I've updated my document that tackles four of the common arguments used to encourage teachers to use AI. I hope this will be helpful to those educators wanting to push back on AI mania.

Yes. This! I attended an AI in Education conference as a skeptic who needs to understand implications on my job a few years ago. One of the speakers emphasized that our time is the thing that has value and using AI for something is a sign you don’t value it.

"Academics literally cannot make genAI go away" we also can't make underage drinking go away and we're not advocating for installing bar carts in every classroom.

To be read. #OtherMinds

Now listening to Artemij Keidan on "genderlessness in a gendered language" (that is, why Pāṇini did not discuss gender). Part of the problem is whether adjectives are a separate class in Sanskrit. Is there a separate pattern for adjectives 1/

Now Raffaele Torella on Vāmanadatta, explaining about the ekāyanaveda, the shadow-Veda behind the historical Vedas and the weird puzzle that Vāmanadatta, a Vaiṣṇava author, is only cited by Śaiva authors (but by no Pañcarātra treatises).

Just read that prof. Gerhard Oberhammer passed away yesterday. He was 96 and has greatly contributed especially to interreligious theology and to the study of the development of Viśiṣṭādvaita Vedānta.

Now Alessandro Graheli on Kumārila's opponent discussing that there is no distinction between correct and incorrect words. All words are correct insofar as they express a meaning.

Now Marco Ferrante is explaining Bhartṛhari, with some truly new insights about Bh's acceptance of external objects, even though naïve realism does not explain the way language works. #Philsky #Philosophy #SanskritPhilosophy

Currently here: asiaticacoffeebreak.wordpress.com/14th-cbc-2025/

"cite your sources" is not just an externally-imposed mandate but a personal discipline on thought itself. "cite your sources" is how you keep yourself in contact with reality. "cite your sources" is how you keep yourself from shadowboxing your own imagination."

Reminder that the deadline for this is next month (actually, I'm going to double-check this is still when it is, but in the meantime let's just go with what's on the website):

Did you know that from tomorrow, Qualtrics is offering synthetic panels (AI-generated participants)? Follow me down a rabbit hole I'm calling "doing science is tough and I'm so busy, can't we just make up participants?"

"We welcome PhDs to a round table table discussion from assistant professors who were recently on the job market"

There is modern Sanskrit literature about everything. There is also a Sanskrit epic poem about Jesus Christ, titled Kristubhāgavatam, published by P.C. Devassia in 1977, which won the main Sanskrit literary prize in 1980 😁

Yet one more reason we cannot allow LLMs to serve as epistemic grounding is that we cannot triangulate among them the way you can among reasonable independent sources. They bullshit in the same way and end up agreeing with one other about things that are completely false.

Professor's pro-tip for anyone with college-age kids: Tell your kids go to class. It's really that simple. If you show up, you'll do okay. You don't have to be smart, you just have to be there. Maybe stay off your phones for 50 minutes. Just listen. You'll absorb something. I have data to prove it.

If you have to train students to recognize when a *university provided* resource is lying to them, maybe the university should not provide that resource.

"Our conversation with Dan McQuillan will examine the political stakes of AI, asking what can and should be done". Livestreamed Friday 12 EST/5 GMT on YouTube with audience Q&A. www.youtube.com/live/wi0u3Hs...

The last reading workshops of this Fall will take place on Thursday (we will read Periyavāccaṉ Piḷḷai's commentary on Rāmānuja's Śaraṇāgatigadya) and Friday (Maṇḍana's Vidhiviveka). A good moment for a summary of our activities for the fall: 1/

Join us today, 3 to 5pm (Toronto) for a talk by Marcus Schmücker on ontology, self and God in Sanskrit philosophy: philosophy.utoronto.ca/event/global... (zoom link available)

Next talk at UofT—Global Philosophy, by Marcus Schmücker on the self, the world and God in Viśiṣṭādvaita Vedānta philosophy.utoronto.ca/event/global... #SanskritPhilosophy #GlobalPhilosophy

Prof. Zeyad El Nabolsy (York) made me aware of this series of talks that might be interesting for several among us: www.yorku.ca/research/tub... #Philosophy #Philsky

Next talk on #ChinesePhilosophy at #UofT, by Hannah Kim, title: "Fiction without Mimesis: A Comparative Philosophy of Fiction" #Philosophy #philsky #GlobalPhilosophy philosophy.utoronto.ca/event/global...

Kumārila conference starting! elisafreschi.com/2025/04/18/s... #SanskritPhilosophy #Philosophy #GlobalPhilosophy

3-year postdoc on Avicena. The position is part of the ERC project “Avicenna Live: The Immediate Context of Avicenna’s Intellectual Formation” (ALIVE) jobs.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/jobposting/1...

