The third Kumārila conference is starting tomorrow (May 18--22, at @utm.utoronto.ca )! Program below: elisafreschi.com/2026/02/01/t...

Verifying your sources is not "cosmetics". It is basic epistemology.

And how did I deal with the problem of one of the sources being in Greek (which I don't speak) and the other in Sanskrit (of which my knowledge is only moderate)? Colleagues and other experts. That's how. I asked other experts.

By refusing to disclose that the books are ai generated synthetic texts, this publisher is proving the critics right that everything about generative ai is fraudulent and unethical.

> Noor van der Heijden of the Auteursbond called the scale unprecedented and alarming: “AI models [use] illegally obtained, copyrighted material. Those texts have been stolen from our writers and now such an AI book maker is competing with the robbed writers. We as the Auteursbond are against that”

Brandolini's law for peer reviewers and AI

There are no "fish", there are no "vegetables", there are no "trees"…further evidences that language is based on exclusion (apoha).

This is super cool and I had no idea! (Carbon dating and what happens with marine eruptions, check also the OP for earthly eruptions and C14)

Students, if you’re thinking about dropping a note to that teacher or professor about what their class/project/mentorship has meant to you, but you worry it will be cringe or cheesy, let me just tell you they will coast on the fuzzy feelings prompted by that note for months, if not years

Good decision and statement! 👏👏 "(...) preserving the integrity and reliability of the ACL proceedings is our responsibility and these measures are necessary to uphold the standards of our community and to ensure that the work published remains a credible resource for future scientific inquiry."

"Drink if someone complained about mysterious course policies that were clearly explained on the syllabus. […] Drink if #students recommend a study guide. By “study guide,” they mean “the exact questions you will ask on the exam.” " (finally a useful translation!)

This is something to have in one's mind when using LLMs to summarise meetings.

4. As Jevin West and I have been saying for several years now, because a seemingly credible message no longer implies a human sender, LLMs will push us toward more emphasis on reputation and status — and as such serve as an anti-egalitarian force in all aspects of society, science included.

In every academic book there is a secret second book hiding in the footnotes. Sometimes it is the first draft that had migrated there to escape the revisions. Sometimes it is the author's tortured secret rebuttal of their own claims, and sometimes it is the incipient form of the their next book.

This year's student evaluations include this criticism: "Our learning experience would have benefitted from having more political, sociological discussion of contemporary and historical sources." Understandable, but… why not enrolling in a class on politics or sociology?

You may want to participate in the conversation about the future of APA online meetings: blog.apaonline.org/2026/05/07/s... @apaphilosophy.bsky.social

Manasicha Akepiyapornchai's book is composed of four chapters plus Intro and Conclusions. The four chapter discuss the evolution of the doctrine of self-surrender (śaraṇāgati and other names) as an autonomous soteriological means, independent of devotion (bhakti). 1/

So, we are meant to submit grades before tomorrow, but Canvas/Quercus has been attacked by hackers and is now under "scheduled maintenance" (hypocrites! Surely no one scheduled a maintenance today!) #CanvasDown

Re. Sanskrit translations: There is virtually no "final" or "agreed upon" translation of Sanskrit philosophical texts, in the way in which the Loeb classical library are regarded for Plato etc.  1/

Flying back from Edmonton full of new memories abt Advaita Vedānta (ānanda as pūrṇatā), aesthetics (why are ornaments literally essential for beauty in Sanskrit aesthetics and not so for Loos etc?), philosophy of language (does language necessarily convey commands?)… sites.google.com/ualberta.ca/...

Now that the Jaina and Mīmāṃsā conference is over, I am flying to Edmonton for the "Indology in Canada" conference, looking forward to discussing with more colleagues on Kumārila!

People in cars are doing important things, and their time is valuable. We know this because they are in cars. People not in cars are doing unimportant things, and their time has no value. We know this because, if they were doing important things, they would be in cars.

It's funny because this is emphatically not how LLM-type models work. The epistemic nihilism is inherent to the technology. And this product will inevitably make false statements in the appropriated name-and-likeness of professors who would never say any such thing.

Can't we go back to creating robots that can reduce pollution by swallowing/collecting plastic or oil in the oceans, instead?

Listening to the first talk, on Mallavādin and the twelve spokes of philosophy (the twelve philosophical traditions to be refuted by Jaina philosophy). 1/

Th. Nagel very much present in the answers! Either directly (his essays) or indirectly (essays inspired by his What is it like to be a bat)

De Smedt and De Cruz, "The restaurant at the beginning of the universe." Experimental philosophy of religion paper interviewing working scientists about the relationship between their work and religious topics. Cool method + they found a cast of charming, insightful, and quirky interviewees.

#OtherMinds #AnimalMinds … wow!

Good advise from a HR-friend at an interview: "What would your last superior tell me about you, should I ask them?" #interviews

Got a problem? Try Philosophy™️. Credit card debt? You’re not identical to the person who borrowed it. Stressed about a deadline? Time isn’t real. Don’t feel like exercising? Motion is impossible.

Omg

Nice comment from a student of Philosophy of Religion: "Please continue in this delightful class so that many more students can grow as atheists into better atheists" #PhilosophyOfReligion #students

I think this chart is absolutely wonderful for people who think about the environment but find it hard to cut on meat. Remember: eating a bit less beef is much easier than going full veg(etari)an, while still helping a lot. And after a while you notice that you don't even need it that much... 🤷‍♀️

oooh! More Chinese Philosophy coming up! Time for someone like Larry McCrea to team up with Peter Adamson and do Sanskrit philosophy after Dignāga next!

One thing that sucks about AI is how it has degraded trust between students and professors.

This is why I stopped uploading my videos on Canvas. One never knows and I don't want to take jobs away from younger colleagues.

Anyway, thanks for a poignant illustration, guys.

Interesting thread backing with data and structure loose ideas we might have had

Conference on Jaina and Mīmāṃsā philosophy next week (April 29 to May 1):

Notes to my future self: A student suggested assignments where one should be asked to recreate the argument of thinker A or B. Great idea! #students

Acc. to Nyāya authors, absences are real, and therefore they are grasped by perception, not by absence as a source of knowledge.

Meet “ASU Atomic,” a subscription platform that claims to offer customized learning modules for fee-paying users. None of the ASU faculty whose course materials were harvested for the module I generated were aware that their image, lectures, lessons, or other teaching materials are being used.

This is what a friend (working on machine learning) told me too. Research on LLMs is now focusing on efficiency (using less energy), since the quality of the content will only decrease.

Eruption of Mount Vesuvius, by J.M.W. Turner. He had not actually been there to witness it! But he made this spectacular painting of it in 1817, & today is his day.

I read Franzen's Corrections (2001) because multiple people pressed it on me and I liked it. But now that I have read Anne Tyler's Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant (1982), I think that most of Corrections' best ideas are already in Tyler's book #books 1/

Or speaks another language.

Cambridge #PhilosophyJobs