iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Dr. Brandon Beasley 🇨🇦 @drbeasley.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

We either value an individual's ability to read, interpret, think, & write for themselves, or we don't. If we don't, then the University is of no use. If we do, then Universities must commit to a core of required courses in which AI is not allowed. How else will students learn those abilities?

000

Dr. Brandon Beasley 🇨🇦 @drbeasley.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Or, indeed, the ways in which they might helpful tools. But the threat angle must be dealt with first, and part of understanding that threat means understanding what they are -- and aren't -- actually doing.

000

Dr. Brandon Beasley 🇨🇦 @drbeasley.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

AI "agents" are not agents in the same sense of human (and some animal) agency. But that doesn't mean they don't *do* things autonomously, and do them effectively. The fact that they do not exhibit genuine intentionality is irrelevant to recognizing the threat they pose.

100

Dr. Brandon Beasley 🇨🇦 @drbeasley.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

How to understand what Hegel means by "spiritual substance". First thought that occurs to most people is: Descartes' immaterial mental substance. That's not it at all. Instead, some helpful analogies: "Spirit" as in "team spirit" "Substance" as in "a book of real substance".

020

Dr. Brandon Beasley 🇨🇦 @drbeasley.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

To breed an animal with the right to make promises--is not this the paradoxical task that nature has set itself in the case of man? Is it not the real problem regarding man? -- Nietzsche, "On the Genealogy of Morality", Second Essay

020

Dr. Brandon Beasley 🇨🇦 @drbeasley.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

“O Nature, and O soul of man! how far beyond all utterance are your linked analogies! not the smallest atom stirs or lives in matter, but has its cunning duplicate in mind.” -- Captain Ahab, in _Moby-Dick, or The Whale_ So, Ahab is an epiphenomenalist? Or is this more pre-established harmony? ;)

000

Dr. Brandon Beasley 🇨🇦 @drbeasley.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

"Drink loosens the tongue. But it also opens the heart wide, and it is a vehicle instrumental to a moral quality, that is, openheartedness." -- Immanuel Kant, "Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View"

021

Dr. Brandon Beasley 🇨🇦 @drbeasley.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

If your supposedly world-changing"intelligence" tool has to come with a warning that says "Information may not be accurate", then perhaps it is not as impressive as you think, and will be world-changing only for the worse.

000

Dr. Brandon Beasley 🇨🇦 @drbeasley.bsky.social · 02/06/2026

Post-humanism is anti-humanism. Come at me! (Actually, please don't. But I do believe that.)

000

Dr. Brandon Beasley 🇨🇦 @drbeasley.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

Having seen several arguments on "inferentialist" grounds that LLMs instantiate meaningful content/are genuinely in the space of reasons...it seems to me they've not fully appreciated that inferential semantics results from normative pragmatics. And that's what's lacking in LLMs.

010

Dr. Brandon Beasley 🇨🇦 @drbeasley.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

AI makes enough mistakes, often enough, that it boggles me how many have just accepted it anyway; esp people who supposedly value crit thinking/epistemic responsibility. AI hallucination is both common & endemic to the nature of LLMs; it can only be irresponsible to give it any epistemic authority

010

Dr. Brandon Beasley 🇨🇦 @drbeasley.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

My chapter presents the influence of John Dewey on Sellars' account of the place of mind in nature. Many thanks to Carl for including me in this excellent book!

000

Dr. Brandon Beasley 🇨🇦 @drbeasley.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

Today an edited collection I'm proud to be part of comes out: Interpreting Sellars: Critical Essays, ed. Carl B. Sachs. It's a fantastic collection featuring both established & up-and-coming philosophers who work on, and with, the philosophy of Wilfrid Sellars. www.cambridge.org/ca/universit...

cambridge.org

Interpreting Sellars | Cambridge University Press & Assessment

100

Dr. Brandon Beasley 🇨🇦 @drbeasley.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

"What is your aim in philosophy?" To distinguish ideas that are only contingently (historically or socially) associated with one another from those which are genuinely rationally connected to one another; and to make clear the latter concepts in the service of human truth, meaning, and value.

000

Dr. Brandon Beasley 🇨🇦 @drbeasley.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

...as 'nominalism', a 'Demonic doctrine' opposed to all human goodness and progress.

000

Dr. Brandon Beasley 🇨🇦 @drbeasley.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

...a committment we mark, in that case, by how we react to our having failed to live up to it. This is one of the reasons why I think pragmatism is so important. It contains a way of treating ideals and values that does just that; whereas current attitudes are very much what Peirce excoriated...

