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Pieter T. L. Beck @ptrbck.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Watch it while it's still online. To all the people who told me that we shouldn't be so quick to conclude that Cofnas is arguing for racial segregation in his blog and to those who downplay the reference to AmRen: don't take my word on it, listen to Cofnas. youtu.be/MqNh_GNPbL8?...

youtu.be

Is "Race Realism" Simply Racism? ╏Nathan Cofnas Under Fire

YouTube video by Comedy Cellar USA

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Reposted by Pieter T. L. Beck

Michael Marshall @mrmmarsh.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

It's October, already! I'll be speaking in Liverpool on Thursday 15th, about pseudoscience hiding behind cries of "free speech"... and how even some skeptics fall for it. www.meetup.com/merseyside-s... It's the day before the European Skeptics Congress, if you're attending that, too!

meetup.com

Michael Marshall: When pseudoscience hides behind ‘free speech’, Thu, Oct 15, 2026, 7:30 PM | Meetup

As skeptics and critical thinkers, free speech is a value we must strive to uphold, and to defend. Yet, the free speech argument has often been weaponised by opponents of s

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Pieter T. L. Beck @ptrbck.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

They will get an enormous amount of backlash. They were already under fire from the (far) right, with people (including politicians) calling for Unia being abolished every few months or so. They are taking an enormous risk with this, while UGent will probably pull their hands off the matter.

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Pieter T. L. Beck @ptrbck.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Put differently: if the internal disciplinary investigation at Ghent University is put on hold, this is a decision freely made by Ghent University, not something they are forced to do according to the regulations. /87

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Pieter T. L. Beck @ptrbck.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

In the article by De Morgen, it is stated that the internal disciplinary investigations at Ghent University must be put on hold pending the results of the trial. This is incorrect. The regulations stipulate that the internal procedure *may* be suspended, but this is not an obligation. /86

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Pieter T. L. Beck @ptrbck.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Belgian human rights organization Unia is planning to take Cofnas to court for violation of Belgian anti-racism laws. www.demorgen.be/nieuws/unia-... /84

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Pieter T. L. Beck @ptrbck.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

In a Flemish newspaper there recently was another example of the "I asked the AI what it had done and it lied to me and tried to deceive me"-take

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Pieter T. L. Beck @ptrbck.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Do I need to feel insulted now?

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Pieter T. L. Beck @ptrbck.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

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 · 28/09/2026

We should limit appreciation on that day to a certain subset of postdocs and install a competitive application scheme to decide who benefits. Appreciation will last three hours, after which said postdocs can reapply.

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

If there will be a reply from Cofnas, it will probably be repetitive like everything he writes and says on the topic: the Haier letter of recommendation, some Murray perhaps, and misrepresenting the Akbari et al. study again.

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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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Pieter T. L. Beck @ptrbck.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Geen enkel lid van de vakgroep waar Cofnas werkt aan het woord en weer de onzin herhalen dat Cofnas zelf onderzoek doet naar ras en IQ. Topstuk.

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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 · 22/09/2026

dat het vooral interessant is om te lezen als een poging van een doctor in de fysica die geconfronteerd wordt met wetenschapsgeschiedenis en wetenschapsfilosofie, zelf in een heel specifieke historische context en die in een essay de consequenties van die mix probeert uit te denken /2

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Pieter T. L. Beck @ptrbck.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Het punt dat ik meestal maak is dat Structure filosofisch niet het meest fijnzinnige en coherente werk is, en dat het op empirisch vlak vaak nogal kort door de bocht is. Maar ..... /1

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Pieter T. L. Beck @ptrbck.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Hoe kunnen mensen nu bang zijn van deze beminnelijke taartenliefhebber? www.youtube.com/@wimvanrie7382

youtube.com

Wim Vanrie

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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

Zie ook het draadje van statistisch geneticus Sasha Gusev (ook hier te volgen op Bluesky: @sashagusevposts.bsky.social ) x.com/SashaGusevPo...

