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Zoe Drayson

@zoedrayson.bsky.social
2.5K followers 337 following 658 posts

Professor of Philosophy at UC Davis

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Zoe Drayson @zoedrayson.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
I get it. This was from the day after I submitted my dissertation.
Facebook post:
Zoe Drayson, 16 January 2011
Broke my own record: just woke up from a 18-hour sleep
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Zoe Drayson @zoedrayson.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Yesterday was my first day back teaching after sabbatical and it destroyed me
Time asleep: 10 hr 42 min, Sep 25 2026
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Zoe Drayson @zoedrayson.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Found this paper yesterday and can’t figure out if it’s serious or a parody but it’s absolutely brilliant either way
Screenshot of page one of an article called “Does God Know What It’s Like to Get High?” By Rob Lovering
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Zoe Drayson @zoedrayson.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Today in fluid dynamics: the chips are the other side of the pool from the salsa. (No, the teaching quarter hasn’t started at Davis. Yes, it’s 100F.)
A backyard swimming pool with two floating bowls at opposite ends of pool
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Zoe Drayson @zoedrayson.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
In defense of 2015 me, I think I wasn't allowed to add footnotes to a Mind book review so this ended up as a parenthetical in the main text too.
In the first introductory essay, for example, Stich describes his invitation
to Chomsky’s Princeton lecture that motivated his early work as an
accident, probably intended for someone else. In the second introductory
essay, Stich portrays his involvement with Nisbett’s groundbreaking work
in social psychology as happenstance. On Stich’s telling of these stories, he comes across as someone who just happened to be where interesting events were taking place (in much the same way as Meat Loaf ’s autobiography describes his meeting John F. Kennedy in Dallas just hours before the assassination, and picking up a hitch-hiker on Sunset Boulevard who turned out to be Charles Manson (Meat Loaf and David Dalton, To Hell and Back: The Autobiography, London: Virgin Publishing Ltd., 1999)). The truth is, of course, that Stich himself transformed what might otherwise have been chance encounters into new ideas and fruitful collaborations.
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Zoe Drayson @zoedrayson.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
I could have sworn I put this in a footnote but nope, 2010 me apparently opted for a parenthetical in the main text. Cringe.
"We presumably
want to allow that elements of the brain which
govern activities such as respiration and digestion are not
cognitive, not to mention the intuition that foreign bodies
introduced into brains do not thereby become part of the
cognitive system. (Were the latter the case, Phineas Gage
could replace Otto as the mascot of the extended cognition
movement)."
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Zoe Drayson @zoedrayson.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
I had cider and hotdogs and a Lifehouse cover. I was in heaven.
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Zoe Drayson @zoedrayson.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
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Zoe Drayson @zoedrayson.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Reminded me of this
Screenshot of Facebook post from Sept 9 2022: 
"That makes Dick Van Dyke the winner" - my niece (7) on hearing of the queen's death
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Zoe Drayson @zoedrayson.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Today I am a THOUGHT LEADER 🤩
Screenshot from PhilPapers showing that three different papers of mine were downloaded from folks at Oxford, Harvard, and Berkeley in the space of an hour.
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Zoe Drayson @zoedrayson.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
Happy six-year anniversary of that time MC Hammer shared @chazfirestone.bsky.social's paper
Twitter screenshot of MC Hammer sharing a link to 'Sustained representation of perspectival shape' and Chaz Firestone thanking him
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Zoe Drayson @zoedrayson.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
A Drayson family member's contribution to the topic of the day
Screenshot of text message: "I didn't mind the plagiarism but lying about snooker is beyond the pale"
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Zoe Drayson @zoedrayson.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
Apparently I'm not allowed to wave at the bears WTF
Written guidelines for a bear-viewing trip including the instruction "Do not signal to the bears in any way using hand motions"
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Zoe Drayson @zoedrayson.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
Chuck Norris is so powerful he can advertise National Chicken Finger Day ™️ from beyond the grave
A life size cardboard cut out of Chuck Norris wearing a bandolier of Raising Cane’s special sauce promoting National Chicken Finger Day and raising awareness of his charity
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Zoe Drayson @zoedrayson.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
There are only 39 cinemas in the entire world which are equipped with true 70mm IMAX film projection and one of them is a ten minute bike ride from my house.
