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Alejandro Fábregas-Tejeda @alejandrofabregastejeda.com · Jul 18

“Traits” are central units of biological analysis—but how should they be individuated, and relative to which ontogenetic frame of reference? In my new paper, I argue that answering this isn’t easy—and matters more than it seems. 📃👇 link.springer.com/article/10.1... #philsci #HPBio #evosky #evodevo

Screenshot of a journal article titled "Two ontogenetic challenges to trait individuation" by Alejandro Fábregas-Tejeda, published in Synthese (2025) 205:219. The abstract reads: "Trait individuation is an epistemically indispensable and heuristically fruitful practice in biological science. However, important ontological issues transcend an epistemology-only reading of what trait individuation entails (e.g., adaptation and homology), prompting scholars to advance models and frameworks to grapple with this problem. Here, I articulate two challenges that arise when advancing theories and frameworks to tackle trait individuation: the synchronicity and the diachronicity challenges. The synchronicity challenge involves specifying the traits an organism has at a given moment in ontogeny, whereas the diachronicity challenge involves understanding the causal processes that drive trait individuation in development and tracing these units across time. To delve deeper, I introduce extant functionalist and structuralist perspectives on trait individuation and evaluate how they address both challenges. Overcoming these challenges is necessary for such accounts to fulfill their theoretical promise of individuating the traits that organisms have in an ontologically sound way."

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hakwan lau @hakwan.bsky.social · 5d

i mean, at the very bottom we have physical laws, not mechanisms relevant for bio explanations anymore. & Ned's example of gravity not being fundamentally computational is exactly there

& bio isn't just macro-physics. evo history matters, & it needs its own vocab

www.jstor.org/stable/30378...

5/

The Autonomy of Biology: The Position of Biology Among the Sciences on JSTOR

Ernst Mayr, The Autonomy of Biology: The Position of Biology Among the Sciences, The Quarterly Review of Biology, Vol. 71, No. 1 (Mar., 1996), pp. 97-106

www.jstor.org

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Jonathan Basile @jonothingeb.bsky.social · 6d

Our conference on Dialectical Biology, the Marxist tradition represented by the work of Richard Lewontin, is this weekend! Join us Friday to Sunday, online or in Toronto, register here: ihpst.utoronto.ca/events/diale...

Help spread the word if you can!

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Brett Karlan @oldjerryfodor.bsky.social · 4d

Reactivating my account for the worst reason (to publicize a new paper of mine)

On what human-centered AI might be and how it might help/hinder the development of our practical capacities, using empathy as a case study. You probs won't like it, but hey at least it's short

philpapers.org/rec/KARPCE

Brett Karlan, Practical capacities, empathy, and human-centered artificial intelligence - PhilPapers

This chapter explores some conceptual connections between human-centered artificial intelligence (HCAI) research and empathic AI. First, I argue that HCAI is best understood as a framework that center...

philpapers.org

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CAIC @ Purdue @caic-at-purdue.bsky.social · 5d

October 10th, philosophy grad student Eric Servatius will be presenting a paper titled 'Signaling contempt: Immigration, social identity, and public contempt expressions' at The Society for Ethics Across the Curriculum conference.

Eric's paper was also chosen as the best graduate paper for 2025! 🥳

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Javier Gomez-Lavin @jglavin.bsky.social · 7d

New Xphi Study with Matt Rachar just dropped:

academic.oup.com/analysis/adv...

Individual Intentions in Shared Intention*

Abstract. There is disagreement among philosophers about the following claim: when we share an intention to perform some action, we each have an intention

academic.oup.com

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CAIC @ Purdue @caic-at-purdue.bsky.social · 9d

Philosophy grad student, @gibbonitathought.bsky.social has a new publication out now in Philosophical Psychology! 🦍 👶Check out the abstract and then read the whole paper here: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

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Dr. Jonathan Foley @globalecoguy.bsky.social · 10d

Food causes 22-34% of climate change.
But it only gets 4% of the media coverage.

Why? Neglect. Misunderstanding. And a hell of a lot of greenwashing.

Sentient @sentientmedia.org · 10d

“Emissions from food are still very underreported,” @jennysplitter.bsky.social, Sentient's editor-in-chief, tells Anay Mridul of Green Queen. Learn more about our analysis of 11 major U.S. outlets:

Less Than 4% of US Media Climate Coverage Mentions Meat & Dairy's Emissions Toll: New Analysis

An analysis of hundreds of online articles from US media shows that less than 4% mention and contextualise the role of meat in climate change. Here's why.

buff.ly

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Gavin Foster🦧 @gibbonitathought.bsky.social · 12d

Rest in peace to Jane Goodall, without whom the field I have fallen in love with would not exist.

