pjw

Philosophy lecturer and political activist

Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Specialize in metaethics, ethics, and philosophy of perception. Dabble a bit in political philosophy.

In my spare time I fight (mostly offline) against Israeli apartheid, and, unfortunately, in recent days, against genocide. Also a member of the Footnotes Collective (https://sites.google.com/view/pjwerner/home)

90% post in English, 10% Hebrew

Pronouns: He/him, אתה, הוא
Languages: English, קצת עברית
Politics: Leftist without Adjectives
Professional Website: https://sites.google.com/view/pjwerner/home

Public Key

npub1fz5vg6c4d8wqn9tmjvrcysare8unxwucr8ask0m2kae4xtvp40mq3r2qjw

NIP-05 Address

pjw_at_social.coop@momostr.pink

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsy32xydv2knhqfj4aexpuzgw3un7fn8wvpn7ct8a4twu6n9kq6haspz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduqs6amnwvaz7tmwdaejumr0ds3sjk6c

Publishing to

relay.damus.io

nos.lol

Author Public Key

npub1fz5vg6c4d8wqn9tmjvrcysare8unxwucr8ask0m2kae4xtvp40mq3r2qjw

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Last Notes

2026-06-18 08:43:15 UTC

I know there aren't nearly as many philosophers as there should be on the Fedi, but I must share this anyway because I'm proud.
JV and I's new article is out in Mind(!). It took five years from initial discussions to publications, but I think it might be the best paper I've ever been a part of writing. And its open access!
We are hoping that a version of the paper becomes one of the two central chapters in our book, on perception's role in evaluative and moral epistemology and moral psychology.
"Moral Perception and the Looks Objection: An Empirical Approach"
https://academic.oup.com/mind/advance-article/doi/10.1093/mind/fzag016/8708910
#philosophy #ethics #academicchatter

2026-05-21 08:20:05 UTC

When English speakers say "Bon Appétit", are they speaking French or English?
Obviously the phrase is French in origin, but the question is whether the pattern and frequency of usage of "Bon Appétit" in otherwise English-speaking contexts entails that it is now an English word loaned from French, like "apostrophe" or "fiancé"

2026-04-17 11:13:33 UTC

The market is completely rational, the market is completely rational, the market is completely rational
https://social-coop-media.ams3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/media_attachments/files/116/419/744/027/234/639/original/ece5307964fcb11f.png

2026-04-16 21:11:22 UTC

Here's a book I would love to read and wish someone would write:
Each chapter is about the last civilian to be killed in a war. It would contain a biography of the person, their contributions to society, dreams, effect on their family, etc.
Then a brief recapping of the end of the war in which they died, with an emphasis on how and why it didn't end sooner - either years or months sooner, but even hours sooner, as the case may be.
I think the contrast between a very humanizing and individual identifying story with the stupid and egotistical reasons wars don't end sooner would really let it sink in how selfish our political leaders are.

2026-04-11 13:34:36 UTC

Someone is killed in a war in Eritrea, in Ethiopia, in Lebanon, in Israel, in Iran, in Myanmar.
I understand the human psychology behind why this wouldn't affect someone emotionally nearly as deeply as someone dying of your own nationality, or in your own community. I don't love it, but I understand it (and I am the same way).
What I don't understand is how this manifests so deeply in the more 'reflective' and 'analytic' part of geopolitical discussions, from the local bar all the way up to the highest echelons of power.
We let ourselves get so caught up in national allegiances and geopolitical power struggles that it becomes like sport. If the US gets concessions from Iran, they've 'won'. If Israel gets concessions from Lebanon, it was a 'smart' war.

2026-04-03 19:50:39 UTC

"The Iron Dome has eliminated Israelis’ fear of war.
A technology designed to preserve life has fostered a sense of near-total immunity, turning the catastrophe of war into a tolerable disruption if not a sterile consumer product — something absorbed into daily life with indifference, somewhere between the evening news and a food delivery.
When fear of war recedes, so too does the public’s motivation to bring it to an end. In this environment, technological security does not shorten wars but helps sustain them as a permanent condition."
https://www.972mag.com/iron-dome-intercepting-normal-future/
https://social-coop-media.ams3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/media_attachments/files/116/342/497/182/866/039/original/ca2bdc101e04caf2.png

2026-04-01 20:13:32 UTC

Whatever else you might say about this open letter, it makes me irrationally happy that even the Presidents of nations can't figure out how to get the end of sentence punctuation to work in word when switching from a right-to-left language and a left-to-right language.
https://xcancel.com/drpezeshkian/status/2039418009052119190#m
(This joke will only be funny to a small subset of people, but I stand by it!)

2026-04-01 13:44:43 UTC

Happy Passover and חג שמח פסח to all. Judaism is not Zionism, and War is not Liberation.

