Simon Brown
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simonabbrown.bsky.social
Simon Brown
@simonabbrown.bsky.social
750 followers 760 following 74 posts
Philosopher of mind/cog sci studying animal minds, memory,
consciousness, temporal representation, & implications for animal ethics/policy.
Asst. Prof. @ Ashoka University, India. Formerly postdoc @ London School of Economics & Johns Hopkins University
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by Simon Brown
fintanmallory.com
The satirical magazine was called Why? It's available here: www.juliuskovesi.com/why/
A list of joke lecture titles for the Oxford Michaelmas Term 1958. It includes, 'Can Tomorrow preceded Yesterday?' by Mr M.A.E. Dummett, Pride and Predicates by Prof. J.L. Austin, and Problems in Recent French Philosophy by Prof. Ryle. Logic (maximum speed: 15 mph) Candidates should not attempt those questions they have already answered Do not write on alternate lines. 1 Which more closely resembles the other, Russell or Hume? 2. What is to be said for the view that Aristotle wrote the Meraphlsics backwards? 3. What is left over if I subtract the fact that my left arm goes up from the fact that my right arm stays down. 4. 'Man is primarily a fact'. Would another fact agree? 5. What is the difference between deferring and proscribing? 6. Have you had any good sensations? 7. In what sense are bachelors unmarried men? 8. 'l doubt whether this question is answerable'. Is this a philosophical doubt? 9. Do I fit my trousers, or do my trousers fit meJ 10. 'Every boy loves some girl'. Does this help? 11. Why can my intelligence never be yoursl 12. 'Wisdom is logically Prior'. Discuss. 13. Rewrite in the metalanguage: '(Unicorns pegasize pragmatically'. (Truth tables may be used.) OT How many angels can sit on the edge of Occam's razor? OT if p, then what? Brush Up Your Word Power Is your philosophical vocabulary all than it should be? Test yourself by the following list. PLATONIST means (r) A man who thinks the universe is no place for an individual (b) A man with more than one girl-friend (c) Any philosopher with whom one disagrees. EXISTENCE is (a) a predicate (b) the wherewith whereby the somewhat exists (c) drinking absinthe in black jeans. A STOIC means (a) a tough guy (b) a special sort of ancient logician (c) any sort of modern logician. NOBODY is (a) not the name of nobody (b) nor the name of anybody (c) nobody's name. CLASS-MEMBERSHIP is (a) a logical relation (b) a property of a non-proletarian (c) a number which decreases as term progresses. NATURALiSTIC FALLACY is (a) what you must nor commit (b) any argument refuted by G.E. Moore (c) any argument proposed by G.E. Moore. METAPHYSICS is (a) a rude word (b) an anthology compiled by W. Jaeger (c) the greater part of wisdom. TYPE means (a) a token of the type 'type' (typed) (b) what Russell's theory was a theory of (c) French word for a feilow-existentialist. SUBSTANCE is (a) what Aristotle meant by ousia (b) what Aristotle meant by ti esti (c) what Aristotle meant by hypokeimenon (d) what did Aristotle mean anyway?
December 10, 2025 at 11:59 AM
Reposted by Simon Brown
jorge-morales.bsky.social
When we see something that's moving, our memories about it end up projected forward in time: We remember it further along than it was. In a new paper in 𝘗𝘴𝘺𝘤𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘚𝘤𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦, out today and led by @dillonplunkett.bsky.social, we demonstrate that this happens even when there is 𝙣𝙤 𝙢𝙤𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙬𝙝𝙖𝙩𝙨𝙤𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧.🧵
Representational Momentum Transcends Motion
Dillon Plunkett & Jorge Morales (2025) Psychological Science
subjectivitylab.org
December 9, 2025 at 3:37 PM
Reposted by Simon Brown
sanjasreckovic.bsky.social
✨️Call for abstracts✨️
Excited to be organizing together with @leonarddung.bsky.social, @birchlse.bsky.social and Albert Newen the RUB-LSE joint workshop
"Animal Minds: New Theories and New Observations"
Bochum 9-10 Feb 2026

Join us! 🦧🐦🐙🐀🐬🦀🐜
Abstracts due 1 Dec 2025
philevents.org/event/show/1...
Ruhr-University Bochum & London School of Economics joint workshop “Animal Minds: New Theories and New Observations”
The following speakers are confirmed: Colin Allen, Kristin Andrews, Jonathan Birch, Tomer Czaczkes, Rebecca Dreier, Leonard Dung, Albert Newen, Simone Pika, Sanja Sreckovic, and Daria Zakharova.
philevents.org
November 27, 2025 at 12:24 AM
Reposted by Simon Brown
mattberkley.bsky.social
As with climate disturbance, uncertainty provides a good argument to take more action, not less.
alexanderlees.bsky.social Alexander Lees @alexanderlees.bsky.social · Feb 4
Our new paper led by @manusaunders.bsky.social www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... takes stock of the evidence-base for global insect declines 🦋🐝🪳🪰🦗 and how uncertainty is being leveraged by science denialists to undermine efforts to reverse biodiversity loss 🌍🧪.
Figure from a paper - legend: Figure 2. Measuring changes in insect biodiversity can be achieved by focusing on drivers that directly or indirectly impact insect biodiversity metrics and trends (left). Where data on insect populations specifically are unavailable, data from other species and ecological processes can provide inferential support for changes in insect biodiversity (right).
February 11, 2025 at 1:34 PM
Reposted by Simon Brown
elife.bsky.social
Jumping spiders can recognise one another. This ability to learn, remember and represent images is quite surprising for such a tiny-brained animal!
buff.ly/dCkwPr0
November 16, 2025 at 11:28 PM
Reposted by Simon Brown
rebeccasear.bsky.social
New Phil Trans B issue on the ‘Evolutionary functions of consciousness’

