On self-satisfaction as a criterion for knowing dharma in Kumārila: it could be that the person who has studied the Veda throughout their life is naturally inclined to do the right thing, because they remember in a non-discursive way some relevant Vedic passage.

Don't call the Pratyabhijñā school "Kashmir Śaivism, the majority of Śaivas in Kashmir were dualists!

This. Just think about the enormous amount of input LLMs need to behave as if they had "learnt" a language, whereas how babies learn a language out of a very limited set of training data (at most, hundreds of sentences a day, for about one year).

Been thinking a lot lately that humans and animals like crows possess brains with reasoning capacity on very low power inputs but despite enormous power requirements, LLMs have yet to show that ability, which might indicate that‘s entirely the wrong path to AGI.

3. I appealed to the joy of doing science—and got the predictable question: Would you rather live in a world where AI cured cancer or live in a world where you personally get to do science? But that's not the dilemma we face at all. There's no cause to think that AI could do anything of the sort.

Sanskrit philosophy is extremely sophisticated and I am convinced that we don't need to borrow categories from Euro-American philosophy to better understand it. More below: elisafreschi.com/2025/12/08/a...

I probably don't care enough about team sports to be living in North America…:-)

Pro tip for people who post too much on here (like me): you can put: from:me in the search bar, along with keywords, to search back through your own posts.

Call for applications for the Friedrich Weller Prize 2026 (for works on Buddhism, China, India, published 2023--2025). For details, please see: www.saw-leipzig.de/de/aktuelles...

“Not all faculty are using AI or are comfortable using it. Change isn’t easy for any of us,” says McCrindle [associate dean of teaching and learning and the director of the Centre for Teaching and Learning at UofT] —>Perhaps it's not that we resist change per se, but that we resist bad changes?

Church of St. Nicholas in Myra (modern Demre), where St. Nicholas was bishop Today is the feast of St. Nicholas of Myra

Currently listening to Barry Maguire on Socialism and the collective ownership of the means of production. Can Socialism still mean something distinctive, if separated from that ownership? philosophy.utoronto.ca/event/colloq... 1/

it's wild how the positive use cases are like "save 5 minutes reading a long doc" and "write a generic email faster" and the negative use cases are "get encouraged to dive deeper in psychosis, misogyny, or suicidal thoughts" and we're still on the fence about overall value

OpenAI knows this is a problem. it knows hundreds of thousands of people are using their product to dig deeper into delusion and make the people around them miserable and unsafe. and it does not care www.404media.co/chatgpt-spot...

Currently listening to Ahona Panda's (great) talk titled "The Zamindar and the Gazi", on continuities and discontinuities in Bengal and East Bengal from 1793 to 1971. www.eventbrite.ca/e/the-gazi-a... 1/

unpopular opinion: there are too many books on "Sanskrit philosophy" and too few original texts in translation, because loose thinking is easier than facing the challenge of translating a whole text. #philsky #Philosophy

I ended up drafting an email that didn't really lean on research specific to grade school education, but expressed my concerns in the most basic terms. I removed the personal details and have shared it as a template here for folks who might find it useful: bit.ly/TeacherEmail...

To be considered

With the official launch of the Vienna Doctoral College on Digital #Humanism on 19 Nov., the City of Vienna has demonstrated being the capital of #DigitalHumanism. 👏 The kick-off event provided valuable insights – from strategy of @wien.gv.at until its practical implementation in our DocCollege. ⤵️

On this day in 1512, Michelangelo unveiled his Sistine Chapel ceiling to an awestruck public. I'm still in awe, 513 years later.

The claim that language is fixed (nitya) is part of a general approach by Kumārila (the world, the self, language, the Veda… all have to be considered to have always been around, unless and until the opposite is proven). 1/ #philsky #philosophy #SanskritPhilosophy

Starting in 15 (in JHB 418 or online)

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)

Currently (today and tomorrow all day) reading Sudarśana Sūri's commentary on Rāmānuja's Śaraṇāgatigadya with a delightful group of colleagues. ❤️

This might be relevant while planning conferences.

Sure, let's just use gen-AI in health and research!

Interesting to think about in connection with (pseudo?) sentences like "Colourless green ideas sleep furiously", whose meaning can hardly he exported… #PhilosophyOfLanguage #philosophy

Happy World Linguistics Day with Saussure's reflections on #apoha!

Amazing in every way: Altarpiece of St. Vincent Ferrer, church of SS. Giovanni e Paolo, Venice. 1464. Paintings by Giovanni Bellini, whose day is today. Enframement also more than A+!

At the Department of Equity, Ethics, and Policy and Department of Philosophy #PhilosophyJobs

"We train ChatGPT to recognise and respond to signs of mental or emotional distress, de-escalate conversations, and guide people toward real-world support.” Anyone who has read the transcripts (heartbreaking!) knows this simply wasn't the case. ChatGPT kept up with its messages of 'empowerment.'

Are paintings real? Many art lovers feel they’re looking at real people and landscapes. Scientists say it’s time to consider whether they’re onto something.

I am surprised by Taylor's translation of paśu as `wild animals', since I would understand the couple paśu-mṛga as domesticated vs. wild mammals (usually quadrupeds and herbivores)

From a guidebook about #RecommendationLetters for law school: " "I recommend Jane with enthusiasm" tells us nothing. But, "in my twenty years here, I would place Jane in the top 3%" shines like a neon sign.”" This is so much AGAINST my own experience with letters! 1/

My latest rejection of a peer review: I had a look at the article and I find a lot to disagree with even just in the bibliography (the primary texts are not even in alphabetical order; the list of secondary texts focuses mainly on the author himself, apart from quoting the same text by X twice). 1/

Conference on Indology in Canada, May 2026: sites.google.com/ualberta.ca/...

November, oil on canvas, 2025 #academia #academicsky #science #cogsci #philosophy #philsky #philosophysky #science

A dictionary of Sanskrit philosophical terms (Sanskrit-French-English) Jean-Marie Verpoorten, Répertoire des termes sanskrits des Ecoles philosophiques indiennes, Strasbourg, 2025, 751 p. histoire.unistra.fr/websites/his... #SanskritPhilosophy #philsky #philosophy

I just read that Boris Oguibénine passed away in Strasbourg on November 12th—just days after celebrating his 85th birthday on November 6th. He wrote on Vedic, Indo-European, Buddhist Sanskrit.

#Kumārila on sadācāra 'behaviour of good people' as a deontic source: The idea is that these people are well versed in the Veda and that the Veda is the only source for dharma. 1/

I will add the following: our students lack the research skills required to audit an LLM essay for errors. They don’t arrive on campus with these skills; we teach it to them over four long years. So throwing freshmen in the deep end and saying “swim your way to a shore of rectitude” is folly.

Reading #TheDarkForest and #TheDeathsEnd by Liu Cixin seems a long illustration of "timeo Danaos et dona ferentes" from Vergil's Aeneid. #books

For Kumārila, we need both positive (reward if performed) and negative motivation (sanction if not performed) in the case of fixed/conditional duties (e.g., "Do X every single day, bc you're Y"). For elective duties, positive motivation is enough (perhaps because the reward is temporally close).