William Gildea

My first journal article has just been published in The Philosophical Quarterly. I argue against an increasingly popular way to argue humans matter more than animals And: 10 years ago today, I first arrived at university. V lucky I can mark it this way academic.oup.com/pq/advance-art…

Grateful that The Ecologist is covering my podcast today! I hope Surprising Ethics continues to surprise me, and you theecologist.org/2026/mar/17/so…

New episode on the philosophy of new year's resolutions! Discussing how to set fulfilling resolutions and whether resolutions are a good idea in what Bertrand Russell thinks is a culture of insane hyper-productivity #NewYearsResolutions linktr.ee/surprisingethi…

The wonderful public philosophy magazine The Pamphlet has just published a feature of my podcast! the-pamphlet.com/articles/surpr…

Is envy morally *good*? Far from being a deadly sin, does it drive progress and help us understand ourselves? Sarah Protasi thinks so. In today's Surprising Ethics episode we discuss envy's virtues, self-esteem, self-acceptance, love, and social comparison linktr.ee/surprisingethi…

It's World Philosophy Day! Why not celebrate hard with an episode of Surprising Ethics? For the most intriguing ideas in philosophy. Link to platforms: linktr.ee/surprisingethi…

'Prevsly on the Traitors' was the best part of each episode #TraitorsCelebrities

Will AI have rights? Will AI really become conscious? Why? My podcast has a new episode where you can hear from experts on both sides of the debate linktr.ee/surprisingethi…

I just wrote this, on whether a UK supermarket is producing the 'happy, natural, ethically raised' pigs it claims to in new animal welfare drive. theecologist.org/2025/oct/31/wa…

Happy to recommend a new philosophy podcast: Surprising Ethics, by @will_gildea. One of the early episodes (surprisingethics.buzzsprout.com/2529148/episod…) very thoughtfully discusses some of my work on the moral status of (non-)monogamy.

@ReuelWilliams3 I think there's another way. We can also use moral principles, instead of comparisons. Eg 'it's wrong to cause suffering for no good reason ', or 'it's wrong to kill beings that don't want to die and have conscious lives without absolutely needing to'.

The most frustrating thing about arguing for veganism is that meat eating is one of the greatest societal ills that still isn’t viewed as such. As a result, any sort of comparison to any other act that we view as immoral is immediately shunned and no further thought goes into it.

Just saw this squirrel playing with a stick like a cat. Squirrel people: is he/she ok?

V excited to say I just launched a podcast!! Surprising Ethics is all about the most interesting and surprising ideas in ethics and political theory. 3 launch episodes+ 1-min trailer here! surprisingethics.buzzsprout.com

Dr Isabella Trifan from @UniEssexGovt: “Today’s announcement is a step forward—not because 16-year-olds can pay taxes, but because they are citizens who are affected by policy and are as capable of voting as many adults are.” #VotingAge #YouthVoice #Democracy #WeAreEssex

Just chilling with groundhogs on my afternoon walk

Extract of my letter in the Guardian today: That Luiz Hoinkis chose to clone his dog may seem to be a sign of his sincere love for animals. But his decision and the growing pet‑cloning industry that makes it possible may instead be an indication that... theguardian.com/science/2025/m…

Filmed a squirrel and groundhog for family. 2 hrs later saw dead squirrel on road nearby. Depressing, though our speciesist world can make it confusing to feel sadness properly. Annihilation is apparently only serious for those with a certain bits of deoxyribonucleic acid!

'Very traumatic', police say. 'A highly distressing crime that has caused death and serious injury to defenceless animals'. I agree. But aren't there other more routine, industrial killings that are similarly distressing and visited on defenceless animals? theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/m…

Was emailing myself notes on why rabbits have moral rights. Half way through I looked up and saw a rabbit, perhaps lost, next to city train tracks on top of a big motorway. Bit of a sad sight.

Humanity has a culture of using other animals - foxes as coats, cows as dinner, chickens as a nice starter. This affects trillions of animals a year. But do we have a proper moral justification for it? If not, could humanity be making some sort of enormous, awful mistake?

@GiuliaLorenzi92 Hahaha, nice!!