Alexander Douglas

Would UBI be the best use of the money it would cost? UBI is not magic; it should be evaluated like any other welfare policy

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

Yes, when I'm being a grown up in real life I take the democratic peace theory pretty seriously--just not when I'm having the worst brought out of me by social media (and probably having my biggest, albeit tiny, effect on democratic politics).

Instead it empowers them with the Will of the People: the most wretched force on Earth.

But tbh I was taking the democracy point as obvious to everyone; I was trying to add nuance.

You could have said “Plato”.

Democracy seems to select pretty violent guys.

The opposite of aristocracy (rule by the best) is not democracy but kakistocracy: rule by the worst. In practice, democracy is the means to achieve this.

Whenever I think of the "Analytic-Continental" divide in philosophy, I remember this Economist headline from decades ago.

Materials library

By the way if you are a new student or staff member at UCL you have FREE access to all Institute of Making facilities. That includes our experimental kitchen, metals, textiles, ceramics, electronics, workshops ect.. We teach you how to use them all. "What? No". YES! share.google/Hy3wMLdAQtOz...

“Vision and Boundless Hope and Optimism”

I wonder if Dutch philosophy departments in the 1630s were only hiring in the philosophy of tulips.

Yes!!

Silicon Valley venture capitalists are a picture of sober restraint compared to the research funding councils on this thing.

The Guardian view on an AI bubble: capitalism still hasn’t evolved to protect itself | Editorial Editorial: Warnings about inflated tech stocks suggest investors never learn and central bankers learn too late

“How silly are these investors in the AI bubble! Financial euphoria! Tulips! South Sea! Charles Kindelberger! John Kenneth Galbraith!” — proclaims a chorus of intellectuals who, until a week ago, were hyping this gimmick to the stratosphere.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

@standrewsphil.bsky.social

YouTube video by Ping Pong Philosophy Greg Restall on possibilia, discussing logical pluralism with Graham Priest and more I EP 1 🏓

🎙️ In the very first episode of Ping Pong Philosophy, I sit down with Greg Restall, Shelby Cullom Davis Professor of Philosophy at the University of St. Andrews, to talk about possibilia, proof-theoretic semantics, and more!🏓 Full episode out now!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHyx...

Against Identity Modern life encourages us to pursue the perfect identity. Whether we aspire to become the best lawyer or charity worker, life partner or celebrity influencer, we emulate exemplars that exist in the wo...

Wow, you guys liked that. Ok. Buy my book? www.penguin.co.uk/books/456203...

Sub editors are intellectual vandals

I’m a strong advocate of ancient languages, but it seems dangerous to overpromise…

www.doenwatjezelfwil.be/rene-girard-...

Reposting because still relevant

Fernando Pessoa on Unselfing into Who You Really Are “To be nobody-but-yourself — in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else — means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight,&#82…

www.themarginalian.org/2025/09/25/f...

Thanks, somehow it’s consoling to know that I couldn’t have escaped.

Unis are run by people who haven’t updated their procedures from the days when forms were printed out and filled by hand. I was just wondering if we’re the only sector stuck with this stupid anachronism (along with many others).

We’re contractually stuck with MS, but Forms would be a whole lot better than trying to type into little boxes that don’t line up with the typing cursor, split over pages, etc.

People who work outside universities: do people in your workplace still think that a good way to create an online form is a make a Word document with little boxes? Not using the form function on Word: drawing actual boxes, like you would for a printed form, though they are hard to type into. Anyone?

I’ve subsequently had this thought: the Curtis Yarvin guys take the points in Girard that are obvious common sense and inflate them into some grand revelation. It’s as if I went around talking about Einstein’s WORLD CHANGING discovery that gravity exists. Right theory, wrong point.

Tech bros don’t get René Girard

_I See Satan Fall Like Lightning_

Curtis Yarvin appears to have read Girard about as carefully as he reads anything else. I wrote about the tech bros and Girard here: unherd.com/2025/06/tech...

A very nice result of publishing a trade book is that people contact me to share cool things they’ve written like this: philosophynow.org/issues/163/A...

I had the same thought: ok, everything is Christianity, but why does this matter?

René Girard is clearer on this. He is up front about thinking that modern life is, on the whole, good. So his point is that we should thank God for sending his only begotten son so that we could have modernity.