Rory
@rorygilliland.bsky.social
Temporal philosopher at the University of Edinburgh, with interest in intersubjectivity, phenomenology, and time travel. Working on my thesis. Views attributable to Diogenes’ chicken.
Went to Rome for a mid-semester getaway…
November 26, 2025 at 12:14 PM
Went to Rome for a mid-semester getaway…
I met someone who referred to themselves as an “AI Artist,” and while I have an immense appreciation for art and ability to turn a phrase, the idea that writing a prompt, hitting enter, and having ChatGPT create a Frankensteined image for you out of stolen assets is decidedly not worth respecting.
November 17, 2025 at 5:27 PM
I met someone who referred to themselves as an “AI Artist,” and while I have an immense appreciation for art and ability to turn a phrase, the idea that writing a prompt, hitting enter, and having ChatGPT create a Frankensteined image for you out of stolen assets is decidedly not worth respecting.
Really enjoying that a PhD application says I’m applying for a plural Doctor of Philosophy Philosophy rather than just a singular Doctor of Philosophy. Two Philosophies are better than one, I suppose.
November 10, 2025 at 2:30 PM
Really enjoying that a PhD application says I’m applying for a plural Doctor of Philosophy Philosophy rather than just a singular Doctor of Philosophy. Two Philosophies are better than one, I suppose.
Cried through approximately 70% of del Toro’s Frankenstein—I’m not even remotely surprised it was as good as it was because I trust GDT fervently, but it somehow exceeded my already-high expectations. It’s a beautiful, human film about forgiveness, gentleness rising above cruelty.
October 31, 2025 at 10:35 PM
Cried through approximately 70% of del Toro’s Frankenstein—I’m not even remotely surprised it was as good as it was because I trust GDT fervently, but it somehow exceeded my already-high expectations. It’s a beautiful, human film about forgiveness, gentleness rising above cruelty.
Saw Miss Saigon at the Playhouse—Kim lived this time! Kim, Chris, and Ellen ended up in a throuple raising the kid, and the Engineer read Butler and apologised to women for all the misogyny. Heartwarming!
October 29, 2025 at 10:35 PM
Saw Miss Saigon at the Playhouse—Kim lived this time! Kim, Chris, and Ellen ended up in a throuple raising the kid, and the Engineer read Butler and apologised to women for all the misogyny. Heartwarming!
I love my home, I love my people, and I love that somehow I get to read and think and write about time travel as a vocation.
October 23, 2025 at 4:53 PM
I love my home, I love my people, and I love that somehow I get to read and think and write about time travel as a vocation.
If someone at Faber & Faber wants to give me advanced copies of Calculation of Volume III and IV, I’m just saying they’d get thanked in my thesis acknowledgements…
October 7, 2025 at 1:54 PM
If someone at Faber & Faber wants to give me advanced copies of Calculation of Volume III and IV, I’m just saying they’d get thanked in my thesis acknowledgements…
Autumn is nearly in full force in Edinburgh, and remains one of my absolute favourite things about my home. Some say dreary, I say comforting.
October 5, 2025 at 3:10 PM
Autumn is nearly in full force in Edinburgh, and remains one of my absolute favourite things about my home. Some say dreary, I say comforting.
The ability of Hegel to cause the eyes to wander from the words on the page to stare longingly out the window or become fascinated by the dust particles in the air is unparalleled and should be studied.
October 2, 2025 at 1:18 PM
The ability of Hegel to cause the eyes to wander from the words on the page to stare longingly out the window or become fascinated by the dust particles in the air is unparalleled and should be studied.
I’d love to know why early undergraduate ethics courses don’t make use of Le Guin’s ‘The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas’, because it seems like such fantastic entry material into ethical enquiry—virtually all ethical schools of thought could be applicable or related to the story in a practical way.
September 25, 2025 at 11:21 PM
I’d love to know why early undergraduate ethics courses don’t make use of Le Guin’s ‘The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas’, because it seems like such fantastic entry material into ethical enquiry—virtually all ethical schools of thought could be applicable or related to the story in a practical way.
Every time I begin to feel self conscious about my liberal use of italics in my work I just read Hegel for a bit and feel better by contrast. Our brother in Christ loved emphasising words, sometimes every second or third word in a page-length run-on sentence.
September 25, 2025 at 12:12 PM
Every time I begin to feel self conscious about my liberal use of italics in my work I just read Hegel for a bit and feel better by contrast. Our brother in Christ loved emphasising words, sometimes every second or third word in a page-length run-on sentence.
Reposted by Rory
Found my teen reading Hegel. After throwing up and having a fetal cry in the shower, I went to Best Buy and got him a PS5. Please. Your kids might be reading philosophy. GERMAN philosophy.
Leave church now and go check your kids’ rooms and hard drives. These perverts have pdfs.
Leave church now and go check your kids’ rooms and hard drives. These perverts have pdfs.
September 21, 2025 at 1:05 PM
Found my teen reading Hegel. After throwing up and having a fetal cry in the shower, I went to Best Buy and got him a PS5. Please. Your kids might be reading philosophy. GERMAN philosophy.
Leave church now and go check your kids’ rooms and hard drives. These perverts have pdfs.
Leave church now and go check your kids’ rooms and hard drives. These perverts have pdfs.
I don’t know when we decided that the Miller translation of Phenomenology was old hat, but I’ll admit, the Pinkard translation, above all, does have far nicer feeling paper.