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Zoe Drayson @zoedrayson.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
Good morning from Tobermory the orange cat
Screenshot of the Bluesky search box filled with punctuation marks
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Zoe Drayson @zoedrayson.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
That time I took my bike in for repairs and found a philosophical reflection on the essence of bicyclehood.
"What is a bicycle? I'd like to offer a perspective that attends to both the mechanicalness of a bicycle, and the experience of riding one. A bicycle is the synergy of content and context."
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Zoe Drayson @zoedrayson.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
I got this on Monday
I don’t know how to describe this ad but it’s for a pool cleaning robot that’s on sale for Memorial Day and involves a veteran kneeling next to a memorial bouquet
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Zoe Drayson @zoedrayson.bsky.social · 15/05/2026
I love sleeping but sometimes it means missing out on bear fun 🐻
Emails received between midnight and 5am detailing the arrival and departure of a baby bear on UC Davis campus
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Zoe Drayson @zoedrayson.bsky.social · 03/05/2026
I should just drink the hemlock now, right? 🤦🏻‍♀️
Screenshot of an email ending “P.S. The discussion of inguinal topology has to be of my favorite academic memories.”
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Zoe Drayson @zoedrayson.bsky.social · 30/04/2026
Advertise your account with a Simpsons image
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Zoe Drayson @zoedrayson.bsky.social · 18/04/2026
My sister with the important questions 😂
Me assuring my sister that I was not in fact intimate with Olly Robbins
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Zoe Drayson @zoedrayson.bsky.social · 22/02/2026
No cheating, your last saved picture of a celebrity is your therapist (Hell yeah it’s hot young Chomsky)
Young Noam Chomsky is smoking. He also has a tobacco pipe.
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Zoe Drayson @zoedrayson.bsky.social · 07/02/2026
Because it turns out that Epstein funded it in 2017.
We regret to inform you that the 2026 The Science of Consciousness conference, scheduled for April 6–11, at the Loews Ventana Canyon Resort in Tucson, has been cancelled.

After careful consideration and consultation with the conference organizing team, we have determined that it is no longer feasible to move forward with the conference as planned. We will instead focus on exploring a program for next year that reflects the conference’s mission and its longstanding positive impact on the scientific and scholarly community it serves.
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Zoe Drayson @zoedrayson.bsky.social · 04/02/2026
It looks like my couch 😆
Teal couch with fuchsia pillows
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Zoe Drayson @zoedrayson.bsky.social · 04/02/2026
Williamson 1995 was the game-changer
Screenshot of the first sentence of Williamson (1995) 'Is Knowing a State of Mind?', which reads "Let there be no vulgar suspense: the title will be answered in the affirmative. What takes longer is to clarify its meaning."
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Zoe Drayson @zoedrayson.bsky.social · 29/12/2025
Philosophy job candidates: may you never have to go from the APA to the ER 🤣
From Facebook 16 years ago: “Zoe Drayson has just accidentally stabbed herself in the eye with a sharp pair of tweezers while in the US without insurance and four hours before a job interview fuckfuckfuck ow ow ow”
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Zoe Drayson @zoedrayson.bsky.social · 11/12/2025
Be careful what you wish for
A screenshot of a text message from an anonymized source suggesting “Colon mcginn” [sic]
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Zoe Drayson @zoedrayson.bsky.social · 22/11/2025
How it works Join the program: You must be part of the Amazon Influencer Program to earn commissions from videos posted directly on Amazon. This often requires having a social media presence with a certain number of followers.Create and upload videos: Film a video (between 5 seconds and 60 minutes long) reviewing a product and upload it to your Amazon storefront.Get approved: Amazon reviews your video to ensure it meets their guidelines before it appears on a product page.Earn commission: When a customer sees your video on a product page, clicks on it, and makes a purchase, you earn a commission.Commission structure: The commission is a percentage of the sale and depends on the product's category. For example, the commission rate is \(3.00\%\) for toys and furniture but is lower for categories like video games and groceries.
