Alexander Douglas

Do you mean Hamid’s argument, or the idea he attacks in the first para?

archive.is/gFBaL

There is, I think, an exquisite wisdom in these three paragraphs from Moshin Hamid’s essay, “In the 21st century, we are all migrants”.

Work time reduction via a 4-day workweek finds improvements in workers’ well-being - Nature Human Behaviour Fan et al. find that income-preserving 4-day workweeks boost job satisfaction and mental and physical health, while easing burnout. Gains are partly driven by improvements in work ability, reduced fat...

Evidence for positive effects of the 4-day work week. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

I didn’t make any direct links, but I’m sure there are connections!

If we stopped making publication a de facto condition for getting hired/promoted then journals could agree not to publish any more articles unless they contained something really important. We've been blackmailing ourselves into spamming ourselves.

Apophasis and Pseudonymity in Dionysius the Areopagite A PDF version of this book is available for free in open access via www.oup.com/uk as well as the OAPEN Library platform, www.oapen.org. It has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution...

Yes somebody recently put me onto this: books.google.com/books/about/...

No, I’ve been discussing this point with others. I like what Murdoch says about unselfing, especially in relation to art, but I didn’t fit it into this book.

BONUS EPISODE OUT NOW!

Today’s bonus episode on PPF+ is the 2nd part of David’s conversation with @axdouglas.bsky.social looking at how the ideas of the French philosopher René Girard got taken up and corrupted by Silicon Valley.

Join PPF+ here for all our bonuses: www.ppfideas.com/join-ppf-plus

You can tell a lot about a person by making a lot of assumptions.

Definitely! Thank you

Ah, you know that hadn’t occurred to me! Maybe for a second edition. 😉 I don’t have MP with me—do D&G mention the Hundun story at all?

Also, tbh, I find Deleuze extremely hard to quote from. It’s easy to find little bon mots, but I mean passages that sum up his philosophical positions and make sense outside their context.

There’s plenty of Deleuze, just not by name! I was advised to economise on proper nouns for a trade book.

I really enjoyed my conversation with David, who asked very deep and difficult questions!

Trapped in an identity crisis | Sebastian Milbank | The Critic Magazine In Against Identity, philosopher Alexander Douglas asks a provocative question: is identity itself both an illusion and a dangerous imposition?

There's a fair bit of criticism here, but I enjoyed reading this very engaging review of my book:

thecritic.co.uk/trapped-in-a...

Cartesianism and Philosophy of Mind This book explores themes in the philosophy of mind as they emerge within the early modern Cartesian tradition. It brings together thirteen contributions from international scholars, to provide a fine...

Exciting new book on Cartesianism, featuring my wife and others!

Find out why the facile “criticisms” of Cartesianism you were taught as an undergrad were reductive and dogmatic.

www.routledge.com/Cartesianism...

NEW EPISODE OUT NOW!

For the final ep in our current series on the history of bad ideas, David talks to philosopher @axdouglas.bsky.social about the damage that can be done by the idea of identity. Why is the search for a distinctive personal identity a futile quest?

Find us at...🎧 ppfideas.com

Peter Thiel in Locksley Hall Dip into the future, far as human eye can see

New blog post: Peter Thiel in Locksley Hall

open.substack.com/pub/axdougla...

Thank you! I hope it doesn't disappoint you.

So for me in the discussion, @axdouglas.bsky.social captures that essential anthropological relation, & corresponding tension, between *friendship* & *kinship*. This is imv (& I’ve only just started his book) what makes his new study a vital read for our ‘mimetic’, hypertrophic era

BBC Radio 4 - Free Thinking, Friendship Matthew Sweet discusses the mythology, psychology and politics getting along with people.

Final episode of a fine season of BBCFreeThinking on *friendship*. Foucault for me an unconvincing pilot, but do stick with
@drmatthewsweet.bsky.social @tiffwattsmith.bsky.social Susie Orbach, @stephenshapiro.bsky.social @axdouglas.bsky.social
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Truly a fascinating text

Another take: it strikes me as Britain living out a fantasy of continued historical significance. Hundreds of millions of Asians and Africans are going to access AC soon (want to scold *them* for it?). What Brits do just doesn’t matter.

I'm loving @axdouglas.bsky.social's Against Identity. This is what I want from nonfiction: a focus on massive questions (while still having philosophical and historical vigour so it's not that book where the Dilbert guy reinvented God from first principles), clear, personal, precise. Go Read it.

Wow, thank you so much! That’s just what I was hoping for.

Another reason to repost this: www.timcrane.com/uploads/2/5/...

Free Thinking - Friendship - BBC Sounds Matthew Sweet discusses the mythology, psychology and politics getting along with people.

I enjoyed being in this discussion on friendship, on Free Thinking: www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Well, in terms of power, cart before horse makes sense, prior to the horse collar. But I should have considered how the horse would see. Then I would have been suspicious of your China story.

Yes, that is the most efficient way to have a horse drive a load without choking it, until the invention of the horse collar, which apparently reached Europe in the 8th century. I wonder how far back the expression goes?