Pieter T. L. Beck

Iranian protesters don't owe us an explanation Without anti-authoritarianism, 'anti-imperialism' is just conservatism with left-wing aesthetics

My latest: Without anti-authoritarianism, 'anti-imperialism' is just conservatism with left-wing aesthetics

www.hauntologies.net/p/iranian-pr...

YouTube video by Politically Depressed What Are Tankies Really?

If you've been outraged or confused by self-styled leftists championing the Iranian Regime - even as it guns down thousands across the country - my latest video essay is for you.
youtu.be/Dbkkh6GWn5Y

Uiteraard

Ik hoor graag de bedenkingen van dé Kuhn kenner van Vlaanderen!

The Rindermann Reply Identifying pseudoscience

On the day it was revealed that Jeffrey Epstein was a proponent of "race science," I finally get around to replying to some of Rindermann's rebuttals to my piece with @kph3k.bsky.social about Rindermann et al. "Identifying Pseudoscience." ericturkheimer.substack.com/p/the-rinder...

Link naar de aflevering op de website van de podcast zelf (waar je ook verdere info vindt over de podcast):

podcastfilosofie.transistor.fm/episodes/tho...

The Epstein Emails Show How the Powerful Talk About Race The files reveal the disgraced financier’s interest in “race science.”

"Arguing intelligence & adjacent traits are biologically determined served a clear function for Epstein, who treated women as subordinate. It’s equally unsurprising that the powerful people he cultivated might come up with a natural, objective explanation for their perch at the top of society"

Luister en hoor hoe mijn hoogmoedige voornemen om Kuhn samen te vatten in 20 minuten leidt tot een interessant gesprek van 1u en 12 minuten.

Podcast Luisteren (PodNL): Thomas Kuhn From Podcast Filosofie. “Geschiedenis zou, wanneer we haar beschouwen als meer dan louter een verzameling van anekdotes en chronologieën, kunnen leiden tot een fundamentele verandering in de heersende...

Enkele maanden geleden had ik een gesprek over Thomas Kuhn met meester-vragensteller-en-multitasker Allard Amelink (@amelink.bsky.social) en Cees Zweistra van Podcast Filosofie. De aflevering staat nu online. Dank aan Podcast Filosofie voor deze fijne kans.

“Epstein’s passion for injecting eugenics into conversation after conversation in his emails should shape the way we think about his role in funding scientific research and development—and steering richer men’s money in that world”

Dinsdag 31/3/2026

Anaïs Van Ertvelde - Het (re)producerende monster – Over handicap en eugenetica

Van Ertvelde traceert in deze lezing drie draden die handicap en eugenetica verbinden: het monsterlijke, seks en productief burgerschap.

event.ugent.be/registration...

Dinsdag 24/3/2026

Eva F. Kittay - We have seen the mutants – And they are us
[lezing in het Engels]

Kittay bespreekt haar persoonlijke ervaringen en reflecties over genetische screening en de handicap van haar dochter

event.ugent.be/registration...

Dinsdag 17/3/2026

Erik Thys - Eugenetica en psychiatrie - Actuele lessen uit een duister verleden

event.ugent.be/registration...

Dinsdag 10/03/2026

Danny Praet - Eugenetica in de oudheid

Een overzicht van (mythes over) eugenetisch denken en eugenetische praktijken in de Antieke Oudheid.

event.ugent.be/registration...

Dinsdag 03/03/2026

Rebecca Sear - How academia is facilitating the 21st century resurgence of eugenics and scientific racism [lezing in het Engels]

Over de mechanismen binnen academia die de heropleving van eugenetica en pseudo-wet. racisme mee mogelijk maakten.

event.ugent.be/registration...

Dinsdag 24/02/2026

Gie van den Berghe - Voor verbetering vatbaar – Ontstaan en voortbestaan van de eugenetische ideologie

Een kritische bespreking van de lange geschiedenis van de eugenetische logica, van de 18e eeuw tot nu.

event.ugent.be/registration...

Dinsdag 17/2/2026

Inleidende lezingen door de organisatoren (Dorian Accoe, Dries Josten, Seppe Segers, Gertrudis Van de Vijver, Clemence Van Ginneken en mezelf). Mijn deel gaat over hedendaagse eugenetica en connecties met racistische pseudowetenschap.

event.ugent.be/registration...

Per lezing is er een inschrijvingslink. De inschrijving is voor elke lezing apart. Een inschrijving voor de eerste lezing geldt niet als inschrijving voor de lezingenreeks. Het is ook mogelijk om de lezingen te volgen in je comfortabele zetel via een streaming. Ook hiervoor dien je in te schrijven.

