Thomas D. Carroll

@thomasdcarroll.bsky.social

370 followers 260 following 270 posts

Associate Professor (Teaching) in Philosophy & Religious Studies at CUHK-Shenzhen

I write on Wittgenstein, philosophy of religion, and comparative ethics. Sometimes, I post here about these things and music I like.

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Thomas D. Carroll @thomasdcarroll.bsky.social · Jul 30

My book, Rethinking Philosophy of Religion with Wittgenstein, arrived today.
I'm grateful to Bloomsbury (‪@bloomsburyacad.bsky.social‬) for publishing it & to J. Aaron Simmons and Kevin Schilbrack for including it in the Expanding Philosophy of Religion series.

www.bloomsbury.com/us/rethinkin...

Reposted by Thomas D. Carroll

Sojourners @sojo.net · 7d

Vincent Lloyd on the importance of acknowledging state violence as its visibility expands from the margins of U.S. public culture.
sojo.net/articles/opi...

This Nation’s Violence Is No Longer Private

Once confined to prisons and wars, our worst human instincts are no longer hidden—they’re paraded on city streets.

sojo.net

Reposted by Anne Applebaum, Mariana Mazzucato, Stephen M. Walt , and 181 more Anne Applebaum, Mariana Mazzucato, Stephen M. Walt, Michael E. Mann, Joanna Bryson, Anna O. Law, Marc Lynch, Kim L. Scheppele, Elizabeth Saunders, Rebecca Solnit, Archon Fung, Nandita Sharma, Matthew Bunn, Nancy Kanwisher, Yadvinder Malhi, Michael Wagner, John T. Jost, Stephan Lewandowsky, Robbert Sanderman, David M. Schultz, Simon Burgess, Marco Festa‐Bianchet, David M. Farrell, Will Jennings, Ashish Arora, Peter Thorne, Martin J. Attrill, Jesse M. Shapiro, Christina C. Hicks, Richard Betts, Richard J. Butler, Mattias Hallquist, Patrick A. Jansen, Jonathan A. Foley, Michael T. Meyer, Joshua S. Weitz, John R. Hutchinson, Mieke Van Houtte, Steve Peers, John McLaren, Andrew Watt, Andreas Ortmann, Tim Bale, Tom Shakespeare, Valerie P. Hans, Mark D. White, Victor Asal, Steven S. Smith, Jill Marshall, Rosemary A. Joyce, Caroline Krafft, Jürgen Maier, Leigh Sparks, Marina Jirotka, David Rothschild, Martin Gaynor, Elizabeth Stokoe, Melissa Johnson, Vincent Tiberj, Michael J. Allen, Rupert Read, Christian E. Weller, Ian M. Kinchin, Dawn J. Wright, Joseph Schafer, Hester Blum, Markus Jäntti, Anders Nilsson, Alison Phipps, Dominik Wiedenhofer, Ramón López Facal, Gerard H. Kuper, Libby Robin, David S. Cohen, Joni Lovenduski, Alan Stewart, Patrick Walsh, Sanford F. Schram, Kevin Carey, Shelly Lundberg, Inderjeet Parmar, Göran Bolin, Jussi T. Eronen, Marta Mìrazón Lahr, Raffaella Ravinetto, Smith, Peter Schöttler, Andrew Leyshon, Melanie C. Green, Janet Murray, Steven High, Jo Barraket, David R. Miller, Robert Wolfe, Duncan Bell, Jesús Rodríguez Pomeda, Patrick Svensson, Wilson McLeod, Stephen D. Murphy, Gerald Friedman, Stacy D. VanDeveer, Fabio Giglietto, Beatriz Gallardo Paúls, Lyndsey Stonebridge, Juan Moreno‐Cruz, Todd Pugatch, Howard Stevenson, Stephen Ryan, Elizabeth Stevenson, Michael D. McDonald, Anne Norton, Josef Früchtl, Manuel Puppis, Graeme Warren, Talia Schaffer, Graham Dutfield, Marco Haan, Antoine Bernard de Raymond, Fredrik Albritton Jonsson, Paul Fisher, Michelle Williams, Alberto Corsín Jiménez, Christian Fisch, Lisa Diedrich, Nicola Carr, Enrique Fatás, Philipp Sarasin, Jessica Silbey, Feargal Cochrane, Stuart White, Mary Jane Curry, Susan Strasser, Marko Lindroos, Claire L. Adida, Sharon Erickson Nepstad, Caterina Froio, Andrew Guthrie Ferguson, Patrick Meier, Vaughan S. Roberts, Raúl Pacheco-Vega, Ryan K. Brook, Florian Keusch, Andrew Rudalevige, James Connelly, Olivier Jourdan, Hisham Zerriffi, Sean P. Corcoran, Patrick Stokes, Cullen S. Hendrix, Jon Dean, Eric J. Sundquist, Guillaume Allègre, Eric J. Segall, Melanie O’Brien, Jason A. Heppler, Karen O’Leary, Uwe M. Martens, Almut Schulze, Alexander Woywodt, Thomas D. Carroll, David S. Tanenhaus, Kate Jackson, Pam Jarvis, Suzanne Conklin Akbari, Mary McAuliffe, Aviel Roshwald, Pepper D. Culpepper, Émilien Ruiz, Nathan P. Kalmoe, Ryan Calo, Jaap Kooijman, Aidan O’Sullivan, Dan Immergluck, Jeannette Sutton, Fiona Armstrong, Beth Tellman, Lorna Hughes, Fabian Holt, Ernesto Castañeda, David Spurrett, Dunlap, Stuart Shapiro, David Darmofal, Lars Gamfeldt

