Dear Santa, I know it's too late, but I've actually been a good boy this year and so if you have it your heart to send me a belated "good boy, you work hard to further the love of learning" christmas present, I'd sure really super awful dog dare love for you send me a set of Haywood Golf irons...

I was ill this past week and so I only just now got my grading finished and grades uploaded. just before the final deadline. Really frustrated it ended up being so stressful and I couldn't enjoy christmas eve with my kids. They got to enjoy grumpy dad on xmas eve. booo

The present in physics or in my experience? In physics, now isn’t interpersonally defined. In my experience, now isn’t infinitely small, nor is it discrete. But in neither is it past present and future all at once. I need an IAI click bait trigger warning label.

Note to self: When you teach the problem of induction at a commuter campus, the example that your justification that your car is where you think you left it is that it always has been in the past is a powerful one. 💪 Keep using!

We’re not in a simulation because if we were, the question of the truth of the simulation hypothesis would lead to an endless spinning beachball.

I still have one more stack of exams to grade. Ahhhhh

Folks often diss on philosophy because we don't answer their questions. I get it. It's frustrating. But at the same time, what do you want and why?

Ended the semester of my #philsci course reading Goodman, Kuhn and Ruth Hubbard. A student gave me the most wonderful gift.

Why only 2? Get more bang for your buck: how the big bang of big bangs banged bigly (infinity of bangers)

I'm not having a shitAI day grading papers. Nope. I'm not at all rethinking *gestures wildly*

I just got around to reviewing the author agreement for the forthcoming "Comprehensive Philosophy of Science" textbook series. Holy cow! Comprehensive is right!!!! What an undertaking from the editors! @miguelohn.bsky.social

S The bsky is the worst ever in terms of autocorrect makes it sound like 👍 you have look like I’d like it idiotic and a bit like 👍 chubby too. How did the do it?

This app is absolutely unusable. Cmon bsky. Make something I can actually compose a message in. When the cursor flashes two lines below where it’s actually editing, how can I not make a fool of myself?

As they handed in their final, I told them “this is the end, of your penitence, this is the end of your sadness and pain” ❤️

It’s weird teaching Logic.

This but it’s every humanities department being closed.

If I had a philosophical time machine, one thing I'd do is go back and try to convince JL Austin to do a number on "Might should" I'd then visit Anscombe and try to convince her to write about "If only" I'd then come back to the present to visit LA Paul to learn about her work...

A student just sent me this… Might have to design a course on the logic of counterfactuals just to get more mileage from this!

To the grannies of the world… It’s final exam season. I’m sorry for your impending doom. The disproportionate loss of grandmas every December is heartbreaking.

I really love spicy food. Today I splurged for lunch and ran around the block to Dave's Hot Chicken. I went for it, order the Reaper spice level. I always get the extra hot. How much hotter could it be? Well... let me tell you. It can be soooo much hotter. Holy shit!

Historical figures can of course just have been both completely wrong and thoroughly confused. But I love it when students craft an example that makes the historical figure not stupid and wrong, but, rather, wrong but asking the right question. [Thinking about Descartes' Physics today!] #philsci

I've used email since the Telnet days. My inbox is a dumpster fire, but that's not because I'm incapable of opening emails, replying, forwarding and so on. It's truly a work of art that Microsoft has made me now incompetent. Somehow I now reply to myself multiple times per day. How'd you do it?

Imposter syndrome is when you’re coaching your seminar students through the reluctance to send you drafts you can give them feedback on as if your own mentors aren’t trying to do the same thing with you.

That feel when you get the 90% needed on the 5 hour HR/IT training challenge exam and so get to skip the mind-numb

It’s late in the term, maybe I should be concerned, let’s check the calendar. December. No, srsly, what month is it. December. No, there’s no way. December. But… It’s fucking December, y’all. WTF? Where did the semester go? Exam services already wants the final exam? What year is this? Who am I?

