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
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
Saw a resist lib bumper sticker that was like "The nice thing about science is that it's true whether or not you believe it." And I'm like, buddy, let me tell you about Literally Almost All Truths
November 24, 2025 at 6:34 PM
Saw a resist lib bumper sticker that was like "The nice thing about science is that it's true whether or not you believe it." And I'm like, buddy, let me tell you about Literally Almost All Truths
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...
Reposted by Valhalla & Oates
Put writing high quality literary text on the list of things that AIs used to not be able to do but now can do
With fine-tuning, now outperforming MFA-trained expert writers at emulating award-winning authors when rated blindly by MFA-trained experts papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
With fine-tuning, now outperforming MFA-trained expert writers at emulating award-winning authors when rated blindly by MFA-trained experts papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
November 19, 2025 at 1:37 PM
Put writing high quality literary text on the list of things that AIs used to not be able to do but now can do
With fine-tuning, now outperforming MFA-trained expert writers at emulating award-winning authors when rated blindly by MFA-trained experts papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
With fine-tuning, now outperforming MFA-trained expert writers at emulating award-winning authors when rated blindly by MFA-trained experts papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
Reposted by Valhalla & Oates
i guess we need it again
Kit Fine - Non-Analytic Philosophy
YouTube video by feallsanachd
youtu.be
November 13, 2025 at 3:22 PM
i guess we need it again
Reposted by Valhalla & Oates
Here's my contribution to the "is continental philosophy meaningless" debate. I've tried to say something new here that might move the debate forward a bit: open.substack.com/pub/jessespa...
Continental Philosophy, Obscurity, and Thinking Like an LLM
If some philosophers aren't actually saying anything meaningful, then how are they still able to write coherently and engage with each other's work?
open.substack.com
November 18, 2025 at 12:56 PM
Here's my contribution to the "is continental philosophy meaningless" debate. I've tried to say something new here that might move the debate forward a bit: open.substack.com/pub/jessespa...
Reposted by Valhalla & Oates
The Call for Papers for the 2026 Formal Epistemology Workshop is up now! Come join us in June in beautiful Boulder! Deadline for submission: January 15. Please spread far and wide!
Formal Epistemology Workshop
The Formal Epistemology Workshop 2026 will be hosted by the University of Colorado Boulder's Department of Philosophy as part of the CU Boulder Morris Colloquium Series.
It will take place at the Univ...
philevents.org
November 18, 2025 at 6:35 AM
The Call for Papers for the 2026 Formal Epistemology Workshop is up now! Come join us in June in beautiful Boulder! Deadline for submission: January 15. Please spread far and wide!
Reposted by Valhalla & Oates
In the last decades, the world has made fantastic progress against extreme poverty. In 1990, 2.3 billion people lived in extreme poverty. Since then, the number of extremely poor people has declined by 1.5 *billion* people. 🧵
November 17, 2025 at 11:24 AM
In the last decades, the world has made fantastic progress against extreme poverty. In 1990, 2.3 billion people lived in extreme poverty. Since then, the number of extremely poor people has declined by 1.5 *billion* people. 🧵
Reposted by Valhalla & Oates
Jim Ryan’s account of his UVa ouster is a compelling and emotional record of how it feels to lead a university in Trump’s crosshairs. https://chroni.cl/489AS26
The Plot Against Jim Ryan
Was his ouster a federal coup — or an opportunistic inside job?
www.chronicle.com
November 17, 2025 at 4:00 PM
Jim Ryan’s account of his UVa ouster is a compelling and emotional record of how it feels to lead a university in Trump’s crosshairs. https://chroni.cl/489AS26
Reposted by Valhalla & Oates
Reposted by Valhalla & Oates
This below is in the context of computer science but we all need to be having this conversation about whether "using AI" in classes prepares you for future jobs or whether actually doing the thing yourself prepares you for a world in which you may or may not use AI. The idea that using AI to write/1
![A degree in CS mostly prepares students to become computer scientists, just as a history degree mostly prepares students to be historians. The idea is not that every student will become an academic— few do—but that the initial training in this direction will prepare students for varied pursuits. When the world changes, Erat argues, the student who studied CS will have the creativity to “learn how to search, how to integrate things.” But for the student who just used AI to make programs, he said, “It’s going to be impossible.”
