Thanks @fredcollings.bsky.social for accompanying me and for some of the photos!

I had a great time presenting at Oxford for the BLOC Graduate Philosophy of Physics Workshop.

My talk was on "Physical Emergence as Metaphysical Naturalism". I'm super thankful for all of the interesting feedback!—I've a lot to think about.

(See final pic of me stressing over a coffee beforehand)

An abbreviation (ABB) in a journal article (JA) or Grant Application (GA) is rarely worth the words it saves. Every ABB requires cognitive resources (CR) and at my age by the time I'm halfway through a JA or GA I no longer have the CR to remember what your ABB stood for.

Cocaine, probably

If you conceive it, they will come.

Dennett's Real Patterns in Science and Nature How the concept of a pattern, as understood in information science and applied in contemporary AI, can address deep questions in science and philosophy.The

Daniel Dennett’s Real Patterns in Science and Nature— new collected volume is now out. All chapters open access, including my paper with Acyuth Parola on what emergence can possibly mean.

direct.mit.edu/books/oa-edi...

A 'Dinosaur Smarties' Easter egg.

Erm, they're called palaeontologists, actually.

99% of the time, saying that feature F explains why humans are unique or special is just rhetorical window dressing for something like "F is a thing humans do and I think that's neat."

An audio podcast!? Oh how technology moves fast!

*watching civilization crumble* Wow this is harming so many people in their capacities as knowers 😔😔

Nancy Cartwright has an apt expression for this phenomenon: vanity of rigour.

I get yelled at for saying this but for many hundreds of years people went to university not to get diplomas or be employable but because immersion in the humanities was considered foundational to a good life, and school must return to its original purpose: the joy of learning.

Jingyi Wu (LSE Philosophy): 'Rigor Capture' YouTube video by LSE Philosophy

Interestingly, it might be the very desire for rigour that partially causes epistemic injustice! I've linked a talk that goes over this. You might find it interesting.

youtu.be/CXdNQpJRnJM?...

New on the Archive:

Franklin, Alexander (2026) Against Rigour: In Favour of Informal Standards for Reduction in Philosophy of Physics. [Preprint]

https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/28449/

When life...

Such a fantastic talk today at LSE. A triumph in interdisciplinary philosophy!

There is this funny but confusing dynamic whereby philosophers point to neuroscience as the strongest support yet for the causal closure of the physical world, and then the neuroscientists themselves turn out to be substance dualists.

A bit fragiguous

What other entities do you have in mind? The physical things that emerge also seem to be reducible (à la Butterfield). Consciousness is the hardest thing to reduce, to the point of impossibility. So consciousness, if irreducible (big 'if'), seems relevantly different from other emergent things.

The Center for Philosophy of Science is proud to congratulate former visiting fellow Andrea Roselli on the publication of two papers. Scan the QR code or visit our website for more information.

#PhilosophyofScience

I was just there to give a presentation (on fusion emergence), and I thought the same thing! It's very unique and quite beautiful. Especially when the sun is shining or if it has snowed. And, unlike some of the responses to this, many others I was with thought the same thing!

I'm thankful for having been given the opportunity to present my analysis of fusion emergence from the perspective of the philosophy of physics at the 'Panpsychism, Non-Physicalism, and Causal Powers of Consciousness' workshop in @ruhr-uni-bochum.de. An enjoyable and insightful few days!

I had a great time at the ‘Panpsychism, Non-Physicalism, and the Causal Powers of Consciousness’ workshop with @heddamorch.bsky.social at Ruhr Uni Bochum. So many compelling new views that push the debate forward. I’m very grateful to have had this opportunity!

Photo by @finnthwaite.bsky.social! 📸

Isn't it just that on powerful qualities they're actually the same thing (even if they seem conceptually distinct), rather than there being a necessity relation between two distinct things?

“As the number of physicists increases, each specialty becomes more self-sustaining and self-contained. Such Balkanization carries physics, and indeed, every science further away, from natural philosophy, which, intellectually, is the meaning and goal of science.” — I.I. Rabi

Is panpsychism pseudophilosophy? A response to Walter Veit

Is panpsychism a philosophical dead-end or a legitimate response to the hard problem of consciousness? I respond to Walter Veit's critique and defend panpsychism as a serious metaphysical option, not ornamental fluff. #philsky @walterveit.bsky.social

Animal Consciousness (first paragraph of the article). First published Sat Dec 23, 1995; substantive revision Tue Jan 13, 2026. Is there something it’s like to be an octopus, a bee, a snail? For much of the twentieth century, research into animal cognition tended to avoid questions of consciousness, following the lead of human neuroscience, where such questions were also marginalized (see the entries on animal cognition, methods in comparative cognition). However, the growing profile of consciousness science since 2000 has brought the topic of consciousness back into the scientific mainstream (see the entry on the neuroscience of consciousness), and this has led to resurgent interest in studying conscious experience in other animals.

I've been working for ages on a comprehensive revamp of the Stanford Encyclopedia Entry on "Animal Consciousness", with new sections on non-Western perspectives, methodological challenges and evolutionary big pictures, and it's out today: plato.stanford.edu/entries/cons.... Hope you find it useful!

Can Your Beliefs Change What You See? A Very Short Introduction to Cognitive Penetration

open.substack.com/pub/thezombi...

Merry Christmas to me!