everything is terrible so here's the Muppets channeling Hamilton and bringing me untold joy (via the brilliant brettevansmafrog on insta)

The "compact" is a threat, with the administration explicitly stating that it plans to disfavor universities that don't sign in areas from foreign student visas, student loans, federal contracts as well as grants, and even tax [501(c)(3)] status. It's a maximalist plan of 1st Amendment violation.

This is partially why Ishani and I argued that we should welcome the idea of coercive conditions on funding; it captures some things the government should not be able to do. It's just that it was never plausible that Medicaid expansion was one of those things. brian.weatherson.org/quarto/posts...

RIP Jane Goodall, by all accounts a wonderful woman who loved this Far Side cartoon

Please report this fucking AI slop. Goddamnit. www.amazon.com/KALEB-HORTON...

How range anxiety is being replaced by the freedom of the open road. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

The President of the United States tells assembled US top brass that he wants to use the US military to kill US citizens on US soil.

Many students use AI to get their work done. I think this is a disaster for higher education — it circumvents the process of learning, and expertise never gets built. I wrote about it for The Argument today, with findings from our latest poll on AI attitudes. www.theargumentmag.com/p/chatgpt-an...

"One was Realism in Mathematics by Penelope Maddy. In the margins, McCarthy summarizes the author’s points and comments on them, frequently disagreeing. “Gibberish,” he noted at one point." www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture...

This is one way to save local journalism I guess. I’ve given money to both the library and the observer in the past, so I’m glad they are working together.

A lot of people think that every international student admitted means one fewer spot for domestic students, when the opposite is more likely true - the tuition revenue international students bring allows public universities to provide substantial discounts to domestic students, improving access.

My view is that 1. People have been using AI (spell checkers, grammar checkers, autocomplete) for years, and we've survived fine without special rules, and 2. If people want to use LLMs to improve the atrocious quality of bibliographies that are submitted to journals, they should be rewarded.

The Searle Chair John Searle died a couple weeks ago. Since people are sharing stories, I'll share one of my own. As a philosopher of science studying developmental psychology, my dissertation committee initially consisted of Elisabeth Lloyd, Martin Jones, and Alison Gopnik. The topic led me 1/11

Cornell is cancelling a distinguished professor's classes on Gaza and suspending him because of the complaints of a student who previously served in Israel's military surveillance agency and was literally recording the comments of other students in class and deliberately derailing discussion.

This is my regular reminder to everyone that jstor is open to the general public now; a free account there will give you access to 100 papers a year.

I have a forthcoming paper in Phil Imprint! It's an attempt to reconstruct Suhrawardī’s theory of imagination. Please admire the insane Figure 1 (it took me hours!!). philpapers.org/rec/HADIAI

Book launch for “Methods in the Philosophy of Science: a user’s guide”. Ftf in Exeter and online on the 29th of Sept feat Sophie Veigl, Kerry McKenzie, Hasok Chang, and me. It should be fun! (the book will be open access in July, contact me in the meantime) www.exeter.ac.uk/events/detai... #philsci

Following up the advice to grad students threads we just had here’s my advice to young grad students. If your region doesn’t have an ethics bowl system start one up. In my experience people who do that have a 100% success rate at getting top academic jobs.

“We got so lucky to follow such an inspiring group of students. Their journey is an excellent snapshot of how rewarding the ethics bowl experience can be.”

My current working model of chatbots is that they are potentially very useful tools, which have the worst possible affordances.

Simon Goldstein and I have a new paper, “What does ChatGPT want? An interpretationist guide”. The paper argues for three main claims. philpapers.org/rec/GOLWDC-2 1/7

New paper with @tom-mcclelland.bsky.social! What is it to see someone as an object – to perceptually objectify them? We argue that seeing is not just a metaphor. We see others afford doing things with and to. doi.org/10.1111/ejop...

