Tag: quietism

Philosophy and the Sciences

Understanding the Brain

February 5, 2020

“Maybe human brains aren’t equipped to understand themselves.”

Heap of Links

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
“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

All Links →

Latest Comments

Richard Y Chappell on New Philosophy of AI Initiatives
I'd welcome more disciplinary attention to the question of what issues are "more important"; that's precisely the sort of question global priorities research aims to address. I don't…
AGT on New Philosophy of AI Initiatives
Just a thought: What the corporations are doing with AI seem to be self-defeating though also in this regard. If they do create artificial beings, chance is those…
Kate on New Philosophy of AI Initiatives
Fantastic news, godspeed to all involved
Teruji Thomas on New Philosophy of AI Initiatives
Here is the ad for the jobs at the LSE (two four-year postdocs): https://jobs.lse.ac.uk/Vacancies/W/5138/0/475866/15539/research-officers-for-the-global-priorities-research-group-gprg Two notes from the ad: "The ability to produce research related to…transformative artificial intelligence…
Nicolas Delon on New Philosophy of AI Initiatives
"implicit bias in AI, intellectual property theft, deskilling of labor, environmental damage, responsibility sinks for targeting in war" These are not exactly under-discussed issues. It's like 90% of…
Sam Duncan on New Philosophy of AI Initiatives
I’m fine if people want to talk about malicious AI, and while we’re tut tutting with Critical Thinking, implying that I somehow want to censor them is pretty…
Nicolas Delon on New Philosophy of AI Initiatives
They should also be careful not to launder lazy clichés found on social media. Max makes a perfectly reasonable point.
Richard Y Chappell on New Philosophy of AI Initiatives
I'm always puzzled in these discussions by why people treat effective altruists as an inherently insidious force, when they never raised any similar objections about (e.g.) Mellon funding…
ERW on New Philosophy of AI Initiatives
Yes, it's very common in the AI space to argue from a hypothetical future technology that does not resemble current AI to certain conclusions, and then apply those…
Meme on Putting the Pub in Public Philosophy
I do my best work when I’m sloppy drunk (my work is quite bad).
Shelley Lynn Tremain on New Philosophy of AI Initiatives
Some readers of this post might be interested in a BIOPOLITICAL PHILOSOPHY post that Mich Ciurria wrote on the topic. You will find Mich's post here: From Bioethics…
Nicolas Delon on AI Use in STEM and Philosophy Dissertations
I’m confused. Why is it poor behavior to use AI to improve your slides, especially if, by hypothesis, it makes the content and its presentation better for students…
Ben M-Y on New Philosophy of AI Initiatives
I agree that it's important to note where the money is coming from, and I am also worried about some of the issues you note here, Sam. But…
Max DuBoff on New Philosophy of AI Initiatives
I have no view on these specific initiatives, but it seems quite plausible to me that there will someday be artificial beings that are not controlled by corporations.…
Marc Champagne on New Philosophy of AI Initiatives
My thoughts exactly.

Tag: quietism

Understanding the Brain