LSE Philosophy

27/08/2026

🤔Is "Woke" Good, Actually?

PhD student Rafael Ruiz discusses whether being "Woke" is a good thing on the Dissenter podcast:

******Support the channel******Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/th...

26/08/2026

📣 Join the community!

👉 We are recruiting a Student Experience and Programme Engagement Officer!

This is an exciting opportunity to play a central role in enhancing the student experience across our undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. Working closely with Programme Managers, academic colleagues, student representatives, alumni and professional services teams, you will support initiatives that strengthen student belonging, engagement, community and student voice throughout the student journey.

⏰ Application deadline: 21 September 2026.

💻 Please apply via this link: https://jobs.lse.ac.uk/Vacancies/W/5978/0/473432/15539/student-experience-and-programme-engagement-officer

25/08/2026

Professor Bryan Roberts has written a new paper titled "A New Origin for Entropy: Jauch’s Conservation Law and the Geometry of Thermodynamics" which he presented at the Foundations of Physics conference this summer.

A central question for the foundations of thermodynamics is which conceptual structures underpin the existence of entropy and temperature. Jauch claimed that entropy and temperature could be derived from a novel conservation law. This paper reconstructs the physics and mathematics of Jauch's claim and finds that his original proof is not valid. Remarkably, his theorem is still true. The alternative proof provided here uses geometric ideas from modern gauge theory, revealing a deep geometric structure in the heart of thermodynamics. This result also helps to settle an old debate by showing that entropy and temperature can be defined in a new, conceptually clear way without appeal to an irreversible assumption like the second law.

Bryan Robert's work on thermodynamics has been picked up by Karmela Padavic-Callaghan for NewScientist.

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2533428-mathematics-of-thermodynamics-is-being-rewritten-after-200-years/

The laws of physics that concern heat and work could gain a firmer mathematical footing thanks to “gauge theory”, which already helps us understand quantum fields

19/08/2026

🧐 Are Philosophers Absurd?

Associate Professor and CPNSS Director Lewis Ross has published his new paper "Are Philosophers Absurd? Progress, Testimony and Division of Labour" in the Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society. In his paper, he discusses the current scale and volume of Philosophy debates and how we can make sense of it.

https://academic.oup.com/aristotelian/article/126/2/129/8721275?

Abstract. Philosophy now resembles, in many ways, a mature scientific discipline. There is extensive division of increasingly specialised cognitive labour.

24/06/2026

🌍🌱 What a great week!

🍔🥗 Many thanks for attending the "Food future" panel where Chris Bryant (Founder and Executive Director of Bryant Research), Tara Garnett (University of Oxford), Feiyang Wang (Jeremy Coller Centre for Animal Sentience), Anthony Warner (chef and author), and chair Jonathan Birch ( and Jeremy Coller Centre for Animal Sentience) discussed the ethical, logistical, and technical challenges of transitioning to a more planet-friendly food system.

🎥 The video of the event is now available online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6j4wpggmEcI

22/06/2026

Professor Roman F***g recently gave the Giere Memorial Lecture in Philosophy of Science 2026 talking about "Cyclones, Forecasts, and Uncertainty: How Model-Ensembles Can Be an Effective Guide to Anticipatory Action" 🌪️

🎥 The video of the lecture is now available online.

An evening with Dr Roman F***gCyclones, Forecasts, and Uncertainty: How Model-Ensembles Can Be an Effective Guide to Anticipatory Action"

11/06/2026

👨‍🏫 Discover how integrated Reacting to the Past (RTTP) role-playing games into the classroom to create an engaging learning experience that fosters independent learning and hones students' debating skills.

📚 Reacting to the Past are role-playing games, where students are assigned character roles with specific goals. The students then research their own arguments, prepare debates and work collaboratively to win the game.

👉 Learn the advantages of using role-playing games as a teaching and assessment strategy
👉 Hear from students who share their experience
👉 Discover how role-playing games promote critical thinking, teamwork, and problem-solving skills

Whether you're looking to increase student engagement, foster deeper learning, or develop transferable skills that prepare students for future careers, role-playing games can be a powerful addition to your teaching toolkit.

🧑‍🏫 Discover how our department integrated Reacting to the Past (RT...

04/06/2026

🏆 We have been ranked 1st in the UK for in the Complete University Guide Subject League Table 2027!

🎓 The London School of Economics and Political Science - LSE has once again been ranked as the top university in London, retaining this position for the fifteenth consecutive year. The School was also ranked third overall among UK universities, maintaining its place among the country's leading higher education institutions.

The Complete University Guide assesses universities across a range of measures including entry standards, student satisfaction, research quality, student support, continuation rates and graduate prospects.

👉 To the ranking: https://www.thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk/league-tables/rankings/philosophy

19/05/2026

🐶 Starting with a dog called Pip, the LSE iQ podcast explores one of the biggest ethical questions of our time. What do we really owe animals — and is the law keeping up with the ?

🎧 Listen to the latest LSE iQ podcast episode "Should animals have rights?" in which host Michael Wilkerson and the animal-welfare experts Jeff Sebo, Jonathan Birch, Jo-Anne McArthur and Carrie Friese explore what it really means to protect animal.

Animals feel. Animals suffer. So why don't they have rights? LSE iQ explores the question that changes everything.

18/05/2026

🎟️ Tickets are now live for the 2026: How to save the planet! Join us 15-20 June at LSE (on campus or online) for a week of panels, talks & workshops on , global challenges, communities & more.

👉 Programme:

What can we be doing to save the Earth, its people and environment? A programme of free events from Monday 15 to Saturday 20 June. Tickets released on 18 May.