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Kenny Pearce

@kennypearce.bsky.social

2.5K followers 1.1K following 410 posts

I read old books & am confused about God. Philosophy prof (currently James Madison University, formerly Trinity College Dublin). Latest book: http://bit.ly/2QrnJxl Latest paper: https://place.asburyseminary.edu/faithandphilosophy/vol41/iss1/5/

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Kenny Pearce @kennypearce.bsky.social · Jun 3

My latest paper, “Foundational Grounding and Four Sources of Contingency,” is now up at Faith and Philosophy!
place.asburyseminary.edu/faithandphil...

Foundational Grounding and Four Sources of Contingency

By Kenneth L. Pearce, Published on 01/01/25

place.asburyseminary.edu

Reposted by Kenny Pearce

Lukács Doncic @weirdalf.bsky.social · 2d

The person that some experts say is the president of the United States has been accused of posting what appears to be a video on what some critics are calling Saturday

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Kenny Pearce @kennypearce.bsky.social · 4d

British empiricism is not a thing. But it's pretty clear that (Irish!) Berkeley and Hume take ideas to be images. It's disputed in the secondary lit whether Locke does.

Reposted by Kenny Pearce

Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 5d

Just received from a colleague: looks like Penn is going to join the universities refusing the extortionary Trump "compact". I do not regret to inform you that we are going to win

screenshot of an email saying:

"To the Penn Community:

For 285 years, Penn has been anchored and guided by continuous self-improvement, using education as a ladder for opportunity, and advancing discoveries that serve our community, our nation, and the world.

Since receiving the Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education on October 1, I have sought input from faculty, alumni, trustees, students, staff and others who care deeply about Penn. The goal was to ensure that our response reflected our values and the perspectives of our broad community.

Earlier today, I informed the U.S. Department of Education that Penn respectfully declines to sign the proposed Compact. As requested, we also provided focused feedback highlighting areas of existing alignment as well as substantive concerns.

At Penn, we are committed to merit-based achievement and accountability. The long-standing partnership between American higher education and the federal government has greatly benefited society and our nation. Shared goals and investment in talent and ideas will turn possibility into progress.

I am grateful to the Penn community for your thoughtful input and for what you bring to our University and our missions every day.

Sincerely,

J. Larry Jameson, MD, PhD
President
University of Pennsylvania"

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Kenny Pearce @kennypearce.bsky.social · 5d

Step 1: refuse to draw any distinction between "phantasm, notion, species, or whatever it is which the mind can be employed about in thinking".

#philosophy #c17

Tips
Learn how to turn ideas into images.

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Reposted by Kenny Pearce

George Gantsoudes @pedsortho.bsky.social · 8d

Please remember that the disgust people have over Christopher Columbus is not based on some modern, 21st century “woke” ideology, but rather on contemporaneous accounts of atrocities that make many modern genocides appear quaint in comparison.

Below, are the accounts of Bartlomé de las Casas.

But too many of the slaves died in captivity. And so Columbus, desperate to pay back dividends to those who had in-vested, had to make good his promise to fill the ships with gold. In the province of Cicao on Haiti, where he and his men imagined huge gold fields to exist, they ordered all persons fourteen years or older to collect a certain quantity of gold every three months. When they brought it, they were given copper tokens to hang around their necks. Indians found without a copper token had their hands cut off and bled to death.
The Indians had been given an impossible task. The only gold around was bits of dust garnered from the streams. So they fled, were hunted down with dogs, and were killed.

After each six or eight months' work in the mines, which was the time required of each crew to dig enough gold for melting, up to a third of the men died.
While the men were sent many miles away to the mines, the wives remained to work the soil, forced into the excruciating job of digging and making thousands of hills for cassava plants.
Thus husbands and wives were together only once every eight or ten months and when they met they were so exhausted and depressed on both sides... they ceased to pro-create. As for the newly born, they died early because their mothers, overworked and fam-ished, had no milk to nurse them, and for this reason, while I was in Cuba, 7000 children died in three months. Some mothers even drowned their babies from sheer desper-ation.... In this way, husbands died in the mines, wives died at work, and children died from lack of milk ... and in a short time this land which was so great, so powerful and fer-tile... was depopulated... My eyes have seen these acts so foreign to human nature, and now I tremble as I write....

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Paul Quelle-Horreur 😱🎃 @paulkelleher.net · 8d

Editorial Manager account created

Marjorie James Keenan @unenthusiast.com · 9d

In honour of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand.

rm -rf ~/

hammancheez @hammancheez.bsky.social · 9d

"The chancellor approved it"

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Reposted by Kenny Pearce

The Associated Press @apnews.com · 12d

Pope Leo XIV has blasted how wealthy people live in a “bubble of comfort and luxury” while the poor suffer. In his first teaching document Thursday, Leo confirms that he is in perfect lockstep with Pope Francis on matters of social injustice.

Pope Leo blasts economy that marginalizes poor while wealthy live in bubble of luxury

Pope Leo XIV has blasted how wealthy people live in a “bubble of comfort and luxury” while the poor suffer.

bit.ly

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Kenny Pearce @kennypearce.bsky.social · 13d

Children's literature in the 'news': theonion.com/u-s-military...

