Department of Philosophy, University of York UK

28/05/2026

Here are three photos from Shanghai Jiao Tong on 18 May, where Tom Stoneham gave a lecture on 'Existential Risk as an Ethical Problem' and engaged in a roundtable on differences between UK and Chinese approaches to AI regulation and governance.

28/05/2026

On May 17, Tom Stoneham took part in launching the inaugural issue of Modern Philosophy, titled "George Berkeley’s Works and Legacy." The event at Yangzhou University was sponsored by the Center of Modern Thought at the School of Social Development, Yangzhou University, and the series is published by Fujian Education Press.

From the report: Tom "emphasized the importance of rereading Berkeley's writings in their full complexity. Professor Stoneham noted that Berkeley's works can appear accessible while also being easily misunderstood, and that recent scholarship has moved beyond a narrow focus on Berkeley's critique of materialism toward broader studies of his social, political, economic, and religious thought."

26/05/2026

Is this Brandolini's Law finally overturned?

(Brandolini's Law: The amount of energy needed to refute bu****it is an order of magnitude bigger than that needed to produce it)

19/05/2026

We are hiring two postdoctoral researchers, to work on questions about the impact of AI on science! See details here, and direct questions to [email protected]!

Recruiting now: Research Associate x 2 on jobs.ac.uk. Click for details and explore more academic job opportunities on the top job board

14/05/2026

There has been a lot of exciting recent work at the intersection of metaphysics and logic, and we're now seeing a "higher-order turn," especially concerning the metaphysics of properties and propositions. In a new paper just published in Mind, Rob Trueman helps us navigate this turn, presenting a new deflationary view that justifies a standard but metaphysically controversial assumption. Read the paper here:

My aim in this paper is to offer a novel justification for β-Equivalence. β-Equivalence is a standard principle of higher-order logic, but it is metaphysically controversial. My argument for β-Equivalence is ...

14/05/2026

Congrats to Dave Ingram, the new President of the Philosophy of Time Society! https://www.philtimesociety.com/

14/05/2026

Daniel Morgan on how far neurophysiology can take us in resolving the controversy about whether addiction is a moral excuse.

Abstract
One influential approach to the question of why addiction excuses focuses on the question of what addiction is and, more particularly, on what addiction turns out to be in the light of scientific inquiry, e.g. neurophysiological inquiry into the dopamine system. I note the tension between this approach and the apparent data-point that lay folk, who have not performed the relevant inquiry, can know that addiction excuses. Given this data-point, the moral psychology of addiction should work with the materials to be found in the shallows of the addicted mind.

One influential approach to the question of why addiction excuses focuses on the question of what addiction is and, more particularly, on what addiction turns out to be in the light of scientific inq...

14/05/2026

What is it like to feel haunted by something? To find out, read Matthew Ratcliffe's new paper "From hauntology (back) to phenomenology," published yesterday in Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences.

Abstract
Since Derrida’s introduction of the term hauntology, there has been much discussion of ghosts, spectres, and hauntings across several disciplines. This work is not exclusively phenomenological in focus. However, there are frequent indications that talk of haunting relates to distinctive forms of experience, which remain elusive and undertheorized. In this paper, I focus specifically on what it is to feel haunted by something and consider how such experiences might be integrated into a larger phenomenological perspective. I propose that feelings of being haunted are integral to the sense of self and also unavoidable. They are implied by the view that human experience is structured by dynamic, organized arrangements of possibilities, a view that has characterised the phenomenological tradition from the outset.

Since Derrida’s introduction of the term hauntology, there has been much discussion of ghosts, spectres, and hauntings across several disciplines. This work is not exclusively phenomenological in focus. However, there are frequent indications that talk of haunting relates to distinctive forms of e...

14/05/2026

Tom Stoneham is currently in Nanjing, giving a trilogy of talks in moral philosophy: "A Critique of Moral Rights," "A Critique of Moral Intuitions," and "A Critique of Moral Perfectionism." Here he is with host Prof Tao Tao. More updates on Tom's tour soon to follow!

13/05/2026

Can you locate what you smell precisely? Maybe not. Does it seem to be outside you? Maybe, yes. But wait, aren't these ideas inconsistent?

Daniel Garcia Saavedra addresses this tension in a new paper, titled "Here, where? A puzzle for olfactory experience’s spatiality" in Philosophy and the Mind Sciences. It's open access, and you can read it here:

Philosophy and the Mind Sciences (PhiMiSci) focuses on the interface between philosophy of mind, psychology, and cognitive neuroscience. PhiMiSci is a peer-reviewed, not-for-profit open-access journal that is free for authors and readers.