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Paul Schofield @pschofie79.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

I believe my review was a finalist, but didn’t win!

Paul Schofield @pschofie79.bsky.social · 23/04/2026

So maybe pitch it with the opening paragraph or two of the article you would write, plus a couple lines explaining what the thesis is and where you’d go from there. Then if they take it, you write the whole thing.

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Paul Schofield @pschofie79.bsky.social · 23/04/2026

If you wanted to do a longer article, you can pitch the idea to the editor by emailing him (as the OP said, it’s Len Gutkin). A pitch is more than just a statement saying that you have an idea. It’s usually written in something close to the style you’d use for the article…

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Paul Schofield @pschofie79.bsky.social · 23/04/2026

There’s a link at the bottom of the article if you wanted to submit a letter to the editor in response. I think you have to write the letter ahead of time and hope they publish it . . .

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Paul Schofield @pschofie79.bsky.social · 16/03/2026

To learn about morality's evolutionary origins, we should be thinking more about not-so-nice cases. That's what we argue, at least. Have a look! (8)

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Paul Schofield @pschofie79.bsky.social · 16/03/2026

It's also about conflict, disagreement, and grudging compliance with demands--even if you're not feeling particularly loving toward whoever is making the demands. (7)

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Paul Schofield @pschofie79.bsky.social · 16/03/2026

We argue that it is a mistake to set such cases to the side because doing so skews a lot of scientific research about the evolution of morality. Morality isn't just about niceness . . . (6)

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Paul Schofield @pschofie79.bsky.social · 16/03/2026

But if you share food with someone who demanded it, and you're not all that enthusiastic about doing so, that's considered not-so-moral, and so researchers will set your case to the side. (5)

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Paul Schofield @pschofie79.bsky.social · 16/03/2026

So if you're a chimpanzee and you share some food out of pure kindness, that's taken to be a sort of case in which something moral-ish is going on, and researchers will study it as an evolutionally precursor to fully-fledged human ethics. (4)

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Paul Schofield @pschofie79.bsky.social · 16/03/2026

The paper criticizes a broad trend in the literature on the evolution of morality. That literature has tended to study cases where someone is motivated solely from benevolence, or "niceness," of some sort. (3)

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Paul Schofield @pschofie79.bsky.social · 16/03/2026

www.paulschofieldphilosophy.com/uploads/1/3/... (2)

paulschofieldphilosophy.com

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Paul Schofield @pschofie79.bsky.social · 16/03/2026

My friend/Bates colleague Mike Dacey and I have just published this paper in The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science. It's been a long time coming (several years and many beers at this point). But it was really a lot of fun to collaborate (link in next comment) (1)

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Paul Schofield @pschofie79.bsky.social · 25/07/2025

I’ve had a bit with my colleague Mike Dacey where I send him a YouTube video and ask him if the turtle is enjoying his bath as much as he looks like he is (or whatever). Glad to he’s gone public with the bit. (Link in next post)

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Paul Schofield @pschofie79.bsky.social · 24/07/2025

I have a new essay in Jacobin, arguing that homelessness is at odds with the ideal of a democratic society. I'll take this opportunity to mention that I'm writing a book for Oxford UP elaborating on the ideas in this piece. It will be a trade book, meant for a popular audience.

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Paul Schofield @pschofie79.bsky.social · 28/05/2025

14-year-old daughter couldn’t find any friends who wanted to go to the Vampire Weekend show tomorrow, so she asked me.

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Paul Schofield @pschofie79.bsky.social · 27/05/2025

Here is a promotional code, if you want to buy it. It's also available on Oxford Academic/Oxford Scholarship Online. (6)

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Paul Schofield @pschofie79.bsky.social · 27/05/2025

Here's the abstract for the whole thing. (5)

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Paul Schofield @pschofie79.bsky.social · 27/05/2025

It's a serious academic book. But also it's just well-written, fun, whimsical--really, the kind of thing you can give to undergrads. (4)

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Paul Schofield @pschofie79.bsky.social · 27/05/2025

Every chapter is full of descriptions of fascinating experiments, and raises insightful questions about what can and cannot be inferred from them. I learned so much from this! (3)

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Paul Schofield @pschofie79.bsky.social · 27/05/2025

The basic idea behind the book is to identify difficulties that get in the way of making progress in the field of animal psychology, and to suggest a positive path forward for each (2).

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Paul Schofield @pschofie79.bsky.social · 27/05/2025

My colleague Mike Dacey has an excellent and exciting new book out today. It's aimed at an academic audience, but not a narrow specialist one--great for students and also philosophers and animal researchers interested in the topic (1)

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Paul Schofield @pschofie79.bsky.social · 20/05/2025

My mom got me this bookend when I was in college.