100

Dr. Brandon Beasley 🇨🇦 @drbeasley.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

...of an "ideal model", as in physics, where we assume all parameters perfectly embodied, but as an in a moral ideal, e.g. "Be kind to strangers", where we guide our conduct according to it, and recognize ourselves as committed to it even when we fail to abide it in a given circumstance...

100

Dr. Brandon Beasley 🇨🇦 @drbeasley.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

...and when reality fails to embody those super-facts, the ideal is deemed a failure and we are told to focus on the non-ideal reality. But there is nothing we can *do* about the non-ideal reality without an ideal to guide our amelioration of it; an ideal treated *as* an ideal, not in the sense...

100

Dr. Brandon Beasley 🇨🇦 @drbeasley.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

I suspect that the continuing erosion of the ability to treat ideals as what they are--guides, lodestars, visions of what could be that we are always trying to live up to despite imperfectly achieving--is part of this. These days ideals are treated as 'super-facts' rather than values...

100

Dr. Brandon Beasley 🇨🇦 @drbeasley.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

I realize these days reality does not seem conducive to it, but I intensely feel the absence of a social and political vision of optimism, excitement, a can-do attitude, an inspiring view. But times like these, when reality seems lacking, is EXACTLY when we need that kind of vision.

100

Dr. Brandon Beasley 🇨🇦 @drbeasley.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

That is of course compatible with ultimately coming to reject his arguments and his views, but that's true of any philosopher!

000

Dr. Brandon Beasley 🇨🇦 @drbeasley.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

Teaching Nietzsche is the surest way, I've found, to see how misunderstood he often is (typically by those who've not actually read him/have only cursory acquiantance). He's no ray of sunshine, he's no egalitarian, he's no liberal, but damn if he didn't get hold of *something* worth exploring.

100

Dr. Brandon Beasley 🇨🇦 @drbeasley.bsky.social · 11/04/2026

As distinguished from, say, his contributions to American thought and/or American life, which while important, great, and worthy, *is not the same thing* as his contributions to philosophy. I think that distinction is too little made.

000

Dr. Brandon Beasley 🇨🇦 @drbeasley.bsky.social · 11/04/2026

A treasonous sentiment, I suppose, among most "Deweyans". But I am not most Deweyans. Indeed I don't think that aspect of Dewey's work is essential to appreciating his most important contributions to philosophy and to pragmatism in particular.

100

Dr. Brandon Beasley 🇨🇦 @drbeasley.bsky.social · 11/04/2026

...into what it is now, continuing its long process of lasting reform as opposed to revolution and trying to invent something new. Not to say our way is perfect or even the best. This is all just by way of explanation of why Dewey's discussions of democracy have never much interested me.

100

Dr. Brandon Beasley 🇨🇦 @drbeasley.bsky.social · 11/04/2026

...Canadian living within the British tradition of Westminster parliamentary government and constitutional monarchy, it seems to me a lot of the problems American democratic thought is intended to solve are self-imposed as a result of breaking from that tradition right before it began to develop...

100

Dr. Brandon Beasley 🇨🇦 @drbeasley.bsky.social · 11/04/2026

I realized today that perhaps the reason I have less interest than I might otherwise in Dewey's thoughts about democracy is because I am not really committed to the specifically 'American democratic project' he's working within. I am a fervent believer in liberal democracy, but as a...

100

Reposted by Dr. Brandon Beasley 🇨🇦

Huw Price @huwprice.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

I'm delighted to have a piece, along with many friends, in this lovely open access collection. The volume is superbly edited by Yvonne Huetter-Almerigi and Robert Sinclair, as a birthday treat for Bjørn Ramberg. Happy Birthday, Bjørn! #philsky #nordic #pragmatism nordprag.org/nordic-studi...

nordprag.org

Pragmatism, Metaphysics and Method - Nordic Pragmatism Network

Essays for Bjørn T. Ramberg Edited by Yvonne Huetter-Almerigi & Robert Sinclair Nordic Studies in Pragmatism 5 March, 2026 ISBN 978-952-67497-4-7 422 + viii pp. Description This collection honours Bjø...

0217

Dr. Brandon Beasley 🇨🇦 @drbeasley.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

But it's not. In fact, it's a student of Dewey's. One who is also a major figure in analytic philosophy. This quote is an excellent -- though small -- bit of evidence that there is such a thing as an analytic pragmatist who is a Deweyan. Guesses welcome!

100

Dr. Brandon Beasley 🇨🇦 @drbeasley.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

Who does this sound like to you? If you said John Dewey, that's a very good guess.

