Tom O'Shea
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tomoshea.org
Tom O'Shea
@tomoshea.org
Philosopher and socialist in Edinburgh.

https://www.tomoshea.org/
Not sure I would have gone with this particular name in the current climate...
October 25, 2025 at 1:30 PM
Assembling the troops.
August 28, 2025 at 1:27 PM
My reverse-vampire theory of local cats: they are allowed to come into the house as long as they're not invited in.
August 27, 2025 at 10:53 AM
I don't like this either. Google suggests it begins taking off in 2008 and peaked in 2018, so perhaps kickstarted by the financial crisis. Always thought of it as a replacement for ‘vicious circle’ as well as ‘downward spiral’.
August 25, 2025 at 3:27 PM
Thanks for reaching out. Unfortunately, I am not accepting bribes at this time.
August 20, 2025 at 8:14 AM
August 7, 2025 at 9:18 PM
Congratulations—but also: ouch.
August 5, 2025 at 10:15 AM
Reading about Francis Fukuyama in the New Left Review last night, then remembered when someone on Twitter noticed he doesn't know what deontology means.
July 31, 2025 at 1:03 PM
I assume this must be a coordinated set of events because this is happening in Edinburgh later too.
July 25, 2025 at 2:29 PM
Seems like an odd requirement for a post-doc — but okay, I guess.
July 18, 2025 at 8:59 AM
In Glasgow ahead of the Association for Social and Political Philosophy conference tomorrow.
July 14, 2025 at 3:41 PM
New bike. It's nice to be cycling again after an eight-year interlude.
July 13, 2025 at 3:43 PM
Don’t write off psychoanalysis yet.
June 25, 2025 at 11:38 AM
Seagull took a bite from my hotdog on Portobello beach yesterday. 🌭
June 22, 2025 at 12:29 PM
University consultants are getting increasingly brazen.
June 22, 2025 at 10:51 AM
First look at the new Edinburgh supercomputer announced in Labour's spending review.
June 11, 2025 at 3:15 PM
After all, why not? Why shouldn’t I write an academic article about the Norman yoke?
June 10, 2025 at 11:13 AM
Going to be discussing the draft manuscript of my book on Socialist Republicanism at a workshop at the University of York on 8th July. Mónica Brito Vieira, Jan Kandiyali, Hannah Carnegy-Arbuthnott, and Nick Cowen have kindly agreed to comment.
June 6, 2025 at 10:47 AM
Ivor Southwood is good on the ambivalence that comes from not wanting to be fired from a job you already resent.
June 6, 2025 at 10:28 AM
New bookcase 💘
June 5, 2025 at 11:40 AM
tfw you are 'disappointed' that staff are taking strike action
June 4, 2025 at 3:33 PM
Quentin Skinner, as ever, is good on this.
May 29, 2025 at 8:44 AM
May 28, 2025 at 7:46 AM
Queen’s Street Gardens are “a community garden in the heart of Edinburgh”. The community:
May 19, 2025 at 4:04 PM
I'd be worried that going from a strict diet of blue and white to a rainbow palette would precipitate a Milhouse-style breakdown.
May 15, 2025 at 8:49 AM