Peter Godfrey-Smith
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petergs.bsky.social
Peter Godfrey-Smith
@petergs.bsky.social
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A favorite encounter of 2025 – bobcat, Point Reyes (California).
Bobcat not lioness, but the image brings to mind the Iranian protestors right now.
Each year round this time, Rainbow Lorikeets come in and make a huge fuss round some high tree hollows (where some Galahs raised a family in 'Living On Earth'). They make a stack of noise, rip things up, check it all out... and then leave again.
January 16, 2026 at 4:44 AM
A favorite encounter of 2025 – bobcat, Point Reyes (California).
Bobcat not lioness, but the image brings to mind the Iranian protestors right now.
January 11, 2026 at 12:44 PM
Reposted by Peter Godfrey-Smith
Martin Peterson's creative response to being banned from teaching Plato (shared with his permission).
January 8, 2026 at 5:38 PM
The London lecture is available as a video and podcast as well as text - see my website at the top. For the video: youtube.com/watch?v=1TWy... 6/
https://youtube.com/watch?v=1TWy0xaCymI…
January 5, 2026 at 3:14 AM
Here I used an old (abandoned) paper by Tim Scanlon (1972). This part is just me; Ben shouldn't be assumed to agree (or disagree). Freedom of expression can be justified through its link to autonomy in belief formation. This is a basis for broad 1st-order tolerance & some 2nd-order intolerance. 5/
January 5, 2026 at 3:14 AM
"Toleration of the intolerant" is not paradoxical when it's 2nd-order intolerance of those who are 1st-order intolerant. A complicated framework, but it helps. In the lecture I also defended broad 1st-order tolerance in the case of speech. 5/
January 5, 2026 at 3:14 AM
This was the Karl Popper Memorial Lecture at LSE.
I'm applying to speech a framework developed with Ben Kerr for understanding tolerance in general, especially in relation to "toleration of the intolerant."
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...
Preprint: petergodfreysmith.com/wp-content/u... 4/
January 5, 2026 at 3:14 AM
In the case of speech and elsewhere, we should understand tolerance using different levels: 1st-order tolerance (or intolerance) is directed at 'ordinary' behaviors; 2nd-order tolerance is tolerance of 1st-order policies, and so on. Different questions arise at each level. 3/
January 5, 2026 at 3:14 AM
Free speech thread: In the aftermath of the Bondi murders, the state govt here is moving, unfortunately, in the direction of suppressing protest and proscribing specific phrases.
I gave talks in 2025 about tolerance & free speech. Wrote up the main one:
petergodfreysmith.com/wp-content/u...
January 5, 2026 at 3:14 AM
What a dishevelled beauty. Does look nudi-esque. Or maybe a sea hare. (There is a 'shaggy sea hare,' but does not look too similar.)
January 1, 2026 at 4:48 AM
In relation to the blog post about lights and camera gear: this is from a recent dive trip. Mine is the diminutive rig at the end (red arrow). (Blog post: Metazoan.net)
December 30, 2025 at 10:36 AM
Thank you. Glad to hear it.
December 29, 2025 at 11:27 AM
A natural light photo from the post:
December 26, 2025 at 11:06 AM
A blog post obsessing about Phyllodesmium poindimiei, the nudibranch in the previous post.
Obsessing also about some photographic ethics – suddenly adding light to the world of these tiny creatures. Is it aversive? How could we tell? A scrap of data is included..
metazoan.net/126-spun-of-...
126. Spun of Light » Metazoan
metazoan.net
December 26, 2025 at 11:05 AM
Thank you, from Beth's family (including Felix).
December 22, 2025 at 9:32 AM
Neruda is wonderful.
Thank you for this.
December 17, 2025 at 1:39 AM
Back in the water with Phyllodesmium poindimiei.
A gastropodic marvel. (Fly Point, Australia)
December 11, 2025 at 12:26 AM
A Great Horned Owl, seen in Point Reyes during my recent California trip. Spotted (while quite a bit better hidden than he is here) by Daniel Dietrich. A young one, apparently. Flew off and then sat watching as I scrambled up the hill to get a photo.
November 27, 2025 at 3:14 AM
.. and he agrees with a version of the 'dark room' challenge to predictive processing.
I don't read Italian (a retirement project, I say to myself..) and used Google translate, which seemed remarkably good, especially with the sophisticated language of the review. 3/
November 20, 2025 at 1:47 AM
Some comments about the review by @gvallortigara.bsky.social. He discusses my treatment of the 'Umwelt' concept and also predictive processing (Friston, Clark etc). I am critical of both. Giorgio sees more value in the Umwelt concept (as many good scientists do, I must admit).. 2/
November 20, 2025 at 1:45 AM
A review of 'Living On Earth' by @gvallortigara.bsky.social.
Recensione della versione italiana del libro di Peter Godfrey Smith su Domenica del Sole 24 Ore
@petergs.bsky.social
@adelphiedizioni.bsky.social
November 20, 2025 at 1:43 AM
Reposted by Peter Godfrey-Smith
Just read this old-school sci-fi gem I found in a vintage bookstore in Bologna, where a Practical Philosopher Corps is deployed across the galaxy to assess sentience and cognition in alien species.
I guess the dream job for @birchlse.bsky.social @petergs.bsky.social
October 26, 2025 at 4:22 PM
Driving down the east side of the Sierra Nevadas a few weeks ago. I keep coming back here.
October 19, 2025 at 11:30 AM
Thank you.
I watched 'Jaws' again recently. Such a superlative film.
I'd not processed the fact that it really is 50 years old..
October 17, 2025 at 7:45 AM
The title is from a William James letter - "such flexible intensity of life in a form so inaccessible to our sympathy."
Classic James. But perhaps not so inaccessible. 2/
October 17, 2025 at 6:54 AM