Ryan Griffiths
@rygriff.bsky.social
‘And No One Cheered’ is the best book title ever because it’s about us and power.
Pinned
Ryan Griffiths
@rygriff.bsky.social
· Sep 27
‘Vote for me and I’ll do as you say and violate some Charter stuff using a Charter clause,’ is that liberal or democratic?
Dental health is, to a greater degree than is commonly known, a matter of genetics not behaviour. When dental problems arise dentists yell that this is not genetics, but is due to this patient’s shameful divergence from the daily dental cream routine etc. (I’m a mad dad telling jokes)
November 28, 2025 at 12:38 AM
Dental health is, to a greater degree than is commonly known, a matter of genetics not behaviour. When dental problems arise dentists yell that this is not genetics, but is due to this patient’s shameful divergence from the daily dental cream routine etc. (I’m a mad dad telling jokes)
Reposted by Ryan Griffiths
I reviewed Thomas Holden’s excellent new book, _Hobbes’s Philosophy of Religion_, in NDPR.
TLDR;: theological expressivism yes, justified theism no, rational piety yes.
TLDR;: theological expressivism yes, justified theism no, rational piety yes.
Hobbes’s Philosophy of Religion
Commentators have traditionally assumed that the key interpretive question concerning Hobbes’s theology is whether he was a theist (as he proclaim...
ndpr.nd.edu
November 19, 2025 at 9:17 PM
I reviewed Thomas Holden’s excellent new book, _Hobbes’s Philosophy of Religion_, in NDPR.
TLDR;: theological expressivism yes, justified theism no, rational piety yes.
TLDR;: theological expressivism yes, justified theism no, rational piety yes.
I was humiliated today when my five year old had the gall to suppose she had the right to cry at the needles. My daughter showed the opposite of awe at the dentist’s, nay, saint-cum-artist’s, dremmel multi-tool handiwork. Few have devised a greater, more seamless, racket than they.
Send me your best anti-dentist paper, maybe by an economist, touching on variation in treatment/beliefs by country. Natural experiments where flowers bloomed brighter and fuller after the dentists left.
November 27, 2025 at 11:55 PM
I was humiliated today when my five year old had the gall to suppose she had the right to cry at the needles. My daughter showed the opposite of awe at the dentist’s, nay, saint-cum-artist’s, dremmel multi-tool handiwork. Few have devised a greater, more seamless, racket than they.
Send me your best anti-dentist paper, maybe by an economist, touching on variation in treatment/beliefs by country. Natural experiments where flowers bloomed brighter and fuller after the dentists left.
November 27, 2025 at 11:30 PM
Send me your best anti-dentist paper, maybe by an economist, touching on variation in treatment/beliefs by country. Natural experiments where flowers bloomed brighter and fuller after the dentists left.
Reposted by Ryan Griffiths
McGill students with interests in the history of political thought/ intellectual history/ international law/ political philosophy. Don't miss this event on Thursday!
A student who registers here and attends will win a copy of Lee's book The Right of Sovereignty
www.facebook.com/events/25000...
A student who registers here and attends will win a copy of Lee's book The Right of Sovereignty
www.facebook.com/events/25000...
November 18, 2025 at 3:56 PM
McGill students with interests in the history of political thought/ intellectual history/ international law/ political philosophy. Don't miss this event on Thursday!
A student who registers here and attends will win a copy of Lee's book The Right of Sovereignty
www.facebook.com/events/25000...
A student who registers here and attends will win a copy of Lee's book The Right of Sovereignty
www.facebook.com/events/25000...
Tip: dried fruit? Freeze it for smoothies.
November 18, 2025 at 9:47 PM
Tip: dried fruit? Freeze it for smoothies.
Excellent, can’t wait to watch/listen. Obviously I recommend it to you all.
A wide-ranging video podcast in which I answer questions about why & how we should argue, the importance of thinking clearly & academic freedom, what to think about historic, structural and global justice, who broke international order & how did we get here. Happy 10th Anniversary to the Lin Centre!
Lin Centre Director and RGCS faculty member @catherinelu.bsky.social Catherine Lu discusses the Centre as well as her own ideas on "Freedom and justice in a polarized world."
youtu.be/Lso9Ew_k5Vg?...
youtu.be/Lso9Ew_k5Vg?...
November 4, 2025 at 10:59 PM
Excellent, can’t wait to watch/listen. Obviously I recommend it to you all.
Reposted by Ryan Griffiths
ICYMI
psu.mediaspace.kaltura.com/media/t/1_np...
"The current pro-natalist project is weaponizing an imaginary rural America in ways that harm real rural Americans today."
My DeJong Lecture, and the others in the 20th anniversary event, is now available: "How pro-natalist policies harm rural Americans."
"The current pro-natalist project is weaponizing an imaginary rural America in ways that harm real rural Americans today."
My DeJong Lecture, and the others in the 20th anniversary event, is now available: "How pro-natalist policies harm rural Americans."
November 4, 2025 at 5:11 PM
ICYMI
Consent meant ‘the end of haggling’ to Plato. It meant ‘binding agreement between strangers’ in Cicero and his commercial world. Then it meant ‘bond b/w this lord and that vassal.’ Then it meant ‘what you would agree to were you rational.’ Grotius lives in that space just before this last move.
November 3, 2025 at 9:50 PM
Consent meant ‘the end of haggling’ to Plato. It meant ‘binding agreement between strangers’ in Cicero and his commercial world. Then it meant ‘bond b/w this lord and that vassal.’ Then it meant ‘what you would agree to were you rational.’ Grotius lives in that space just before this last move.