2026-03-29 19:31:19 UTC

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/war-likely-wouldn-t-last-long-rumsfeld-1.366648

2026-03-28 11:13:12 UTC

Anarchists, academics, general interested political folks!:
I'm looking for writings on the importance of political imagination for political progress.
I feel like I often come across this kind of thinking in passing in radical literature (e.g. 'even just asking the question about what a world without prisons might look like itself makes it possible'), but I don't know that I know of an essay or book length defense of its importance. Ideas?
#politics #anarchism #leftism #ideology #theory

2026-03-25 15:09:01 UTC

RE: https://mastodon.social/@gl33p/116290380775230055
Sometimes people will get up in arms about the criticism of someone doing the right thing for the wrong reasons, but it is important because how we think of a problem shapes what we consider an adequate solution to that problem!
#note1xvs…60tm

2026-03-21 14:30:19 UTC

One of the things I hate about this US-Israel/Iran war is that I am not even sure what I should be hoping for.
On the one hand, if the US/Israel stop now or soon with the regime still intact, they are sure to continue to rule with an even stronger iron fist, to continue executing protesters, and to become more extreme. They also have every reason to now pursue a nuclear weapon (which it was unclear they were pursuing before, or whether they were using it as an implicit negotiating chip).
On the other hand, if the regime, unexpectedly, collapses, the most likely result seems to me to be a Syrian-style Civil War, causing death and destruction and possibly leading to an even more oppressive regime in charge of that land. On top of that, a failed state would be a point of gloating for Netanyahu and the Israeli regime, who doesn't really care about the Iranian people, their pleas to the contrary not withstanding.
1/2

2026-03-10 20:55:38 UTC

- reply

But in the last three years (and much longer, in fits and starts), these events happen so often, and are so common, that Israelis will forget this happened in a week, and even the Lebanese (other than those directly affected) will forget in a few months, replaced by whatever fresh horror the IDF unleashes on them. And there were probably dozens of massacres like this in Gaza in the last three years, each one incredibly important, devastating, and worth its own in depth study and remembrance. And the vast majority of them will never be recorded as anything other than a brief paragraph in the archives, another statistic. It has been said that one person's death is a tragedy, but the death of many is a statistic. But these 41 people who died aren't even a statistic. They are a statistic within a statistic; the statistic of the number of massacres like this happening all over.
And you and I will forget it happened.
2/2

2026-03-10 20:53:42 UTC

https://apnews.com/article/lebanon-israel-hezbollah-ron-arad-nabi-chit-9054b777cb2d853e9a58cd65a71adb12
The killing of 175 girls in Minab by the US was horrendous. But I also can't stop thinking about this. In Joe Sacco's 'Footnotes from Gaza', one thing that comes out in that book is that the two massacres he is researching are extremely difficult to research simply because (a) there have been so many massacres and they all blend together in survivors' minds and (b) the amount of massacres make it such that things like this are forgotten or set aside as 'minor' in the grand scheme of things.
These 41 people died for the sake of a (failed) attempt to gather one person's remains who probably died 30 years ago. I'm guessing that many other graves were defiled in the process. It is a tragedy that deserves widespread remembrance and mourning; for its story to be told.
1/2

2026-03-09 11:26:14 UTC

CompleteManuscriptMarch2026FINAL-REAL-PT3(2)ACTUALLYTHISTIME-sendthisone.docx

2026-03-09 10:23:13 UTC

Fun fact for you academics out there: Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi wrote his PhD in political theory under the supervision of David McLellan. McLellan, in turn, was supervised by Sir Isiah Berlin. So Araghchi is Isiah Berlin's academic grandson!

2026-03-03 09:57:15 UTC

It's interesting to watch the objectives of the bombing of Iran mutate across time and geographical location.
In the US, the administration has already pulled back from regime change talk as a goal, and is now talking only about eliminating Iran's nuclear program and missile threat. (Note that this is in some sense already a revocation of the 'promise' Trump made to the Iranian on-the-ground movement to overthrow the regime.) The US administration would 'welcome' a regime change, but it isn't their goal (anymore).
From the Israeli powers that be, we are still hearing talk of regime change, even from Netanyahu.
My current theory about what's going on is this: The Americans realize that they can't bring regime change without more expense, time, and manpower (and lives lost) than they are willing to give. They want to rewrite their promises so that they can say they succeeded.
Netanyahu wants a big win in an election year, so he needs the stronger messaging.

