Evan Westra
@evanwestra.bsky.social
Philosopher writing about theory of mind, moral psychology, character judgment, social norms. I bore undergraduates for a living. All opinions are my own. #philosophy #philsky
he/him
https://sites.google.com/site/ewestraphilosophy/
he/him
https://sites.google.com/site/ewestraphilosophy/
Pinned
Evan Westra
@evanwestra.bsky.social
· Jul 24
I've had a thread of office whiteboard philosopher portraits going for a while on the other site. Figure I'll start a fresh one here. This is Susan Hurley.
Reposted by Evan Westra
Inferentialists! Now is your time to act!!! The era of Verstand must be ended. We shall now proceed to construct the order of Vernunft!
Stanford Enc of Philosophy is down, as is philpapers.org. It sounds like it's not just me
November 18, 2025 at 12:34 PM
Inferentialists! Now is your time to act!!! The era of Verstand must be ended. We shall now proceed to construct the order of Vernunft!
Reposted by Evan Westra
🤖 NEW PAPER 🤖 : @oldjerryfodor.bsky.social's new paper 'AI empiricism: the only game in town?' is forthcoming in 'The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Science: Methodological and Epistemological Studies' (Routledge).
Read here: philpapers.org/rec/KARAET-4
Read here: philpapers.org/rec/KARAET-4
November 15, 2025 at 6:52 PM
🤖 NEW PAPER 🤖 : @oldjerryfodor.bsky.social's new paper 'AI empiricism: the only game in town?' is forthcoming in 'The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Science: Methodological and Epistemological Studies' (Routledge).
Read here: philpapers.org/rec/KARAET-4
Read here: philpapers.org/rec/KARAET-4
Reposted by Evan Westra
Our special issue on Evolutionary Functions of Consciousness, coedited with Tecumseh Fitch and Adina Roskies, now online royalsocietypublishing.org/toc/rstb/202...
Contributions by (1) Irina Mikhalevich; (2) Eva Jablonka and Simona Ginsburg; (3) Nicholas Humphrey; (cont'd)
Contributions by (1) Irina Mikhalevich; (2) Eva Jablonka and Simona Ginsburg; (3) Nicholas Humphrey; (cont'd)
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences: Vol 380, No 1939
royalsocietypublishing.org
November 13, 2025 at 11:10 PM
Our special issue on Evolutionary Functions of Consciousness, coedited with Tecumseh Fitch and Adina Roskies, now online royalsocietypublishing.org/toc/rstb/202...
Contributions by (1) Irina Mikhalevich; (2) Eva Jablonka and Simona Ginsburg; (3) Nicholas Humphrey; (cont'd)
Contributions by (1) Irina Mikhalevich; (2) Eva Jablonka and Simona Ginsburg; (3) Nicholas Humphrey; (cont'd)
Reposted by Evan Westra
What is this ‘attention economy’? Is there really a market where people buy and sell human attention? If so, what’s wrong with that? New paper by Katharine Browne and me that argues: yes, there is an attention market and yes, there is something wrong with it. 🧵
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
The attention market—and what is wrong with it - Philosophical Studies
Attention is described as a “scarce commodity” that is traded in “a marketplace.” This, it is further claimed, contributes to a “widespread sense of attentional crisis.” But is there really an attenti...
link.springer.com
November 14, 2025 at 5:40 PM
What is this ‘attention economy’? Is there really a market where people buy and sell human attention? If so, what’s wrong with that? New paper by Katharine Browne and me that argues: yes, there is an attention market and yes, there is something wrong with it. 🧵
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Reposted by Evan Westra
always a fun conference!
Don't forget to submit your philosophy and psychology papers to SSPP 2026 in Atlanta! It's going to be a banger.
southernsociety.org/AnnualMeeting/
southernsociety.org/AnnualMeeting/
November 13, 2025 at 10:25 PM
always a fun conference!
Reposted by Evan Westra
new motor control task just dropped: putting on pants
November 13, 2025 at 5:25 AM
new motor control task just dropped: putting on pants
Reposted by Evan Westra
A large grant will fund a philosopher-led project to "understand how the rapid integration of artificial intelligence is transforming the norms that govern how different scientific and scholarly disciplines produce, justify, and communicate knowledge."
Philosopher-Led Project on AI and Evolving Norms of Inquiry - Daily Nous
How is the development and use of artificial intelligence changing the norms of inquiry and knowledge production across different disciplines? That's the question to be taken up by Eamon Duede, assist...
dailynous.com
November 12, 2025 at 12:58 PM
A large grant will fund a philosopher-led project to "understand how the rapid integration of artificial intelligence is transforming the norms that govern how different scientific and scholarly disciplines produce, justify, and communicate knowledge."
