Thom Scott-Phillips
@thomscottphillips.bsky.social
Language, Psychology, Culture, Philosophy, Society, Evolution • When not doing science I dance the lindy hop https://linktr.ee/thomscottphillips
Well. Cambridge announced an investigation into Arday, and within an hour he chose to resign The whole affair has a disgrace. Shame on Cambridge, shame on Arday, and shame on the people who signed that petition without looking into even the most basic facts www.theguardian.com/education/20...
Cambridge professor Jason Arday resigns amid accusations of plagiarism
Sociology professor to stand down after university announces investigation into his qualifications and career
theguardian.com
This is the best piece yet written on the Jason Arday affair. Finally, someone else is suitably outraged by the disgraceful behaviour of Arday and his defenders at Cambridge and beyond
Rory Waterman@rorywaterman.bsky.social · 4d agoSome notes by little me on recent, hugely damaging, shamefully shameless events at Cambridge University. rorywaterman.substack.com/p/notes-on-a-cambridge-debacle If you read only one article about what has happened, try the new piece by Lanre Bakare in the Guardian, linked in my blog post.
A year I wrote about my own difficulties finding a stable academic home, and it included this passage about academic dishonesty It makes stories like the one below, and the Jason Arday one this same week, enraging. These cheats, and the institutions that do not come down on them, cause real pain
Charles West@pseudo-isidore.bsky.social · 4d ago
there is a skill to asking tough questions in a friendly way and we'd all be better off if it were more widely distributed
noam@noamchompers.bsky.social · 4d agoI think academic philosophy has gotten a lot less overtly mean over the last couple decades, and that’s overall good. But it is sorta *weird* that as a result a lot of people sorta linger in the hallway after talks to whisper ‘that was shit, right?’ to one another
Glad someone senior from the sector is pushing back. Labour MPs need to understand the serious real anger from graduates and the people who produce them. And the dangerous financial situation they have allowed to fester, or indeed worsened, in one of Britain’s leading sectors.
Labour has harmed universities as much as Trump, London School of Economics head says
LSE vice-chancellor Larry Kramer points to domestic student fees freeze, international student limits and rise in employers’ national insurance
ft.com
New article!: The Origins and Evolution of Writing www.annualreviews.org/content/jour... 🧵1/
The Origins and Evolution of Writing
For centuries, scholars have debated the etiology and evolution of writing. The most persistent concerns relate to the relationship between writing and social organization, linguistic structure, and c...
annualreviews.org
Many left-wing writers are still on X. I think if you’d asked them five years ago if they’d stay if the owner was a white supremacist who advocated race war and the murder of people who opposed mass deportations they would have said no of course not, that’s crazy. And yet
The thing about anti cyclist discourse is that I know some bike riders are assholes. Some people are assholes. Their mode of transport is irrelevant. But so long as the damage done by drivers is so incredibly high compared to everyone else, maybe stfu about that scofflaw cyclist you once saw.
Academics: What's a journal in your field that's great? I feel like they are a dwindling breed. Criteria: (1) No APC. Supports green or diamond OA. (2) High-quality and relatively fast peer review. (3) Editors who provide real curational value and exercise purposeful agency in the decision process.
The following three things cannot all be true: - Natural selection causes biological traits to tend towards a strong form-function link - The function of human reason is to get closer to truth - Human reason is very prone to straightforward logical fallacy So what gives?
How does anyone think "Bollocks, I respond!" is a suitable response to a reasonable question? That is simply disqualifying as serious, professional person Worse, what is @timeshighered.bsky.social playing at, publishing such things? The problem isn't the language, the problem is the unseriousness
Times Higher Education (THE)@timeshighered.bsky.social · 2w agoA science PhD can be completed within 18 months: supervisors should involve doctoral students with conducting, writing up and publishing experiments straight away, says Adrian Furnham #PhDs #research #supervision #academicsky https://ow.ly/5Fxb50ZpZ4O
EXCELLENT: The Netherlands new OA policy seems to be well thought through obc.copim.pub/when-scaling... Policy explicitly recommends redirection & reallocation of funds from existing ‘big deal’ budgets towards community-driven alternatives, incl university-led diamond OA & Netherlands Uni Presses
When 'scaling small' becomes national policy
The Netherlands' new open access strategy echoes the principles the Open Book Collective was built on - 'scaling small' and community-led publishing
obc.copim.pub
Honestly, I think a whole generation of experimental psychologists fell for this mistake. Toddlers give the wrong answer in the false belief task because the answer is bloody obvious and they don't know why the adult is asking such a silly question
Alice Lilly@aliceolilly.bsky.social · 3w agoI currently spend a lot of time asking my toddler daughter what noises different animals make and the other day it crossed my mind that maybe she just thinks I’m really stupid and can’t remember ‘Ugh, mummy, dogs go woofwoofwoof, we’ve been through this SO many times’
It’s amazing seeing @holdenthorp.bsky.social say the obvious part clearly. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
AI in scientific publishing: Slower, worse, and more expensive
There’s a saying in the management world, popularized by NASA administrator Daniel Goldin in the 1990s, that the goal of technological improvements is to make products faster, better, and cheaper. Alt...
