Kenneth Novis's Avatar

Kenneth Novis

@saditious.bsky.social

3rd year Philosophy DPhil @ox.ac.uk | Researching Spinoza, Bayle, and Atheism in the French Enlightenment | also French and Italian Marxism (Weil, Althusser, Deleuze and Operaismo) | Ultraleftist Metalhead | 27 | he/him https://linktr.ee/saditious

1,420 Followers  |  529 Following  |  680 Posts  |  Joined: 30.07.2023
Posts Following

Posts by Kenneth Novis (@saditious.bsky.social)

Commands around the world, including U.S. Central Command in the Middle East, use Anthropic’s Claude AI tool, people familiar with the matter confirmed. Centcom declined to comment about specific systems being used in its ongoing operation against Iran.

The command uses the tool for intelligence assessments, target identification and simulating battle scenarios even as tension between the company and Pentagon ratcheted up, the people said, highlighting how embedded the AI tools are in military operations.

Commands around the world, including U.S. Central Command in the Middle East, use Anthropic’s Claude AI tool, people familiar with the matter confirmed. Centcom declined to comment about specific systems being used in its ongoing operation against Iran. The command uses the tool for intelligence assessments, target identification and simulating battle scenarios even as tension between the company and Pentagon ratcheted up, the people said, highlighting how embedded the AI tools are in military operations.

The WSJ is reporting that AI, specifically Claude, was used in targeting for the attacks by the Epstein Empire.

That would mean the use of AI led directly to the massacre of 115 schoolchildren and 20 volleyball players.

www.wsj.com/livecoverage...

01.03.2026 11:34 β€” πŸ‘ 984    πŸ” 465    πŸ’¬ 38    πŸ“Œ 75

I have a hunch that it's from Peter Millican somewhere, contrasting 17th century rationalism with the more casual appeals to reason we see being made by Hume

01.03.2026 19:20 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

I remember reading something about how the concept of 'reason' changed over the Enlightenment, from mathematical, deductive reason to something discursive and rhetorical. Does anyone here have an inkling about where that claim is from? I've frustratingly forgotten.

01.03.2026 18:56 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

A girls' elementary school. Dozens dead. Perhaps hundreds. Sitting with the profound evil and the mindfck and the knowledge that this war may well have been declared to distract us from the Epstein files and the conspicuously missing evidence that the president of this nation raped 13 year-old girls

01.03.2026 15:58 β€” πŸ‘ 37    πŸ” 11    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

A conversation I just overheard in central Oxford, about the US and Israel bombing Iran:
β€œWell, my father used to tell me that the Arabs are the most violent people he’d ever met.”

28.02.2026 10:04 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 0
Post image

Italian thought is a major field within continental philosophy. But what are the latest developments since its popularity peak in the 2000s?

An 'Introduction to Contemporary Italian Thought' is available now!

Order now: https://bit.ly/4qwDVJv
Preview: https://bit.ly/3LXeaD7

24.01.2026 12:27 β€” πŸ‘ 15    πŸ” 4    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
Post image Post image Post image

Very pleased to receive my copy of the @bloomsburybooksuk.bsky.social
Handbook of Wittgensteinian Feminism, for which I co-wrote a chapter with the wonderful Daniele Moyal-Sharrock.

The book is an excellent addition to any libraryπŸ‘‡

www.bloomsbury.com/uk/bloomsbur...

27.02.2026 12:02 β€” πŸ‘ 11    πŸ” 3    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

β€œOne should let the reader guess at least half of what one means and one should not fear that he will not understand; the reader’s malignity goes often far beyond us, and we must count on it, that is the safest way.” - Pierre Bayle

26.02.2026 22:31 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

I've gotten approval from my supervisors for my latest dissertation chapter, so I can now say that I'm done with Spinoza's theory of the affects (for now). What I have left to do are the scary parts of the dissertation: Spinoza on virtue, and Bayle on the passions.

26.02.2026 17:59 β€” πŸ‘ 5    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
Post image

We're excited to announce the publication of Board Member Cathy Mason's new book: "Iris Murdoch's Moral Philosophy: Reframing the True, the Real, and the Good"

global.oup.com/academic/pro...

23.02.2026 12:08 β€” πŸ‘ 9    πŸ” 2    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Speaking from the position of the institution I'm at, I really suspect that there are people here who are doing philosophy at the University of Oxford so that they can be a person Who Has A Philosophy Degree From Oxford

18.02.2026 17:41 β€” πŸ‘ 20    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 0

Fondly remembering a philosophy induction where the program director openly admitted that their system was designed to offer many freedoms, but could be abused to get a degree with little effort. "But why would you do that? Having this degree won't get you anywhere, the content is the entire point"

18.02.2026 17:04 β€” πŸ‘ 31    πŸ” 3    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 1

I kinda feel like this is one of those rare places where Baudrillard is actually somewhat helpful? The point isn't to get a philosophy degree, but to become a person with a philosophy degree, and any (misguided, probably incorrect) glory you think others will offer you for that.

