Aloysius Ventham
@paranoidaquinoid.bsky.social
Dr of Philosophy (metaethics and political philosophy). More interested in Dostoevsky than is healthy. Impossibly caffeinated. Working as a philosopher in Salzburg. Part of the Salzburg Ethics Group.
My article on Hegelian constitutivism and how it gives us the resources to overcome Lefflerian 'shmagency' worries has just been published. Check it out if you're into metaethics and/or Hegel. #philsky #philosophy www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Robust Constitutivism: What Normativity Will Emerge from Facts about Agency? | Hegel Bulletin | Cambridge Core
Robust Constitutivism: What Normativity Will Emerge from Facts about Agency?
cambridge.org
So I'm travelling from Salzburg to the south of Portugal... By train! The journey will last around 42hrs in total. I've just arrived in Geneva so that's already a bit of a dent. Turns out the Swiss are lovely!
Taking the liberty to share this a second time, as Bluesky was apparently down for much of yesterday. My most recent paper just out in Synthese—'Inner speech and sign languages':
Inner speech and sign languages - Synthese
Synthese - In the last fifteen years, philosophical interest in inner speech has increased drastically. Although philosophers working on the topic have often made claims about inner speech...
link.springer.com
My paper 'What is Friendship' has just been published. Thank you to everyone who gave me comments! Give it a read if friendship is your jam: www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi... #philsky #philosophy #friendship
What is Friendship?
This paper explores the concept of friendship by examining the way this relationship is accommodated within two of the three major models within normative ethics: specifically, Kantian Deontology and Aristotelianism. I argue that the models of friendship compatible with Kantian Deontology fail to give an adequate account in virtue of failing to provide the necessary robustness required in genuine friendships. Aristotelian accounts come under pressure for their emphasis on similarity and virtue mirroring, which may not reflect the diversity found in real-world friendships. The paper proposes a novel account of friendship, termed the adverbial model , which values the unique way individuals relate to their world. This model addresses the robustness requirement I propose as a necessary desideratum, and accommodates friendships between individuals with differing interests and values.
degruyterbrill.com
😆 "Humor in the Historical Works of Tacitus" In this sharp re-reading of #Tacitus, Emma Warhover shows how humour in his dense prose exposes imperial hypocrisy and absurdity, revealing wit as a deliberate critical tool at the heart of #Roman historiography. bit.ly/3Nmu6zF @uofmpress.bsky.social
Final plug for my workshop 'Friendship, and Friendship with the Morally Bad' featuring superstars of bluesky @drjoeslater.bsky.social and @lopezcantero.bsky.social. More details. and registration information, can be found here: philevents.org/event/show/1... #philosophy #philsky
Workshop on Friendship, and Friendship with the Morally Bad
Call for Registration Workshop on Friendship, and Friendship with the Morally Bad 5th–6th March 2025 | Online (Microsoft Teams) The Salzburg Ethics Group would like to invite registrations for a...
philevents.org
In March I will be talking about friendship break-ups in this online event on ‘Friendship & Friendship with the Morally Bad’, which has many other interesting talks on topics like moral snobbery, CS Lewis being totally wrong, or self-regarding reasons for friendship. Properly excited for this one!
Aloysius Ventham@paranoidaquinoid.bsky.social · 6mo agoPhilosophers! 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
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
Winter School hosted by the University of Groningen announced! If you're an undergrad thinking about doing a PPE masters, check this out! Of course, this is open to everyone! #philsky #philosophy #ppe
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...
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...
philevents.org
It’s book release day! I’m back on social media! I feel slightly awkward about it because part of the book is about how social media transforms your motivations for communication! But honestly writing a book is lonely, weird basement-work, and now I want to talk to people about this weird jank.
One of the great things about organising a workshop on friendship is that people who send abstracts for consideration are very, well, friendly!
What independent journalists/outlets have you been enjoying recently? Particularly people doing immigration reporting (any country) but also US/European politics in general. Self promotion welcome!