2026-03-01 21:53:00 UTC

RE: https://mastodon.green/@sagilca/116154652482764085
Different Iranians - even those opposed to the current regime (which has killed tens of thousands) - have different views from Sahar. But many also share her view.
It isn't surprising that Iranians are not a monolith. But I think Delijani's quote here is crucial to illustrating why vehemently opposing this war of choice is not a moratorium on how bad we think the Iranian regime is.
#note1jna…4s5e

2026-03-01 16:29:39 UTC

A question for researchers - boosts are *much* appreciated!
tl;dr: I'm trying to find (or create, if need be) methods for approximating the moral weight given to different deaths in the current war with Iran.
Longer post:
This week I planned to return to work after a week off. But now I can't really focus because of frequent missile sirens. However, before the war started, I had already began work on a paper for which I thought this might be a good time to try to get some 'back of the napkin' (or better!) data which can help to illustrate the phenomenon I am trying to give a philosophical analysis of.
What I'm looking for is differences, both quantifiable and qualitative, in the ways that different deaths are covered in the western media. For example: I'd love to somehow gather the stories and ways that the school bombing in Minab (Iran) and those poor girls' deaths is being talked vs. Israeli citizens vs. American soldiers vs. the migrant worker death in UAE.

2026-02-28 22:40:20 UTC

- reply

Rousseau famously said that the first man who built a fence around something and said "this is mine" was a criminal, responsible for humanity's downfall.
Well I say that whoever put fences around big plots of land and said "this is ours and we are a People, legally and morally unrelated to those on the other side" were criminals of this kind writ large.
Can there be a world without nation-states? I don't know. But we certainly could work toward a world where your national identity was more like your hair color and less like a core defining feature of your political and ideological loyalties are.
Maybe this is all stupid, uncharitable, and oversimplified. It's very possible. After all, I haven't rested all day because fucking missiles are dropping around my fucking house.
2/2

2026-02-28 22:34:13 UTC

Today has been so incredibly exhausting. I have been in and out of the bomb shelter I think 10 or 11 times. Will I finish this post before it happens again? I don't know.
I'm so tired of wars of choice, I'm tired of calculations being framed in terms of geopolitical power struggles and not human lives. I'm tired of nation states and people loyal to them. I'm tired of overly simplistic "well that man bad so enemy of him must be good" thinking. I'm tired of the passive dehumanization of the media and our leaders. I'm tired of being told my anxiety attacks are for some stupid fucking "noble greater good". And I'm tired of the so-called sensible European leaders blaming Iran and calling for them to deescalate a situation which was escalated, very explicitly and proudly, by the US and Israel. And I'm tired of Israelis and westerners in my midst paying no mind or care to the possible years of turmoil for Iranians.
1/2

2026-02-17 14:48:04 UTC

As I was reading the latest depressing news about Chomsky and Epstein's connections, I was thinking about that old 'Harper's Letter' about how the youths are destroying free speech.
Tons of people who signed the letter are in the Epstein files. I'm not sure if it is more depressing if it is connected to Epstein in some way, or if it is just that Epstein was *so* well connected that the overlap between older liberal elite academics and Epstein just makes the overlap between Epstein and signatories inevitable.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Letter_on_Justice_and_Open_Debate

2026-02-16 22:41:06 UTC

Was at a protest (against evicting 60 Palestinians in East Jerusalem under an apartheid law) and I don't know who's idea this was, but it was great:
In Jerusalem, a *very* right wing city in a very right wing country, there are always people screaming at us (that we're traitors, go to Gaza, I hope Hamas kills you, etc.). It gets very tense, and once in a while becomes a situation of physical violence. But someone gave a bunch of people at the protest stickers and candy to hand out to counter protesters, and it confused most of them so much that they just kind of stood there, puzzled, and walked away!
The one exception was a teenage boy, but my suspicion is that the candy made him feel like we were infantilizing him or something.
I don't think this strategy will work sustainably, but I think it can work for a short while. I pass it along to any other activists! (Again, not my idea, but a good one)

2026-02-11 21:04:49 UTC

I have a general question and a specific instance of it:
General: Where do y'all learn about some field that you want to understand, or parts of which you want to understand, if you pick up a textbook and it's too advanced or formal?
Specific: Anyone around these parts know a lot about Reinforcement Learning and can answer a few specific questions I have about it that aren't clear to me from this textbook I'm reading?
#academicchatter

2026-02-06 16:37:14 UTC

Unsolicited advice for academics or others wanting to expand their thinking:
Of course your results may vary, but reading two non-fiction books on two very different subjects at the same time (not literally simultaneously, like one chapter of each per day or whatever) sometimes seems to make my brain draw all kinds of higher order connections between even unrelated third things that go beyond what is explicitly in either text. Its kind of exhilarating!
#academic #academicchatter

2026-02-03 10:46:24 UTC

Solidarity is life.
"In Minneapolis, organizers rarely have to fret about ideological incoherence because we all know each other...We share the same sound equipment, the same screen printing materials, the same twenty dollars we Venmo back and forth ad infinitum. This is a small city. Everyone either knows someone who’s been kidnapped or knows someone who is grieving...We need to work in coalitions because there aren’t enough of us to operate effective campaigns alone."
https://dissentmagazine.org/online_articles/ice-on-ice/

2026-01-23 13:15:26 UTC

This film was just banned from a screening in Israel so it promises to be good
@npub1ful…yysf https://rss-parrot.net/u/newlinesmag.com/status/1769119157299606790

2026-01-19 15:24:07 UTC

President Putin continues to try to explain the "SIX-SEVEN" craze to President Trump
https://social-coop-media.ams3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/media_attachments/files/115/922/447/373/059/448/original/63a94d0d3d3caa41.png

2026-01-18 12:06:33 UTC

Will there ever be a time in the future in which a world with human beings and relatively modern technology exist but there is no more war?

