Elisa Freschi | Lightnews

elisa freschi @elisafreschi.bsky.social · 1h

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

Colton Casto @coltoncasto.bsky.social · 10h

What does it mean to understand language? We argue that the brain’s core language system is limited, and that *deeply* understanding language requires EXPORTING info to other brain regions.
w/ @neuranna.bsky.social @evfedorenko.bsky.social @nancykanwisher.bsky.social
arxiv.org/abs/2511.19757
1/n🧵👇

What does it mean to understand language?

Language understanding entails not just extracting the surface-level meaning of the linguistic input, but constructing rich mental models of the situation it describes. Here we propose that because pr...

arxiv.org

elisa freschi @elisafreschi.bsky.social · 2h

#GlobalPhilosophy

Samantha Brennan @samanthabrennan.bsky.social · 3h

Volume I of the Journal for New Narratives in the History of Philosophy is now published.

#philsky

journal.lib.uoguelph.ca/index.php/nn...

Journal for New Narratives in the History of Philosophy

journal.lib.uoguelph.ca

Samantha Brennan @samanthabrennan.bsky.social · 3h

Volume I of the Journal for New Narratives in the History of Philosophy is now published.

#philsky

journal.lib.uoguelph.ca/index.php/nn...

Journal for New Narratives in the History of Philosophy

journal.lib.uoguelph.ca

elisa freschi @elisafreschi.bsky.social · 3h

with signature locks in St John…

elisa freschi @elisafreschi.bsky.social · 4h

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

HiPhiLangSci @hiphilangsci.bsky.social · 17h

Happy World Linguistics Day 🎉

Not Saussure how to celebrate? Episodes 12 and 13 of our podcast will give your plans some structure...

🎙️ hiphilangsci.net/2021/02/01/p...

🎙️ hiphilangsci.net/2021/03/01/p...

#LinguisticBirthdays #LinguisticQuotes #Histlx #WorldLinguisticsDay

elisa freschi @elisafreschi.bsky.social · 4h

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

tenuretracker.info @tenuretracker.bsky.social · 4h

McGill University is hiring:
Assistant Professor (Tenure Track), Department of Equity, Ethics, and Policy

tenuretracker.info @tenuretracker.bsky.social · 4h

McGill University is hiring:
Assistant Professor (Tenure Track), Department of Equity, Ethics, and Policy

Charles Scott @chas0853.bsky.social · 4h

"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.'

Dr. Peter Paul Rubens @peterpaulrubens.bsky.social · 5h

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+!

elisa freschi @elisafreschi.bsky.social · 6h

Or that repeating old arguments w/o even knowing it is a waste of everyone's time and that history of philosophy is at the very least a powerful training, without which no one can excel in philosophy.
(Honest Q, in case it was not obvious).
2/

elisa freschi @elisafreschi.bsky.social · 6h

I don't disagree, but do you think that logic is important or that it is MORE important than, say, epistemology or history of philosophy? I can imagine powerful arguments about the fact that unless you have investigated the ways you know, you can't know for sure.
1/

elisa freschi @elisafreschi.bsky.social · 6h

Same problem when someone speaks of "Vedic philosophy" without any differentiation and goes on claiming things about the ātman that are just what (most) Advaita Vedānta authors think. As philosophers, we should seek complexity not easy ways out.
5/

elisa freschi @elisafreschi.bsky.social · 7h

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)

Colton Casto @coltoncasto.bsky.social · 10h

What does it mean to understand language? We argue that the brain’s core language system is limited, and that *deeply* understanding language requires EXPORTING info to other brain regions.
w/ @neuranna.bsky.social @evfedorenko.bsky.social @nancykanwisher.bsky.social
arxiv.org/abs/2511.19757
1/n🧵👇

What does it mean to understand language?

Language understanding entails not just extracting the surface-level meaning of the linguistic input, but constructing rich mental models of the situation it describes. Here we propose that because pr...

arxiv.org

HiPhiLangSci @hiphilangsci.bsky.social · 17h

Happy World Linguistics Day 🎉

Not Saussure how to celebrate? Episodes 12 and 13 of our podcast will give your plans some structure...

🎙️ hiphilangsci.net/2021/02/01/p...

🎙️ hiphilangsci.net/2021/03/01/p...

#LinguisticBirthdays #LinguisticQuotes #Histlx #WorldLinguisticsDay

"Dans la langue, il n'y a que des différences sans termes positifs [=In a language, there are only differences and no positive terms.]" (Ferdinand de Saussure: Cours de linnguistique générale, p. 166)

Dr Abeba Birhane @abeba.bsky.social · 1d

can’t fucking catch a breath

make it stop

Is ChatGPT Conscious? Many users feel they’re talking to a real person. Scientists say it’s time to consider whether they’re onto something.
By Jeff Wise, a science journalist and private pilot.

elisa freschi @elisafreschi.bsky.social · 1d

For me, numbers tell me nothing (I have no way to know whether it's true and it costs you nothing to say it, since I do not have access to the letters you wrote for each other candidate in the last 20ys!).
Thoughts?
2/2

elisa freschi @elisafreschi.bsky.social · 1d

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/

Brett Karlan @oldjerryfodor.bsky.social · 1d

"Unlike continental nonsense, analytic philosophy is clear and intelligible"

Cian Dorr giving us some grues and bleens in "To be F is to be G" (2016)

elisa freschi @elisafreschi.bsky.social · 1d

the changes in the light are really fascinating.

elisa freschi @elisafreschi.bsky.social · 1d

This is the kind of review that would cost me an enormous amount of time just correcting stupid mistakes, & I would end up feeling angry at myself for accepting it. I would still want to help a jr colleague or a recent post Doc, but it seems to me that a sr colleague should have higher standards
2/2

elisa freschi @elisafreschi.bsky.social · 1d

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/

elisa freschi @elisafreschi.bsky.social · 2d

It's impressive to watch through your photos how Toronto decided to become uglier while not necessarily gaining new affordable flats.

elisa freschi @elisafreschi.bsky.social · 2d

Conference on Indology in Canada, May 2026:

sites.google.com/ualberta.ca/...

Conference: Indology in Canada

Conference May 4–5, 2026 Join leading and emerging scholars from across Canada for a dynamic exploration of premodern India’s historical, literary, scientific, and philosophical traditions. This two-d...

sites.google.com

elisa freschi @elisafreschi.bsky.social · 2d

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

histoire.unistra.fr

elisa freschi @elisafreschi.bsky.social · 2d

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.

elisa freschi @elisafreschi.bsky.social · 2d

Hence, if these people behave in a certain manner and they see it as dharma and they are competent in dharma matters because of being well versed in the Veda, we can infer that their behaviour is based on the Veda. If not on the extant one, on some lost branches of it.
3/

elisa freschi @elisafreschi.bsky.social · 2d

Hence, if they do something in a given occasion which is not normed in the Veda, their action must be based on some Vedic text *we* have no access to. A Vedic text is inferred based on their behaviour.
2/

elisa freschi @elisafreschi.bsky.social · 2d

#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/

Sonja Drimmer @sonjadrimmer.bsky.social · 2d

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.

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