In a paper just published in Religious Studies, Owen Hulatt and Lucas Oro Hershtein argue that apparent contradictions in the Talmud should be understood instead as mere (but genuine) conflict (rather than contradiction). Read the full article here: doi.org/10.1017/S003...

Sandrine Berges will be giving the prestigious Antognazza Lecture, at the BSHP on Nov. 11th. Tickets currently sold out, but you can get still a spot on the waiting list! It will be held at the Newcastle Literary and Philosophical Library. More here: bshp.org.uk/events/bshp-...

Only a few days left to submit an abstract for our workshop on Acquaintance with the Ineffable! Email [email protected] to submit an abstract by midnight on Saturday 1st November. (Registration details to follow.) More details here! philevents.org/event/show/1...

In a few hours, the conference "Imagination & Creativity in Scientific Practices" will begin, hosted by the University of Parma. Mike Stuart will be speaking there, arguing against the coherence (and usefulness) of the concept of fictional truth for epistemology of imagination.

This Friday in Luxembourg, Mike Stuart will be giving a talk entitled "Imagination as an icon in the anti-truth revolution."

Jacob O'Sullivan and Sam Dickson have just been published in Metaphysica! Their paper is titled "The Broad Escape from Narrow Fictionalism." Here is a link to the official version: www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi... And here's another to the preprint: philpapers.org/rec/DICTBE

Some weekend reading for anyone curious about the case for wealth taxes, and other policies to reduce wealth inequality. From Howard Reed and me for the @fairness.bsky.social: "Win-Win-Win: Taxing Wealth for Fairness, Revenue and Growth" fairnessfoundation.com/win-win-win

In a new paper, Keith Allen and colleagues show that people vacillate between at least two views of seeing: a) we see things themselves, and b) we see things indirectly via mental images and inference. Both are "common sense." Read the whole paper here! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

On Oct. 8 James Clarke was at Durham University's Centre for Political Thought, giving a paper entitled "J. B. Erhard’s Revolutionary Natural Law Theory."

Students, check out the new-and-improved careers website for York students! It's full of great resources: www.york.ac.uk/study/careers/

Joe Lee-Doktor spoke at the recent anti-racism protest in York's city centre, making it clear that our department is against the recent racist attacks that have taken place across York, including on campus. Aerial shot courtesy of Jacob O’Sullivan.

Calling all recent philosophy grads! If you graduated between May and July 2024, make your voice heard by filling out the national Graduate Outcomes survey! www.linkedin.com/posts/gradua...

How should we address the impact of AI on education? Tom Stoneham recently took part in a discussion on the topic, hosted by Times Higher Education and Google for Education. Watch the video here: www.youtube.com/live/Ic2JWSn...

In a new paper, Matthew Ratcliffe explores the phenomenology of being haunted by loss. Matthew identifies characterizes this feeling as involving the ongoing experience of possibilities being "foreclosed." Read the paper here: t.ly/0Xug-

Some updates from our recent grad, Daniel Kim!

Have the constant and avoidable losses of environmental habitats got you down? You're not alone. A new publication by Pablo Fernandez Velasco and Louise Richardson argues that this feeling is *essentially* a shared emotion, because of the shared places that make up our identities.

Dave Ingram's article 'Presentism and Eternalism' features in The Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Time, edited by Nina Emery, to be published later this month. This year, Dave will be teaching The Nature of Time for undergraduates and Time, Tense, & Existence for MA students.

The Chevening Scholarships deadline is Tuesday 7th October! (t.ly/a90DI) These enable outstanding people from all over the world to pursue a Masters degree in the UK. Our Department offers a range of courses, see them here: t.ly/0dcHv.

Sarah Wood has been named as one of the two UK winners of the Alpine Fellowship Philosophy Prize! Congrats Sarah!

In a new paper, Louise Richardson argues that regret is a feeling of discomfort when real life seems worse than how things might (have) be(en). The account makes sense of different kinds of regret, helps us manage regret, and has interesting broader consequences. Read it here: t.ly/8_1s0

Rob Trueman's new article 'Manyism as mereologicism' (written with Simon Thunder) is now published in Synthese! In it, the authors point out a very interesting connection between mereology and logic concerning ontological innocence. Read the paper here: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Sarah Wood will be at the Phenomenology and Philosophy of Mind summer school in Copenhagen from the 25th to the 29th August, speaking on "Dementia as an Unhomelike way of being-in-the-world". Programme here: cfs.ku.dk/summer-schoo.... More details in the comments!

Congrats to Alan Thomas (and co-authors) for making it onto the Nayef Al-Rodhan Book Prize 2025 longlist, with their book Extravagance and Misery: The Emotional Regime of Market Societies! royalinstitutephilosophy.org/news/longlis...

Sam Dickson is doing a national three peaks challenge on August 9th to raise money for Action for Pulmonary Fibrosis, in memory of his father-in-law, who passed away from the condition last July. To hear more or donate, click here: www.justgiving.com/page/sam-dic...

