banner
LightNews
bweatherson.bsky.social
Brian Weatherson
@bweatherson.bsky.social
2.6K followers 210 following 1.4K posts

Philosopher at University of Michigan. https://brian.weatherson.org/

Videos

Brian Weatherson is the Marshall Weinberg Professor of Philosophy at the University of Michigan. He specializes in epistemology and philosophy of language.

Source: Wikipedia
Philosophy 47%
Psychology 20%
Posts Media Videos Starter Packs
Pinned
bweatherson.bsky.social
Brian Weatherson @bweatherson.bsky.social · Aug 8
This is a thread of things I've recently published, starting with my book from last year, with Open Book Publishers, defending the claim that knowledge is interest-relative.

I'll continue this thread when new stuff comes out.

www.openbookpublishers.com/books/10.116...
Knowledge: A Human Interest Story
In this book the author argues for a groundbreaking perspective that knowledge is inherently interest-relative. This means that what one knows is influenced not just by belief, evidence, and truth, bu...
www.openbookpublishers.com
1 9

Reposted by Ben H. Ansell, Elizabeth Saunders, Nancy Kanwisher , and 11 more

jacobtlevy.bsky.social
Jacob T. Levy @jacobtlevy.bsky.social · 3h
Brown rejected the compact!

www.brown.edu/sites/defaul...
www.brown.edu
37 420 3.1K

bweatherson.bsky.social
Brian Weatherson @bweatherson.bsky.social · 6h
Also, eyeballing that chart, it feels the drop in philosophy happened later. I think it's more tied to the fall in law school applications than the earlier drop in the other humanities.
1

bweatherson.bsky.social
Brian Weatherson @bweatherson.bsky.social · 6h
In general, you'd expect falling numbers of majors to meant falling enrollments. And having lots of majors feels somehow a safer starting point than having lots of people in other majors taking your classes. But there are interesting exceptions. (Especially if you work in one of the exceptions.)
1 2

bweatherson.bsky.social
Brian Weatherson @bweatherson.bsky.social · 6h
On the one hand, this is a very bad sign.

On the other, it's consistent with things being healthy. At UM, the number of philosophy majors is close to an all time low. But the number of people taking philosophy classes is way up on a decade ago because of the Cog Sci and PPE majors.
eschwitz.bsky.social
Eric Schwitzgebel @eschwitz.bsky.social · 6h
Humanities majors in free fall in the US: Since 2008, English has declined from 3.8% to 1.7% of Bachelor's degrees awarded, history from 2.5% to 1.2%, foreign lang/lit from 1.9% to 0.9%, and philosophy from 0.6% to 0.4%. 22% of philosophy BAs are awarded by just 20 universities.
1 6

Reposted by Brian Weatherson

eschwitz.bsky.social
Eric Schwitzgebel @eschwitz.bsky.social · 6h
Humanities majors in free fall in the US: Since 2008, English has declined from 3.8% to 1.7% of Bachelor's degrees awarded, history from 2.5% to 1.2%, foreign lang/lit from 1.9% to 0.9%, and philosophy from 0.6% to 0.4%. 22% of philosophy BAs are awarded by just 20 universities.
1 1 16

bweatherson.bsky.social
Brian Weatherson @bweatherson.bsky.social · 9h
It was also striking to me how much the Rory Sutherland joke Dan quotes wouldn't land in Australia. The government does marketing all the time. Scott Morrison rode a gov't marketing job all the way to being PM. The most memorable ads of the 80s/90s were by the gov't.

www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...
TAC Classics - YouTube
As 1989 drew to a close the road toll was mounting; so too was public outrage at the carnage on Victorian roads. By years end 763 people had lost their lives...
www.youtube.com
1

bweatherson.bsky.social
Brian Weatherson @bweatherson.bsky.social · 9h
It's an old point, but I really don't think we should be choosing between the 55th and 65th placed teams on this table to cheer for.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...
List of countries by life expectancy - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
1 2

bweatherson.bsky.social
Brian Weatherson @bweatherson.bsky.social · 9h
I also liked Breakneck, but thought the story it told would be complicated if you looked at the details of how my home country worked, so I very much liked this review.
dsquareddigest.bsky.social
Dan Davies @dsquareddigest.bsky.social · 10h
some more comments on Dan Wang's "Breakneck", hopefully getting across how much I liked it backofmind.substack.com/p/fun-in-the...
fun in the mausoleum
directors cuts & bits & pieces
backofmind.substack.com
1 1

bweatherson.bsky.social
Brian Weatherson @bweatherson.bsky.social · 9h
If their reply to No Kings is Kings are Good, Actually, then I like our chances in the messaging wars.
atrupar.com
Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 9h
Bessent: "This crazy No Kings rally this weekend, which is gonna be the farthest left, the hardest core, the most unhinged in the Democratic Party, which is a big title. No Kings equals no paychecks."
3

