@rychappell.bsky.social
Philosophy prof. Posts better stuff at www.goodthoughts.blog 🔸10% Pledge #54 with @GivingWhatWeCan
An ultra-minimal argument for worrying about AI safety.
Which premise are critics most inclined to reject?
www.goodthoughts.blog/p/the-basic-...
An overview of my year's blogging www.goodthoughts.blog/p/2025-in-re...
30.12.2025 18:02 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
The most important influences on a debate occur in the cultural background, before any arguments are even exchanged.
In practical ethics, especially, these background assumptions are deeply shaped by vibe bias: attunement to what sounds superficially good.
www.goodthoughts.blog/p/vibe-bias
This was a fun interview!
philosophyandfiction.substack.com/cp/168005453
No, I actually think philosophers have a kind of general-purpose expertise in thinking that makes it prima facie reasonable to include a philosopher on a policy team independently of their more specific topical or subdisciplinary expertise. (Obviously you *also* need domain-specific experts.)
09.07.2025 13:56 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0The charge is that Byrne is misleading people because the HHS (implicitly) describes him as a "methodologist" instead of a "philosopher"? Not really sure why the verbiage matters, but it sounds like that's a complaint to direct at the HHS rather than at Byrne.
08.07.2025 19:48 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 2 📌 0
Part I of my review explained why we should be worried about below-replacement global fertility and subsequent depopulation. Today’s post asks what we should do about it. (Spoiler: make parenting easier and more appealing.)
www.goodthoughts.blog/p/a-human-ab...
The procedural principles advanced in philosophy's latest condemnatory "open letter" seem pretty bad to me.
08.07.2025 14:08 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
A fun and wide-ranging discussion! www.goodthoughts.blog/p/ethics-dis...
06.07.2025 01:08 — 👍 1 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
One of the top priorities of public policy should be to shape our choice environment so that it’s easier to do good and worthwhile things. Requiring a license to exercise, parent, or donate to charity would violate this principle.
www.goodthoughts.blog/p/the-costs-...
Why should life or death decisions turn on a question so empty and trivial as mere metaphysical taxonomy?
www.goodthoughts.blog/p/death-by-m...
New book makes a compelling case for thinking that depopulation is a serious moral concern, and we should do more as a society to make parenting easier & more appealing, so more people want to do more of it! forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/B7bLd4...
01.07.2025 15:15 — 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Are there reasons to doubt the objectivity of moral truths that aren’t equally reasons to doubt the objectivity of metaethical claims like “there are no objective moral truths”?
www.goodthoughts.blog/p/meta-metae...
If the status quo is genuinely atrocious, is there an inoffensive way to convey the truth of the matter?
www.goodthoughts.blog/p/the-moral-...
Thanks for bringing the worry to my attention.
21.06.2025 21:06 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0Fair enough! I've updated the footnote to clarify: "I just offer these as representative examples of what I take to be a very common pattern of reasoning. No offense intended to these authors in particular; they’ve just written down what I hear lots of other academics saying!"
21.06.2025 21:06 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0(I did include a footnote with a couple of examples of "no duty -> no good" inferences, just to verify that I'm not making up that pattern of reasoning. But I didn't intend the post to be read as "calling out" those *particular* authors. Perhaps I should make that clearer?)
20.06.2025 22:01 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
