Ralph Stefan Weir
@ralphstefanweir.bsky.social
Philosopher interested in metaphysics, mind, AI, language, art, religion etc. Author of The Mind-Body Problem and Metaphysics.
New version of the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on Dualism is now live!
This update was a huge job, and there’s still plenty I’d like to improve in the next version, but this will have to do until 2030.
plato.stanford.edu/entries/dual...
This update was a huge job, and there’s still plenty I’d like to improve in the next version, but this will have to do until 2030.
plato.stanford.edu/entries/dual...
October 21, 2025 at 10:58 AM
New version of the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on Dualism is now live!
This update was a huge job, and there’s still plenty I’d like to improve in the next version, but this will have to do until 2030.
plato.stanford.edu/entries/dual...
This update was a huge job, and there’s still plenty I’d like to improve in the next version, but this will have to do until 2030.
plato.stanford.edu/entries/dual...
Departing Split to end the summer conference season in Rome
September 2, 2025 at 6:43 PM
Departing Split to end the summer conference season in Rome
I am writing a new version of the Stanford article on Dualism. If anyone has thoughts on what needs adding I'd be delighted to hear them
February 25, 2025 at 8:34 PM
I am writing a new version of the Stanford article on Dualism. If anyone has thoughts on what needs adding I'd be delighted to hear them
Europe's most exciting philosophers convene in Zagreb
January 18, 2025 at 10:59 PM
Europe's most exciting philosophers convene in Zagreb
Lincoln looking amazing as usual
January 15, 2025 at 1:26 PM
Lincoln looking amazing as usual
A great advantage of the East Coast Main Line being down the other day was the resulting opportunity to visit the stunning Peterborough Cathedral
December 19, 2024 at 10:21 AM
A great advantage of the East Coast Main Line being down the other day was the resulting opportunity to visit the stunning Peterborough Cathedral
There is much to say in favour of Plumwood’s book. It is impressively erudite, wide-ranging, imaginative, and well written. But like so many attacks on dualism in contemporary thought, Plumwood ignores the real profundity of the mind-body problem. 18/19
December 16, 2024 at 12:06 PM
There is much to say in favour of Plumwood’s book. It is impressively erudite, wide-ranging, imaginative, and well written. But like so many attacks on dualism in contemporary thought, Plumwood ignores the real profundity of the mind-body problem. 18/19
Of course we reject the superiority of master to slave, coloniser to colonised and so on. But before we reject the dualism of mind/soul and body, we have to consider the arguments in its favour – arguments Plumwood never discusses. 17/19
December 16, 2024 at 12:06 PM
Of course we reject the superiority of master to slave, coloniser to colonised and so on. But before we reject the dualism of mind/soul and body, we have to consider the arguments in its favour – arguments Plumwood never discusses. 17/19
Finally, suppose we did have evidence that, historically, soul-body dualism has had a place in a web of “dualisms” every other member of which is objectionable. This still would not show that there is anything wrong with the soul-body distinction itself. 16/19.
December 16, 2024 at 12:06 PM
Finally, suppose we did have evidence that, historically, soul-body dualism has had a place in a web of “dualisms” every other member of which is objectionable. This still would not show that there is anything wrong with the soul-body distinction itself. 16/19.
If you look for a pattern everywhere, you are likely to find it whatever the evidence. All the more so if you treat the pattern as a ‘deep structure’, ‘buried’ beneath the surface. I suspect Plumwood’s web of evil dualism is a product of illusory pattern perception. 15/19
December 16, 2024 at 12:06 PM
If you look for a pattern everywhere, you are likely to find it whatever the evidence. All the more so if you treat the pattern as a ‘deep structure’, ‘buried’ beneath the surface. I suspect Plumwood’s web of evil dualism is a product of illusory pattern perception. 15/19
Neither did Stalin’s materialism prevent the atrocities of the Gulag and the Holodomor, nor Chairman Mao’s the horrors of the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution. Plumwoods anti-dualist narrative is nourished by a diet of one-sided examples. 14/19
December 16, 2024 at 12:06 PM
Neither did Stalin’s materialism prevent the atrocities of the Gulag and the Holodomor, nor Chairman Mao’s the horrors of the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution. Plumwoods anti-dualist narrative is nourished by a diet of one-sided examples. 14/19
Meanwhile, Haeckel’s monism did not prevent him from championing scientific racism and eugenics. There is, in fact, a well-known case for thinking that the work of the German Monist League assisted in the rise of Nazism. 13/19
December 16, 2024 at 12:06 PM
Meanwhile, Haeckel’s monism did not prevent him from championing scientific racism and eugenics. There is, in fact, a well-known case for thinking that the work of the German Monist League assisted in the rise of Nazism. 13/19
Mary Astell’s soul-body dualism did not prevent her from making a stand against female subordination that has earned her the title of the first female English feminist. Astell invoked Cartesian dualism as part of her argument 12/19
December 16, 2024 at 12:06 PM
Mary Astell’s soul-body dualism did not prevent her from making a stand against female subordination that has earned her the title of the first female English feminist. Astell invoked Cartesian dualism as part of her argument 12/19
