Aidan McGlynn
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aidanmcglynn.bsky.social
Aidan McGlynn
@aidanmcglynn.bsky.social
5.5K followers 760 following 7.5K posts
Glaswegian philosopher based at the University of Edinburgh, mostly working on issues in epistemology and feminist philosophy. Co-editor of Hypatia, research associate at ACEPS, University of Johannesburg. He/him. https://sites.google.com/site/aidanmcglynn
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aidanmcglynn.bsky.social
Enjoying this audio version of ‘On Certainty’
December 6, 2025 at 11:52 AM
aidanmcglynn.bsky.social
I spotted this book in my office the other day. I think I've said this before, but when I was thinking about what our handbook should look like, this was roughly the model for the effective I was hoping for. (The second edition isn't nearly as aesthetically appealing.)
The cover of the first edition of the Cambridge Companion to German Idealism, edited by Karl Ameriks. The cover is gold, with a landscape painting in the middle. The painting is a detail from 'A View of Heidelberg' by James Baker Pyne. An online summary says 'The painting depicts a serene view of the German town of Heidelberg, featuring the majestic castle nestled among hills and overlooking the Neckar River. '
December 5, 2025 at 4:29 PM
aidanmcglynn.bsky.social
Entering my ‘villain in a Jon Klassen book’ era
A photo of me, wearing a black sweater and with a tiny orange and yellow knitted beanie perched on the top of my head.
December 5, 2025 at 9:25 AM
aidanmcglynn.bsky.social
I love this intro to a philosophy paper, though I can't actually remember which paper it's from.
I intend to defend a very modest version of the propositional theory, and hence a very modest version of the truth theory of literary value. Furthermore, I am not going to defend either of these theories in any kind of thoroughness. I merely want to defend them against *one* possible objection. I have, in another place, already defended them against a different objection. My intention is to continue in this way, objection by objection, until both theories are secure. At my present rate, if my interest does not flag, I estimate the take will take one-hundred-and-fifty years.
December 5, 2025 at 8:53 AM
aidanmcglynn.bsky.social
They thought of everything on this train
What looks like a bathroom door on a train carriage, but there are signs saying ‘no public use’ and ‘bagpipe practice room’
December 4, 2025 at 2:21 PM
aidanmcglynn.bsky.social
'Epistemic Injustice: An Introduction' is a Christmas movie
Available for pre-order. Item will ship after December 23, 2025
December 2, 2025 at 5:33 PM
aidanmcglynn.bsky.social
Office hours
Arthur’s Seat and the Salisbury Crags over some rooftops and under a pale blue sky
December 2, 2025 at 11:50 AM
aidanmcglynn.bsky.social
See, the thing nobody warns you about is that they get bigger. A lot bigger. This is oldest on his first birthday, exactly 12 years ago today.
A smiling baby in an orange t-shirt standing using a guitar case for support Podgy baby in an orange t-shirt pouting heavily and jutting his cheeks out, while holding his right hand over his right eye suggesting he's tired.
December 1, 2025 at 6:58 PM
aidanmcglynn.bsky.social
McEwan hall and Bristo Square
Looking across the plaza of Bristo Square, which has long curved intersecting lines creating a pattern, toward McEwan hall - the hall is a large ornate semi-circular building with a dome on top. Behind the hall is a very clear blue sky.
December 1, 2025 at 4:47 PM
aidanmcglynn.bsky.social
ECA
A large well-lit two-storey hall with a skylight and wooden floor. Across the space on the wall there is a sign shaped like a mouth with teeth, and in between the teeth it says ‘toothpaste for men’.
November 27, 2025 at 2:48 PM
aidanmcglynn.bsky.social
You just died.

The 6th picture in your phone gallery is what killed you.
A large hall with wooden floors and high archways. On a wall between the arches is a large sign with a mouth, and in the space between the teeth it says ‘toothpaste for men’
November 27, 2025 at 2:14 PM
aidanmcglynn.bsky.social
This is...weird. I'm guessing it's an A.I. book?
www.amazon.co.uk/Clear-Follow...
The Amazon page for the short online book 'The Clear to Follow Lessons from Living With Men Workbook: How Manon Garcia’s Actions Can Show You How to Lead and Win', with a picture of the cover featuring an image of a fake-looking bowler hat.
November 26, 2025 at 10:39 PM
aidanmcglynn.bsky.social
This perhaps gives a better sense of just how close the castle is and how much it dominates this room. Weirdly, this is the first time I’ve ever set foot in the College of Art, despite this being my 14th year at Edinburgh Uni.
A boardroom with tables and chairs and busy patterned carpet. There is a window running the length of the room, filled by Edinburgh castle perched on Castle Rock.
November 26, 2025 at 9:31 PM
aidanmcglynn.bsky.social
That…is a view
A window with the south face of Edinburgh Castle framed, very close by and filling the whole view.
November 26, 2025 at 1:55 PM
aidanmcglynn.bsky.social
I simply refuse to believe that anyone wants this combination of flavours, in whisky or in anything else
A 'character' list of flavours for a whisky, with pictures of each item. The list is wax, kiwi, white pepper, marzipan, cream, and sherry
November 24, 2025 at 8:55 PM
aidanmcglynn.bsky.social
The 4s of the Tractatus Cryptex, an artistic representation of the book's structure - click the link to see all 7, and for details: www.wittgensteinproject.org/w/index.php/...
An abstract circular diagram with a numeral 4 in a light red circle in the centre, and smaller numbered red circles arrayed around in making complicated patterns.