Don't forget to submit your philosophy and psychology papers to SSPP 2026 in Atlanta! It's going to be a banger.
southernsociety.org/AnnualMeeting/
southernsociety.org/AnnualMeeting/
November 11, 2025 at 10:22 PM
Don't forget to submit your philosophy and psychology papers to SSPP 2026 in Atlanta! It's going to be a banger.
southernsociety.org/AnnualMeeting/
southernsociety.org/AnnualMeeting/
Reposted by Evan Westra
✨New preprint! Why do people express outrage online? In 4 studies we develop a taxonomy of online outrage motives, test what motives people report, what they infer for in- vs. out-partisans, and how motive inferences shape downstream intergroup consequences. Led by @felix-chenwei.bsky.social 🧵👇
November 11, 2025 at 4:34 PM
✨New preprint! Why do people express outrage online? In 4 studies we develop a taxonomy of online outrage motives, test what motives people report, what they infer for in- vs. out-partisans, and how motive inferences shape downstream intergroup consequences. Led by @felix-chenwei.bsky.social 🧵👇
I'm thinking of starting a philosophy journal with a 100% rejection rate. It will be the most prestigious journal of all time.
Not sure how I feel about Ergo not allowing major revisions decisions for papers tbh
November 10, 2025 at 4:45 PM
I'm thinking of starting a philosophy journal with a 100% rejection rate. It will be the most prestigious journal of all time.
Reposted by Evan Westra
@dryan149.bsky.social and I have published a paper on how we should all be a little less like Holden Caufield (i.e. obsessed with the idea of authenticity) and a bit more like María Lugones (i.e. celebrating our multiple facets)
🚨New Paper!🚨
Do you love authenticity? @ledaberio.bsky.social and I argue that maybe you shouldn't!
We think that everything would be better if we all just got over the idea of true selves and were cooler with the fact that we all contain multitudes.
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Do you love authenticity? @ledaberio.bsky.social and I argue that maybe you shouldn't!
We think that everything would be better if we all just got over the idea of true selves and were cooler with the fact that we all contain multitudes.
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Challenges to Narrating a Multitudinous Self: Towards a Better Ethics of Code-switching - Topoi
We motivate and lay out the broad contours of a research program, namely that of developing a systematic ethics of code-switching. Such an ethics will articulate the values and norms that should gover...
link.springer.com
November 10, 2025 at 4:23 PM
@dryan149.bsky.social and I have published a paper on how we should all be a little less like Holden Caufield (i.e. obsessed with the idea of authenticity) and a bit more like María Lugones (i.e. celebrating our multiple facets)
Reposted by Evan Westra
🚨New Paper!🚨
Do you love authenticity? @ledaberio.bsky.social and I argue that maybe you shouldn't!
We think that everything would be better if we all just got over the idea of true selves and were cooler with the fact that we all contain multitudes.
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Do you love authenticity? @ledaberio.bsky.social and I argue that maybe you shouldn't!
We think that everything would be better if we all just got over the idea of true selves and were cooler with the fact that we all contain multitudes.
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Challenges to Narrating a Multitudinous Self: Towards a Better Ethics of Code-switching - Topoi
We motivate and lay out the broad contours of a research program, namely that of developing a systematic ethics of code-switching. Such an ethics will articulate the values and norms that should gover...
link.springer.com
November 7, 2025 at 6:55 PM
🚨New Paper!🚨
Do you love authenticity? @ledaberio.bsky.social and I argue that maybe you shouldn't!
We think that everything would be better if we all just got over the idea of true selves and were cooler with the fact that we all contain multitudes.
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Do you love authenticity? @ledaberio.bsky.social and I argue that maybe you shouldn't!
We think that everything would be better if we all just got over the idea of true selves and were cooler with the fact that we all contain multitudes.
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Reposted by Evan Westra
Good news everyone: #Duke Summer Seminars in Neuroscience and Philosophy (SSNAP) are back!! We are now accepting applications for SSNAP 2026, which will take place from May 26 to June 6, 2026. #neuroscience #philosophy #brain Please spread the word! ssnap.submittable.com/submit
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November 7, 2025 at 11:58 AM
Good news everyone: #Duke Summer Seminars in Neuroscience and Philosophy (SSNAP) are back!! We are now accepting applications for SSNAP 2026, which will take place from May 26 to June 6, 2026. #neuroscience #philosophy #brain Please spread the word! ssnap.submittable.com/submit
Reposted by Evan Westra
Discover how greater gender parity and the growth of female leadership across Latin America created the conditions for a successful social movement, in this illuminating case study from Somebody Should Do Something
www.amba-bga.com/insights/voi...
www.amba-bga.com/insights/voi...
Voices of change: Leadership’s role in the rise of social movements
Many sparks fail to start fires where conditions seem right, while others flare up into fires where nobody would have expected. Few movements in recent history provide as good an example of this as t…
www.amba-bga.com
November 6, 2025 at 5:06 PM
Discover how greater gender parity and the growth of female leadership across Latin America created the conditions for a successful social movement, in this illuminating case study from Somebody Should Do Something
www.amba-bga.com/insights/voi...
www.amba-bga.com/insights/voi...
Reposted by Evan Westra
We *know* shockingly little about prehistory—we *speculate* about it, in ways that tend to reaffirm our own assumptions and biases, and then these speculations become sage wisdom about human nature, but only to the exact extent that they assert that women evolved to make sandwiches.
