George Webster

Antirealists? Where?!

NSLMP Keynote Speakers  Maria Dimova Cookson (Durham) Mark Textor (KCL)

I’m a big fan of the North + late modern philosophy, so I’m super pleased to have been invited to speak at the Northern Seminar in Late Modern Philosophy in June!

#philosophy

...which draws on my DPhil thesis:

The metaphysics science needs: Deleuze's naturalism This article is aimed at those interested in the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze and the sciences—and this includes philosophers of science working out of the analytic tradition. Deleuze's writings are ...

It's based in part on my EJP article...

The quantum world reveals reality is made of relations, not objects <p><em>We assume that objects are more fundamental than the relationships between those objects. However, philosopher <strong>George Webster</strong> argues that quantum mechanics upends this common-s...

I enjoyed putting together this article for @iai.tv

#philosophy #philsci

a man in a checkered shirt and tie says i went to cornell ALT: a man in a checkered shirt and tie says i went to cornell

Just a couple of tutorials on moral explanation today.

#philosophy

Deadline coming up! The 2026 Swedish Congress of Philosophy (”Filosofidagarna”) will be hosted by the @stockholm-uni.bsky.social Department of Philosophy, June 12–14. www.su.se/english/divi... #philsky #philsci

Thanks for sharing! I hadn’t seen this!

A poll on the question "Do moral judgements necessarily motivate us?", to which 18 students answered "Yes" and 33 answered "No".

I was surprised by this distribution of intuitions among a group of Yr12 (aged 16-17) students yesterday!

Turns out most 16-17 year-olds are motivational externalists!

#philosophy

Folks on the academic job market shouldn’t be allowed to watch No Other Choice. It’s irresponsible.

#philosophy #highered #academic

Pleased to be presenting again at the Nordic Society for Phenomenology conference this year - this time at Tampere University 🇫🇮

I'll be talking about Merleau-Ponty's engagement with quantum theory in his "Visible and the Invisible".

#philosophy #phenomenology #physics 🧪

Sign in a library that reads “MURDOCH ROOM”.

I like to pretend it’s the *Iris* Murdoch room.

#philosophy

"I really like the ideas of Jeremy Bentham."

"The ones about maximising pleasure and treating everyone equally?"

"Not those ones, no."

"Animal welfare? Decriminalising consensual sexual acts? Expanding democratic accountability?"

"Not exactly."

"Which ones then?"

"Oh, you know the ones..."

Title slide stating: "QUANTUM RECONSTRUCTION & PHENOMENOLOGY", with a subtitle "George Webster, University of Oxford / Newcastle Talk | 21 January 2026".

Just gave a talk @computingnewcastle.bsky.social on the prospects of a phenomenological approach to quantum reconstruction.

Huge thanks to @jonterhance.bsky.social for inviting me!

#philosophy #phenomenology 🧪

Great piece! Reveals a lot about the state of contemporary philosophy of biology, and how studying Bergson can help move it forward!

#philosophy 🧪

Screen Reader Demo for Digital Accessibility YouTube video by UCSF Documents & Media Photography

For people who don't use screen readers, it can be difficult to understand how screen readers work. If you're interested in learning how people use screen readers, check out this demo from Marc Sutton and The University of California San Francisco.

youtu.be/dEbl5jvLKGQ

Four book covers: Seneca, On the shortness of life; Schopenhauer, On the suffering of the world; Marcus Aurelius, Meditations; Wollstonecraft, A vindication of the rights of woman.

Good little free-book haul.

#philosophy #books

Perhaps more depressingly, I think Dummett’s point is less about specialisation and more about rigour. He seems to assume that there’s something about “provincial” departments (i.e., not Oxbridge or London) that precludes the possibility of doing/teaching/researching philosophy properly 😞

My view is more mixed. I think the tutorial system is like any other teaching system - it can be done well or poorly. And it has its own strengths and weaknesses.

I certainly don’t think it’s necessary or sufficient for a good education. Though I’m glad your husband had a positive experience!

Agreed! And I don’t think so at all!!

“Dummett […] told me flatly that it was wrong in principle to try to preserve all these provincial academic departments. Philosophy, he said, was a serious and highly technical subject which should only be studied at its own proper level.” (2/2)

Something else that struck me was Michael Dummett’s backwards view regarding who gets to study philosophy. 😞

Paraphrasing his reply to her letter rallying support in the face of the closure of Newcastle’s philosophy department, Midgley reports that: (1/2)

#philosophy #philsky

Very much like this! Will share with my students!

…mere general lack of thought”. 3/3

#philsky #philosophy #artificialintelligence #ai

…are not due primarily to lack of cleverness but to ordinary human causes such as greed, bias, folly, meanness, ignorance, ill-temper, lack of common-sense, lack of interest, lack of public feeling, lack of teamwork, lack of experience, lack of conscience, perhaps most of all to… 2/3

Something I like is Midgley’s (2018) critique of artificial intelligence - a couple of years before gen AI started to blow up.

Here’s a good passage:

“Why […] should anyone expect these extra calculative powers to make the difference that is needed? The confusions that now afflict human life… 1/3

Note to self:
When you teach the problem of induction at a commuter campus, the example that your justification that your car is where you think you left it is that it always has been in the past is a powerful one. 💪
Keep using!

A little against the spirit of the book, I suspect!

MARY MIDGLEY WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY FOR? BLOOMSBURY

Finally got round to reading this excellent book.

Definitely recommend it to - well, anyone!

#philsky #philosophy