Dr. Brandon Beasley 🇨🇦
@drbeasley.bsky.social
Philosopher at the University of Calgary and Mount Royal University. I work on mind, language, and metaphysics at the intersection of pragmatism, German Idealism, and analytic philosophy.
Website: www.brandonbeasley.net
Substack: beasley.substack.com
Website: www.brandonbeasley.net
Substack: beasley.substack.com
Pinned
Got this in a fortune cookie a while back. Sums up my philosophical project rather well (if in French).
This list is remarkable: Most cited philosophers of mind and cogsci (with Google Scholar pages):
Andy Clark (Sussex): 68,900
David Chalmers (NYU): 68,300
Evan Thompson (British Columbia): 54,700
Shaun Gallagher (Memphis): 52,700
Dan Zahavi (Copenhagen): 36,200
leiterreports.com/2025/11/06/m...
Andy Clark (Sussex): 68,900
David Chalmers (NYU): 68,300
Evan Thompson (British Columbia): 54,700
Shaun Gallagher (Memphis): 52,700
Dan Zahavi (Copenhagen): 36,200
leiterreports.com/2025/11/06/m...
November 8, 2025 at 12:28 AM
This list is remarkable: Most cited philosophers of mind and cogsci (with Google Scholar pages):
Andy Clark (Sussex): 68,900
David Chalmers (NYU): 68,300
Evan Thompson (British Columbia): 54,700
Shaun Gallagher (Memphis): 52,700
Dan Zahavi (Copenhagen): 36,200
leiterreports.com/2025/11/06/m...
Andy Clark (Sussex): 68,900
David Chalmers (NYU): 68,300
Evan Thompson (British Columbia): 54,700
Shaun Gallagher (Memphis): 52,700
Dan Zahavi (Copenhagen): 36,200
leiterreports.com/2025/11/06/m...
My latest occasional piece of writing:
open.substack.com/pub/beasley/...
open.substack.com/pub/beasley/...
A Problem of Evil for Atheists?
Suffering, Redemption, and Hope in a Godless Universe
open.substack.com
November 7, 2025 at 9:46 PM
My latest occasional piece of writing:
open.substack.com/pub/beasley/...
open.substack.com/pub/beasley/...
Reposted by Dr. Brandon Beasley 🇨🇦
Hot off the press: Michael Kremer’s and my resurrection of Margaret Macdonald.
August 26, 2025 at 5:56 PM
Hot off the press: Michael Kremer’s and my resurrection of Margaret Macdonald.
It occured to me a while back, reading Margaret Cavendish to teach her as a critic of Descartes, that, because her vitalism is closely linked to her ideas about mind (and given some of the specific claims she makes), one might see her view as a proto-embodied cognition theory.
November 6, 2025 at 6:18 PM
It occured to me a while back, reading Margaret Cavendish to teach her as a critic of Descartes, that, because her vitalism is closely linked to her ideas about mind (and given some of the specific claims she makes), one might see her view as a proto-embodied cognition theory.
(Kant & Hegel) + (19th century advancements in biology) + (19th century physiological psychology) + (statistics) = Pragmatism
November 6, 2025 at 6:04 PM
(Kant & Hegel) + (19th century advancements in biology) + (19th century physiological psychology) + (statistics) = Pragmatism
"We know now that in the early years of the 20th century, this world was being watched closely by intelligences greater than man's and yet as mortal as his own. We know now that as human beings busied themselves about their various concerns, they were scrutinized and studied...
November 1, 2025 at 4:05 AM
"We know now that in the early years of the 20th century, this world was being watched closely by intelligences greater than man's and yet as mortal as his own. We know now that as human beings busied themselves about their various concerns, they were scrutinized and studied...
"Spirit is...the movement that is...the transformation of...substance into subject, of the object of consciousness into the object of self-consciousness... This transformation is the circle returning back into itself, which presupposes its beginning and reaches its beginning only at the end."
October 30, 2025 at 10:36 PM
"Spirit is...the movement that is...the transformation of...substance into subject, of the object of consciousness into the object of self-consciousness... This transformation is the circle returning back into itself, which presupposes its beginning and reaches its beginning only at the end."
I oppose "GenAI" for many reasons, but one of the worst things for me personally is ruin my favourite punctuation mark: the em dash. Its overuse of them is often a signal that a piece of writing was produced by "AI", so I now often hesitate to use them.
I want my punctuation back! *shakes fist*
I want my punctuation back! *shakes fist*
October 27, 2025 at 11:20 PM
I oppose "GenAI" for many reasons, but one of the worst things for me personally is ruin my favourite punctuation mark: the em dash. Its overuse of them is often a signal that a piece of writing was produced by "AI", so I now often hesitate to use them.