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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 · 20/09/2026

I had other ideas as well, working out your aside on historiography and epistemic virtues into a paper. That would actually fit my project perfectly

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

Forgot to add that in Epistemology II, I also teach the Chemical Revolution which functions as a reference case study throughout the course!

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

In the second semester I teach an MA course providing an introduction to History of Science, but that's for another time. I might at one point also do a thread on the research I'll be doing this semester. Description of my overall research project can already be found here:

Screenshot of the following text:
Laboratory learning. Epistemic virtues and teaching practices in 19th-century experimental chemistry
This project is situated in the fields of integrated history and philosophy of science and philosophy of scientific practice. It aims to provide an epistemological analysis of the role of teaching practices in 19th-century experimental chemistry and their relationship to research. Historiographical accounts have repeatedly called attention to the importance of pedagogical innovations in experimental chemistry during the 19th century. A philosophical analysis of these innovations however remains lacking. This project uses virtue epistemology as a framework to provide such an analysis and to show how teaching practices played a role in the production and justification of knowledge in 19thcentury experimental chemistry. There are three main objectives in the project. First, identifying which epistemic virtues and vices were deemed relevant in 19th-century experimental chemistry teaching. Second, providing a detailed reconstruction of specific teaching practices and the way in which these allowed students to acquire relevant epistemic virtues. Third, assessing the role that epistemic virtues and the related teaching practices played in controversies in chemistry.

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

There will probably be no time for this, but in an ideal world I would also either expand on the points Bloor makes on conservatism (and add some Oakeshott to the mix), or expand on the comments Collins gives on Dreyfus (and read some "What computers still can't do" and connect to contemporary AI)

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

I'll do a reading with the students of parts of Ryle's The Concept of Mind and compare this to Wittgenstein's arguments. Then we discuss some themes from practice theory and science studies: Bloor, 'Wittgenstein and the Priority of Practice' and Collins, 'What is tacit knowledge?'

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

I am also co-lecturer of the MA course Epistemology: Capita Selecta (Wim Vanrie is lecturer-in-charge). There, we do an in-depth study of Wittgenstein and rule-following. As this is Wim's course, I don't know whether I can spill the beans, so I'll just stick to my part

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

I provide the pragmatist perspective. I start from Rouse's distinction between the "practice"-reading of Kuhn and the "theory"-reading. We then discuss spectator theory of knowledge, anti-representationalism (Dewey), Cartesian Anxiety (Bernstein), tacit knowledge (Polanyi) and knowing-how (Ryle)

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

My phd-student Benjamin Zonnekeyn gives two lectures on neo-kantian epistemology and connects this to existing readings of Kuhn as being some kind of neo-kantian (mostly associated with Michael Friedman's reading)

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

Students read parts of Boghossians Fear of Knowledge: Against Relativism and Constructivism as a counterpoint. My colleague Wim Vanrie (expert in analytic philosophy) does this part of the course. We of course focus on the part on Kuhn, but also Boghossian's anti-relativist arguments in general.

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

We look at Kuhn from different philosophical perspectives, to show how you can read him in different ways and what epistemological implications this has (also for the question whether or not he is a relativist). Perspectives are: analytic, neo-kantian and pragmatist

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

The main theme is the problem of epistemic relativism. We discuss why Kuhn was (is) seen by many as a proponent of relativism. Why Kuhn himself hated this. How you can argue for or against reading him as a relativist. What epistemological assumptions underlie these readings.

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

Epistemology II (for which I'm the lecturer-in-charge) is a 3rd yr BA course. Central is Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. The course is not so much a course on Kuhn per se. Students have to read the book, but it's only a starting point for further epistemological discussions

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

So I decided to make a thread about what I'm teaching this semester, for those interested in what happens at the department (and to show that we're not the brainwashing woke department (or the race science department) that some people think we are). I'm teaching two courses this semester.

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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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