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birchlse.bsky.social

Professor, LSE. Philosophy of science, animal consciousness, animal ethics. Director of The Jeremy Coller Centre for Animal Sentience.

457 posts 5,212 followers 263 following

Posts 21 Comments 29

Hakwan Lau has laid out his concerns about animal consciousness very directly here, so here's my reply.🧵 Yes, I do think many studies in comparative psychology that never set out to "directly address" the topic of phenomenal consciousness have in fact provided valuable evidence. (1/4)

submitted 3 days ago • 1 comment

Wrote a little (very long) review of The Edge of Sentience by @birchlse.bsky.social while also stuffing in a few original thoughts. Read at open.substack.com/pub/confiden....

submitted 4 days ago • 0 comments

My entry on mental representation for the Open Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science is now up. I hope people find it useful! oecs.mit.edu/pub/x0sk7df7... #oecs #cogsci #philsky

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

Harvestman for #InverteFest.

submitted 7 days ago • 1 comment

Couldn't figure out why so many of my Philosophy of Mind students had answered an easy quiz question wrongly, until I ran it past Google's AI overview...

submitted 6 days ago • 4 comments

It’s wild to me how much of an own goal this is. I’ve seen academic publishers miss such obvious opportunities to promote books for a wide audience and sell them at reasonable prices.

submitted 6 days ago • 0 comments

First attempts at macro photography, against the backdrop of my red house. 📷

submitted 6 days ago • 1 comment

Are Human Reasoning Abilities Declining? | @dailynous.com Worrying findings that might support a conclusion that human capacities to reason and understand are “deteriorating,” especially since the early-to-mid 2010s. dailynous.com/2025/04/28/a... #reasoning #philosophy #philsky

submitted 6 days ago • 0 comments

👀 Cambridge elements👀

submitted 6 days ago • 1 comment

I love “How to Hide an Empire,” but do you know what’s better and goes totally unread for just this reason? www.dukeupress.edu/archipelagic...

submitted 6 days ago • 0 comments

The academic monograph is dying because (a) publishers don't market them or price them affordably; (b) non-peer-reviewed trade books (because marketed and affordable) are more highly cited and academically influential.

submitted 6 days ago • 6 comments

1st industrial revolution: steam. 2nd industrial revolution: electricity. 3rd industrial revolution: the internet. 4th industrial revolution: fake pass-grade student essays.

submitted 7 days ago • 1 comment

"Rhetorical progress undercut by doctrinal inertia" - seems a fair verdict. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

submitted 7 days ago • 0 comments

I'm recruiting a Centre Manager (Impact and Administration) to help run my new Centre for Animal Sentience. This person will be so important to the Centre's mission! Please get in touch if you believe in that mission and want to help make it a reality. jobs.lse.ac.uk/Vacancies/W/...

submitted 18 days ago • 0 comments

I made a page that lets you see hyperbolic teal - which could be olo. jodeleeuw.github.io/olo/

submitted 13 days ago • 5 comments

I've been traveling on planes for forty years. No one has ever wanted to talk to the person next to them. Not even to ask for a light for their cigarette

submitted 8 days ago • 2 comments

Royce Lecture 2: "Evolution and Goals." A collage of some slides. "Consequence etiologies" in minimal and richer forms, feedback, and a bit of bee sentience continuing from lecture 1.

submitted 8 days ago • 0 comments

“How little we know about insect diversity—even in places [where] we should know it pretty well” such as Hawaii, which is comparatively easy to access". We are fast trashing #Biodiversity, before we have done more than glimpse its wonders www.scientificamerican.com/article/carn...

submitted 9 days ago • 1 comment

1/2 Lucid dreaming is not a mix of dreaming and wakefulness. This is the study with the most volunteers so far (20 experienced individuals, 24 total sessions). The brain maintains REM-like activity, but with metacognition. (paper) www.jneurosci.org/content/earl...

submitted 8 days ago • 1 comment

Want to know more about the fascinating world of #bumblebees, #solitarybees & #honeybees, and how to attract them to your garden? I'm running an 'Introduction to Bees' day near Liskeard, in #Cornwall, and would love to spread the word about the event www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/a-buzz-abo... #nature

submitted 8 days ago • 6 comments

I have terrible time-slice conflict. I open my inbox on Monday to a barrage of angry reminders scheduled by me the week before, which I ignore.

submitted 8 days ago • 2 comments