My department is advertising a permanent T&R position in non-Western Philosophy. I genuinely think I have the best job in the world. Do apply if you want to be in a fantastic department! Also Australia is great. Happy to answer any questions. philjobs.org/job/show/29770

One particular statistic in here jumped out at me. Heather Cox Richardson has twice as many subscribers to her Substack newsletter as the average audience for Jimmy Kimmel's show.

Harry Styles finished the Berlin Marathon under three hours and a false name.

In this episode poor Melvyn was only just about keeping up but Crispin Wright's amazing articulacy on the correspondence theory saved the day www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b...

The Aaron Swartz production function www.programmablemutter.com/p/the-aaron-...

It’s striking how much this project still basically works in Australia. The median voter for the most of the last two decades has wanted Malcolm Turnbull leading a Labor government, and since they can’t get it they will vote for the closest approximation.

Go grue

Bearing your cross is a lot easier with wheels.

My 11 years in USA now seem like a dream. In the sense of being unreal. 5 years of amazing education @ucsandiego.bsky.social (to which i gave back plenty as a TA), then six years in St Louis as a postdoc and an Assistant Prof. Solidarity with all the colleagues affected. I know what a blow this is…

Thinking about all the times I visited Australia, Europe, and other places while on an H1B.

Hello! I just started at new center at UCI! Some main foci will be misinformation, metascience, and equity! www.socsci.uci.edu/newsevents/n...

This is how I learned I can get the COVID vaccine.

New Element just published! Philosophy of Cosmology and Astrophysics, by Siska De Baerdemaeker. Open access until 10/3. Tell your friends! www.cambridge.org/core/element...

This package has data that can be used instead of nycflights13 to teach joins, and also to look at temporal trends and draw maps. It has to coolest hexsticker vahdatjavad.github.io/ecotourism/ and cute creatures: mantarays, gouldian finches, glow worms and orchids

As someone who used to be very good at these problem solving competitions, I don't think doing well at them is a sign of general intelligence. That said, I'm seeing a bunch of takes about LLMs that assume they are just like 2022 models, and that's not the case. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Well, a good job football is played over 90 minutes plus stoppage time. #lfc

I haven't used "Academia .edu" for 15 yrs (only tried it when it 1st came out) but they just tried charge me ~$400 automatic on a card w/o any notification or me agreeing to renew/reactivate anything. This is such a predatory scam & they really shouldn't be allowed an ".edu" too Watch out for them

I'm sorry, worldwide, irrevocable, non-exclusive, transferable permission to my voice and likeness? For what now? In any manner for any purpose??? This is in academia/.edu's new ToS, which you're prompted to agree to on login. Anyway I'll be jumping ship. You can find my stuff at hcommons.org.

Celebrate the legacy of Michael Dummett: philosopher, activist, and visionary! This Aristotelian Society's virtual issue honors his centenary with essays that reflect his profound impact on philosophy: oxford.ly/48n5yyh @aristotsoc.bsky.social

Is there good stuff in recent philosophy journals about the difference between causes and background conditions? This is a nice case for getting at how hard that distinction is to draw.

I’ll take the line between D and E.

The conclusion that people use LLMs as basically good search engines matches my experience. In the last few days I've had to tinker with lua files and plist files, and what in the past would have been a huge search through StackExchange etc became one question and a quick answer.

1. What does a Cold War-era game theory problem known as the silent duel have to do with high-risk research strategies, publication in Cell/Nature/Science glamor journals, and the academic job market? Kevin Gross and I tackle these questions in our latest arXiv preprint: arxiv.org/abs/2509.06718

📣@futrell.bsky.social and I have a BBS target article with an optimistic take on LLMs + linguistics. Commentary proposals (just need a few hundred words) are OPEN until Oct 8. If we are too optimistic for you (or not optimistic enough!) or you have anything to say: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

The Washington Post now has no Black Opinion columnists - none - at a time when white nationalism is ascendant in our nation. I am grateful to Karen for the truth and fearlessness her work has always shown. Keep shining that light, my friend.

This feels like it could be potentially of interest to @retractionwatch.com or @dailynous.com or people interested in the ecology of academic publishing...