Aloysius Ventham

Turns out the horrendous headaches I've been having recently have been caused by severe eye strain, in turn caused by marking marathons... In worse news, I turn 41 very very soon and have been told I now need reading glasses. I always thought I was immune to ageing. Sad times

We are hiring Nanyang Assistant Professors. Successful candidates will be offered a tenure-track appointment, a reduced teaching load for the first few years, and a start-up grant of up to S$1 million.

philjobs.org/job/show/29318

So Pope Leo XIV has just declared St John Henry Newman a Doctor of the Church... I would have prefered Scotus be declared a Saint (rather than simply 'Blessed'), but Newman is pretty great, too.

OK, I'm now listening to Georg Friedrich Haas - extremely different, but equally on brand, vibe.

Listening to Depeche Mode and Visage on a train to Vienna is, as the kids would say, quite the vibe.

Off to see Le Passe at the Landestheater in Salzburg and I am hyped... Hopefully this excitement will last the full 4hrs 20mins of the play.

How Louisiana Built Trump’s Busiest ICE Deportation Hub ICE wants to make immigration enforcement as efficient as FedEx or Amazon. Louisiana was poised for this moment.

www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Classic Vienna. -- Street scene at Peterskirche. #Vienna #photography #photographyOnBlueSky

Today will be spent working on my FWF application and listening to Brian Eno's 'Music for Airports' on repeat until I can find something at least as good to listen to.

Explaining Intentionality: replies to Critics Published in Australasian Philosophical Review (Vol. 8, No. 1, 2024)

The paper is followed by my responses to 11 critics in the same journal, 'Explaining Intentionality: replies to critics'
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

On the Explanation of Intentionality It is a widespread assumption in contemporary philosophy of mind that a naturalistic explanation of intentionality must answer to what I will call the ‘question of aboutness’: what makes it the cas...

My paper 'On the Explanation of Intentionality' has just been published in the Australasian Philosophical Review www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Memento + philosophy discussion Leonard Shelby is tracking down the man who raped and murdered his wife. The difficulty of locating his wife's killer, however, is compounded by the fact that he suffers from a rare, untreatable form ...

People in Glasgow who like film and philosophy: this is tomorrow. The film will be introduced by one of my department's lovely PhD students (Michael Quinn), who will host a Q&A after, and the GFT is always great.
www.glasgowfilm.org/movie/mement...
#Philosophy #PhilFilm #Memento #ChristopherNolan

Equal Citizenship & Global Inequality: Is Reconciliation Possible?

Modern citizenship has always been closely intertwined with questions of equality. In the newest #CASBlog article, philosopher Daniel Sharp @deeesharp.bsky.social gets to the bottom of the moral tensions between equal citizenship and global inequality.
www.blog.cas.uni-muenchen.de/topics/globa...

RSE awards over £724K to boost Scotland’s vibrant research sector We are pleased to announce that 72 exceptional research projects were selected at the spring 2025 Research Awards open call.

I'm delighted to be able to announce that Crispin Wright, myself, and others at Stirling/Edinburgh have been awarded a Research Collaboration Grant by @royalsoced.bsky.social for a project called 'Responsible Trusting Without Prejudice':

The student reading group I run (summer hols edition) started today. We're reading Nietzsche's Genealogy. Number of cis men present: 0. Not what I was expecting! #philsky

Amazing! So far we've read the introduction and loved it! Plenty of meat in there already!

I think I'm not aware of such a case, but that sounds plausible to me. I think historically the only reason The Vatican ever gave out citizenship at all was to give some people diplomatic status. As such, they're super minimal in their approach to this. I'd be glad to learn I'm wrong, though!

Yes, all Vatican citizens are dual citizens and you can only get citizenship if you work at the Vatican in a position that requires you to live there AFAIK. You cannot, e.g., apply for asylum or choose to immigrate.

Our Favorite Paper Planners A paper planner can keep you organized and on track with your goals, and we have six different recommendations that will suit any planning style.

Of all the paper planners Wirecutter considered, the Traveler’s Notebook was the most popular with our testers. It also has a large following in the online planner community.

As I understand it... only the students who don't have to work lots of jobs. Actually, I start the student reading group on Friday... perhaps I should buy a bottle of wine...

Summer break (from teaching) means the Salzburg Ethics Group will read a book. From tomorrow, we'll be reading Oppressive Praise by @julesholroyd.bsky.social! Exciting! #philsky #philosophy

Yeah, I'd love to set them more, but then I'd be worried the enthusiasm would drop. I think the enthusiasm helps them learn more because their engagement is higher. But it's super frustrating either way. Maybe I should set them two hours of doomscrolling/working in precarious jobs...

I set a single paper per week for my course (usually around 25 pages) and if it was a slightly longer paper (say, more than 32 pages) I very much got the sense that my students were a bit pissed. Maybe they have more claims on their time now? Idk. #philsky #philosophy

I'm entering my 25th year in the job, having taught for 4 years at Yale and 20 at Berkeley.

The clearest trendline in my experience (fwiw) is the *dramatically* diminished willingness or capacity of undergrads to read. I used to assign 150 pp./week. Closer to 40 now—and even that is aspirational.

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

I'm watching the Tour de France and seeing Armirail cycling at around 67kmh fills me with horror and admiration simultaneously. I once cycled at 51kmh and I thought my insides were going to liquify. #tourdefrance #tdf

Just Judge: The Jury on Trial Content note: This paper discusses rape throughout.Abstract. In this paper, I consider arguments in favor of jury trials. While I find these generally persuasive, I argue that there can be cases where...

With the prospect of cutting jury-use in England & Wales in the news, seems like a good time to share this paper again, where I argue that sometimes we *shouldn't* use juries:
scholarlypublishingcollective.org/uip/apq/arti...
I still think this one of my best and most interesting papers.
#Juries

Joe Slater, Just Judge: The Jury on Trial - PhilPapers Content note: This paper discusses rape throughout.Abstract. In this paper, I consider arguments in favor of jury trials. While I find these generally persuasive, I argue that there can be cases ...

Archived version (not behind a paywall), available here: philpapers.org/rec/SLAJJO
#ShamelessSelfPromotion