Reposted by David Rothschild, David R. Miller, Brian Weatherson , and 2 more

atrupar.com
Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 9h
Bessent: "This crazy No Kings rally this weekend, which is gonna be the farthest left, the hardest core, the most unhinged in the Democratic Party, which is a big title. No Kings equals no paychecks."
670 260 1.3K

Reposted by Brian Weatherson

dsquareddigest.bsky.social
Dan Davies @dsquareddigest.bsky.social · 10h
some more comments on Dan Wang's "Breakneck", hopefully getting across how much I liked it backofmind.substack.com/p/fun-in-the...
fun in the mausoleum
directors cuts & bits & pieces
backofmind.substack.com
2 9

bweatherson.bsky.social
Brian Weatherson @bweatherson.bsky.social · 1d
It's an even more fun style in Scotland, where the Great Figures change from town to town depending on what the dominant bank in that town is.
2

bweatherson.bsky.social
Brian Weatherson @bweatherson.bsky.social · 1d
The main suggestion is that the tetralemma that Frank Hong and Jeff Russell develop in this paper is really a dilemma.

What look like weak compensation and dominance principles turn out to be inconsistent in infinite settings.

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Paradoxes of infinite aggregation
There are infinitely many ways the world might be, and there may well be infinitely many people in it. These facts raise moral paradoxes. We explore a conflict between two highly attractive principle...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
1

bweatherson.bsky.social
Brian Weatherson @bweatherson.bsky.social · 1d
There has been a flurry of interesting work in the journals recently on welfare aggregation in infinite worlds. Most of the discussion has revolved around variants of the St Petersburg paradox. This note looks at what happens if you add the two envelope paradox.

brian.weatherson.org/quarto/blog/...
Infinite Worlds and the Two Envelope Paradox – Brian Weatherson
brian.weatherson.org
1 1

Reposted by Mark Rice, Brian Weatherson

johannamellis.bsky.social
Johanna Mellis @johannamellis.bsky.social · 1d
Found the publicly-available version on the FSU website: provost.fsu.edu/sites/g/file...
5 14 45

bweatherson.bsky.social
Brian Weatherson @bweatherson.bsky.social · 1d
Maybe this ends once Madrid or PSG buys a Championship team. I hear a couple of teams in Sheffield could use some outside investment.
1 1

Reposted by Henry Farrell, Brian Weatherson, Paul Nightingale

dsquareddigest.bsky.social
Dan Davies @dsquareddigest.bsky.social · 1d
It's out! My review of "Abundance", my review of "Breakneck" and the slogan "rent extraction is always what the other guy does"
open.substack.com/pub/hypertex...
What happens when Chinese resolve meets American rent-seeking?
Reading "Abundance" and "Breakneck" side by side suggests that learning from one another is not enough.
open.substack.com
1 18 59

Reposted by Brian Weatherson, Nicole Guenther Discenza

jamellebouie.net
jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 2d
"The liberty and security of our fellow citizens is our great object, and not the prompt execution of the laws. Indecision, delay, blunders, nay villainous actions in the administration of government, are trifles compared to legalizing the full exertion of a tyrannical disposition."
3 180 820

Reposted by Brian Weatherson

aadl.org
Ann Arbor District Library @aadl.org · 2d
NEW! The Docuseek collection adds 3,000+ titles from renowned documentary film distributors that can be searched and streamed directly from the AADL catalog. Stream these films, along with 10,000+ more titles, with your library card at https://aadl.org/streamingvideo
Promotional image for Docuseek featuring a dark background with the platform's logo at the top and samples of film titles available: "A Crack in the Mountain," "Tiktok Boom," "In Pasteur," and "The True Cost." Below, text states "3,000+ titles from renowned documentary film distributors.", accompanied by a logo for AADL. Promotional poster featuring logos of PBS, CNBC, ABC News, and other networks, advertising 13,000+ movies and videos in the AADL catalog. Includes images of four film posters: 'Finding Your Roots', 'The True Cost', 'The Roosevelts', and 'Deli Man'.
2 5

bweatherson.bsky.social
Brian Weatherson @bweatherson.bsky.social · 2d
Back around 2000 I did a version of this for the Dow going back to the 1930s and it showed the opposite pattern. Iirc, only owning after up days was better than buy and hold.

