Tories regrouping under Reform banner to revive the nasty party

Demeaning. Makes her look like a grifter with a stunt that will do nothing for her presidential ambitions. He has no intention of helping her lead her country

The Brains Blog is hosting a symposium on my book Deflating Mental Representation this week. Comments by Mazviita Chirimuuta, Caitlin Mace & Adina Roskies, and Oron Shagrir. philosophyofbrains.com/2026/01/12/f...

Caught up with First Man, a film dramatising the emotional and family life of Neil Armstrong during his space missions career. Good to be reminded of what I admired about Americans. Decent, determined, ambitious and inspiring. Trump and Rubio thought it insufficiently patriotic. Well worth a watch

Coming soon: my new book *The Ethics of Artificial Intelligence: A Philosophical Introduction*. More info - including three very generous blurbs from @davidgunkel.bsky.social, @briandavidearp.bsky.social, & Crystal L'Hote, PhD - here: hackettpublishing.com/new-forthcom... #aiethics #philosophy

Caught up with First Man, film dramatising the emotional and family life of Neil Armstrong while he pursued his space missions. Good to be reminded of what I admired about Americans. Decent, determined, ambitious and inspiring. Trump and Rubio thought it wasn’t sufficiently patriotic. Worth a watch

In the end, as Hannah Arendt pointed out, the only thing that saves us from a particular atrocity is that some people can’t bring themselves to do it. That’s all we are relying on

The latest Social Science Bites, with psychologist @paulbloomatyale.bsky.social, It's on empathy and AI. Such a privilege to chat to all these leading social scientists.

Bingo!

Surely time for an @originstorypodcast.bsky.social podcast on the rules-based world order so regularly invoked and lately lamented. Would be good to understand the concept and the context @iandunt.bsky.social @dorianlynskey.bsky.social

Miller’s vision closest to a world described by Hobbes where a rule free State of Nature was a State of War. It was against this vision that Hobbes sought to provide a justification of sovereignty. Miller’s vision is nasty, brutish and short on humanity

Concerning

Champagne and… Happy New Year!!

Remarkable white Bordeaux served at le pot après la soutenance de Margot Larose at Institut de la Vigne et du VIN à Bordeaux. This Sauvignon Blanc from St Estephe turns out to have the most Burgundian character ever for a wine from this region. A surprise and a delight!

Examiners’ dinners in Bordeaux are always a pleasure. A perk of having a wine maker from Ch Montrose on the jurie de these for tomorrow’s PhD soutenance that he brought along a 2014 Ch Montrose which had such complexity and finesse, with its silken texture and refreshing palate weight. A fine thing

Good to be back in Bordeaux, on examining duties for Institut des Sciences de la Vigne et du Vin

Final talk of the day @ip-sas.bsky.social Early Career Network in Philosophy Conference, Physics and the Self, by Maria Iennaco, PhD candidate from São Paulo, on Attention to the Self and Predictive Processing. Congratulations to conference organisers, ECRs Charlie Green and Jon Emery

Final talk of the day @ip-sas.bsky.social Early Career Network in Philosophy Conference, Physics and the Self, by Maria Iennaco, PhD candidate from São Paulo, on Attention to the Self and Predictive Processing. Congratulations to conference organisers, ECRs Charlie Green and Jon Emery

Extraordinary courage from Ahmed al Ahmed, a Muslim, 43-year-old father of two, who bravely risked his life to save his neighbors celebrating Hanukkah. Praying for his full & speedy recovery. And so deeply inspired by his example.

Keynote speaker, Prof Karl Friston, at Early Career Network in Philosophy conference on Physics and the Self at the Institute of Philosophy. His talk on Self-organization and Sentience squarely on the topic. Markov blankets feature! Conference organised by ECRs Charlie Green and Jonathan Emery

@mcolvinmckenzie.bsky.social Hope you and yours are all okay? Terrible events at Bondi

Day 2, Early Career Network in Philosophy conference on Physics and the Self putting us through our paces @ip-sas.bsky.social . Conference funded by a Network Innovation Award and organised by Charlie Green and Jonathan Emery. Talks by Dr Nadia Blackshaw & Dr Viktoria Kabel

Is the tide turning? New post on my Brexit & Brexitism Blog. Renewed talk of a customs union may well come to nothing, but rapidly changing geo-politics mean the UK needs urgently to face up to the failure of the entire Brexit ‘strategy’: chrisgreybrexitblog.blogspot.com/2025/12/is-t...

I wrote about the Brits who affect to despise migration, and go and live in an autocracy where’s there no income tax. www.thenewworld.co.uk/ros-taylor-d...

