David Bather Woods

Coming up in the spring...

www.literaturecambridge.co.uk/murdoch-poems

AI and Consciousness title page

New book in draft: AI and Consciousness [link in thread]
This book is a skeptical overview of the literature on AI and consciousness.
Anyone who emails me comments on the entire manuscript will be thanked in print and receive an appreciatively signed hard copy.

Arthur Schopenhauer An engaging biography of one of the most influential Western philosophers and a thought-provoking exploration of how to live with Arthur Schopenhauer’s pessimism. Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) almos...

It lives!

You can now preorder my philosophical biography of Schopenhauer.

Out in November.

PHILOSOPHY IN THE BOOKSHOP with David Bather Woods For this months Philosophy in the Bookshop event, David Bather Woods discusses his new biography of Schopenhauer with Nigel Warburton

Excited to be appearing at a Philosophy in the Bookshop event at Blackwell’s flagship store in Oxford.

Please repost and register now!

@blackwells.bsky.social @nigelwarburton.bsky.social
@philoswarwick.bsky.social

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/philosophy...

How Schopenhauer can change your miserable life | Andy Owen | The Critic Magazine Philosopher David Bather Woods notes that there is a popular style of philosophical biography that presents the philosopher’s life as a model for how to live well. He tells us his new book on Arthur…

“Schopenhauer offers no easy remedies to a disease with no final cure, for the living at least, but Bather Woods successfully shows us if your eyes can adjust to his dark vision of the world, there is much to see” @andyowen.bsky.social

Then you’ll really enjoy the book! :)

Podcast episode graphic featuring a smiling man in a blazer and glasses in front of a bookshelf. The text on the right reads "Drafting the Past episode 69: Andrew Hartman."

Episodes two weeks in a row?! That should tell you how much great stuff there is. I was so happy to get to talk to @andrewhartman.bsky.social about KARL MARX IN AMERICA (@uchicagopress.bsky.social) and how he keeps going in the writing "grind." Listen here: draftingthepast.com/podcast-epis...

This is how I want to be awarded the Nobel Prize.

X—Kant’s Analytic Method and the Argument of Groundwork I Abstract. In the famous first section of the Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals, Kant sets out to identify the principle of morality, but each of the

We have a recent (open access 🔑) publication from a member of our research group: a new paper on the structure of Kant’s argument in the first section of the Groundwork.

Pauline Kleingeld, ‘Kant’s Analytic Method and the Argument of Groundwork I’, in Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society.

How Schopenhauer can change your miserable life | Andy Owen | The Critic Magazine Philosopher David Bather Woods notes that there is a popular style of philosophical biography that presents the philosopher’s life as a model for how to live well. He tells us his new book on Arthur…

“Schopenhauer offers no easy remedies to a disease with no final cure, for the living at least, but Bather Woods successfully shows us if your eyes can adjust to his dark vision of the world, there is much to see” @andyowen.bsky.social

Death in a Shallow Pond: A Philosopher, a Drowning Child, and Strangers in Need by David Edmonds

Death in a Shallow Pond by @davidedmonds100.bsky.social is a fascinating account of Peter Singer’s controversial “drowning child” thought experiment—and how it changed the way people think about charitable giving.

Out now. Learn more and explore a free sample: press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...

Job Opportunity at University of Leeds: Lecturer/Associate Professor in Philosophy Are you an experienced academic in Philosophy with the ambition to carry out world-leading research and deliver an exceptional student experience in a research-intensive Russell Group University? Woul...

📣JOB ALERT📣
Lecturer or Associate Professor in Philosophy at University of Leeds. AOS: Social Philosophy + at least one of: Metaphysics, Epistemology, or Philosophy of Language, Logic, Mind, or Action. Details at jobs.leeds.ac.uk/Vacancy.aspx.... Closing date 5 Nov 2025. #philosophy 1/2

Promo bar of chocolate saying "When Labour negotiates, Britian loses"

Another astonishing sign of incredible incompetence from the UK Conservatives. They can’t even get right the name of the country they want to represent.
(Image via LBC political editor Natasha Clark)

Philosophy Bites Podcast Top philosophers interviewed on bite-sized topics

The Philosophy Bites podcast started in 2007 (and is fast approaching 50 million unique episode downloads). Which philosophy podcasts were around before us? www.philosophybites.com

Call for Papers is extended to December 15! And we have an online presentation option for those who cannot attend in-person!

