Emily Thomas
@emilytwrites
Followers
6,037
Following
903
Media
1,047
Statuses
3,207
Philosopher of time, space, travel, arcane books. Professor at Durham. Author of Absolute Time & The Meaning of Travel. Defender of armchairs.
Durham, England
Joined July 2017
Don't wanna be here?
Send us removal request.
Explore trending content on Musk Viewer
TLP THE SECRET OF RING
• 475748 Tweets
#ปิ่นภักดิ์EP10
• 470781 Tweets
凱旋門賞
• 128055 Tweets
Villa
• 120072 Tweets
Forest
• 104556 Tweets
Jets
• 79606 Tweets
Evans
• 73887 Tweets
シンエンペラー
• 57631 Tweets
宇宙戦艦ヤマト
• 48572 Tweets
オリックス
• 45545 Tweets
中嶋監督
• 44231 Tweets
Lewandowski
• 41997 Tweets
Vikings
• 40055 Tweets
Rodgers
• 34709 Tweets
Enzo
• 34118 Tweets
#AVLMUN
• 27173 Tweets
ブルーストッキング
• 24849 Tweets
Madueke
• 24122 Tweets
ITZY IMAGINARY TRACK
• 22562 Tweets
Raphinha
• 21772 Tweets
ロンシャン
• 21154 Tweets
Saleh
• 18916 Tweets
アルリファー
• 18619 Tweets
ロスアンゼルス
• 16700 Tweets
Garnacho
• 14263 Tweets
ハンターハンター
• 14190 Tweets
アヴァンチュール
• 14137 Tweets
#乃木坂工事中
• 10523 Tweets
Zirkzee
• 10405 Tweets
Pinned Tweet
More news! As of tomorrow, I'll become interim Head of Department for Philosophy. It will be an honour to represent such a brilliant bunch (wrangle? argument?) of philosophers, although I hear that being HoD isn't *terribly* restful. Let's jump in,
@DurhamPhilosop1
10
1
99
So, I won a Leverhulme Prize! Am absolutely blooming delighted.
2020 Philip Leverhulme Prize Winners announced. £3 million awarded to 30 exceptional researchers! The Trust offered prizes in these areas: Biological Sciences; History; Law; Mathematics and Statistics; Philosophy and Theology; Sociology and Social Policy:
2
9
84
45
21
572
ANNNND it's finally here! Edited by the brilliant Karen Detlefsen and
@lshape
, the Routledge Handbook of Women and Early Modern European Philosophy is excitingly rich and broad. I even have a chapter on matter in Cavendish, Conway, and Cockburn...
11
100
545
"Metaphysics is in fact inescapable – all of our thinking is underpinned by it, and those who ignore it simply espouse an unexamined and possibly faulty metaphysics."
Yes!
22
76
402
This is astonishing. Magdalene College,
@Cambridge_Uni
has discovered
#philosopher
Mary Astell's library, which includes annotations on Descartes' Principles and thoughts on Democritus:
via
3
99
342
Delighted to say I have finally set eyes on new book! It's mostly about
#time
in early modern
#philosophy
, although also bits on apocalypse and mountains. Many thanks to
@OUPPhilosophy
and everyone else who helped along the way.
#historyofphilosophy
#historyofscience
15
52
299
Wittgenstein was born
#otd
in 1889. Here's Bertrand Russell on meeting him:
-He was a genius: "passionate, profound, intense, dominating"
-lived on "milk & vegetables"
-After Aristotelian Society "he raged & stormed" at Russell for "not telling these men what fools they were"
1/2
8
45
257
Wittgenstein once suggested that all Bertrand Russell’s books should be bound in two colours:
- Red for mathematical logic, and "all students of philosophy should read them".
- Blue for ethics and politics, and "no one should be allowed to read them".
#historyofphilosophy
16
61
243
It's
#WorldPhilosophyDay
! To celebrate, I've written an article about three women philosophers you've (almost certainly) never heard of...
