Pekka Väyrynen
Philosophy professor at University of Leeds. Metaethics | academic life | "a satisficer with really high standards" (said by a colleague, fairly). https://vayrynen.org
- We (@leedsprhs.bsky.social) are super-excited that Megan Hyska (currently at Northwestern) will be joining University of Leeds as associate professor of philosophy in August. Her research focuses especially on questions about political communication. dailynous.com/2026/02/06/h... #philosophy
- Reposted by Pekka VäyrynenI expect to spend today staring at this: ‘we’ve gone from government suggesting that the state would subsidise undergraduate student loans by about 45p in the pound, to making a profit on them for that cohort’. A *profit* on student loans: everyone should read this. 🤯 wonkhe.com/blogs/gradua...
- A timely clarification of UKRI plans from its chief exec.
- Hot off the press - a letter from the Exec Chair of @ukri.org explaining his plans and in particular the financial position of STFC. It notes curiosity driven research is protected and will make up around half of UKRI spend over the coming period www.ukri.org/news/open-le...
- Reposted by Pekka Väyrynen1/ This pause is obviously concerning to researchers & universities & I’d like to specifically register the point that if the reason of ‘aligning with national priorities’ means more policy-driven & less free ideas-driven research then this move is of even more concern. www.msn.com/en-in/politi...
- Reposted by Pekka VäyrynenJust a normal Friday night in Finland. That's our president reading one of Tove Jansson's Moomin books live on public broadcasting TV. He's reading it in Swedish; the next book in the Moomin reading marathon will be read in Finnish.
- Rufo is only talking about Scandinavians but yes, Nordic people (Scandi or not) can proudly stand together on this.
- Chris Rufo is so upset about the Minneapolis protests that he is resorting to anti-Nordic racism christopherrufo.com/p/the-curse-...
- Reposted by Pekka VäyrynenCredit @sophiep25397.bsky.social on Twitter Farage lied when he said he was too ill to appear for the BBC interview on Sunday. The Heartland Institute, whose party he attended instead, doesn't believe in tobacco harms, climate change and seeks the dismantling of the NHS. Be warned. If you care
- Reposted by Pekka VäyrynenKash Patel going to a big meeting of the intelligence chiefs in England and asking if they can go jet skiing instead of having a normal meeting is really doing a number on my ability to focus
- Reposted by Pekka VäyrynenFinally, a flag worth fighting for.
- As long as I've been doing journal editing, a strong default among my fellow editors has been not to ask the central target(s) of a paper to referee it. The rationale has always included the possibility of harshness AND the incentives to get one's work discussed. I thought this was widely known!
- In what many are calling the most CV efficient strategy ever, I have my 2026 paper out already (relax for the rest of the year comrades!) and it's actually a bit of a joke one. Link here: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... and abstract attached. But I'll just tell the story of how it came to be....
- 📣JOB ALERT📣 Lectureship in Liberal Arts and Philosophy/Religion at University of Leeds. We are looking for an academic at Philosophy/Religion interface to run our Liberal Arts BA programme. Closing date: 01 February 2026. More info at: jobs.leeds.ac.uk/vacancy.aspx... #Philosophy #PhilosophyJobs
- Reposted by Pekka VäyrynenMartin Peterson's creative response to being banned from teaching Plato (shared with his permission).
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- CFP: 2026 British Society for Ethical Theory Conference (13-14 July 2026 at University of Leeds). Keynotes: Krister Bykvist (Stockholm), Jennifer Saul (Waterloo). Paper submission deadline: 1 Dec 2025. More info at www.bset.org.uk. This is consistently a very high-quality conference! #philosophy
- CFP: The Leeds Analytic Philosophy Graduate Conference, 20-21 April 2026. Abstract submission deadline 15 Nov 2025. Each speaker will present for 30 minutes followed by a 10-minute faculty response and 20-minute general Q&A. More info: philevents.org/event/show/1.... Spread the word! #philosophy
- Reposted by Pekka VäyrynenEd Luce watching democracy die in the United States of America
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- Reposted by Pekka VäyrynenAstonishing when you see it like this.
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- Reposted by Pekka Väyrynen"I have a decent fluency in LLMs, and they have utility, but the absurd degree of over-hype, the way they're being forced on everyone, and the insistence on ignoring the many valid critiques about them make it very difficult to focus on legitimate uses where they might add value."
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- Our philosophy job ad is also up on PhilJobs now: philjobs.org/job/show/30010 #PhilosophyJobs
- 📣JOB ALERT📣 Lecturer or Associate Professor in Philosophy at University of Leeds. AOS: Social Philosophy + at least one of: Metaphysics, Epistemology, or Philosophy of Language, Logic, Mind, or Action. Details at jobs.leeds.ac.uk/Vacancy.aspx.... Closing date 5 Nov 2025. #philosophy 1/2
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- 📣JOB ALERT📣 Lecturer or Associate Professor in Philosophy at University of Leeds. AOS: Social Philosophy + at least one of: Metaphysics, Epistemology, or Philosophy of Language, Logic, Mind, or Action. Details at jobs.leeds.ac.uk/Vacancy.aspx.... Closing date 5 Nov 2025. #philosophy 1/2
- We'll consider any combination of these specialisms in social and theoretical philosophy. You may have equal levels of research specialism in both, or one may be more dominant; the two areas may reflect two aspects of your work or different non-intersecting areas of interest. Spread the word! 2/2
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- Top-level shitposting.🤌
- Anyone in Athens soon, visit the "Why Look at Animals?" exhibition at EMST. Of course varied, but a high hit rate. I LOVED the 8 conceptually and visually amazing chronophotographs of bird flight paths by Xavi Bou (xavibou.com). His Ornitographies book at home on a lazy Saturday is a real treat. 1/2
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- Well done Songkick.