A giant who will be remembered for centuries to come.

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Merriam-Webster @merriam-webster.com · 12d

We are thrilled to announce that our NEW Large Language Model will be released on 11.18.25.

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Gavin Foster🦧 @gibbonitathought.bsky.social · 13d

It better be better than On What Matters Vol 3

Gavin Foster🦧 @gibbonitathought.bsky.social · 13d

Ok fine I'll read Reasons and Persons

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Paul Kelleher 🎃 @paulkelleher.net · 16d

We’re living though the Misanthropocene

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Internet Archive @archive.org · 15d

🎙️ Have you listened to the Future Knowledge #podcast from #InternetArchive + @AuthorsAlliance.bsky.social ?

Catch up on past episodes & get ready for a new one this week!

🎧 Listen & subscribe wherever you get your podcasts ⤵️
futureknowledge.transistor.fm

@Archive.org

Grid of promotional tiles for Future Knowledge podcast episodes one through nine.

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Drew Scanlon @drewscanlon.bsky.social · 17d

Hi Internet! I'm Drew and THIS IS MY FACE.

If this GIF has ever brought you joy in the past, I humbly ask you to consider making a donation to the National MS Society. It would mean a lot to me and to those I know affected by the disease!

Donate at blinkingguy.com

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Nicholas Weaver @ncweaver.skerry-tech.com · 23d

Why is this horrible for Universities?

Just about everyone who isn't a citizen or green card holder already who's hired for a tenure track faculty position is hired through an H1B and then, after 3-5 years, applies for a green card.

This is literally "No more foreign professors can be hired"

Gergely Orosz @gergely.pragmaticengineer.com · 24d

Those on an H1B cannot return to the US from tomorrow (Sunday) unless paying $100K. This is an out-of-the blue presidential action. We’ll see software engineers stranded abroad.

One easy to predict outcome: those on US visas will travel less… for work, for conferences etc.

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Ersatz Doctor @ersatzdoctor.bsky.social · 23d

When I correct someone and they say “I bet you’re fun at parties,” I explain what a terrible bet that would be.

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𝔻𝕖𝕖𝕡 𝕋𝕙𝕠𝕥 @thatsgoodweb.bsky.social · 23d

Monte Dolack, Home on the Reef, 1994

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Adam Toon @adamtoonphilos.bsky.social · 28d

Third: Gavin Robert Foster @gibbonitathought.bsky.social offers a critique of mental fictionalism based on evidence concerning mindreading in infants and non-human primates: doi.org/10.1080/0951...

From monkeys to infants: the empirical challenges facing mental fictionalism

In recent decades, a novel theoretical account of folk psychology has emerged that challenges traditional assumptions: mental fictionalism. Rather than treating mental states as things in creatures...

doi.org

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Dr Rebecca Warren @drrjwarren.bsky.social · Sep 13

One day, nearly 2000 years ago, a cat dashed across some drying tiles, somewhere near Hadrian's Wall.

It's immortality of a kind, isn't it?

Photo of square orange tiles, set into the ground, across one of which several cats footprints are clearly visible.

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CAIC @ Purdue @caic-at-purdue.bsky.social · Sep 11

New Publication! @evanwestra.bsky.social's paper
'Belief in Social Cognition' is forthcoming in The Oxford Handbook of the Cognitive Science of Belief 🥳 Evan argues that belief plays a modest role, rather than a central role, in everyday social cognition. Abstract here: philpapers.org/rec/WESBIS

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Rob Sica @robsica.bsky.social · Sep 10

"Mental fictionalism, in starting from the fully developed adult practice, appears to overlook the developmental trajectory that any adequate theory of folk psychology must capture."

From monkeys to infants: the empirical challenges facing mental fictionalism

In recent decades, a novel theoretical account of folk psychology has emerged that challenges traditional assumptions: mental fictionalism. Rather than treating mental states as things in creatures...

www.tandfonline.com

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Gavin Foster🦧 @gibbonitathought.bsky.social · Sep 10

Thank you!!!

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Gavin Foster🦧 @gibbonitathought.bsky.social · Sep 10

out here fighting against the overwhelming fictionalist orthodoxy that has captured cog sci 😓✊

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Gavin Foster🦧 @gibbonitathought.bsky.social · Sep 10

of collective game of pretense or collective narratives.

I conclude by arguing some strategies that fictionalists could adopt to help fill in this important gap.

Check it out and let me know what you think!

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