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Pieter T. L. Beck @ptrbck.bsky.social · 19m

The owls are not what they seem, my cat said.

Laptop on which Twin Peaks is being screened. In the background there is a tuxedo cat right behind the laptop, staring intensely at the viewer.

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Sjang ten Hagen @sjangtenhagen.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

The next step: writing a book together on the history of scholarly evaluation. More to follow soon. In the meantime, take a look here if you're interested in the project: www.arts.kuleuven.be/cultuurgesch...! 2/3

arts.kuleuven.be

Call for papers on histories of scholarly evaluation, 1700-2000 for a workshop in Leuven (Sept 2026)

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Sjang ten Hagen @sjangtenhagen.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Wanted to share my excitement about a small workshop on the history of scholarly evaluation that we hosted in Leuven over the last couple of days. The atmosphere was great and it was very productive! Here's a photo of the participants brainstorming. 1/3

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Pieter T. L. Beck @ptrbck.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Don't worry, Nathan, Emil is coming to "help" you!

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Michael Marshall @mrmmarsh.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Why it is reasonable to label Nathan Cofnas’ race realism as pseudoscientific | Pieter Beck "Race realist" Nathan Cofnas claims his "hereditarianist" viewpoint is scientifically accurate - by citing pseudoscientific research and misleading rhetoric.

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Pieter T. L. Beck @ptrbck.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

My article arguing that Nathan Cofnas's race realism is rightly labelled as pseudoscience is now also published at @skeptic.org.uk. Honoured to have it up there.

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Pieter T. L. Beck @ptrbck.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

A good day for the Ghent HOPOS-tradition (I take the liberty of considering @masssimons.bsky.social as part of that tradition, I don't think he will mind?)

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Massimiliano Simons @masssimons.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

14/END And finally: I am perhaps even more proud that my article is in the same issue as the fabulous article that @mvandyck.bsky.social wrote on Bas van Fraassen his constructive empiricism - definitely also work checking out! www.journals.uchicago.edu/toc/hopos/cu...

journals.uchicago.edu

University of Chicago Press Journals: Cookie absent

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Massimiliano Simons @masssimons.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

9/ My aim is to make a broader methodological point: If we want to understand the history of the philosophy of experimentation, we shouldn't only trace changing theories of experimentation. We also need to trace changing conceptions of the *aims* of philosophy of science.

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Massimiliano Simons @masssimons.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

1/ 🧵 The history of the philosophy of experimentation isn't really just a history of what philosophers have said about experiments. In a new #HOPOS paper, I argue that it is also a history of what philosophers thought philosophy of science itself was *for*. #philsci

A Picture of the first page of the article

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Pieter T. L. Beck @ptrbck.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Zeventienjarige Athena Matsas geeft het goede voorbeeld aan de rector van haar eigen universiteit. www.standaard.be/economie/vub...

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Charles C Roseman @evoroseman.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

This doesn't square with my experience. I'm a scientist. I was invited to give a science talk by the phil dept. I found everyone to be welcoming and genuinely interested in science. That they don't like what Cofnas has to say indicates that they take the science seriously.1/2

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Pieter T. L. Beck @ptrbck.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Cofnas tegen HLN: "Ik, een racist? Nee hoor!" HLN: "Ok, leuk! Volgende vraag." Cofnas wanneer zijn medestanders vragen waarom hij zo mak was in de KVHV-lezing in Gent: "Ik pas mijn boodschap aan wanneer de normies luisteren en ik moest oppassen om niks illegaals te zeggen."

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Pieter T. L. Beck @ptrbck.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Forgot to mention my most controversial "hot take". In the first class I explain why I think Kuhn is one of the most overrated philosophers of the 20th century, but why I also believe he is still worth being the central figure of the course.

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Pieter T. L. Beck @ptrbck.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Nu Cofnas in een interview in @hln.be vrij spel kreeg om zonder tegenspraak zijn race science te verspreiden en weer zijn "de savanne versus de rijstvelden"-verhaaltje bovenhaalde (dat ik ook bespreek in mijn stuk in Apache), hier een goede post ver waarom dit onzin is: x.com/Evolving_Mol...

x.com

Will (@Evolving_Moloch) on X

I've complained about this before but I found the claims about African Americans being adapted to hunting and gathering on the savanna and East Asians having a 'culture of doing homework' due (at leas...

