Tag: power relations

Academia

Universities: Flawed but Valuable

March 13, 2026

Should academics be more conservative?

Heap of Links

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"
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

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Latest Comments

David Wallace on Those OpenAI Math Results
"Your claim, ultimately, is that AI is not and could not be useful in way that’s as transformative in philosophy as in mathematics. Right?" No, I didn't say…
Noah Gordon on Those OpenAI Math Results
I had never heard of the term "gish gallop" before reading your first comment so I had looked it up. All the definitions say that it involves putting…
tfortarski on Those OpenAI Math Results
One of the things I realized in the past 2 months is that the accuracy of AI models is entirely dependent on the conditions under which they run…
tfortarski on Those OpenAI Math Results
Your claim, ultimately, is that AI is not and could not be useful in way that's as transformative in philosophy as in mathematics. Right? My view is that…
oxan on AI for Philosophy: Progress through Capital-Intensive Philosophy (guest post)
It seems to me that there is so much about the philosophy part of the academic-industrial complex that already militates against the writing of good philosophy by humans…
David Wallace on AI for Philosophy: Progress through Capital-Intensive Philosophy (guest post)
I certainly don't have a knock-down argument that it would be impossible to jettison most of modernity while keeping the crucial health and sanitation bits (and whatever other…
HotWheelReggie1991 on AI for Philosophy: Progress through Capital-Intensive Philosophy (guest post)
There's a lot in here Socrates! "What is the point of doing anything at all?" To develop and exercise or capacities in the service of flourishing, individual and…
Uglybones on AI for Philosophy: Progress through Capital-Intensive Philosophy (guest post)
"That’s a rather bloodless way to say “half of their children didn’t live to adulthood.” This response seems unnecessarily snarky. I read the earlier comment as shorthand, not…
Mathieu Rees on AI for Philosophy: Progress through Capital-Intensive Philosophy (guest post)
Thanks for your thoughts David. Just a couple of quick responses. "I think if AI gets smart enough to manipulate philosophical research to its own misaligned ends, we…
David Wallace on AI for Philosophy: Progress through Capital-Intensive Philosophy (guest post)
I think if AI gets smart enough to manipulate philosophical research to its own misaligned ends, we probably have more serious alignment problems to contend with. I also…
Arewethereyet? on AI for Philosophy: Progress through Capital-Intensive Philosophy (guest post)
I don't have a source for *exactly* that, and literally half may be too strong, maybe not. It's genuinely up in the air. However, it's also not impossible…
David Wallace on AI for Philosophy: Progress through Capital-Intensive Philosophy (guest post)
“ I’m also not familiar with any evidence that markings of “AI-assistance” predict low quality in a way that is better than the other signs of paper quality…
David Wallace on AI for Philosophy: Progress through Capital-Intensive Philosophy (guest post)
“ I suppose part of what I’m trying to point out is that you seem to have adopted the heuristic too early and confidently.” I don’t think you…
David Wallace on AI for Philosophy: Progress through Capital-Intensive Philosophy (guest post)
I don’t think you need to at all. (Modulo whatever a specific journal’s policy is, of course; certainly you should be honest.) Acknowledgement is about the credit economy…
Arewethereyet? on AI for Philosophy: Progress through Capital-Intensive Philosophy (guest post)
Fair point on many villages/towns. However, again, I said less densely populated. I suppose to be totally accurate I'd need to get even more specific on the kinds…

Tag: power relations

Universities: Flawed but Valuable