Gregory of Nyssa’s soul-body dualism did not prevent him from making a moral stand against slavery that has no parallel in the ancient world. On the contrary, Gregory appeals to the soul-body distinction in making his case. 11/19
December 16, 2024 at 12:06 PM
Gregory of Nyssa’s soul-body dualism did not prevent him from making a moral stand against slavery that has no parallel in the ancient world. On the contrary, Gregory appeals to the soul-body distinction in making his case. 11/19
And why throw Plato’s soul-body dualism together with his alleged affirmation of the superiority of master to slave, male to female etc. but not the superiority of justice over injustice, philosophers over tyrants etc. re which Plato is much more explicit and emphatic? 10/19
December 16, 2024 at 12:06 PM
And why throw Plato’s soul-body dualism together with his alleged affirmation of the superiority of master to slave, male to female etc. but not the superiority of justice over injustice, philosophers over tyrants etc. re which Plato is much more explicit and emphatic? 10/19
And yet, Plato’s Phaedrus explicitly identifies humans as the unique bearers of the rational faculties explained by his theory of recollection, and his Meno famously has Socrates support that theory by demonstrating the presence of those rational faculties in Meno’s slave. 9/19
December 16, 2024 at 12:06 PM
And yet, Plato’s Phaedrus explicitly identifies humans as the unique bearers of the rational faculties explained by his theory of recollection, and his Meno famously has Socrates support that theory by demonstrating the presence of those rational faculties in Meno’s slave. 9/19
Plumwood’s evidence for this web of dualisms is pretty weird. Plato’s cave allegory represents women as inferior because the cave is like a womb. Dualists like classical logic because the classical notion of negation encodes a ‘radical exclusion of the alien other’. Really? 7/19
December 16, 2024 at 12:06 PM
Plumwood’s evidence for this web of dualisms is pretty weird. Plato’s cave allegory represents women as inferior because the cave is like a womb. Dualists like classical logic because the classical notion of negation encodes a ‘radical exclusion of the alien other’. Really? 7/19
The claim that dualists regard soul as superior to body is correct of most historical dualists. E.g. Plato (influenced by Indian thought) saw embodiment as a misfortune. Christian dualists are more positive about the body, but still tend to regard the soul as more important. 5/19
December 16, 2024 at 12:06 PM
The claim that dualists regard soul as superior to body is correct of most historical dualists. E.g. Plato (influenced by Indian thought) saw embodiment as a misfortune. Christian dualists are more positive about the body, but still tend to regard the soul as more important. 5/19
The idea that soul-body dualism is part of a web of evil dualisms that structures Western thought does not originate with Plumwood. It goes back at least as far as Ernst Haeckel (1834-1919), pioneer of the German Monist League. But why should we accept this idea? 4/19
December 16, 2024 at 12:06 PM
The idea that soul-body dualism is part of a web of evil dualisms that structures Western thought does not originate with Plumwood. It goes back at least as far as Ernst Haeckel (1834-1919), pioneer of the German Monist League. But why should we accept this idea? 4/19
Plumwood argues 1. soul-body dualists treat soul as superior to body. 2. dualists associate the superiority of soul to body with the superiority of master to slave, coloniser to colonised, male to female etc. 3. soul-body dualism is therefore part of a web of evil dualisms 3/19
December 16, 2024 at 12:06 PM
Plumwood argues 1. soul-body dualists treat soul as superior to body. 2. dualists associate the superiority of soul to body with the superiority of master to slave, coloniser to colonised, male to female etc. 3. soul-body dualism is therefore part of a web of evil dualisms 3/19
Plumwood's book is a major exposition of "ecofeminism". It is also an example of the academic practice of blaming everything bad on "dualism". Here's a summary of Plumwood’s argument, and why I am not convinced. 2/19
December 16, 2024 at 12:06 PM
Plumwood's book is a major exposition of "ecofeminism". It is also an example of the academic practice of blaming everything bad on "dualism". Here's a summary of Plumwood’s argument, and why I am not convinced. 2/19
Today is the 21st anniversary of Val Plumwood's classic book, Feminism and the Master of Nature. So, here's a thread about the scholarly tradition I call "dualism-blaming", taking Plumwood's book as a case study. 1/19
December 16, 2024 at 12:06 PM
Today is the 21st anniversary of Val Plumwood's classic book, Feminism and the Master of Nature. So, here's a thread about the scholarly tradition I call "dualism-blaming", taking Plumwood's book as a case study. 1/19
Warsaw is so dramatic
December 8, 2024 at 9:41 PM
Warsaw is so dramatic
Beautiful morning arriving at Lincoln's Brayford campus
December 4, 2024 at 10:11 AM
Beautiful morning arriving at Lincoln's Brayford campus
There's been lots of discussion about students using AI to write essays, but less about us using AI to grade them. So, here's something I have written about the future of AI essay grading in universities advance-he.ac.uk/news-and-vie...
November 22, 2024 at 10:15 AM
There's been lots of discussion about students using AI to write essays, but less about us using AI to grade them. So, here's something I have written about the future of AI essay grading in universities advance-he.ac.uk/news-and-vie...