100

Dr. Brandon Beasley 🇨🇦 @drbeasley.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

With re-appearing day as now so happy and serene The rosy and elastic dawn, the flashing sun The limpid spread of air cerulean -- Walt Whitman, "To the Man-of-War Bird"

000

Dr. Brandon Beasley 🇨🇦 @drbeasley.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

Too many people confuse their commitment to certain political views, or elements of social critique, with a personality. When that's the case, you're not a person freely holding a view: you are letting a viewpoint dictate to you who you are.

000

Dr. Brandon Beasley 🇨🇦 @drbeasley.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

"The things that make us human will become much more important instead of much less important." Amen. Nice to hear this; that said, remains to be seen if actions will match words. Regardless, the more people say this, the better. fortune.com/2026/02/07/a...

fortune.com

Anthropic cofounder says studying the humanities will be 'more important than ever' and reveals what the AI company looks for when hiring | Fortune

"The things that make us human will become much more important instead of much less important."

000

Dr. Brandon Beasley 🇨🇦 @drbeasley.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

Some freeform Marcus Aurelius: No escape from the rhythm of events But also: Calm detachment from external events. You don't have to turn this into something; it doesn't have to upset you. Why be angry with the world? As if it would notice! I hope these help you. If not, that's okay too.

010

Dr. Brandon Beasley 🇨🇦 @drbeasley.bsky.social · 16/03/2026

I typed a Hegel quote from the Phenomenology into Word as part of some work I'm doing. The spelling/grammar/style checker highlighted part of it. Its advice? "More concise language would be clearer for your reader." Yeah, we know! Where were you in 1807?

001

Dr. Brandon Beasley 🇨🇦 @drbeasley.bsky.social · 15/03/2026

These thoughts are not directed at any particular person, or topic, or recent experience. They have been percolating in me for a while, and this is their first expression.

000

Dr. Brandon Beasley 🇨🇦 @drbeasley.bsky.social · 15/03/2026

Too many people confuse the intensity or extremity of an assertion with the strength of the committment to the value it expresses.

100

Dr. Brandon Beasley 🇨🇦 @drbeasley.bsky.social · 15/03/2026

You might think that these are so obvious they hardly need stating. Except I see very smart people flout them all the time, especially on political or social topics. So I think they do need stating; defending. In particular, that those principles are compatible with a commitment to strong values.

100

Dr. Brandon Beasley 🇨🇦 @drbeasley.bsky.social · 15/03/2026

Thoughtfulness and care in expression, avoiding extremes without overwhelming evidence, not attributing to people views they clearly do not hold or it would be uncharitable to ascribe to them--these principles I firmly believe; they are at the heart of responsible reasonable discourse.

110

Dr. Brandon Beasley 🇨🇦 @drbeasley.bsky.social · 13/03/2026

Here's the full image. AI can be fun; but let's not ignore the parts that are neither fun nor good for humanity. On that score I hope to have some writing done soon, both for my blog and, I hope, a journal article.

000

Dr. Brandon Beasley 🇨🇦 @drbeasley.bsky.social · 13/03/2026

I've indulged myself in one of the few good uses of so-called "AI", and got it to generate a portrait of me as I might appear if I were an academic philosopher in the 1920s. I rather enjoy the results, and it is now my profile picture.

100

Dr. Brandon Beasley 🇨🇦 @drbeasley.bsky.social · 12/03/2026

She also had an indelible influence on my Doktorvater & mentor, Mark Migotti, for whom she was a mentor, if not a Doktormutter. It pleases me that since my other mentor Bob Brandom's Doktorvater was Rorty, my philosophical grandparents are Haack & Rorty, two pragmatists who couldn't disagree more.

100

Dr. Brandon Beasley 🇨🇦 @drbeasley.bsky.social · 12/03/2026

Very sad to hear of the passing of Susan Haack. I met her once, and remember her as delighfully mordant. I long admired her work. I think she was at her best when she deployed her razor sharp mind & clarity of thought in service of, in John McDowell's nice phrase, "piece[s] of mere sanity".

110

Reposted by Dr. Brandon Beasley 🇨🇦

Charles S. Peirce @charlespeirce.bsky.social · 10/03/2026

Examining the phenomena more closely we shall find that not a single element of moral conduct is unrepresented in reasoning. At the same time, the special case naturally has its peculiarities.

012

Dr. Brandon Beasley 🇨🇦 @drbeasley.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

Indeed, that process is almost beautifully Hegelian itself, isn't it?

010

Dr. Brandon Beasley 🇨🇦 @drbeasley.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

I have discovered this semester that I *love* teaching Hegel's _Phenomenology of Spirit_. Not only do I love the book itself, and the ideas therein, but there is something very satisfying about taking students from bewilderment to incipient understanding and on to, ideally, actual understanding.

110