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Jonathan Birch

Jonathan Birch

@birchlse.bsky.social

6.3K followers 310 following 810 posts

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

Jonathan Birch is a British philosopher and professor of philosophy at the London School of Economics and Political Science. His work addresses the philosophy of biology and behavioural sciences, especially questions concerning sentience, bioethics, animal welfare, and the evolution of social behaviour and social norms. .. more

Neuroscience 26%

Psychology 15%

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Jonathan Birch @birchlse.bsky.social · Mar 25

An 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-...

LSE announces new centre to study animal sentience

The Jeremy Coller Centre for Animal Sentience at LSE will develop new approaches to studying the feelings of other animals scientifically.

Jonathan Birch @birchlse.bsky.social · 12h

I think it's part of the doctrine (on this reading) that personal identity follows the exact repeats. You are a string of actual choices, actual willings. So in those parts of the cosmos where other strings of choices get made, it's not you.

Reposted by Jonathan Birch

doleful moo of a cow @oulipien.bsky.social · 12h

But if that's the argument for it, then not only this life but all others in which I did something else will *also* take place infinitely, in all possible variations. That hardly seems like the heaviest weight—more like the lightest.

Jonathan Birch @birchlse.bsky.social · 17h

You may be right that the thought "no one could literally believe this, and so, charitably...." has been steadily diminishing in plausibility.

Jonathan Birch @birchlse.bsky.social · 17h

I haven't studied the foreshadowing of Poincaré in detail, but @neilsinhababu.bsky.social has. As I understand it, Nietzsche wasn't thinking formally at all, so would not have asked "is it *exactly* the same point or a point in an arbitrarily small neighbourhood."

Reposted by Jonathan Birch

Steven Palmer Peterson @stevenppeterson.bsky.social · 17h

In an odd coincidence, the new literalist reading came into being at the same time that we started regularly hearing Trump talk about himself.

Jonathan Birch @birchlse.bsky.social · 17h

And here is the quoted passage with alt-text.

In my lifework, my Zarathustra holds a place apart. With it, I gave my fellow-men the greatest[Pg 4] gift that has ever been bestowed upon them. This book, the voice of which speaks out across the ages, is not only the loftiest book on earth, literally the book of mountain air,—the whole phenomenon, mankind, lies at an incalculable distance beneath it,—but it is also the deepest book, born of the inmost abundance of truth; an inexhaustible well, into which no pitcher can be lowered without coming up again laden with gold and with goodness.

Jonathan Birch @birchlse.bsky.social · 17h

I have the same feeling as a non-specialist. I was surprised to learn that a majority of Anglophone Nietzsche scholars (who may not be representative of other traditions) dismiss the importance of ER and Thus Spake Zarathustra, focusing primarily on other works.

Reposted by Jonathan Birch

Seva Khusid @sevakhusid.bsky.social · 17h

(Having only read N. without any scholarly apparatus, it is very surprising to hear this is not mainstream -- so much in his work, especially Z., seems centered on being sincere with oneself and one's own intentions?)

Jonathan Birch @birchlse.bsky.social · 17h

This is dreadful advice if ER is false. If ER is false - and we in fact have one life, containing finite suffering - then Nietzche should instead have accepted Schopenhauer's position regarding the overriding importance of compassion for others.

Jonathan Birch @birchlse.bsky.social · 17h

What it does (for Nietzsche) is justify his clear, consistent disdain for helping to alleviate suffering - because, regardless of what you do, suffering remains infinite. It transforms the important question into: how can you (by being a higher man of a certain kind) create infinite positive value?

Jonathan Birch @birchlse.bsky.social · 18h

Nietzsche always wrote as though he had a shocking, Buddha- or Christ-sized revelation to deliver to humanity. On the mainstream reading this is bluster or parody (either way, annoying), whereas on the new literalist reading it's an eccentric but sincerely held belief. (4/4) bsky.app/profile/birc...

Jonathan Birch @birchlse.bsky.social · Feb 17

Nietzsche knew that a true philosopher must write his own jacket blurbs.

Jonathan Birch @birchlse.bsky.social · 18h

For me, a literalist reading makes Nietzsche easier to like. If ER is a fiction, the advice to live as though it were true is bad advice. But if it's a literal truth we must all come to terms with, the idea of living such that you could affirm it does indeed become as important as Nietzsche claims.

Jonathan Birch @birchlse.bsky.social · 18h

How could he have believed this? Because he anticipated (qualitatively, loosely) ideas that would soon be formalized rigorously by Poincaré and Boltzmann. If time is infinite, and the world is a dynamical system drifting around a bounded phase space, it revisits the same point infinite times. (2/4)

Jonathan Birch @birchlse.bsky.social · 18h

I really enjoyed @neilsinhababu.bsky.social's "Nietzsche on the eternal recurrence". Together with Paul Loeb's work it's persuaded me that Nietzsche believed his eternal recurrence doctrine to be literally true, or at least probably true. (1/4)
philpapers.org/rec/SINNOT-9

Neil Sinhababu, Nietzsche on the Eternal Recurrence - PhilPapers

The idea of the eternal recurrence is that everyone will live the exact same lives again an infinite number of times. Nietzsche appreciates that this would multiply the value of a ...

