Stuart Foyle

Interdisciplinary philosopher of religion:
Open University Religious Studies & Philosophy
Teach Religion & Film @ Durham Theology & Religion Dept.
🐿️ = awesome

[Stuart Foyle @philosofoyle]

Hey, do you want an American Chopper meme which helps you or your students think about the #Anselm-Gaunilo debate (#ontologicalargument #philosophyofreligion #Proslogion)? Yes, I know this is a niche interest.
Well, anyway, here's one I made for you.

[Stuart Foyle @philosofoyle]

A quick shout out via @NATREupdate about this excellent event at Durham which is free for RE teachers from anywhere in the UK: still time to sign up and some places available! Please RT if you know anyone who might be interested....
https://t.co/565ANmjwIy

[Stuart Foyle @philosofoyle]

@2Philosophical_ "But what about Phineas Gage?" - C20th seminars in analytic departments everywhere.

[Stuart Foyle @philosofoyle]

This is through click bait & out the other side: I don't want to find out the truth because I prefer to imagine this gopher in a little jumpsuit with 3 mobile phones & a truck full of landscaping equipment, madly fundraising & coordinating NGOs to the Challenge Anneka themetune.

[New Scientist @newscientist]

How a single gopher restored a landscape devastated by a volcano https://t.co/UxLirLUNr5

[Stuart Foyle @philosofoyle]

I'm not sure that "Twitter appears to be a public forum but actually each person's tweets are the private contents of their mind" is going to be a successful defence in court.

[Allison Pearson @AllisonPearson]

I respect the police who do a v difficult job, but 2 coppers turning up at my house on Remembrance Sunday over a year-old tweet - they won’t tell me what it said - erodes public confidence.
This is a free society and law-abiding people should not be pursued for “wrong think”. @EssexPoliceUK @SpeechUnion
My column:

[Stuart Foyle @philosofoyle]

@arrroberts Robert the Bruce rendered as fractal landscapes by modelling software: Robert the Bryce3D.

Robert the Bruce opens a tea shop on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh: Robert Thé Brews.

[Stuart Foyle @philosofoyle]

@arrroberts But if God delegated all God's powers to him for a short period of time he could be Robert the Bruce Almighty.

[Stuart Foyle @philosofoyle]

@jimmckeown @turingcop Thanks James! And congratulations on both the degree and the acceptance onto a postgrad programme: a great achievement. I'm excited for you to take this next step and hope you have a great time at Exeter.

[Stuart Foyle @philosofoyle]

@2Philosophical_ Yes, although a good 50% of this kind of thing can be explained by either a misunderstanding of epistemic humility or a conflation of descriptive & normative moral relativism.

[Stuart Foyle @philosofoyle]

@Luvians We forgive Bill Murray anything when it comes to whisky/whiskey.

[BFI @BFI]

From Cat People to The Substance. How the depiction of monstrous women on screen has evolved and reflected society’s deeper fears about sexuality and the body. https://t.co/VC0EtSWAGP

[Stuart Foyle @philosofoyle]

"Adversetising": when your ad strategy leaves the public with no option but to think your brand is some kind of wannabe dystopian megacorp of the kind that Paul Verhoeven films satirise. Ad exec catchphrase: "Feudalism had 99% brand recognition."

[Ian Dunt @IanDunt]

There should be a word for advertising that makes you less likely to buy the product. Whenever I'm in Euston, being Big-Brother-oppressed by huge ads while searching for the tiny departures screen, I make a silent commitment to always avoid anything they try to sell me.

[The Guardian @guardian]

The Shawshank Redemption at 30: is it really the greatest film ever made? https://t.co/M6n7HVA59u

[Stuart Foyle @philosofoyle]

@memilies Mel Gibson on his death bed: "Sure, I started out being known as Mad Max, but what am I most proud of? Getting 625,000 US Protestants to accept transubstantiation by the year of Our Lord 2032."

[Stuart Foyle @philosofoyle]

@joynessthebrave "Edmund was surprised to discover that the Turkish Delight was Irn Bru flavoured. And that it had been deep-fried."

[Stuart Foyle @philosofoyle]

@benjcartlidge See also "you know that most films aren't made by filming the scenes of the film in chronological order?" & "have you noticed that film characters never need the toilet unless it's useful to the plot?" & "there are only about ten realistic fights in mainstream film history". :)

[Stuart Foyle @philosofoyle]

@memilies A stone-cold classic. Season 2 starts to develop the MM reputation for exceptionally creative and implausible means of murder and contains a lot of people apparently on loan from the Royal Shakespeare Company. Have fun!

[Stuart Foyle @philosofoyle]

@memilies Well, you've got about 100 episodes to go & I can promise it has solid consistency across the seaons. And a very young Orlando Bloom in one. Would love to know you & your wife's favourites. My wife & I are currently watching the most recent season with great joy.

[Stuart Foyle @philosofoyle]

@memilies One last thing worth knowing: almost every episode has a guest actor from famous British character acting (not often known globally). But here's the kicker: typically they're asked to play it as a Muppet, not as a human. In S1E1 it's Elizabeth Spriggs: https://t.co/IyCicnxqfh

[Stuart Foyle @philosofoyle]

@memilies Of course the true heir to M,SW is "Castle". But if we imagine what M,SW would be like if it was transported to a "Bedknobs and Broomsticks" version of Britain, you're getting closer. If you don't have time for all of MM, please don't miss The Electric Vendetta. Maximum insanity.

[Stuart Foyle @philosofoyle]

@memilies It's vital to know that MM is basically considered its own genre in British crime drama. It might in one way be thought a response to Murder, She Wrote. Another way to think of it is as Midsomer Muppets where the two detectives are the humans & everyone else is a camp spectacle.