Alfred Archer

The attention market—and what is wrong with it - Philosophical Studies Attention is described as a “scarce commodity” that is traded in “a marketplace.” This, it is further claimed, contributes to a “widespread sense of attentional crisis.” But is there really an attenti...

What is this ‘attention economy’? Is there really a market where people buy and sell human attention? If so, what’s wrong with that? New paper by Katharine Browne and me that argues: yes, there is an attention market and yes, there is something wrong with it. 🧵
link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Just wrapped up two incredible days at KU Leuven for the Toward a Political Philosophy of Sport workshop. Grateful to the university and the Hoover Ethical Initiative for supporting such meaningful collaboration between scholars from around the world. #PhilSky

Thanks so much for organising Javi!

My new book, An Injury to All: The Unmaking of the British Working Class, will be published by Verso next year.

It's now listed, which makes it feel that bit more official!

#NewArticle #OpenAccess
Consigning Injustice to History with Political Apologies

Alfred Archer, Benjamin Matheson
#philosophy #philsky
Read it here 👇
doi.org/10.1111/japp...

New paper in @the-joap.bsky.social together with @benjaminmatheson.bsky.social on political apologies that consign injustice to the past.

Was great to talk to Jim Baxter of the @ethicsuntangled.bsky.social podcast about my and Georgie Mill's work on cancelling.

Consigning Injustice to History with Political Apologies Failures to remember the past properly can constitute a range of different wrongs. In this article, we identify a novel kind of wrong that often occurs through political apologies: consigning an inju....

New paper online now: “Consigning Injustice of History with Political Apologies” (by me and @alfredarcher.bsky.social).

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Belgian AI scientists resist the use of AI in academia Several AI scientists have published an open letter calling for a ban on AI use by students.

Belgian AI scientists are advocating *against* the use of AI in academia. “If independent thinking is no longer encouraged at university, where would it?” apache.be/2025/10/24/b...

Great conversation on today's Ethics Untangled podcast with @alfredarcher.bsky.social and Georgie Mills. What is cancelling? What different forms can it take? What are its effects? Who is responsible for those effects? What does all this mean for how we should interact with others online?

New publication! ✨

Why does the growing everyday use of psychotherapy terms feel both empowering and troubling?

Because two practices are at play: mental health-speak, which empowers, and therapy-speak, which distorts.

w/ @almagro.bsky.social
in @journalphp.bsky.social

🔓 tinyurl.com/24bhx4e9

Back to abusive partners demanding respect for their “boundaries” & abusive bosses recommending mindfulness.

I talked with @seiaraimanova.bsky.social about my work w/ @almagro.bsky.social on therapy-speak on her amazing podcast Behind the Stigma🎙️

Check it out!

www.buzzsprout.com/1402324/epis...

Check out the latest issue from affiliated journal Passion, the SI 'Emotions—More Like Stars or Constellations?', edited by Heidy Meriste and Bruno Mölder (Tartu). The issue asks how to categorize emotions, and how much weight should we put on the study of folk emotion concepts. Open access! /1

New paper accepted!🎉

Is Taylor Swift responsible for how she makes her fans feel?

Yes; the notion of affective power (the ability to influence how others feel) can help identify the responsibilities celebrities have towards their fans.

w/ G.Mills & @alfredarcher.bsky.social

Preprint ⬇️

New open access paper with @alfredarcher.bsky.social is now online! "We’re a Tourist Club Now: The Ethics of Sports Fan Tourism"
link.springer.com/article/10.1...

The cabinet is currently being reshuffled but more consequentially, the government is failing its promise to deliver a green industrial future at the cost of tens of thousands of manufacturing jobs. You can read my London Review of Books article on the recent closure of Grangemouth oil refinery ⬇️

Away from Home: The Ethics of Hostile Affective Scaffolding - Topoi During live sporting events, fans often create intense atmospheres in stadiums, expressing support for their own local players and discouragement for the opposition. Crowd hostility directed at opposi...

Was going to suggest all the things Jake did. On this topic, I don't know anything that draws on speech acts but this paper of mine takes an affective scaffolding approach and argues that fans creating a hostile atmosphere can be justified in certain sports link.springer.com/article/10.1...

An absolute pleasure to work on this together with @isernmas.bsky.social and Katrien Schaubroeck

No One Mourns the Wicked: The Ethics of Mourning Morally Flawed Celebrities Click on the article title to read more.

New publication! ✨

Should we mourn morally flawed celebrities?

We argue that public mourning risks reinforcing testimonial and affective injustice and normalizing wrongdoing –and discuss how to mourn without causing these harms.

w/ K. Schaubroeck & @alfredarcher.bsky.social
🔓 shorturl.at/Z3LXN

@benjaminmatheson.bsky.social
and I are organising a workshop and special issue of the Journal of Ethics on the Ethics of Fandom. Call for abstracts here:
link.springer.com/collections/...
Some great speakers already confirmed:
@ajkadlac.bsky.social
, Erin Tarver and Kamila Pacovská
#philsky

My first paper on urban justice is out. It draws an analogy between gentrification and mass incoming migration, and shows that neighbourhoods receiving large numbers of needy migrants are treated unfairly, even if hosting needy migrants IS a requirement of justice/1

And congrats to you Jules!

Really honoured to see Alan, my and Bart's book longlisted for this alongside some really excellent books #philsky

Excited to be editing this SI on affective injustice with @alfredarcher.bsky.social and @joelkrueger.com for EPSSE’s open access journal Passion.

Submissions open until 30 September, so if you need a break from your summer break, do think about sending us something!

#philsky

Moral Exemplars and the Moral Community - The Journal of Value Inquiry Linda Zagzebski’s groundbreaking book Exemplarist Moral Theory has inspired new attention to the use of moral exemplars in moral education. Zagzebski argues that admiration for moral exemplars has a c...

New paper of mine looks at how moral exemplars can influence our idea of who is a member of the moral community and the implications of this for the use of exemplars in moral education. Available open access here: link.springer.com/article/10.1...
#philsky

Using Celebrity to Advance Equality Click on the article title to read more.

Here is something I wrote about why it's dangerous for those campaigning for equality to draw on the power of celebrity to advance their cause. #philsky onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

#philsky

New paper of mine out (open access) in @journalphp.bsky.social together with @jakewojtowicz.bsky.social and Kyle Fruh exploring sports fandom, fanaticism, exploitation and sportswashing #philsky

Revisiting broad internalism: towards a moral account of sporting excellence J.S. Russell’s account of broad internalism holds that the interpretation and application of rules should be guided by underlying principles aimed at maintaining and fostering sporting excellence. ...

Mia Tao just published this excellent (open access) paper about sporting excellence. Read to find out why sporting excellence needs to include moral excellence. Supervising Mia has been my favourite part of my job in the last year. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Thanks so much for this @annaalexandrova.bsky.social !