Conversely, CS professor Lin Zhong thinks Yale’s core CS curriculum is “stuck in the 1980s.” He wants students to develop the AI expertise that they would need as professional software engineers. “If your student[s] don’t learn how to use [AI], they lose their job,” he said. Students in Zhong’s Computer Systems Design course earn extra credit for using AI creatively to do their homework.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:a6m5puxjmwuwxhuviabkhg67/bafkreidr3hlf3v5bi3c4dwzguxvi2khyjm4tmr5unm4funrdwyqjgvys2m@jpeg)
November 16, 2025 at 5:24 PM
This below is in the context of computer science but we all need to be having this conversation about whether "using AI" in classes prepares you for future jobs or whether actually doing the thing yourself prepares you for a world in which you may or may not use AI. The idea that using AI to write/1
Reposted by Valhalla & Oates
Do you worry that AI is affecting our cognitive capacity as it helps students write essays and even come up with ideas??
Join us for "How to Prevent AI from Making Us Stupid"
with Anastasia Berg & @alexispapazoglou.bsky.social
#Philosophy #philsky #tecn #AI
Mon. Nov. 17 ~ 2pm ET / 7pm UK
Join us for "How to Prevent AI from Making Us Stupid"
with Anastasia Berg & @alexispapazoglou.bsky.social
#Philosophy #philsky #tecn #AI
Mon. Nov. 17 ~ 2pm ET / 7pm UK
Select tickets – "How to prevent AI from making us stupid?": Anastasia Berg in conversation with Alexis Papazoglou – Zoom
"How to prevent AI from making us stupid?": Anastasia Berg in conversation with Alexis Papazoglou – Zoom, Mon 17 Nov 2025 - There are a myriad critiques of AI out there: it’s stealing authors’ copyrig...
www.tickettailor.com
November 16, 2025 at 12:06 PM
Do you worry that AI is affecting our cognitive capacity as it helps students write essays and even come up with ideas??
Join us for "How to Prevent AI from Making Us Stupid"
with Anastasia Berg & @alexispapazoglou.bsky.social
#Philosophy #philsky #tecn #AI
Mon. Nov. 17 ~ 2pm ET / 7pm UK
Join us for "How to Prevent AI from Making Us Stupid"
with Anastasia Berg & @alexispapazoglou.bsky.social
#Philosophy #philsky #tecn #AI
Mon. Nov. 17 ~ 2pm ET / 7pm UK
Reposted by Valhalla & Oates
Season's greetings from the Carnaps
November 15, 2025 at 10:12 AM
Season's greetings from the Carnaps
Reposted by Valhalla & Oates
Bryan Frances just dropped one helluva good paper on philpapers (forthcoming in Philosophical Studies). It lists 200 elementary facts from epistemology and on that basis draws interesting conclusions about the nature and progress of philosophy philarchive.org/rec/FRAPAF-2
Bryan Frances, Philosophy as Fact-Based Discipline: 200 Philosophical Facts - PhilArchive
I list 200 straightforward facts directly about philosophical matters that virtually all philosophers know and non-philosophers don’t know. We have seriously underestimated the straightforward epistem...
philarchive.org
November 15, 2025 at 3:04 AM
Bryan Frances just dropped one helluva good paper on philpapers (forthcoming in Philosophical Studies). It lists 200 elementary facts from epistemology and on that basis draws interesting conclusions about the nature and progress of philosophy philarchive.org/rec/FRAPAF-2
Reposted by Valhalla & Oates
Coming up Mon. Nov. 17 ~ 2pm ET / 7pm UK
The Philosopher & the News:
"How to Prevent AI from Making Us Stupid"
Anastasia Berg in conversation with Alexis Papazoglou
on the idea that AI is dumbing us down, with many using it in ways that rob us!
Register:
www.tickettailor.com/events/theph...
The Philosopher & the News:
"How to Prevent AI from Making Us Stupid"
Anastasia Berg in conversation with Alexis Papazoglou
on the idea that AI is dumbing us down, with many using it in ways that rob us!
Register:
www.tickettailor.com/events/theph...
Select tickets – "How to prevent AI from making us stupid?": Anastasia Berg in conversation with Alexis Papazoglou – Zoom
"How to prevent AI from making us stupid?": Anastasia Berg in conversation with Alexis Papazoglou – Zoom, Mon 17 Nov 2025 - There are a myriad critiques of AI out there: it’s stealing authors’ copyrig...
www.tickettailor.com
November 14, 2025 at 5:55 PM
Coming up Mon. Nov. 17 ~ 2pm ET / 7pm UK
The Philosopher & the News:
"How to Prevent AI from Making Us Stupid"
Anastasia Berg in conversation with Alexis Papazoglou
on the idea that AI is dumbing us down, with many using it in ways that rob us!
Register:
www.tickettailor.com/events/theph...
The Philosopher & the News:
"How to Prevent AI from Making Us Stupid"
Anastasia Berg in conversation with Alexis Papazoglou
on the idea that AI is dumbing us down, with many using it in ways that rob us!
Register:
www.tickettailor.com/events/theph...