2026-01-14 17:38:20 UTC

I am cheering on the Iranian protests and grieving the thousands - possibly 10,000 - murders already committed by the regime in an effort to silence them (along with the internet black out).
But this is wholly compatible with the view that other governments, who are interested only in geopolitical chess and not actual freedom for the Iranians, need to stay out of it.
Humanitarian wars have a long and almost universally tragic history.

2026-01-08 19:30:18 UTC

Hi!
We're starting a project to teach philosophy in prison around these parts. Do you or someone you know have any experience with this? If so, please DM me or email me (you can find my email on my website)!
Have philosophers in your timeline? Please boost!
#philosophy #teaching #prison

2026-01-08 12:55:02 UTC

Do I have to?

2026-01-07 08:55:54 UTC

There's a certain kind of philosophy student who really wants to make it be that all of the philosophers, even those who explicitly disagree with each other, are right. And try as they might to make it all fit together, they almost always end up saying incoherent things.
This drives the philosopher in me crazy - its ok that smart people are wrong and disagree with each other! These questions are very hard!
But the anarchist in me kind of loves the stubborn attempt to find consensus.

2026-01-07 03:20:21 UTC

Just because something is the most important political issue of the day to *you* doesn't mean that anything else done or discussed is some Machiavellian political conspiracy to distract from that issue.
Keep posting about Epstein, genocide in Gaza, etc! They're important! But stop acting like that means that nothing else could actually, genuinely matter to people.

2026-01-05 21:06:46 UTC

I find it inarticulably bizarre that Nicholas Maduro and Luigi Mangione are, as we speak, in the same building.

2026-01-05 20:06:00 UTC

Resist your urge to just kneejerk answer this question in a cynical way, I'm asking about your reflective, considered view.
Of course there is a lot of interplay between both, so try to meet me halfway despite the options being pretty reductionist (or explain more in a comment!):
What does more work in explaining the other:

2026-01-03 09:31:09 UTC

"In Columbus they were shopping on the first day,
the first official day of war
It's so easy being oblivious, and it's easy being self-absorbed
inside of 80 different stores and coffee shops
The whole world's not like yours"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=It9gqDQNX6s

2025-12-30 10:10:09 UTC

#palestine #gaza #solidarity
Hey all,
Want to assist someone in Gaza but don't have money to spare, only time?
I'm trying to compile (for a friend, but it eventually could hopefully be useful more generally) a list of scholarships and funds available and fitting for Gazans who are looking to study in the UK.
I'm of course doing some digging myself but, strength in numbers and all of that! So please paste in this thread anything you find and I'll compile!
PLEASE SHARE !

2025-12-23 10:12:14 UTC

"Nothing can be red and green all over at the same time" is like this nice throwaway example of the synthetic a priori. But I have this history of it haunting me because I came across it in a time in grad school where I was adamant that there is no synthetic a priori knowledge but I couldn't deal with this case.
Now, for fun, I thought: Would it be physically possible to design an iridescent surface that is wholly red or wholly green depending on an attentional shift (a la the duck-rabbit)?

2025-12-21 09:58:10 UTC

Of course all parasocial relationships are unhealthy, that is, except my parasocial relationship with Pat the Bunny. As my good friend Pat the Bunny says, parasocial relationships, and hero worship, are bad.

2025-12-17 09:03:56 UTC

אוקיי, אני מבין שזה מאוד "פנימי" בתוך הפוליטיקה של השמאל בישראל/פלסטין, אז אכתוב בעברית. אבל אני חושב שזה נושא חשוב ביותר, ולכן אני מקווה שזה יופץ – ואולי, אם יהיה לי מזל, גם יסוקר. לא מפני שאני מעוניין "להרוס" איזו שהיא עמותה, אלא מפני שאנחנו חייבים קודם כול לקחת אחריות על עצמנו.
הארגון השמאלני *הישראלי* הגדול והמשפיע ביותר כיום, עם יותר כספים והגעה בינלאומית מכל ארגון אקטיביסטי אחר, הוא עומדים ביחד. מדובר בארגון אנטי-כיבוש, פרו-שוויון וסוציאליסטי בעמדותיו.
1/2

2025-12-16 21:48:01 UTC

Y'all, I have a secret, most of the time I have no idea what I'm talking about (including on this world wide web site)

2025-12-15 12:46:34 UTC

I'm not super sympathetic to criticisms of 'continental' philosophy grounded in the claim that it is incomprehensible - I think it often is, but I think that's probably in large part due to the nature of the subject matter.
But there IS a certain kind of continental philosophy article/style that drives me nuts, which is where a paper is just paragraph after paragraph referencing author after author and how great their points are, as if simply trying to prove how much they read.

