It is really, really wild how persistent and prominent this remains in common LLMs. There seems to be an air of "well they fixed that" and it is 100% not true: most of the energy just seems to be going towards 'being plausible enough to be accepted', ie style and not accuracy or truth

#OtherMinds #AnimalMinds

good thing we've enabled robots that spam human communities then harass those communities after they get banned www.404media.co/an-ai-agent-...

At times one is forced to think that apoha is the best theory of linguistic signification

U.T.Vīrarāghavācārya stages a debate on the existence of individual minds: Advaita Vedānta opponent: There is no real distinction between the brahman/ātman and the alleged individual ātmans. #Philosophy #philsky 1/3

Listening today to a talk on virtue ethics in Aristotle as applied to justice, by Mitzi Lee. As usual, amazing talk. But this time I took lines on paper instead that here. Still, a discussion in the Q and A deserves public mention (summary mine, the real thing is better!). 1/ #Philosophy #philsky

after much deliberation and giving AI the benefit of the doubt, Wikipedia editors have had enough of AI slop. New policy bans LLM generated content, periodt www.404media.co/wikipedia-ba...

I had not realised that Arindam Chakrabarti is now teaching at Ashoka University! indianphilosophyblog.org/2026/03/04/p...

“Imagine a humanoid educator named Plato,” the First Lady said. “Access to the classical studies is now instantaneous […] Predictably, our children will develop deeper critical thinking and independent reasoning abilities.” Besides politics, why *predictably*?

Perspective space breaks through! Calm foreground performance but zooming depth in this work by Piermatteo d'Amelia, 1487, for today's feast day of the Annunciation.

Amazing line of speakers!

Gabriel has stopped in street to chat with local saint, but Mary is nevertheless receiving the Holy Spirit in a marvelous Annunciation by Carlo Crivelli, 1486. For the feast of the Annunciation, which is today.

Egon Schiele (1907)

Are you looking for #funding for a #philosophy event or project? Do you know someone who is? 💡 📢 Our #grant programmes for 2026 will open soon, so watch this space for more details, and please share with anyone who might be interested in applying for funding. #philosophymatters

might be relevant to know if you, like me, frequently host conferences etc. per zoom.

See above for the three-year post description and link to apply, and below for the two-year post (on interpretability and explainability methods for complex ML models in science, experience in formal methods preferred for this one): elxw.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...

"Canvas’s internal AI agent isn’t equipped to stop it. “Asking AI if something came from AI is a recipe for disaster and disappointment,” Pendleton said. “Large language models aren’t especially great at being able to reason about the performance or presence of other LLMs.”"

Varieties of Non-Dualism in Late Indian Yogācāra, hybrid talk by Davey Tomlinson, Wednesday Apr 1 from 8:30 pm to 10 pm EDT www.eventbrite.com/e/varieties-... Mangalam Research Center

really grateful for Emily Tucker (exec director @georgetownprivacy.bsky.social). I will be asking my students to read this, and I think I might have to write a similar letter myself since I keep saying this stuff to my students anyway. reject and resist genAI as and when you can. you are not alone!

#Ratnakīrti on solipsism: 1. He seems to think that we don't perceive the limits of our "mind" (scare-quotes bc in fact it is only a sequence of mental events that we mistake as a permanent self) 2. He also assumes that we should perceive some limits if there were anything else other than our "mind"

I normally share these threads as #NormaliseFailures

"The assumption was that the technology made all of that unnecessary, which suited Google; a user who can’t navigate information independently is a user who keeps coming back to be guided." (3/3) From Hana Lee Goldin

2x 3-ys post-docs on mantras in Asian religions: my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecru... #SanskritJobs

The 16th International Indology Graduate Research Symposium (IIGRS) will take place on 24-25 Sept 2026 at L’Orientale University of Naples, Italy. Early-career researchers are invited to send in an abstract via the Google Form (iigrs.wordpress.com/call-for-pap...) by 10 April #Sanskrit