royalsocietypublishing.org/toc/rstb/202...
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences: Vol 380, No 1939
royalsocietypublishing.org
November 15, 2025 at 9:37 AM
simonabbrown.bsky.social
Now out officially here! Published as part of a special issue on evolutionary functions of consciousness edited by W. Tecumseh Fitch, Colin Allen, & Adina Roskies, which also features fascinating contributions from several leaders in the field! royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...
November 13, 2025 at 1:28 PM
Reposted by Simon Brown
profsimonfisher.bsky.social
With sequencing of Hitler's DNA making headlines, time for a reminder: analysing a polygenic score from a dead historically-significant figure won't give new insights into that person's behaviour. In a brief paper last year, we used Beethoven's genome to directly illustrate the fallacies involved.🧪👇
Notes from Beethoven’s genome
Wesseldijk et al. compare the genomic information collected from Ludwig van Beethoven with population-based datasets used to quantify musical achievement.
www.cell.com
November 13, 2025 at 11:26 AM
Reposted by Simon Brown
rishpardikar.bsky.social
Many congratulations to the United Kingdom for winning the prestigious 'Fossil of the Day' award at COP30 for screwing over workers. climatenetwork.org/resource/sol...

h/t @amywestervelt.bsky.social
November 13, 2025 at 3:57 AM
Reposted by Simon Brown
crasshlive.bsky.social
Applications now open 🎓

Spend 9 weeks at Cambridge University with the CRASSH & @cw-indiatrust.bsky.social, supporting scholars from India in the arts, humanities, and heritage conservation

Funding includes travel, accommodation & research expenses

Apply by 19 Jan 2026
bit.ly/3tw6OuI
CRASSH and Charles Wallace India Trust Fellowship.
November 11, 2025 at 5:46 PM
Reposted by Simon Brown
ellileadbeater.bsky.social
PhD project on the evolution of animal memory now available in my research group, through the TREES DLA: www.trees-dla.ac.uk/projects/evo.... Come and join us if you're interested in the evolution of animal minds and you want to do some cool experimental evolution!
Evolutionary ecology of animal memory | TREES DLA
This project seeks to explore how memory evolves in response to the ecological tasks that animals face in their natural environment. Associative memory exists in some form in almost all animal species...
www.trees-dla.ac.uk
November 6, 2025 at 3:23 PM
Reposted by Simon Brown
levelsof.bsky.social
Now out in an issue! ~~ www.cell.com/trends/cogni...
November 6, 2025 at 2:29 PM
Reposted by Simon Brown
nathlarigaldie.bsky.social
Ok, just wow. If the content of this article is right, this is depressing. We're slowly reaching the point where ~100% of what I was taught in Social Psych was either innocently wrong or plainly frauded

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...
Debunking “When Prophecy Fails”
In 1954, Dorothy Martin predicted an apocalyptic flood and promised her followers rescue by flying saucers. When neither arrived, she recanted, her group dissolved, and efforts to proselytize ceased....
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
November 5, 2025 at 11:09 PM
Reposted by Simon Brown
katharinehayhoe.com
For any unfamiliar with the quality of journalism at Teen Vogue, it's well known for hard-hitting stories on "politically sensitive" topics including climate.

Then there's CBS: the only major network to increase climate coverage in the last few years. They just axed nearly their whole climate team.
lexmcmenamin.com Lex McMenamin (they/them) @lexmcmenamin.com · Nov 3
I was laid off from Teen Vogue today along with multiple other staffers, and today is my last day.