2025-12-11 12:27:58 UTC

I have an idea. I'd even be willing to do the administration and vetting behind it (since it seems important and doesn't require technical knowledge).
The Trump administration is soon going to be asking for 5 years of social media posts from ESTA and visa applicants. The self-censorship that will arise from even the *threat* of this is obvious.
What if there was a social media account which just shared vetted and anonymized criticisms of the US from non-Americans who still wanted to travel?

2025-12-05 22:46:11 UTC

Has anyone written a piece about how bullshit the term "narco terrorist" is and why it's so important to resist the concept creep of "terrorist" even if you think that drug smugglers are generally not cool dudes?

2025-12-03 21:14:26 UTC

"I did not personally see survivors," Hegseth said. "That thing was on fire...This is called the fog of war."
I'm not saying the chances are greater than 50%, but doesn't this quote kind of suggest that Hegseth might think "the fog of war" refers to the literal smoke arising from military explosions?

2025-11-30 12:26:46 UTC

I'm tired, boss.
https://social-coop-media.ams3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/media_attachments/files/115/638/629/219/819/340/original/cdae4b903bf9c280.jpg

2025-11-19 13:03:31 UTC

#page42
"For example, a warrior society may extend due honor to its warriors, in the sense that it does not deprive anyone who has contributed to its wars of his fair share of honor."

2025-11-17 21:36:50 UTC

I deleted all other social media and joined Mastodon a few years ago now. I certainly more enjoy/am less annoyed with my social media time now, but...
Reflecting the last week or two about it for the first time in a while, I do think it has probably cost me informal but significant professional opportunities.
That's not everything in life, but it also is very concrete in a way other considerations about social media are not.
Not quitting or anything, just lamenting to the void.
#academia

2025-11-14 15:00:57 UTC

People love crunchy peanut butter, and the crunchier the better.
By this logic, then, I am going to start just selling whole peanuts marketed as "Extra Extra Extra Crunchy Peanut Butter". And as a bonus I can even point out that it has no additives, it is 100% peanuts.

2025-11-11 08:37:52 UTC

Just happened to have two separate conversations in the last few days with people thinking carefully about their children's education, school districts, all this sort of stuff.
It's such a huge thing (and rightly so), both in terms of personal decisions but also in terms of public policy, ethics and inequality, etc.
But then something clicked for me - I almost never hear these conversations about children's *moral* environments - at least not at all at this amount of depth.
1/2

2025-11-04 12:24:08 UTC

For no particular reason at all, it seems very timely to share this *extremely* under-appreciated resource today. The Watson School's (Brown University) Cost of War project, documenting all of the human, economic, environmental, and social/political costs of post-9/11 American foreign policy
https://costsofwar.watson.brown.edu/costs
#war #cheney

2025-11-02 22:37:22 UTC

My mom, a lovely woman, said to me recently that "no one makes their own Halloween costumes for their kids anymore". (It wasn't like a lament, just a statement.) Days later pictures of my friends' children in largely home made costumes poured into my WhatsApp.
What changed isn't the world, but the community my mom lives in - she just projected it onto the world. She grew up on a family farm in a tiny town. Now she lives in a well off suburb.
which brings me to a question.
1/2

2025-11-01 11:44:57 UTC

#Academics , how many times, on average, do you read a paper (or significant parts of it) in the process of writing a referee report?

2025-10-30 12:57:59 UTC

(Academia reflection thread...)
Was at a conference yesterday in honor of Prof. Avner de Shalit's retirement. Something that came up reminded me of an experience that I (and I know many others) had in graduate school, but of a particular kind of very zoomed out instance of the phenomenon.
1/n

2025-10-30 10:28:56 UTC

Two Jewish American comrades face deportation for (non-violently) assisting Palestinian farmers in the West Bank as the yearly olive harvest continues with unprecedented settler violence.
Here is a press release from Achvat Amim (Solidarity of Nations) and Rabbis for Human Rights:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1F8WRu8pXay3ljQKjX-Mit0jGp7TSlZ7QxOnAO9Pnlx0/edit?usp=sharing

2025-10-22 09:09:35 UTC

Analytic philosophers in one moment will be like "We aren't influenced by cultural trends or the hegemonic ideology of the day, our arguments stand or fall eternally" and then the next moment say something like "well the problem is in the US analytic philosophers were taken over by anti-free speech identity politics"

2025-10-21 19:39:00 UTC

I've worked in Israeli higher ed for 10 years now, and I think the number of times I've heard the words "occupation" or "Palestine/Palestinians" in the classroom is less than 5, perhaps less than 3.
This year, because of the genocide, I decided to teach Dehumanization. Not to preach to them, but to get them to reflect about where society is in 2025.
Already in the first day, we had a discussion about the way Palestinians have been talked about since Oct. 7, initiated not by me but a student.

