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jonathanwebber.bsky.social
Jonathan Webber
@jonathanwebber.bsky.social
420 followers 280 following 160 posts

Half victim, half accomplice, like everyone

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Philosophy 37%
Political science 17%
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jonathanwebber.bsky.social
Jonathan Webber @jonathanwebber.bsky.social · 13d
✨✨

The Penguin Book of Existentialist Philosophy

edited by me

is published today in the UK!

(Australia and North America publication is next February.)

✨✨
The Penguin Book of Existentialist Philosophy
'Superb ... I can't imagine a better way of meeting the existentialists in all their variety' - Sarah Bakewell, author of At the Existentialist Café ‘We are thrown into the world at every moment, an...
www.penguin.co.uk

jonathanwebber.bsky.social
Jonathan Webber @jonathanwebber.bsky.social · 8h
The difference between them.

How they relate to 'if, then', 'only if', 'if and only if', 'all', and 'only'.

Fallacies of confusing them (and relation to affirming the consequent, denying the antecedent).

jonathanwebber.bsky.social
Jonathan Webber @jonathanwebber.bsky.social · 8d
I'm giving an online talk on Saturday morning with the
Southern Association for Psychotherapy and Counselling

:: Bad Faith, Bullshit, and Belonging ::

mainly Beauvoir and Sartre
with some Kierkegaard and Heidegger

Everyone is welcome!

Booking is here: bit.ly/SAPCbfbb
On the right side: image of the cover of The Penguin Book of Existentialist Philosophy, edited by me. On the left side, the following text: Bad Faith, Bullshit, and Belonging 22 November, 10 - 11.30am Exploring existentialist views on bullshit, from Kierkegaard's ‘chatter’ and Heidegger's ‘idle talk’ to Beauvoir's ‘popular wisdom’ and Sartre's development of these ideas to critique societal divisions. Online talk given by Jonathan Webber, editor of THE PENGUIN BOOK OF EXISTENTIALIST PHILOSOPHY Tickets: bit.ly/SAPCbfbb Southern Association for Psychotherapy and Counselling

Reposted by Jonathan Webber

philosofemme.bsky.social
Kate Kirkpatrick @philosofemme.bsky.social · 11d
“When faced with greed, envy, calumny, perfidy, or lies, people […] say indulgently, ‘That's human!’ With an excuse like that, they clearly show that they are renouncing any expectations of generosity or greatness from man.”

—Simone de Beauvoir

In this new 🐧 📕 ed. @jonathanwebber.bsky.social 👏 👇
Photo of The Penguin Book of Existentialist Philosophy, edited by Jonathan Webber

jonathanwebber.bsky.social
Jonathan Webber @jonathanwebber.bsky.social · 27d
Also: congratulations!

jonathanwebber.bsky.social
Jonathan Webber @jonathanwebber.bsky.social · 27d
Suspect that’ll be surprising news to both @jonathanbirch.bsky.social and @birchlse.bsky.social

jonathanwebber.bsky.social
Jonathan Webber @jonathanwebber.bsky.social · 28d
Superb! Congratulations!

Reposted by Jonathan Webber

cardiffphilosophy.bsky.social
Cardiff Philosophy @cardiffphilosophy.bsky.social · Oct 26
🎈Book launch!

The Penguin Book of Existentialist Philosophy
edited by Jonathan Webber

Wednesday 12 November 2025 : 18:00 - 19:30
Oat & Bean, 26 Park Place, Cardiff CF10 3BA

Everyone is welcome! No need to register. Just turn up!
Detail from the book's cover art.

Reposted by Ernesto Priego, Jonathan Webber, Iris Murdoch

rethinkexistent.bsky.social
The Existentialist Offensive @rethinkexistent.bsky.social · Oct 24
24 October 1945:

Sartre gives a lecture on existentialism in Brussels and one Iris Murdoch is in the audience.

From her notes, this was clearly a version of the now rather famous lecture he was to give in Paris five days later.
Page from Iris Murdoch's notebook. Thank you to Lucy Bolton and the Iris Murdoch archive at the University of Kingston for the photo. The page reads: Notes on a lecture given by Jean Paul Sartre. Brussels Oct 24 1945. There is a christian & a nonchristian variety of existentialism. They have in common a certain theory of subjectivity. For the subject, essence is not existence. Each man is a "projet". He trancends himself. There are however "universals." There is no "human nature " (in the sense of qualities X Y or Z in every man) but there is a universal "human condition." Existentialists are not relativists in the ordinary sense. Their theory of liberty is crucial. Liberty is not a quality of man. It is a form of act, of being. A transcendence. Man is defined from without

Reposted by Jonathan Webber

anonopin.bsky.social
Anon Opin @anonopin.bsky.social · Oct 23
Books. No cookie preferences. No cookies. No GDPR. No pop ups. No bots. No floating videos. No AI. No ads. No trackers. No misinformation. No fascist techbros. No distracting animations. No paywalls. No influencers. How good are these things? Books are frickin awesome

jonathanwebber.bsky.social
Jonathan Webber @jonathanwebber.bsky.social · Oct 22
Nationalise

Reposted by Jonathan Webber

mikebenchcapon.bsky.social
Michael Bench-Capon @mikebenchcapon.bsky.social · Oct 22
Surprised to learn that this is illegal www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Kew woman fined £150 for pouring coffee down drain in Richmond
Burcu Yesilyurt says the fine is
www.bbc.co.uk

