Susanna Schellenberg

Congratulations to Jordan Scott for defending what was allegedly just one dissertation, but in fact was two: one in the philosophy of race, and one in epistemology. He is now off to Oxford for a three-year postdoc, and will be much missed here at Rutgers.

What do you think he means with "you have to dive down ... and sink more rapidly than that which sinks in advance of you"?

From Kafka's diaries. The struggle is real.

Deadline for submission is on Dec. 15.

CFP for a special volume in Topoi on Capacities-First Philosophy. link.springer.com/collections/...

Congratulations to Mazviita Chirimuuta for winning the 2025 Lakatos Award for her book “The Brain Abstracted: Simplification in the History and Philosophy of Neuroscience”.

It’s like watching a couple who waited too long to get divorced.

DNA-guided transcription factor interactions extend human gene regulatory code - Nature A large-scale analysis of DNA-bound transcription factors (TFs) shows how the presence of DNA markedly affects the landscape of TF interactions, and identifies composite motifs that are recognized by ...

It's an interesting phenomenon that some of the deepest questions about how life works have become what looks like impossibly obscure molecular biology stuck right at the back of Nature, which will never get covered by the science media. Like this. /1
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

(via Bernard Kobes)

oh wow wow wow. Wow.

It's officially out, after many years:

"Loopholes: A window into value alignment and the communication of meaning"

authors.elsevier.com/c/1k~vV_Ebvv...

Read on for a brief summary, but I encourage you to read the thing itself.

Relational Moral Demands Abstract. Relational moral theories hold that at least some moral demands are grounded in a relation between individuals. But how should this relation be u

Pleased this is out. 🙂 academic.oup.com/aristotelian...

The paper argues that there is an overlooked distinction in relational ethics regarding the ground of relational moral demands.

My Neural Mechanisms Online talk 'Neural representations are (still) theoretical posits' takes place on Monday April 28th - 7am for me, more civilized hours for most of the rest of you! Responses from Gualtiero Piccinini and Edouard Machery.
www.neuralmechanisms.org/webinarserie...

Harvard Will Not Comply With a List of Trump Administration Demands Federal officials said Harvard must enact “merit-based reform” in hiring and admissions, among other things. Harvard called the demands unlawful.

Yay Harvard!!!!!!! Well done! Other universities should do the same.
www.nytimes.com/2025/04/14/u...

Synaptic and neural behaviours in a standard silicon transistor - Nature A standard commercial CMOS FET can exhibit synaptic-like long-term potentiation and depression or neuron-like leaky-integrate-and-fire and adaptive frequency-bursting behaviour when biased in a specif...

The line between brains and computer chips just got blurrier. Everyday chips made to work like neurons with a simple modification. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Beyond Mechanism—Extending Our Concepts of Causation in Neuroscience The search for neural mechanisms of behaviour often relies on a synchronic, driving view of causation, where neural activity drives more neural activity, which eventually drives behaviour. The real c....

𝗕𝗲𝘆𝗼𝗻𝗱 𝗺𝗲𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗶𝘀𝗺: 𝗲𝘅𝘁𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗽𝘁𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗰𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗶𝗻 𝗻𝗲𝘂𝗿𝗼𝘀𝗰𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲
Neuroscience & Philosophy Salon: Join our discussion with @wiringthebrain.bsky.social
Apr 11 at noon EST USA time.
Here's the paper to get the discussion going:
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
Everyone welcome but register ->

Eva Dyer and I wrote an opinion piece for @thetransmitter.bsky.social on why neuroscience needs to embrace complexity and accept the "bitter lesson" by using a data-driven regime at scale.

With commentary from several wonderful researchers!

🧠📈 #NeuroAI 🧪

Accepting “bitter lesson” and embracing brain’s complexity To gain insight into complex neural data, we must move toward a data-driven regime, employing large models trained on vast amounts of data. Experts weigh in.

www.thetransmitter.org/neuroai/acce...

ARIA Opportunity Space: Scalable Neural Interfaces

Looking for an exciting fellowship in AI & Neuro, with competitive salary (~£100k)? We got a new position in the lab at Oxford, working with @somnirons.bsky.social and me! 🧪

Our project: encode.pillar.vc/projects/beh...

General info: encode.pillar.vc

#compneuro #neuroai #neuroscience #sciencejobs

But, no, it does not explain the baby goats. #severance

V—The Flexibility and Stability of Perspectives Abstract. This paper develops an account of perspectives that explains both perspectival stability and flexibility informed by research in neuroscience, co

Here is another element of the theory behind severence. It’s a core chapter of the book I’m currently writing on the nature of perspectives. I started working on this paper in 2018, but put it on hold several times to complete other projects.

Free to download at the link below for a short period.

I know of course that this is more complicated for those of us whose research depends on NIH and NSF funding!

Congratulations to my brilliant graduate student, Andrew Rubner, for landing a TT job at UNC (among several others). He is deferring his start date at UNC to Fall 2026 to complete another year of his Bersoff postdoc at NYU. It was a pleasure being his supervisor!

The administration seems to want academics to live in fear and poverty. They don't seem to be aware that living in poverty doesn't scare us. We all chose to get a PhD.

🚨 Last chance to apply for this position! Lots of opportunities for learning, developing new projects, and collaborating with a large multi-national & interdisciplinary team. We're funded by an international organization with funding guaranteed for the next 3 years. Thanks for reposting!

Just published! Free download at mitpress.mit.edu/978026255160... Discounts available for anyone with a US mailing address at www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/777572... (use code MITP30 for 30% discount today only and READMIT20 for 20% discount anytime)

Two or more 2-year Postdoc / Research Scientist positions at NYU to work on issues tied to artificial consciousness. Strong research track record with expertise in AI expected. No teaching. Salary around $62K. Details and application materials are here philjobs.org/job/show/28878

🚨 BREAKING NEWS 🚨

The European Federation of Journalists representing 300,000+ journalists have announced they are leaving Elon Musk's X and will no longer be posting.

What is cognition? www.wiringthebrain.com/2025/03/what... - some weekend musings on this tricky concept, with lots of help from all you Blueys!