One nice thing about returning home from a conference trip is all the help I get while unpacking my suitcase

New Publication! Maria Waggoner's paper 'Moral illusions' is forthcoming in @journalphp.bsky.social 🥳 Maria argues that we should rethink our conception of the ideal virtuous person and suggests alternative moral resources which a virtuous person could use to navigate cases of moral illusions. 📄👇

lmao no I would never get hoisted like that, I mean it's my own freaking petard

Call for papers: #PhiMiSci is inviting submissions for a Special Issue on Social Perception, understood as the perception of socially relevant properties in others. It is edited by Géraldine Carranante and Joulia Smortchkova. Estimated publication date: 2nd quarter of 2027 Deadline: July 1st, 2026.

I've been wanting to have this kind of conversation about immigration for a long time...one that leans into the tension rather than avoids it. My interview with Conservative immigration critic Michelle Rempel Garner: www.canadaland.com?post_type=ep...

Ahem: Ezra Klein has a weird beard.

It's pub day for Somebody Should Do Something! @madva.bsky.social, @dryan149.bsky.social, and I started working on it almost 5 years ago. A bajillion people helped us along the way. Thank you everyone. Never a better time than now to go fight for change together. @mitpress.bsky.social #booksky

In "Somebody Should Do Something," @michaelbrownstein.bsky.social, Alex @madva.bsky.social, & Daniel Kelly (@dryan149.bsky.social) combine compelling stories with science to show how personal choices, when linked with collective action, can drive structural change: mitpress.mit.edu/978026204978...

Looking for something to watch on HBO and I'm halfway through the pilot of _Boardwalk Empire_. I don't think I'll stick with it, but there's a billboard on the boardwalk advertising tootsie rolls with nuts. That seems much better than the tootsie rolls we ended up with

New Publication! @evanwestra.bsky.social's paper 'Belief in Social Cognition' is forthcoming in The Oxford Handbook of the Cognitive Science of Belief 🥳 Evan argues that belief plays a modest role, rather than a central role, in everyday social cognition. Abstract here: philpapers.org/rec/WESBIS

Texas A&M president fires an instructor after a politician complains about what is being taught in her course, then says "this isn't about academic freedom."

Work with Us at Brains! Call for Associate Editor Self-Nominations Hi All, Brains relies on contributions from scholars working in Philosophy of Mind and Cognitive Science. It is a volunteer-run organization, but also one of the major public venues for work in the field. If you would like to…

Time to write a paper defending an iteration principle about scolding: If one is scoldable for doing x, then one is also scoldable for scolding someone for doing x. “The SS Principle” doesn’t seem like a great name so I propose calling it “the tsk-tsk principle.”

Check out Purdue PhD student @gibbonitathought.bsky.social showing all these hipster mental fictionalists what's what

i am now pro-Jeff Nippard, he can buy as many lateral raise machines as he wants

👀

Radical-right parties are often linked to the “left-behind”. But supporting them when stigma is strong is costly. So who is willing to pay that cost early on, before it’s normalized? In my new WP, I argue that breaking political norms is socially stratified. 🧵👇

The rise of radical-right parties doesn’t begin with the “left behind.” It begins with those most insulated from stigma. In Spain, the better-off broke the taboo first, making it easier for others to follow. 📄 Full paper here: osf.io/preprints/so... Feedback is more than welcome! 🙏

A nice post in praise of the @socphilpsych.bsky.social and the virtue of interdisplinary-mindedness.

I am advertising two PhD positions in philosophy -- one for a domestic student, one for an international student. Both positions are 1 + 3 years, meaning that the first year is an MRes and the next three years are for the PhD. www.mq.edu.au/research/phd...

New publication from @sarahrobins.bsky.social on memory traces! Her paper is featured in the newly published book 'Space, Time, & Memory' which includes contributions from a diverse and interdisciplinary range of authors across Psychology, Neuroscience, and Philosophy 🥳 Link below!

how it feels to contribute to an edited volume

you can also, as a listener, train yourself to see past superficial stuff like this, and you owe it both to speakers and to yourself to do so

Pleased to learn that my department will be changing the name of the "Dissertation Defense" to the "Dissertation War"

✏️ 2 publications out in the current issue of Mind & Language 📄 Both engage the concept of 'medium independence.' @okaydaniellle.bsky.social argues that different concepts are being thrown around & @coreymaley.net argues we should get right of MI altogether: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/14680017...

Whenever someone cites one of my papers:

Join us September 12 for the 4th annual Normactivity Online Workshop, with four talks on 🐘 animal normativity 🐒, and dedicated to the memory of Frans de Waal, who launched the field. Speakers: Sarah Brosnan @lgruen.bsky.social Pier Francesco Ferrari, Phillip Kitcher. Register 👉 tinyurl.com/5akaw2j6

@sarahrobins.bsky.social will be heading to The University of Mississippi for a philosophy forum titled 'Philosophy Meets the Life Sciences' on September 5th! She'll be presenting some of her recent work on memory during her talk titled "Memory Traces & Engrams, Minds & Brains" 🧠

A genuinely wonderful guest post by @birchlse.bsky.social on the tension between liberalism and animal rights, and what sort of social order might be called for if one were to take the suffering of animals with all due moral significance it deserves. sootyempiric.blogspot.com/2025/09/on-t...

Weird, I thought this was already all of my conference talks.

Academic conferences should do "Authors-Meet-Haters" sessions

There's still time to apply for a British Academy postdoc at St Andrews! Our internal deadline is 12 September. Details here www.st-andrews.ac.uk/philosophy/r...

Why do all male-branded personal care products sound like they're named after gay porn stars?

The 'availability heuristic' (Tversky & Kahneman, 1973) is an influential paper, but there is no evidence that ease-of-retrieval is used to judge frequencies. Not a hidden moderator, but a hidden failure to replicate. replicationindex.com/2021/05/31/w...

A written interview with the Sociology Group www.sociologygroup.com/interview-wi... @dryan149.bsky.social @madva.bsky.social @mitpress.bsky.social #booksky

August 31st/September 1st on leave

Mark Moffett from the Smithsonian will be stopping by the Mind & Cognition Research group during his visit to Purdue on September 5th. We're looking forward to welcoming him to the philosophy department!

I don't want to brag but ChatGPT said my query was "a really good question."

Why do societies reliably develop strikingly similar traditions like dance songs, hero stories, shamanism & justice institutions? In a new BBS target article, I propose a theory for such "super-attractors" + cultural evolution more broadly. Now open for commentary: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

When someone on Bluesky posts an ad for a TT job in 2025: youtube.com/watch?v=YBzW...

A happy Friday morning surprise! Somebody Should Do Something is featured in “The best reads for back to school 2025” article on The MIT Press Blog mitpress.mit.edu/the-best-rea...

Book tour! Come by and help brainstorm how to fight together to protect democracy and make the world more just. @dryan149.bsky.social @mitpress.bsky.social #booksky

Philosopher's Annual... what's next: Philosophical Quarterly?

Philosophy AND Phenomenological Research? In this economy?

Ontological full ROM

Epistemic lengthened partials

Some persons have submarine sandwiches, and some persons do not. In philosophy, this is known are the personal/sub-personal distinction.

Looking for a postdoc? Apply for Cornell’s Klarman Fellowship with me! I’m interested in rules, rule-breakers, and curiosity, broadly construed. Link for more info here: as.cornell.edu/research/kla... (3 years, $80K/yr; Oct 15th deadline) Email me directly if you’re interested!