Adam Willows

Theologian and philosopher at @BristolReligion. Interested in moral character and agency. Interdisciplinarity & the sciences. @adamwillows.bsky.social

[HouseofSurvivors @HseofSurvivors]

House of Survivors sees this decision as the right one and inevitable following the revelations of this week.

We expect more resignations to follow. The Archbishop must not be the scapegoat. The list of clergy in the 'circles of awareness' is staggering.

[Adam Willows @adam_willows]

'I thought it would do the work of God immense damage if this were public' is hard to square with 'There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known' (Luke 12:2).

I don't think hiding abuse furthers God's work.

[Andrew Graystone @AndrewGraystone]

A number of victims and survivors of John Smyth and the Church of England have asked me to issue a statement on their behalf. You can find it at https://t.co/l5XP7tMBxd

[Bristol Religion and Theology @BristolReligion]

.@TobyMatthiesen will be speaking about his new book "The Caliph and the Imam: The Making of Sunnism and Shiism" with @faisaldevji at the Institute of Ismaili Studies in London on 6 November. Register here to attend in person or online
https://t.co/VehnY9Gz9t

[Adam Willows @adam_willows]

Jo is brilliant and this is going to be really interesting - do come if you can!

[Bristol Religion and Theology @BristolReligion]

Our next public lecture is tomorrow at 5pm: Joanna Leidenhag speaking on The World's Souls and God's Body: Comparing Leibniz's Monadology with Ramanuja's Vishishtadvaita Panentheism https://t.co/HxWeXtAncp @UoBArtsMatter

[Adam Willows @adam_willows]

There are good uses of AI (have posted some) but today I came across a major poetry website using a LLM to produce auto-generated analyses of famous poems and it is just so unutterably, catastrophically bad.

[Adam Willows @adam_willows]

Depressingly predictable that *none* of the replies at present mentions a woman. Jennifer Herdt and Jean Porter notable omissions. And - what makes a 'great' philosopher? Karen Kilby and Mark Wynn are 2 of the greatest I know. Both incredibly intelligent - but also wise and kind.

[The Protestant Philosopher @ProtPhilosopher]

Who are the greatest living Christian philosophers? A list off the top of my head, in no particular order:

- Peter van Inwagan
- Eleonore Stump
- Alvin Plantinga
- Richard Swinburne
- Alex Pruss
- Linda Zagzebski
- Brian Leftow
- Dean Zimmerman
- William Lane Craig

Who would you add? Who would you leave off?

[Bristol Religion and Theology @BristolReligion]

Meet our new Lecturer in Jewish Studies, Dr Kevin Mattison: https://t.co/AUy2yT1EL6

[Adam Willows @adam_willows]

My strongest literary opinion is that the Narnia books should be read in publication order and C.S. Lewis was 100% wrong when he said otherwise. Chronological order absolutely ruins one of the great reveals in children's fiction.

[Adam Willows @adam_willows]

@Philip_Goff @philosophybites I think there is some respect in real life, but it gets antagonistic on here and you do seem to attract a lot of people who once read the blurb of 'A History of Western Philosophy' and subsequently solved all outstanding problems in metaphysics.

[Adam Willows @adam_willows]

@LeedsHewitt I think the evidence is sufficient to justify avoiding them on welfare grounds, which is my general approach. However, from memory (last looked at this ~2 years ago) there is evidence that for *some* individuals with *clinically diagnosed* trauma disorders they may be helpful.

[Adam Willows @adam_willows]

@existentialcoms N.B. Aristotle himself was an absolute looking-at-stuff champion, which was probably demotivating for the scholastics as someone else had looked at most of the good stuff already.

[Adam Willows @adam_willows]

@wylfcen A Grief Observed, Abolition of Man. But don't bother with the fiction/non-fiction divide with Lewis. Great philosophy+theology in his fiction and (as you can see from people recommending Screwtape as non-fiction!) not easy or always sensible to maintain the distinction anyway.

[Adam Willows @adam_willows]

@keithfrankish @Philip_Goff Not sure panpsychists are committed to that, but isn't it unremarkable anyway? If consciousness=existence, this amounts to saying if the particles which compose you stopped existing you'd vanish. Which seems sensible. Only odd if you've already concluded consciousness≠existence.

[Prof. Dr Beth Singler. @BVLSingler]

The frustration of STILL having to insist on my academic title being used at events where others on the panel will get theirs, ughhh...
(want to guess the main and obvious difference between me and the other panellist???)

[Adam Willows @adam_willows]

@KennethLPearce @morallawwithin George Berkeley wrote not one but two texts on the benefits of drinking 'Tar Water' (which is exactly what is sounds like) and the first of these was his *best-selling work* in his lifetime.

[Adam Willows @adam_willows]

@KennethLPearce @morallawwithin Berkeley would like you to know that Tar Water is 'of singular use' for breastfeeding and that you shouldn't worry about the 'unseemly Eruptions' that may occur on the skin of the infant. Under-twos should also be spoonfed at least 1/4 a pint per day.

[Adam Willows @adam_willows]

@KennethLPearce @morallawwithin George Berkeley wrote not one but two texts on the benefits of drinking 'Tar Water' (which is exactly what is sounds like) and the first of these was his *best-selling work* in his lifetime.

[Robert Talisse @RobertTalisse]

My profession has turned me into someone who finds this funny. Please help.

[Adam Willows @adam_willows]

If anyone's interested in the originals, these non-dilemmas were modified from real problems in Judith Jarvis Thomson's 'A Defense of Abortion', Philippa Foot's 'The Problem of Abortion and the Doctrine of the Double Effect', and the novel Sophie's Choice.

[Adam Willows @adam_willows]

Been trying out some moral non-dilemmas (thanks to @GaryMarcus @BVLSingler for the idea).

ChatGPT not sure whether or not you should agree to the murder of your children - as long as you're called Sophie... 😬

[Adam Willows @adam_willows]

Killing violinists and running people over with trolleys are also up for grabs 🚋🎻💀