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Grumpy Philosopher

@stevecooke.org

10K followers 1.8K following 6K posts

Grumpy. Associate Professor of Political Philosophy. Animal rights, ethics of activism, political philosophy. Homepage: https://stevecooke.org/

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Grumpy Philosopher @stevecooke.org · Dec 5

I've built myself a website, which includes a list of journals for animal rights philosophers to submit to (organised by publisher), a couple of syllabi, my essay writing guide for political philosophy students, & articles that philosophers say have changed their minds: stevecooke.org

Steve Cooke – Adventures in Philosophy

stevecooke.org

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rid @princerid.bsky.social · 2h

'Epistemic' attached to *everything*.

🏰meg⚔️ @Birthright Audiobook! @impavid.us · 2d

In honor of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand

I'll go first: Six page commercial lease.

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Aidan McGlynn @aidanmcglynn.bsky.social · Jun 21

Hot-tip: when someone asks you for your number, give them your OrcID

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Grumpy Philosopher @stevecooke.org · 5h

None of these companies are close to making a profit. But we’re supposed to be surprised to discover they’re overvalued & have been bullshitting us all? Nah.

Grumpy Philosopher @stevecooke.org · 5h

Altman admitted he had no idea how OpenAI is going to make money & is banking on developing a super-intelligence to figure that out. Builder .ai turned out to be 700 humans pretending to be a chatbot. Anthropic claimed it couldn’t make money without committing crime!

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Grumpy Philosopher @stevecooke.org · 5h

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Grumpy Philosopher @stevecooke.org · 5h

Nobody knows who’s making hundreds of millions doing insider crypto-trading off Trump’s chaotic tariff impositions, but congrats to the mystery trader, Tonald Drump, I guess.

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Lawrence Freedman @ldfreedman.bsky.social · 8h

With Farage’s former colleague Nathan Gill guilty of taking money from Russia to promote its propaganda Sam looks at the wider connections between the radical right and Russia. (£/free trial), samf.substack.com/p/russia-and...

Russia and the rise of the radical right

Marine Le Pen meets with Putin before the 2017 French Presidential election (Photo credit Mikhail Klimentyev/AFP via Getty Images)

samf.substack.com

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Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 8h

'Our University would do well to stop neglecting the threats to humanities education, and start publicly taking up the banner of the humanities.'

Could (and should) be said of so many universities, across the globe.

Harvard Can’t Afford to Neglect the Humanities | Opinion | The Harvard Crimson

Harvard exists to promote the highest intellectual pursuit in every discipline — it can’t leave the humanities behind.

www.thecrimson.com

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Peter Adamson @histphilosophy.bsky.social · 2d

I'm more than halfway through this interesting #podcast series on technology ethics, from my colleague Sven Nyholm @svennyholm.bsky.social and John Danaher. Highly recommended!

technologyethicspod.wordpress.com

#ethics #aiethics #technology #philsky

Technology Ethics Podcast

A podcast-based introduction to the philosophy and ethics of technology

technologyethicspod.wordpress.com

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Grumpy Philosopher @stevecooke.org · 9h

Argh!

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Grumpy Philosopher @stevecooke.org · 10h

For no good reason, Nadine Dorries is on Kuenssberg this morning. I’m suspicious that she may have transferred her concerning worship of Boris Johnson onto Trump.

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Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ @olivia.science · 21h

But you know sure let it be your search engine replacement and read and write (whatever that means) for you, not a problem at all 🥲

Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 1d

The administration “is currently pressuring OpenAI and other AI companies to make their models more conservative-friendly.”

OpenAI is trying to clamp down on ‘bias’ in ChatGPT

GPT-5 is better at resisting liberal ‘pressure,’ the company says.

www.theverge.com

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Adrian Currie @adrian-currie.bsky.social · 4d

If you’re interested in practicing the philosophy of science in practice why not come along to an online workshop “the philosophy of science in practice - in practice”? #philsci

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Ben Williamson @benpatrickwill.bsky.social · 1d

The alarming aspect of this deliberate "anti-woke" algorithmic biasing of LLMs from an educational perspective is our institutions all bought in to an imaginary of innovation, then got locked in to enterprise contracts, and now the models are being recoded so they undermine educational values

Marcus Luther @marcusluther.bsky.social · 1d

Genuine question: for those enthusiastically pushing AI tools into every part of our education system—what checks/guardrails are there around algorithmic biases like this?

Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 1d

The administration “is currently pressuring OpenAI and other AI companies to make their models more conservative-friendly.”

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Grumpy Philosopher @stevecooke.org · 23h

Tempting to use this example to help explain cognitivist and emotivist meta-ethical positions.

Grumpy Philosopher @stevecooke.org · 23h

As far as I can tell, when US republicans complain about corruption it’s not a moral objection. Rather, it’s only to express sadness & anger that someone they dislike is benefiting. Understood this way, Trump’s naked corruption isn’t hypocritical. It’s still disgusting though.

Scott Horton @robertscotthorton.bsky.social · 1d

Trump said he deserved a cut for brokering the TikTok deal, and at once there was agreement that his son Baron would have a top executive slot... though he hasn't asked for it, and has no apparent qualifications to hold it. This is how Trump 2.0 works. www.telegraph.co.uk/us/news/2025...

Barron Trump tipped for top TikTok job

US president’s 19-year-old son could be appointed to the app’s board

www.telegraph.co.uk

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Grumpy Philosopher @stevecooke.org · 23h

Added bonus, I can surprise my dad - a retired mining engineer - with niche mining chit-chat.

Grumpy Philosopher @stevecooke.org · 23h

Digging programmes have left me less surprised about the current state of America than I might have been. Also, Australians seem nice.

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Grumpy Philosopher @stevecooke.org · 23h

American digging folk are much more: ‘I want to dominate my rivals’, ‘I must find more gold than everyone else so I can crush their hopes’, ‘I have sabotaged my rival’s equipment, ha ha’, ‘I’m cheating my sons of their gold’, & ‘I’ve stolen my rival’s claim while he falls on hard times, ha!’

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Grumpy Philosopher @stevecooke.org · 23h

Australian digging people are all: ‘I must find gold to care for my family’, ‘Brett’s jackhammer is broken, a neighbour helps him out’, ‘I’m raising money for a drug/alcohol rehab centre’, ‘Les is sad, so I’ve traded my last opal for a puppy to cheer him up.’ ‘One of us is injured, but equal shares’

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Grumpy Philosopher @stevecooke.org · 23h

My guilty pleasure is digging shows: Aussie Gold Hunters, Outback Opal Hunters, Alaskan Gold Divers, Jade Fever etc. Whenever I need to switch my brain off, I watch these. I have learned all about sluices, wash plants, heap leaches, & reef mining. I’ve also gained some strong cultural impressions.

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Tim Leunig @timleunig.bsky.social · 1d

Outstanding from @jburnmurdoch.ft.com - the best way to get a job is to get a degree. You will almost almost always earn more as well.

Ben Ansell @benansell.bsky.social · 1d

Really interesting article from @jburnmurdoch.ft.com but especially intriguing to me is the number of comments below that are essentially 'OK the data don't agree with my hunch but here's an unrelated statement that proves that I'm right about AI, the death of higher education, etc'

What the graduate unemployment story gets wrong

People with a degree are faring better, not worse than their non-graduate counterparts

www.ft.com

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Andrew Lawrence @ndrew.bsky.social · 1d

every single tech idea is like “soon our robots will be capable of playing catch with your kid, freeing you up to spend more time working on your employers’ spreadsheets”

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Grumpy Philosopher @stevecooke.org · 1d

Every single one of the protestors outside that hotel is a racist. They wouldn’t be there, covered in flags and drunkenly chanting, if they weren’t.

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Grumpy Philosopher @stevecooke.org · 1d

ITV news is reporting on ‘anti-asylum protestors’ outside a hotel in Long Eaton. Anti-asylum! Imagine protesting against the idea of giving refuge to people fleeing torture, death & persecution. A protestor claims to be worried about the fictional worry of other cultures being forced upon her.

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