8
133
240
My department
@DurhamPhilosop1
is hiring FOUR philosophers! Jobs in
#philosophy
of science; environmental philosophy; and moral, social and political philosophy. Please do spread the word:
4
164
245
"When one compares the talents one has with those of a Leibniz, one is tempted to throw away one's books and go die quietly in the dark of some forgotten corner."
Says eighteenth century
#philosopher
Denis Diderot.
7
50
175
Student email received earlier (quoted with permission):
“Dear Emily, Can you help? If I committed a crime drunk on Saturday night, then forgot about it, would I still be morally responsible?”
Took me a second to realise it's about John Locke’s
#philosophy
of personal identity.
2
26
179
Bit blustery but sun is out AND NOW SO IS MY BOOK!
It explores
#philosophy
of
#travel
, from Age of Discovery to today: maps, science, mountains, space, cabin porn. I am *very* happy - years of work in pretty hardback. Please retweet, to help me reach people who might like it?!
10
78
171
I am on the radio! Tune in to hear all about Henri Bergson, and why time really does flow...
Next week: why we experience time in ways that can't be measured in hours and minutes
0
10
29
28
34
164
My favourite Bertrand Russell story...
On returning to England in 1947, “unfortunate censors” had to read all papers in Russell's luggage, lest they “contain information useful to the enemy”.
This included the *full* draft of his History of Western Philosophy.
6
33
164
How a philosopher woos his love - Bertrand Russell deploys Spinoza to capture the heart of Ottoline Morrell:
6
26
146
John Locke argued creatures like cockles and mussels can have ideas, just "not so many".
#historyofphilosophy
7
16
139
Frank Jackson
#philosophy
conference legend: reportedly he once tried to return a book to a bookshop because it was “wrong”, and to prove this he’d underlined all the false bits.
#BookLoversDay
4
35
137
This just arrived in the post! Very pleased, and thanks to everyone who was involved
#historyofphilosophy
#womeninphilosophy
7
37
134
Astonishing insults hurled at Mary
#Wollstonecraft
for writing feminist
#philosophy
:
- “hyena in petticoats” (1795)
- “philosophical wanton” (1798)
- “Poor maniac!” (1798)
- “man in female form” (1802)
- “severe case of penis-envy" (1947)
- “always silly.. meddlesome” (1974)
6
32
140
In 1764, philosopher Immanuel Kant wrote about how sensitive various Europeans are to artistic feelings of ‘beauty’ and ‘sublime’ - and it turns out he’s not a huge fan of the Dutch:
4
13
130
Today is Henri Bergson's birthday! I once talked about his philosophy of
#time
, for
@BBCInOurTime
- it was huge fun to record, and I think that comes across in the broadcast...
3
30
134
It’s time for
@BBCInOurTime
to replay "Bergson and Time"! I thoroughly enjoyed this - as evident from laughter in middle.
It’s available for next few weeks:
5
32
133
Advance copies have finally arrived - this means my book on the
#philosophy
of
#travel
officially exists! Will be released in UK on 27th February, in US on 1st April....
16
17
131
For teaching, kind colleagues made list of excellent
#philosophy
podcasts, and it was too good not to share! Enjoy...
- Philosophy Bites
- Panpsycast
- Philosophy Talk
- Forum for Philosophy
- History of Philosophy
- UnMute
- Partially Examined Life
- Philosophy In Three Words
7
36
125
-"He used to come to see me every evening at midnight, and pace up and down the room like a wild beast.. thinking about logic.. [and] sin"
-"I did not like to suggest it was time for bed, for it seemed probable both to him and to me that on leaving me he would commit suicide."
3
10
115
This has arrived! Editors did fabulous job, covering mechanics to magic. Andrew Janiak & I have a fun paper about how 17th century theories of space (e.g. those of Isaac Newton, Samuel Clarke, & Catharine Cockburn) relate to God and evolved...
#historyofphilosophy
4
22
111
"Men correspond to animals, but women correspond to plants". A ringing endorsement of women from Hegel.
#historyofphilosophy
11
24
109
Just received official letter to say I've won an AHRC Leadership Fellows Grant, for project on early twentieth century time theories. Absolutely delighted! Thanks so much
@ahrcpress
and to everyone who helped, it's just brilliant news.