Early Career Network in Philosophy conference, Physics and the Self: interdisciplinary perspectives. The conference is run by early career researchers, Charlie Green and Jonathan Emery, who received the the Early Career Network in Philosophy Innovation Award from @ip-sas.bsky.social

AI v HumanTuring Test by @opheliaderoy.bsky.social at Residenz Theater in Munich. Chat GPT & mixologists, Susan Ann McKenzie & Philipp Froehlich given ingredients to create cocktails and had to explain their reasoning. We tried them. AI cocktails lacked balance. They don’t taste as they go!

A huge number of people were deprived of citizenship by the Nazis. Political opponents first, then Jews. Maybe more than 200,000 people in total.

Heading to Munich to take part in the AI Cocktails Turing Test designed by @opheliaderoy.bsky.social where bartender and AI will be given ingredients to feature in a cocktail. Cocktails sampled by audience without knowing which is created by human and which by AI. Cool test!

Focused conference on ad hoc concepts, Word Meaning and Concepts Expressed, @ip-sas.bsky.social organized by Prof Michelle Liu on the work of Prof Robyn Carston with speakers, Francois Recanati, Tamara Dobbler, John Collins and Augustin Vicente

Terrific tutored sake tasting @ip-sas.bsky.social Lab Meeting led by @asami.tasaka whose considerable expertise taught us so much. Great flavor descriptors generated with the help of Liana Lee and her exceptional palate. Kudos to Tom who wore his Xmas jumper for the lunch that followed. Thank you!

How does carbon dating determine the age of organic material? 🏺 Nanochemist Suze Kundu explains that the technique measures how much of the radioactive isotope carbon-14 has decayed. 🧪 Watch the full talk on the periodic table: youtube.com/watch?v=bgwjnrIL08Y

An honour and pleasure to interview Florence de la Rivière on The Look of Wine at the @institut.francaisuk . Beautiful illustration of how a piece of amber provides exactly the colour of the wine of Chateau D’Yquem. At dinner we conspicuously examine the rim of the wine for clues

We had our thinking caps on today @ip-sas.bsky.social Lab Meeting for IP Fellow Prof David Pym’s logic talk on recent developments in Proof-theoretic Semantics

Speaks volumes!

What a sad man

ICYMI - @barrycsmith.bsky.social from the @ip-sas.bsky.social was on BBC Radio London talking about ‘Senses Unwrapped’, a new collaborative, immersive sensory experience from the Centre for the Study of the Senses (CenSes). Listen here, from around 2 hours 44 mins: www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Stellar line at the launch of the Lancet series on Ultra Processed Food and Public Health. Prof Chris Van Tulleken, Prof Carlos Monteiro who created the Nova Classification, Prof Camila Corvalan who had worked in Chile on regulation and Richard Horton, editor-in-chief of @thelancet.com

A huge thank you to everyone who organised and attended over 220 free events across the UK! We have loved seeing the variety of humanities research, activities and events with audiences from all over the country. There will be more Being Human festival 2025 highlights coming soon! #BeingHuman2025

👋 Hi Bluesky! The School of Advanced Study, University of London champions the arts and humanities. Working through our renowned specialist institutes and centres of excellence, we offer a rich interdisciplinary environment for researchers to collaborate. Let's connect: 🔗 sas.ac.uk/

'Face of the Moon.' (1797) John Russell was the finest British pastel artist of his time. One of his sitters, the astronomer William Herschel encouraged him to buy a telescope, and with this he produced a number of remarkable pastel drawings of the moon.

Enjoyed talking to Shay Grewal with Emma Symonds of Kings Cross on BBC Radio London about our Centre for the Study of the Senses @ip-sas.bsky.social series of sensory experiences, Senses Unwrapped, in the Club Curling lounge at Coal Drops Yard at London’s King’s Cross

Good to hear Peter Adamson, from LMU, creator of the History of Philosophy With No Gaps podcast, speaking at The Royal Institute of Philosophy on Avicenna and Descartes

Return trip to our Senses Unwrapped exhibits at Club Curling Lounge in Coal Drops Yard. Good to see people using their senses

Nearly two years ago, I wrote about the extraordinary influence of former Tory spin doctor Sir Robbie Gibb on the BBC. It's still a helpful backgrounder for what's going on now. New readers start here: www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/media/...

Enjoyed the opportunity of speaking @wonkhe.bsky.social Festival of Higher Education today with SAS colleague Graeme Wise about research and the goal or knowledge in the age of AI

Our @beinghumanfest.bsky.social chocolate tasting, Raising the Bar, ranging over the sensory, historical, ethical and environmental dimensions of chocolate production. A collaboration between Spencer Hyman of Cocoa Runners and @ip-sas.bsky.social Centre for the Study of the Senses

Awaken your senses at Coal Drops Yard with this mini exhibition as part of the Club Curling experience at Kings Cross. A huge thanks to our friends and partners @ip-sas.bsky.social for helping us create these multisensory experiences

Disturbing echoes of George Floyd and I guess that’s not by accident

Bingo!