can you know the bank is open on Saturday? It depends” and “10 new kinds of epistemic injustice”.

Reading about belief as a feeling of conviction. Seems like a problem for the theory that I presumably have beliefs but have no idea what conviction is meant to feel like. Starting to worry I might be a philosophical zombie.

I suspect the current/looming graduate jobs crisis is going to lead to an uptick in applications for Masters programmes. I must admit to being in a real moral quandary here, given that the vast majority of such programmes won't materially improve job prospects. But what else is there?

Reading The End of History for teaching next week. Has anyone ever considered that Fukayama might have been wrong?

My dept has to redesign our BA Philosophy (for reasons). I am struggling to think of a good reason why a typical philosophy graduate needs to know any 20th/21st century epistemology (if they did, it would be knowledge first epistemology, but that's difficult). Am I wrong?

Chris Ranalli and I have a new paper in the International Journal for the Study of Skepticism. We argue that philosophical scepticism need not lead to political conservatism. We also suggest that scepticism may support an anti-political stance that is worth cultivating. brill.com/view/journal...

Very happy to see this out. It's a critical piece with @martinkusch.bsky.social on one of my very favourite philosophers, Hilary Kornblith. Published in a new book, Kornblith and His Critics, edited by Josh DiPaolo and Luis Oliveira. doi.org/10.1002/9781...

We have nothing to worry about from AI's hyper-persuasiveness...as long as we're truly masters of our own beliefs, the claims of social epistemology are wrong, and we can fully understand how & why models are influencing us. In other words, it's an issue. Great new @rbnmckenna.bsky.social article.

constantly

Just got an email from a scam academic journal asking if I wanted to "explore new advances in White Psychodrama" and it's just got me like: buddy, I can watch the news myself.

Available open access: a new paper arguing that, even though persuasive AI technologies won't destroy the world, we should be worried about them. doi.org/10.1007/s001...

New paper w/Chris Ranalli explaining why I don't think there need be a close connection between skepticism and political conservatism. It's a critical discussion of a new book, Jonathan Ichikawa's Epistemic Courage, but we sketch our favored form of skepticism at the end. philpapers.org/rec/MCKSAC-4

New paper in AI & Society on why we should be worried about persuasive AI technologies even if you are, like me, sceptical that we are about to enter a world of AI "hyper-persuasion". philpapers.org/rec/MCKSOS-2

New paper in AI & Society on why we should be worried about persuasive AI technologies even if you are, like me, sceptical that we are about to enter a world of AI "hyper-persuasion". philpapers.org/rec/MCKSOS-2

it's a common mistake but actually Dr Frankenstein was the monster

Short Substack post where I explain why selective cynicism--something you see quite often on the social media feeds of heterodox academics--really annoys me. open.substack.com/pub/rbnmcken...

New Substack post where I talk some more about my current obsession: propaganda. This is a review of a book that I very strongly recommend, Cory Wimberly's How Propaganda Became Public Relations: Foucault and the Corporate Governance of the Public. open.substack.com/pub/rbnmcken...

The International Journal of Philosophical Studies were kind enough to do a special issue on my book (really a hybrid: articles on ideal and non-ideal epistemology plus some critical commentaries). Thanks to everyone who contributed for making it a fantastic collection. philpapers.org/rec/MCKIAN

Don't mind Robin, his book is great, and we (Nastja, Nora, and I) wouldn't have been able to make these criticisms without Robin's groundwork!

Good criticisms of my book on Non-Ideal Epistemology in this critical notice in Analysis. I've come to agree with a lot of the criticisms in here, so if someone wants to write a better book that does all these things please do. academic.oup.com/analysis/adv...

Haven't had a chance to read this double review-essay from @catsaintcroix.bsky.social on Greco and @rbnmckenna.bsky.social's books on idealisation in epistemology yet, but it looks really interesting

I'm teaching a class on Philosophy and Social Change in september. It will look at different theories of and responses to social change: conservative, liberal, radical. But I'm really struggling for readings that are (a) accessible (b) high quality. Any suggestions?

