Ben Young
@benyoung.bsky.social
Olfactory Philosopher at University of Nevada
I smell things, I lift things, and I ride things. Olympian intuition pumper/napper.
I smell things, I lift things, and I ride things. Olympian intuition pumper/napper.
Reposted by Ben Young
Join us tomorrow (9/19) at noon by Zoom for the first seminar of the MIT Consciousness Club
sites.google.com/view/mit-con...
#neuroscience
sites.google.com/view/mit-con...
#neuroscience
MIT Consciousness Club
The MIT Consciousness Club aims to foster interdisciplinary research on consciousness at MIT and in the broader Boston area by organizing a monthly event featuring an expert talk on consciousness foll...
sites.google.com
September 18, 2025 at 6:11 PM
Join us tomorrow (9/19) at noon by Zoom for the first seminar of the MIT Consciousness Club
sites.google.com/view/mit-con...
#neuroscience
sites.google.com/view/mit-con...
#neuroscience
The role of mental imagery in worry: Insights from aphantasia www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
The role of mental imagery in worry: Insights from aphantasia.
Worry is characterised by thinking about prospective negative future outcomes, and is a key cognitive feature of anxiety. The influential Cognitive Av…
www.sciencedirect.com
August 21, 2025 at 11:09 AM
The role of mental imagery in worry: Insights from aphantasia www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Reposted by Ben Young
Here's the schedule for the MIT Consciousness Club this year: sites.google.com/view/mit-con.... I'm looking forward to it! (Rooms will be announced soon; and we're currently working on a zoom option for those who would like to join online)
MIT Consciousness Club
The MIT Consciousness Club aims to foster interdisciplinary research on consciousness at MIT and in the broader Boston area by organizing a monthly event featuring an expert talk on consciousness foll...
sites.google.com
August 19, 2025 at 2:15 PM
Here's the schedule for the MIT Consciousness Club this year: sites.google.com/view/mit-con.... I'm looking forward to it! (Rooms will be announced soon; and we're currently working on a zoom option for those who would like to join online)
The Scent of Memory: Cultural Identity Through Odors in Brazil www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-6...
The Scent of Memory: Cultural Identity Through Odors in Brazil
Odors are known to be potent cues of autobiographical memories. For each of us, particular smells, shaped by culture and life experiences, can bring the past vividly to mind. However, the specific nat...
www.researchsquare.com
August 15, 2025 at 5:33 AM
The Scent of Memory: Cultural Identity Through Odors in Brazil www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-6...
Reposted by Ben Young
Philosophers on Bluesky who work on the chemical senses include @barrycsmith.bsky.social, @smellosopher.bsky.social, @benyoung.bsky.social, @asifamajid.bsky.social, @giuliamartina.bsky.social, @bexmillar.bsky.social, and me. See also my starter pack of philosophers of perception: go.bsky.app/B2HQDad
August 13, 2025 at 4:07 PM
Philosophers on Bluesky who work on the chemical senses include @barrycsmith.bsky.social, @smellosopher.bsky.social, @benyoung.bsky.social, @asifamajid.bsky.social, @giuliamartina.bsky.social, @bexmillar.bsky.social, and me. See also my starter pack of philosophers of perception: go.bsky.app/B2HQDad
Cool new paper:
Representations of smells: The next frontier for language models? www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Representations of smells: The next frontier for language models? www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Representations of smells: The next frontier for language models?
Whereas human cognition develops through perceptually driven interactions with the environment, language models (LMs) are “disembodied learners” which…
www.sciencedirect.com
July 23, 2025 at 11:10 AM
Cool new paper:
Representations of smells: The next frontier for language models? www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Representations of smells: The next frontier for language models? www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Reposted by Ben Young
Ben @benyoung.bsky.social and I are editing a special issue on the philosophy of smell and taste. Whether you have worked on these intriguing senses before or want to get into them for the first time, this is your call! Bonus point: fully open access 👍
philosophymindscience.org/index.php/ph...
philosophymindscience.org/index.php/ph...
Call for Papers: Philosophy and Chemosenses
| Philosophy and the Mind Sciences
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...
philosophymindscience.org
July 8, 2025 at 1:08 PM
Ben @benyoung.bsky.social and I are editing a special issue on the philosophy of smell and taste. Whether you have worked on these intriguing senses before or want to get into them for the first time, this is your call! Bonus point: fully open access 👍
philosophymindscience.org/index.php/ph...
philosophymindscience.org/index.php/ph...
