Right now, the U.S. is rewriting the rules for the age of artificial intelligence —and the changes will shape not only the speed of innovation but also the values, safeguards, and power structures that govern it for decades to come. In July, the government published its “Winning The Race: America’s AI Action Plan,” framing artificial intelligence […] The post The Future of AI in America Is Being Decided—And It’s Time to Pay Attention first appeared on Blog of the APA.| Blog of the APA
"In thinking about trolley problems, to what extent have you put yourself in the shoes of the person at the switch... and to what extent have you put yourself into the shoes of those tied to the tracks?" In the following guest post, Avram Hiller, associate professor of philosophy at Portland State University, notes the| Daily Nous - news for & about the philosophy profession
"The mistake involves grouping together into an all-or-nothing package entire sets of claims whose epistemological credentials are quite varied. It also often involves collapsing epistemic and moral concerns." In the following guest post, Eric Winsberg, Professor of Philosophy at the University of South Florida and British Academy Global Professor of History and Philosophy of Science| Daily Nous - news for & about the philosophy profession
Among Dr. Seymour Papert’s vast contributions to knowledge, his framing of educational decision making through the lens of instructionism vs. constructionism may be the most profound, useful, and enduring. Any discussion, debate, controversy, or concern about education policy or decision about pedagogical approach is based on the personal stance of how you believe learning occurs. […] The post Instructionism versus Constructionism appeared first on The Daily Papert.| The Daily Papert
Perestroika and Epistemological Politics Keynote address at the World Conference on Computers in Education at Darling Harbor, Sydney, Australia July 1990 By Seymour Papert[*] MIT Media Laboratory 20 Ames Street, E15-313 Cambridge, MA 02139 During the week of the conference you have been immersed in exciting and focused discussions about actual uses of computers in real educational settings. […] The post Seymour Papert Would Like a Word with Ron DeSantis 33 years ago appeared first on The...| The Daily Papert
The book celebrates the 50th anniversary of a seminal paper by Cynthia Solomon and Seymour Papert. Published in 1971, Twenty Things to Do with a Computer, set the course of education for the next fifty years and beyond. I created the new book, Twenty Things to Do with a Computer Forward 50, to honor the vision set forth by Papert and Solomon a half-century ago. Four dozen experts from around the world invite us to consider the original provocations, reflect on their implementation, and ch...| The Daily Papert
“Our school systems are being strangled by the cost of this curious epidemic of learning disability.” Seymour Papert From Papert, S., March 16, 2000. Millennial Lecture at the Muskie Archives.| The Daily Papert
One of the big issues in epistemology is the problem of infinite regress. “I believe the sun will rise.” “How do you know that?” “Because it always has.” “How do you know that?” “Because my memory and human records confirm it has.” “How do you know that?” “Because I’ve examined those memories and records.” “How […]| Richard Carrier Blogs
Can faith survive family fracture? Yes, with conviction, grace, and hope shaped by discipleship. The post When Loved Ones Leave the Church: Holding to Faith in a Fractured Family appeared first on Public Square Magazine.| Public Square Magazine
Introduction Contemporary critical theories of Black life, particularly Afropessimism as formulated by Frank Wilderson and the postcolonial fatalism found in Achille Mbembe’s On the Postcolony (2001), have produced a striking impasse: frameworks seeking to disclose the depth of Black negation increasingly foreclose the possibility of Black agency. In these accounts, Black subjectivity is rendered ontologically…| Blog of the APA
Having discussed the history of standpoint theory, I now want to dive into it more philosophically. While I have plenty of outsider’s objections to standpoint theory, here I want to explore w…| Love of All Wisdom
According to (what I think is) the right theory of intrinsic probability, there are three primary criteria which determine the prior of any given hypothesis:Modesty: How little a hypothesis says about the world. | Jim Reilly's Philosophy Blog
Romain Vielfaure. Le sexe du savoir, ouvrage de Michèle Le Dœuff publié pour la première fois en 1998 et paru en poche en 2002, fait l’objet d’une réédition aux Éditions de l’ENS de Lyon. Cette nouvelle édition, enrichie d’une postface de Léa Védie, contribue à rendre justice à l’importance de la pensée de Le Dœuff. Les thèses de l’autrice féministe française, qui se situent à l’orée de la troisième vague féministe (les études de genre apparaissant aux Éta...| Implications philosophiques
God doesn’t change, but we do. This article shows how a flawless, unchanging God reveals truth over time—with mercy for the past and hope for what comes next.| Public Square Magazine
People sometimes say that judgments about what’s true, what’s ethical, what others find beautiful or aesthetically pleasing, and more are "subjective." What does “subjective” really mean? Are judgments like these truly “subjective”? This essay introduces different answers to these questions.| People sometimes say that judgments about what’s true, what’s ethical, wh...
