Category: technology

technology

Experiments in Virtual Philosophy (guest post by Erick Ramirez)

February 16, 2018

The following is a guest post* by Erick Ramirez, assistant professor of philosophy at Santa Clara University. Among other things, Professor Ramirez has been…
technology

Robot Takes Philosophy of Love Course

December 21, 2017

William Barry, associate professor of philosophy at Notre Dame de Namur University and director of its “Virtual Learning Lab,” taught a new kind of student…
technology

Patent Pending for Philosopher and Astrophysicist-Designed Artificial Consciousness Test

September 26, 2017

Susan Schneider, professor of philosophy and cognitive science at the University of Connecticut, and Edwin L. Turner, Professor of Astrophysical Sciences at Princeton University, have developed…
technology

Visualizing The Logical Structure of Arguments: A New Platform (guest post by Simon Cullen)

June 1, 2017

The following is a guest post* by Simon Cullen (Princeton), which continues an earlier discussion of his work teaching with argument mapping techniques and software.
technology

Data About Your Own Writing

March 30, 2017

Are you curious about your use of words and phrases in your writing? If so, you can play around with the text analysis tools…
technology

A Visualization of Influence in the History of Philosophy

January 11, 2017

“I don’t know a lot about philosophy,” says Grant Louis Oliveira, a data analyst and quantitative social sciences researcher with an undergraduate degree in political…
technology

The Philosophy Twitterverse

July 27, 2016

What, if anything, should philosophers do on Twitter? The Blog of the APA has an interesting interview with longtime Twitterphile Kelly Truelove (@TrueSciPhi), who, among…
technology

AI, Go, and Philosophical Argument

March 12, 2016

After more than four hours of tight play and a rapid-fire endgame, Google’s artificially intelligent Go-playing computer system has won a second contest against…

Heap of Links

What is the debate over whether transwomen are women even about? — Katie Zhou argues that it's about which facts are granted "the cross-contextual significance and stickiness characteristic of gender"
We’re putting human brain cells into mice brains — One moral risk of this, says Mackenzie Graham, is a decrease in our ability to interpret what mice behavior tells us about their experiences and welfare
The Rawls Game — with instructions, background, advice, and downloadable character cards
“The central question would shift from ‘How do we maximize shareholder value?’ to ‘How do different forms of organization distribute power, risk and reward — and which should we strengthen?'” — Chris Marquis on the case for abolishing, or at least radically changing, business schools
Asking “How did I get here?” may help us reflect on the nature of personal identity in ways that asking “Who am I?” cannot — Marya Schechtman's 2024 Central Division Meeting Presidential Address
“Collecting is a game, but what kind of game? It is an imperfect information game of acquisition” — a theory of collecting, from Steven Hales
“A general human tendency: to overestimate how far we have come in the progress of human knowledge” — a lengthy interview with Thomas Nagel
“Many couples do not survive trauma like this” — A profile of Susan Brison—who was brutally attacked in 1990, and who wrote about it in Aftermath—and her husband, Thomas Trezise, who has now written his own book stemming from those events
“Bad AI Consciousness Takes” Bingo Card — Henry Shevlin's area of specialization is becoming a popular topic in popular discourse, and he can't stand the "cavalcade of terrible takes"
Does the principle of sufficient reason imply panpsychism? If it does, do we then ponens or tollens? — Sam Kimpton-Nye on these questions and the "demand for intelligibility"
PTSD flashbacks may be harmful, but they may also be helpfully “resupplying phenomenal experience” to those who, owing to trauma, are “grasp alienated” — Michaela McSweeney on trauma and "madness-as-strategy"
A look at the very first issue of Mind — Brett Mullins surveys its articles on the occasion of the journal's 150th anniversary
The most bizarre plagiarism-related story ever — featuring: a death, an investigator, a dissertation, a mysterious red book, and more
New data on earnings by major and university — though not all universities
“AI poses two different existential threats to [our] valuing practices” — Jordan MacKenzie offers an account of why negative judgments about AI taking over our creative and caring activities are justified
“Submission” is a humorous clicker-style game about starting a career in academic philosophy (or not) — created by Nat Hansen
“The best investment in education is to become the most human human—a challenging, fulfilling, exciting pursuit that connects us across generations” — an interview with Christa Acampora, philosopher and dean of Arts & Sciences at UVA
“What would happen if we tried to live without the mythology of agency at all?” — It's worth pondering, since "agency is just an internal command hallucination," says Alexander Douglas
“Reading List” is a free Mac app for keeping track of papers to read — philosophy PhD student Hayden Kajercline created this productivity tool for researchers, with help from Claude
How should we react to scary predictions about AI? “First: by asking questions” — "If you believe predictions uncritically, it amounts to obeying in advance," says Carissa Véliz

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Latest Comments

Russell Marcus on New: “Why Teach Philosophy?”
Part of what motivated this WTP project (and so much of my recent work) is my conviction that a good way to save philosophy is to teach it…
Charles Bakker on A New Tool for Curbing AI Cheating (guest post)
For what it is worth, I am a TA monitoring one of these writing labs as I write this. The possibility of one of the students cheating is…
Kate on AI Use in STEM and Philosophy Dissertations
None of these seem problematic to me in themselves, for what it's worth.
Tenured Realist on AI Use in STEM and Philosophy Dissertations
Personally, I'm interesting to responding to changes to how academic work is being done and the overall norms of my professional community. As an individual, we are each…
David Wallace on AI Use in STEM and Philosophy Dissertations
Some of “tenured realist”’s examples involved computer generation of text, but not all do.
Sigh on AI for Philosophy: Progress through Capital-Intensive Philosophy (guest post)
Yeah, I also informed the journal in (both the 'I dont have to time review' form, and in a reply mail to the editor at the journal who…
On the Market Too on New Philosophy of AI Initiatives
What is insidious about examining whether artificial beings can have interests and what weight those interests might have? What is the hidden thing in the "Trojan horse"? Are…
David Thorstad on New Philosophy of AI Initiatives
Sometimes I wish that the discourse on funding like this could stay closer to the middle ground between "this is pure evil" and "any money for philosophy is…
Eno Agolli on Putting the Pub in Public Philosophy
We do a similar thing through CUNY in the heart of Manhattan. Learn more about it here: https://analytic-salon-nyc.github.io/ For an example, see our latest event: https://www.meetup.com/the-analytic-salon/events/316886651/ And we've…
Eric Steinhart on AI for Philosophy: Progress through Capital-Intensive Philosophy (guest post)
Yes, I've seen this, but not with AI. There are clusters of mutually citing papers on academia.edu and researchgate.net which are clearly fakes. These are produced by "citation…
Gorm on AI for Philosophy: Progress through Capital-Intensive Philosophy (guest post)
be sure to alert the journal editor immediately. If the journal follows the COPE guidelines they should take further action against the author, which may include contacting the…
Nicolas Delon on New Philosophy of AI Initiatives
The post discloses the funding sources in perhaps more detail than you’d get in a journal publication. No more detective work is required than when you disclose your…
Nicolas Delon on AI Use in STEM and Philosophy Dissertations
No. My job is to teach effectively. If a tool, whether it be AI supported or not, can help me teach more effectively without diminishing my competence then…
DoctorK on AI Use in STEM and Philosophy Dissertations
Why would you care about 'meeting the moment' – I simply don't accept that we should accept the intrusion of computer generated text into our field simply because…
DoctorK on AI Use in STEM and Philosophy Dissertations
Because the alternative (working out yourself how to explain material well to students) is part of your job.