10
3
114
Bertrand Russell snubs
#Kant
: "in real life, he never went more than ten miles from his native city of Königsberg, and maintained that the whole of space existed only in his imagination. This grandiose
#philosophy
was merely the obverse of his practical timidity". Cutting.
12
27
105
“He made an unsuccessful attempt to obtain a professorship at Edinburgh; having failed in this, he became tutor to a lunatic & then secretary to a general. Fortified by these credentials he ventured again into philosophy..”
Bertrand Russell on David Hume, who died
#otd
in 1776.
1
18
103
With customary panache, Bertrand Russell writes that all the murderers he's known "were addicted to smiling". "But", he adds, "it must not be inferred that all who smile are murderers. The world is gloomy enough already, there is no need to employ bad logic to make it worse.”
2
11
100
Introducing
#philosopher
JME McTaggart, who:
-“saluted cats”
-titled himself “Knight of the Order of Vegetating Oysters”
-illustrated lectures with "griffins and dragons”
-had "reputation for outrageous denial of the patently obvious”
-"was a perfectly sane & balanced thinker”
9
11
103
Happy
#WorldPhilosophyDay
! To celebrate, here's "11 philosophers you don't know about, but should".
I picked the little-known but brilliant, subtle, and sometimes caustic Constance Naden:
1
31
98
#Philosopher
Anaxagoras was exiled and almost executed for denying that the moon is a god - claiming instead it's a rock. Great article on this here:
1
35
93
Just learned
#historyofphilosophy
anecdote about Welsh philosopher Henry Jones. During academic job interview, Jones was asked if it were true he denied the divinity of Jesus Christ. Jones replied, "No sir, I would never deny the divinity of any man!"
5
18
91
Bertrand Russell recounts talk at Cambridge Moral Sciences Club, October 1913:
"I read a paper on Time - it was too compressed & no one understood a single word. There were about 40 people - I only had 20 chairs… Innumerable ladies turned up unexpectedly."
#historyofphilosophy
3
6
96
American friend just sent me Bertrand Russell quote:
“Let us remember that in a democracy criticism of our politicians is criticism of ourselves - we have the politicians we deserve.”
Sometimes I really don't know what to do with bloody Bertrand Russell.
3
17
94
Happy
#InternationalWomensDay
! To celebrate, here’s an
@OUPPhilosophy
blog post about women philosophers - I wrote about novelist and metaphysician May Sinclair
3
37
91
So it's only taken 5 years but I have *finally* submitted my draft
#historyofphilosophy
of time in late 19th/early 20th century metaphysics. The book is of monster length, but it is DONE. (At least, until Reviewer 2 appears...)
Cue interim celebration emojis🥂🎉🎇
7
3
83
Friends. Romans. Philosophers. I have arrived in the Twitter universe. Help me find my people?
#myfirstTweet
15
15
83
Have reached the career stage where I'm re-reading my own publications, to see if they say anything useful.
#academictwitter
5
5
83
First book review for Early Modern Women on Metaphysics is out: "shows important role female philosophers played in shaping the history of metaphysics and philosophy of science". Many thanks to
@GaskinHilary
,
@CambUP_PHILNYUK
and excellent authors.
0
33
83
My department
@DurhamPhilosop1
is hiring! We're looking for a permanent Assistant Professor, specialising in Philosophy of Data Science...
1
51
84
This is fascinating: infrared imaging has read c.100 BCE scroll damaged by Vesuvius volcano. Turns out, scroll is about
#Plato
’s life, and questions some parts of the
#philosopher
’s biography e.g. when he was sold into slavery...
1
37
82
Just received an amazing scholarly kindness: I emailed a historian asking about an obscure archive, and they have just *posted* me a USB stick containing 5GB worth of archival photographs. Bloody wonderful,
#academictwitter
.
2
7
80
#Descartes
was born
#onthisday
in 1596. He led a fascinating life, working as a philosopher and a solider - AND perhaps even as a spy:
7
17
80
"My book is growing too difficult.. It is impossible to make philosophy so it can be understood without any trouble. I am doing my best to be simple, but tho’ I use no long words, I am afraid SOME thinking will be required by the reader"
- Russell (1911) on Problems of Philosophy
2
11
76
Speaking at metaphysics workshop at University of Sydney, which is *beautiful*...