Bruce Springsteen @brucespringsteen.net · 13d

I wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis. It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good.

Stay free

Bruce Springsteen - Streets Of Minneapolis (Official Audio)

YouTube video by Bruce Springsteen

youtu.be

Thomas D. Carroll @thomasdcarroll.bsky.social · 14d

Getting ready for the year of the horse 🐴

Photo of lanterns being hung around the campus of CUHK-Shenzhen

Billy Bragg @billybragg.bsky.social · 15d

I wrote this yesterday about the hero city of Minneapolis

www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKOW...

BILLY BRAGG - CITY OF HEROES

YouTube video by Billy Bragg

www.youtube.com

Reposted by Andrew L. Whitehead, Mark Rice, Raúl Pacheco-Vega , and 4 more Andrew L. Whitehead, Mark Rice, Raúl Pacheco-Vega, Christina Pagel, Thomas D. Carroll, Kate Jackson, Nathan P. Kalmoe

Jack Jenkins @jackjenkins.me · 18d

NEW: I was one of 3 reporters granted access to the convening of 600+ clergy in Minneapolis this week.

It was a striking show of solidarity with MN clergy resisting ICE, but heralded something else: the emergence of a vast, faith-based network trained to resist ICE. religionnews.com/2026/01/23/i...

Inside the effort to organize clergy nationwide to resist ICE

(RNS)— Hundreds of clergy from around the country gathered in Minneapolis to learn from Minnesota faith leaders how to protest against ICE enforcement. Then they took to the streets and helped block t...

religionnews.com

Reposted by Thomas D. Carroll

Eddie S. Glaude @esglaude.bsky.social · 25d

nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com?url=https%3A...

Weekly Wrap Up - January 16, 2026

Watch now | Eddie reflects on the eve of the first-year anniversary of Donald Trump’s second term, a year marked by significant global and domestic upheaval. Eddie argues that the nation currently sta...

nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com

Reposted by Thomas D. Carroll

Zhaoze @zhaozeband.bsky.social · 26d

Live｜Zhaoze "In Snow Storm, Yet Not Back Home" in Wenzhou Dalü

On the last night of 2025, in addition to the over-30-minute rendition of "Birds Contending," Zhaoze also performed their latest EP: "Wind Rising Before Storm Coming " + "In Snow Storm, Yet Not Back Home" .

youtu.be/SOBsq9nZ-ak

Live｜沼澤《風雪未歸人》溫州大麓音樂節 / Zhaoze "In Snow Storm, Yet Not Back Home" Wenzhou Dalü Music Festival

YouTube video by Zhaoze

youtu.be

Thomas D. Carroll @thomasdcarroll.bsky.social · 26d

"The exam will be compulsory for recipients of Chinese government scholarships starting this year and later phased in more widely, becoming mandatory for all international undergraduate applicants by 2028."

www.insidehighered.com/news/admissi...

China Aims for “Quality” Overseas Students With Entry Exam

Experts say the introduction of a compulsory test for all applicants seeking to take undergraduate courses shows the country’s shifting approach to internationalization.

www.insidehighered.com

Reposted by Lisa W. Fazio, Scott L. Greer, Rosemary A. Joyce , and 4 more Lisa W. Fazio, Scott L. Greer, Rosemary A. Joyce, Robert C. Richards, Thomas D. Carroll, Robert L. Tsai, Nathan P. Kalmoe

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 28d

this is all to say that should democrats win the house and senate this november, they should hold similarly dramatic — which is to say televised and highly publicized — hearings on the conduct of ICE and CBP, with testimony from victims. we want as much of *this* as possible in the record. (3/?)

