“Looks freezing. Time for a swim in the North Channel.” — @1gracetaggart.bsky.social

What can I know? What ought I to do? What may I hope? #philsky #booksky @axdouglas.bsky.social

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Publication day! It’s been a long journey to get to this point, and I’m grateful to everyone who’s supported that, and to @routledgebooks.bsky.social for publishing it.

An incredibly moody, atmospheric piano piece from Robert Haigh (formerly best known as Omni Trio)

Good Evening, Bluesky.

I have news. Wonderful news. New paper on #disinformation. The title is the thesis. Think of disinformation as content that functions to optimise the decisions of the audience for the disinformant. This doesn't require deception or content that induces false belief. philpapers.org/rec/LITDIF

I'm soon to embark on preparing a third edition of my Ethics and Public Policy book. If anyone has used it in teaching (or even read any of it) and has suggestions for changes I'd be very interested. And yes, I do know, that, sadly Obama isn't President of the USA any more.

Lots of great content in the latest newsletter from the Society for Philosophy of Science in Practice (SPSP is so good at fostering community). If you scroll all the way to the last feature I pour my heart out in the Proust Questionnaire. So good of Saana Jukola to give me the opportunity 🙏

Incoming Storm, Elgol, Isle of Skye #Scotland #Elgol #IsleofSkye damianshields.photoshelter.com/p/2026-calendar

Schopenhauer said that we should address each other not as "Mr" or "Mrs", but as "fellow sufferer, companion in misery" - thinking of trying this out.

Call for papers: Philosophy through Art, Games, and Fiction think.taylorandfranc... Guest editor: Lisa Bortolotti. Deadline: 31 July 2026. Submit your work! #philsky #philpsy

"The more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe about us, the less taste we shall have for destruction." -Rachel Carson

Handing back student work that’s been written by ChatGPT with a 0 followed by the comment “This essay will never stand in authentic wonder before the Beauty of God’s creation.”

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My student Arlene Lo has a paper on the philosophical underpinnings of Canada's attempts to integrate Indigenous groups into its environmental impact assessments. It's now out in (appropriately enough!) the Canadian journal of philosophy. It's good, check it out! www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

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The future is AI vs "Nay, I"

Winter Atlantic sky.

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Here's pages 3 and 4 of the forthcoming book:

Epistemology is in, baby. www.theguardian.com/news/2025/no...

It’s true, Schopenhauer played the flute - I’ve seen them!

"Humphreys’ 'Animals, Ethics, and Language: The Philosophy of Meaningful Communication in the Lives of Animals' ...completely transformed my perspective on human-animal relations." Check out the full review of Rebekah Humphreys' Palgrave book here: academic.oup.com/pq/article-a... #PhilSky

“Most of the things that we need to do for climate change we need to do anyway and we would generally be better off doing those things” @hannahdaly.ie 🎙️ Ep2 Climate change-off the record @cc-offtherecord.bsky.social out now @ucc.ie @uniofgalway.bsky.social @drclarenoone.bsky.social

Comforting myself through illness with “a vivid, unsettling exploration of misogyny, obsession and the transgressive pleasures of food in Japan.” 💙 📚

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Looking forward to this 💙 📚 @axdouglas.bsky.social

Is it really philosophy when they didn't call it philosophy?

Why does hardly anyone in academic philosophy care about reading? | By Martin Lenz (@goingloopy.bsky.social) While there are numerous guides on writing philosophy or on reconstructing arguments, there is next to nothing on reading handlingideas.blog/2025/11/01/w... #reading #PhilosophySky #philsky

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Gandhi’s Talisman. Unfortunately for too many world leaders their doubts are dissolving in a way Gandhi did not anticipate.

Teaching an octopus to play piano #animal #sentience #philsci #philsky #science youtu.be/PcWnQ7fYzwI?...

It would have been awful spending years in grad school mastering Hegel's Science of Logic to find out that they were only hiring in Philosophy of Reanimated Corpse.

Mainland mail.

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Don’t let the mindless commercialisation of Guy Fawkes Night obscure its deeper message about celebrating the torture and execution of a seventeenth century religious extremist.

Happy birthday Henri Bergson

"a bit too much fuss" - perfect, from Elizabeth Barnes's paper in the special issue of PQ in memory of Katherine

Looking forward to this 💙 📚 @axdouglas.bsky.social

New paper! 🥳 "Trust in Mathematics", coauthored with Silvia De Toffoli is out now in Philosophia Mathematica. A thread on what it is about. Please share with anyone who may be interested! academic.oup.com/philmat/adva...

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It’s always Halloween in my soul 🖤

Landscape in oils, possibly finished. #oilpainting #landscape #mountains #workinprogress #irishart

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Surrounded by depravity.

At London’s Savoy Hotel, Monet painted dozens of canvases at once, sprinting between them as fog and light shifted over the Thames. A witness said: “He ran from one canvas to another, in a frenzy, trying to capture the fugitive effects of light before they vanished.”

To philosophize in sound is to embrace withdrawal, to think not about the unsayable but from within it. #PhilSky open.substack.com/pub/erwinott...

The recording of my talk about the philosopher Mary Midgley and economics is already online. Thanks to the whole @inparenthesis.bsky.social team & to @philosophellie.bsky.social, @drelizabethmac1.bsky.social, @amytaggart.bsky.social, @iangr.bsky.social for joining! www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYNC...

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