Marilynn Johnson

Associate Professor of Philosophy @uofsandiego | Author of Adorning Bodies w/@BloomsburyPhilo | Visiting Prof @ifmparis Fall 2025

[Marilynn Johnson @marilynnjohnsn]

My paperback author copies arrived! @BloomsburyPhilo @Suzie_Nash

[Marilynn Johnson @marilynnjohnsn]

“The body is a changing canvas”

-me in my new philosophy of fashion & bodies class, currently taking place in Tokyo

Wanted to remember this phrase hence this tweet

[Marilynn Johnson @marilynnjohnsn]

This Friday I will be speaking at our #Paris conference about what I’m calling #Fashion #Acquisition, the process #children undergo learning to pair #clothes with intentions https://t.co/Y4QTG6L0qL

[Marilynn Johnson @marilynnjohnsn]

This Thursday & Friday in #Paris will be our #Fashion, #Meaning & #Language Conference at Institut Français de la Mode

Schedule & link to register are here: https://t.co/Y4QTG6L0qL

[Centre for Philosophical Studies of History @CpshOulu]

New video on our Youtube channel! Watch the talk "Archaeology as Historical Science: Centering the Human in Pre-History" that @marilynnjohnsn gave last week in our joint research seminar here: https://t.co/b53eNdPjQU.

Happy watching!

[Centre for Philosophical Studies of History @CpshOulu]

Today in a week (23.10, 16/17h, Central European/Finnish time), @marilynnjohnsn
will give the talk "Archaeology as Historical Science: Centering the Human in Pre-History". The talk will be hybrid (in Ostrava & on Zoom). More info: https://t.co/lYW5mWsJBx.

All welcome!

[Marilynn Johnson @marilynnjohnsn]

Thank you to the Institut Français de la Mode for having me speak again last night at your Dresscodes Seminar, this time on The Origins of Fashion #fashion #philosophy #archaeology #adornment

[Centre for Philosophical Studies of History @CpshOulu]

Today in two weeks (24.10), the autumn edition of our joint research seminar will begin with @marilynnjohnsn 's talk "Archaeology as Historical Science: Centering the Human in Pre-History". The talk will be hybrid (in Ostrava & on Zoom). More info: https://t.co/lYW5mWthr5.

[Marilynn Johnson @marilynnjohnsn]

I’m looking forward to giving this presentation in a couple weeks on Archaeology as Historical Science @GanglGeorg @CpshOulu in #Ostrava #Czechia

It will also be streamed on zoom — DM me for the zoom link & password if interested

[Marilynn Johnson @marilynnjohnsn]

I’m looking forward to giving this public lecture on The Origins of Fashion next Wednesday in Paris at Institut Français de la Mode, combining my #fashion & #archaeology research projects

Registration link:
https://t.co/b5dYCE1TBZ

[Marilynn Johnson @marilynnjohnsn]

@wash1756 Merci!

[Marilynn Johnson @marilynnjohnsn]

I’m really grateful to have the opportunity to be a Visiting Professor this semester @ifmparis Institut Français de la Mode in Paris

It’s been off to a great start so far sitting in on classes & planning our Nov conference

My first lecture is Monday on archaeology & art

[Marilynn Johnson @marilynnjohnsn]

What’s the best chapter title?

1) Embodied Meaning in Taylor Swift's Adorned Bodies

2) The Meaning of Fashion in Taylor Swift's Lyrics & Persona

3) Adorning Bodies in Taylor Swift's Lyrics & Persona: From Girlhood to Womanhood

(For forthcoming OUP book on #TaylorSwift)

[Marilynn Johnson @marilynnjohnsn]

How do garments and fashion systems create and transmit meaning in ways that parallel or diverge from verbal language?

What semiotic, semantic or pragmatic frameworks best capture the particular communicative properties of clothing?

[Marilynn Johnson @marilynnjohnsn]

#CFP for #Fashion, #Meaning and #Language: International Symposium

To take place in #Paris, this Nov. at top fashion school Institut Francais de la Mode

Welcome submissions from: #Philosophy #History #Sociology #Anthropology #CogSci #Linguistics etc

https://t.co/x9uti74Cob

[Marilynn Johnson @marilynnjohnsn]

The Fashion, Language and Meaning International Symposium welcomes papers focusing on the theoretical tools and frameworks that best model the production of clothing signals and their interpretation, studies of the meanings conveyed by a particular class of clothes, etc.