Lucas Pratesi recently attended the UN’s @aiforgood.bsky.social Global Summit in Geneva. Here's Lucas's report on the conference:

Earlier this month, Dave Ingram was at the University of Salzburg presenting his paper 'Prolegomenon to a Dynamic Metaphysics of Time' at the workshop Beyond the Present: Perspectives on the Philosophy of Time.

In what ways can we evaluate an artwork? These days we hear a lot about vibes. Pablo Fernandez Velasco, in a post for Psyche, focuses on the more precise notion of an "atmosphere." Via Monet, Pablo develops a helpful view on the nature of atmospheres and how they work. psyche.co/ideas/monet-...

The philosophy department is currently hosting students from Beijing Normal University for a philosophy summer school. Here are some photos of last week's philosophical and cultural tour of Edinburgh, including visits to Hume's mausoleum and Adam Smith's grave!

University Clearing can be a stressful time, but we at York have a great team whose aim is to make the process as smooth as possible, and attract all the best people we can! Here they are, being discussed in the Guardian: www.theguardian.com/clearing-at-...

Keith Allen will be presenting at the 5th European Experimental Philosophy conference this week: x-phi.uea.ac.uk/EuroX-Phi202.... This conference will also include a work-in-progress session organised by the UK X-Phi Triangle (UEA-York-Reading).

We have an Instagram account! Give us a follow if you use that platform! www.instagram.com/uofyphilosop...

When and how does AI help scientists gain understanding of the world? In a new paper, Mike Stuart develops an account of "pragmatic understanding" and argues that while AI can increase this kind of understanding in humans, it's unlikely to ever possess it itself. Read the full paper here: t.ly/EymHc

NEW - What Is the Point of Harm Reduction? A Relational Egalitarian Perspective - cup.org/44M6gD1 "I argue that the provision of harm reduction services is not solely or primarily a matter of mitigating the negative consequences associated with high-risk behaviours" - Giacomo Floris #FirstView

Postgrad researcher Thomas Dowling writes on his substack blog on "Institutionalised Arrogance among Hegel Scholars": therestrictedsection.substack.com/p/the-woke-q...

Is cultural appropriation about ownership of cultural styles? Hannah Carnegy-Arbuthnott argues it is, based on the idea that ownership claims support our ability to present ourselves to others on our own terms. Read the paper here! doi.org/10.16995/pp....

Wonderful short video on the history of our campus. Modernist, abstract aesthetics, with many clever tricks. As Nikolaus Pevsner said, it's "the best of the 1960s universities, visually and aesthetically." www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9IL...

Our latest undergraduate Open Day was a great success! Thanks to our ambassadors, the prospective students who attended, and David Worsely for organizing! Here's a picture of our stand, and a second of the festivities taken from across the lake taken by our Head of Department Keith Allen!

Logic is one of philosophy's most powerful tools. Want that power for yourself? Take our MOOC, "Logic: the language of truth," opening on June 23! Free for those with a York email address, available for a fee for everyone else. More here: www.york.ac.uk/study/moocs/...

On Thursday, Mike Stuart will be speaking at the HKUST as part of a conference called "Explanation, Narrative, and Understanding in the Social Sciences." His talk is called "How to Mix Methods and Make Sense: Understanding as an Epistemological Framework for Social Scientists."

What's it like to do a postgraduate degree with us at York Philosophy? One of our current international MA students, Virginia, was kind enough to share her experiences! youtu.be/3ayXUnlgx4s

We're offering Teaching Scholarships to postgraduate Philosophy students! These include teacher training, you're paid 11 000 GBP, and you get super valuable teaching experience, which is relevant for many kinds of career! Learn more here: www.york.ac.uk/philosophy/s...

York has ranked 8th in the UK for Philosophy in the latest release of the Complete University Guide league tables (2026)! See the full results here: www.thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk/league-table...

Six new scholarships are being made available to fund students beginning their doctoral research in our Faculty of Arts and Humanities! Find out more here: www.york.ac.uk/study/postgr...

Today, Mike Stuart is presenting at the Asia Pacific Philosophy of Science biannual conference in Taipei. His paper is titled "Scientific Progress is Increasing Ability: AI and Space Science." appsa2025taiwan.mystrikingly.com

For September 2025 entry, the Department of Philosophy is offering the David Efird Masters Scholarship, which is in the form of a £5,000 reduction in fees. Open to MA students working in philosophy of religion. More here: www.york.ac.uk/philosophy/s...

‘You bunk off marking/essay-writing/work and enjoy the sun for a few hours. You suddenly 'feel free'. What does this amount to, and does it connect in any way with what the free will literature means by ‘free'? Daniel Morgan discusses in the current edition of Ethics. t.ly/xxslu

Ethicists on tour 😎 @uoyphilosophy.bsky.social

So excited to finally have something on pragmatic understanding published, especially in Phil Studies, especially on AI! Read the preprint here! philsci-archive.pitt.edu/25492/

James Clarke is giving a paper on 29th May at the KanDem (Kantian Foundations of Democracy) workshop in Oslo. Information on the workshop is here: www.hf.uio.no/ifikk/englis... The title of James's paper is "Fichte on Ideology, Revolution, and Philosophy".

And another one! Tom Stoneham has also been nominated by the students of York for an Excellence Award as PhD Supervisor of the Year!