Valhalla & Oates
@joelpust.bsky.social
Philosopher at @UDelaware. For free expression, academic freedom, a priori philosophy. Posting entirely in a personal capacity. Pessimism of the intellect, Optimism of the will.
https://philpeople.org/profiles/joel-pust
https://philpeople.org/profiles/joel-pust
Reposted by Valhalla & Oates
Really not looking forward to any of the forthcoming arguments against nativism based on who Noam has associated with.
I already reject associationism so these won’t be convincing.
I already reject associationism so these won’t be convincing.
Well, there's a photo I never expected to see in my life. Noam Chomsky palling around with Steve Bannon.
December 13, 2025 at 12:13 AM
Really not looking forward to any of the forthcoming arguments against nativism based on who Noam has associated with.
I already reject associationism so these won’t be convincing.
I already reject associationism so these won’t be convincing.
Reposted by Valhalla & Oates
Call for Papers!
On April 18, 2026, the University of Delaware will host the annual GPPC Undergraduate Conference. Papers (less than 2000 words) may be submitted on any topic of philosophical interest. The deadline for submission is 1/31/26. See additional information on the flyer.
On April 18, 2026, the University of Delaware will host the annual GPPC Undergraduate Conference. Papers (less than 2000 words) may be submitted on any topic of philosophical interest. The deadline for submission is 1/31/26. See additional information on the flyer.
December 11, 2025 at 4:46 PM
Call for Papers!
On April 18, 2026, the University of Delaware will host the annual GPPC Undergraduate Conference. Papers (less than 2000 words) may be submitted on any topic of philosophical interest. The deadline for submission is 1/31/26. See additional information on the flyer.
On April 18, 2026, the University of Delaware will host the annual GPPC Undergraduate Conference. Papers (less than 2000 words) may be submitted on any topic of philosophical interest. The deadline for submission is 1/31/26. See additional information on the flyer.
Reposted by Valhalla & Oates
Requiring temporary visitors to surrender five years of social media to the U.S. sends the message that the American commitment to free speech is pretense. This simply is not the behavior of a country confident in its freedoms.
It's a threat to free speech around the world and must be opposed.
It's a threat to free speech around the world and must be opposed.
Foreign tourists could be required to disclose 5 years of social media histories under Trump administration plan
The Customs and Border Protection proposal would apply even to countries that don't require visas to enter.
www.nbcnews.com
December 10, 2025 at 3:57 PM
Requiring temporary visitors to surrender five years of social media to the U.S. sends the message that the American commitment to free speech is pretense. This simply is not the behavior of a country confident in its freedoms.
It's a threat to free speech around the world and must be opposed.
It's a threat to free speech around the world and must be opposed.
Reposted by Valhalla & Oates
Please share!
December 8, 2025 at 10:44 AM
Please share!
Reposted by Valhalla & Oates
Chris Janaway has published a brilliant paper on Schopenhauer and anti-natalism and it’s open access 👇 Was Schopenhauer an anti-natalist? The answer is more complicated than you’d think!
Schopenhauer and anti-natalism
This paper assesses the common assertion that Arthur Schopenhauer holds a position similar to David Benatar’s anti-natalism: (1) Never-existing is preferable to coming into existence as a human ind...
www.tandfonline.com
December 6, 2025 at 5:10 PM
Chris Janaway has published a brilliant paper on Schopenhauer and anti-natalism and it’s open access 👇 Was Schopenhauer an anti-natalist? The answer is more complicated than you’d think!
Reposted by Valhalla & Oates
Latest Philosophy Bites. Sam Scheffler on grief philosophybites.com/podcast/samu...
Samuel Scheffler on Grief and Time - Philosophy Bites
Grief is affected by the passage of time in a way that some attitudes and emotions aren't. Samuel Scheffler explores why this might be so in this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast.
philosophybites.com
December 5, 2025 at 1:51 PM
Latest Philosophy Bites. Sam Scheffler on grief philosophybites.com/podcast/samu...
My sympathies are with Soames but this is an interesting critical review.
The Analytic Tradition in Philosophy Volume 3: The Struggle for Modality
It was a struggle, but commonsense won out. That’s not my verdict on Scott Soames’ The Struggle for Modality.[1] That’s his verdict on...
ndpr.nd.edu
December 4, 2025 at 1:36 AM
My sympathies are with Soames but this is an interesting critical review.
Reposted by Valhalla & Oates
"Why are so many professors ignorant of their own ignorance?"
December 3, 2025 at 5:39 PM
"Why are so many professors ignorant of their own ignorance?"
Reposted by Valhalla & Oates
"Every year, philosophy departments around the world enter a friendly ‘competition’ to raise money for bed nets that protect people from malaria." It starts today...
Philosophers Against Malaria: Philosophy Department Fundraising Competition - Daily Nous
Philosofriends, here's an opportunity to do some good. Once again, Malte Hendrickx, a philosophy graduate student at the University of Michigan, has set up a charity “competition” for philosophy depar...
dailynous.com
December 1, 2025 at 5:46 PM
"Every year, philosophy departments around the world enter a friendly ‘competition’ to raise money for bed nets that protect people from malaria." It starts today...
