No one ever constructed a "decent argument" against TIMECUBE either. It's a basic problem of incommensurability.
October 1, 2026 at 3:19 PM
No one ever constructed a "decent argument" against TIMECUBE either. It's a basic problem of incommensurability.
A view of national/ethnic identity predicated on intra-group unity and intergroup incommensurability is literally and inherently racist. It is also a pervasive outlook with a long history, which means that many people have internalised it. Including those it most harms.
October 2, 2026 at 11:45 AM
A view of national/ethnic identity predicated on intra-group unity and intergroup incommensurability is literally and inherently racist. It is also a pervasive outlook with a long history, which means that many people have internalised it. Including those it most harms.
Frankly, this is political pseudoscience. Postulations of intra-group unity and intergroup incommensurability are as facile and cartoonish when framed in terms of "civilisations" as they are when framed in terms of "races". Thankfully, IR as a discipline is moving on from this sort of nonsense.
Amid the liberal internationalist optimism of the late 1990s, Samuel Huntington foresaw a world marked by continued conflict.
Samuel Huntington Is Getting His Revenge
The idea of a global “clash of civilizations” wasn’t wrong—it was just premature.
foreignpolicy.com
December 1, 2025 at 11:50 AM
Frankly, this is political pseudoscience. Postulations of intra-group unity and intergroup incommensurability are as facile and cartoonish when framed in terms of "civilisations" as they are when framed in terms of "races". Thankfully, IR as a discipline is moving on from this sort of nonsense.
if we take the inverse, "a human being must be accountable and never produce an error any percentage of the time," we conclude (due to the incommensurability of languages) that translation is impossible not just for computers, but for humans as well.
Why is "unaccountably and confidently wrong x% of the time" more acceptable for translation than any other application? 🙄 Why would the judgement of people translating texts from languages they don't understand be valid at all? 🙄
March 16, 2026 at 8:11 PM
if we take the inverse, "a human being must be accountable and never produce an error any percentage of the time," we conclude (due to the incommensurability of languages) that translation is impossible not just for computers, but for humans as well.
michael burry has made his career running a wildly swingy hedge fund making fringe bets. under moore's law assumptions, zero efficiency improvements on the training side, and incommensurability between training and inference cards, the depreciation schedule of GPUs is wrong. i'd bet otherwise.
approximately zero compared to the depreciation numbers on their capex
next
next
March 1, 2026 at 8:31 AM
michael burry has made his career running a wildly swingy hedge fund making fringe bets. under moore's law assumptions, zero efficiency improvements on the training side, and incommensurability between training and inference cards, the depreciation schedule of GPUs is wrong. i'd bet otherwise.
When a racialised Other commits a violent crime, Goodwin concludes instantly that the reason is their nature as a racialised Other, separate and distinct from an imagined British nature. This belief in intra-group unity and intergroup incommensurability is called Racism.
bsky.app/profile/samf...
bsky.app/profile/samf...
We're now at "black people aren't British". Open sewer racism. Look forward to seeing him on QT again soon.
November 2, 2025 at 5:09 PM
When a racialised Other commits a violent crime, Goodwin concludes instantly that the reason is their nature as a racialised Other, separate and distinct from an imagined British nature. This belief in intra-group unity and intergroup incommensurability is called Racism.
bsky.app/profile/samf...
bsky.app/profile/samf...
At some point you just have to embrace incommensurability, right? Two millennia ago in Rome you could see live fatal gladiatorial combat in the Colosseum for free, which these days is not available for billions; but these days you can go to the zoo for the price of a lunch and see a capybara.
December 11, 2025 at 4:21 AM
At some point you just have to embrace incommensurability, right? Two millennia ago in Rome you could see live fatal gladiatorial combat in the Colosseum for free, which these days is not available for billions; but these days you can go to the zoo for the price of a lunch and see a capybara.
My most boring opinion is that there is, at times, a real incommensurability about what heritage studies wants to do and the history of heritage, which is inevitably more complex than it wants to let on.
September 11, 2026 at 11:39 AM
My most boring opinion is that there is, at times, a real incommensurability about what heritage studies wants to do and the history of heritage, which is inevitably more complex than it wants to let on.
while showering, i had a revelation about designing a model of scientific process that captures epistemic iteration and incommensurability of theories. got out of the shower and had no idea how to actually do it. told it to husband/collaborator and now it's his problem too 🥰
February 24, 2026 at 10:47 PM
while showering, i had a revelation about designing a model of scientific process that captures epistemic iteration and incommensurability of theories. got out of the shower and had no idea how to actually do it. told it to husband/collaborator and now it's his problem too 🥰
In the colloquial online sense of “morally/ethically unpalatable?” Short answer: No.