THIS IS WHY WE ALL HATE EVOPSYCH. Can we please fucking discredit this pseudo-naturalist bullshit at last?
November 6, 2025 at 3:57 PM
We *know* shockingly little about prehistory—we *speculate* about it, in ways that tend to reaffirm our own assumptions and biases, and then these speculations become sage wisdom about human nature, but only to the exact extent that they assert that women evolved to make sandwiches.
Reposted by Evan Westra
🧠 New paper alert! Can people infer others’ values not from what they choose, but simply from what comes to mind? Across four studies, we show they can—drawing on an intuitive theory of how options are generated.
doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2025.106238
👇
doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2025.106238
👇
Redirecting
doi.org
November 5, 2025 at 7:31 PM
🧠 New paper alert! Can people infer others’ values not from what they choose, but simply from what comes to mind? Across four studies, we show they can—drawing on an intuitive theory of how options are generated.
doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2025.106238
👇
doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2025.106238
👇
Reposted by Evan Westra
Looks great!! Love to see more scholarship on the Fodorian question of ‘How many games in town are there?’!
November 5, 2025 at 12:16 AM
Looks great!! Love to see more scholarship on the Fodorian question of ‘How many games in town are there?’!
Reposted by Evan Westra
Is this something YOU ever ask yourself?
"Man, Brett Karlan (aka Old Jerry Fodor) claims to love Fodor, but has never published anything defending anything remotely Fodorian. What's up with that?"
This was a puzzle that long perplexed the scholars... until now!
philpapers.org/rec/KARAET-4
"Man, Brett Karlan (aka Old Jerry Fodor) claims to love Fodor, but has never published anything defending anything remotely Fodorian. What's up with that?"
This was a puzzle that long perplexed the scholars... until now!
philpapers.org/rec/KARAET-4
Brett Karlan, AI empiricism: the only game in town? - PhilPapers
I offer an epistemic argument against the dominance of empiricism and empiricist-inspired methods in contemporary machine learning (ML) research. I first establish, as many ML researchers and philosop...
philpapers.org
November 4, 2025 at 11:35 PM
Is this something YOU ever ask yourself?
"Man, Brett Karlan (aka Old Jerry Fodor) claims to love Fodor, but has never published anything defending anything remotely Fodorian. What's up with that?"
This was a puzzle that long perplexed the scholars... until now!
philpapers.org/rec/KARAET-4
"Man, Brett Karlan (aka Old Jerry Fodor) claims to love Fodor, but has never published anything defending anything remotely Fodorian. What's up with that?"
This was a puzzle that long perplexed the scholars... until now!
philpapers.org/rec/KARAET-4
Reposted by Evan Westra
Highlights from Maria Waggoner's talk 'Socially Extended Moral Understanding and Outcome Homogenization in GenAI' at the CAIC Brown Bag on Friday
November 2, 2025 at 6:56 PM
Highlights from Maria Waggoner's talk 'Socially Extended Moral Understanding and Outcome Homogenization in GenAI' at the CAIC Brown Bag on Friday
Reposted by Evan Westra
It's one [philosophy] battle after another 🎃 Happy Halloween from the CAIC Brown Bag Series!
October 31, 2025 at 5:27 PM
It's one [philosophy] battle after another 🎃 Happy Halloween from the CAIC Brown Bag Series!
Reposted by Evan Westra
The CFP for the Association Association is live. See the poster for details:
October 30, 2025 at 2:43 AM
The CFP for the Association Association is live. See the poster for details:
Reposted by Evan Westra
My new paper has just been published online in @journalphp.bsky.social!
Popperian animals and instrumental reasoning: Philosophical Psychology: Vol 0, No 0 - Get Access www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1...
Popperian animals and instrumental reasoning: Philosophical Psychology: Vol 0, No 0 - Get Access www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1...
Popperian animals and instrumental reasoning: Philosophical Psychology: Vol 0, No 0 - Get Access
Browse all journals
www.tandfonline.com
October 30, 2025 at 12:46 PM
My new paper has just been published online in @journalphp.bsky.social!
Popperian animals and instrumental reasoning: Philosophical Psychology: Vol 0, No 0 - Get Access www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1...
Popperian animals and instrumental reasoning: Philosophical Psychology: Vol 0, No 0 - Get Access www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1...
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings. I am grateful to the reviewers for their insightful feedback.
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings. Please like and subscribe if you like my content!
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings. I am currently on extended leave, and will not have access to emails until next month.
October 30, 2025 at 12:14 AM
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings. I am grateful to the reviewers for their insightful feedback.
Reposted by Evan Westra
Reposted by Evan Westra
Consider proposing a commentary to the American Journal of Bioethics on the forthcoming paper Megan Delehanty and I wrote on the harms of AI psychotherapy chatbots!
October 27, 2025 at 6:51 PM
Consider proposing a commentary to the American Journal of Bioethics on the forthcoming paper Megan Delehanty and I wrote on the harms of AI psychotherapy chatbots!