Call for Papers:
Philosophy and Chemosenses special issue of Philosophy and the Mind Sciences (fully open access with no fees) edited by @giuliamartina.bsky.social and me. Deadline for submissions September 1.
Submit early and often for best results
philosophymindscience.org/index.php/ph...
Philosophy and Chemosenses special issue of Philosophy and the Mind Sciences (fully open access with no fees) edited by @giuliamartina.bsky.social and me. Deadline for submissions September 1.
Submit early and often for best results
philosophymindscience.org/index.php/ph...
Call for Papers: Philosophy and Chemosenses
| Philosophy and the Mind Sciences
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...
philosophymindscience.org
July 8, 2025 at 11:47 AM
Call for Papers:
Philosophy and Chemosenses special issue of Philosophy and the Mind Sciences (fully open access with no fees) edited by @giuliamartina.bsky.social and me. Deadline for submissions September 1.
Submit early and often for best results
philosophymindscience.org/index.php/ph...
Philosophy and Chemosenses special issue of Philosophy and the Mind Sciences (fully open access with no fees) edited by @giuliamartina.bsky.social and me. Deadline for submissions September 1.
Submit early and often for best results
philosophymindscience.org/index.php/ph...
Reposted by Ben Young
"Jews are capable of forming their own views about Israel, Palestine and everything else. We don’t need institutions to tell us what we must believe to be authentically Jewish."
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Harvard appears to think all Jews support Israel. That is discriminatory | Barry Trachtenberg, Victor Silverman, Atalia Omer, Raz Segal, Rebecca T Alpert
We are Jewish scholars who filed an amicus brief with the US supreme court on Harvard’s discriminatory assumption that being Jewish means supporting Israel
www.theguardian.com
June 12, 2025 at 3:19 PM
"Jews are capable of forming their own views about Israel, Palestine and everything else. We don’t need institutions to tell us what we must believe to be authentically Jewish."
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Reposted by Ben Young
Pleased to say "Space, Time, and Memory", an academic book by Oxford University Press edited by the inimitable Lynn Nadel & Sara Aronowitz is now out.
I contributed a chapter, "Memory and Planning in Brains and Machines".
You can download the entire book for free:
library.oapen.org/bitstream/ha...
I contributed a chapter, "Memory and Planning in Brains and Machines".
You can download the entire book for free:
library.oapen.org/bitstream/ha...
June 9, 2025 at 8:48 PM
Pleased to say "Space, Time, and Memory", an academic book by Oxford University Press edited by the inimitable Lynn Nadel & Sara Aronowitz is now out.
I contributed a chapter, "Memory and Planning in Brains and Machines".
You can download the entire book for free:
library.oapen.org/bitstream/ha...
I contributed a chapter, "Memory and Planning in Brains and Machines".
You can download the entire book for free:
library.oapen.org/bitstream/ha...
Working from the summer office
June 10, 2025 at 5:23 AM
Working from the summer office
For those around Cambridge check out this wonderful smell symposium:
Scents and imagination www.crassh.cam.ac.uk/events/45567...
Scents and imagination www.crassh.cam.ac.uk/events/45567...
Scents and imagination - CRASSH
CRASSH symposium
www.crassh.cam.ac.uk
June 3, 2025 at 5:31 AM
For those around Cambridge check out this wonderful smell symposium:
Scents and imagination www.crassh.cam.ac.uk/events/45567...
Scents and imagination www.crassh.cam.ac.uk/events/45567...
Reposted by Ben Young
The Philosophy department at the University of Nevada is hosting a cool lecture on April 14th.
Amia Srinivasan will be speaking on "Genealogies of Oppression: Psychoanalysis, Feminism and Liberation".
The event is free and open to the public. If you're in or nearby Reno, NV, feel free to attend!
Amia Srinivasan will be speaking on "Genealogies of Oppression: Psychoanalysis, Feminism and Liberation".
The event is free and open to the public. If you're in or nearby Reno, NV, feel free to attend!
March 19, 2025 at 5:32 PM
The Philosophy department at the University of Nevada is hosting a cool lecture on April 14th.
