I'm very sad to have learned today that Joe Halpern passed away. Joe was a giant who knew no scientific boundaries. He loved science with a contagious, child-like enthusiasm. He was wonderful and I'm so grateful that I got to learn from him. Thank you Joe 🙏 www.bangsfuneralhome.com/obituaries/j...

Gearing up for an exciting evening of reviewing page proofs

I'm very excited to be Planet Money's guest when they come to Pittsburgh! Stop by if you're in our (and Mr. Roger's) neighborhood.

Two things fill the mind with ever new and increasing admiration and awe...: the starry heavens above me and the microplastics within me.

So, umm, any others who teach history of philosophy and who do in-class exams have ideas on how to do that? I mean, I know I can test for received interpretations from the textbook, which they should have some awareness of. But to me, that's not quite the real interest of the class. Advice welcome

Yep, came here to say this. Zero marginal cost of distribution isn't zero marginal cost of production. And ESPECIALLY not zero marginal cost of consumption: many academics NEED word limits (even though they won't admit it).

1. Introduction to Syntactic Theory (HPSG) 2. Sociolinguistics 3. Computability Theory 4. Japanese history 5. Linguistic Semantics

My book on relevant logics will be available mid-2026

My book’s page now has the cover image

Thanks for the helpful auto-complete, Gmail.

I often hear, in my line of work, that large language models have surpassed the capabilities of “mere stochastic parrots.” Yet few are willing to attribute to them anything like “understanding.” What, in your view, is the best recent appraisal of the limitations of LLMs?

#PhilSky: Looking for recs of good recent work on epistemology and technology: the risks of AI, deepfakes, epistemic problems with recommender algorithms, etc. This is for an upper division course, so ideally stuff that is big picture and teachable. Self-recommendations welcome :)

philosopher of language going down an undetached rabbit parts hole

My forthcoming book now has a webpage at the publisher www.cambridge.org/universitypr...

Does anyone have a good intuition for why Q (Robinson Arithmetic) doesn't prove Lob's Theorem?

The updated SEP entry on #Hyperintensionality is online! As the topic has exploded in recent years, might be Daniel and I haven't managed to mention YOUR stuff. Don't be upset: rest assured we've mentioned something intensionally equivalent to that. 😎 plato.stanford.edu/entries/hype...

It's World #Logic Day and this year, too, I plan to make valid inferences all day, while ignoring what I'm talking about and whether what I say is true. 🙂 www.unesco.org/en/days/worl...

Today is officially my first day starting my new job as assistant professor at the Graduate School of Information Sciences at Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan. I'm super excited to be here - the city is lovely, everyone at university so welcoming and friendly and the logic group is amazing! 😍

still one of my favorite jokes from the series

New paper in Synthese: 'Robustness and trustworthiness in AI: a no-go result from formal epistemology' ❓When does AI model M, on input x, show behavior φ robustly? 💡In modal logic: M,x⊧□φ ➡️Exposes limit on robustness & trustworthiness link.springer.com/article/10.1... philpapers.org/rec/HORRAT-13

Let's normalize refereeing invitations where reading the submitted paper and writing a report is less work than logging into the journal management website.

Okay @erinbiba.bsky.social it’s time for my second-most anticipated annual thread: Cats in Christmas Trees (and Battling Menorahs). Starting off strong with Donut.

Thread of birbs 2 Cassowary (or should that be cassUH-OHwary). #art #birds #cassowary

May your year be blessed with accepts subject to minor corrections.

my wish for the new year is for stuff to stop happening so much

Intersective modification in the scope of maximization stays undefeated

Semiotic paradox alert!

Another argument against Hamblin's idea of questions as sets of their possible answers. Consider (i) the question asked by 'were dogs domesticated once or more than once times?', and (ii) the set {<dogs were domesticated once>, <dogs were domesticated more than once>}.

Loving the aesthetic of this jar of chilli oil, which is not a thing I ever saw myself saying.

Japanese cat accounts have also largely coalesced around the hashtag #Blueskyねこ部 (which roughly translates to "Bluesky Cat Club") bsky.app/profile/pac2...

Merry Taiwanese Constitution Day to all who celebrate

I think the fact that genAI will have ruined all our lives within the decade has made some people on here lose sight of the fact that if used sensibly it can sometimes be useful

Hey @liao.shen-yi.org here's another new journal for your diamond open access file

You're mad because you expect a "software update" to make things work better. You will only be free when you understand this to be an illusion and accept the fact that software is suffering

Those of you with anxious kittens, do you have some recommendations for calming sprays or treats? Aster and I have a long car ride and she is sometimes nervous about carriers and the car.

Does anyone know of recent literature on the use of "else" between conditionals, as in sentences like "The package will arrive on Friday if you order it today, or else on Saturday if you order it tomorrow."?

I know of some work vaguely in this direction (e.g., studies on how non-human primates don't learn language) but wanted to ask: does anyone know studies/literature on whether non-human animals ask questions? (My understanding is they don't but want to read the lit before I form a strong view.)

One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them

long shot here, and a vague idea, but: scholarly folks, do you have any reading suggestions for work looking at conceptions (pop, psych, or phil) of time re: grammatical usage? Things like the present-tense fiction trend, lit discussions as present vs past, dif between simple past & past perfect use

Another way to restart the world’s idea machine is to restore funding and grants to universities, researchers, and artists.

For a grad student: reading recommendations about economics as complexity science? I especially want stuff related to rationality and biases.

Grant competitions are a waste of everyone's time. If you must do it, at least make it efficient. A new-ish study shows that asking for a paragraph + CV versus a full proposal basically generates the same results. So let's not waste people's time. link.springer.com/article/10.1...

recharging ⚡

I’ve posted this before but the light was perfect today- a little Victorian cat paw in a brick at the front of the old Norfolk & Norwich Hospital. As this is on the front-facing corner of the main gates, the bricklayer quite clearly put it there on purpose, at a height where children would spot it.

The new journal *Experimental Philosophy* is now open for submissions! Very glad to serve as an AE and looking forward to seeing this take off. #philsky

@annaleen.bsky.social @charliejane.bsky.social @ouropinions.bsky.social the final OOAC episode was great! You went out with a banger. Now I’m off to finish listening to your archive.

hall of fame for "make sure your push notification doesn't truncate the headline after five words"

Still curious about especially other contemporary writers who might fit here

Years ago I sent a review to the editor of a leading journal, very late. I apologised, maybe a bit too profusely. He replied (apparently in all seriousness) ‘it’s ok. We’ve all done things we are ashamed of.’ I often think of this when I need a good laugh.