Cruelty and Evil A common view of evil sees dehumanisation as fundamental. Yale psychologist Paul Bloom argues, however, that the picture may not be so simple. He recommends the best books to understand evil and…

"There is a widespread view that failing to put yourself in the shoes of another person—failing to empathise—leads to dehumanisation, and dehumanisation is at the heart of cruelty and evil."
fivebooks.com/best-books/c...

Book Launch: Death in a Shallow Pond 'Death in a Shallow Pond: A Philosopher, a Drowning Child, and Strangers in Need' is published by Princeton University Press

Due to popular demand we've increased the seats available at @davidedmonds100.bsky.social 's book launch for 'Death in a shallow pond'. Please register for the free event here: www.uehiro.ox.ac.uk/event/book-l...
🗓 Tuesday 7 October
📍 Oxford Martin School
⏰ 6:00pm – followed by a drinks reception

The erasure of women philosophers Eileen O’Neill’s foundational article “Disappearing Ink: Early modern women philosophers and their fate in history” (1998) was revelatory for me as a

Geertje Bol on canon construction and history of women philosophers! www.the-tls.com/philosophy/c...

Ritchie Robertson - Darkness & Light Ritchie Robertson: Darkness & Light - Goethe: A Life in Ideas by Matthew Bell

Goethe: A Life in Ideas by @matthewgbell.bsky.social gets a sharp, illuminating review from Ritchie Robertson in @litreview.bsky.social! “Deeply learned, crisply written.” Read it here: literaryreview.co.uk/darkness-light-2

LMU Munich invites applications for a W2 Professorship in Philosophy Education, starting in October 2026. We are looking for candidates with an outstanding research record in philosophy and a strong profile in philosophy education.
Deadline: 15 November 2025:
job-portal.lmu.de/jobposting/b...

The British Society of Aesthetics seeks to appoint a paid, part-time Editor for its website, newsletter, and social media. Applicants will be expected to be UK-based postgraduates working in aesthetics.

The deadline for applications is 22 October 2025.

*Officially* out today: Susan Stebbing: Analysis, Common Sense, and Public Philosophy. I’m grateful to my co-editor, Annalisa Coliva, and all our excellent contributors! Link in bio. (Find the volume’s introduction on my website 😈.)

On October 5, I will be talking about my biography of Bergson at Ilkley Literature Festival! There are still some tickets!
www.ilkleyliteraturefestival.org.uk/events/15-em...

Seeing Others as Objects: Perceptual Objectification & Affordances In discussions of objectification, the use of visual language is ubiquitous. It is striking that the literature often talks about treating and seeing someone as an object in the same breath. Yet acc...

New paper with @tom-mcclelland.bsky.social! What is it to see someone as an object – to perceptually objectify them? We argue that seeing is not just a metaphor. We see others afford doing things with and to.
doi.org/10.1111/ejop...

Philosophy job seekers: there is a 6-year postdoc in philosophy of language coming up at the University of Vienna. See advertisement here: philjobs.org/job/show/29670

You could really be on to something here! Arendt contrasts banality with stupidity. She stressed that agents like Eichmann, while thoughtless, were not stupid - in their fields of action, they are ruthlessly efficient, catastrophically intelligent. Trump, by contrast, really is atrociously stupid.

Maybe, or could just be a coincidence… 🤷‍♂️

An 18thC engraving of Emile Du Chatelet in a traditional dress and choker necklace depicted in an oval frame with a globe and books in background. There is an inscription below her portrait "C'est ainsi que la Verité Pour mieux etablir sa puissance a pris les traits de la beauté, et les graces de l'eloquence." © The Trustees of the British Museum. Shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) licence.

Just 2 weeks left to submit for 2025 Du Châtelet Prize in Philosophy of Physics
Topic: Physics in the writings of women 1700-1900
Deadline: October 10, 2025, 11:59 PM GMT
<10K words, blinded, unpublished; prize is open to grad students & scholars w/in 5 years of PhD
www.duchateletprize.org
#HPS

Speaking as a David, I’m offended

“The meaning of a word is its use in the language” - Wittgenstein