Transformative experiences are radically new experiences that significantly change who you are. Can we rationally choose to have transformative experiences in a way that’s authentic to our own values? This essay explores this question. The post Transformative Experiences: Can Life-Changing Choices Be Both Rational and Authentic? first appeared on 1000-Word Philosophy: An Introductory Anthology.| 1000-Word Philosophy: An Introductory Anthology
Abstract| Social Epistemology Review and Reply Collective
Professor Schneider’s article “Chatbot Epistemology” (2025) raises several important and timely questions regarding the use of large language models. I shall focus here on the epistemological questions, of which I think there is one that is central: Are chatbots a reliable source of information? … [please read below the rest of the article].| Social Epistemology Review and Reply Collective
I’ve expressed plenty of disagreement with the Social Justice movement and will continue to do so. I also believe that …Continue reading →| Love of All Wisdom
An objection against trying to reduce suffering is that we cannot predict whether our actions will reduce or increase suffering in the long term. Relatedly, some have argued that we are clueless about the effects that any realistic action would have on total welfare, and this cluelessness, it has been claimed, undermines our reason to... Continue Reading →| Magnus Vinding
This post is an attempt to write up what I consider a useful lesson about intellectual discourse. The lesson, in short, is that it is often helpful to control for a thinker’s big idea. That is, a p…| Magnus Vinding
Faith isn’t found in a flash—it’s formed through effort. This article reveals the four essential steps that move faith from fragile doubt to enduring strength. You just have to start.| Public Square Magazine
David J. Blacker’s recent Deeper Learning with Psychedelics is a valuable attempt to think through the implications of psychedelics for philosophy and education. One passage in particular cau…| Love of All Wisdom
Faith and reason aren't at odds—they’re allies. With tools like source criticism, context, and flexibility, you can think clearly, believe deeply, and walk your faith journey with power.| Public Square Magazine
Explore the profound relationship between the Soul, intuition, and knowledge in this insightful discourse on spirituality and ethics.| Traversing Tradition
Apparently there’s an old wives’ tale that if you turn a mattress on a Friday you’ll have bad dreams. Stupid, right? And how about this one: I have a friend who went to a college where the students had a superstition about a certain brick in a sidewalk on the campus: if you ever step … Continue reading "Superstition Has Rational Evolutionary Roots"| Neurotoxin
Recently, I wrote a review (2025) of Brian Talbot’s The End of Epistemology as We Know It. As I hope the review suggests, there was much to admire in that monograph. The book made me wonder about the…| Social Epistemology Review and Reply Collective
At the exact same time we're seeing an actual, real-life, non-theoretical explosion in AI capabilities, I've become much less worried about the prospect of a silicon god converting the universe into paperclips. My p(doom), as the kids say, has dropped off a cliff. The idea behind this post is to lay out these underrated arguments in one convenient place, and document exactly why I changed my mind.| Deep Dish
In January, I defended my PhD thesis. My thesis is called Algorithmic Bayesian Epistemology, and it’s about predicting the future. In many ways, the last five years of my life have been unpredictable. I did not predict that a novel bat virus would ravage the world, causing me to leave New York for a year. … Continue reading Algorithmic Bayesian Epistemology→| Unexpected Values
[Note: images may not load if you’re using the WordPress app. Try opening this post in a browser, or reading it on LessWrong.] Thanks to Drake Thomas for feedback. I. Here’s a fun scatter plot. It has two thousand points, which I generated as follows: first, I drew two thousand x-values from a normal distribution … Continue reading How much do you believe your results?→| Unexpected Values
In December 2020, I made 100 probabilistic predictions for 2021. As promised, I’ve come back to evaluate them on two criteria: calibration and personal optimism/pessimism. I also challenged readers to compete with me. More on this later, but first, here are my predictions, color-coded black if they happened and red if they didn’t. I. US … Continue reading Grading my 2021 predictions→| Unexpected Values
I’ve written the fourth in a series of six posts that will be coming out with the Streit Council, on the problem of economic integration without political union. There’s no paywall. You can read it…| Benjamin Studebaker