In the sense of “likely to bring up communication breakdown/incompatibility issues due to personal development etc/jealousy/incommensurability of experience/etc?” Quite possible
In the sense of “likely to bring up communication breakdown/incompatibility issues due to personal development etc/jealousy/incommensurability of experience/etc?” Quite possible
November 19, 2025 at 3:08 PM
In the colloquial online sense of “morally/ethically unpalatable?” Short answer: No.
In the sense of “likely to bring up communication breakdown/incompatibility issues due to personal development etc/jealousy/incommensurability of experience/etc?” Quite possible
In the sense of “likely to bring up communication breakdown/incompatibility issues due to personal development etc/jealousy/incommensurability of experience/etc?” Quite possible
I really love Shelbi Nahwilet Meissner's work on this, though from a particularly north american indigenous perspective
“World”-Traveling in Tule Canoes: Indigenous Philosophies of Language and an Ethic of Incommensurability | Hypatia | Cambridge Core
“World”-Traveling in Tule Canoes: Indigenous Philosophies of Language and an Ethic of Incommensurability - Volume 38 Issue 4
www.cambridge.org
May 6, 2025 at 10:12 AM
I really love Shelbi Nahwilet Meissner's work on this, though from a particularly north american indigenous perspective
it doesn't happen *that* often actually, there's a lot of incommensurability and different sorts of interests/values/questions etc. but once in a while i read something and wind up like this
September 29, 2026 at 3:55 AM
it doesn't happen *that* often actually, there's a lot of incommensurability and different sorts of interests/values/questions etc. but once in a while i read something and wind up like this
Philosopher friends, any good references on incommensurability per se?
Lots of stuff on incommensurability of goods (life as a clarinetist vs lawyer etc) and incommensurability of theories, but like what makes comparisons of two properties weird? (eg ! “Lee is richer than Bo is tall”)
Lots of stuff on incommensurability of goods (life as a clarinetist vs lawyer etc) and incommensurability of theories, but like what makes comparisons of two properties weird? (eg ! “Lee is richer than Bo is tall”)
August 11, 2026 at 11:45 PM
Philosopher friends, any good references on incommensurability per se?
Lots of stuff on incommensurability of goods (life as a clarinetist vs lawyer etc) and incommensurability of theories, but like what makes comparisons of two properties weird? (eg ! “Lee is richer than Bo is tall”)
Lots of stuff on incommensurability of goods (life as a clarinetist vs lawyer etc) and incommensurability of theories, but like what makes comparisons of two properties weird? (eg ! “Lee is richer than Bo is tall”)
Noop, not having this even a little bit. Full on incommensurability for me. There is no best one, there is no worst one and they are not all of the same value.
August 22, 2025 at 5:07 PM
Noop, not having this even a little bit. Full on incommensurability for me. There is no best one, there is no worst one and they are not all of the same value.
Trying to get my thoughts together about the passing of George Smith. He didn't publish a lot, but everything he did put out there deserves to be read more by philosophers. Like this one, with Jed Buchwald, trying to take head-on Kuhn's incommensurability thesis:
direct.mit.edu/posc/article...
direct.mit.edu/posc/article...
Incommensurability and the Discontinuity of Evidence
Abstract. Incommensurability between successive scientific theories—the impossibility of empirical evidence dictating the choice between them—was Thomas Kuhn's most controversial proposal. Toward defe...
direct.mit.edu
November 12, 2024 at 8:40 PM
Trying to get my thoughts together about the passing of George Smith. He didn't publish a lot, but everything he did put out there deserves to be read more by philosophers. Like this one, with Jed Buchwald, trying to take head-on Kuhn's incommensurability thesis:
direct.mit.edu/posc/article...
direct.mit.edu/posc/article...
So happy to see this article out!
www.tandfonline.com/eprint/TYFU3...
In this ethnography of the relationship between archaeologists and construction, we explore how both disciplines communicate, and how concepts such as risk, incommensurability, uncertainty and translation..
www.tandfonline.com/eprint/TYFU3...
In this ethnography of the relationship between archaeologists and construction, we explore how both disciplines communicate, and how concepts such as risk, incommensurability, uncertainty and translation..
www.tandfonline.com
October 29, 2025 at 9:08 AM
So happy to see this article out!
www.tandfonline.com/eprint/TYFU3...
In this ethnography of the relationship between archaeologists and construction, we explore how both disciplines communicate, and how concepts such as risk, incommensurability, uncertainty and translation..
www.tandfonline.com/eprint/TYFU3...
