Jonathan Birch
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birchlse.bsky.social
Jonathan Birch
@birchlse.bsky.social
6K followers 310 following 760 posts

Professor, LSE. Philosophy of science, animal consciousness, animal ethics. Director of The Jeremy Coller Centre for Animal Sentience.

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Jonathan Birch is a British philosopher and professor of philosophy at the London School of Economics and Political Science. His work addresses the philosophy of biology and behavioural sciences, especially questions concerning sentience, bioethics, animal welfare, and the evolution of social behaviour and social norms. .. more

Neuroscience 26%
Psychology 15%
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birchlse.bsky.social
Jonathan Birch @birchlse.bsky.social · Mar 25
An emotional day - I can announce I'll be the first director of The Jeremy Coller Centre for Animal Sentience at the LSE, supported by a £4m grant from the Jeremy Coller Foundation. Our mission: to develop better policies, laws and ways of caring for animals. (1/2)
www.lse.ac.uk/News/Latest-...
LSE announces new centre to study animal sentience
The Jeremy Coller Centre for Animal Sentience at LSE will develop new approaches to studying the feelings of other animals scientifically.
www.lse.ac.uk

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Reposted by Jonathan Birch

Reposted by Jonathan Birch

Reposted by Jonathan Birch

Reposted by Jonathan Birch

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adamserwer.bsky.social
Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 1d
Among the many reasons you don’t kidnap a foreign head of state at gunpoint even if you have the capability, is that it sparks consequences you can neither control nor anticipate.

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kashana.blacksky.app
Kashana @kashana.blacksky.app · 1d
It’s a dark night when you look at the news and are forced to admit that you no longer believe in the power of the FIFA peace prize

birchlse.bsky.social
Jonathan Birch @birchlse.bsky.social · 2d
The great 21st century experiment is exempting publishers (social media companies) from any legal liability for what they publish - a decision that has transformed the world. We could have done the same thing with newspapers, radio or TV but did not, of course, because it's clearly a terrible idea.

birchlse.bsky.social
Jonathan Birch @birchlse.bsky.social · 2d
I can't decide if it's any consolation (or makes things worse) that the influencers willing to do this for money appear not to have much influence, so very few people are seeing the content.

birchlse.bsky.social
Jonathan Birch @birchlse.bsky.social · 2d
This reminded me of how Salman Rushdie at first worked in advertising as a "creative", writing fiction on the side. That type of job must have gone already.

Reposted by Joel Z. Leibo

birchlse.bsky.social
Jonathan Birch @birchlse.bsky.social · 2d
The K-pop demon hunters claim it to be "obvious" that a demon with no feelings does not deserve to live. This is naturally read as endorsing both sentience and nondemonhood as individually necessary conditions for the right to life. In this paper...

Reposted by Jonathan Birch

crookedfootball.bsky.social
Chris Bertram @crookedfootball.bsky.social · 2d
This post by @carriejenkins.net has prompted me to write up some thoughts at Crooked Timber on the threat AI poses to art

Reposted by Jonathan Birch

birchlse.bsky.social
Jonathan Birch @birchlse.bsky.social · 4d
"Residual core" is slightly politer than "rump".

birchlse.bsky.social
Jonathan Birch @birchlse.bsky.social · 4d
You must be tempted to tell the story like this: phil. sci. and the core of analytic epistemology drifted apart; things got so bad that the residual "core" started to see "inquiry" as largely unstudied; by turning back to science we can set the record straight and solve the allegedly new problems.

birchlse.bsky.social
Jonathan Birch @birchlse.bsky.social · 4d
The opening of the abstract will seem a bit off to anyone who thinks of philosophy of science as an important branch of "epistemology in the analytic tradition".

birchlse.bsky.social
Jonathan Birch @birchlse.bsky.social · 5d
Veganism is not self-denial in my experience. You can do "Veganuary" and gorge yourself on 3D printed steaks, impossible burgers, artisanal fauxmage, cashew ice cream and as much chocolate as you want but it's called cacao so it's healthy now.

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birchlse.bsky.social
Jonathan Birch @birchlse.bsky.social · 5d
It's making me reflect on how a culture of "charity entrepreneurship", where tons of startup-like charities try very different things, some of them very high risk to say the least, can work against the goal of a unified animal movement.

Reposted by Jonathan Birch

mbolotnikova.bsky.social
Marina Bolotnikova @mbolotnikova.bsky.social · 5d
This is terrible behavior by FarmKind, many are already saying. I don't actually think most people buy this framing, but never underestimate how good permission structures are at soothing deep defensiveness around eating animals
FarmKind graphic on a yellow background titled “Who made the better choice this January?” comparing a “Veganuary participant” vs a “Top competitive eater.” Left side lists: “Had to plan every meal,” “Checked every ingredient,” “Gave up her favourite food,” “Annoyed friends and family,” “Felt guilty for wanting meat,” and says “Helped 22 animals.” Right side shows a competitive eater with a “WINNER” badge and lists: “Ate whatever he wanted,” “Did huge eating challenges,” “Offset his meals & added £5,” and says “Helped 38 animals.”

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wiglet1981.bsky.social
Richard Pettigrew @wiglet1981.bsky.social · 5d
A while ago, I posted a set of notes about the Bayesian approach to inquiry and how it can help us think about questions raised in the recent literature on zetetic epistemology. I’ve now corralled that material into something like a first draft of a book. I hope it might be of interest to others.
Richard Pettigrew, The value of information and the epistemology of inquiry - PhilArchive
In the analytic tradition, epistemology has typically begun at the point at which we have our evidence; it has then asked which beliefs or credences are justified or warranted by that ...
philarchive.org

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birchlse.bsky.social
Jonathan Birch @birchlse.bsky.social · 5d
As an outsider it surprises me that AOC has negligible Gen Z support. Why is this?

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Reposted by Jonathan Birch

Reposted by Jonathan Birch

simongosden.bsky.social
Simon Gosden @simongosden.bsky.social · 7d
Egyptian dissident should be deported from UK, Tories say.
Which is bizarre, to say the least, as they granted him citizenship in 2021.

Reposted by Jonathan Birch

andreapolanco.bsky.social
Andrea Polanco, PhD @andreapolanco.bsky.social · 7d
For anyone interested in looking at the data on Veganuary, I recommend checking out this summary: faunalytics.org/tactics-in-p...

Self-reported data suggests it's effective in reducing AP consumption post-intervention & supermarket data shows that plant-based product sales also remain higher after
Tactics In Practice: The Science Of Vegan Challenges - Faunalytics
Vegan challenges have become a popular way to encourage dietary change. This deep dive gets into the nitty gritty of what makes a challenge achievable.
faunalytics.org