Jonathan Birch @birchlse.bsky.social · 1d

When they said "soon you will be using AI to search" I never imagined the plan was to degrade the internet to an unusable level rather than to improve the AI.

Reposted by Jonathan Birch, Tom Chevalier, Valeria Mazza

Dr Heather Browning (Veit) @zoophilosophy.bsky.social · 1d

For those cephalopod lovers among you, our new updated review of the evidence for cephalpod sentience has now been published in Biological Reviews. (Sadly the picture is of birds rather than cephalopods, as this is the journal cover!)
doi.org/10.1002/brv....

Sentience in cephalopod molluscs: an updated assessment

This article evaluates the evidence for sentience – the capacity to have feelings – in cephalopod molluscs: octopus, cuttlefish, squid, and nautilus. Our framework includes eight criteria, covering b...

Jonathan Birch @birchlse.bsky.social · 1d

I think The Simpsons may be a counterexample to the theory that it always strengthens a brand to have new content coming out.

Jonathan Birch @birchlse.bsky.social · 2d

I sometimes think about the counterfactual universe where Gordon Brown just loses it and says "yeah, well maybe if you were bit less fucking bigoted" - and turns into a kind of Zack Polanski figure of the 2010s.

Reposted by Rosemary A. Joyce, Jacob T. Levy, Jonathan Birch , and 5 more Rosemary A. Joyce, Jacob T. Levy, Jonathan Birch, Manuel Puppis, David Rosnick, Christopher Barrie, Aviel Roshwald, Dana Howard

Daniel Benneworth-Gray @danielgray.com · 3d

COW TOOLS COW TOOLS COW TOOLS

Back-scratching bovine leads scientists to reassess intelligence of cows

Brown Swiss in Austria has been discovered using tools in multiple ways – something only ever seen in humans and chimpanzees

www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Jonathan Birch

Jonathan Birch @birchlse.bsky.social · 5d

I doubt Starmer even realises the damage he's inflicted on his own standing through Trump sycophancy. He must think it's a minor issue for most voters but the general perception of him as weak and servile spills over to every other issue.

Jonathan Birch @birchlse.bsky.social · 5d

Starmer spent a whole year debasing himself to keep Trump onside - and still gets a 10% tariff for opposing the conquest of Greenland. Nothing is ever enough. It is not worth it.

Jonathan Birch @birchlse.bsky.social · 5d

In London you do overhear these sort of alternate-reality conversations about how it's tough to buy a house these days on a normal professional salary of £150K or so. People who are in the 99% centile nationally think they are the middle.

Reposted by Jonathan Birch

Reposted by Jonathan Birch

Jonathan Birch @birchlse.bsky.social · 5d

You're not denying there is a housing crisis in London, surely? I'm aware of the population. The size of the population says little about how easy or difficult it is for new people to move and settle for the long term. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

London's 'spiralling housing crisis' in numbers

Research sets out the challenges and solutions to tackle the growing housing need in the capital.

Jonathan Birch @birchlse.bsky.social · 5d

With both London and New York there's the problem that very few people can afford to live in them, and even travelling in is expensive. They've become exciting cultural hubs to which the majority are denied access.

Reposted by Dorothy Bishop, Steven French, Lesley A. Hall , and 10 more Dorothy Bishop, Steven French, Lesley A. Hall, Sabine Pahl, Jussi T. Eronen, Vincent Noël, Adrian Vickers, Amy W. Ando, Jonathan Birch, Maria Abreu, Kathleen Kennedy, Patrick Stokes, Richard Moorhead

Alan Stedman @alanjstedman.bsky.social · 5d

This photo was taken in 1911 using glass plate technology by Herbert Ponting who was part of Scott's Antarctic expedition,

The composition and detail are exquisite with the band of white snow/ice creating a perfect frame around the two people and the ship in the distance

Iconic imo

Photograph from 1911 taken by Herbert Ponting whilst with Scott's Antarctic Expedition

The monochrome photo is taken from within a cave. The walls of the cave are made of ice. The cave entrance is in the mid distance with two figures standing looking out towards a distant ship. Between them and the ship there is first a 'beach' of ice before the sea itself. The ship could be up to 800 metres away

What makes the photo so special is that where the figures are at the cave entrance there is a band of very white snow and ice (contrasting with the comparatively dark inside of the cave) that creates a stark framework in which the men and the ship are captured. It is made even more dramatic by the fact that the cave entrance is at least 30 metres high and is in the shape of a distorted elipse with the tail sloping off to the right at the top of the elipse

The photo being in monochrome in a largely white environment makes the photographers skill all the more laudable

Jonathan Birch @birchlse.bsky.social · 6d

When they become very burdensome you do get debates around "is this in effect licensing the unwanted behaviour?" - because it can shift labour on to those affected by the behaviour when really it's those who do it who need the intensive training.

Jonathan Birch @birchlse.bsky.social · 6d

Yes, I see the intention is not to protect them - but still, if you have institutional design based on the principle that "senior profs will always be like this, so..." it does implicitly licence the bad behaviour by calling it an irremediable part of human nature.