2
1
77
CD Broad warns that World War II may interfere with philosophy:
6
18
75
Hot off the press! Very much looking forward to reading Alison Stone's new
#historyofphilosophy
on 19th century women - this study is really the first of its kind...
1
16
74
Descartes argued that the possibility he is mad is... unthinkable. But the philosophy of madness says otherwise. Fascinating article from
@justin_garson
via
@philosophersmag
. via
@philosophersmag
0
23
72
How do you shake off
#philosophy
speculations that have become too cold and melancholic? Here's a tip from David
#Hume
: "I dine, I play a game of backgammon, I converse, and am merry with my friends".
6
19
76
Tried to access a book about Henri
#Bergson
earlier and screen went funny... in a weirdly appropriate process-duree way?!
4
6
77
Yes, Newton discovered Many Great Things during the plague of 1665-1667. But, he didn't have to learn how to use Microsoft Teams.
2
12
76
Fascinating idea from
@HistPhilosophy
here: we shouldn't be distinguishing between ‘European’ and ‘non-European’ philosophy, but between philosophical cultures that respond to Greek thought and those that do not.
@emilytwrites
@PartiallyExLife
As for the question raised in this thread about whether Averroes was "Western": as I always like to say, he lived further west than Aquinas did.
I did a piece on this sort of problem for
@PhilosophyNow
a while back:
0
6
27
8
20
74
A few people have been asking me how
#timelines
were invented. In 1765, Joseph Priestly created what's thought to be the world's very first timeline, representing time uniformly. He used it to show when kings, philosophers, and artists lived and died:
6
17
75
British idealist F. H. Bradley: so retiring that fellow Oxford philosopher R. G. Collingwood, having lived within a few hundred yards of him for 16 years, remarked, "I never to my knowledge set eyes on him".
6
5
73
Bernard Williams on
#writing
in analytic
#philosophy
: "this style tries to remove in advance every conceivable misunderstanding or misinterpretation or objection, including those that would occur only to the malicious or the clinically literal-minded". Thanks Bernard!
2
20
72
My book is
@timeshighered
BOOK OF THE WEEK! This makes me very happy indeed.
Richard Larschan enjoys a wide-ranging survey of the deep intellectual insights and disputes thrown up by the experience of travel in “The Meaning of Travel: Philosophers Abroad”, by
@emilytwrites
, our Book of the Week
#THEBooks
0
1
3
7
12
72
In early twentieth century
#philosophy
, what did British idealists think "idealism" means? J.S. Mackenzie (1906) argues it's NOT Berkleyian idealism (things exist in a human/divine mind) or Kantian idealism (time and space are forms of our consciousness). Instead:
13
11
73
Excited to be talking about Bergson and time next week, with
@BBCInOurTime
...
Next week: why we experience time in ways that can't be measured in hours and minutes
3
20
64
1
13
69
Am giving
#IAPT
keynote today, on
#philosophyoftime
and sexism. At hotel breakfast this morning…
-Friendly Woman: “Are you here for the conference?”
-Me: “Yes”
-Friendly Woman: “Is your husband giving a talk?”
10
11
66
"Bergson’s main objection against Einstein’s work was that it was smuggling in a certain metaphysics into science, without acknowledging its presence" - materialism.
Great
@IAI_TV
interview here with
@_Jimena_Canales
on
#time
in Bergson & Einstein:
5
20
67
French Philosopher Jean-Jacques
#Rousseau
was born
#otd
in 1712. He wrote philosophy, opera, maybe first-ever autobiography (Confessions), AND contributed to first-ever Encyclopaedia (Diderot's). He also thought women not rational, but Mary
#Wollstonecraft
put him straight there.