[Marilynn Johnson @marilynnjohnsn]

Where, aside from #PhilEvents are philosophers posting #CFPs these days?

[David Chalmers @davidchalmers42]

the long-awaited video for the "25 years of consciousness" event at the 2023 ASSC conference has now been posted at https://t.co/5Q9QKuIQpd.

this event was framed as a resolution of a 1998 bet between christof koch and me about whether we'd know the neural correlate of consciousness by 2023 (spoiler: i won). but the real excitement was the first public presentation of results of the @ArcCogitate adversarial collaboration, testing predictions of the global workspace and integrated information theories of consciousness (spoiler: predictions of both theories were seriously challenged.)

it was a memorable evening in front of 800 people in the NYU skirball theater, with a spirit of celebration in the air. the whole thing is captured beautifully by @vanroyko and marie-philippe gilbert of @eyesteelfilm, who are making a definitive film about the science of consciousness. the audience shots are great -- e.g. look out for danny kahneman (sadly no longer with us, but a big supporter of the adversarial collaboration) and barbara tversky in the second row. there are even consciousness-related musical interludes by @theamgydaloid and @babaBrinkman, and @heatherberlin does an excellent job as host.

the event gives a reasonable sense both of how far we've come in the science of consciousness and of how far we have to go. 25 years ago we couldn't dream of systematic experiments on the scale of the cogitate experiment. huge credit goes to co-leaders lucia melloni, @liadmudrik, and mike pitts, and to an army of extremely talented investigators and trainees, for all their work in pulling the experiment off. (full disclosure: i was a very minor co-author.) the results were deservedly published in a major article in nature in march this year.

at the same time, we've found that the search for the neural correlates of consciousness is far from easy. it may not require solving the hard problem of consciousness, but there are still many difficult philosophical and empirical issues that need to be sorted out before we can be confident in a claim about the NCC. all that comes out in seeing the very different interpretations that the adversarial theorists make in interpreting the results, including issues as basic as whether the key features of stimuli really are consciously perceived or not.

more results are coming soon, including a second experiment by the cogitate team, and results from four other adversarial collaborations sponsored by the templeton world charity foundation. @BiyuHe (NYU neuroscience), @De_dicto (ned block), and i are co-directing one of these collaborations (as ned mentions near the start of the video), along with jan brascamp, rachel denison, and megan peters as the other PIs. this collaboration is testing first-order theories of consciousness (theory leader: @VictorLamme) and higher-order theories of consciousness (theory leaders: @onemorebrown and @hakwanlau) using experiments on subjective inflation and on change blindness.

of course this experiment is unlikely to fully resolve the debate between these theories any more than the cogitate experiment did, but hopefully it will lead to some significant results that help the science and the philosophy of consciousness make progress.

after settling the bet, christof and i renewed our bet for another 25 years, to be settled in 2048 (when we'll be 92 and 82 respectively, if still around). i may still have the better side of the bet, but there's room for a lot of advances between now and then, especially if AI gets good enough to help out. it's entirely likely that current theories will look quite primitive from the perspective of 2048. here's to the next 25 years!

[Peter Godfrey-Smith @pgodfreysmith]

This whole event should be great.

[Marilynn Johnson @marilynnjohnsn]

Very much looking forward to seeing @pgodfreysmith at this #Philosophy & #Biology #PaBST conference later this month

[Marilynn Johnson @marilynnjohnsn]

@Wionsclasses @uofsandiego For the zoom I can send you the invite or in person just show up! Feel free to invite students too if you’d like

[Marilynn Johnson @marilynnjohnsn]

Join us next week Tuesday, Apr 29 for our event Evolving Practices: Improving the Curation & Repatriation of Cultural Heritage Materials @uofsandiego

USD’s new #NAGPRA coordinator Aaron Young will outline his vision for the role

Events both in person & online