Joe Slater

When a political commentator says "Spare a thought for the king", I kinda tune out.

More worrying stuff. Ugh.

Sent!

Why are vegans, drivers of electric vehicles, peaceniks etc hated so much by reactionaries? Because their mere existence is a (justified) criticism of the behaviour of those who would prefer just to carry on unthinkingly.

If your study is framed as asking whether "AI" does X as well as humans do, it's fundamentally misguided and I'd argue not scientifically sound.

A short 🧵>>

New paper! Joint work with @asgeirberg.bsky.social

"The Philosophical Prospects of Large Language
Models in the Future of Mathematics"

Online now in the Annals of Mathematics and Philosophy: mxphi.com/wp-content/u...

Please share it with anyone interested in LLMs and Mathematics!

🧵

Happy #SuperbOwl 🦉 Sunday to all who celebrate.

Well I don't think that's fine 🤬

A conference schedule for Thursday, 5th of March. Sessions begin at 10:00 with "Mutuality without Measurement" by Aloysius Ventham, followed by "Non-Domination and Eschewing Friendships with the Morally Bad" by Aarthy Vaidyanathan at 11:00. After a 15-minute break, Andrew Ma presents "The Strains of Involvement: Objectification and Ending Friendships" at 12:00. Lunch runs from 12:45 to 13:45. The afternoon features Sophie-Grace Chappell's 90-minute talk "What Aristotle and C.S. Lewis get wrong about friendship (pretty much everything)" at 13:45, then after another break, Paloma Morales presents "'Bad People' and Moral Snobs: On the Badness of Refusing to Befriend People with Serious Moral Vices" at 15:45. The day concludes with "Final Speaker" Yiran Hua from 16:30 to 18:00.

A conference schedule for Friday, 6th of March. Sessions begin at 10:00 with "Should we blame our friends for their immoral beliefs?" by Jake Wagner, followed by "Virtue Friendship with Bad People in Aristotle" by Dashan Xu at 11:00. After a 15-minute break, Pilar Lopez Cantero presents "Friendship Break-ups" at 12:00. Lunch runs from 12:45 to 13:45. The afternoon features Joe Slater's 90-minute talk "'You Should Like Your Friends', 'You Shouldn't Like Nazis' and Other Shocking Revelations" at 13:45, then after another break, Max Lewis presents "Friendship, Bad People, and the Limits of Reactivity" at 15:45. The day concludes with Final Speaker Bennett Helm from 16:30 to 18:00.

Philosophers! Come to my two day workshop - it's online and free and features OUTSTANDING speakers! dm me if you'd like to register to attend, or email me at aloysiusaquinas.ventham[at]salzburg.ac.at. More details here philevents.org/event/show/1... #philsky #philosophy #ethics

8 years ago, I submitted my PhD thesis. Since then, I've:
• Had 7 fixed-term teaching contracts
• Lectured >5,000 students
• Given >40 talks at conferences/workshops

And published:
• 13 research articles
• 3 book reviews
• 7 general audience pieces

I'm tired guys. And still precarious.#AcademicSky

Should England and Wales Reduce Jury Use? In England and Wales, mounting court backlogs have fuelled proposals (including from David Lammy) to reduce jury trials. Joe Slater explains the many pros and cons of jury trials and how to think more...

"I think we should be willing to consider how different alternatives embody our values. I’d like us to consider even more radical options for legal reform."

In our latest post, @drjoeslater.bsky.social discusses David Lammy's proposal to reduce jury trials in England and Wales.

Agreed!
Most of the reviews are very positive, though. So I'm hoping it won't be too bad...

So I think there's just one that might be genuinely tricky. With the others, it might just be a matter of addressing smaller points, adding references, etc.

No, not Philosophy of Science. I've still manged to avoid wading into that domain!
Thanks for the tips. I actually don't think it's going to be *that* bad. Five are very positive (and seem to recommend accept-as-is or with minor corrections). Of the two critical ones, I think one is talking past me.

Should England and Wales Reduce Jury Use? In England and Wales, mounting court backlogs have fuelled proposals (including from David Lammy) to reduce jury trials. Joe Slater explains the many pros and cons of jury trials and how to think more...

New thing just came out - a blog post for the Public Ethics (@publicethicsblog.bsky.social) about the proposed changes to jury use in England and Wales. www.publicethics.org/post/should-...
#PhilSky #PhilLaw #PublicPhilosophy #ShamelessSelfPromotion

Right?! Some of them are great comments, so I'm somewhat appreciative. But there are so many. It's overwhelming.

I *am* still hoping this gets published, so I think I'll keep quiet for now. If you see a publication of mine in a few months where I thank ALL the reviewers, you'll know! ;-)

They still only gave me 12 days (what kind of interval is that???) to make necessary revisions. :'(

Garth Marenghi with a caption saying "I'm one of the few people who've written more books than they've read".

This however...

Maybe some reviewers were very late, and the editors thought they weren't going to respond, so they asked others...?

I'm genuinely baffled. Most of them are really positive too, but some extensive. The total length of the comments is longer than the length of the paper.

Never elect a man who's eaten more books than he's read.

Working on an R&R at the moment. But I have *seven* sets of reviewer comments? Is that a record...?
Feel like this is gonna be a long letter to the reviewers...
#PhilSky

Why Philosophy Matters Its true and final value: a rant

Doing a live reading of this blog at my next admissions day substack.com/home/post/p-...

Check out that symmetry!

Wordle 1,675 4/6

⬛🟩⬛🟩⬛
⬛🟩🟨🟩⬛
🟩🟩⬛🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

#Wordle

The health app on my phone has a more optimistic evaluation of my days than I do.

Contents page for Back ti the Future and Philosophy, including "Did Marty Commit Temporal Manslaughter?" by Joe Slater.

Book entitled Back to the Future and Philosophy.

My first (and possibly most fun) publication of 2026 came through my letterbox today: a chapter in Back to the Future and Philosophy!
#FilmPhilosophy #PhilSky

Full view of 1998 Xena: Warrior Princess calendar

January 15 entry on calendar: "MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.'S BIRTHDAY Xena ends the Trojan War"

I found out that you can reuse a decades old calendar if its year’s dates line up with the current year’s, so this year I got a lovely 1998 Xena: Warrior Princess calendar. The way they added show events into it is cracking me up.

Workshop on Friendship, and Friendship with the Morally Bad We invite submissions for a two-day workshop on friendship to be held online, hosted by The University of Salzburg, Austria on the 5th and 6th of March, 2026. In recent years, philosophers have incre...

There's still circa one day left to send abstracts to my workshop on friendship, and friendship with the morally bad! Confirmed speakers include Bennett Helm, Sophie-Grace Chappell, Yiran Hua, Jake Wagner, and Bluesky's own @drjoeslater.bsky.social. More details here: philevents.org/event/show/1...