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Paul Schofield @pschofie79.bsky.social · 09/05/2025

My Robert Francis Prevost NFTs are probably worth more today.

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Paul Schofield @pschofie79.bsky.social · 08/05/2025

Well, this would signal that he’s not the pope of the South Side, but the pope of all of Chicago

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Paul Schofield @pschofie79.bsky.social · 08/05/2025

The new pope will sing Take Me Out to the Ballgame at Wrigley next week.

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Paul Schofield @pschofie79.bsky.social · 08/05/2025

What if ChatGPT added to the terms of use that you’re not allowed to use it to cheat?

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Paul Schofield @pschofie79.bsky.social · 08/05/2025

I think the main thing that matters is whether the new pope vaguely agrees with my politics.

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Paul Schofield @pschofie79.bsky.social · 08/05/2025

Really would like to see this level of enthusiasm from students these days.

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Paul Schofield @pschofie79.bsky.social · 06/05/2025

Facebook is aggressively targeting me with these ads. I think it says a lot about society that we're now assuming that *this* is the answer to our problems, rather than antidepressants.

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Paul Schofield @pschofie79.bsky.social · 06/05/2025

I think it tastes perfectly good, but it also absorbs flavors and spices really well. Sometimes you need to add oil or butter if the recipe depends on the meat being fatty

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Paul Schofield @pschofie79.bsky.social · 06/05/2025

Important context. I hope he shared with HR.

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Paul Schofield @pschofie79.bsky.social · 06/05/2025

“Couldn’t he have picked something else?” He wanted to watch this one *last year* and I said to pick something else and he never forgot it.

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Paul Schofield @pschofie79.bsky.social · 06/05/2025

13-year-old son wanted to invite friends over to have pizza and watch Charlie Chaplin for his birthday. Had to contact parents ahead of time and be like “content warning: it’s a Hitler comedy, but don’t worry, because it’s a *disapproving* one.”

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Paul Schofield @pschofie79.bsky.social · 06/05/2025

Beyond pork on the beans, Beyond beef on the mapo tofu

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Paul Schofield @pschofie79.bsky.social · 06/05/2025

Made wontons, mapo tofu, and dry fried green beans. Happy Cinco de Mayo!

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Paul Schofield @pschofie79.bsky.social · 04/05/2025

Does this mean she goes on to compete against other races now, or is the whole competition segregated by race?

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Paul Schofield @pschofie79.bsky.social · 03/05/2025

Anyway, the book doesn’t talk much about education, and neither does my review. But part of why I was taken with the book is its relevance to domains of contemporary life that it doesn’t choose to focus on. t.co/u1EeWq5Br7

t.co

https://jacobin.com/2025/04/neoliberalism-choice-individualism-market-freedom

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Paul Schofield @pschofie79.bsky.social · 03/05/2025

And this isn’t really about Harvard. They made the subtext text by calling it “shopping”. But most of higher ed is now basically like this—with course selection resembling crude market activity.

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Paul Schofield @pschofie79.bsky.social · 03/05/2025

But while I am definitely open to students having fewer curricular choices, my point here isn’t that students shouldn’t have choices. It’s that encouraging them to treat signing up for classes as an exercise in shopping affects how everyone views education at a college . . .

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Paul Schofield @pschofie79.bsky.social · 03/05/2025

Now, I know that some people will read this and say “Oh, look, he thinks students should pay an arm and a leg for college and then have no say in what classes they take.” . . .

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Paul Schofield @pschofie79.bsky.social · 03/05/2025

And so the advisor ends up trying to weed out foolish purchases, or to get the student to think about efficiency (“it will be harder to take that in your senior year!”) as opposed to helping craft a coherent educational trajectory that will allow the student to flourish . . .

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Paul Schofield @pschofie79.bsky.social · 03/05/2025

Rather than help you think through what an education is supposed to do for you, the advisor is often already talking to students who have shopped and filled their carts with items they prefer, on whatever basis they preferred . . .

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Paul Schofield @pschofie79.bsky.social · 03/05/2025

Students had advisors to talk to and help them with these decisions, but the foregrounding of the “shopping” aspect subtly altered that relationship . . .

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Paul Schofield @pschofie79.bsky.social · 03/05/2025

It meant that the first couple meetings were ones where instructors needed to “sell” their students on a course, really ramping up the aspect of the job where you act as shopkeeper and marketer rather than educator . . .

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