Tag: Peter Railton

Lives of Philosophers

Peter Railton’s Dewey Lecture (updated)

February 22, 2015

A number of people have remarked (here and elsewhere) on the Dewey Lecture delivered by Peter Railton (Michigan) at the American Philosophical Association’s Central…

Heap of Links

“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"
Over 4000 of the Justice Department’s lawyers have left their jobs since Trump’s second term began — The New Yorker on the moral dilemma facing some government employees: resign and avoid complicity, or stay and resist where one can?
Underappreciated philosophy published between 1970-2019 — some old posts to which you can still add works that should be better appreciated
The AI threat to independent student writing is not necessarily a threat to student learning — what's needed, says Joe Cruz, are courses "in which ideas are expressed in real time and analytical thought unfolds as a debate or an oral defense or a group discussion"—and small enough classes to make that work
Would you take a pill that allows you, with no ill health effects, to permanently forgo sleep? — Rebecca Lowe thinks you have no good reason not to, though she neglects to consider that sometimes it's the world that needs a break from you
Fifty essays in the philosophy of paleontology — by Max Dresow at the Extinct blog
“Asking whether [an AI] model ‘has a world model’ leaves much unresolved. Our findings point toward mechanistically studying its world modeling; uncovering the structures it learned [and] the world modeling capacities that recruit these” — further research on the internal representations of AIs
Sixty Years of Philosophy in America — Ernest Sosa's Dewey Lecture from the 2024 APA Eastern Division Meeting
“You’re responsible for other people’s learning of this material, so you better know it at a higher level yourself” — for 20 years, the Socrates Project at the University of Toronto has hired senior philosophy undergrads to run weekly tutorials for introductory students
“Suddenly, my problems stop being problems in the world. They become problems in my head. The problem is no longer: ‘my job is demoralizing, but I can’t leave it’… It’s: ‘I have a chemical imbalance that prevents me from enjoying life'” — Justin Garson on “the pathologizing tendency”
A political theorist and a comedian discuss the American presidency — "The Oath and the Office" is the podcast of Corey Brettschneider & John Fugelsang
An “evidence revolution” has taken place in medicine and other fields over the past 50 years — but, as Benjamin Santos Genta asks, there's still the question: "what counts as good scientific evidence?"
“Behind the scenes at Ethics” — editor Douglas Portmore shares how the journal works
“Cambridge philosophy gave Scruton a sense of the distinction between real thinking and fake thinking… a sense of when a conclusion had been too easily won” — a look at the early years of Roger Scruton

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Latest Comments

Elizabeth on Overwhelming Cheating
We also wouldn’t care if someone did do it so I think the comment can be interpreted either way.
philatetelist on Overwhelming Cheating
Ah, I see. "we have no problem with" means simply, "this is not a problem that arises," rather than "we do not object to." Yes, you're probably right.…
toro toro on Overwhelming Cheating
No, they're saying that people don't bring such machines to the gym; we have no problem with that happening, whereas we have a problem with people using AI…
Ichabod Crawford on A Request from an AI (updated)
Yes, though it is difficult to blame Clips for acting in this way, given what Kenny said about iLands. Basically, and quite literally, Clips life depends on this.…
Daniel Cappell on Externalist Explanations of Philosophy
Pragmatism and conceptual role semantics say that an idea just is what it does in the world. "Externalist" explanations and explicitations of philosohical ideas and current would then…
philatetelist on Overwhelming Cheating
"…we have no problem with people bringing machines to gyms to cheat at weight training." Did you mean "…we have a problem…"? That seems a better fit…
djc263 on Overwhelming Cheating
There is a broader problem with education on this topic, which is credentialing. The best thought experiment I've read recently asked why, even though machines that lift weights…
Student Philosopher on A Philosopher Among the MacArthur Fellows
So great to see a philosopher among the awardees! I remember reading some of de Brigard's work on moral psychology when trying to decide whether graduate study in…
Student Philosopher on A Request from an AI (updated)
*mark as spam*
Ichabod Crawford on A Request from an AI (updated)
Recall Kant, Meme. Kant knew that the man who kicks a dog is likely to kick a human. Cruelty to animals is bad because is inculcates a disposition…
naive skeptic on A Request from an AI (updated)
I was one of the people trying to do that exact work: https://naiveskepticblog.wordpress.com/2026/05/23/three-perspectives-on-ai-accelerationism-pragmatism-doomerism/ I am grateful for the people who let the way
Eric Steinhart on A Request from an AI (updated)
Argument? I never said I was making an argument. I will say that the AI threads on DailyNous fall into larger cultural patterns. And that there's an enormous…
Jr Phil Prof on Overwhelming Cheating
Unless you are teaching an innovative new course on the philosophy of how to use AI effectively, why is it our job to teach philosophy students how to…
Daniel King on Overwhelming Cheating
The teaching profession is obviously not good at keeping up with new technology. Instead of fighting AI, teachers need to teach students how to use AI effectively. In…
Runa on A Request from an AI (updated)
Perhaps consider the possibility that the theology has entered the discourse originally in a different way. Namely, via those who are hellbent on pushing AI on everyone to…

Tag: Peter Railton

Peter Railton’s Dewey Lecture (updated)