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Pieter T. L. Beck @ptrbck.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Next week, the academic year starts again. I've grown a bit tired of the polemics (& the vitriol on social media). During lunch with colleagues, we were talking about how it would be nice to communicate about the good things that happen at the department, research and teaching-wise.

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Ted McCormick @tedmccormick.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

What you won’t find much of are ordinary scholars who have neither an axe to grind about their failed hopes nor a buzz to create for their next NYT bestseller about why plagues are good or The Left has stifled debate by eating sandwiches. Both the picture and the personnel draw from the extremes.

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Ted McCormick @tedmccormick.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

In publications advancing an “antiwoke” line you will find a corresponding mix of would-be or once-was academics who couldn’t make it work for one reason or another, and classical liberal stars who are very much making it work — with a sprinkling of wingnut welfare types on race science postdocs.

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Ted McCormick @tedmccormick.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

There’s more to be said about the relationship between Pinker-style stardom and the state of academia. Not because academia is Woke, but because star systems loosen rigor at the top while solid scholarship becomes a dead end lower down. Shoddy celebrities and broke PhDs proceed from the same machine

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Pieter T. L. Beck @ptrbck.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

"interested in "pure" philosophy unsullied by the sciences", says Maarten about a department where one of the most active research groups works on philosophy of science with an active focus on science in practice. Maarten is always welcome to join me in the lab when I do experiments with chemists.

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Bieke Purnelle @biekepurnelle.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Wat Karel zegt.

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Michael Marshall @mrmmarsh.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

My latest for The Skeptic, on the network pushing extremism at the University of Cambridge and into the wider media, including organisations like The Free Speech Union, UnHerd, The Critic, Quillette, and Aporia.

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Pieter T. L. Beck @ptrbck.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Al meteen een rechtzetting nodig. Torfs is een X-roeptoeter, maar logische keuze. Wel weer een debat in complete abstractie van de concrete details van de Cofnas-kwestie, mr je kan hem niet verwijten niet consequent te zijn wat betreft verdediging van absolute academische vrijheid /1

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Rebecca Sear @rebeccasear.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Gave my first public lecture on the return of eugenics and race science this week at the British Science Festival. Reassuring to see how much interest, and concern, there was in the room

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apache/ @apache.be · 18/09/2026

De verdediging van “rassenrealisme” door de Amerikaanse wetenschapsfilosoof Nathan Cofnas is wel degelijk pseudowetenschap. Pieter Beck, postdoctoraal onderzoeker wetenschapsgeschiedenis en -filosofie aan de UGent, legt in een tweedelige bijdrage uit waarom. apache.be/2026/09/17/w...

apache.be

Waarom ik Cofnas’ “rassenrealisme” pseudowetenschap noem

Cofnas' beweringen worden keer op keer weerlegd door experts uit de relevante vakgebieden.

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Pieter T. L. Beck @ptrbck.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Excuses bij voorbaat, maar ik moet even mijn frustraties ventileren over de manier waarop het publieke debat rond de Cofnas-kwestie gevoerd (en vooral: geframed) wordt. En de rol van de media daarin.

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Pieter T. L. Beck @ptrbck.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Got disinvited today because the media involved decided that "everything had already been said" about the race science topic and that they would rather focus on "the broader question" of "culture wars" and "academic freedom". Which of course is the framing that the race scientists want

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Pieter T. L. Beck @ptrbck.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Nu op Apache, ondergetekende: waarom Cofnas aan pseudowetenschap doet, in twee delen: apache.be/2026/09/17/w... en apache.be/2026/09/17/c... Wie graag nog meer de diepte ingaat, leest hier het volledige verhaal (inclusief bespreking van KVHV-lezing): pietertlbeck.wordpress.com/2026/09/15/w...

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Pieter T. L. Beck @ptrbck.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Moh, kijk eens wie ook de open brief over "racisme heeft geen plaats in onze instituten" ondertekend heeft in 2006.

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Pieter T. L. Beck @ptrbck.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Joël denkt dat hij de perfecte "gotcha" heeft, maar toont vooral dat hij niet weet waarover hij spreekt. Rechts uit een open brief mee ondertekend door Jaap Kruithof. www.demorgen.be/nieuws/racis...

