https://www.chrismeyns.xyz/blog/ Recent content in Blog on C.O.M. Hugo -- gohugo.io en Sun, 20 Mar 2022 19:26:35 +0100 https://www.chrismeyns.xyz/blog/provisional-measures-requested-ordered-south-africa-israel-icj/ Sun, 28 Jan 2024 10:25:47 +0200 https://www.chrismeyns.xyz/blog/provisional-measures-requested-ordered-south-africa-israel-icj/ On 29 December 2023, the steadfast and courageous Republic of South Africa filed a case with the International Court of Justice (ICJ) against “The State of Israel” on suspicion of genocidal intent. South Africa requested a number of provisional measures while genocide is being investigated. On 26 January 2024 the ICJ delivered its order against “The State of Israel”. As there has been some kerfuffle about what the ICJ’s order really amounts to, and how close it is to what the South African legal team had requested, here’s a tabular comparison of the two sets of provisional measures for easy comparison, with the differences pointed out. https://www.chrismeyns.xyz/blog/climate-march-suppressed-speeches/ Sun, 12 Nov 2023 14:25:47 +0200 https://www.chrismeyns.xyz/blog/climate-march-suppressed-speeches/ This is an audio recording and accompanying transcript of part of a programme of speeches delivered as part of the climate march (klimaatmars) held in Amsterdam on 12 November 2023. I’m providing this here because: In the official broadcast the presenters talked over, and so blocked out, parts of the speeches. Those missing parts are included here. The current recording will allow you to get a better sense of the surface-level aggression and booing that were tangible on the ground. https://www.chrismeyns.xyz/blog/de-waarheid-vertellen-xr-brief-farrell-bradbrook-hallam/ Thu, 19 Oct 2023 14:25:47 +0200 https://www.chrismeyns.xyz/blog/de-waarheid-vertellen-xr-brief-farrell-bradbrook-hallam/ Donderdag 19 oktober 2023, door Clare Farrell, Gail Bradbrook en Roger Hallam Deze brief bevat de persoonlijke meningen van drie mede-oprichters van Extinction Rebellion (Uitsterfrebellie, afgekort XR). XR Global Support (Wereldwijde Ondersteuning) denkt dat deze brief voor rebellen wereldwijd van belang zal zijn, en dat het een belangrijk debat op gang zal brengen over hoe we ons aanpassen aan een snel opwarmende wereld. Dit is een Nederlandse vertaling van de oorspronkelijke brief, die in het Engels geschreven was. https://www.chrismeyns.xyz/blog/bbc-just-stop-oil-conversation-analysis/ Tue, 08 Nov 2022 14:25:47 +0200 https://www.chrismeyns.xyz/blog/bbc-just-stop-oil-conversation-analysis/ The action group Just Stop Oil has again blocked the M25 motorway around London today, and accounted for its actions in a BBC radio interview. As I thought this interview was extremely well done, I decided to give you an analysis of the conversational and argumentative moves. Listen to the analysis: Speakers Sarah Montague, BBC journalist Alex de Koning, spokesperson Just Stop Oil Tony Banbury, affected by Just Stop Oil’s direct action The Right Honourable Sir Roger Gale, MP Transcript Chris The action group Just Stop Oil has again blocked the M25 motorway around London today, to push the UK government to—you guessed it—just stop with allowing oil extraction and to act on the climate hell that’s facing all of us. https://www.chrismeyns.xyz/blog/2022-10-15-festival-of-derivatives-cfp/ Sat, 15 Oct 2022 14:25:47 +0200 https://www.chrismeyns.xyz/blog/2022-10-15-festival-of-derivatives-cfp/ Call for proposals: Festival of Derivatives Deadline: 15 Nov 2022 Submit your proposal Festival information: 7 Dec 2022 7.00–8.30 pm CET/CAT Online event Register here View the Festival details Copies and derivatives are everywhere. Culture would not be without people duplicating, adapting and creating ripoffs of existing material. Yet at the same time paywalls and extractive licensing schemes do much work to block off copying. And somehow certain works are still labelled ‘original’, and it’s generally only those supposed ‘originals’ that get prized. https://www.chrismeyns.xyz/blog/nationaliseer-energiesector/ Thu, 29 Sep 2022 14:25:47 +0200 https://www.chrismeyns.xyz/blog/nationaliseer-energiesector/ This is an opinion piece written for the Dutch newspaper Trouw. It argues that the root cause of the current exhorbitant energy prices in The Netherlands lies in the privatisation of the country’s energy sector in the early 2000s. Only taking the energy sector back into public ownership will address this. Terwijl huishoudens met de hashtag #ikredhetniet alarm slaan over onmenselijk hoge energierekeningen, hebben energiebedrijven zelden zo’n goede periode achter de rug gehad. https://www.chrismeyns.xyz/blog/extradition-assange-a-threat-to-journalism/ Wed, 06 Jul 2022 14:25:47 +0200 https://www.chrismeyns.xyz/blog/extradition-assange-a-threat-to-journalism/ This is an opinion piece written for the Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad. It argues that the USA’s request to have publisher and journalist Julian Assange extradited for their work at Wikileaks is a threat to journalism worldwide. Recent keurde de Britse Minister van Binnenlandse Zaken Priti Patel een verzoek van de Verenigde Staten goed om WikiLeaks-oprichter Julian Assange uit te leveren. De verdediging van Assange zegt bij het Hooggerechtshof in beroep te gaan. https://www.chrismeyns.xyz/blog/2021-06-18-information-history-philosophy-introduction/ Fri, 18 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.chrismeyns.xyz/blog/2021-06-18-information-history-philosophy-introduction/ This article is part of the volume Information and the History of Philosophy. At the start of the pandemic of 2020, facial recognition systems were momentarily thrown into disarray. How to identify faces, if everyone venturing outside covers mouths and noses with virus-repellent cloth?1 That these machine learning systems could soon make do with simply people’s eyes and facial shape is, to me, telling, not just because of the nauseating extent of continued on- and offline surveillance it reveals. https://www.chrismeyns.xyz/blog/2021-06-18-information-visualization-in-the-philosophical-transactions/ Fri, 18 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.chrismeyns.xyz/blog/2021-06-18-information-visualization-in-the-philosophical-transactions/ An article that discusses how information visualization functions in the Royal Society of London’s Philosophical Transactions, one of the earliest scientific journals. https://www.chrismeyns.xyz/blog/2021-06-01-interview-breaking-waves/ Tue, 01 Jun 2021 14:25:47 +0200 https://www.chrismeyns.xyz/blog/2021-06-01-interview-breaking-waves/ A conversation with Matt Cornell on evidence of data fabrication in Dutch contact tracing, and the pseudoscience of government-sponsored Fieldlab events in the Netherlands. Listen at your leisure. Speak up, get organised together with neighbours, friends, family and acquaintances to take action if you think that such public health misoperations are not OK. https://www.chrismeyns.xyz/blog/2021-04-20-data-fabrication-contact-tracing-netherlands/ Tue, 20 Apr 2021 20:35:18 +0100 https://www.chrismeyns.xyz/blog/2021-04-20-data-fabrication-contact-tracing-netherlands/ There have been credible reports of data fabrication in contact tracing data in The Netherlands. These have potentially serious implications for public health data, policy, research and society. Data owners (RIVM, GGDs) and (re)users must investigate, notify, and where applicable, retract. https://www.chrismeyns.xyz/blog/2020-10-16-philosophy-as-work/ Fri, 16 Oct 2020 08:52:58 +0200 https://www.chrismeyns.xyz/blog/2020-10-16-philosophy-as-work/ A seriously tongue-in-cheeck mock-up of a philosophy job ad within the multi-level marketing structure of today’s Corporate University™, in the shape of a philosophy article https://www.chrismeyns.xyz/blog/2020-01-01-amo-molyneux/ Tue, 21 Jul 2020 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.chrismeyns.xyz/blog/2020-01-01-amo-molyneux/ An article that discusses what the philosopher Anton Amo (ca. 1703–ca. 1750) plausibly might have said, had they considered questions about cross-modal learning https://www.chrismeyns.xyz/blog/2019-10-09-data-in-the-royal-society-philosophical-transactions/ Wed, 09 Oct 2019 