Stephen John

@kevin_dorst Thank you. Sorry for missing the caveat. I guess empirical plausibility might relate to topic? The gun control case is convincing but there is ambiguity on both ‘sides’. Maybe trickier to use model where there’s less ambiguity - eg anthropogenic climate change?

@sdjohn22 Thanks! Yeah, conclusion is meant to be that real polarization MIGHT be rational, and the last few paragraphs are meant to give voice to how to think of it IF it is (so they're "speaking from the theory")

"Rational Polarization" is now forthcoming in The Philosophical Review! philpapers.org/rec/DORRP-2 (Shorter version: kevindorst.com/uploads/8/8/1/…) 5 years in the making; still lots more to figure out. Here's the TLDR, and a detailed summary:

@chartgerink I don’t spend much time on Twitter, but this was lovely to read - glad you found the book helpful. Having written it, I’m not certain the term ‘objectivity’ can really be defined, but I suspect trying to do so is helpful for understanding other topics.

I wrote a paper sceptical of childhood vaccination against Covid-19. It was accepted this morning. It became very relevant this afternoon (at least, in the UK). If you're as confused as I am, here are some thoughts on how low we can (or should) go! academia.edu/71707166/How_l…

When I wrote this piece about how to balance harms and benefits in thinking about lockdowns/vaccination, etc, I thought it was all a bit out-of-date. Now, I'm not so certain... theconversation.com/harms-versus-b…

@BrandonWarmke @jasonintrator A very distinguished philosopher of the same(ish) generation (not in moral philosophy) once told me that the greatest disappointment of his academic career was when he was told he wasn’t quite good enough to be appointed without doing a doctorate first.

@jasonintrator Didn’t say it was

Moral philosophers without a PhD: Bernard Williams, David Wiggins, John McDowell, Philippa Foot, Jonathan Dancy, David McNaughton, and Derek Parfit.

@birchlse I didn’t think I liked Sci-Fi as an adult (after a childhood of devouring Asimov) but I stumbled across Adam Roberts’ books and couldn’t stop reading. And then I followed his recommendations to others. Given your interests/profession he is great (and a good guide!)

I liked Iain M. Banks a lot but have no idea where to start with the rest of sci-fi, which seems scary and disorienting. What should I read?

@SarahWieten @arichardson_phi @add_hawk I love Nguyen’s paper! It’s related to my concern, but more general. I worry that, if people have a false view of science, transparency undermines warranted epistemic trust. He shows how pre-empting this outcome is one way transparency distorts expert judgment and communication.

@arichardson_phi @add_hawk Would love to hear what you and @sdjohn22 make of it.

I often think transparency is a boring, tentative, ineffective, red-herring of a virtue for science. I also think this article is very interesting: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.11…

Here's a new paper, forthcoming in Studies in HPS, on cancer, trust and demarcation. To a large extent, it's based entirely on a seminar I ran with my undergraduates, so thanks to all of them. authors.elsevier.com/a/1diR28yuQtYKD

Here are some thoughts on masks, covid, and boxing... theconversation.com/covid-should-y…

If you ever wondered whether Sandra Harding and Robert Nozick share an epistemology, my new book, Objectivity in Science, is available for free for two weeks here: cup.org/3oq59lL

Halting vaccine rollout: is allowing harm worse than doing harm? theconversation.com/halting-vaccin… via @ConversationUK

@arrroberts Cab-aret

"Jesus Christ: Supercar"

Distracted Boyfriend imgflip.com/i/48frv0 via @imgflip

@birchlse Rawls, J. (1971) "We put some people behind the veil of ignorance: you won't believe what happened next!"

If philosophy journal editors took the same approach to headlines as their media counterparts... Jackson, F. (1982). "I Locked a Girl in a Room for Years to See What Would Happen. Here's My Story". Putnam, H. (1973). "The Great New Alternative to Water No One Is Talking About".

@arrroberts Death of salesmynyddygarreg. (I promise this is funny if you are a fan of both Arthur Miller and small villages near Kidwelly).

An Inspector Porthcawls #WelshPlays

Waiting For Llanfair­pwllgwyngyll­gogery­chwyrn­drobwll­llan­tysilio­gogo­godot #WelshPlays