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Bryan Pickel

@bryanpickel.bsky.social

1.2K followers 185 following 256 posts

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Bryan Pickel @bryanpickel.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

RETVRN

Sam Rayburn with a gavel in front of an American flag.

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Bryan Pickel @bryanpickel.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

Writing 17 years after the Civil Rights Act, MacIntyre illustrates his thesis that moral claims are incommensurable by flatly asserting that protesters can never offer rationally effective arguments and that he (at least) finds them shrill. Yes, absolutely depraved stuff!

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Bryan Pickel @bryanpickel.bsky.social · 30/04/2026

To re-purpose Madame Bovary: "Because lips libertine and venal and Koch-funded had murmured such arguments to him, he believed but little in the candour of hers."

He had so often heard these things said that they did not strike him as original. Emma was like all his mistresses; and the charm of novelty, gradually falling away like a garment, laid bare the eternal monotony of passion, that has always the same forms and the same language. He did not distinguish, this man of so much experience, the difference of sentiment beneath the sameness of expression. Because lips libertine and venal had murmured such words to him, he believed but little in the candour of hers; exaggerated speeches hiding mediocre affections must be discounted; as if the fullness of the soul did not sometimes overflow in the emptiest metaphors, since no one can ever give the exact measure of his needs, nor of his conceptions, nor of his sorrows; and since human speech is like a cracked tin kettle, on which we hammer out tunes to make bears dance when we long to move the stars.

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Bryan Pickel @bryanpickel.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

I tend to be partial to mid-century abstract and minimalist book covers but some books these days do have beautiful covers.

Covers of the books “Aboutness” by Stephen Yano and “Thinking about Things” by Mark Sainsbury.

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Bryan Pickel @bryanpickel.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

Along similar lines, I've always thought there is no 'Judeo-Christian' tradition but only (at best) a 'Judeo-Christian-Islamic' tradition. If anyone denies it, require some principle to include Maimonides but Averroes/Ibn Rushd.

Statue of Averroes/Ibn Rushd in Cordoba.

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Bryan Pickel @bryanpickel.bsky.social · 26/12/2025

The Americans have no neighbors, and consequently they have no great wars, or financial crises, or inroads, or conquest to dread; they require neither great taxes, nor great armies, nor great generals; and they have nothing to fear from a scourge which is more formidable to republics than all these evils combined, namely, military glory. It is impossible to deny the inconceivable influence which military glory exercises upon the spirit of a nation. General Jackson, whom the Americans have twice elected to the head of their Government, is a man of a violent temper and mediocre talents; no one circumstance in the whole course of his career ever proved that he is qualified to govern a free people, and indeed the majority of the enlightened classes of the Union has always been opposed to him. But he was raised to the Presidency, and has been maintained in that lofty station, solely by the recollection of a victory which he gained twenty years ago under the walls of New Orleans, a victory which was, however, a very ordinary achievement, and which could only be remembered in a country where battles are rare. Now the people which is thus carried away by the illusions of glory is unquestionably the most cold and calculating, the most unmilitary (if I may use the expression), and the most prosaic of all the peoples of the earth.

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Bryan Pickel @bryanpickel.bsky.social · 23/11/2025

Highlighted text: That the Reigns of good Princes have been always most dangerous to the Liberties of the people. For when their Successors, managing the Government with different Thoughts, would draw the Actions of those good Rulers into Precedent, and make them the Standard of the Prerogative, as if what had been done only for the good of the People, was a right in them to do, for the harm of the People, if they so pleased; it has often occasioned context, and sometimes public Disorders, before the People could recover their original Right, and get that to be declared not to be the Prerogative, which truly was never so: Since it is impossible, that nay body in the Society should ever have a right to do the People harm; though it be very possible, and reasonable, that the People should not go about to set any Bounds to the Prerogative of those Kings or Rulers, who themselves transgressed not the Bounds of public good. For Prerogative is nothing but the Power of doing publick good without a Rule.

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Bryan Pickel @bryanpickel.bsky.social · 17/11/2025

I saw this plaque outside the library on a recent trip to Southampton.

Plaque Reading: "To commemorate the arrival aboard the "Habana" of 4,000 refugee children from the Basque region of Spain in May 1937 following the destruction of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War and to thank the people of Southampton and Britain who volunteered to care for them." Plaque dated 2007.

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Bryan Pickel @bryanpickel.bsky.social · 14/11/2025

The struggle is real.

google search for "Pickel Attitude", with AI Overview reading: "The query "pickle attitude" most likely refers to the work of philosopher Bryan Pickel on attitude ascriptions, which analyzes sentences like "Michael believes that Lindsay is charitable". It could also be a reference to the customer service concept, "Give 'em the Pickle," which means going the extra mile for customers."

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Bryan Pickel @bryanpickel.bsky.social · 25/10/2025

Etoufee

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Bryan Pickel @bryanpickel.bsky.social · 05/09/2025

Me and my sake.

Jason Momoa (labelled "my sake") sneaking up on Henry Cavill (labelled "me").

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Bryan Pickel @bryanpickel.bsky.social · 06/08/2025

By separating shrimp and grits, one can only conclude that Trump hates America.

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Bryan Pickel @bryanpickel.bsky.social · 22/07/2025

“Close only counts in horse shoes and hand grenades”. -yeah, well guess which game we’re playing, pal.

Horse shoes thrown near a stake in the gravel.

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Bryan Pickel @bryanpickel.bsky.social · 12/07/2025

This is quite simply an incredible headline.

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Bryan Pickel @bryanpickel.bsky.social · 23/06/2025

Works the other way too:

Spanish: Juan cree que los duraznos son duraznos pero no cree que los duraznos sean melocotones.
English: Juan thinks peaches are peaches but he doesn't think peaches are peaches.

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Bryan Pickel @bryanpickel.bsky.social · 23/06/2025

Take that Fregeans:

Photo of google translate.
English: "John believes that aubergines are aubergines but does not believe that aubergines are eggplants."
Spanish: "Juan cree que las berenjenas son berenjenas, pero no cree que las berenjenas sean berenjenas."

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Bryan Pickel @bryanpickel.bsky.social · 07/04/2025

Marking essays in the park while my daughter swings. Some days are nice, even in Scotland.

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Bryan Pickel @bryanpickel.bsky.social · 28/04/2024

Sometimes, you have to mill dried hominy into grits, stir it over the hot stove for a long while, add cheese, top it with egg fried in olive oil and paprika, add some avocado, a few red beans, spring onions, and plenty of pepper.

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Bryan Pickel @bryanpickel.bsky.social · 02/03/2024

My favourite part of Leviathan is when Hobbes is discussing dream skepticism and basically advises better sleep hygiene.

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Bryan Pickel @bryanpickel.bsky.social · 22/01/2024

Text from my wife: "Got Burns Night covered". What's in the refrigerator:

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