In this ethnography of the relationship between archaeologists and construction, we explore how both disciplines communicate, and how concepts such as risk, incommensurability, uncertainty and translation..
Consider for a moment the longstanding racist trope of indigenous people trading land to colonists for shiny baubles, the explicitly linked and historically inaccurate assertion of intellectual inferiority based entirely on incommensurability of legal concepts, miscommunication and mistranslation
You have to hand it to FIFA President Gianni Infantino, he knows exactly how to handle Trump.
The US President responds to shiny objects, and to things that move. Watch Trump transform here, from apathetic boredom, to awe; and how he warms to the idea of keeping the shiny, moving thing.
The US President responds to shiny objects, and to things that move. Watch Trump transform here, from apathetic boredom, to awe; and how he warms to the idea of keeping the shiny, moving thing.
March 11, 2025 at 5:30 PM
Consider for a moment the longstanding racist trope of indigenous people trading land to colonists for shiny baubles, the explicitly linked and historically inaccurate assertion of intellectual inferiority based entirely on incommensurability of legal concepts, miscommunication and mistranslation
Picard’s dissatisfaction with the replicator is neither a meaningless gag nor a repudiation of simulacra, nor even a genuflection to authenticity; it is a poignant meditation on the fundamental incommensurability between algorithmic logic and the texture of human imprecision. In this essay I will…
December 25, 2024 at 12:58 AM
Picard’s dissatisfaction with the replicator is neither a meaningless gag nor a repudiation of simulacra, nor even a genuflection to authenticity; it is a poignant meditation on the fundamental incommensurability between algorithmic logic and the texture of human imprecision. In this essay I will…
AI is the use of commensurability for the production of its opposite, incommensurability
August 21, 2026 at 2:15 AM
AI is the use of commensurability for the production of its opposite, incommensurability
Garber on the tragedy of Kuhn being led down a dead-end, re: incommensurability.
www.jstor.org/stable/10.15...
www.jstor.org/stable/10.15...
September 21, 2026 at 6:41 PM
Garber on the tragedy of Kuhn being led down a dead-end, re: incommensurability.
www.jstor.org/stable/10.15...
www.jstor.org/stable/10.15...
The funny thing about the brain is that it’s quite adaptive - its operations depend on the situation it finds itself in.
So, do these points of incommensurability reflect different Psychologies (the field) that carve the mind at different joints, or different psychologies (the object of study)?
So, do these points of incommensurability reflect different Psychologies (the field) that carve the mind at different joints, or different psychologies (the object of study)?
September 22, 2025 at 1:19 PM
The funny thing about the brain is that it’s quite adaptive - its operations depend on the situation it finds itself in.
So, do these points of incommensurability reflect different Psychologies (the field) that carve the mind at different joints, or different psychologies (the object of study)?
So, do these points of incommensurability reflect different Psychologies (the field) that carve the mind at different joints, or different psychologies (the object of study)?
I wonder if the general trend and outcome of all of this is that filter bubbles graduate into actual incommensurability
at some point it's not even that people are speaking from different positions or opinions, they're just operating in increasingly incompatible models of reality itself
at some point it's not even that people are speaking from different positions or opinions, they're just operating in increasingly incompatible models of reality itself
March 19, 2026 at 11:55 AM
I wonder if the general trend and outcome of all of this is that filter bubbles graduate into actual incommensurability
at some point it's not even that people are speaking from different positions or opinions, they're just operating in increasingly incompatible models of reality itself
at some point it's not even that people are speaking from different positions or opinions, they're just operating in increasingly incompatible models of reality itself
In the latest issue of #HOPOS Jacob McDowell notes the surprising fact that Thomas Kuhn endorses "aspects of the causal theory [of reference] in several later essays while maintaining the possibility of incommensurability".
Link to the article: www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10....
Link to the article: www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10....
November 24, 2025 at 8:01 AM
In the latest issue of #HOPOS Jacob McDowell notes the surprising fact that Thomas Kuhn endorses "aspects of the causal theory [of reference] in several later essays while maintaining the possibility of incommensurability".
Link to the article: www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10....
Link to the article: www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10....
Sewing a wig on my exotic dancer puppet for Friday's show. I'll be wearing a top hat and calling myself Professor Incommensurability. I'll be exploring the seedy side of the philosophy of science.
March 5, 2025 at 6:27 PM
Sewing a wig on my exotic dancer puppet for Friday's show. I'll be wearing a top hat and calling myself Professor Incommensurability. I'll be exploring the seedy side of the philosophy of science.