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Zoe Drayson @zoedrayson.bsky.social · 24/10/2025
I just can’t sorry
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Zoe Drayson @zoedrayson.bsky.social · 08/10/2025
I asked AI about Saul Kripke's take on the "would you still love me if I was a worm?" thing
Applying Kripke's logic to the worm question
From a Kripkean perspective, the prompt presents a scenario that is not a possible world for the original person. The "you" who is a worm is a fundamentally different being, and not a possible version of the "you" who is human. This is known as the "Humphrey objection," named for an example Kripke used to illustrate the philosophical problem of identifying an individual across possible worlds. 
Instead of a partner loving a human-turned-worm, Kripke's philosophy suggests we are imagining two separate beings in two different possible worlds:
The actual world: A person you love.
Another possible world: A worm with the characteristics you asked about.
Kripke would say that the question "Would you still love me if I was a worm?" fails because the premise is impossible. It is not a test of unconditional love, but rather a category error. A worm could not be you, so your partner could not love you as a worm.Kripke's likely position
While Kripke didn't discuss the metaphysics of romantic love, his work on personal identity and essentialism provides strong clues to his likely position. He argued that we can stipulate what we are talking about in a counterfactual world. If your beloved says, "I would still love you if you were a worm," they are stipulating that their love follows you through any changes. They are not talking about some other, worm-like individual. 
Therefore, the Kripkean approach would likely validate the enduring nature of love, so long as the speaker's intention is to refer to the same rigid designator ("you"). Love, in this metaphysical analysis, would track the identity of the person, not their contingent biological features. The statement "Kripke loves you" would be necessarily true, because "Kripke" and "you" would both be rigid designators referring to the same two individuals in any possible world, regardless of whether one of them happens to be a worm.
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Zoe Drayson @zoedrayson.bsky.social · 06/10/2025
I read this as Pigeon Street Detectives and thought you meant these guys
Mr Baskerville and Mr Jupiter from 1980s BBC children’s animation Pigeon Street
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Zoe Drayson @zoedrayson.bsky.social · 23/09/2025
This one's for you @aidanmcglynn.bsky.social
Some AI generated nonsense about Lunchables and epistemic injustice
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Zoe Drayson @zoedrayson.bsky.social · 23/09/2025
There's more
Screenshot of a research article published in 1953 titled "Realism in the Surgery of the Tonsils and Adenoids"
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Zoe Drayson @zoedrayson.bsky.social · 23/09/2025
Ah yes, the medieval puzzle of Socrates' fingernail...
The fingernail in ontology
Ontology is the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature of being, and the fingernail's existence raises questions about what constitutes a discrete "part" of a human being. 
A "thing" versus a "process": Philosopher Thomas Nail argues that nothing is a static "thing," but rather a dynamic process in constant motion. A fingernail embodies this idea perfectly; it is not a static object but a continuous flow of keratinized skin cells produced by the nail matrix. The very moment we identify it as a "thing," it is already in the process of growing, shedding, and changing.
The puzzle of detached parts: The fingernail's ontology becomes complicated once it is clipped. Is a discarded fingernail still "Socrates's fingernail," as medieval mereology might question, or does it lose its identity once it's separated from the whole person?. The fact that it is dead, and no longer part of the living being, suggests its status changes significantly upon detachment.
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Zoe Drayson @zoedrayson.bsky.social · 22/09/2025
"a dentist's duty to a "real" tooth might be viewed differently than a duty to a "perceived" tooth" 🦷 💭
Philosophical implications:
Ontology (the study of being):
"Dental realism" explores whether teeth are "things-in-themselves" (Kant's concept) or simply phenomena within our experience. 