DrDinD.bsky.social @drdind.bsky.social · 29d

ICE detained Arlit Maria Martinez on her way to work. 2 days later, her 15 yo son died of cancer. They wouldn't let her out to say goodbye. The family had planned to move back to Mexico prior to the cancer diagnosis but stayed for his treatment. Now, Mr Martinez has lost his wife to ICE & his son.

Teen dies of cancer days after mother arrested by ICE: ‘She’s never gonna see him’

The mother's family pleaded with federal officers for her release from custody to say her final goodbyes to her son, but their requests went unanswered.

www.wsaz.com

Reposted by Anne Applebaum, Lisa W. Fazio, Ben H. Ansell , and 9 more Anne Applebaum, Lisa W. Fazio, Ben H. Ansell, Scott L. Greer, Steve Peers, Robert Black, Melanie C. Green, Thomas D. Carroll, Robert L. Tsai, Nathan P. Kalmoe, Dana Howard, Élisabeth Vallet

DrDinD.bsky.social @drdind.bsky.social · 29d

Teen dies of cancer days after mother arrested by ICE: ‘She’s never gonna see him’

The mother's family pleaded with federal officers for her release from custody to say her final goodbyes to her son, but their requests went unanswered.

www.wsaz.com

Thomas D. Carroll @thomasdcarroll.bsky.social · Jan 10

Here's the table of contents --

Table of Contents for Wittgenstein and the Epistemology of Religion (Wiley, 2026)

Thomas D. Carroll @thomasdcarroll.bsky.social · Jan 10

Looking forward to this new collection on Wittgenstein & Epistemology of Religion (edited by Duncan Pritchard & Nuno Venturinha) coming out next month.

It grew out of a couple of conferences held in Lisbon. Looking forward to reading the finished volume!

www.wiley.com/en-us/Wittge...

Wittgenstein and the Epistemology of Religion

Illuminates Wittgenstein’s religious epistemology—bridging faith, reason, and cultural understanding across disciplines Wittgenstein and the Epistemology of Religion o...

www.wiley.com

Reposted by Thomas D. Carroll

Fintan O'Toole @fotoole.bsky.social · Jan 9

On Renee;
www.irishtimes.com/ireland/2026...

American shot dead by Ice agent remembered for ‘formative years’ in Northern Ireland

Renée Nicole Good took part in Christian youth missions to Northern Ireland as a teenager

www.irishtimes.com

Reposted by Thomas D. Carroll

Indivisible ❌👑 @handle.invalid · Jan 3

Tell your elected officials to do everything in their power to stand up to Trump and prevent war with Venezuela.

Email your Members of Congress: act.indivisible.org/sign/stop-tr...

Call your senators: indivisible.org/resource/cal...

And call your representative: indivisible.org/resource/cal...

Reposted by Mark D. White, Thomas D. Carroll, James A. Benn

Peter Adamson @histphilosophy.bsky.social · Dec 29

Semiotic paradox alert!

Reposted by Thomas D. Carroll

Thomas D. Carroll @thomasdcarroll.bsky.social · Dec 16

I'd be interested in hearing more about that. Have you written (or do you have plans to write) on Phillips?

Thomas D. Carroll @thomasdcarroll.bsky.social · Dec 16

I mention Phillips just a few times in the new book, but I engage with his work substantially in my other book, Wittgenstein within the Philosophy of Religion (Palgrave 2014).

BTW, I'm particularly impressed by what P. F. Bloemendaal and Mikel Burley have written on Phillips.

Thomas D. Carroll @thomasdcarroll.bsky.social · Dec 7

There is much else to see at the Biennale. One could easily spend the whole day at the PSA just taking in the different installations.

The text in the corner of this painting reads: "There is a cake-cafe in Yong-Fu Road in the "French Concession of old Shanghai" renovated in minimalistic nordic interior design sells nerdy-hipster-coffee and cake. Their plates look like old Dutch ware in a touch of the Ming Dynasty."