If you're in Toronto today and hate the sunshine, come see scholars working on ten different philosophical traditions talking about epistemic achievements! sites.google.com/view/globalp...

Today and tomorrow at JHB, @uoft.bsky.social, "Other Epistemic Achievements" conference: sites.google.com/view/globalp...

Join us for a zoom talk at the Global Philosophy Research Group (@globalphilosophy.bsky.social) this Thursday, Mar20, 3-5pm EST: Kara Richardson: Avicenna on the Principle of Sufficient Reason and the “Same Cause-Same Effect” Principle Abstract & Zoom info: philosophy.utoronto.ca/event/global...

today!

Our next #online talk will take place next Thursday (20.3.2025), 3 to 5pm (Toronto time), with Kara Richardson (on Avicenna and the principle of sufficient reason). Read more here: philosophy.utoronto.ca/event/global... (the zoom link will be distributed later)

On Thursday December 5 and Friday December 6, 2024:

Last (small and student-oriented) workshop of 2024 within our research interest group. You may want to join for F.X.Clooney and Ch.Ram-Prasad's talks. elisafreschi.com/2024/11/18/w...

Don't forget Eric Hutton's talk today (also per Zoom). Eric Hutton is currently Prof. of Chinese Philosophy at UofT, but usually he is professor at University of Utah. He received his BA at Stanford in China and Classics, his MA at Harvard in Chinese, his PhD at Stanford in Philosophy. 1/

This is a reminder of Eric Hutton's talk tomorrow (Friday Nov 29, 3—5pm). Talk's title: "On Trust, Politics, and Justice in Early Confucianism and Plato". More details here: philosophy.utoronto.ca/event/global... For the ones among you who cannot make it in person, there is also a Zoom link.

Next interesting events at UofT Philosophy: —Talk by Eric Hutton on Confucius and Plato on November 29 (philosophy.utoronto.ca/event/global...)

I created a starter pack of faculty members / researchers at the University of Toronto from across academic disciplines, faculties, and campuses. I tried to find as many as I could. Please let me know which additional colleagues to add. go.bsky.app/GjLWXGA #UofT

The next #GlobalPhilosophy talk will happen today! More (and zoom link): philosophy.utoronto.ca/event/global... #BuddhistPhilosophy #Philosophy #BuddhistStudiesTalks #Ethics

My paper "Friendship with the ancients" is out in Journal of the APA. I look at the philosophical practice to "make friends" with long-dead authors, and what you get out of it: a specific kind of understanding, relational understanding, and intellectual humility www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Join us in 30' in person or on line for Amit Chaturvedi's talk! philosophy.utoronto.ca/event/global...

A new academic year is about to start! In case you need something to look forward to, here come our next talks: —Amit Chaturvedi (Hong Kong), October 17, Buddhist philosophy —Amod Lele (Boston), November 15, Buddhist ethics —Eric Hutton (Utah), November 29, Chinese philosophy #Philosophy

We very much look forward to our next talk (probably the last this academic year), by Curie Virág on philosophy of action in Chinese philosophy. More details: philosophy.utoronto.ca/event/global... Should you not be able to join us in person, please use the zoom link (at the webpage). 1/2

Reviewer two, you were wrong and you were mean. But your review made us do more experiments sooner than we otherwise would have, and because of that we're learning new things that make our story better.

Making philosophy truly global involves rethinking what is "philosophy", and realizing that what we happen to consider "philosophy" and "not philosophy" is the result of historical accidents. There can be redde rationem within speculations abt ritual and dogmatism within logic #GlobalPhilosophy

Evelyn Fox Keller has died. It is a great loss. “To know the history of science is to recognize the mortality of any claim to universal truth.” https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-03819-4 #Histsci #philsci #complexity #hpbio 🧪 #femsky

If you are in Toronto or can join online, don't forget this talk, starting in a little bit more than 60': philosophy.utoronto.ca/event/global... #IslamicPhilosophy #GlobalPhilosophy #Philosophy

Happening tomorrow (Dec 1st, 11--1pm Eastern): #MohammedRustom on evil and suffering in #IslamicPhilosophy (both online and in person) philosophy.utoronto.ca/event/global... #GlobalPhilosophy

Happening today! James Madaio on #consciousness in #RamchandraGandhi! #AdvaitaVedānta #ContemporaryIndianPhilosophy philosophy.utoronto.ca/event/global...

Our next talks: October the 20th, James Madaio. December the 1st, Mohammed Rustom. philosophy.utoronto.ca/event/global...