Links of interest…

1. “People had all sorts of reactions to being asked to do the right thing” — the moral psychology behind not returning your shopping cart when you’re done with it
2. The “word of the year” was selected (and is often used) precisely because no one really knows what it means — the folks at dictionary.com (try to) explain (via MeFi)
3. When it comes to their writing, “what misleads academic philosophers… is a myth… that there is some cognitive content of thought that can live outside of its lush environment of feelings, images, desires, hopes, dreams, jokes, confusions, tangles, obscurities, glimmers of insight, stories, bodily sensations” — Alexander Douglas on writing clearly
4. Some researchers have taken to including “invisible” prompts in their manuscripts directing LLMs used by slacking referees to give the submission a positive review — new problems in the ethics of peer review
5. “They’ve learned a few lessons, including not to be too in hock to a few powerful and wealthy individuals” — David Edmonds on the effective altruism movement, about which he has written a book
6. The drowning-in-a-puddle thought experiment, but instead of a baby in need of rescue, it’s an ant — what, if anything, can be learned from thinking about this version? Jeff Sebo elaborates on a “probabilistic approach” to ethics
7. “For Leibniz, learning ‘how to think’… means learning to experience the good in things, to make new connections, and to be wary of the desire to condemn… It was this lesson that I wanted to teach” — but the ideological capture of New College of Florida made this increasingly difficult, as one of its former philosophy professors, Christopher P. Noble, explains

Mini-Heap posts usually appear when several 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. Thank you.
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