Amia Srinivasan will be speaking on "Genealogies of Oppression: Psychoanalysis, Feminism and Liberation".
The event is free and open to the public. If you're in or nearby Reno, NV, feel free to attend!
Amia Srinivasan will be speaking on "Genealogies of Oppression: Psychoanalysis, Feminism and Liberation".
The event is free and open to the public. If you're in or nearby Reno, NV, feel free to attend!
Reposted by Ben Young
Great to see this new primer on the cognitive capacities that support multi-species sociality www.cell.com/current-biol...
Cognition in multi-species sociality
Different species can sometimes collaborate to forage more efficiently. Sampaio et
al. describe several examples of such cooperation in the animal world and provide
insight into the ecological conditi...
www.cell.com
February 24, 2025 at 11:46 PM
Great to see this new primer on the cognitive capacities that support multi-species sociality www.cell.com/current-biol...
Reposted by Ben Young
The MIT Open Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science is a growing resource, expertly edited and designed, with high quality contributors (OK OK I am one of them) oecs.mit.edu
Open Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science
The Open Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science is a new, multidisciplinary guide to understanding the mind: a freely-available, growing collection of peer-reviewed articles introducing key topics to a bro...
oecs.mit.edu
February 11, 2025 at 9:59 AM
The MIT Open Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science is a growing resource, expertly edited and designed, with high quality contributors (OK OK I am one of them) oecs.mit.edu
For those interested in books about smell, taste, and flavor I made a short (eclectic) list of recommendations
shepherd.com/best-books/s...
#philosophy #perception #Smell #Taste
shepherd.com/best-books/s...
#philosophy #perception #Smell #Taste
The best introductory books on smell and flavor
Benjamin Young shares the 5 best books on smell and flavor. Have you read What the Nose Knows?
shepherd.com
February 10, 2025 at 11:53 AM
For those interested in books about smell, taste, and flavor I made a short (eclectic) list of recommendations
shepherd.com/best-books/s...
#philosophy #perception #Smell #Taste
shepherd.com/best-books/s...
#philosophy #perception #Smell #Taste
One more day to get your paper in.
CFP: Olfactory Philosophy Workshop at UNR Lake Tahoe
philevents.org/event/show/1...
Please spread the CFP widely to PhD students and ECRs - the deadline is January 31
philevents.org/event/show/1...
Please spread the CFP widely to PhD students and ECRs - the deadline is January 31
Olfactory Philosophy Workshop
Call For Papers: Olfactory Philosophy, April 30 - May 3, 2025
The Department of Philosophy at the University of Nevada, Reno will be hosting a workshop on Olfactory Philosophy April 30 - May 3, 2025 a...
philevents.org
January 30, 2025 at 9:22 PM
One more day to get your paper in.
Reached peak middle age standing in line on a Friday waiting for Costco to open to avoid the weekend crowds.
January 24, 2025 at 5:00 PM
Reached peak middle age standing in line on a Friday waiting for Costco to open to avoid the weekend crowds.
Visual attention and representational content academic.oup.com/pq/advance-a...
Visual attention and representational content
Abstract. Attention makes a phenomenal difference to visual experience, but the nature of this difference is controversial. There are three possibilities.
academic.oup.com
January 15, 2025 at 6:03 AM
Visual attention and representational content academic.oup.com/pq/advance-a...
Tastes and retronasal odours evoke a shared flavour-specific neural code in the human insula www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
#PhilSky #PhilPerception #taste #flavor #smell
#PhilSky #PhilPerception #taste #flavor #smell
Tastes and retronasal odours evoke a shared flavour-specific neural code in the human insula
During food consumption, tastes combine with retronasal odours to form flavour, which leads to a link so robust that retronasal odours can elicit taste sensations without concurrent taste stimulation....
www.biorxiv.org
January 12, 2025 at 10:57 AM
Tastes and retronasal odours evoke a shared flavour-specific neural code in the human insula www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
#PhilSky #PhilPerception #taste #flavor #smell
#PhilSky #PhilPerception #taste #flavor #smell
Starting the week with a rejection always sucks.
Reviewer #3 strikes again.
Reviewer #3 strikes again.
January 12, 2025 at 10:50 AM
Starting the week with a rejection always sucks.
Reviewer #3 strikes again.
Reviewer #3 strikes again.