Reposted by Valhalla & Oates
After becoming a congressional leader, a politician’s stock portfolio beats out those of peers by 47 (!!!) percentage points a year through trades timed around bills and firms that later get government contracts
www.nber.org/papers/w34524
via @florianederer.bsky.social
www.nber.org/papers/w34524
via @florianederer.bsky.social
December 3, 2025 at 1:42 AM
After becoming a congressional leader, a politician’s stock portfolio beats out those of peers by 47 (!!!) percentage points a year through trades timed around bills and firms that later get government contracts
www.nber.org/papers/w34524
via @florianederer.bsky.social
www.nber.org/papers/w34524
via @florianederer.bsky.social
Reposted by Valhalla & Oates
TX Tech has a flow chat for guidance on what can be taught in the university system. Two things:
1. Very little content seems to be permitted. This is partisan control of the curriculum.
2. I would not enjoy teaching under these conditions, but I really would not want to be a Chair or Dean.
1. Very little content seems to be permitted. This is partisan control of the curriculum.
2. I would not enjoy teaching under these conditions, but I really would not want to be a Chair or Dean.
December 1, 2025 at 10:55 PM
TX Tech has a flow chat for guidance on what can be taught in the university system. Two things:
1. Very little content seems to be permitted. This is partisan control of the curriculum.
2. I would not enjoy teaching under these conditions, but I really would not want to be a Chair or Dean.
1. Very little content seems to be permitted. This is partisan control of the curriculum.
2. I would not enjoy teaching under these conditions, but I really would not want to be a Chair or Dean.
Reposted by Valhalla & Oates
On AI’s ‘mediocrity trap’ — experiments indicates that while AI helps the less skilled make something passable, the highly skilled don’t use it to produce something better than they could have; they produce something ok, but lose motivation to make it great. www.jin-li.org/uploads/1/1/...
November 26, 2025 at 9:18 PM
On AI’s ‘mediocrity trap’ — experiments indicates that while AI helps the less skilled make something passable, the highly skilled don’t use it to produce something better than they could have; they produce something ok, but lose motivation to make it great. www.jin-li.org/uploads/1/1/...
Reposted by Valhalla & Oates
Opinion | Len Gutkin talks to the AAUP about recent intense disputes over their policy. https://chroni.cl/4rjwJBl
Academic Freedom’s Fierce Internal Fracas
The AAUP’s approach is alienating some supporters. Three leaders explain their thinking.
www.chronicle.com
November 25, 2025 at 6:08 PM
Opinion | Len Gutkin talks to the AAUP about recent intense disputes over their policy. https://chroni.cl/4rjwJBl
Reposted by Valhalla & Oates
ICYMI: TP&TN's "How to Prevent AI from Making Us Stupid"
Anastasia Berg and @alexispapazoglou.bsky.social discussed #AI and #education, language and intellectual maturity, the spectre of cognitive elitism, and resisting AI.
#philosophy
www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eZP...
Anastasia Berg and @alexispapazoglou.bsky.social discussed #AI and #education, language and intellectual maturity, the spectre of cognitive elitism, and resisting AI.
#philosophy
www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eZP...
The Philosopher & the News: How to prevent AI from making us stupid? Anastasia Berg & A. Papazoglou
YouTube video by The Philosopher
www.youtube.com
November 25, 2025 at 4:36 AM
ICYMI: TP&TN's "How to Prevent AI from Making Us Stupid"
Anastasia Berg and @alexispapazoglou.bsky.social discussed #AI and #education, language and intellectual maturity, the spectre of cognitive elitism, and resisting AI.
#philosophy
www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eZP...
Anastasia Berg and @alexispapazoglou.bsky.social discussed #AI and #education, language and intellectual maturity, the spectre of cognitive elitism, and resisting AI.
#philosophy
www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eZP...
Reposted by Valhalla & Oates
Even if justice requires the abolition of inheritance, procreative liability and parental love generate duties that justify some bequests, limited in size and form. Or so I argue in this paper, now forthcoming in Ethics:
philpapers.org/rec/GHEPPI
philpapers.org/rec/GHEPPI
Anca Gheaus, Parental Partiality in Unjust Circumstances: Inheritance as Insurance - PhilPapers
There is broad egalitarian agreement that inheritance results in distributive injustice and indirectly delegitimises the political process; we should abolish it. But until we do this, and put in place...
philpapers.org
November 23, 2025 at 2:28 PM
Even if justice requires the abolition of inheritance, procreative liability and parental love generate duties that justify some bequests, limited in size and form. Or so I argue in this paper, now forthcoming in Ethics:
philpapers.org/rec/GHEPPI
philpapers.org/rec/GHEPPI
Reposted by Valhalla & Oates
Quite an opening.
November 20, 2025 at 5:18 PM
Quite an opening.
Tomorrow! (Friday, Nov. 21st)
Reminder: Join us on Friday, November 21 for a day of events celebrating the APA's 125th anniversary and 50 years of the APA at @udelaware.bsky.social! Pre-registration is encouraged but not required. bit.ly/491r2RY @udelphilosophy.bsky.social
November 20, 2025 at 3:54 PM
Tomorrow! (Friday, Nov. 21st)
Happy World Philosophy Day!
November 20, 2025 at 12:12 PM
Happy World Philosophy Day!
I freaking love teaching the non-identity problem. Interesting issues in metaphysics with implications for so many pressing normative issues such as obligations to future generations, disability ethics/procreation, reparations for slavery, and the problem of evil.
November 19, 2025 at 5:11 PM
I freaking love teaching the non-identity problem. Interesting issues in metaphysics with implications for so many pressing normative issues such as obligations to future generations, disability ethics/procreation, reparations for slavery, and the problem of evil.
Reposted by Valhalla & Oates
New: Reuters has tallied job losses, suspensions and investigations stemming from the reaction to Charlie Kirk's Sept. 10 assassination. Its findings: More than 600 Americans have been punished, and the figure is likely to be an under-count.
www.reuters.com/investigatio...
www.reuters.com/investigatio...
November 19, 2025 at 11:35 AM
New: Reuters has tallied job losses, suspensions and investigations stemming from the reaction to Charlie Kirk's Sept. 10 assassination. Its findings: More than 600 Americans have been punished, and the figure is likely to be an under-count.
www.reuters.com/investigatio...
www.reuters.com/investigatio...