Brian Talbot’s new book The End of Epistemology As We Know It (2023)[1] represents a challenge to mainstream analytic epistemology that goes well beyond its defiant title. Talbot argues that “standard”…| Social Epistemology Review and Reply Collective
Over and Under thinking On my walk this morning I was talking to my friend and linguist, Luke Wakefield, and I had an insight. For most of my life I’ve been deeply curious about how things work: everything from electronics to religion. I make models of the world to best fit the data of what…| mattlumpkin
This is Fr. Deacon Ananias's most recent paper that he presented at the Society for Orthodox Philosophers in America (SOPHIA) Conference this February in Houston, TX.| Patristic Faith
Elon Musk is an idiot. He has never accomplished anything by himself in his life and has no remarkable competencies. He could be the most incompetent person on the planet. Like most rich people, he’s just lucky. And Luck Matters More Than Talent. He fell ass-backwards into big money, and our system protects big money. […]| Richard Carrier Blogs
With the loss of a family member our income took a hit. My Patreon supporters ensure I will never employ paywalls or intrusive third party ads here, and I always benefit most from more Patreon patrons. And there are other ways to tip me or support my work (like buying my books, and more: see […]| Richard Carrier Blogs
Bálint Békefi (2024) is apparently not convinced by my book—after all, I think, by nothing in it. Before answering his objections, I’d like to summarize the message of the book: where did I want to go…| Social Epistemology Review and Reply Collective
Welcome to all new listeners! I’m so glad you’re here. Longtime followers might remember that I told this story in 28. Seeing Each Leaf. But there was more to be said about the story, and I wanted to immerse myself in it again in light of the book I’m working on. I hope you... Read More... The post 54. Seeing each leaf as a separate thing appeared first on Priscilla Stuckey.| Priscilla Stuckey
This paper provides a philosophical critique of natural theology as it is commonly understood in the West. Since natural theology is said to be what the human mind by the “light of natural reason alone” can know about God apart from revelation, this critique will focus on epistemological issues in an attempt to establish a proper foundation for knowledge that doesn’t rely on unjustified or arbitrary assumptions by showing that the natural theology is a philosophical project committed to...| Patristic Faith
I recently wrote a paper—“Caveat Auditor: Epistemic Trust and Conflicts of Interest” (2022)—arguing that a testifier’s incentives are epistemically relevant to our trust in them. People often have incentives to testify in ways that are at odds with the truth or their evidence, and sometimes they even have incentives to get you to believe what’s false or evidentially baseless. Those incentives are typically more important than a testifier’s expertise or knowledge. If you had to c...| Social Epistemology Review and Reply Collective
(This article was first published in Dutch in TestNet Nieuws 18. The article below is a translation with minor changes. Many thanks to Joris Meerts and Ruud Cox for reviewing the original version.) Te| Joep Schuurkes
Abstract Naturalistic modes of research are interpretive for several reasons. Scientific observation is theory-laden (Yanow and Schwartz-Shea 2006). Facts are both theory- and value- laden (Goulding…| Social Epistemology Review and Reply Collective
Because I was so widely-exposed to my friend Greg Bahnsen’s exposition of Vantillian apologetics, I procrastinated reading his magnum opus Van Til’s Apologetic. At length, I have set out to do a close reading. Since this seems to be unaddressed … Continue reading →| After Thought
Forgive me, philosophers, for I have sinned epistemically. It has been many years since my last confession. To start, I forgot to update my priors a few times. I haven’t always followed research on…| Social Epistemology Review and Reply Collective
An oldie but a goodie. This is an old article I wrote back in Grad School. It explores various topics related to epistemology and the philosophy of science, focusing primarily on the philosopher W.O. Quine and his project of naturalizing epistemology and psychologism. I provide a critique of Quine's "Epistemology Naturalized" that is still relevant today. The post Is “Epistemology Naturalized” Really Epistemology? appeared first on Patristic Faith.| Patristic Faith
This paper provides a philosophical analysis into the necessary conditions for the possibility of knowledge and explores what could satisfy these conditions so as to provide a sufficient justification criterion for the existence of knowledge. More specifically, I look at two possibilities for grounding and justifying knowledge: theonomous epistemology (revelatory theism) and autonomous epistemology (what the mind could know apart from assuming divine revelation). I make a distinction between ...| Patristic Faith
