iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Amos Wollen @goingawoll.bsky.social · 04/10/2025

In this live debate—feat. Joe Schmid, @morallawwithin.bsky.social, Noah McKay, and yours truly—we figure out whether there are souls (there are) and whether physicalism is the last refuge of the scoundrel (it is) youtu.be/Z4_kiUge5Ac

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Amos Wollen @goingawoll.bsky.social · 30/06/2025

A new wave of philosophers has joined Substack — here are some of their names (link in bio)

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Amos Wollen @goingawoll.bsky.social · 29/06/2025

Today, I review Don’t Forget We’re Here Forever by @lamornaash.bsky.social open.substack.com/pub/wollenbl...

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Emily Qureshi-Hurst @emilyqureshihurst.bsky.social · 21/05/2025

I am delighted to share that I've signed a contract with ‪‪@reaktionbooks.bsky.social‬ for my fourth book, 'Our Many Lives in the Multiverse' In the book I'll be examining the Many-Worlds interpretation of Quantum Mechanics and exploring what it means for selves, society, and God. Watch this space!

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Amos Wollen @goingawoll.bsky.social · 04/05/2025

My impression of analytic theology (link in bio)

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Amos Wollen @goingawoll.bsky.social · 02/04/2025

An extremely dapper soul-body composite (me), plus a middle-sized, middle-aged organism made up of “the fundamental building blochks of reality, each with their own very primitive form of awerrrness” (@philipgoff.bsky.social)

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Amos Wollen @goingawoll.bsky.social · 19/03/2025

Devastating interaction at the Indian corner shop. Shopkeeper glances at my ingredients—my cumin seeds, my lentils, my lime—and casually asks me if I mistook parsley for coriander. Aching with shame, I confessed that I had, and he told me where the coriander was

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Amos Wollen @goingawoll.bsky.social · 04/03/2025

“They” if you’re a Trinitarian (this would not be a neo-pronoun, but a trio-pronoun. Peak Catholicity.)

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Amos Wollen @goingawoll.bsky.social · 03/03/2025

(Clarification: in possible worlds where chewing on a straw had zero dental benefits by causing the mouth to salivate slightly.)

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Amos Wollen @goingawoll.bsky.social · 03/03/2025

I just debated Catholic philosopher Brian Besong on sexual ethics — as it turns out, it’s pretty unclear whether it would be wrong to nibble on a plastic straw (even if that were the only way to stop the world from ending) m.youtube.com/watch?v=oltL...

m.youtube.com

Sexual Ethics & Natural Law: A Philosophical Debate

YouTube video by Philosophy for the People

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Alex Worsnip @aworsnip.bsky.social · 03/03/2025

I wrote a blog post about Samuel Alito as a case study in the ethics of suspicion and psychologizing blogs.cardiff.ac.uk/openfordebat...

blogs.cardiff.ac.uk

Samuel Alito and the Ethics of Suspicion

Exploring the changing nature of public debate

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Amos Wollen @goingawoll.bsky.social · 28/02/2025

Here I discuss the “deeply inappropriate man-crush” that many Catholics and Evangelicals have on Thomas Aquinas open.substack.com/pub/wollenbl...

open.substack.com

Thomas Aquinas Englazement Syndrome

a spiritual admonition

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Amos Wollen @goingawoll.bsky.social · 23/02/2025

on my practical ethics grind

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Amos Wollen @goingawoll.bsky.social · 22/02/2025

Are pro-lifers driven by a subconscious desire to control women’s bodies and reproduction? open.substack.com/pub/wollenbl...

open.substack.com

Are pro-lifers driven by a subconscious desire to control women's bodies and reproduction?

a reply to Defending Feminism

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Amos Wollen @goingawoll.bsky.social · 15/02/2025

Major shrimp welfare victory!

