Lavinia Marin

On writing philosophy

  • Leadership training in Dutch universities – a whole new world

    I’ve recently attended a training workshop for academics, assistant profs transitioning from early to mid-career, about leadership in academia. It reminded me of similar theories I saw in other workshops – I’ve done several of these training before – and of some ideas that circulate informally when people are hired at our university. I keep…

  • A House of Dynamite: A Philosophical Thriller

    A House of Dynamite, Kathryn Bigelow‘s 2025 movie, is a fascinating film for its dramaturgy and showing an eye for details around all things happening in the moment, but also from a philosophical perspective. What makes it stand out is how it shows something new about distributed cognition, political decision-making and sovereignty. The film is…

  • Good writing, if you can make it

    I recently read a very nice book that I cannot recommend highly enough: “Good Work If You Can Get It. How to Succeed in Academia” by Jason Brennan (2020) It’s written in a witty and funny style but very realistic. The reality behind the academic training programmes (aka the graduate schools) is grim: almost “80,000…