I want my punctuation back! *shakes fist*
I want my punctuation back! *shakes fist*
Check out my good friend @niallroe.bsky.social's new paper on Charles S. Peirce on Experiment: philpapers.org/rec/ROECPA-2
Niall Roe, Charles Peirce and Experimental Science - PhilPapers
Among much else, Peirce was concerned with understanding the nature of experimentation. And while Peirce scholarship frequently appeals to the role of experimentation in his philosophy, no one has yet...
philpapers.org
October 16, 2025 at 2:47 AM
Check out my good friend @niallroe.bsky.social's new paper on Charles S. Peirce on Experiment: philpapers.org/rec/ROECPA-2
Reposted by Dr. Brandon Beasley 🇨🇦
of my use of ‘experience’ are, for all practical purposes, insurmountable. I would substitute the term ‘culture’ because with its meanings as now firmly established it can fully and freely carry my philosophy of experience.”
(2/3)
(2/3)
Upcoming Conference | Center for Dewey Studies | SIU
deweycenter.siu.edu
October 15, 2025 at 6:34 PM
of my use of ‘experience’ are, for all practical purposes, insurmountable. I would substitute the term ‘culture’ because with its meanings as now firmly established it can fully and freely carry my philosophy of experience.”
(2/3)
(2/3)
Wishing I could be at The Dewey Center at SIU Carbondale (@deweycenter.siu.edu) for the *Experience and Nature* Centennial conference. I was supposed to be there & give a talk, but my travel plans did not work out and I'm unable to be there.
October 15, 2025 at 9:15 PM
Wishing I could be at The Dewey Center at SIU Carbondale (@deweycenter.siu.edu) for the *Experience and Nature* Centennial conference. I was supposed to be there & give a talk, but my travel plans did not work out and I'm unable to be there.
Reposted by Dr. Brandon Beasley 🇨🇦
how to have an analog fall
a syllabus for lower screen time and cortisol levels
juliannasalguero.substack.com/p/how-to-hav...
a syllabus for lower screen time and cortisol levels
juliannasalguero.substack.com/p/how-to-hav...
how to have an analog fall
a syllabus for lower screen time and cortisol levels
juliannasalguero.substack.com
October 10, 2025 at 7:49 PM
how to have an analog fall
a syllabus for lower screen time and cortisol levels
juliannasalguero.substack.com/p/how-to-hav...
a syllabus for lower screen time and cortisol levels
juliannasalguero.substack.com/p/how-to-hav...
I enjoy the effect that teaching Peirce typically has on my philosophy of science students; for them he's like a breath of fresh air, blowing out so many of the previous confusions without sacrificing rigor.
October 8, 2025 at 2:18 AM
I enjoy the effect that teaching Peirce typically has on my philosophy of science students; for them he's like a breath of fresh air, blowing out so many of the previous confusions without sacrificing rigor.
Reposted by Dr. Brandon Beasley 🇨🇦
New post on my substack: Human Meanings open.substack.com/pub/beasley/...
Human Meanings
An introduction and a statement of purpose
open.substack.com
August 6, 2025 at 9:13 PM
New post on my substack: Human Meanings open.substack.com/pub/beasley/...
Reposted by Dr. Brandon Beasley 🇨🇦
Hello, #AcademicSky! We are the Centre for Logic and Philosophy of Science (CLPS) at KU Leuven. Our senior and junior researchers focus on #logic, #epistemology & #philsci. We’re here to share our work and connect with logicians and philosophers of science worldwide—help us spread the word! #philsky
September 18, 2025 at 6:11 PM
Hello, #AcademicSky! We are the Centre for Logic and Philosophy of Science (CLPS) at KU Leuven. Our senior and junior researchers focus on #logic, #epistemology & #philsci. We’re here to share our work and connect with logicians and philosophers of science worldwide—help us spread the word! #philsky
My other insight from crude translation?
Hegel's notorious "Aufheben".
In crude English? "Up-heave".
Captures the dual sense well: to lift or raise (or heave) up, but also to disrupt, destroy, change (cf. 'upheaval').
Here endeth the lesson. 👨🏫
Hegel's notorious "Aufheben".
In crude English? "Up-heave".
Captures the dual sense well: to lift or raise (or heave) up, but also to disrupt, destroy, change (cf. 'upheaval').
Here endeth the lesson. 👨🏫
August 11, 2025 at 8:45 PM
My other insight from crude translation?
Hegel's notorious "Aufheben".
In crude English? "Up-heave".
Captures the dual sense well: to lift or raise (or heave) up, but also to disrupt, destroy, change (cf. 'upheaval').
