Fintan Mallory
@fintanmallory.com
Philosopher at Durham University fintanmallory.com
We must imagine Itsy Bitsy Spider happy
January 13, 2026 at 10:43 AM
We must imagine Itsy Bitsy Spider happy
Reposted by Fintan Mallory
Our @leverhulmecal.bsky.social postdoctoral fellowship posts close for applications on 30 January. A few reflections on the frequently asked questions we have received. So much looking forward to reading your applications and building our team together youtube.com/watch?v=x4AMkxhe4bQ
Further Information for Fellowship Applicants
YouTube video by Leverhulme Centre for Algorithmic Life
youtube.com
January 12, 2026 at 5:46 PM
Our @leverhulmecal.bsky.social postdoctoral fellowship posts close for applications on 30 January. A few reflections on the frequently asked questions we have received. So much looking forward to reading your applications and building our team together youtube.com/watch?v=x4AMkxhe4bQ
I love seeing early drafts of poems, especially when the original word choices were terrible.
![BGGLAND
we have no prairies
To slice a big sun at evening - Everywhere the eye concedes to
A fungoid [encroaching] horizons,
Is wooed into the cyclops' eye or a tarn.
Our unfenced country
Is bog that keeps crusting
Between the sights of the sun.
They've taken the skeleton Of the Great Irish E1k out of the peat, set it up An astounding crate full of air.
Butter sunk under a
More than a hundred years
Was Peoovera salty and wiite.
The ground itself is a kina, black butter Melting and opening undertoot, Missing its last definition
By millions of years.
They"ll never dig coal here, Only the waterlogged trunks
Of great firs, soft as banana [pulp]
ur pioneers keep striking
Inwaräs and downwards,
Every layer they strip
The bogaoles nigat be Atlantie seepage.
The wet centre is bottomless.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:tvcyggw2gbv2xmqaqfahnwoy/bafkreigdcmqlwde624mo3syukitzzcndzoiflirn5qgokl4s24tpfmmrty@jpeg)
January 10, 2026 at 3:59 PM
I love seeing early drafts of poems, especially when the original word choices were terrible.
Reposted by Fintan Mallory
"Trans members of this profession have been rapidly losing their freedoms and protections.... Scholarship on the philosophy of sex and gender, especially trans philosophy, has come under attack” -- from a recent APA Board open letter to trans philosophers & the philosophy profession...
The APA Board’s Open Letter to Trans Philosophers - Daily Nous
At its November 2025 meeting, the Board of the American Philosophical Association (APA) approved a statement addressed "first and foremost, to trans members of our profession," and to "those who teach...
dailynous.com
January 9, 2026 at 5:09 PM
"Trans members of this profession have been rapidly losing their freedoms and protections.... Scholarship on the philosophy of sex and gender, especially trans philosophy, has come under attack” -- from a recent APA Board open letter to trans philosophers & the philosophy profession...
Confession: I always watch the safety demonstration on an airplane because I know what it’s like giving a talk when no one is paying attention
January 9, 2026 at 7:23 PM
Confession: I always watch the safety demonstration on an airplane because I know what it’s like giving a talk when no one is paying attention
Reposted by Fintan Mallory
My new book is available open access from MITPress. It's a pretty new take on syntax, with some cool consequences for long-distance syntactic dependencies, and I think it should also appeal to non-minimalist syntacticians (since there isn't really any movement!) direct.mit.edu/books/oa-mon...
Mereological Syntax: Phrase Structure, Cyclicity, and Islands
An argument for replacing Chomsky’s set-theoretic Merge view of syntax with a theory of syntax based on mereological objects.Mereology is the study of part
direct.mit.edu
January 9, 2026 at 1:32 PM
My new book is available open access from MITPress. It's a pretty new take on syntax, with some cool consequences for long-distance syntactic dependencies, and I think it should also appeal to non-minimalist syntacticians (since there isn't really any movement!) direct.mit.edu/books/oa-mon...
Alternative to eBird that lets you rate the birds, you could call it Roger eBird.
January 8, 2026 at 6:19 PM
Alternative to eBird that lets you rate the birds, you could call it Roger eBird.
I have too many questions
January 7, 2026 at 9:07 PM
I have too many questions
Reposted by Fintan Mallory
Can humans & animals really use internal maps to take shortcuts?
Tolman famously said yes - based largely on his Sunburst maze.
Our new review & meta-analysis suggests evidence is far weaker than you might think.
🧵👇 doi.org/10.1111/ejn....
@uofgpsychneuro.bsky.social @ejneuroscience.bsky.social
Tolman famously said yes - based largely on his Sunburst maze.
Our new review & meta-analysis suggests evidence is far weaker than you might think.
🧵👇 doi.org/10.1111/ejn....