18.02.2026 17:39 β€” πŸ‘ 19    πŸ” 2    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 1
Preview
Donate to Support Helen's Children After Her Passing, organized by Marcus Arvan Help provide Helen De Cruz's children with a better start in life after her un… Marcus Arvan needs your support for Support Helen's Children After Her Passing

Missing Helen for many reasons today. I checked on the go fund me for their children and it’s so close to goal. Can we get this across the finish line?

www.gofundme.com/f/support-he...

17.02.2026 13:30 β€” πŸ‘ 23    πŸ” 14    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 2

I've not seen this book before, but it looks great - congrats comrade!

17.02.2026 10:28 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
Post image

Many thanks to the good folks at Waterstones who are offering my Forgiveness book at 25% off (till Friday) - use code FEB26 when ordering.

www.waterstones.com/book/revolut...

17.02.2026 10:04 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

People are getting paid for this?? I thought we had to do it for free

13.02.2026 18:34 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

I picked up a copy of Clara Mattei's new book at an event last night. It's a strong read so far!

13.02.2026 16:17 β€” πŸ‘ 3    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

At least half of it comes down to having a cool-sounding name

13.02.2026 15:23 β€” πŸ‘ 9    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

'Interpellate' could theoretically do the same job, but it's a lot harder to work into ordinary conversation

13.02.2026 15:13 β€” πŸ‘ 3    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

I've found that a good way of tricking people into engaging with Marxism is to start throwing around the word 'aleatory.' Inevitably, they'll look it up, and then they'll end up reading Althusser.

13.02.2026 15:10 β€” πŸ‘ 6    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
Post image

Saw this in the new Verso catalogue, hopefully it'll serve as a corrective for the Losurdo-inspired dreck that seems to have been dominating the discussions of Nietzsche among the (too online) left since last year

12.02.2026 22:21 β€” πŸ‘ 7    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
Project MUSE - An Ethiopian Lucretius? Giusto da Urbino and the Origins of the <em>ḀatÀta ZÀrʾa Yaʿɘqob</em> Controversy

My co-authored article with Jonathan Egid on the controversy over the authorship of the αΈ€atΓ€ta ZΓ€rΚΎa Yaʿǝqob – a brilliant philosophical autobiography set in seventeenth-century Ethiopia – is finally out (advanced access) in the Journal of the History of Ideas (@jhideas.bsky.social)! 🧡
#philsky

12.02.2026 12:46 β€” πŸ‘ 17    πŸ” 3    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
Georgie Newson Β· Artificial reason (2026)

I reviewed Pete Wolfendale’s new book, β€˜The Revenge of Reason’, for @radical-philosophy.bsky.social

www.radicalphilosophy.com/reviews/arti...

12.02.2026 10:45 β€” πŸ‘ 13    πŸ” 8    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 1

Just so we're clear, this is a canonical admission that Danish Marxism is diegetically the dark side?

09.02.2026 11:41 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
Post image

I'm somewhere on the outskirts of the academic philosophy community

09.02.2026 10:51 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

I'm currently teaching Nietzsche's 'On the Genealogy of Morality,' and one thing which stands out to me whenever I'm reading him is how great some of his lines would be as metal song titles (like 'the agony of a tortured heart').

08.02.2026 16:10 β€” πŸ‘ 5    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
Post image

Today would have been Simone Weil's 117th birthday. I have been thinking a lot about her essay 'God's Love and Affliction.' A few years ago I also wrote a short biography of her for the UK Simone Weil Research Network @simoneweiluk.bsky.social : 19006198.wixsite.com/simone-weil-....

03.02.2026 16:56 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
Post image

I've been thinking about this line from Pascal's PensΓ©es lately. It does feel like a lot of life is simply finding things to avoid having to think about life, how empty and meaningless it can feel, or how hopeless it can be.

02.02.2026 13:14 β€” πŸ‘ 24    πŸ” 5    πŸ’¬ 3    πŸ“Œ 2
Post image

what do we talk about when we talk about energy? my answer features (among many others) adorno, bogdanov, and the austrian communist wilhelm frank, who experimented with national exergy balances in the 1950s. out april 2026.

28.01.2026 07:38 β€” πŸ‘ 154    πŸ” 51    πŸ’¬ 7    πŸ“Œ 5