science.org
This, in particular. Increasingly of the view that government policy towards universities is the test case of whether it really has a wider economic policy.
Jonathan Portes@jdportes.bsky.social · 3w ago"A closed country will be poorer. A country that underinvests will not grow. A state that refuses to reform tax will ration ambition. And a Labour government afraid to say these things will discover once again that caution, too, has costs." www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Actually said "fucking hell" out loud when they explained why they hadn't allowed her the opportunity to have a friend, TU representative or colleague in the meeting. Christ, they are going to lose any lawsuit badly. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
UK Treasury must change disciplinary process after worker’s suicide, mother says
Chloe Moffat, 26, killed herself day after meeting about anonymous complaint in which she was not allowed to bring a colleague
theguardian.com
‼️This is what is currently on the screen of Hungary's public broadcaster: "Public service media must not lie." It apologizes for years of deception and says it is being transformed into an independent, trustworthy public service broadcaster. News broadcasting is temporarily suspended.
👏"purely intrapsychic benefits are irrelevant to fitness... our alternative social framework [...] avoids evolutionary implausibility by drawing a more transparent explanatory connection between pop delusions & the kinds of strategic, social goals we would expect human beings to have on evo grounds"
The Puzzle of Popular Delusions
Abstract. Chapter 3: The Puzzle of Popular Delusions introduces what we call the “functional delusions puzzle”: why healthy, otherwise rational communities
academic.oup.com
I was using the em dash long before LLMs. Now I feel very self-conscious about them and use them less often. I regret this loss
This is where I will be based for 26/27 academic year. I am very much looking forward to it and so far they have been excellent to work with Applications now open for fellowships for the 27/28 academic year gulbenkian.pt/en/bolsas-li...
Fellowships Gulbenkian Institute for Advanced Study
Apply for a research opportunity at the GIAS in Lisbon. Submit your application for the academic year 2026/27.
gulbenkian.pt
I'm not saying the mind-body problem is not *a thing*, only that: (1) the usual narrative has had its day, and (2) the usual narrative has little to do with empirically engaged philosophy of mind
Superb. Great dancing and a great aesthetic that captures something true about where swing dance comes from www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vzlw...
The Hot Shots - Deadly Rhythm Outtakes
YouTube video by The Hot Shots
youtube.com
"There is no reason that [social role theory] could not also be adaptationist about its postulated role-internalising mechanisms... even if social role theory is right, it is not a challenge to the broad project of evolutionary, even adaptationist, analysis"
(PDF) Is a Non-evolutionary Psychology Possible?
PDF | The last 30 years has seen the emergence of a self-styled ‘evolutionary’ paradigm within psychology (henceforth, EP). EP is often presented and... | Find, read and cite all the research you need...
researchgate.net
This is where I will be based for 26/27 academic year. I am very much looking forward to it and so far they have been excellent to work with Applications now open for fellowships for the 27/28 academic year gulbenkian.pt/en/bolsas-li...
Fellowships Gulbenkian Institute for Advanced Study
Apply for a research opportunity at the GIAS in Lisbon. Submit your application for the academic year 2026/27.
gulbenkian.pt
For a city with a strong self image as green and forward thinking, the welcome for pedestrians at Bristol train station is remarkably hostile. Walk past the taxi ranks then it’s six lanes of noisy traffic
Top ten myths scientists have about science: 1. Good science is guided solely by the search for Truth. 2. 1 is logically sound. 3. Publishers can exist simply to disseminate results, not for profits. 4. Talks are meant to convey information, not power.
Me: Do you know who Lionel Messi is? My partner, a non-football person: I've heard his name Me: Do you know what he's famous for? Her: He kicked a big goal?