U.S. Military Carries Out Strike On Scuffy The Tugboat

ARLINGTON, VA—Saying the Pentagon had acted swiftly on an insider tip about the vessel having a “big adventure” planned, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed Tuesday that the U.S. military had car...

theonion.com

Kenny Pearce @kennypearce.bsky.social · 13d

Lovely write-up about great things happening in my department!
www.jmu.edu/news/cal/202...

www.jmu.edu

Kenny Pearce @kennypearce.bsky.social · 16d

My colleague Alan Levinovitz in the New York Times!
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/03/h...

Autism, A.D.H.D., Anxiety: Can a Diagnosis Make You Better?

www.nytimes.com

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Kenny Pearce @kennypearce.bsky.social · 23d

This is at least as comprehensible as the Tower of Goldbach, isn't it?
plato.stanford.edu/entries/imag...

Imaginative Resistance (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)

plato.stanford.edu

Reposted by Kenny Pearce

George Conway 🇺🇸🚫👑🐸 @gtconway.bsky.social · 26d

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Ada Palmer @adapalmer.bsky.social · 27d

In #c17 seventeenth century Iceland, 40% of the male population was named Jon Jonson.

Friend was transcribing a witchcraft trial where accused, plaintiff, victim, judge, & two witnesses were all Jon Jonson.

I console myself with this story whenever Renaissance Italy gives me too many Giovannis.

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Reposted by Kenny Pearce

lastpositivist.bsky.social @lastpositivist.bsky.social · 28d

Oh. My. God.

www.popsci.com/environment/...

First known wild ‘grue jay’ hybrid spotted in Texas

Green and blue jays are crossing paths as temperatures rise.

www.popsci.com

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Kenny Pearce @kennypearce.bsky.social · 28d

In my study of #c17 & #c18 #philosophy, I’ve encountered only one John Smith, but three Samuel Johnsons, three John Clarkes, and three Edward Synges.

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Reposted by Kenny Pearce

lastpositivist.bsky.social @lastpositivist.bsky.social · 29d

Just got an email from a scam academic journal asking if I wanted to "explore new advances in White Psychodrama" and it's just got me like: buddy, I can watch the news myself.

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Kenny Pearce @kennypearce.bsky.social · 29d

By now I’m used to board books being a bit butchered compared to the originals, but this is a new low: the board book of There’s a Wocket in my Pocket HAS NO WOCKET IN IT!

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Reposted by Kenny Pearce

Karen Attiah @karenattiah.bsky.social · Sep 18

The last political column I was allowed to write in the @washingtonpost.com was a criticism of Obama.

His people took issue with my piece, but we were respectful.

Now he is tweeting in support of me.

This is how free political speech and respect for debate *actually works*.

Or used to work.

Tweet From Obama mentioning my firing from the Washington post. Wirh a photo of me

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Reposted by Kenny Pearce

NPR @npr.org · Sep 18

The killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk has unleashed a frenzy of recrimination — and finger-pointing. But the suspect's politics may be less clear than some say.

Why was Kirk killed? Evidence paints complicated picture of alleged assassin

The killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk has unleashed a frenzy of recrimination — and finger-pointing. But the suspect's politics may be less clear than some say.

n.pr

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Reposted by Kenny Pearce

Barack Obama @barackobama.bsky.social · Sep 18

After years of complaining about cancel culture, the current administration has taken it to a new and dangerous level by routinely threatening regulatory action against media companies unless they muzzle or fire reporters and commentators it doesn’t like.

Let’s be clear about what happened to Jimmy Kimmel

Trump’s most brazen attack on free speech yet.

www.yahoo.com

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Kenny Pearce @kennypearce.bsky.social · Sep 18

Page proofs!

Christianity and the Making of Irish Law: Violence, Virtue, and Reason
Edited by David H. McIlroy
Routledge

6 George Berkeley (1685–1753) on Obedience and Natural Law
Kenneth L. Pearce

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Reposted by Kenny Pearce

Hadas Weiss @hadas.bsky.social · Sep 17

yeah, i do peer review

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Reposted by Kenny Pearce

SMBC Comics @smbccomics.bsky.social · Sep 15

Remember that whole year you had to have Piketty on your coffee table to be accepted in polite society?

COMIC ◆ www.smbc-comics.com/comic/unread
PATREON ◆ www.patreon.com/ZachWeinersm...
STORE ◆ smbc-store.myshopify.com

4-panel SMBC comic update where James Joyce, Stephen Hawking and Immanuel Kant all argue they all wrote the most widely cited book that nobody has actually read. God walks in with a Bible calling them amateurs.

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Kenny Pearce @kennypearce.bsky.social · Sep 16

My department is hiring a tenure-track assistant professor in Jewish Studies this year. Application instructions here: jobs.jmu.edu/jobs/tenure-...

Tenure-Track Assistant Professor, Jewish Studies - Harrisonburg, Virginia, United States

Working Title: Tenure-Track Assistant Professor, Jewish Studies State Role Title: N/A Position Type: Instructional / Teaching Faculty Position Status: Full-Time FLSA Status: Exempt: Not Eligible for O...

jobs.jmu.edu

Kenny Pearce @kennypearce.bsky.social · Sep 11

Good stuff happening at my university: www.jmu.edu/news/2025/09...