Peter Godfrey‐Smith

Peter Godfrey-Smith

@petergs.bsky.social

510 followers 49 following 76 posts

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Peter Godfrey-Smith is an Australian philosopher of science and writer, who is currently Professor of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Sydney. He works primarily in philosophy of biology and philosophy of mind, and also has interests in general philosophy of science, pragmatism, and some parts of metaphysics and epistemology. Godfrey-Smith was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2022. .. more

Philosophy 26%

Biology 13%

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Reposted by Jonathan Birch, Peter Godfrey‐Smith

Stefano Palminteri @stepalminteri.bsky.social · 15d

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

Peter Godfrey-Smith @petergs.bsky.social · 23d

Driving down the east side of the Sierra Nevadas a few weeks ago. I keep coming back here.

Peter Godfrey-Smith @petergs.bsky.social · 25d

Thank you.
I watched 'Jaws' again recently. Such a superlative film.
I'd not processed the fact that it really is 50 years old..

Peter Godfrey-Smith @petergs.bsky.social · 25d

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/

Peter Godfrey-Smith @petergs.bsky.social · 25d

In the @nybooks.com, a review by Verlyn Klinkenborg of all three books of the 'Other Minds' trilogy, plus David Scheel's octopus book and one by Craig Foster (of 'My Octopus Teacher').
Quite an armful. (Image by Jason Logan.) 1/
www.nybooks.com/articles/202...

‘Such Flexible Intensity of Life’ | Verlyn Klinkenborg

Their striking intelligence makes octopuses tempting subjects for wishful anthropomorphism and uncanny reminders of nature’s mysteries.

www.nybooks.com

Peter Godfrey-Smith @petergs.bsky.social · Oct 12

The article (I thought SMH usually has an immediate paywall, but maybe not always):
www.smh.com.au/environment/...

This year’s whale migration has been bigger – and louder – than ever

Australia’s east coast humpback whale population is now as large as it was before industrial whaling began, and by some estimates even bigger.

www.smh.com.au

Peter Godfrey-Smith @petergs.bsky.social · Oct 11

Australian whale populations – what a pleasure to read this.

Peter Godfrey-Smith @petergs.bsky.social · Oct 10

Weather coming in over Eagle Lake, (California, near Tahoe), last week.

Reposted by Peter Godfrey‐Smith

The Royal Institute of Philosophy @triphilosophy.bsky.social · Oct 6

"Living on Earth: Life, Consciousness and the Making of the Natural World" by @petergs.bsky.social (published by William Collins) has been shortlisted for the 2025 Nayef Al-Rodhan International Prize in Transdisciplinary Philosophy.

Learn more: royalinstitutephilosophy.org/news/shortli...

Peter Godfrey-Smith @petergs.bsky.social · Sep 23

I will do a thread here soon with a few highlights, or at least ideas that stayed with me, from the Virginia conference.
Here is one passage, which contributed the title of Fesmire's talk:

Peter Godfrey-Smith @petergs.bsky.social · Sep 19

A good event at UV:

Peter Godfrey-Smith @petergs.bsky.social · Sep 16

From @cherylmisak.bsky.social's paper for the Dewey event, in a letter from Dewey to Ratner:
"I’m glad an American didn’t write Ayer's Language Truth and
Logic—if one had, the English would have thought it a peculiarly crass Philistine American production."

Peter Godfrey-Smith @petergs.bsky.social · Sep 16

I'll be talking about Dewey's treatment of "idealism." (Mainly objective idealism.)
Will be a commentary by Ram Neta.

Reposted by Veli‐Matti Karhulahti

Peter Godfrey-Smith @petergs.bsky.social · Sep 16

A century in the making - this week's University of Virginia conference on John Dewey's "Experience and Nature" (1925). A majestic, frustrating, (endless) book.
Event organized by @cbarzun.bsky.social www.law.virginia.edu/event/sympos... 1/

Reposted by Brian Weatherson, Peter Godfrey‐Smith

Jakob Hohwy @hohwy.bsky.social · Sep 11

Come to Melbourne for the 2025 Conference of the Australasian Society for Philosophy and Psychology

Check out the great keynotes - submit your abstract

Come join this exciting community of researchers

Nov 24-25 - Register now!

#philosophy #neuroskyence #philsky

sites.google.com/monash.edu/a...

ASPP 2025 Melbourne

Australasian Society for Philosophy and Psychology 2025 Conference Melbourne, November 24th - 25th, 2025

sites.google.com

Peter Godfrey-Smith @petergs.bsky.social · Sep 5

... On the philosophical side: to what extent is subjective experience (or consciousness) "a thing" – a single phenomenon, despite its many varieties – across very different animals? 2/
www.eventbrite.com/e/uc-berkele...