Here endeth the lesson. 👨🏫
Hegel's notorious "Aufheben".
In crude English? "Up-heave".
Captures the dual sense well: to lift or raise (or heave) up, but also to disrupt, destroy, change (cf. 'upheaval').
Here endeth the lesson. 👨🏫
Sometimes translating German philosophical terms into crude, literal English is illuminating. Case in point: Kant's "Anschauung", translated into English since time immemorial using the Latinate word "intuition", which in English has a completely different meaning which confuses the issue.
August 11, 2025 at 8:41 PM
Sometimes translating German philosophical terms into crude, literal English is illuminating. Case in point: Kant's "Anschauung", translated into English since time immemorial using the Latinate word "intuition", which in English has a completely different meaning which confuses the issue.
"[There is a] need for a philosophy that will…set Reason itself in harmony with nature, not by having Reason renounce itself or become an insipid imitator of nature, but by Reason recasting itself into nature out of its own inner strength."
-- G.W.F. Hegel
(see below for citation)
-- G.W.F. Hegel
(see below for citation)
August 11, 2025 at 8:28 PM
"[There is a] need for a philosophy that will…set Reason itself in harmony with nature, not by having Reason renounce itself or become an insipid imitator of nature, but by Reason recasting itself into nature out of its own inner strength."
-- G.W.F. Hegel
(see below for citation)
-- G.W.F. Hegel
(see below for citation)
New post on my substack: Human Meanings open.substack.com/pub/beasley/...
Human Meanings
An introduction and a statement of purpose
open.substack.com
August 6, 2025 at 9:13 PM
New post on my substack: Human Meanings open.substack.com/pub/beasley/...
So-called "Whiggish histories" are not histories at all, but philosophical arguments for the adoption of a certain (aspect of a) worldview or approach to a concept or an aspect of life. So, they cannot exactly be "disproven" by histories which are more detailed, complicated, and strictly accurate.
August 6, 2025 at 8:24 PM
So-called "Whiggish histories" are not histories at all, but philosophical arguments for the adoption of a certain (aspect of a) worldview or approach to a concept or an aspect of life. So, they cannot exactly be "disproven" by histories which are more detailed, complicated, and strictly accurate.
Reposted by Dr. Brandon Beasley 🇨🇦
Even accepting the premise that AI produces useful writing (which no one should), using AI in education is like using a forklift at the gym. The weights do not actually need to be moved from place to place. That is not the work. The work is what happens within you.
April 15, 2025 at 2:56 AM
Even accepting the premise that AI produces useful writing (which no one should), using AI in education is like using a forklift at the gym. The weights do not actually need to be moved from place to place. That is not the work. The work is what happens within you.
Finished reading this today, the latest in some reading I've been doing about the history of science and the role played by what we would now think of as occult, mystical, or magical ideas in the progress of science in the 14th to 17th centuries.
July 31, 2025 at 9:15 PM
Finished reading this today, the latest in some reading I've been doing about the history of science and the role played by what we would now think of as occult, mystical, or magical ideas in the progress of science in the 14th to 17th centuries.
"All we sought was the truth that the facts didn’t tell us."
-- Philip Marlowe, in Raymond Chandler's *The Long Goodbye*.
-- Philip Marlowe, in Raymond Chandler's *The Long Goodbye*.
July 25, 2025 at 3:08 AM
"All we sought was the truth that the facts didn’t tell us."
-- Philip Marlowe, in Raymond Chandler's *The Long Goodbye*.
-- Philip Marlowe, in Raymond Chandler's *The Long Goodbye*.
Melanie Mitchell @melaniemitchell.bsky.social is always worth reading on AI, and this is no exception.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Why AI chatbots lie to us
A few weeks ago, a colleague of mine needed to collect and format some data from a website, and he asked the latest version of Anthropic’s generative AI system, Claude, for help. Claude cheerfully agr...
www.science.org
July 25, 2025 at 2:42 AM
Melanie Mitchell @melaniemitchell.bsky.social is always worth reading on AI, and this is no exception.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Idea: Sellars' claim that "means" statements ("... means ___") are metalinguistic and display the functional roles of concepts, is basically his version, in the idiom of analytic philosophy ("the new way of words"), of Peirce's 'pragmatic maxim'.
(I cannot be the first to think this)
(I cannot be the first to think this)
July 22, 2025 at 8:52 PM
Idea: Sellars' claim that "means" statements ("... means ___") are metalinguistic and display the functional roles of concepts, is basically his version, in the idiom of analytic philosophy ("the new way of words"), of Peirce's 'pragmatic maxim'.
(I cannot be the first to think this)
(I cannot be the first to think this)