Neil Levy

I really think I’ve got a shot at this.

Neil Levy, The work of philosophy in the age of mechanical reproduction: How AI threatens the meaningfulness of philosophy - PhilPapers Some philosophers have worried that AI threatens meaning in life by making humans redundant in the workplace or by relegating them to menial tasks. While these worries may be justified, there's ...

In which I throw a small and very timid cat amongst some large and aggressive pigeons.

philpapers.org/rec/LEVTWO-10

Australian bird of the year 2025: vote for your favourite #birdoftheyear in the Guardian / BirdLife Australia poll From little penguins to (very big) cassowaries, every bird has its fans. Vote for your favourite in the 2025 Guardian/BirdLife Australia poll

The case for instant runoff voting is overwhelming.

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

There's definitely genetic vulnerability to addiction. There's also contextual vulnerability. The famous rat park study seems to show that even rodents will prefer natural rewards - even after addiction - if they are available in sufficient quantities.

I think that slot machines have been designed to generate quite precisely the intermittent rewards and expectations that are required for the hijacking of the reward signal. I wonder if poker addiction is really addiction sensu stricto? It's empircally tractable: we understand the neurobiology. I

bsky.app/profile/acer...

It might be better to abandon the term in the second case. I don’t have an opinion other than they’re different things.

We might say there’s addiction (sensu stricto) and addiction. The first induces significantly greater behavioural deregulation in typical circumstances.

2/2 Only gambling produces the same sort of midbrain dopaminergic response. We can’t learn the reward value of drugs and gambling because they hijack the reward signal. Nothing else is like that.

1/2 I hate this kind of talk. People may find themselves struggling to control any sort of behaviour. But the neurobiology of alcohol and other classic addictive drugs is distinctive. That difference is almost certainly correlated with special difficulties in control over use.

I understood the US typically understood "working class" as meaning "without a four year degree". At least, that's how it is used in some polling I've read. It's obviously problematic: Bill Gates would be working class.

Big news: a companion to gorilla glue is coming.

'Why' is my question.

In my mid 20s, I was working on Foucault and Heidegger and accepted a strong social constructionism of scientific facts. I have a terrible memory: protects me from ever solidifying.

I think politicians generally are underpaid. If it were up to me, they would be paid more and have an even more generous superannuation. Those who have served for more than some number of years would be banned from holding a paid position after leaving office.

Leibniz 'cookies' (if you must) are actually named after the philosopher.

I think this is exactly how Bruce Willis found out he isn't real in the Sixth Sense.

They scent it to me.

Springer sent me an empty box that smelled of tea and said "tea" on the lid. The commissioning editor knew I was a tea drinker. Beyond that, I can't explain it.

We crap on them, but academic publishers do it tough. I know from experience.
For around a decade, I edited the journal Neuroethics. When I stepped down, Springer scraped together money to send me a gift.
Sadly, Springer couldn't afford not to consume the tea that was in it when they bought it.

My view is moral assertions have many different causes, vs among them. I have no idea what proportion of the variance vs explains.

On some views, we are (unless we’re right wing, in which case we are guided solely by truth).

The virtue signaling literature predicts ever more escalation, driven by status competition. My sense is woke views have de-escalated in the past few years. Do the signaling accounts have an explanation?

I doubt most people bring their beliefs are inconsistent even at the margins. For those who do, sure, every token belief.

That’s ….just how relations of entailment and support work?

They’re playing Coltrane on the plane as people board. It’s not demanding Coltrane. But still, Coltrane.

Adobe Caslon Pro.

The decision “encourages” me to take the reviewers’ comments into account in preparing a final version. The comments were rather good, so I’m happy to do so.
Ergo, btw - so triple anonymous.

Straight acceptance - my first in more than 20 years IIRC.

While there are two Peter Singers - a Canadian bioethicist and the better known Australian - the person who wrote the Hegel book is identical to the better known ethicist.