certainly more to come from me when the dust has settled more, but to my knowledge, after today, there will be no politics staffers at Teen Vogue.
November 3, 2025 at 8:25 PM
Reposted by Simon Brown
lswisnom.bsky.social
Academics in Assyria in the 7th c BC complain that admin is preventing them from doing research and teaching
November 3, 2025 at 10:04 AM
Reposted by Simon Brown
emilymsanford.bsky.social
Are humans really the only rational animals? Our NEW PAPER 🎉 out in @science.org suggests otherwise! In a large collaboration led with my joint first author @hanna-schleihauf.bsky.social, we show that “Chimpanzees rationally revise their beliefs” 🧵
Chimpanzees rationally revise their beliefs
The selective revision of beliefs in light of new evidence has been considered one of the hallmarks of human-level rationality. However, tests of this ability in other species are lacking. We examined...
www.science.org
October 30, 2025 at 6:23 PM
Reposted by Simon Brown
ianbphillips.bsky.social
What does postdiction show about the speed of consciousness? In this forth. piece in BBS, I respond to @smfleming.bsky.social + @matthiasmichel.bsky.social's claim that postdiction shows consciousness is slow -- too slow for its purpose to be online action guidance. 1/3 philpapers.org/rec/PHIPAT-14
philpapers.org
September 30, 2025 at 4:11 PM
Reposted by Simon Brown
wikror.bsky.social
What role heuristics play in model organism research? How can the DEKI capture the development of MOs? Is basal cognition introducing novel MOs for neuroscience? This is what I try to explore in the new preprint: philsci-archive.pitt.edu/27054/
Looking for keys in model organisms: Interpreting and keying-up in basal cognition - PhilSci-Archive
philsci-archive.pitt.edu
October 30, 2025 at 1:26 PM
Reposted by Simon Brown
antiquity.ac.uk
For #MosaicMonday a venator (gladiators who fought wild animals) fighting a bear. Many animals were made to fight for #Roman entertainment, but conclusive evidence for fighting bears has only just been discovered.

(£) doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

📷 Carole Raddato / CC BY-SA 2.0

🏺 #Archaeology
Mosaic depicting a person with a spear stabbing a bear in the neck.
October 27, 2025 at 10:15 AM
Reposted by Simon Brown
thierryaaron.bsky.social
Sheeeet🤯

"when asked “what proportion of climate scientists think that global warming is caused mostly by human activities?” - only 30% of middle-school & 45% of high-school science teachers selected the correct option of “81 to 100%."
Climate confusion among U.S. teachers
Teachers' knowledge and values can hinder climate education
www.science.org
October 24, 2025 at 6:46 AM
Reposted by Simon Brown
vernouilleta.bsky.social
Excited to announce that Eli Garcia-Pelegrin and I are co-editing a special collection for Animal Cognition on "Social Cognition in a Human World". Do you study how urbanization, pollution, heat stress, fragmentation, ... affects cognition? We want to hear from you! link.springer.com/collections/...
Social Cognition in a Human World
As humanity exploits and reshapes the environment to accommodate for development and population growth demands, animals need to adapt to these human-induced ...
link.springer.com
October 22, 2025 at 8:03 AM
Reposted by Simon Brown
ausir.bsky.social
PSL political compass
political compass meme top left: Party for Socialism and Liberation (USA) top right: Polish People's Party / Polskie Stronnictwo Ludowe (Poland) lower left: pumpkin spice latte lower right: Social Liberal Party / Parti Social Liberal (Tunisia)
October 17, 2025 at 9:59 PM
Reposted by Simon Brown
animbehsociety.bsky.social
Hey grad students studying animal behavior! Need a little extra research $$? (Don't we all?)

Apply for an ABS Student Research Grant! We award grants up to $2,000 to grad students & give feedback on the proposals. Deadline Dec 15.

More info here: www.animalbehaviorsociety.org/web/awards-s...
ABS Student Research and Developing Nations Grants! ABS offers the following grants to support graduate student research: Student Research Grants, ABS Conservation Award and Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (JEDI) Awards. The ABS also offers an Early Career Grant in Conservation Behavior and Developing Nations Grant to support students and other researchers from developing nations. Applicants for student grants must be enrolled in a graduate program and must be active members of ABS (student membership fees cost $17-$34). Research grants range from $500-$2,000 USD, depending on the category of the grant and evaluations. Individuals may receive only one ABS research grant during their lifetime. More details on how the grants and how to apply in the link in the post.
October 9, 2025 at 10:00 PM
Reposted by Simon Brown
meganakpeters.bsky.social
📣 BIG NEWS EVERYONE. I am so excited to announce…

🎉 I’m moving to University College London @ucl.ac.uk to join the Experimental Psychology department in @uclpals.bsky.social! 🎉

The big move happens in spring/summer. So I’m already exploring recruiting staff & students at UCL for fall 2026!
October 13, 2025 at 4:29 PM
Reposted by Simon Brown
erinbartram.bsky.social
This just happened again and it really drives home the extent to which scholarly orgs could build great bridges with museums/historical sites by figuring out how to help them get access to scholarly materials. Those places might, in turn, help support those orgs with people and money.
erinbartram.bsky.social Erin Grievances @erinbartram.bsky.social · Oct 6
Working at a museum without access to a university library means spending 6 years thinking about/reading Mark Twain & his reception and then every time I think I had an original thought it turns out @mattseybold.bsky.social tweeted it out in the form of a peer-reviewed article a decade ago.
October 13, 2025 at 3:58 PM