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.chrismeyns.xyz/blog/2019-10-09-data-in-the-royal-society-philosophical-transactions/ Introduction In an era of big data and data intensive science which, as some have suggested, may even make models, theories and hypotheses obsolete, it can be difficult to imagine that notions of data were not always already central to scientific practice.1 How did the notion of ‘data’ come to be such a core part of thinking about science? While scholars have studied the histories of various epistemic units, including facts, experience, observation and, more recently, information, surprisingly little is known about the history of the notion of data. https://www.chrismeyns.xyz/blog/2019-09-15-philosophy-postcard-iris-murdoch/ Sun, 15 Sep 2019 10:54:25 +0200 https://www.chrismeyns.xyz/blog/2019-09-15-philosophy-postcard-iris-murdoch/ In 2019 I contributed a ‘postcard’ to the Philosophy by Postcard-initiative to celebrate the centenary of the birth of writer and philosopher Iris Murdoch (1919–1999).1 The idea: anyone can send in a postcard with a (philosophy) question; others write in reply. The postcard I responded to, by a person identified as ‘Josie’, inquired about self-love. What is it? Is it even possible? As it happened, I had spent much of the Summer of 2018 immersed in Murdoch’s letters, and this reply is (nearly? https://www.chrismeyns.xyz/blog/2019-06-03-inscription-rebellion/ Mon, 03 Jun 2019 20:35:18 +0100 https://www.chrismeyns.xyz/blog/2019-06-03-inscription-rebellion/ In 1758, a revolutionary text left London-based printer S. Richardson, swiftly finding its way from booksellers in The Strand and Pall Mall to the shelves of hundreds of philosophically inclined households. Supported by over 100 subscribers in an early form of crowdfunding, here was the first English translation of the complete works of the Stoic philosopher Epictetus. Contemporary sources state that the translation ‘made a great noise all over Europe’ and it long remained a standard work. https://www.chrismeyns.xyz/blog/2019-04-01-amo-philmind/ Mon, 01 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.chrismeyns.xyz/blog/2019-04-01-amo-philmind/ Introduction “The philosopher”, Anton Wilhelm Amo states in his final published work, “should perpetually dwell on those things which can be known.” (Amo, 1738, p. 26) One of the phenomena that allow for certain knowledge, Amo thinks, is the human mind. The mind is the unchangeable, stable part of the human being (Amo, 1738, pp. 24, 26; cf. Meiner, 1734, p. 14). It should then be no surprise that the mind figures prominently in Amo’s thinking. https://www.chrismeyns.xyz/blog/2019-03-01-amo-perception/ Fri, 01 Mar 2019 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.chrismeyns.xyz/blog/2019-03-01-amo-perception/ An article on Anton Amo’s (c. 1703–c. 1750) claim that the human mind does not have sense perception https://www.chrismeyns.xyz/blog/2018-03-20-women-philosophers-agency/ Thu, 22 Feb 2018 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.chrismeyns.xyz/blog/2018-03-20-women-philosophers-agency/ Essay on agency and the representation of women philosophers https://www.chrismeyns.xyz/blog/2018-01-01-sympathetic-action/ Mon, 01 Jan 2018 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.chrismeyns.xyz/blog/2018-01-01-sympathetic-action/ An article on the concept of sympathy as it appears in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century action explanation https://www.chrismeyns.xyz/blog/2017-03-20-why-dont-philosophers-talk-about-slavery/ Sat, 28 Oct 2017 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.chrismeyns.xyz/blog/2017-03-20-why-dont-philosophers-talk-about-slavery/ Essay which asks why philosophers have been silent on slavery in the history of their field https://www.chrismeyns.xyz/blog/2016-10-01-leibniz-ethics-probability/ Sat, 01 Oct 2016 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.chrismeyns.xyz/blog/2016-10-01-leibniz-ethics-probability/ Paper that discusses how the philosopher G.W. Leibniz (1646-1716) saw probability theory apply to ethical questions