Tom Roberts

Cartoon drawing of Nietzsche hoovering and thinking "God I hate this thing". Caption reads Nietzsche abhors a vacuum.

Nietzsche abhors a vacuum

www.worldofmoose.com/products/nie...

Home - HUGERA The Human Genomics without Racism (HUGERA) project brings together geneticists, philosophers, and social scientists to create tools for an ethically sound science of human variation. Latest News

🚨Project 🚨My project “Human Genomics without Racism” kicks off during #ISHPSSB25.

Join us for the Symposium “Values, Bias, and Controversies” on Monday 21, 14:30.

#philsky
#popgen
#evosky
#STS
#biological
#HPbio

hugera.org

A black and white drawing of three dachshunds arranged vertically, each holding a different optical illusion object in its mouth, and the dogs themselves drawn as if a single line optical illusion. The top dog holds a Penrose triangle, the middle dog holds a Necker cube, and the bottom dog holds a Penrose trident. The dogs’ bodies are elongated in an exaggerated cartoon style. The artwork is signed “@IndieTheIntrovert” in the bottom right corner.

Everyone stop, this is important

I’m going to read this in my inner voice.

Many of these examples came together in our new chapter on Lonely Objects and Obsolete Affordances (@tomroberts.bsky.social and @joelkrueger.com)! Thanks so much for the inspiration ❤️

www.researchgate.net/publication/...

@celsoneto.bsky.social?

44!

Statement of solidarity and support in response to the recent UK Supreme Court ruling and EHRC guidance: The Society for Women In Philosophy UK (SWIP UK) condemns the recent Supreme Court ruling on 16 April 2025 determining that the term ‘woman’ in the Equality Act 2010 refers to a binary and biological notion of ‘sex’, and the subsequent interim guidance published by the EHRC on 25 April 2025. This ruling and the guidance undermine the human rights and safety of trans, non-binary, and intersex people and are also detrimental to cis women. Trans women are women, and belong in feminist organisations. There is no fight against sexism and misogyny separate from the fight against cissexism and transmisogyny. SWIP UK membership, in line with our recognitions and aims, has for many years been open to trans women and to other trans and/or non-binary people who feel the category of ‘woman’ is relevant to their experiences, and this will not change under any circumstances. The legal landscape is currently very unclear and rapidly changing. We are in the process of finding out what concrete steps, if any, we need to take to ensure the continuation of our current approach to membership. We will involve members in this in accordance with our bylaws. We plan to respond to the EHRC consultation which closes at the end of May, and anyone who would like to support our efforts on this is invited to get in touch with us via our websites contact form.

Brilliant statement from the Society for Women in Philosophy - a model response to recent events.

"SWIP UK membership, in line with our recognitions and aims, has for many years been open to trans women and to other trans and/or non-binary people [...] this will not change under any circumstances"

Labour has a whopping great majority and four years left to turn this country around.

They should be setting the agenda, not chasing about trying to placate voters of a party with five MPs who will never vote for them anyway.

It's not only disappointing... it's embarrassing

‘[O]n the one hand, by far the longest-standing theories of beauty construed it as partly objective and dependent on form; on the other hand, many of late think that there is little we can say about what makes objects beautiful, other than that they please us..’ - Panos Paris, 'On Beauty and Wellformedness'

In this open access 🔓 article, Panos Paris breathes new life into a view of beauty that has fallen on hard times, despite holding sway for millennia. doi.org/10.1093/aest...

‘When I read the poem in my accent, which retains some of its regional inflections, tones, and cadences despite my own years in the formal institutions of British life, the lines do not rhyme. And they do not rhyme to the ear of those with many of the standard accents of the north-east or south-west of England, for example, or of Wales and Northern Ireland. More significantly for what follows, the lines do not rhyme in the voices of those from the post-industrial heartlands of central Scotland, from working-class regions of London, Birmingham, or Liverpool, or from traditional rural constituencies across the United Kingdom.’ - Tom Roberts 'Voice, Rhyme, and Aesthetic Injustice’

In this advance article, Tom Roberts argues that appreciators can suffer aesthetic injustice when excluded from aesthetic goods more fully available to others.

