Jonathan Birch
@birchlse.bsky.social
Professor, LSE. Philosophy of science, animal consciousness, animal ethics. Director of The Jeremy Coller Centre for Animal Sentience.
The "ultra-processed food" concept is meat-washing: a classification scheme that deliberately lumps the profoundly unhealthy products of factory farming together with pretty obviously healthy (already known to be healthy) fresh fruit and vegetables under the heading of "unprocessed".
November 19, 2025 at 7:43 AM
The "ultra-processed food" concept is meat-washing: a classification scheme that deliberately lumps the profoundly unhealthy products of factory farming together with pretty obviously healthy (already known to be healthy) fresh fruit and vegetables under the heading of "unprocessed".
Ved Mehta was blind from age 3 but wrote nonfiction books full of rich visual imagery constructed from auditory, tactile & olfactory data. A reviewer once called the method dishonest. Mehta wrote to the editor that they would be "well advised to review my book rather than my disability".
November 9, 2025 at 11:40 AM
Ved Mehta was blind from age 3 but wrote nonfiction books full of rich visual imagery constructed from auditory, tactile & olfactory data. A reviewer once called the method dishonest. Mehta wrote to the editor that they would be "well advised to review my book rather than my disability".
Yale's Beinecke Library is quite glorious.
November 7, 2025 at 9:26 PM
Yale's Beinecke Library is quite glorious.
VK Narayana Menon describing the fears of airline execs in 1965 - who worried that satellites would put them out of business.
November 1, 2025 at 12:46 PM
VK Narayana Menon describing the fears of airline execs in 1965 - who worried that satellites would put them out of business.
Thanks very much to The Royal Institute of Philosophy for awarding me the Nayef Al-Rodhan Book Prize 2025. Thanks as well to the ERC who funded it, Peter Momtchiloff who commissioned it for OUP, all my LSE team members past and present, and everyone who made the book possible!
October 30, 2025 at 10:00 AM
Thanks very much to The Royal Institute of Philosophy for awarding me the Nayef Al-Rodhan Book Prize 2025. Thanks as well to the ERC who funded it, Peter Momtchiloff who commissioned it for OUP, all my LSE team members past and present, and everyone who made the book possible!
Very pleased that The Edge of Sentience is on the shortlist for the Royal Institute of Philosophy's Nayef Al-Rodhan Book Prize. One of these will be crowned the winner in a ceremony this evening!
October 29, 2025 at 9:06 AM
Very pleased that The Edge of Sentience is on the shortlist for the Royal Institute of Philosophy's Nayef Al-Rodhan Book Prize. One of these will be crowned the winner in a ceremony this evening!
Exciting to hold a real, on-sale cultivated chicken product (for dogs). Didn't seem hugely likely even a few years ago.
October 25, 2025 at 9:03 AM
Exciting to hold a real, on-sale cultivated chicken product (for dogs). Didn't seem hugely likely even a few years ago.
It sounds silly but this new précis of The Edge of Sentience is one of my favourite pieces of my own writing. Yes, it's true, you could get chatGPT to summarize my book (and it's open access, so you literally could) - but I do it better! www.wellbeingintlstudiesrepository.org/animsent/vol...
October 16, 2025 at 9:10 AM
It sounds silly but this new précis of The Edge of Sentience is one of my favourite pieces of my own writing. Yes, it's true, you could get chatGPT to summarize my book (and it's open access, so you literally could) - but I do it better! www.wellbeingintlstudiesrepository.org/animsent/vol...
Reflecting on how streaming is the one domain of human activity in which we millennials have coordinated effectively to impose our values on other generations.
October 14, 2025 at 9:50 AM
Reflecting on how streaming is the one domain of human activity in which we millennials have coordinated effectively to impose our values on other generations.
What a great responsibility and a great privilege to be directing the world's first Centre for Animal Sentience. Many thanks to the ~300 in the room and ~500 online who attended our launch event. Wonderful to have you there on Day 1. www.lse.ac.uk/philosophy/s...
October 3, 2025 at 7:05 PM
What a great responsibility and a great privilege to be directing the world's first Centre for Animal Sentience. Many thanks to the ~300 in the room and ~500 online who attended our launch event. Wonderful to have you there on Day 1. www.lse.ac.uk/philosophy/s...
Many commentators celebrate Gandhi's political campaigns but downplay his broader nonviolent philosophy. I think it's more relevant today than ever. We see now that Gandhi's critique of capitalism and industrialization was not misplaced. We do need new ways of life - and the freedom to experiment.
October 2, 2025 at 8:24 AM
Many commentators celebrate Gandhi's political campaigns but downplay his broader nonviolent philosophy. I think it's more relevant today than ever. We see now that Gandhi's critique of capitalism and industrialization was not misplaced. We do need new ways of life - and the freedom to experiment.