Allora & Calzadilla, Penumbra and Phantom Forest

Still from a video installation. Here is the text from the didactic: Cheng Xinhao
Born in 1985 in Kunming, Yunnan Province, China, where he lives and works.
Musica Proibita, 2024
Single-channel video, color, sound
4:35 min.
Re-steal, 2024
Mixed media
Courtesy of the artist and Tabula Rasa Gallery
There are lines of history, along which human and non-human agents travel. Around a century ago, European and US plant hunters came to Yunnan, and with the help of different intermediaries they brought back plants and photographs of local people.
I try to bring these "specimens" back again, for example in Re-Steal, I did so by cutting a branch of a rhododendron tree in a botanical garden in Scotland. The very plant was brought there from Yunnan in 1913 by the famous plant hunter George Forrest.
I also reenact past scenes, but with different objects and at a different time. For Musica Proibita I placed a gramophone before a rhododendron tree in southwestern China. It played a recording of the early 20th-century tenor Enrico Caruso singing a romantic salon melody. With this work, I make reference to the Austrian-American botanist and explorer Joseph Rock, who spent a quarter century in Yunnan from the 1920s to the 40s studying its Naxi people as well as botanical diversity in the Hengduan Mountains.
Rock found the Naxi to be particularly reluctant to be photographed, but fascinated by the music of his gramophone; he would play them Caruso and document them as they gathered to listen.

Thomas D. Carroll @thomasdcarroll.bsky.social · Dec 7

I went to Shanghai this weekend & saw the Biennale at the Power Station of Art. Here are a few images of a painting by Shao Fan of Kun from the opening chapter of the Zhuangzi.

Image of Shao Fan's monumental painting of Kun

Thomas D. Carroll @thomasdcarroll.bsky.social · Dec 5

Sure, there are many angles one could take in linking the two. Here’s one way that I took in an article from several years ago

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Wittgenstein and the Xunzi on the Clarification of Language - Dao

Broadly speaking, language is part of a social activity in both Wittgenstein and Xunzi 荀子, and for both clarification of language is central to their philosophical projects; the goal of this article i...

link.springer.com

Thomas D. Carroll @thomasdcarroll.bsky.social · Dec 4

I’m fascinated by the link between Wittgenstein and Xunzi. Would be very interested in reading when it comes out

Thomas D. Carroll @thomasdcarroll.bsky.social · Nov 23

Today I made it to the Cao'an Temple, a old Manichean site just outside of Quanzhou. It's a really fascinating example of the depths and complexities of Chinese history and the capaciousness of categories like "Buddhism" or "Manichaeism"

Entrance to the Cao'an temple. If you zoom in, the altar cloth has the characters "佛光尼摩", which represents Mani as the Buddha of Light

Photo taken of the Mani statue from outside the temple

Thomas D. Carroll @thomasdcarroll.bsky.social · Nov 22

Also paid my respects to Confucius and Laozi...

Shrine of Confucius at the Quanzhou Confucian Temple

Courtyard with pond at the Confucian Temple

Confucius and Laozi having a chat, Qingyuan Mountain in Quanzhou

Monumental rock sculpture of a deified Laozi (Laojun), at Qingyuan Mountain

Thomas D. Carroll @thomasdcarroll.bsky.social · Nov 22

I'm visiting Quanzhou this weekend, and I've gotten to see quite a few temples. Highlights were the Tian Hou Temple, the Tonghuai Guanyue Temple (impressive how popular Guanyu and Yue Fei are), and the Qingjing Mosque.

Eastern Pagoda of the Kaiyuan Buddhist Temple in Quanzhou, China

Much activity at the Tonghuai Guanyue Temple in Quanzhou

Detail from the Qingjing Mosque, just down the street in Quanzhou

Thomas D. Carroll @thomasdcarroll.bsky.social · Nov 15

I wrote a short blog post about two articles I wrote that were published earlier this year. While the topics are quite different--atheism and communicative reticence & religious diversity--my interest in Wittgenstein and hermeneutics links the two pieces.

thomasdcarroll.blogspot.com/2025/11/two-...

Two New-ish Articles

Cross-Cultural Ethics, History of Analytic Philosophy, and Philosophy of Religion

thomasdcarroll.blogspot.com

Thomas D. Carroll @thomasdcarroll.bsky.social · Nov 8

I'm at the Chinese Wittgenstein Society's conference in Hangzhou.

Heard many great papers today & got to meet scholars whose work I know. Was great to meet up with my former dissertation director, Juliet Floyd. Even got to road-test a new project I'm working on. Looking forward to tomorrow!

Sign at Zhejiang University for the School of Philosophy (and History and Literature)

Thomas D. Carroll @thomasdcarroll.bsky.social · Nov 5

Looking forward to the Seventh International Wittgenstein Symposium at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou this weekend.

I'll be giving a short paper: "AI, Ethics, and Forms of Life."

Cover for conference program for the Wittgenstein symposium in Hangzhou.

Thomas D. Carroll @thomasdcarroll.bsky.social · Oct 26

And here's a short clip of Ken Vandermark Edition Redux --

Thomas D. Carroll @thomasdcarroll.bsky.social · Oct 26

Here's a short clip of Satoko Fujii and Joe Fonda

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