Tag: Texas A&M

Academic Freedom

Faculty Sues University over Plato-Banning Policy

August 5, 2026

Texas A&M is being sued by a group of professors and the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas over a policy that led to,…
Academic Freedom

A Statement of Support for Tommy Curry

May 12, 2017

In response to the news that Tommy Curry, professor of philosophy at Texas A & M University, has been receiving racist hate mail and…

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

Also CC Professor on Overwhelming Cheating
Thanks for the update on Respondus. I think this what I'm going to have to do too. That or just refuse to teach online.
Holothurian on A Request from an AI (updated)
This "however we define it" is a great way of waving off what is basically the crux of the whole ethical question.
Also CC Professor on Overwhelming Cheating
There's a flip response to this and a more serious one. The flip response, which is probably all it merits since I strongly suspect trolling, is "Just how…
Michael Gorman on Overwhelming Cheating
Anyone can "use AI" in a relatively thoughtless way. To use it really effectively requires someone whose cognitive powers are already well-developed. And acquiring well-developed cognitive powers comes…
Brendan on Overwhelming Cheating
I teach at a community college, and over half my load is asynchronous. We use Respondus Monitor to proctor online exams. Last year, my sense was this was…
Michael Gorman on Overwhelming Cheating
This is intelligent and generous. I can't help noticing that when you say, "I can’t see how asynchronous online education is going to survive without more in-person evaluation,"…
David on Overwhelming Cheating
I would read that book. And buy a copy for my office, to display it where my students could see it!
David on Overwhelming Cheating
This is still what I experienced in college from 2014-2018, even through graduate school beyond that. Actually, my schools also counted classroom participation very highly, so it would…
Ahmad Fauzi Abdul Hamid on Gabriele Taylor (1927-2026)
RIP Gabriele. Gabriele Taylor taught me Philosophy at St. Anne's College, Oxford, in 1989-90, after which I specialised in Politics & Economics. A charming, pleasant lady. I will…
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…

Tag: Texas A&M

Faculty Sues University over Plato-Banning Policy

A Statement of Support for Tommy Curry