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@neohempelian

@neohempelian.bsky.social
2K followers 1.4K following 2K posts

Asst professor of philosophy Love science, especially sciences that tell the story of the past. Was a chemist, then a teacher. Now a philosopher of science. What's next? Awkward mix of personal & professional Occasional DIYer

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@neohempelian @neohempelian.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Discussing Lucretius’s simulacra today. I have so many questions.
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@neohempelian @neohempelian.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
I had a really rough summer due to health issues and this morning heading to my first day of term lectures I could hardly walk, vertigo so bad. But the greetings from students as I traversed the halls were so energizing. I’m grateful for the start of term.
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@neohempelian @neohempelian.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Questions for #philsky instructors: 1. At what year in your teaching career did you first teach a 4th year seminar? 2. How many new preps did you have in your first 2 years of full-time faculty appointment?
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@neohempelian @neohempelian.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Philosophers enthusiasticaly giving their souls away to the AI overlords in exchange for cheap, easy publications… I weep for the humanity we have lost. Alas Philosophy will be reborn on the street, in the halls of those suffering. And they will look on the professionals, wretches.
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@neohempelian @neohempelian.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Career guidance sessions for humanities graduate students led by AI Strategists are the 21st century equivalent of personal wellness sessions led by Dr Frankenstein’s assistants. It’s beyond the pale of outrageousness.
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@neohempelian @neohempelian.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
I don’t think philosophers should be using AI to write articles or books AT ALL. I don’t want to read any more sanitized crap. If you want help brainstorming an idea, talk to people. If you want help wordsmithing, talk to people. Philosophy is best in dialog with PEOPLE!
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@neohempelian @neohempelian.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
I’ve been away for a few months but before a few people expressed concern that PhilSciArchive was diluting away the #philsci hashtag. At the time, folks thought, and I agreed, that a few posts per day was not concerning.
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@neohempelian @neohempelian.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
AI Socrates knows that he knows nothing. Real Socrates never said this. Pshhh
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@neohempelian @neohempelian.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
Somebody found Socrates’ private journal
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Reposted by @neohempelian
fesshole 🧻 @fesshole.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
Add your fess: b3ta.com/addfess
Someone at work called me an "elder statesman" and dignified in my approach to working with others. I'm only 46 and the reason I stay quiet and make 'considered decisions' is that I'd be swearing my fucking head off at the cunts if I didn't.

Fesshole GOLD from 10th May 2021
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@neohempelian @neohempelian.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
Climatologists: Oh no, the tipping points are much closer than expected, we’ve already hit some of them, ahhhhhh Paleoclimatologists: Oh really? I never would’ve guessed. The records from the past didn’t at all tell us that the climate models in use today were too optimistic.
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@neohempelian @neohempelian.bsky.social · 30/04/2026
Psychologists: The replication crisis is a non-issue. Our experimental results would lack external validity, except for the fact that we derived them from first principles. Those can’t be tested, but TRUST us, there’s nothing fishy going on here. Our first principles are legit.
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@neohempelian @neohempelian.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
Re-upping, hoping for engagement on WIL in philosophy or other humanities. @mjacquart.bsky.social @apotochnik.bsky.social do you have any thoughts?
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@neohempelian @neohempelian.bsky.social · 28/04/2026
Anybody got any ideas/tips etc on incorporating work integrated learning (WIL) in philosophy? #philsky
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@neohempelian @neohempelian.bsky.social · 28/04/2026
Given that I am the world's biggest overachiever in academia and #philsky in particular (I submitted my final course grades a whole 2 hours befroe the deadline): Ask me anything.
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@neohempelian @neohempelian.bsky.social · 28/04/2026
Loving the job-posting dichotomies... Chemistry: 4 yr Phd position studying the variation in pH of a particular New Zealand harbour from June to July seasonally. vs. Philosophy: 4 yr Phd position to answer what is truth simpliciter.
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@neohempelian @neohempelian.bsky.social · 28/04/2026
after 2 weeks of grading, all my semester grades are submitted. Whew! So... what'd I miss?