Happy first Monday back in the office to those of you for whom this is true. I will celebrate by neurotically checking to see if my papers have moved beyond 'awaiting editor decision'. #philosophy #philsky
So a referee commented that I should read Mark Alznauer's 'Hegel's Theory of Responsibility'. I got this book as a Christmas gift and I can't put it down. It's soooo good. Wild that I'm only reading it now. Thanks anonymous reviewer/wife (the buyer of the book). #philosophy #philsky #christmas
Pleased to announce that my Scientific American piece with @hikemix.bsky.social and James Humphries was one of this year's winners of the @apaphilosophy.bsky.social Op-Ed Contest. See our cringe bios and the other winners here: www.apaonline.org/page/2025pri...
apaonline.org
“At the heart of Schopenhauer’s pessimistic philosophy, [Bather Woods] argues, is a belief in universal solidarity. We are all fellow-sufferers in this absurd unchosen world of pain, and so should feel compassion for one another.” @nigelwarburton.bsky.social @thenewworldmag.bsky.social
Everyday philosophy: Schopenhauer’s one redeeming feature
He was a master of misery who sometimes argued it was better never to have been born. But his love of the flute suggests the philosopher wasn’t all gloom
thenewworld.co.uk
Submitted a REVISED application to the FWF... now to start working on applying to the DFG. I love that philosophers have to fund their own jobs these days. #philosophy #philsky
New study finds not only that people have lower perceptions of plant-based meats for no real reason, but that these negative beliefs are stronger in sexist people.
Finally finished writing a draft of my paper on transaction norms in friendship. Tl;dr - don't say 'I'll get the next one' if I buy you a coffee. Heck, don't say it to anyone. #philosophy #philsky
Als @katemanne.bsky.social ihr Buch »Down Girl« öffentlich vorstellen soll, kann sie nur an eines denken: ihren Körper – und sagt ab. In ihrem neuen Buch zeigt sie nun, wie Fettfeindlichkeit unseren Blick verzerrt und wie sie Menschen Fähigkeiten abspricht: shrk.vg/GroesseZeige...
Mitch Green at Philosophia is a God among men for getting this published so quickly after acceptance. Anyway, have a read if normative blackballing is your sort of thing! #philsky #philosophy link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Would You Still Love Me if I Were a Worm? Robust Relationships and Why Beliefs cannot be the Grounds for Normative Blackballing - Philosophia
Normative blackballing in the context of a friendship refers to a practise where one party actively tells the other that they no longer wish to be friends in virtue of that friend holding abhorrent be...
link.springer.com
Philosophers! I'm drafting a paper on why scorekeeping-like norms are an affront to friendship (saying things like 'you bought the coffee last time, let me get this'). Does anyone know if there are any good papers on gift-giving, or transaction-norms, in this sort of context? #philosophy #philsky
You can apply for the workshop here! www.uni-passau.de/en/backslidi...
Backsliding, Resilience, Renewal? Democracy in Eras of Transformation - University of Passau
The second International Congress on Political Theory will take place at the University of Passau from 5th to 7th October 2026. In multiple panels and two keynote speeches we will approach the topic of Backsliding, Resilience, Renewal? Democracy in Eras of Transformation.
uni-passau.de
CFP: Political scientists and political philosophers! Are you working on populist conceptions of democracy and/or populist threats to equality? Apply to be part of this panel I am co-organizing in Passau! www.uni-passau.de/fileadmin/do... #philsky #poltheory
uni-passau.de
We live in a funny world - this little book is now apparently "out", though I haven't seen physical copies or so. Instead, I was alerted by a Mastodon bot written by a colleague that notices new publications by our faculty members. Well, there it is :) www.cambridge.org/core/element...
Politics and the Economy
Cambridge Core - Ancient Philosophy - Politics and the Economy
cambridge.org
📣 Call for participation! 4&5 Dec Hybrid Workshop: Analogies, External Validity and the Future of Experimental Modeling Across Sciences. Addressing science questions from an interdisciplinary perspective! ✅ Register Now! buff.ly/mwhmV9s @unisalzburg.bsky.social @univie.ac.at @fwf-at.bsky.social
Salzburg-Vienna Workshop: Analogies, external validity and the future of experimental modelling across sciences
Visit the post for more.
buff.ly