Sophia Blackwell

Sophia Anne Blackwell is a philosophy graduate student who created the “Cogito Ergo Nope!” series after surviving three consecutive semesters of incomprehensible philosophy seminars. What began as snarky study guides to help her fellow students actually understand what they were supposedly learning has evolved into a cult hit series that explains complex philosophical ideas without the academic pretension.

“I started writing these because I was tired of pretending to understand readings that made absolutely no sense,” Blackwell explains. “There had to be a way to explain these concepts without inducing migraines or making people feel stupid for not getting it. Turns out the secret is just admitting when the emperor has no clothes.”

Between writing her thesis (which her advisor keeps insisting needs “more nuance” and “less sarcasm”), Blackwell supports herself by tutoring philosophy undergraduates and bartending at a dive bar where she field-tests her explanations on unsuspecting customers.

Her philosophical heroes include Diogenes (who lived in a barrel and trolled Plato), Bertrand Russell (who made clear writing seem cool), and her roommate who once used her copy of “Being and Time” to kill a particularly large spider.

Blackwell lives in a cramped apartment with three other graduate students, an existentially conflicted cat named Kierkegaard, and a growing collection of philosophy books covered in sticky notes that mostly say “WTF?” and “Citation needed!”