Ben Young

Call for chapter proposals - The OUP Handbook of Smell edited by Jessica Freiherr, Andreas Keller, Kathrin Ohla, Laiquan Zou, & Benjamin Young and published by Oxford University Press (under contract). Full details here: philevents.org/event/show/1... Please share widely.

Join us tomorrow (9/19) at noon by Zoom for the first seminar of the MIT Consciousness Club sites.google.com/view/mit-con... #neuroscience

The role of mental imagery in worry: Insights from aphantasia www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Here's the schedule for the MIT Consciousness Club this year: sites.google.com/view/mit-con.... I'm looking forward to it! (Rooms will be announced soon; and we're currently working on a zoom option for those who would like to join online)

The Scent of Memory: Cultural Identity Through Odors in Brazil www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-6...

Philosophers on Bluesky who work on the chemical senses include @barrycsmith.bsky.social, @smellosopher.bsky.social, @benyoung.bsky.social, @asifamajid.bsky.social, @giuliamartina.bsky.social, @bexmillar.bsky.social, and me. See also my starter pack of philosophers of perception: go.bsky.app/B2HQDad

Cool new paper: Representations of smells: The next frontier for language models? www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Ben @benyoung.bsky.social and I are editing a special issue on the philosophy of smell and taste. Whether you have worked on these intriguing senses before or want to get into them for the first time, this is your call! Bonus point: fully open access 👍 philosophymindscience.org/index.php/ph...

Call for Papers: Philosophy and Chemosenses special issue of Philosophy and the Mind Sciences (fully open access with no fees) edited by @giuliamartina.bsky.social and me. Deadline for submissions September 1. Submit early and often for best results philosophymindscience.org/index.php/ph...

"Jews are capable of forming their own views about Israel, Palestine and everything else. We don’t need institutions to tell us what we must believe to be authentically Jewish." www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Pleased to say "Space, Time, and Memory", an academic book by Oxford University Press edited by the inimitable Lynn Nadel & Sara Aronowitz is now out. I contributed a chapter, "Memory and Planning in Brains and Machines". You can download the entire book for free: library.oapen.org/bitstream/ha...

Working from the summer office

For those around Cambridge check out this wonderful smell symposium: Scents and imagination www.crassh.cam.ac.uk/events/45567...

Spring break reading

Spring break smells

The Philosophy department at the University of Nevada is hosting a cool lecture on April 14th. Amia Srinivasan will be speaking on "Genealogies of Oppression: Psychoanalysis, Feminism and Liberation". The event is free and open to the public. If you're in or nearby Reno, NV, feel free to attend!

Great to see this new primer on the cognitive capacities that support multi-species sociality www.cell.com/current-biol...

The MIT Open Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science is a growing resource, expertly edited and designed, with high quality contributors (OK OK I am one of them) oecs.mit.edu

For those interested in books about smell, taste, and flavor I made a short (eclectic) list of recommendations shepherd.com/best-books/s... #philosophy #perception #Smell #Taste

One more day to get your paper in.

Reached peak middle age standing in line on a Friday waiting for Costco to open to avoid the weekend crowds.

Visual attention and representational content academic.oup.com/pq/advance-a...

Trends in Cognitive Sciences The metabolic costs of cognition www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Tastes and retronasal odours evoke a shared flavour-specific neural code in the human insula www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... #PhilSky #PhilPerception #taste #flavor #smell

Starting the week with a rejection always sucks. Reviewer #3 strikes again.

It’s All About the Layers: Lycan on Olfactory Representation link.springer.com/chapter/10.1...

The Santa Fe Institute @sfiscience.bsky.social is looking for new faculty members! Surely one of the best gigs in the world. santafe.edu/about/jobs/r...

For SoCal friends, Here is a list of resources for shelter, animal boarding, free items, and distribution hubs. These places can also use donations (e.g., food, water, masks, and blankets). Please consider donating if you can. For more info, visit Instagram: mutualaidla

CFP: Olfactory Philosophy Workshop at UNR Lake Tahoe philevents.org/event/show/1... Please spread the CFP widely to PhD students and ECRs - the deadline is January 31

Anyone else play lunch box bingo this morning after two weeks of their kids forgetting to empty their bag at the start of winter vacation?

Baking with the kids is nice and all. But, have you ever tried just buying freshly baked french pastries. The kids will love them You will appreciate the lack of work And your banker will enjoy refinancing the mortgage. Follow me for more middle aged parenting advice.

Every time the administration announces a new tech platform or training I shudder a little and grumble quietly about poor use of funds. Also, I am beginning to understand my senior professors in college better who were not excited about email and the internet.

Awoke to air raid sirens at 12:03 am and ran to our bomb shelter. Can someone please ask 2024 to pace itself. I am already exhausted.

Ending the year with a flu shot last week and a Covid booster today. Pre-gaming a little different for 2024.

CALL FOR PAPERS: Final conference of the ERC-funded Mental Imagery Project. All expenses covered + 1000 Euro honorarium May 30-31, 2024, Antwerp More info: bencenanay.com/paw.htm

Is scheduling academic professional conferences on Passover (eg APA Pacific and TSC Tucson) antisemitic or something else? Both examples are repeat offenders. It is certainly a poor professional practice, but does it amount something worse like an ethical issue?

Apologies for the cranky tweet (there might be a few) The 30th Annual - The Science of Consciousness conference in Tucson consciousness.arizona.edu is on Passover. Would have been nice to go, but apparently they don't care to be inclusive of traditional jews.

CFA: Feminist Philosophy of Physics Workshop June 20-21, 2024 at U of MI, Ann Arbor & online. Options for 20 min talks, flash talks, & panels. Submission deadline: January 19, 2024. Support for childcare, flights, visa costs avail. #PhilSci #Physics #FeministSky philevents.org/event/show/1...

New on the BJPS Review of Books 𝘾𝙤𝙜𝙣𝙞𝙩𝙞𝙫𝙚 𝙂𝙖𝙙𝙜𝙚𝙩𝙨: 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝘾𝙪𝙡𝙩𝙪𝙧𝙖𝙡 𝙀𝙫𝙤𝙡𝙪𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙤𝙛 𝙏𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙠𝙞𝙣𝙜 —by Cecelia Heyes (@celiaheyes.bsky.social) Reviewed by Philip Gerrans Read it here: www.thebsps.org/reviewofbook... #philsci #philsky #hpbio

We have a disagreement in this household concerning what goes on bookshelves. My position is that it is clearly and of analytical necessity true (if anything could be) that such furniture is for books. The other position is self-defeating.

Weathering a nasty multi day migraine and neuropathy flare up/cluster. And man does it screw with all aspects of your life when screens are the enemy. Work, entertainment, and socializing all on screens all the time. I love it but the dependence is staggering.

Working on Stinking Philosophy! proofs at the only acceptable Sunday morning office.

psyche.co/ideas/heres-... by @hohwy.bsky.social and Kevin Berryman

I don’t know who needs to hear this, but - publishing is hard, but not eating your packed lunch before 12 that is an accomplishment of true greatness.

Reviewing a review paper that didn’t do much lit. review. It does what it claims but ignores large areas seemingly out of ignorance that are not hard to find with a single google search. Is it fair to just tell the author/s to do better or as a reviewer do I have an obligation to provide citations?

It is miso soup for breakfast season.

Today I am pondering if the connection between making soup and cold rainy days only associative or is there something about the shared wet qualities that make it such a great paring?

Come and work with us at ANU! We're hiring in philosophy of mind (broadly construed), junior faculty (lecturer, continuing) philjobs.org/job/show/25349

Think I took Sunday fun day too far