I don't UCU post much now but I'll do one about pay for a sec, as IMV we're headed towards a predictable fail state unless people get realistic, and quick. 1. the UCEA pay offer is comically bad 2. Going out in fall on "pay" is a terrible idea 3. Go out on saving jobs and saving the sector instead

I wrote about epistemic trespassing and why it is bad for my Substack. Tl;dr: it is tempting to talk about it as a moral failing but I think it is often more helpful to view trespassing behaviour as a rational response to bad incentives. rbnmckenna86.substack.com/p/what-is-wr...

A combination of things I have read for fun and read for work this year so far (ok some of the work ones were also fun). open.substack.com/pub/rbnmcken...

I often find it hard to explain at parties what I do; I really like Robin McKenna’s elaboration here of what epistemologists do. Moral epistemology seems to open a whole other bag of worms at parties, though.

My friend and colleague Remco Heesen once told me study of social epistemology of science made him "less trusting of any particular scientific paper but more impressed by science as a whole." I honestly think that's the right lesson to draw. But I think holding both attitudes doesn't come naturally.

This is so stupid I think I am at risk of a seizure thinking about it.

Me on what epistemology is, what I do, and why I'm not very much fun at parties. [Note: I did not choose the picture or headline] open.substack.com/pub/therepub...

Here is the advert for a postdoc at Liverpool for a project I'm involved in. Please share it with anyone who you think might be interested in applying. A brief project description is below. tinyurl.com/4f7vw7ra

Today Stirling launches a voluntary severance scheme (of which the branch was only notified hours before its announcement on Monday) designed to recoup an eye watering £8.1 million pounds next year. We know colleagues are scared; if you haven't already joined the union, this is a good time to do so

New paper arguing that sometimes rational persuasion is a bad thing. It's available open access here: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Job at Liverpool to cover Laura Gow and my teaching during our AHRC grant. It is for 3 years and 0.65 FTE. Please do get in touch if you have any questions about it. Deadline is 27th June. www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DNK247/l...

Can confirm about Liverpool: it's an excellent place to live.

New paper alert! “Beyond Dichotomies: Empathy and Listening in Deliberative Democracy”, coauthored with Katharina Sodoma is now out in Political Communication as part of a special issue edited by @mollyscudder.bsky.social and Michael Neblo #philsky #poltheory www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

I'm involved in this exciting new project. There will be 2 postdocs, one in Liverpool and one in Luxembourg. The Liverpool ad will be posted soonish. The Luxembourg one is here: recruitment.uni.lu/en/details.h...

Yes: ChatGPT can write the outputs and then evaluate them, saving us all the work.

one of the best periods in academic life is the time between getting an R+R and having to actually do the revisions.

I forgot how spicy it was tbh

From Café Central to the University of Vienna, philosopher @martinkusch.bsky.social takes us for a walk through Vienna's intellectual scenes. Examining how past #philosophers like Wittgenstein worked through issues of their time, Kusch finds the tools to tackle troubles of our own. ⤵️ #philsky 🗃🧠

In May 21st at 5:30pm (Vienna time), I will give my "Farewell Lecture" on the topic "The Road Ahead". If you are in Vienna, please do come (alcoholic beverage are free of charge!). The talk will be streamed here: vimeo.com/event/5014783 (Just in case you haven't got anything better to do.)

Such an interesting post 👇 recommend

This is the first of two adverts for postdocs on a project I'm involved in with Laura Gow and Thomas Raleigh. This one will be based in Luxembourg; the other will be based in Liverpool and will be advertised soon. Please share with anyone who might be interested. recruitment.uni.lu/en/details.h...

In his new book Jonathan Ichikawa argues that scepticism is allied with political conservatism. As someone who is inclined to a form of scepticism but is not a conservative I want to resist this argument. This post is my attempt to resist it. rbnmckenna86.substack.com/p/scepticism...

It's a mixed bag to put it mildly. I really enjoyed @rbnmckenna.bsky.social's review if you haven't read it: rbnmckenna86.substack.com/p/weaponizat...

New paper on The Ethics and Epistemology of Persuasion in the Canadian Journal of Philosophy! I've been working on this one for a few years now and glad to finally see it out. philpapers.org/rec/MCKTEA-3

“A family earning £100k a year will now find themselves on minimum wage after taking part in just two drug binges a week.”