2025-10-19 11:37:44 UTC

So when you're a philosopher professor, once a month or so you will get a random email from a non-academic claiming to have definitively solved some 5000 year old philosophical problem. (Most frequently it is independently wealthy people 'proving' libertarianism, but it can really be anything.)
Last week was a first for me: An email purportedly written by ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Grok. I have no idea who is prompter behind the email, but welcome to our new reality, I guess.

2025-10-19 09:33:11 UTC

- reply

The joke my friend and I make is that philosophers and columnists are racing to see who can fill logical space the fastest :)

2025-10-18 21:30:44 UTC

With respect to foreign policy, appeasement is pretty widely rejected as rewarding and encouraging further bad behavior - with Hitler's Germany being the go-to paradigm case, but people make the argument about Russia in Ukraine today. (And actions in Georgia, Moldova, and Crimea certainly support that interpretation.)
I'm wondering though: does anyone talk about *dialectical appeasement*, where we concede and moderate our political opinions in order to find common ground?
1/n

2025-10-18 11:18:11 UTC

"I open the books of law and morality, I listen to the wise men and the jurists, and, impressed by their persuasive speeches, I deplore the miseries of nature, admire the peace and justice established by civil order, bless the wisdom of public institutions, and console myself for being a man by seeing myself as a citizen. Well instructed in my duties and my happiness, I close the books, leave the classroom, and look around me: (cont.)

2025-10-18 11:04:34 UTC

- reply

They say the same thing about Kant's argument that you shouldn't lie to the murderer at your door.
I don't know whether I'm convinced by this, but it could be right.
By the way, on Frege - I think you are probably right but for what it's worth there's a new book arguing that there *is* a connection there! (I haven't read it) https://www.routledge.com/Frege-and-Fascism/DArcy/p/book/9781032071121
Anyway, good luck with studying!

2025-10-18 11:01:20 UTC

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I see - perhaps I need to brush up on my Arendt. I think it is a trickier case if the racism is in some way in the background of all of her work in some indispensable way. And it may be - I am far from an expert on Arendt!
Kant's racism and sexism is also a tricky case, because I think many contemporary Kantians would argue that you *can* sever the racist and sexist stuff as a misapplication of his views if thought through correctly.

2025-10-18 09:50:14 UTC

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I think you can and should respect someone who has a position that you don't respect, at least when they aren't actively engaging in harm.
When my partner says "I know you feel angry about this right now, but I think you are just hungry", she is in some sense not engaging with my 'position' (that something was outrageous or whatever), but she is still respecting me as a person.

2025-10-18 09:48:33 UTC

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Oh, one other thing, on the Arendt case.
I think that charity need not be an on/off. It can be contextual. Arendt was a racist (she also defended segregationism in less known work). And I just simply don't take that stuff seriously.
But that doesn't mean (a) thinking Arendt should be sent to the gulag or (b) that she wasn't brilliant in other ways, and with respect to those other points she is worth treating charitably.

2025-10-18 09:46:59 UTC

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I didn't explicitly answer your second question, but I think you can tease out what I'd say about it! :)

2025-10-18 09:46:25 UTC

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So I think its ideological turtles all the way down...

2025-10-18 09:46:11 UTC

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That still seems bad to me. But then, what about someone who promotes 'Race Realism', which is used by racists, but this person, at least when pressed, rejects any hierarchy of races? I think people might reasonably disagree about a case like that.
You'll have similar cases with respect to trans rights. I have colleagues who think 'gender critical' views are wrong but serious enough to be worth engaging with, and others who think those views are inherently dehumanizing.

2025-10-18 09:44:25 UTC

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Now what viewpoints count as inherently harmful even just when taken seriously? Well I think that this raises the same problem at the higher level - people will disagree about this too. Most people will agree that inviting a proponent of the Holocaust to a university classroom would be unacceptable because its platforming in a harmful way. But what about 'softer' kinds of problematic views, like someone who endorses the hierarchy of races?

2025-10-18 09:42:45 UTC

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But I am (and I'm tinkering with writing something on this) actually quite nervous about applying charity to our opponents regardless of their view, and that's because sometimes I think the very taking of certain views as meriting serious consideration can itself be dehumanizing, as well as platforming dehumanizing views. When taking a view point seriously itself can constitute a harm, I think we have good reason to not take that view seriously.