8
17
64
Portable sundials were preferred to pocketwatches by early modern
#travellers
. Before his execution King Charles I gave his silver pocket sundial to his son, as a last gift. This German sundial even has a string to adjust for latitudes
#time
#clocks
#FridayFact
2
29
63
Excited that my paper on history of the specious present is OUT! It argues that a 18th century group of English philosophers have been overlooked in the history of temporal experience - and that one of them actually carried out psychological experiments to determine its length...
The Specious Present in English Philosophy 1749-1785: Theories and Experiments in Hartley, Priestley, Tucker, and Watson
Emily Thomas (
@emilytwrites
)
1
2
4
1
18
65
Received classic journal rejection today: Reviewer 1 liked the paper, Reviewer 2 did not. Nonetheless, in the cutthroat, thorny world that is
#historyofphilosophy
, I'm taking persuading one referee to be a win!
5
0
64
From an anonymous, 1883 Review of Kant:
"it is the unhappy fate of the German intellect to fight its philosophical… battles in… terminology repulsive to the commonsense of every other educated people"
3
7
62
"Atheism" claims the universe exists but God doesn't. "Acosmism" claims God exists and the universe doesn't. Learning about this, and other
#philosophy
of religion facts, at conference in Birmingham.
10
7
60
Gilbert Ryle speaking to Susan Stebbing in 1939, about her job application for a
#philosophy
Chair at
#Cambridge
:
6
22
61
My colleague Nancy Cartwright has published fascinating piece on supposed reign of physics…
3
20
62
Philosopher David Hume was born in Edinburgh
#otd
in 1711. His writings include rather beautiful list of "Scotticisms”.
Scotch on left, English on right:
4
8
62
Reading
#historyofscience
by John Evelyn, seventeenth century writer and gardener. This feels more like a poem than a contents page:
8
14
60
Mike Beaney's experience of editing the monumental Oxford Handbook of The History of Analytic Philosophy...
#academictwitter
4
11
61
Some heartwarming scholarly generosity: a retired historian of philosophy has posted me their *only copy* of notes detailing unpublished archive from 1900s Cambridge, because they say I'll have more use for them.
They're handwritten on index cards!
#academictwitter
3
0
58
Ever wanted to learn about wildly implausible metaphysics? Here goes...
A new episode of Philosophy Bites: Emily Thomas aka
@emilytwrites
on wildly implausible metaphysics - available on , Spotify, and iTunes...
3
7
20
6
9
59
Hannah Wolley on 1670s women’s education:
“Most in this depraved Age think a Woman learned if she can distinguish her Husband's bed from another’s..
I condemn great negligence of Parents, in letting.. Daughters lie fallow, yet sending barren Noddles of their sons to University”
2
17
60
My department
@DurhamPhilosop1
is hiring! Looking for an Assistant Professor with research interests in the ethics and politics of AI, data analysis, and the philosophy and foundations of computing...
4
41
57
5
13
59
Henri Bergson visited the USA for the first time in January 1913, and apparently people were so keen to hear his lecture they caused New York's first traffic jam - on Broadway. I really, really want this
#historyofphilosophy
anecdote to be true.
6
13
59
I love reading too much to fully get behind this, but nonetheless find this Schopenhauer quote rather beautiful (thanks
@philosophybites
):
5
15
58
At
@DurhamPhilosop1
we're advertising for a
#HistoryofPhilosophy
postdoc (1yr part-time position) suitable for remote working. Please retweet, to help ad reach early career scholars who might be interested?
5
80
58
“Most people would rather die than think; many do.”
#Philosopher
Bertrand Russell at his most jolly.
1
21
53
While awaiting execution, Roman statesman
#Boethius
wrote The Consolation of Philosophy (524CE). He teaches that wealth and fame pass, whilst true happiness comes from within.
Here is Lady Philosophy comforting Boethius in prison - note frothy mermaid dress.
#historyofphilosophy
4
20
54
What is
#space
? I've just published a popular article on a 300 year old
#philosophy
and
#science
debate...
3
25
41
Why do people change when they
#travel
? Using
#philosophy
, I argue our minds extend beyond our skulls, so leaving home *literally* means leaving parts of our minds behind:
Of course, this may mean our minds don't change much for a while...
@NewStatesman
10
14
53