India after independence went in a very different direction. Courageous experiments in nonviolent self-sufficiency do still go on (notably the Sarvodaya movement in Sri Lanka and Auroville in India) but the Gandhian dream of a scaleable model of self-sufficient village life remains elusive. (7/8)
October 2, 2025 at 8:24 AM
India after independence went in a very different direction. Courageous experiments in nonviolent self-sufficiency do still go on (notably the Sarvodaya movement in Sri Lanka and Auroville in India) but the Gandhian dream of a scaleable model of self-sufficient village life remains elusive. (7/8)
Gandhi experimented four times with vegan diets, including a fruitarian phase eating only "fruits, nuts, seeds and olive oil", calling it "one of the greatest experiments of my life". Each time he got ill. He longed for "a vegetable substitute for milk which is equally nourishing and digestible".
October 2, 2025 at 8:24 AM
Gandhi experimented four times with vegan diets, including a fruitarian phase eating only "fruits, nuts, seeds and olive oil", calling it "one of the greatest experiments of my life". Each time he got ill. He longed for "a vegetable substitute for milk which is equally nourishing and digestible".
What Gandhi wanted above all was to experiment with alternative, nonviolent ways of life. He was greatly influenced by Leo Tolstoy's later writings. He established two "Tolstoyan" communities in South Africa, then one in India. The goal was self-sufficiency with minimal harm to living beings. (2/8)
October 2, 2025 at 8:24 AM
What Gandhi wanted above all was to experiment with alternative, nonviolent ways of life. He was greatly influenced by Leo Tolstoy's later writings. He established two "Tolstoyan" communities in South Africa, then one in India. The goal was self-sufficiency with minimal harm to living beings. (2/8)
For years I got Gandhi (who is 156 today, the International Day of Non-Violence) backwards. I thought he developed nonviolent methods to end British rule, but this gets the ends and means the wrong way round. It's rather that he had to end British rule to make space for nonviolence. (1/8)
October 2, 2025 at 8:24 AM
For years I got Gandhi (who is 156 today, the International Day of Non-Violence) backwards. I thought he developed nonviolent methods to end British rule, but this gets the ends and means the wrong way round. It's rather that he had to end British rule to make space for nonviolence. (1/8)
Here is Bernard Williams reaching across time from 1972 to school 24 of his successors.
September 23, 2025 at 5:01 PM
Here is Bernard Williams reaching across time from 1972 to school 24 of his successors.
Exciting to see this ancient law, which baffled scholars for centuries, finally being used.
September 17, 2025 at 5:58 AM
Exciting to see this ancient law, which baffled scholars for centuries, finally being used.
Now here is a book worth getting in hardback.
September 13, 2025 at 9:59 AM
Now here is a book worth getting in hardback.
I'm really pleased that @royentsoc.bsky.social is hosting a workshop on ethics in insect research later today at #Ento25. It's an area where the UK entomology community can and should lead the way. Can't make it? You can still access my slides here: drive.google.com/file/d/1rBzi...
September 10, 2025 at 6:30 AM
I'm really pleased that @royentsoc.bsky.social is hosting a workshop on ethics in insect research later today at #Ento25. It's an area where the UK entomology community can and should lead the way. Can't make it? You can still access my slides here: drive.google.com/file/d/1rBzi...
People forget how badass Russell was. www.nytimes.com/1961/09/13/a...
September 7, 2025 at 7:13 AM
People forget how badass Russell was. www.nytimes.com/1961/09/13/a...
Thanks a lot for this! Just re. this stone-cold zinger against city-folk: I do think a key part of the "mainstream strategy" is to hold people to their professed commitments and not allow their unreflective choice behaviour to overly constrain policy. Hence the special value of citizens' assemblies.
September 3, 2025 at 4:52 PM
Thanks a lot for this! Just re. this stone-cold zinger against city-folk: I do think a key part of the "mainstream strategy" is to hold people to their professed commitments and not allow their unreflective choice behaviour to overly constrain policy. Hence the special value of citizens' assemblies.
Really loved this conversation between Turkish author Elif Shafak and my colleague @leaypi.bsky.social
www.theguardian.com/books/2025/a...
www.theguardian.com/books/2025/a...
August 30, 2025 at 9:27 AM
Really loved this conversation between Turkish author Elif Shafak and my colleague @leaypi.bsky.social
www.theguardian.com/books/2025/a...
www.theguardian.com/books/2025/a...
Here is "AI Consciousness: A Centrist Manifesto". I've been working on this feverishly because the issue seems to me so urgent - and I'm worried extreme positions on both sides are becoming locked in, when the best way forward is in the centre. Please read it! philpapers.org/rec/BIRACA-4
August 28, 2025 at 9:16 AM
Here is "AI Consciousness: A Centrist Manifesto". I've been working on this feverishly because the issue seems to me so urgent - and I'm worried extreme positions on both sides are becoming locked in, when the best way forward is in the centre. Please read it! philpapers.org/rec/BIRACA-4
Honeybee with a full pollen basket.
August 25, 2025 at 3:30 PM
Honeybee with a full pollen basket.
Just astounds me that Egypt has 116m people in a river delta the size of Wales.
August 22, 2025 at 7:13 PM
Just astounds me that Egypt has 116m people in a river delta the size of Wales.