@uofgpsychneuro.bsky.social @ejneuroscience.bsky.social
Tolman's Sunburst Maze 80 Years on: A Meta‐Analysis Reveals Poor Replicability and Little Evidence for Shortcutting
In 1946, Tolman et al. reported that rats could take a novel shortcut to a goal after training on an indirect route, supporting the Cognitive Map theory. However, a review of subsequent Sunburst maze...
doi.org
January 5, 2026 at 7:52 PM
Can humans & animals really use internal maps to take shortcuts?
Tolman famously said yes - based largely on his Sunburst maze.
Our new review & meta-analysis suggests evidence is far weaker than you might think.
🧵👇 doi.org/10.1111/ejn....
@uofgpsychneuro.bsky.social @ejneuroscience.bsky.social
Tolman famously said yes - based largely on his Sunburst maze.
Our new review & meta-analysis suggests evidence is far weaker than you might think.
🧵👇 doi.org/10.1111/ejn....
@uofgpsychneuro.bsky.social @ejneuroscience.bsky.social
New year, new stretch of the Antrim coast
January 6, 2026 at 8:34 AM
New year, new stretch of the Antrim coast
A decision was made to make Hegel wonderfully, unnecessarily blonde and I support it.
January 5, 2026 at 11:24 AM
A decision was made to make Hegel wonderfully, unnecessarily blonde and I support it.
Breaking: World is crazier and more of it than we think, Incorrigibly plural.
January 4, 2026 at 8:39 AM
Breaking: World is crazier and more of it than we think, Incorrigibly plural.
The combination of Merlin Bird ID and PlantNet is a great way of turning your phone into a tricorder.
January 3, 2026 at 2:40 PM
The combination of Merlin Bird ID and PlantNet is a great way of turning your phone into a tricorder.
Sunrise in Cushendall
January 3, 2026 at 9:22 AM
Sunrise in Cushendall
We’re now in the last 11 months
I don’t mean to scare anyone but if this paper in Science (1960, vol. 132: 3436) is right, human population will approach infinity late next year. If any EA/longtermist groups want to give me a million pounds, I promise to look into it.
January 1, 2026 at 8:54 PM
We’re now in the last 11 months
Now that ‘I got rhythm’ has entered the public domain, I predict the emergence a whole genre of music in which talented musicians improvise over it (and similar songs perhaps), engaged in complex harmonic investigations, treating it as a ‘standard’ of sorts.
January 1, 2026 at 9:02 AM
Now that ‘I got rhythm’ has entered the public domain, I predict the emergence a whole genre of music in which talented musicians improvise over it (and similar songs perhaps), engaged in complex harmonic investigations, treating it as a ‘standard’ of sorts.
There’s absolutely no guarantee that any of us will be here in 2027. All compounded phenomena are impermanent. Happy New Year!
December 31, 2025 at 11:28 PM
There’s absolutely no guarantee that any of us will be here in 2027. All compounded phenomena are impermanent. Happy New Year!
If you stick on Beethoven’s 5th (Kleiber version) at 23:36:28, the 4th movement will start the new year. Alternatively, if you stick on Thunder Road (Springsteen) at 23:56:10, Clarence Clemons’ solo will start it. Both are good.
December 31, 2025 at 6:00 PM
If you stick on Beethoven’s 5th (Kleiber version) at 23:36:28, the 4th movement will start the new year. Alternatively, if you stick on Thunder Road (Springsteen) at 23:56:10, Clarence Clemons’ solo will start it. Both are good.
Reposted by Fintan Mallory
Mark Jago's new paper has a rhyming abstract
Mark Jago, Making it Exact - PhilPapers
Bob and Ulf say logic should make explicit / The kinds of inference we take as licit. / They give a formalism that’s classically complete, / But in which an extra ...
philpapers.org
December 29, 2025 at 9:57 PM
Mark Jago's new paper has a rhyming abstract
(Sarcastically) Well, if it isn’t kingdom of daylight’s dauphin.
December 27, 2025 at 9:07 AM
(Sarcastically) Well, if it isn’t kingdom of daylight’s dauphin.
The Titanic was a perfectly good ship. If you drive any ship into an iceberg it will sink.
December 25, 2025 at 9:49 PM
The Titanic was a perfectly good ship. If you drive any ship into an iceberg it will sink.
Scrooge: You there, boy, did the coin that we tossed before putting you to sleep land heads or tails?
December 25, 2025 at 7:55 PM
Scrooge: You there, boy, did the coin that we tossed before putting you to sleep land heads or tails?
[Gonzo voice] And the set of all sets which DID NOT contain themselves…
December 25, 2025 at 1:46 PM
[Gonzo voice] And the set of all sets which DID NOT contain themselves…
Ancient being of unclear age ✅ Big hat ✅ Brings gift ✅ Appears at Christmas ✅
December 24, 2025 at 7:56 PM
Ancient being of unclear age ✅ Big hat ✅ Brings gift ✅ Appears at Christmas ✅