September 19, 2025 at 6:01 PM
I don’t know when we decided that the Miller translation of Phenomenology was old hat, but I’ll admit, the Pinkard translation, above all, does have far nicer feeling paper.
My phone just reminded me during the extended strike action of ‘23, I occasionally arranged meetings to be in Greyfrairs Kirkyard for a more informal, off-campus meeting spot, and I have to say, that was a pretty dark academia way to avoid crossing a picket line.
September 11, 2025 at 10:40 PM
My phone just reminded me during the extended strike action of ‘23, I occasionally arranged meetings to be in Greyfrairs Kirkyard for a more informal, off-campus meeting spot, and I have to say, that was a pretty dark academia way to avoid crossing a picket line.
It was a very cool touch for the café I was in to have a playlist that entirely consisted of Ariana Grande music pre-pandemic and to change the song every time she started singing or rapping about sex. It was like the Hit Clips version of Ariana Grande—about twenty seconds of each song.
September 10, 2025 at 2:58 PM
It was a very cool touch for the café I was in to have a playlist that entirely consisted of Ariana Grande music pre-pandemic and to change the song every time she started singing or rapping about sex. It was like the Hit Clips version of Ariana Grande—about twenty seconds of each song.
Late to the party, but watching Megalopolis and I was prepared to evaluate its reportedly bizarre philosophical, aesthetic, filmic, and narrative qualities…but I’m five minutes in and already feel like I’m losing my mind.
September 5, 2025 at 11:52 AM
Late to the party, but watching Megalopolis and I was prepared to evaluate its reportedly bizarre philosophical, aesthetic, filmic, and narrative qualities…but I’m five minutes in and already feel like I’m losing my mind.
Any recommendations of where to start with Leibniz? I’m particularly interested in the metaphysics, writings on time (wow, much shock, very surprise), etc…
September 2, 2025 at 4:07 PM
Any recommendations of where to start with Leibniz? I’m particularly interested in the metaphysics, writings on time (wow, much shock, very surprise), etc…
The fetch-quest of confirming attendance at the beginning of the academic year becomes sillier and sillier the longer I remain at the same institution I’ve been at for a half decade—I’ve been here, I remain here, please just let me confirm my attendance via email I beg of you
September 1, 2025 at 4:22 PM
The fetch-quest of confirming attendance at the beginning of the academic year becomes sillier and sillier the longer I remain at the same institution I’ve been at for a half decade—I’ve been here, I remain here, please just let me confirm my attendance via email I beg of you
Dear lord dear god it’s actually cold in Edinburgh right now. Are we finally free from the tyranny of summer?
August 30, 2025 at 2:22 PM
Dear lord dear god it’s actually cold in Edinburgh right now. Are we finally free from the tyranny of summer?
Tommy is fantastic, and I would implore my fellow Edinburgh philosophers to pay keen attention, because as Tommy describes, our own house is built on some truly evil, truly racist history.
August 27, 2025 at 1:41 PM
Tommy is fantastic, and I would implore my fellow Edinburgh philosophers to pay keen attention, because as Tommy describes, our own house is built on some truly evil, truly racist history.
Argonaut Books on an early Sunday afternoon in late August, warm but not too warm, breezy but not cold, a flat white and the sound of keys tapping, the saxophonist at the Foot of the Walk, birds chirping. Truly a paradise on Earth.
August 24, 2025 at 11:26 AM
Argonaut Books on an early Sunday afternoon in late August, warm but not too warm, breezy but not cold, a flat white and the sound of keys tapping, the saxophonist at the Foot of the Walk, birds chirping. Truly a paradise on Earth.
Aye, granted, applying for a job is a terrible thing, but applying for a job and doing so with a section on your CV for published works makes it a little less terrible…
August 22, 2025 at 3:38 PM
Aye, granted, applying for a job is a terrible thing, but applying for a job and doing so with a section on your CV for published works makes it a little less terrible…
Fast track steps to random sea lions quote-posting you: post critically about AI > the sea lions will find you > you will scroll their feed for two-point-five seconds and see them going to war with another academic over the word ‘ontology’ which the sea lion views as pretentious ∴ you sigh
August 21, 2025 at 2:28 PM
Fast track steps to random sea lions quote-posting you: post critically about AI > the sea lions will find you > you will scroll their feed for two-point-five seconds and see them going to war with another academic over the word ‘ontology’ which the sea lion views as pretentious ∴ you sigh
Wrt last repost—I think about how my own institution, UoE, has attempted to integrate AI into student experience. We have a GPT-lite-esque platform that students are allowed to use if they acknowledge use and follow plagiarism guidelines, but its very existence feels like an admission of failure.
August 21, 2025 at 12:32 PM
Wrt last repost—I think about how my own institution, UoE, has attempted to integrate AI into student experience. We have a GPT-lite-esque platform that students are allowed to use if they acknowledge use and follow plagiarism guidelines, but its very existence feels like an admission of failure.
Reposted by Rory
When the dust settles, and if universities have meaningfully survived, it will be worth asking how institutions usually so resistant to thoroughgoing change chose to leap with both feet into an untested technology they didn't understand and didn't know how to use.
Universities doubling down as public sentiment shifts away from dependence upon AI. This is the problem with the buy-in.
The University of Michigan is now claiming that students have an ‘ethical responsibility’ to use AI.
August 21, 2025 at 6:51 AM
When the dust settles, and if universities have meaningfully survived, it will be worth asking how institutions usually so resistant to thoroughgoing change chose to leap with both feet into an untested technology they didn't understand and didn't know how to use.