Reposted by Ryan Griffiths
It's not just people's imaginative need to have the world be stranger than it is. It's that people can't imagine themselves in particular (ordinary people driving cars) as the threat and want to imagine scary monster people.
October 31, 2025 at 12:35 PM
It's not just people's imaginative need to have the world be stranger than it is. It's that people can't imagine themselves in particular (ordinary people driving cars) as the threat and want to imagine scary monster people.
Reposted by Ryan Griffiths
“Corn refers to all grains” and “Americans frequently forget that” are the two Corn Laws
October 27, 2025 at 11:26 AM
“Corn refers to all grains” and “Americans frequently forget that” are the two Corn Laws
One grain of grain is a grain. One grain of corn is a curn.
I’ve gone through the cycle of “be confused about an English guy writing about ‘corn’” —> “remember they use that word to refer to all grain” dozens of times but I always manage to forget again.
October 27, 2025 at 10:15 PM
One grain of grain is a grain. One grain of corn is a curn.
What would Trump’s retaliation ad (to Ontario) look like? Quote a PM (the Canadian Reagan?) loving tarriffs on US goods? Just be mean to Canada on Canadian Tv/hockey?
October 27, 2025 at 10:08 PM
What would Trump’s retaliation ad (to Ontario) look like? Quote a PM (the Canadian Reagan?) loving tarriffs on US goods? Just be mean to Canada on Canadian Tv/hockey?
Reposted by Ryan Griffiths
The energy we need is this suburban dad standing out in the street -- barefoot with Blackhawks pajama pants on -- screaming at the masked goons to get the fuck out of their neighborhood.
October 25, 2025 at 5:51 PM
The energy we need is this suburban dad standing out in the street -- barefoot with Blackhawks pajama pants on -- screaming at the masked goons to get the fuck out of their neighborhood.
Together with this one on 'philosophical moves' philpapers.org/archive/KELP...
October 26, 2025 at 11:40 AM
Together with this one on 'philosophical moves' philpapers.org/archive/KELP...
Wow. It’s all set. The two year old and the five year old agreed. They’ll take care of a dog if we get one. Perfect.
October 25, 2025 at 2:01 PM
Wow. It’s all set. The two year old and the five year old agreed. They’ll take care of a dog if we get one. Perfect.
If votes are determined by negative polarization someone should just start a party that only dumps on one of the two big parties and then just get all the votes from the party they don’t dump on.
October 15, 2025 at 10:51 PM
If votes are determined by negative polarization someone should just start a party that only dumps on one of the two big parties and then just get all the votes from the party they don’t dump on.
Distrust of democracy. Afaik, voting participation hasn’t changed much. If you use something, you trust it. Yes, but they want to elect enders of democracy. Maybe, but they aren’t voting for ‘I’ll end democracy, plus tax cut.’ I think it’s ’down w/ liberalism,’ procedural (checks) and substance.
I'm gonna try to articulate something I've been thinking about for a while, regarding *why* disillusionment, distrust, & dissatisfaction with democracy are rising.
Almost everything I read takes this phenomenon as an exogenous shock, assuming no one chose to make it so. I suspect that's incomplete.
Almost everything I read takes this phenomenon as an exogenous shock, assuming no one chose to make it so. I suspect that's incomplete.
October 15, 2025 at 10:34 PM
Distrust of democracy. Afaik, voting participation hasn’t changed much. If you use something, you trust it. Yes, but they want to elect enders of democracy. Maybe, but they aren’t voting for ‘I’ll end democracy, plus tax cut.’ I think it’s ’down w/ liberalism,’ procedural (checks) and substance.
A school with vision. As a parent, I’m taking note.
October 14, 2025 at 9:56 PM
A school with vision. As a parent, I’m taking note.
Paper ideas 4 U
Complicity: what dirties hands?
Should we wash dirty hands?
Your hands are dirty
Complicity: what dirties hands?
Should we wash dirty hands?
Your hands are dirty
October 10, 2025 at 8:31 PM
Paper ideas 4 U
Complicity: what dirties hands?
Should we wash dirty hands?
Your hands are dirty
Complicity: what dirties hands?
Should we wash dirty hands?
Your hands are dirty
Do you have impostor syndrome, all these doctors working under you?
No, no, I am a Kennedy, no doubt.
No, no, I am a Kennedy, no doubt.
October 10, 2025 at 4:26 PM
Do you have impostor syndrome, all these doctors working under you?
No, no, I am a Kennedy, no doubt.
No, no, I am a Kennedy, no doubt.
I don't want to belong to any club that would accept me as one of its members.
"Donald Trump's comments about Canada becoming the US' 51st state have strengthened my Canadian pride and my belief that Canada must maintain its independence"
🟢 Agree: 72%
🟡 Neutral: 19%
⚫️ Disagree: 9%
Read it here: open.substack.com/pub/canadian...
🟢 Agree: 72%
🟡 Neutral: 19%
⚫️ Disagree: 9%
Read it here: open.substack.com/pub/canadian...
Canadians Firmly Reject Idea of American Statehood
Support for American statehood remains low across all age groups, even in more conservative provinces like Alberta
open.substack.com
October 10, 2025 at 4:22 PM
I don't want to belong to any club that would accept me as one of its members.
To explain Trump, do you need ‘the Dems b/w 1960s and 2016’ so that Trump is backlash to that, or can you imagine the Dems being somehow different b/w those periods and still explain Trump?
October 10, 2025 at 2:02 PM
To explain Trump, do you need ‘the Dems b/w 1960s and 2016’ so that Trump is backlash to that, or can you imagine the Dems being somehow different b/w those periods and still explain Trump?