What makes humans special? How is it that we are able to unleash the energy of the atom, transmute handfuls of sand into powerful djinn, and generally manipulate matter in any way not strictly forbidden by the laws of physics, while our hominid ancestors gather dust in the natural history museum? What tectonic forces have torn such a chasm between us and our surviving cousins, still banging rocks together in the animal kingdom? For most of history this was no great mystery: only humans have a...| Deep Dish
Pound-for-pound The Beginning of Infinity has to be the densest collection of batshit-crazy ideas I've ever come across. Never mind the bit about how there are trillions of copies of you constantly branching throughout the multiverse. Deutsch also claims there is nothing in principle stopping us from colonising the stars, transmuting matter like the alchemists of old, bringing an end to death, reversing global warming, and solving any other problem that arises. But that's not ambitious enough...| Deep Dish
Mysticism refers to religious traditions devoted to cultivating altered states of consciousness called “mystical experiences.” This essay reviews philosophical attempts to define mystical experience as well as arguments about whether mystical experiences justify religious beliefs.| Mysticism refers to religious traditions devoted to cultivating altered state...
The aim of this post is to present a hypothetical future scenario that challenges some of our basic assumptions and intuitions about our place in the cosmos. Hypothetical future scenario: Earth-des…| Magnus Vinding
‘Simulation Theory’ is popular lately so I am building a new summary piece on it. The following article repeats material elsewhere on my site but in scattered places, and with some new and connecting material, to provide a thorough and current treatment of the question. -:- Are we and the universe just a giant computer […]| Richard Carrier Blogs
Effective Altruism (EA) is a programme for rationalising charitable giving, positioning individuals to do the ‘most good’ per expenditure of money or time. It was first formulated – by two Oxford philosophers just over a decade ago – as an application of ...| Radical Philosophy
My understanding of AGI is, perhaps predictably, rooted in my understanding of human psychology.| Daystar Eld
So, I’ve been trying to come up with a research agenda. I mean, I can’t be the “Framework is stupid” guy forever;1 I don’t want to get pigeonholed. Anyway, it’s …| Sense & Reference
Consultants like me are sometimes engaged by clients on a very short-term basis, and sometimes embedded inside organisations for much longer periods of [...]| ambiguiti.es
How do you solve an intellectual problem like vampire-hunting? The problem inherently combines three subproblems: Obtain and use knowledge about something p...| aelkus.github.io
The Trump years are ending – at least for now. Granted, its somewhat problematic here to even use the past tense. Trump is still President, and he may run ag...| aelkus.github.io
[🐤Twitter thread]| Lulie
[🐤Twitter thread]| Lulie
[🐤 Twitter thread]| Lulie
I was interviewed! And by ‘interviewed’, I mean that I answered a bunch of online quiz questions and pasted them in here. (Written 2017-2018.)| Lulie
Nine philosophers explore the various issues and questions raised by the newly released language model, GPT-3, in this edition of Philosophers On, guest edited by Annette Zimmermann. Introduction Annette Zimmermann, guest editor GPT-3, a powerful, 175 billion parameter language model developed recently by OpenAI, has been galvanizing public debate and controversy. As the MIT Technology Review puts| Daily Nous - news for & about the philosophy profession
There is a longstanding debate about whether deliberation prevents us from making any predictions about actions. In this post I will argue for a weaker thesis, namely that deliberation limits our ability to predict actions.| Amanda Askell
Suppose that you’re thinking of adopting radical probabilism,[1] or some more moderate form of Bayesianism, as your epistemology, but you’re hesitant because you think there are beliefs which are p…| Tyler Journeaux
G. E. Moore famously argued, contra the skeptic, that he had a hand. What he meant by that provocatively simple rebuttal was roughly this: that as sound as one might be inclined to think any argume…| Tyler Journeaux
There is a popular and catchy saying which I myself have been caught repeating in the past, but which, for all its intuitive appeal, is false; namely, that the absence of evidence isn’t evide…| Tyler Journeaux
This is a very quick (and fun) introduction to David Hume. It explains his famous "problem of induction" and why it is important for science.| Ralph Ammer