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Just What Exactly Does Santa Know, and How? (guest post)

December 23, 2025

He sees you when you’re sleeping. He knows when you’re awake. What else does Santa Claus know, and how does he know it?

Heap of Links

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
“I feel unbelievably lucky that I was able to make philosophy my profession” — Karen Ng reflects on her path into philosophy, at #first-genphilosophers
The ordinary concept of knowledge “doesn’t work at all the way philosophers said it does” — a round-up of studies shows how weird the philosophers' version of the concept is
1000 or so psychiatrists were asked to diagnose standardized clinical case vignettes. “Two doctors agreed on the diagnosis only 55% of the time” — What does this tell us about psychiatry? Or about other fields in which experts disagree?
Where Aristotle taught Alexander — "this newest dig may be the most revealing yet, offering insight into the specifics of Alexander the Great’s education"

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Latest Comments

Michel on AI Use in STEM and Philosophy Dissertations
I have worked as a copy editor. I have no problem with checking spelling and grammar, though I suspect that appeals to it are used to rationalize much…
Roger Da Shrubber on AI Use in STEM and Philosophy Dissertations
I think you're making an assumption that writing and authorship are the same thing. They're related, but they're not identical. If the dissertation exists to evaluate my originality,…
Michel on AI Use in STEM and Philosophy Dissertations
We're talking about using AI to write the text of a dissertation. That is a hill I will die on, so to speak. If you use it to…
Roger Da Shrubber on AI Use in STEM and Philosophy Dissertations
While its a lot more work for lecturers, viva voce is becoming a lot more prominent in undergrad and masters assessments at the uni I attend. Making a…
Roger Da Shrubber on AI Use in STEM and Philosophy Dissertations
An AI edit to fix my poor grammar will be flagged as AI. What am I being judged on for my doctorate? My ability to speller and grammer…
MBW on AI Use in STEM and Philosophy Dissertations
Sure, and it's certainly interesting that it doesn't pop pre-2022; but it's also compatible with more benign explanations. We're all soaking in AI-generated text that it's not surprising…
historygrrrl on AI Use in STEM and Philosophy Dissertations
Oral defense as a regular part of the process is, sort of, already a requirement at my university. During the dissertation phase, PhD students have to complete a…
Michel on AI Use in STEM and Philosophy Dissertations
I am disturbed because they used it to write their dissertations. A few years ago this would have been called contract cheating. If they used it to cure…
ehz on AI Use in STEM and Philosophy Dissertations
Why are you disturbed by the use of AI in STEM? If scientists use AI to develop new vaccines faster, find cures for diseases like Alzheimer’s, or build…
Ben on New: “Why Teach Philosophy?”
I don't have any strong preexisting interest in this topic (although I've been teaching philosophy for 15 years), but I listened to the interview with David Concepcion just…
Louis F. Cooper on New: “Why Teach Philosophy?”
Ok, that makes sense.
Eric Steinhart on AI Use in STEM and Philosophy Dissertations
Surely you’re aware of what just happened in mathematics.
Kenny Easwaran on New: “Why Teach Philosophy?”
I suspect they were intending a different contrast – many philosophers might see the topic, "why teach philosophy?" and think of this as outreach to non-philosophers about the…
Louis F. Cooper on New: “Why Teach Philosophy?”
Professor Marcus says, “the interviews are tightly edited audio, typically under an hour, extracted from much longer (typically 3-4 hour) conversations that I had over the past year…
Nicolas Delon on AI Use in STEM and Philosophy Dissertations
That's a lot of AI, for sure. But this is Justin's blog, and it's his privilege, as the sole editor, to publish what he wishes. What he posts…

Tag: Christmas

Just What Exactly Does Santa Know, and How? (guest post)