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@neohempelian @neohempelian.bsky.social · 25/04/2026
TFW you finish grading your Symbolic Logic finals and get to send your A+ students their official acceptance into Plato's realm of the forms. They demonstrated mastery and now must ascend. #philsky
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@neohempelian @neohempelian.bsky.social · 15/04/2026
Ahhh. I continue to be devastated by vertigo. It's so aweful. I look fine, and so nobody believes me that I'm unwell. And yet, I can't even solve the homework problems I assigned, and have solved a hundred times, because my brain is just complete toast. ahhh Brain injuries suuuuucccckkkkkkkk
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@neohempelian @neohempelian.bsky.social · 12/04/2026
When it’s late and you’re hungry and pour yourself a bowl of raisin bran but offspring had picked out all the raisins and, as a flex, it was weeks ago and they didnt even bother to close the bag. Tfw when you’re eating cement
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@neohempelian @neohempelian.bsky.social · 09/04/2026
I envy the academic who is convinced (apparently a priori) that generative AI tools are only capable of word salad. What’s that life like being in denial, not thinking at all about how literally all of your teaching tools have been undermined and your internal detector is biased af?
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@neohempelian @neohempelian.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
Been a rough few months. on the mend but got some rough news today about my brother in law. Had to stop on my way home to pick up a bottle of Irish whiskey. Gotta pour one out for dear Bill. Good man who fought a hard fight. RIP
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@neohempelian @neohempelian.bsky.social · 16/03/2026
Seeing a lot of “Habermas was a great thinker” takes last couple days. I’ve never read a single word of Habermas. Me: What have I missed? H-folk: A lot of really interesting and subtle ways to justify being an absolute d-bag. Me: so I missed nothing? H-folk: More or less.
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@neohempelian @neohempelian.bsky.social · 01/03/2026
We had our annual “Humanities Student Research Showcase” where we have bigwigs for the university judge the entrants. A student of mine from last semester won and I’m gushing with pride.
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@neohempelian @neohempelian.bsky.social · 24/02/2026
I have to replace my car (it was totaled) and dealing with used car folks is more stress than I can bear. Ahhhhhhhhhh
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@neohempelian @neohempelian.bsky.social · 20/02/2026
Apparently I’m weird. I’ve been trying to write about how wild and interesting it is that you can ask the relevant scientists about how the earth formed and they will tell you on the basis of mass to charge ratios of atomic nuclei in select rocks. So far my feedback givers are unmoved. #philsci
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@neohempelian @neohempelian.bsky.social · 17/02/2026
From the opening of Burge’s Content Preservation: “Most of what we know is supported by beliefs formed fairly directly from sense perception. Over its history, philosophy has not done well in characterizing these beliefs or in saying wherein they are knowledgeable.” Banger.
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@neohempelian @neohempelian.bsky.social · 16/02/2026
I’ve moved a bunch the last few years. I’ve got boxes of papers and things packed that just keep moving with me, never unpacked. This week I started writing a piece that I agreed to write. It occurred to me that one of these long ago packed mystery boxes…
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@neohempelian @neohempelian.bsky.social · 14/02/2026
I sometimes think about how some of the greatest philosophy books ever written were well under 50,000 words. We should have more books like that. #philsky
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@neohempelian @neohempelian.bsky.social · 10/02/2026
Post a banger that is not in English. The empiricist’s mantra: Esse ist percipi
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@neohempelian @neohempelian.bsky.social · 06/02/2026
Me: next class we’ll cover Duhem ch 1-4. Me (today): lectures 1.5 hours on Duhem’s first sentence. #philsci
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@neohempelian @neohempelian.bsky.social · 29/01/2026
A lot of philosophy of science since ages ago (by which I mean since Carnap, whenever that was) is what I decided this week to call “pragmatic conventionalism.” And what I realized, literally in front of my classes, was that pragmatic conventionalism looked a whole lot different when…
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@neohempelian @neohempelian.bsky.social · 20/01/2026
Me: [doing dishes] offsrping (gr12) asks, (nonchalantly, mind you) “I’m writing an essay, and I wonder, so what is ‘abject naturalism’ exactly?” Me: [setting the scrubber down] Oh, well, let’s start with naturalism. That’s the idea that the only processes in the world are the natural ones…
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@neohempelian @neohempelian.bsky.social · 20/01/2026
It’s sometime surprising what students get really into in my classes given that my University has a really strong early emphasis on literary training. In my class of 60 this morning, the number of minds melted by our discussion of the naturalistic fallacy was shocking… delightful actually.
