Items of interest to people interested in philosophy…

1. “What does not yet exist is a discipline that treats the workings of government itself as a philosophical subject. This field could be called ‘the philosophy of public administration’” — Dan Little (UM-Dearborn) on the case for (and questions of) this subfield
2. “Claude’s writing is more verbose, but also more naturalistic. Its ability to write coherently about itself, its limitations, and its goals seem to also allow it to more naturally answer questions on other subjects” — meet Claude, one of several alternatives to ChatGPT
3. “If A beats B and B beats C, A and C have essentially equal chances of prevailing against each other.” Wait, what? — all about intransitive dice
4. “What is our universe expanding into?” — “That’s a great question. The answer, though, is that it’s not a great question,” says Paul Sutter (Stony Brook)
5. “The Department of Personal Inspections is charged with the remit of examining the lives of persons within His Majesty’s territories. You have been chosen for inspection, and judgment will be rendered” — a short story about akrasia, the gaze of the other, and the examined life, by Ben Roth (Tufts)
6. “The exercise of common sense involves a drawing back from unforeseen danger… whereas in philosophy we are more interested in seeking out unforeseen dangers in order to then avoid them” — a history of what philosophers have thought about “common sense” by Stephen Leach (Keele)
7. “You should always gather more evidence, say women who love gossip” — Carolina Flores (UC Irvine) and Elise Woodard (MIT) have some fun posting about a forthcoming paper at NWIP

Discussion welcome.

Mini-Heap posts usually appear when 7 or so new items accumulate in the Heap of Links, a collection of items from around the web that may be of interest to philosophers.

The Heap of Links consists partly of suggestions from readers; if you find something online that you think would be of interest to the philosophical community, please send it in for consideration for the Heap. Thanks!