2025-10-18 09:40:16 UTC

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Really appreciate this post, Roberto! And there is more here than I can adequately respond to.
I think there are two levels at which we can think about the questions raised here. One is about cross-cultural exchange, while another is about the worldviews of our political opponents.
I guess I am inclined to think that a general default assumption of charity - especially with those from radically different perspectives from our own - is good!

2025-10-17 22:40:33 UTC

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I think this captures the fact that how you value things at a more basic level affects what positions you see as within the scope of reasonable debate, and who you see as a moral monster/inherently irrational (at least in a given context)/worth listening to.
So for example, every leftist I know (including myself) thinks there are certain "leftist" positions that are kind of silly or mistaken. But they still will hear out the arguments in a way that they won't hear out, say, racist bullshit.
2/2

2025-10-17 22:34:49 UTC

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But that's technical and complicated and not necessarily useful for every day conversation. So I've been trying to think of a nice approximation which is pithy enough to say in a sentence but not trying to give necessary and sufficient conditions.
And here's what I currently am inclined to say:
We can approximate your political ideology/alignment by seeing which kinds of people and statements you interpret charitably and which kinds of people and statements you interpret uncharitably.
1.5/2 :)

2025-10-17 22:29:59 UTC

I think defining broad political categories, and members of those categories, by necessary and sufficient conditions is doomed to fail.
But I also am not one of these "post-labels" people - categories can be useful if used appropriately, even when the lines demarcating them are not sharp.
Now what I really think is that political alignments are something like "Perspectives" in Elisabeth Camp's technical sense (see this for example https://philpapers.org/rec/CAMPAF-7).
But...
1/2

2025-10-16 21:10:17 UTC

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You and me both! We need more philosophers on here - maybe I'll even think about making a "starter pack".
In any case, noted!

2025-10-16 19:14:27 UTC

This is a bit of a silly question, but - dear followers - what do you want me to post about? Local Israel/Palestine politics? Analysis? What philosophy I'm working on? Teaching stuff? Now I know the initial impulse of many of you will be to say "whatever you want, it's your account!"
Which, fair enough, but I don't really like just filling space on social media for the sake of it, and if there is some overlap between what I'm thinking about and what people are interested in, I'd prefer that

2025-10-09 22:38:57 UTC

Instead of reading and fuming about Trump and the Nobel peace prize, or about the Nobel peace prize and it's weird inner workings and past mistakes, may I suggest reading a bit about some of the less (in)famous nominees, those working tirelessly on the ground for peace?
I enjoyed this, as a start: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_Response_Rooms
"The Emergency Response Rooms (ERRs) (Arabic: غرف الطوارئ) in Sudan have played a crucial role in providing humanitarian aid during the Sudanese civil war..."

2025-10-01 20:48:59 UTC

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I want Fairphone to succeed as a company, but as a matter of (personal!) policy I don't make purchases to support corporations, as opposed to just picking the least bad option. If Fairphone were a non-profit or collective, I think I'd find this line of reasoning more compelling, but obviously YMMV!

2025-10-01 18:37:26 UTC

Would it be more environmentally friendly to buy a Fairphone or to buy a used phone?
I had a Fairphone several years ago and loved it, but I also don't want to do something that is eco-signalling and not genuinely as environmentally best...
(this is a serious question - I thought this would be a good place to ask people who think about this stuff)

2025-09-22 19:48:34 UTC

עשר שנים במדינה הזו, סופסוף מצאתי בייגל מקובל.
שנה טובה !

2025-09-18 10:05:56 UTC

Here's a passing #activism thought. - from Israel but will be applicable in the US increasingly in coming days.
Many of my academic colleagues want the war/genocide in Gaza to end as soon as possible. Not to mention the apartheid laws and occupation of the West Bank. But within this group, the vast majority (though not all) bristle and rage at the academic boycott (which is, by all accounts, very much on the rise).
Now, of course, there are arguments for and against academic BDS.
1/n

2025-09-16 11:22:28 UTC

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Instead, most analytic philosophers avoid these challenging and important questions because of their longstanding commitment to a liberal, 'competition of arguments' based approach. I think its a bias, a bias of projecting our own self-conception of our discipline onto society, because it is easier than thinking through how money, availability, identity, and power structures effect which ideas are more apt to get uptake as much as 'good arguments'.
2/2

2025-09-16 11:19:59 UTC

What I'd love to see political philosophers working on (I include myself in this criticism) is dealing with the question of speech and its limitations given the failure of the concept of the Millian "marketplace of ideas". Just as in the economic marketplace, there is at best a weak correlation between the best ideas and the most convincing/widely adopted. How do we move forward once we accept that "debate" doesn't reliably lead to truth?
We cannot just defer to the state, of course.
1/2

2025-09-14 21:03:07 UTC

I condemn political violence, even when it's caused by politicians to normal people and not vice versa.
https://social-coop-media.ams3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/media_attachments/files/115/204/664/815/777/701/original/20dc9cee031c6751.jpg

2025-09-07 18:38:24 UTC

This doesn't really matter, but just out of curiosity: when a grand jury refuses to forward charges that meet some kind of letter of the law, does it count as jury nullification, or is it its own thing?

