Call for Abstracts
The British Society for the Theory of Knowledge invites contributions to its 2026 conference (Exeter College, University of Oxford, 2nd-4th 09 2026).
bstk.org.uk/events.html
Please submit abstracts (500 words, suitable for blind review) to info@bstk.org.uk by April 30 2026.
Based in the Philosophy Department, title of next book?
‘Well we’ve had late stage capitalism, yes, but what about later stage capitalism?’
I assume you’ve got something in mind other than straightforward definitions? Phil language people often say ‘Bachelor = unmarried man’ without quibbles, but I don’t know if that’s a ‘success’ or a ‘concept’ in the relevant senses.
This assumes that there is no expressive value in voting for a 3rd party, which might influence policy in the future. The only consequence being considered is who wins this precise election? So, perhaps apt for US elections but probably not for eg UK/Aus?
Partner: ‘Lawyers are so pretentious, using Latin when they don’t have to.’
Me: ‘Do you know this a priori?’
‘Our chief weapon is surprise. Surprise and fear. Our two weapons are fear, surprise, and ruthless efficiency. Our three weapons are…’
I don’t have anything specific on this (I think most assume this but maybe don’t argue for it?).
But Grazer Philosophische Studien 97(1) is a special issue on reclamation and has papers from some very notable slur-theorists—might come up there?
First thing that sprang to mind, although maybe this goes further than you’re suggesting: philpapers.org/rec/MORBTC-3
Do you mean when the slur is used hatefully by in-group speakers, or when out-group speakers continue to use the word in paradigmatic slurring speech even after ‘reclamation’?
I think a lot of it was (from what I’ve read) due to competition on release and some audience fatigue - marketing made it look a bit too much like a marvel film.
It also affects the kind of research I undertake. When on a 1-year contract, it’s very hard to justify anything that wont be on the CV within a year (eg that requires familiarity with a new body of literature).
‘Making Fetch Happen: Conceptual Engineering and Mean Girls’
As something of a speech act theorist myself, I roast myself too.
link.springer.com/chapter/10.1...
Epistemologists get roasted for calling everything ‘epistemic’ while speech act theorists get away with calling everything illocutionary *and* naming all their papers ‘How to X things with words’.
Me: What shall we watch next?
Partner: I picked the last one, it’s entirely up to you.
Netflix: Recently added: Hot Tub Time Machine.
[depending on which bed I am on] in different contexts…
Yes but if you say their argument is bad you’re doing a censorship.
There are two kinds of ads in this country: gambling ads, and ‘gamble responsibly’ ads made by the gambling companies.
Thanks to generous funding from the @sloanfoundation.bsky.social, John Basl and I are thrilled to be running the AI and Data Ethics summer school in 2026! ~12 graduate students, $10k stipend, 9 weeks to learn about scientific and ethical issues raised by AI. Please apply! aidesummer.org
In like 10 years epistemologists are going to tell us it was a bit all along…
One can reasonably prefer something objectively worse. There Will Be Blood is better than Hot Tub Time Machine but I know which I’d prefer to watch. In this essay I will…
Some people just hate castles, hills, busses that run remotely to schedule…
Annoyingly, when I try to teach via the Socratic method students sometimes say things other than ‘Yes, that’s right’ and ‘Quite correct’.
A streetcar named ‘Desiree’.
Footnotes, eReader or PDF.
That’s where they keep the cereal killers?
Oh, I think it’s different if the AI is trained on the animated output of just the studio producing the film, rather than a studio using a commercial AI product. But not yet sure how different!
The law probably *will* give studios the right to protect that kind of output (pessimistic view) if I had to guess - but probably *shouldn’t* for the reasons above?
That said, the more I learn about current AI the more curmudgeonly I become about it… so my intuitions are suspect!
It seems morally fine to me as I think the studio using AI to produce a film hasn’t really got any claim to its output. Maybe if they wrote the programme and fine-tuned it? But it feels that their reliance on other artists in the training undermines their claim to the IP of the AI film.