Epistemology (the study of knowledge):
The debate questions how we know about teeth and how our knowledge relates to their reality. If teeth are objective, we discover them; if they are ideal, we create them through perception. 
Ethics:
The philosophical status of teeth affects ethical discussions surrounding dental procedures. For example, a dentist's duty to a "real" tooth might be viewed differently than a duty to a "perceived" tooth.
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Zoe Drayson @zoedrayson.bsky.social · 22/09/2025
When a typo in your Google search leads to new and exciting philosophical positions
AI Overview: "Dental realism"refers to the philosophical debate about whether teeth exist independently of human perception, a concept rooted in metaphysical realism. While realism asserts an objective reality for teeth, idealist philosophies contend that teeth's existence is tied to our consciousness and perception. Philosophers use this idea, for example, to discuss the ethics of tooth extraction, examining whether a procedure impacts a real entity or merely a subjective experience.
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Zoe Drayson @zoedrayson.bsky.social · 15/09/2025
Feel free to correct my arithmetic, but I make that only 361 possibilities
Ad for shoes which come in 19 different colored pairs, claiming that the 19 colors lead to infinite possibilities.
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Zoe Drayson @zoedrayson.bsky.social · 11/09/2025
I just tried to send a colleague a Zoom link but accidently sent that Hello Kitty Roblox video instead. So professional.
Email: "Hi Zoe, Thank you for agreeing to meet with me on short notice and during your sabbatical. Here's my Zoom info (you sent me a Hello Kitty YouTube link)
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Zoe Drayson @zoedrayson.bsky.social · 09/09/2025
Thanks to The Hunting Wives, my new response to anyone mentioning Ockham’s razor is to say “Who’s the fuck what now?” in a southern drawl
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Zoe Drayson @zoedrayson.bsky.social · 09/09/2025
Still my finest moment: I got a reference to Meat Loaf's autobiography into Mind.
(in much the same way as Meat Loaf's autobiography describes his meeting John F. Kennedy in Dallas just hours before the assassination, and picking up a hitch-hiker on Sunset Boulevard who turned out to be Charles Manson (Meat Loaf and David Dalton, To Hell and Back: The Autobiography, London: Virgin Publishing Ltd., 1999)).
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Zoe Drayson @zoedrayson.bsky.social · 08/09/2025
This is my villain origin story 😂
Angus Council in Scotland has asked people not to leave bottles of alcohol on graves (a thing that the people of Angus do) because children are stealing them (another thing that the people of Angus do). This is where I grew up up.
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Zoe Drayson @zoedrayson.bsky.social · 07/09/2025
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Zoe Drayson @zoedrayson.bsky.social · 07/09/2025
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Zoe Drayson @zoedrayson.bsky.social · 02/09/2025
Exhibit A
Screenshot of an email from Dr Squatch with the header "Yo Zoe, ready to Squatch?"
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Zoe Drayson @zoedrayson.bsky.social · 26/08/2025
The people need to know
Google screenshot listing the question "Is Lowly Worm an adult?" under questions that people also ask
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Zoe Drayson @zoedrayson.bsky.social · 26/08/2025
Some of y’all are like “ugh, first day back teaching” and I’m just here stalking the Weinermobile #sabbatical
Large yellow and orange vehicle shaped like a hotdog parked in a Sacramento city street
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Zoe Drayson @zoedrayson.bsky.social · 22/08/2025
This is what philosophy professors on sabbatical do
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Zoe Drayson @zoedrayson.bsky.social · 22/08/2025
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Zoe Drayson @zoedrayson.bsky.social · 19/08/2025
I wouldn’t tell anyone if I were in charge of fundraising for my local soccer team’s new stadium but there would be signs
Fundraising ad for Sacramento Republic FC’s new stadium, with tagline “where belief becomes concrete”
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