2025-09-04 19:28:07 UTC

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I was thinking about doing that - have you gotten any feedback (positive or negative)?

2025-09-01 15:24:59 UTC

I wrote an open letter to my Jewish Israeli colleagues about teaching in a time of genocide. At one point I was trying to get it published in an Israeli left wing newspaper, but with no luck, I decided to just stick it on my website and be done with it.
As I said, it is aimed at Jewish Israeli academics, so it may be of limited interest. But feel free to read and share as you wish:
https://sites.google.com/view/pjwerner/open-letter-to-my-jewish-israeli-colleagues

2025-08-30 21:32:50 UTC

I wish there was a podcast or blog where every week they discussed arguments for and against a new explanation of the Fermi paradox. It's like an unlimited supply of fascinating theories about why intelligent species would consistently stop technological development or die off at some point, and answers span from physics to biology to sociology...

2025-08-25 14:32:29 UTC

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For what it's worth, I think the arguments against individual action - in *both* cases - are bad arguments based in a subtle misunderstanding of the ethics of collective action. That is: I think recycling, not driving, composting, etc. are all important despite the fact that environmental destruction is a systemic problem that can't be solved by individual actions.
But that is (a) going to be very contentious, and (b) Neither here nor there with respect to my question.
1.5/1.5

2025-08-25 14:31:03 UTC

When it comes to recycling, driving an electric vehicle (or none at all), etc., the common retort on the left is "These are systemic problems, they can't be solved by individual action, so don't bother with that stuff, instead work for political change by [fill in one's favored theory of change]"
This is a serious, non-'gotcha' question: Why is this the response to individual actions like this and yet many of the same individuals call for *individually* boycotting AI products?
1/1.5

2025-08-22 10:37:16 UTC

A man-made famine supported by many of our tax dollars.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c05ed5rgld3o

2025-08-19 09:00:23 UTC

So this ForeverSpin top company - this has to be some kind of front, right? How do they have so much money to spend on ads?!

2025-08-17 20:15:48 UTC

Cory Booker is clearly intending to run for president. I am not a huge fan, I guess he's roughly average for a Democrat. But, I want this on the record now: When he's campaigning for the early caucus and primaries, his veganism is going to make some of those early state folks feel like he's not "one of them" (over and above his being Black). It'll play as a minor scandal but I think it could hurt him a lot.
As a vegan, I hope I'm wrong.

2025-08-16 08:51:06 UTC

Question for my 'wide-reading' academic peeps:
Within my own field, I have a quite good sense of the respectability and seriousness of a given journal - from the "top" journals to the good journals to the 'we'll publish a lot of crap' journals to the straight up scam journals.
But I also sometimes want to check data from some other discipline. Is there any helpful cross-disciplinary heuristic to assess whether a journal is a serious one?
#academic #academia #academicchatter

2025-08-14 12:44:37 UTC

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Innovation Nation!

2025-08-13 20:59:11 UTC

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As I said, I voted for Harris in 2024.
I'm merely pointing out that the details matter. A blanket "refusing to vote is universally stupid" is a bad take, invented by liberals to project their inability to enfranchise people onto the very people they've failed to enfranchise.
I'm always very happy to talk about the details, and I tend to agree with you about this past year. But I don't begrudge Palestinian Americans who couldn't do it

2025-08-13 20:45:01 UTC

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Hey Ben, and others -
For what it's worth, I voted for Harris in the last election, but this is an extremely uncharitable and unfair read of what non-voters might be up to. I wrote on the game theoretic rationality of withholding your vote here: https://philpapers.org/rec/LOOADO-5

2025-08-13 12:40:07 UTC

I used to do this from time to time on my old handle, but I think the social.coop one gets more reach.
And anyway its been a while and I've got some time So -
I am an anti-genocide leftist and academic in Israel. Ask me anything you might want to know about the current state of affairs/political climate/etc. in Israel and I'll answer as best as I can.
I'll block any Antisemitic or Islamophobic comments, but other than that feel free to ask whatever you'd like.
#Israel #Palestine

2025-08-12 09:39:59 UTC

Oof I don't know how you people who publish uninvited editorials do it. I spend a week writing one and it really only fits in two places given its audience, and it was rejected from both. So now is it just a week wasted?
I guess the lesson here is to pitch something before writing it, I just didn't think that would be successful given that I have no track record of public writing. Oh well.