- I hope more people will come to a long overdue realization that academia dot edu is an utter crap company.
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- This is so well done. Pretty much all killer no filler.
- Reposted by Pekka VäyrynenColumbia University has handed over its undergraduate admissions process to Donald Trump and his MAGA allies, who will now decide at their sole discretion whether the university has admitted enough white people. It's no longer an independent institution.
- Reposted by Pekka Väyrynenwe would be in a much better state in this country if we stopped focusing on anointing a chosen few working class students into Oxbridge, and instead properly funded all the different sorts of universities that attract students from a wide range of backgrounds already
- Oxford University and @cam.ac.uk have each received a £6.25 million gift to expand their outreach work with socio-economically disadvantaged students in STEM subjects. Find out more ⬇️
- Call for Registration: A two-day conference (Sept 18-19) at University of Leeds in honor of the work of Helen Steward and Scott Shalkowski -- two excellent philosophers and colleagues who are retiring. Details and free registration at www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/conference... #philsky 1/2
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- In transit to FrankMeta.7. Very much looking forward to a bunch of interesting talks and good discussions! And then one tentative oddball paper that'll kick it all off... #philsky www.frankfurt-school.de/en/home/rese...
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- Foundations of Morality workshop at the University of Leeds, June 10-11. Keynotes: Julia Driver (UT Austin) and Michael Smith (Princeton). Programme and registration details are now up at philevents.org/event/show/1.... Registration deadline: June 1st. Join us there! #Philosophy
- Here's a link to the survey: bristolexppsych.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...
- Here's that rare thing: an academic survey I am going to fill in. #ref2029
- Here's that rare thing: an academic survey I am going to fill in. #ref2029
- Reposted by Pekka VäyrynenNow it's nearly 270 university presidents who have signed onto this "unprecedented government overreach" public letter. It was less than 180 this morning. www.aacu.org/newsroom/a-c... Universities, and judges, taking the lead in standing up.
- Number is up just today, from 180 to around 240. University leaders, time to join in. www.aacu.org/newsroom/a-c...
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- Reposted by Pekka VäyrynenThe core trilma here remains the same - the govt needs to accept one of three things: high student migration, higher domestic student fees (or higher taxes to fund universities) or university bankruptcies. Those are the only options, given where we are. Pick one.
- The UK government is proposing to finally finish off its universities by further tightening the terms of the graduate visa route. The stupid fools. Playing with dangers they don't even understand. www.ft.com/content/f441...
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- Amazing.
- As one step toward fixing UK public services, the government could start with modest raises to NI contribution and income tax rates. The historical and comparative cases seem pretty strong.
- Reposted by Pekka VäyrynenAn emotional day - I can announce I'll be the first director of The Jeremy Coller Centre for Animal Sentience at the LSE, supported by a £4m grant from the Jeremy Coller Foundation. Our mission: to develop better policies, laws and ways of caring for animals. (1/2) www.lse.ac.uk/News/Latest-...
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- Reposted by Pekka VäyrynenThere are days in life that shake you. I’m shattered 💔 to share that I just found out that the US Government terminated my 2024 NIH Director’s Early Independence Award (~$2 million), threatening my long-promised assistant professor job at Columbia University & academic career... 1/🧵
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- Still a little over a week to submit abstracts! #philsky
- CfA alert: Workshop on Foundations of Morality, University of Leeds, 10-11 June 2025. Keynotes: Julia Driver (UT-Austin/St Andrews) and Michael Smith (Princeton University) Abstracts of up to 1,000 words are due 23 March 2025. Fuller details at joseph-bowen.weebly.com/foundations-... #philsky
- In philosophy, this delivers endlessly. "What We Owe to Each Potato" "Taking Potato Seriously" "The Potato Problem" "Potato and Necessity" "The Critique of Pure Potato" "Potato, Truth, and Logic" "Justice as Potato" "Potato's Empire" ...
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- Watched Grand Theft Hamlet tonight. Loved it. Bonkers and funny but also moving.
- It's political whichever way RS goes.
- I have been *so* looking forward to this since first reading about it. It's now on MUBI. Hopefully I'll find time in the next week or so!
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- CfA alert: Workshop on Foundations of Morality, University of Leeds, 10-11 June 2025. Keynotes: Julia Driver (UT-Austin/St Andrews) and Michael Smith (Princeton University) Abstracts of up to 1,000 words are due 23 March 2025. Fuller details at joseph-bowen.weebly.com/foundations-... #philsky
- Never mind what this says about UK higher ed policies and priorities. Even this would be hard to pull off: "when a group of British students arrive late for their anatomy class they are swiftly asked to leave. “No, go out please, you must be on time,” the teacher said." on.ft.com/3Qm2Krd
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- Looks like a fantastic set of talks. Wish I was able to attend. #philsky
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- A tweet you still think about. (Can't top Aidan's though.)