The Dubrovnik International Conference on the Sanskrit Epic and Purāṇas 11 (DICSEP 11) will take place on August 3-8, 2026 in Dubrovnik More details about deadlines (Apr 30) for papers & accommodation in Dubrovnik available here: dicsep.org #Sanskrit

Peter Adamson finally found the ideal guest! PA: "So, the Zhaungzi is unthinkable without Confucius" H-GM: "Yes, but this is true of every philosopher. No philosopher is thinkable without the philosophers they were reacting to" #Philosophy #philsky #methodology

Did someone already suggest that taking two boxes in the Newcomb's problem feels like cheating the genie and that we should therefore take one box? (@kevinzollman.com will probably know)

In case you are a woman scholar, this part is particularly relevant: "Maki, a leading researcher on menopause and dementia, once believed memory issues could be linked to the loss of estrogen that occurs during menopause. 1/

Birch in a Forest https://botfrens.com/collections/109/contents/28510

Jürgen Habermas died today. A titan in philosophy, one of those who made it impossible to attack philosophy as "irrelevant navel gazing" (even if you disagreed with him) #Philsky #Philosophy

#philsky Call for papers :: Speech and Society: Contemporary Philosophy of Language Keynote Speakers: Professor Emma Borg Professor Jennifer Mather Saul Conference dates: 24-25 June Abstract deadline: 2 April Full details:

A student recently told me that ChatGPT must be sentient, because it talks back to her… No, it's a feature of the program.

The reason I want students to have to struggle with difficult texts is because I want them to have the capacity to make meaning in and of the world on their own.

The publishing house to whom I sent in MAY 2025 my author questionnaire and further "final" details now writes back to me asking me to send them the author questionnaire, keywords, bio etc. Time is moving backward.

Prep'ing for a guest lecture on commentaries in Sanskrit philosophy. To be discussed: —originality is overrated —commentaries on networks of texts —"distorting" commentaries —the shared rules of the game: Grammar, Hermeneutics… —is there a distinction between Philosophy & exegesis?

What can we perceive? External objects? Qualia? Substances? Cognitions? Kumārila on the topic (comments welcome!) elisafreschi.com/2026/03/11/k... #Philosophy #philsky

Non polemical question, but can someone explain to me why many men (mainly in the US, it seems) wear baseball hats even when there is no sun & even inside buildings? It cannot be to avoid sunburns only & it cannot be bc of the cold (otherwise they would be wearing sth warm) maybe @faineg.bsky.social

What about the physical enormity of the US? Does that force people to drive more? No, it doesn't. Canada is an even more spacious country, and residents drive a lot less (and are <1/2 as likely to die in a crash).

citing correctly is not just a formal problem, it's an epistemological issue.

If you can't trust a citation, what can you trust? AI chatbots are inventing academic sources – and some scholars are citing them. My latest on "scholarly slop" for @theobserveruk.bsky.social w/ thanks to @benpatrickwill.bsky.social & everyone who spoke to me observer.co.uk/news/science...

Are you an early-career philosopher hoping to reach beyond academia with your writing? We’re thrilled to be introducing the Aeon Philosophy Prize – a unique opportunity to receive editorial mentorship and see your ideas reach global audiences. Open for applications today buff.ly/p47BrKe

Upcoming online talk about women philosophers in the middle ages: www.festival.cam.ac.uk/events/did-w... #philsky

I’m at a day long workshop on animal ethics at the University of Tartu, Estonia. Really exciting to see people from all over the world, and from different areas of philosophy, none of whom I’ve met before.

I had an interesting discussion with a colleague. Short form thereof: Me: sloppy bibliography or logical formulations (in a student's WS) are a red flag. Them: They are not. Me: Suppose they become your grad student, then you'll have to fix typos etc. Them: I just wouldn't. It's irrelevant.

People who are able to translate complex Sanskrit texts should continue doing it as much as possible, because it is a general priority and because confronting great thinkers refines our philosophical skills.

I also get the desire for efficiency. I have more ideas than I will ever be able to publish and I keep thinking of new ones. But, again, LLMs don't solve that problem. They produce Baudrillardian simulacrums of scholarship - they have the trappings of academic writing without any of the substance.