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@neohempelian @neohempelian.bsky.social · 20/01/2026
Tomorrow’s #philsci lecture notes: We‘ll spend 30 minutes digesting Russell with a writing and peer review exercise, then I’ll lecture for an hour on pg 1 of Hempel’s Philosophy of Natural Science.
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@neohempelian @neohempelian.bsky.social · 15/01/2026
In my critical thinking course, I'm trying to impress on the class the variety of styles or argument that are available and how different they can be. Today we discussed the arguments portrayed in the Guernica, The death of Murat, and the Luncheon on the Green.
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@neohempelian @neohempelian.bsky.social · 13/01/2026
Gonna wrap up the prophets tomorrow (Russell’s Problems of Philosophy) and going to start in on the gospel. Feeling nervous. The weight!
Picture of a well-worn front cover of Carl Hempel’s “Philosophy of Natural Science.”
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@neohempelian @neohempelian.bsky.social · 07/01/2026
Preparing my lecture for tomorrow on Russell’s The Problems of Philosophy and I feel like it’s such a guilty pleasure. In fact, my course is starting off with Russell, then reading Hempel, then Duhem. Course title should be “Studies in my fave authors.”
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@neohempelian @neohempelian.bsky.social · 07/01/2026
Holy smokes, the HOPOS listserv sure went bleak. I’m sure I’m behind the times, and I’ve always known certain, ahem, characters are malign, but wow. #philsci
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@neohempelian @neohempelian.bsky.social · 06/01/2026
Boomer parents will talk to you on speaker about the most sensitive topics all while 17 of their friends are sitting there in the room and then be flabbergasted when you point out that they violated your trust.
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@neohempelian @neohempelian.bsky.social · 06/01/2026
Me, in the past, when I taught at research focused places… facing course evals… oh no, I didn’t do so well, I got 4/5 but that’s better by 5/10 than department average. Now, just had the best class of my career so far and students were like, ya, bro was good, he checked most of the boxes
media.tenor.com
a group of south park characters are standing in front of lockers
ALT: a group of south park characters are standing in front of lockers
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@neohempelian @neohempelian.bsky.social · 06/01/2026
I had a rough term last, healt—wise. I got my course evaluations today and for some reason I was feeling brave and so I faced them... all in all, not bad… pretty good if I’m being honest… considering
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@neohempelian @neohempelian.bsky.social · 01/01/2026
Was hoping to ring in the new year, but this afternoon I wringed it in (wrecked my car). Damn.
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@neohempelian @neohempelian.bsky.social · 31/12/2025
But first, a history of thinking a history of what headlines say is history history
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@neohempelian @neohempelian.bsky.social · 29/12/2025
Anonymous peer review in the age of AI slop or…
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@neohempelian @neohempelian.bsky.social · 29/12/2025
Might fuck around and have my #Philsci students read some Discworld next term.
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@neohempelian @neohempelian.bsky.social · 29/12/2025
We had a 26C temp warmup today. but the snow is so heavy I didn’t even open my door. 😅 whole household been so sick, might fuck around tomorrow and go out to get more NyQuil, but that’s the extent of my bravery.
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@neohempelian @neohempelian.bsky.social · 29/12/2025
fam and I were so sick Xmas day. Finally felt up for making the turkey tonight. We ate 1/5 and now I don’t know what to do ahhh
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@neohempelian @neohempelian.bsky.social · 29/12/2025
Oh goody, another paper about that thing which folks like to invoke which covers over a multitude of epistemic sins… mathematically structure. Yes, tell me more about all the things this magic can cure. But, please, don’t ever feel the need to actually unpack what it is.
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@neohempelian @neohempelian.bsky.social · 25/12/2025
Dear Santa, I know it's too late, but I've actually been a good boy this year and so if you have it your heart to send me a belated "good boy, you work hard to further the love of learning" christmas present, I'd sure really super awful dog dare love for you send me a set of Haywood Golf irons...
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