Reposted by Jonathan Webber

hetanshah.bsky.social
Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · Oct 20
Post 16 White Paper is out at last
www.gov.uk/government/p...
Post-16 education and skills white paper
Post-16 education and skills reforms to develop a skilled workforce and break down barriers to opportunity.
www.gov.uk

Reposted by Jonathan Webber

casmilus.bsky.social
Casmilus @casmilus.bsky.social · Oct 17
I think it's excessive to remove all his titles. He should have just been downgraded to The Marquis Of Granby, or maybe The Slug And Lettuce.

jonathanwebber.bsky.social
Jonathan Webber @jonathanwebber.bsky.social · Oct 17
“We should support universities. We should cherish the value of what they do and recognise that if we run them down for sport we will not realise what we’ve lost until it’s gone. And, just once in a while, we should give students a break.”

jonathanwebber.bsky.social
Jonathan Webber @jonathanwebber.bsky.social · Oct 17
“the accumulated knowledge of generations … is stored in universities as it is stored nowhere else, and it continues to be produced there, patiently and as far as the wide world goes almost anonymously, by generations of scholars in communion with each-other”
The joy of university
For those who are privileged to go to university, they get three years suspended between childhood and the adult world
www.spectator.co.uk

jonathanwebber.bsky.social
Jonathan Webber @jonathanwebber.bsky.social · Oct 17
Snap!

jonathanwebber.bsky.social
Jonathan Webber @jonathanwebber.bsky.social · Oct 11
With the comma in a different place it could be a native of Sheffield explaining to any one person that their affections cannot be won over by gifts.

Reposted by Jonathan Webber

fesshole.bsky.social
fesshole 🧻 @fesshole.bsky.social · Oct 9
I appeared on University Challenge years ago. I didn't actually attend the university in question. I used to take short cuts through the campus and saw the notice for the try outs. Went along for a laugh and made the team. No one ever checked if I was actually a student there.

Reposted by Steve Peers, Marina Jirotka, Roger Luckhurst , and 3 more

iandunt.bsky.social
Ian Dunt @iandunt.bsky.social · Oct 8
Calling English a 'rip-off degree' is one of the most blatant exhibitions of personal barbarism I've ever seen. You've demonstrated nothing but the poverty of your own mind.

jonathanwebber.bsky.social
Jonathan Webber @jonathanwebber.bsky.social · Oct 8
The same is true in chess. Best way to disguise your mistakes there is to play as noisily as you can.

jonathanwebber.bsky.social
Jonathan Webber @jonathanwebber.bsky.social · Oct 4
British monarchy encloses 150 acres of public land for their private use.
‘I think it’s selfish’: William and Kate face backlash over Windsor Great Park no-go zone
Royal couple’s desire for more privacy means 2.3-mile perimeter exclusion zone and less public land for walkers
www.theguardian.com

jonathanwebber.bsky.social
Jonathan Webber @jonathanwebber.bsky.social · Oct 3
Yes! Especially as it’s about three times the length of Philosophical Fragments.

Reposted by Dorothy Bishop, Scott L. Greer, Philip Nel , and 7 more

hunterw.bsky.social
Hunter Walker @hunterw.bsky.social · Oct 2
UPenn professors have responded forcefully to the Trump administration's that colleges sign a "compact" in order to secure funding:

"When an invitation is accompanied by consequences for not accepting it, it is in fact a threat, not an invitation." aaup-penn.org/statement-by...
Statement by the AAUP-Penn Executive Committee on the Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education | AAUP–Penn
October 2, 2025 We have received reports that Penn has been “invited” to sign a so-called “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education” by the federal government, and that failing to do so wou...
aaup-penn.org

jonathanwebber.bsky.social
Jonathan Webber @jonathanwebber.bsky.social · Sep 27
I do wonder how many people who want Joy Division’s Atmosphere end up with Russ Abbott’s.

Reposted by Jonathan Webber

rachelcoldicutt.bsky.social
Rachel Coldicutt @rachelcoldicutt.bsky.social · Sep 27
Anyway, you do have to wonder what this means for "growth": yesterday's ID proposals are *designed* to make access to work more difficult for people on low incomes, and they come with the side effect of potentially squashing a growing domestic technology sector.

jonathanwebber.bsky.social
Jonathan Webber @jonathanwebber.bsky.social · Sep 26
Thank you!

jonathanwebber.bsky.social
Jonathan Webber @jonathanwebber.bsky.social · Sep 26
“After nearly a decade of mutilating the country to address the ‘legitimate concerns’ about immigration, we’re still being told the precise same nonsense we were told in 2016, or in 2005.”
— @iandunt.bsky.social
ID cards are a terrible, terrible idea
Many people I admire believe firmly in ID cards, or have grown to accept them. This is why they're wrong.
iandunt.substack.com

jonathanwebber.bsky.social
Jonathan Webber @jonathanwebber.bsky.social · Sep 25
“Either we have copyright law or we don’t. Either plagiarism and the theft of intellectual property are anathema to higher education or they aren’t. We’re either modeling academic honesty and integrity to our students or we aren’t.”
Advice | Sometimes We Resist AI for Good Reasons
Why higher ed needs to listen to the contrarians in setting policies on using tools like ChatGPT in faculty work.
www.chronicle.com

jonathanwebber.bsky.social
Jonathan Webber @jonathanwebber.bsky.social · Sep 23
The paper itself is here:
Against the Uncritical Adoption of 'AI' Technologies in Academia
Under the banner of progress, products have been uncritically adopted or even imposed on users — in past centuries with tobacco and combustion engines, and in the 21st with social media. For these col...
zenodo.org