Alexander Douglas
@axdouglas.bsky.social
Senior Lecturer in Philosophy, University of St Andrews https://axdouglas.com/ https://axdouglas.substack.com/ Latest book: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/456203/against-identity-by-douglas-alexander/9780241648216 Photo by Lauren Douglas
‘…we need to achieve a minimum of 40% street tree canopy cover, and preferably more, before we start to really feel the benefits of nature’s most advanced air-conditioning technology.’ Me, for Big Issue, on tackling urban #heatwaves…👇 www.bigissue.com/opinion/heat...
I really enjoyed this interview with Joseph Folley, even though I made lots of mistakes! Luckily he's so sharp, he kept me on track. www.youtube.com/watch?v=chpS...
Why We're Obsessed with Identity (and why we should stop) | Dr. Alexander Douglas
YouTube video by Unsolicited advice
youtube.com
Why is it always the Continental Philosophy programmes that get threatened with closure in the UK? Genuine question www.change.org/p/save-the-p...
Sign the Petition
Save the Philosophy Programme at Dundee University
change.org
Very cool Aeon piece from Christine Tan on Zhuangzi’s radical version of anti-meritocracy: aeon.co/essays/zhuan...
I wrote about moral abolitionism and cartoon villains, in this post called, um, Moral Abolitionism and Cartoon Villains: axdouglas.substack.com/p/moral-abol...
Moral Abolitionism and Cartoon Villains
You might not like moral abolitionism, but don't let it drive you to a simplistic understanding of human nature.
axdouglas.substack.com
Against Identity is out in paperback tomorrow! www.penguin.co.uk/books/456203... Sorry for the advertising, but it’s my first public-facing book, so I’m excitable. Here are the reviews in the Guardian and the Telegraph: www.telegraph.co.uk/books/non-fi... www.theguardian.com/books/2025/j...
Against Identity
Modern life encourages us to pursue the perfect identity. Whether we aspire to become the best lawyer or charity worker, life partner or celebrity influencer, we emulate exemplars that exist in the wo...
penguin.co.uk
"The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity" is an analytic not a synthetic proposition.
Rousseau was the original politics journalist: “Let us begin by discarding all facts, for they are irrelevant to the question.”
The paperback of my book is here next Thursday (11 June)! www.penguin.co.uk/books/456203...
Against Identity
Modern life encourages us to pursue the perfect identity. Whether we aspire to become the best lawyer or charity worker, life partner or celebrity influencer, we emulate exemplars that exist in the wo...
penguin.co.uk
#degrowth #Piketty 'a set of bold policy proposals, including hefty wealth taxes on billionaires, sharp reductions in working hours, a change in diets and a shift of investment from materially intense sectors like industry and mining to education and health.' www.theguardian.com/environment/...
‘An equal and habitable world is possible’: academics set out sweeping vision for planetary survival
Global report provides an alternative to climate breakdown, political extremism and economic tensions
theguardian.com
I'm so angry and sad about my university's decision to force AI into every aspect of our work (whilst they sack as many staff as they can get away with) that I just can't concentrate on research. I'm going to comfort eat cake & try to think nice thoughts.
I very much enjoyed this conversation with Madi Hadi, on his channel rhizastance. (He tells me he’s planning to write something about how the war has led him to see these philosophical conversations in a different light—I look forward to that.) www.youtube.com/watch?v=3g1b...
Hope, Beatitude and Self-acquiescence with Alexander Douglas
YouTube video by rhizastance
youtube.com
I don't like to have philosophical opponents; to have opponents seems unphilosophical. But I keep being struck by how much of my Spinozist-Daoist position on identity and agency, also on teleology and essences, can be captured by the rule: If Korsgaard asserts that p then ¬p.
Yes to this. By the way, if you want to wow your “Continental” friends with your understanding of Heidegger, Arendt, Agamben, and Deleuze, King-ho Leung’s book is the ultimate cheat sheet. It gets across the “deep” points while being perfectly readerly throughout: global.oup.com/academic/pro...
global.oup.com
@lastpositivist.bsky.social · 4mo agoI wrote up my response. sootyempiric.blogspot.com/2026/04/ther...
Early modern philosophy is superior to contemporary philosophy in nearly every way, but one way that I think it _isn’t_ is the bizarre practice of treating Roman poets as philosophical authorities. Why dethrone Plato and Aristotle only to crown Virgil and Ovid?
The difference between Descartes and other philosophers is striking. When his _Rules_ got too long and complicated, he abandoned the project to search for a simpler method. Most philosophers would instead have responded by adding two more volumes.
Academics are wondering whether AI can replace peer review, but you don’t need fancy technology to generate a message saying: “2000 words should be cut. Three sections should be added to discuss issues not mentioned in the current draft. No existing content should be removed.”
I had a very nice conversation with Mela Miekus in Network Cultures networkcultures.org/blog/2026/02...
Institute of Network Cultures | Identity, Mimesis, and the Escape from the Self: An Interview with Alexander Douglas
networkcultures.org
Since Jon Stewart got everyone excited about the justification of profit under capitalism, I’m posting my essay on why the risk-free return on wealth or rate of “normal” profit should be zero. philpapers.org/archive/DOUA... Soon it will be published, and I’ll have to take it down.
philpapers.org
Back to teaching at St Andrews. This semester I am teaching Philosophy of Law and new module Timely Topics in Political Philosophy,where topics include Inequality & Extreme Wealth, Poverty & Homelessness, Free Speech & Hate Speech, AI and Job Displacement, Migration, and War #PhilSky
My new article, "Antitelic Essences in Spinoza's 'Mystical Atheism'" is available open access at Topoi: rdcu.be/eZ5nA
Antitelic Essences in Spinoza’s “Mystical Atheism”
rdcu.be
A tradução portuguesa do meu livro já está disponível! www.guerraepaz.pt/produto/cont...
Contra a Identidade – A Sabedoria de Escapar do Eu - Guerra e Paz
Em Contra a Identidade – A Sabedoria de Escapar do Eu, Alexander Douglas explica-nos porque é que a procura da identidade não faz sentido e de que forma devemos escapar do eu.
guerraepaz.pt
The London Spinoza Circle has been reborn as the UK Spinoza Circle, thanks to the hard work of @asalgadoborge.bsky.social. Please see the website here to sign up and for info on the first event, happening this Friday! www.spinozacircle.co.uk
UK Spinoza Circle | A Monthly Online Workshop
Formerly known as the London Spinoza Circle, the UK Spinoza Circle is an ongoing monthly workshop open to academics, postgraduates and graduate students.
spinozacircle.co.uk
The London Spinoza Circle has been reborn as the UK Spinoza Circle, thanks to the hard work of Tony Salgado Borge. Please see the website here to sign up and for info on the first event, happening this Friday! www.spinozacircle.co.uk
UK Spinoza Circle | A Monthly Online Workshop
Formerly known as the London Spinoza Circle, the UK Spinoza Circle is an ongoing monthly workshop open to academics, postgraduates and graduate students.
spinozacircle.co.uk
I’ll be speaking at Spui25 in Amsterdam next month! spui25.nl/programma/al...
Alexander Douglas Goes Online: Digital Culture and the Self
From filter bubbles and FOMO to doomscrolling and public shaming… are the problems that plague digital culture in fact problems of identity? Join us as we pose this question to philosopher Alexander ...
spui25.nl