I figured if I could work this out so could everyone else, so it wouldn’t continue. Didn’t expect it to reverse though.
tker.co
Sam Ro @tker.co · 2d
one of the all-time great stats via Bespoke. only owning on days after down days smokes only owning on days after up days
1

Reposted by Brian Weatherson

tker.co
Sam Ro @tker.co · 2d
one of the all-time great stats via Bespoke. only owning on days after down days smokes only owning on days after up days
1 3 40

bweatherson.bsky.social
Brian Weatherson @bweatherson.bsky.social · 4d
If the Lib Dems can't make real gains at a time when the combined Lab+Con vote is around 40, feels like they may as well pack it in.

It looks to me (from a great distance away) that they've got a chance to be the winners from the next few years, but if they can't take this chance, when will they?
robfordmancs.bsky.social
Rob Ford @robfordmancs.bsky.social · 5d
Among the many possibilities for the next few years, the scenario of swapping one pair of dominant parties (Lab and Con) for another (Reform and LD) is intriguing, under-discussed and, in English elections, not entirely implausible either (several county councils made this leap in May)
electionmaps.uk
Election Maps UK @electionmaps.uk · 5d
Aggregate Result of the 122 Council By-Elections (for 125 Seats) since the 2025 Local Elections:

RFM: 47 (+40)
LDM: 32 (+10)
CON: 13 (-15)
LAB: 12 (-30)
GRN: 11 (+3)
Ind: 5 (-4)
Local: 3 (-3)
SNP: 1 (-1)
PLC: 1 (=)

Explore: electionmaps.uk/byelections-...
1 2

Reposted by Brian Weatherson

daveweigel.bsky.social
Dave Weigel @daveweigel.bsky.social · 4d
Bumpin’ that youtu.be/Kk7_f9RrTzY?...
Quiet Heart (Remastered)
YouTube video by The Go-Betweens - Topic
youtu.be
2 2 46

Reposted by Brian Weatherson

Reposted by Shannon Vallor, Lisa W. Fazio, Nandita Sharma , and 36 more

sherylnyt.bsky.social
Sheryl Gay Stolberg @sherylnyt.bsky.social · 4d
BREAKING: Friday night massacre underway at CDC. Doznes of "disease detectives," high-level scientists, entire Washington staff and editors of the MMWR (Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report) have all been RIFed and received the following notice:
860 8.5K 15K

Reposted by Brian Weatherson

unbreaking.org
Unbreaking @unbreaking.org · 5d
The clear story in Immigration this week is the escalation of—and pushback against—the Trump administration’s militarized raids and warrantless stops in Democrat-run major cities. We’ve updated our timeline with a lot of events in this zone:

unbreaking.org/issues/immig...
Immigration — Unbreaking
How the administration is breaking the government, and what that means for all of us.
unbreaking.org
1 31 59

Reposted by Chris Hanretty

bweatherson.bsky.social
Brian Weatherson @bweatherson.bsky.social · 5d
Goodhart's Law part N.

www.transformernews.ai/p/claude-son...
Claude Sonnet 4.5 knows when it’s being tested
Anthropic's new model appears to use "eval awareness" to be on its best behavior
www.transformernews.ai
1 1

Reposted by Ben H. Ansell, Anand Menon, Brian Weatherson , and 1 more

robfordmancs.bsky.social
Rob Ford @robfordmancs.bsky.social · 5d
Among the many possibilities for the next few years, the scenario of swapping one pair of dominant parties (Lab and Con) for another (Reform and LD) is intriguing, under-discussed and, in English elections, not entirely implausible either (several county councils made this leap in May)
electionmaps.uk
Election Maps UK @electionmaps.uk · 5d
Aggregate Result of the 122 Council By-Elections (for 125 Seats) since the 2025 Local Elections:

RFM: 47 (+40)
LDM: 32 (+10)
CON: 13 (-15)
LAB: 12 (-30)
GRN: 11 (+3)
Ind: 5 (-4)
Local: 3 (-3)
SNP: 1 (-1)
PLC: 1 (=)

Explore: electionmaps.uk/byelections-...
27 60 160

Reposted by Dani Rodrik, Stephen M. Walt, Cas Mudde , and 51 more

florianscheuer.bsky.social
Florian Scheuer @florianscheuer.bsky.social · 5d
I am delighted to share that Nobel laureates Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee will join our Department of Economics @econ.uzh.ch at the University of Zurich on July 1, 2026, as Lemann Foundation Professors of Economics.

🧵 1/7
25 190 980

bweatherson.bsky.social
Brian Weatherson @bweatherson.bsky.social · 6d
Wasn't that just a way to get fans used to the idea of shirt sponsors before they started raking in the euros from Qatar and Spotify?
2 2