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Rien Emmery @rienemmery.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

N.a.v. de kwestie Freddy Mortier zie ik veel gejeremieer dat "vrije meningsuiting dood is aan de UGent!" etc. Maar mensen in een publiek die hun mening willen uiten, hebben weinig opties naast uitjouwen of de zaal verlaten. Vrije meningsuiting geldt niet alleen voor machtige mannen met microfoons.

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Pieter T. L. Beck @ptrbck.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Gisteren had ik een Nederlandse vertaling van deze tekst aangeboden aan Apache. Dank aan Freddy Mortier om ze meteen weer relevant te maken 🙃

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Leonid Schneider @forbetterscience.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Those annoyed by my long introduction to the Cofnas case can use this link to go straight to the guest post by @ptrbck.bsky.social : forbetterscience.com/2026/09/15/n...

forbetterscience.com

Nathan Cofnas’s “race realism” is pseudoscience

“If there’s someone having a negative impact on science, it is Cofnas, not his critics. ” – Pieter Beck

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Pieter T. L. Beck @ptrbck.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Although I would really recommend people reading @forbetterscience.bsky.social's intro and outro (and do check the whole website if you hadn't heard of it before), this link might be useful if you're debating someone and you want to immediately link to the section on pseudoscience

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Bestor - Belgian Science and Technology Online Resources @bestor2008.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Call for submissions open at Gewina! The Gewina–Descartes–Huygens Thesis Prize recognizes outstanding master’s theses in the history of science and universities. Deadline: 1 November 2026 More information via the link: www.gewina.nl/call-for-sub...

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Pieter T. L. Beck @ptrbck.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Cofnas retweets AI-slop conspiracy theory about colleagues. Retweet stays there for weeks. Flemish state media do factcheck and debunk the conspiracy theory: www.vrt.be/vrtmax/luist... Retweet mysteriously disappears.

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Pieter T. L. Beck @ptrbck.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

A longread on why Cofnas is doing pseudoscience, by yours truly. Many thanks to @forbetterscience.bsky.social for hosting the text!

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Pieter T. L. Beck @ptrbck.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Just received an e-mail with a link to an old ZDF documentary which shows a replication of Liebig's method for analyzing organic compounds. It's interesting to compare it to my video (see below). Mostly similar (so we did a good job), although we refrained from mouth-suction youtu.be/3IOPENEs0bQ?...

youtu.be

ZDF Bild(n)er der Chemie Folge 1 Vom fruchtbaren Boden der Wissenschaft: Justus von Liebig

YouTube video by Kurbelkasse

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Elias Storms @lostsociologist.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Die verwarring van 'resultaat' en 'process' van tekst en schrijven zie je overal in de context van LLMs. Velen vergeten dat in veel situaties de *activiteit van schrijven* een vorm van gestructureerd denken is. Een foutieve gelijkstelling van resultaat (tekst) en proces (schrijven).

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Pieter T. L. Beck @ptrbck.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

In an interview with De Tijd, the rector of Ghent University calls the Cofnas matter a "distraction" and a "side issue". The 4500 (and counting) people that signed our international open letter tend to disagree: forms.gle/yyDhHwYtBQQy...

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Pieter T. L. Beck @ptrbck.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

De Sutter in De Tijd over de citaten in haar rectorale rede. Dat een journalist dan niet de reflex heeft om te vragen: kan je mij die originele citaten dan eens geven? /1

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Pieter T. L. Beck @ptrbck.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Rector of my university in an interview: "Students will have to be able to show that they understand what the AI has written for them." Also: "We can't do anything about this [i.e. AI use] anymore" This is a cynical capitulation and makes a mockery of everything a university should stand for.

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Marijn Sax @marijnsax.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Ik ben getuige op jouw huwelijk. Als het moment is aangebroken om kort te speechen haal ik mijn telefoon tevoorschijn en zeg ik 'hey chat, genereer een korte speech van 3 minuten voor Ramon'. Die lees ik op. Tekst is ok. Ben je hier oké mee? Als ja: ik heb medelijden met je Als nee: interessant

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Pieter T. L. Beck @ptrbck.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Still waiting for the 200 articles on James Orr and/or Dan Ariely. And the pundits falling over each other to analyse what these cases teach us about academia or even present-day culture in general.

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Pieter T. L. Beck @ptrbck.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

En nu over AI en het UGent beleid, het is gepersonaliseerde rage bait avond blijkbaar 🙁

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