Volgende week dinsdag vindt de eerste lezing plaats van de reeks 'Eugenics: Critical Perspectives on a Creeping Concept Between Science and Ideology'. Hieronder een draadje met een overzicht van alle lezingen. Telkens in Blandijn (Gent) - Auditorium 3 - 19u-21
humanitiesacademie.ugent.be/eugenics

But you have a fair point on the terminological level of course

Race, IQ, and the search for statistical signals associated with so-called “X”-factors: environments, racism, and the “hereditarian hypothesis” - Biology & Philosophy Some authors defending the “hereditarian” hypothesis with respect to differences in average IQ scores between populations have argued that the sorts of environmental variation hypothesized by some res...

I haven't read this specific paper, but it should be noted that Pigliucci co-authored a paper criticising a journal's decision to publish one of Cofnas's papers and that Kaplan wrote a paper arguing that the position of the "hereditarians" on IQ is nonsense (link.springer.com/article/10.1...)

Ik herhaal: dit is Richard Hanania, de gezellige, compleet normale "conservatieve denker" die onlangs een platform kreeg in
@standaard.be

The Department of Philosophy and Moral Sciences at Ghent University ultimately failed to introduce a limited ban on the use of generative AI. But why did they want to ban it in the first place? “Bachelor’s and master’s theses are meant to teach students certain skills”, says faculty member Wim Vanrie. “This involves detailed reading of philosophical and moral science texts, recognising, analysing and forming arguments, seeing and expressing conceptual connections, etc. Generative AI is a shortcut that is detrimental to developing these skills.” Ghent University, as well as the universities of Leuven, Brussels, and Antwerp encourage the “responsible use” of generative AI: the use under certain conditions. But Vanrie wonders what students need to be capable of such ‘responsible use’. “You can only critically assess the output of an AI chatbot if you have the skills to do so, and you don’t develop these skills by using AI. Before you can be critical of an AI summary, you have to learn to understand a text without having it summarized by an AI tool.” Wim Vanrie Wim Vanrie, assistant professor, Department of Philosophy and Moral Sciences, Ghent University. “It’s our responsibility to teach students certain skills”, says Vanrie. “We must train them to become independent, critical thinkers. They can only become that by doing the hard work themselves, not by outsourcing it. Within the department, we are concerned about the detrimental effects on our students' development.”

Wim Vanrie: “This involves detailed reading of philosophical and moral science texts, recognising, analysing and forming arguments, seeing and expressing conceptual connections, etc. Generative AI is a shortcut that is detrimental to developing these skills.”

apache.be/2025/10/24/b...

Dit is de gezellige "conservatieve denker" die onlangs een platform kreeg in @standaard.be

Critical AI Literacies for Resisting and Reclaiming | Radboud University This course is designed to foster critical AI literacies in participants to empower them to develop ways of resisting or reclaiming AI in their own practices and social context.

☀️ Summer School 📚

“Critical AI Literacies for Resisting and Reclaiming"

Organisers and teachers:
👉 @marentierra.bsky.social
👉 @olivia.science
👉 myself

Deadline for application:
🐦 31 March 2026 (early bird fee)

1/🧵

www.ru.nl/en/education...

Many thanks for the kind words and for sharing! To avoid any confusion or disappointment: the lectures by prof. Sear and prof. Kittay will be in English, the other lectures will be in Dutch.

Resistance Isn't Denialism By Emily I've recently noticed a new tactic on the part of AI boosters to attempt to erase the work of people who are resisting the project of "AI" and...

MAIHT3k newsletter:

The narrative of the denialism frame is that those opposing "AI" are afraid, under-informed and/or engaging in wishful thinking. None of that is true: The people who oppose the "AI" project are actively fighting and refusing to accept the premise of tech bros and AI boosters.

We have a stellar line-up with both national and international speakers: Gie van den Berghe, Rebecca Sear (@rebeccasear.bsky.social), Danny Praet, Erik Thys, Eva F. Kittay, and Anaïs Van Ertvelde. For more information and to subscribe, click the link in the post above.

The department of Philosophy and Moral Sciences at Ghent University is proud to present a lecture series on the topic of eugenics. As philosophers and ethicists, we are concerned about the revival and normalization of eugenic discourse.

humanitiesacademie.ugent.be/eugenics

We zijn zeer trots op onze affiche, met zowel Vlaamse als internationale sprekers: Gie van den Berghe, Rebecca Sear, Danny Praet, Erik Thys, Eva F. Kittay en Anaïs Van Ertvelde. Registratie kan via de link in de post hierboven.