Lecturer in Philosophy (Artificial Intelligence and Data) (Education and Research) at University of Exeter Searching for an academic job? Explore this Lecturer in Philosophy (Artificial Intelligence and Data) (Education and Research) opening on jobs.ac.uk! Click to view more details and browse other academ...

We're hiring! Lecturer in Philosophy (Artificial Intelligence and Data). Deadline for applications: 17th April 2025 www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DML775/l... #philsky #philmind #cogsci #philsci

This is just to say

I have read the Yemen strike plans
that were in
the group chat
and which
you were probably saving
for those
with appropriate security clearance

Forgive me
they were delicious
so strategic
and so secret

Great colloquium talk this evening by the inimitable Ian Kidd.

#miseries
#misanthropy
#meaninglessness
#mortality

One underreported facet of the Great University Crisis is the contribution of a small number of consultancy firms who recommend:
*Centralise functions
*Cut small courses
*Reduce student options
*Abolish loads of joint awards
*Chop staff headcount
This is *exactly* what you must not do. (1/3)

Details | University of Exeter

🚨TALK 🚨

Is AI Ethics futile? Why effective ethical interventions on AI are hard to obtain?

Join us later today at Egenis for this talk by my amazing colleague Tyler Brunet (Exeter). 15:30-17:00 GMT. Link below:

www.exeter.ac.uk/events/detai...

#AI
#Philsky
#philsci

🚨JOB ALERT 🚨

Are you a social scientist (broadly construed) with expertise in race and science? We are offering a 3.5 years postdoctoral position at Egenis (University of Exeter). Applications due February 27!
Please share widely!

#STS
#philsky

jobs.exeter.ac.uk/hrpr_webrecr...

We Can Make an Impact. SAVE CARDIFF UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF ENGLISH, COMMUNICATION AND PHILOSOPHY

A petition in support of the School of English, Communication, and Philosophy at Cardiff, who are being threatened with job cuts that would be devastating for staff, students, and the university

Cartoon of a typical police interview scene. We see the backs of two officers on one side of the table and facing us a thuggish looking fellow and his lawyer. The thug says "Go to sleep, go to sleep little baby". The lawyer replies "No, he said do you have an alibi"

Haggis, cheese, and mango-chutney toastie = second greatest chieftain of the puddin’ race.

@lucyosler.bsky.social @joelkrueger.com @garicgymro.bsky.social

Voice, Rhyme, and Aesthetic Injustice Abstract. Some lines of poetry rhyme to certain readers and not to others because of how their words are pronounced in different accents. And because the a

New article in the BJA!

(With special thanks to Lucy Osler, Joel Krueger, and Gareth Roberts)

academic.oup.com/bjaesthetics...

A Love Letter to Philosophy - Daily Nous “Philosophical enquiry makes the entire planet better than it would otherwise be. It helps constitute the awesomeness of Earth. Philosophy needs no further excuse.” So writes Eric Schwitzgebel (UC Riv...

"Each of us, when we philosophise, become the means by which the Universe, after billions of years, wakes to itself, momentarily contemplating itself in doubt and amazement."

We are opening a tenure track position. Feel free to contact me if you have any query. philjobs.org/job/show/28514 #philjobs

‘What is funny about [Breaking the Fourth Wall]-statements, and what makes them suitable for comedic media, is that they are ambiguous between two interpretations that force a switching between internal and external perspectives. They thus put the audience in a somewhat awkward position of oscillating between two conflicting interpretations.’ Merel Semeijn, ‘Breaking the Fourth Wall and (Meta)Fictional Reference’

Are statements that break the fourth wall a type of fictional or are a type of metafictional statement? Why not synthesize the two? doi.org/10.1093/aest... #philsky

Four years since my son wrote the best opening to a mystery novel ever written.

Great paper, Alfred!

amp.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

A photo of Nietzsche with his prominent moustache. Below this is a rhyme: Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche Had one distinctive Fietzsche His top lip was home to A magnificent furry Crietzsche

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

Oh, you’re citing me?