I wish golf club manufacturers would send me some love the way Oxford Press does, haha hint hint. #LABgolf, send me a review copy, I’ll write you a proper academic review of your OZ putter with 34” length, 70degree lie angle, 2 degree press handle haha

I have a confession to make. I changed my mind last second this morning and completely winged it for an hour and a half talking about Feyerabend. And… sadly, my students and I seemed to enjoy it very much. oh no, what do I do? #wondersnevercease #philsci

On the philosophical hinge: or, the metaphor that ChatGPT can’t avoid for philosophy student essay prompts.

I want to write a book wherein I do about an event split between science writing and philosophy of science writing about the origin of the solar system. now that I’ve lost my mind, who do I talk to? how do I find a home for such a thing?

I’ve got a bunch of letters of recommendation coming due for people i really want to succeed. But nobody has ever mentioned, let alone taught me, how to write a good one. Ahhhh

IMPORTANT REMINDER: Be sure to check your spare tire from time to time. I just had a flat and my spare was flat, too. Fortunately tire had gone flat overnight so I was changing it in my driveway and could inflate the donut spare in my garage. Whew!

My wife took me out for a surprise tonight, took me to a Banksy exhibition downtown. Oh man, so good. Banksy’s work is so much more expansive than I knew.

I’m swamped and struggling to keep up. I’ve made so many mistakes this semester. But I feel so blessed as I fumble my way through my classes. I actually like who I am at work. This was my dream.

Did this year’s war on Christmas Fox News coverage start yet? I’m really looking forward to it.

Students: We want a follow up course after symbolic logic. Me: Narrow it down, what do you really want? S’s: We want to know about the relation between logic and language. Me: Say more, narrow it down for me S’s: [not realizing they’re asking for all of 20th century analytic philosophy]

Oh no, I read an old Reddit thread on [literally anything, but in this case it was on Gödel’s incompleteness theorem] and now I feel like corrections need to be made! Haha

Truth is propositional, it therefore doesn’t exist independent of the mind. Runs away.

Happy end of “mop the condensation from your windows every morning season“ and a joyous beginning of “scrape the ice off your windows every morning season morning season” to all who celebrate

My second cold season in Edmonton and it’s starting the same for me. Nov and Dec are the coldest. Although it’ll be -30s in Feb, walking to campus this morning in -10 was brutal. I don’t have my blood converted to propylene glycol yet. Holy fright. Jaw sore from teeth chattering. 🥶

I never appreciated Kuhn until I actually taught Phlogiston theory. It was a really good theory, confirmed by a wide range of experiments. It was internally consistent, too. If you want more than that the choice to adopt Lavoisier’s answer was a sociological choice, I feel you. I do too. But what?

The trouble with knowing a lot about Isaac Newton is that when you raise concerns about disciplinary boundaries, everyone looks back at you and says, Oh, nice, you’re going to do a bunch of things now, eh?!

Me: [looking on my timeline full of JFK assassination takes]

Does the conversation print articles from philosophers who say, “Galileo thought the Sun was at rest or moving in a straight line, therefore physicists are confused about motion?” No, they don’t. Yet they publish ad infinitum articles from scientists saying…

Might be the worst news story I’ve seen in a while. Put over? Why? How about some actual reporting CBC? Or should I say ChatCBC?

I’ve recently seen quite a lot of references to philosophers not understanding because they don’t understand that events are basic. If only we had realized events are “objective” or whatever. Newsflash: That’s because events are more philosophically troubling than you realize! … #philsci

How long can a kitty stay out when it’s cold like this? I’d like to think he’d come yell at the door if he was freezing, but I really doubt he’s even got half a brain.

My cat got out on me and it’s -5C. He won’t ever come to me, and everyone else gone. Idiot cat. advice? Let him freeze a while then try again?

The inertia of bedtime should circle around but it doesn't. Take that Newton.

If my wife still smiles when I'm 90, fuck, I'm Lord of the universe.

forgot the #philsky