November 23, 2025 at 7:58 PM
aidanmcglynn.bsky.social
I'm not sure I wholly trust the search function
A screen shot of the book preview of my new book, showing a bit of the cover and a search box. The term 'epistemic' has been searched, and it has returned the answer "no results found for epistemic".
November 22, 2025 at 5:58 PM
aidanmcglynn.bsky.social
Here's pages 3 and 4 of the forthcoming book:
Introduction: Epistemic Matters 1. Epistemic Everything Everywhere All at Once A recent pattern in academic philosophy over the past 20 or so years has involved relentlessly adding the word ‘epistemic’ in front of almost every other word. Examples include: epistemic infringement; epistemic apprenticeships; epistemic oppression; epistemic failure; epistemic vices; epistemic atonement; epistemic weaponry; epistemic injustice; epistemic phariseeism; epistemic slurs; the epistemic apocalypse; epistemic health; epistemic inoculation; epistemic complicity; epistemic dehumanisation; epistemic appropriation; epistemic trespassing; epistemic violence; epistemic rights; epistemic death; epistemic exploitation; epistemic redlining; epistemic reparations; epistemic sanity; the epistemic IKEA effect; epistemic apathy; epistemic shamelessness; epistemic utopia; and epistemic exhaustion. This trend shows no sign of slowing down; on the contrary, it can seem like we’re only a short distance along an exponential curve, with new additions to the list almost every week. Epistemology is the branch of philosophy that studies things like knowledge, evidence, understanding, justification, wisdom, warrant, and so on. Traditionally, it examines how we learn about the world and ourselves, the nature of knowledge and understanding and other states of this kind the scope and limits of what we can know, how to respond to the ‘sceptic’ who argues that our beliefs are rarely if ever justified or warranted, and other issues like these. ‘Epistemic’ is an adjective that picks out things as falling under epistemology’s remit; the epistemic is what epistemology studies. Knowledge is an epistemic state; indeed, it’s the paradigm of an epistemic state. Knowledge is a relationship between thinkers (or perhaps groups of thinkers) and the world, involving those thinkers recognising how things are in the world. That might sound rather abstract, but examples couldn’t be more familiar; I know where my keys are right now, and I know the last four digits of my phone number (at least when I have had sufficient caffeine), and this is a matter of me recognising certain things about the world―the location of my keys in it, and the digits of my phone number. To describe something as epistemic is a way of somehow relating it to knowledge and other epistemic states, such as those I’ve already mentioned. So why has there been such an explosion of interest in epistemic…stuff? In particular, why has there been such a focus on prefixing ‘epistemic’ to stuff that doesn’t seem all that closely related to epistemology’s traditional concerns (for example, weaponry, slurs, violence)? Is there anything philosophically interesting behind the ‘epistemic X’ pattern? Is it just herd-mentality combined with the influence of a few philosophical trend-setters (dynamics which philosophers are not always as immune to as we like to think, or like others to think)? Or is it a slightly odd marketing-gimmick: a way to try to make research that might pass by relatively unnoticed seem like it’s part of a hot new trend?
November 20, 2025 at 6:13 PM
aidanmcglynn.bsky.social
And an office shot for completeness, though not a particularly distinctive one - I’d like to get a snowy one at some point this winter
A shot of Arthur’s Seat and the Salisbury Crags over rooftops and under a very blue sky. Everything looks cold.
November 20, 2025 at 4:23 PM
aidanmcglynn.bsky.social
The summit of Arthur’s Seat peaking over the top of buildings around campus
November 20, 2025 at 4:10 PM
aidanmcglynn.bsky.social
The philosopher David Lewis, sporting his distinctive long beard, with a speech bubble below to make it look like he's voicing the quoted post. The post is by Jonathan Edward Durham and says 'Somewhere in a parallel universe there’s a platter of deviled eggs sitting on their couch thinking about fucking destroying me in two weeks'
November 15, 2025 at 4:36 PM
aidanmcglynn.bsky.social
Picked up some philosophy to listen to this month to atone for my (on-going) Dan Brown-related sins
A page to show what I've added to my audible library. It's 'Meaning: A Very Short Introduction' by Emma Borg and Sarah Fisher and 'Transformative Experience' by L A Paul.
November 11, 2025 at 1:30 PM
aidanmcglynn.bsky.social
Some photos of the centre this morning - a touch on the grey side, but it still looks okay
There’s a stained grey wall in the foreground, but over it you can see the Scott monument on the right and the castle in the distance on the left. A black and white shot of some well-known tenements near Waverley station in Edinburgh. You can see the crown of St Giles cathedral over the top of the buildings. The Scott monument, a large rocket-shaped monument in brown stone with red lights adding highlights.
November 8, 2025 at 1:54 PM
aidanmcglynn.bsky.social
Jon Hamm as Don Draper in Mad Men, smartly dressed in a lift and saying 'I don't think about you at all'. He is labelled 'onions' in this version of the meme.
November 8, 2025 at 10:49 AM
aidanmcglynn.bsky.social
Got flu vaccine (was expecting a covid one too, but sadly no dice), and I asked them to administer to my left arm. I am right handed, but I’d managed to forget that I primarily use my left for walking stick…

A picture of Thunderbird 3, since I passed by on way to my appointment.
The Scott monument in Edinburgh - a tall rocket-shaped monument, in brown stone but highlighted with red lights
November 8, 2025 at 9:32 AM