UC Berkeley Howison Lecture with Peter Godfrey-Smith

Join Peter Godfrey-Smith, History and Philosophy of Science Professor at USYD, for a Howison Lecture on Evolution and Animal Minds.

www.eventbrite.com

Peter Godfrey-Smith @petergs.bsky.social · Sep 5

Later this month I am giving the 2025 Howison Lecture at UC Berkeley.
"Evolution and Animal Minds."
It will have quite a lot on recent work looking at play and dreams in nonhumans. 1/

Peter Godfrey-Smith @petergs.bsky.social · Jul 30

One of a quartet of gang-gang cockatoos that came to visit last week. Very uncommon visitors, very welcome.

Peter Godfrey-Smith @petergs.bsky.social · Jul 17

As a professor dealing with this right now, I am squarely in the 3rd category below. The destruction of the college essay as a format for thinking, learning, & assessing is awful to see. 2/

Peter Godfrey-Smith @petergs.bsky.social · Jul 17

A good AI piece by James Gleick at @nybooks.com
Aghast, for good reason, at what's happening.
My only objection: a title unfair to parrots.
www.nybooks.com/articles/202...

The Parrot in the Machine | James Gleick

The artificial intelligence industry depends on plagiarism, mimicry, and exploited labor, not intelligence.

www.nybooks.com

Peter Godfrey-Smith @petergs.bsky.social · Jul 13

A Giant Cuttlefish at Cabbage Tree Bay (the "Bower" dive site, Australia) last month. Perfect conditions that day.
I wrote a blog post about the encounters: metazoan.net/124-bower-cu...
One very relaxed cuttlefish, one very wild one.

Peter Godfrey-Smith @petergs.bsky.social · Jul 1

Summer reading from the radio station KQED (@kqedarts.bsky.social) – *all* of the 'Other Minds' trilogy.
www.kqed.org/forum/201010...

Peter Godfrey-Smith @petergs.bsky.social · Jun 15

I saw the movie "DJ Ahmet" the other day (part of Sydney Film Festival).
An absolute delight.
Made by Georgi Unkovski. About a world combining TikTok and techno with arranged marriage [what a blight that practice is], and the call to prayer.
Highly recommended if you get the chance.

Reposted by Peter Godfrey‐Smith

Ferris Jabr @ferrisjabr.bsky.social · Jun 4

🧵 I see my book Becoming Earth as one part of a larger emerging movement: a resurgence of holistic, planetary-scale thinking; an evolving Gaia as a modern coevolutionary framework for understanding Earth; and a renewed recognition of the animacy, agency, and rights of more-than-human living systems

A collage of the covers of six recent books:
Is a River Alive? by Robert Macfarlane
Becoming Earth by Ferris Jabr
Living on Earth by Peter Godfrey-Smith
Eat, Poop, Die by Joe Roman
The Many Lives of James Lovelock by Jonathan Watts
Darwinizing Gaia by W. Ford Doolittle

Reposted by Peter Godfrey‐Smith

LSE Philosophy @lsephilosophy.bsky.social · Jun 3

📽️ The recording of the Sir Karl Popper Memorial Lecture 2025 by @petergs.bsky.social on freedom and tolerance is now available online!

Watch it here: www.youtube.com/live/1TWy0xa...

Peter Godfrey-Smith @petergs.bsky.social · Jun 2

Later today (London) is my Karl Popper Memorial Lecture at the LSE. (Also zoomable.)
www.lse.ac.uk/Events/2025/...

Tolerance and freedom of expression

6.30pm Mon 2 June | Peter Godfrey-Smith | Registration Required | Free public event at LSE

www.lse.ac.uk

Peter Godfrey-Smith @petergs.bsky.social · May 30

Send me an email address and I will forward it.

Peter Godfrey-Smith @petergs.bsky.social · May 30

The condensation of the (very enjoyable) conversation is fine except on one detail. I come across as treating all squid as aggressive as well as mysterious.
Some, for sure (the Humboldt Squid).
Others: just mysterious. 2/

Peter Godfrey-Smith @petergs.bsky.social · May 30

The @newyorker.com's "Book Currents" has a conversation with me about three cephalopod-centered novels, in different styles: Ray Naylor's "The Mountain in the Sea," @aptshadow.bsky.social‬'s "Children of Ruin," and China Mieville's "Kraken." 1/
www.newyorker.com/books/book-c...

Peter Godfrey-Smith on Alien Intelligences in Our Midst

The philosopher discusses three novels about cephalopods’ mysterious forms of consciousness.

www.newyorker.com

Peter Godfrey-Smith @petergs.bsky.social · May 26

This event (London and hybrid, Wednesday) now has a suitable image.
(Nudibranchs of the Armina genus, waltzing.)
Good topic, very good line-up.
www.lse.ac.uk/philosophy/e...

Grades of Mind: Agency, Memory, Sentience

“In attempting to understand the elements out of which mental phenomena are compounded, it is of the greatest importance to remember that from the protozoa to man there is nowhere a very wide…

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