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Jacob T. Levy @jacobtlevy.bsky.social · 12/02/2025

every conservative catholic thinkpiece open.substack.com/pub/wollenbl...

open.substack.com

every conservative catholic thinkpiece

satire as a modernist notion

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Philip Goff @philipgoff.bsky.social · 10/02/2025

Where better to debate a God of limited powers than Wetherspoons pub??? Check out my recent chat with @goingawoll.bsky.social and @benthamsbulldog.bsky.social www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLzX...

youtube.com

In Person Chat With Amos Wollen and Philip Goff

YouTube video by Deliberation Under Ideal Conditions

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Amos Wollen @goingawoll.bsky.social · 19/12/2024

That’s true — the thought here was just that when they’re lied to before the trick happens, they would immediately see the lie for what it is (yet the lie seems permissible to tell)

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Dr. Candice Mills @candicemmills.bsky.social · 19/12/2024

This is the first Christmas since our initial Santa article was published (doi.org/10.1037/dev0...), so @thaliargoldstein.bsky.social and I have had some opportunities this season to talk with reporters or see the project discussed in newsletters, articles, and blogs. This is a fun one!

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Amos Wollen @goingawoll.bsky.social · 19/12/2024

Is that the study one of you gave that YouTube lecture on for the honesty project? It sounded super interesting! Has it been accepted yet? I really want to cite it for a paper/book I’m writing (expanding in this, basically!) and I really want the numbers on how often parents feel guilty about lying

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Amos Wollen @goingawoll.bsky.social · 16/12/2024

You say it’s wrong because *parents* should never lie to *their* children? That would make it wrong for parents to show magic to their children and lie while doing so — but obviously, that’s fine! 9/

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Amos Wollen @goingawoll.bsky.social · 16/12/2024

…can be pretty confident they’d retroactively consent to being lied to about Santa Claus. You say it’s wrong because you should never lie to children? That would make it wrong for children’s party magicians to lie in the course of their performances. 8/

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Amos Wollen @goingawoll.bsky.social · 16/12/2024

…to have found out more abruptly, and to have found out by someone verbally telling them “Santa’s not real.” So: if you let your kids find out early (age 7 or younger), by gradually making the lies less and less believable till they work it out themselves, you 7/

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Amos Wollen @goingawoll.bsky.social · 16/12/2024

…generally short-lived, and the vast majority of both children and adults reported they would celebrate Santa with their own children or were already doing so.” Plus, the kids who felt bad after finding out Santa isn’t real were more likely to be older when they found out, 6/

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Amos Wollen @goingawoll.bsky.social · 16/12/2024

Why think that? Well, our best study on the process and aftermath of children losing belief in Santa reports that — while about a third of children feel some negative emotions upon learning the truth — “experiences of negative emotions were… 5/

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Amos Wollen @goingawoll.bsky.social · 16/12/2024

…the lie enhanced the feeling of magic. The same goes for Santa Claus: Christmas without belief in Santa is fine, but believing in him *just does* make the season more magical. And if you pull the lie off well, and don’t overdo it, most children would retroactively …consent to being lied to. 4/

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Amos Wollen @goingawoll.bsky.social · 16/12/2024

…a magic trick (some street magicians don’t tell people they’re magicians in advance, to harness the element of surprise.) Explanation: the reason it’s OK for magicians to lie is that — probably — the spectator would retroactively consent to being lied to, since… 3/

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Amos Wollen @goingawoll.bsky.social · 16/12/2024

Intuitively, it’s OK for a magician to lie in the course of a magic trick (“just an ordinary deck of cards…”), so long as that makes the effect of the trick more magical — intuitively, also, it’s fine even if the spectator didn’t know they were seeing… 2/

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Amos Wollen @goingawoll.bsky.social · 16/12/2024

Why it’s OK to lie about Santa Claus. 🧵 1/

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Amos Wollen @goingawoll.bsky.social · 13/12/2024

I have obtained a copy of Luigi Mangione’s college admission essay, which the media has refused to publish. open.substack.com/pub/wollenbl...

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Scott Shapiro @scottjshapiro.bsky.social · 10/12/2024

Law Professor here: Luigi Mangione’s written confession will hurt his legal case.

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John Stuart Thrill @jsthrill.modphi.com · 06/12/2024

Just because teaching Hume helped with this in the past is no reason to think teaching Hume would have any impact now

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