@anitaleirfall
Associate Professor of #Philosophy at the University of Bergen. π³π΄ Various philosophical interests. Kantβs theoretical philosophy is my field of specialty. Other interests: arts, science, music, literature, photography, and travels.
The Man Who Stole Infinity
In an 1874 paper, Georg Cantor proved that there are different sizes of infinity and changed math forever. A trove of newly unearthed letters shows that it was also an act of plagiarism. www.quantamagazine.org/the-man-who-... #Cantor #Dedekind #logic #infinity #philsky
It's a special occasion this week, as we start to look at Malebranche on #HoPWaG! Starting with his solution to the problem of evil.
www.historyofphilosophy.net/malebranche
#philsky #philosophy #podcast #malebranche
Your Deep Expertise Is Why Nobody Knows Your Name x.com/acagamic/sta... #science #philsky
"AI training isnβt βlearningβ and shouldnβt be treated as such"
Kati Farkas and I have a new paper, 'Lack of Attitude', in a superb new volume edited by @eschwitz.bsky.social and @msgjonhere.bsky.social The paper is open access and available to download here: academic.oup.com/book/62410/c...
The image shows a rectangular Roman dice tower (turricula) made of four copper alloy (bronze) plates with punched cut-out Latin letters and cut-out decorative patterns. At the bottom front is a stepped exit chute with small bronze bells attached to the opening. The tower is a Roman anti-cheating device. It has an open top and is hollow inside except for three staggered, downward-sloping plates, designed to randomize dice as they fall, ensuring unpredictable dice rolls. When the dice rolled out of the exit chute they rang the bells! There is a decorative dolphin either side of the stepped exit chute. The top of the front plate has two decorative pine cone finials. Height 25 cm. There is a single die shown next to the stepped base to illustrate how it was used. The front inscription reads: PICTOS VICTOS HOSTIS DELETA LVDITE SECVRI Translated as: βThe Picts defeated, the enemy has been destroyed, play in safetyβ. Around the top of the three remaining sides, a second inscription made with cut out letters reads: βUTERI/FELIX/VIVASβ translated as βUse happily; may you live wellβ. Found at a Roman villa at Froitzheim in Germany in 1985.
Roman anti-cheating gaming accessory!
This Roman βturriculaβ (dice tower) was used to ensure a fair roll of the dice! π²π²π²
Dice dropped into the top, tumbled over sloping internal levels, and appeared randomly below.
From Froitzheim, Germany, AD 300-400
π· LVR-Landesmuseum Bonn
#Archaeology
TouchΓ©!
What we really need is a change in the publication/credit system.
There are too many papers, fewer reviewers (with increasingly few remaining, biasing review), overworked editors, and journals holding up an artificial gatekeeper bottleneck and charging money for it. This is not about "quality".
Β«When the Pentagon branded Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei βa liar with a god complexβ over fears that his companyβs AI could be used for weapons and surveillance, it exposed a deeper truth: the boundary between civilian and military technology no longer exists.Β» iai.tv/articles/ai-... #AI #surveillance
I knew, of course, that William Whewell first coined the word βscientist,β but I had no idea that the idea remained so controversial that Nature was still weighing in on the appropriateness of the term at least as late as 1925.
https://www.nature.com/articles/115253a0.pdf
#HistSTM #PhilSci #STS
The 2026 application round for the MA in Logic and Philosophy of Science at @lmumuenchen.bsky.social is now open. Please help us spread the word. www.philosophie.lmu.de/en/study/deg...
New on the Archive:
Szubart, Tomasz (2025) What are musical emotions? A proposal for a functionalβteleosemantic approach. ARGUMENT: Biannual Philosophical Journal, 15 (1). pp. 87-105. ISSN 2084Ββ1043
https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/27467/
We are organising a pre-conference workshop on Values in science in the rest of the world in Helsinki in August, just before ENPOSS 2026. Please consider submitting an abstract!
Video abstract for Melissa's and my new Element, Public Engagement with Science: Defining the Project! #philsky #philsci #scicomm π§ͺ
In the new @eenphilsci.bsky.social blog I tell my origin story, my current projects, and some of my struggles. eenps.weebly.com/blog/daniel-...
Thank you @annaalexandrova.bsky.social and @gabrieltarziu.bsky.social for inviting me to share it.
#philsci
JOB OPPORTUNITY.
Apply to work for us as an Administrator/Web Editor. This is the perfect flexible job for a grad or PhD student. See the link below for more information! Pass along to your students.
Deadline: Friday 27th March
mailchi.mp/42496ca4d18c...
Why I think, in the current A.I. moment, we should be reading Paul Churchland. #philsky #philsci
thehangedman.com/philosophy/p...
Title card for Mindscape AMA podcast episode.
Mindscape Ask Me Anything | March 2026. We talk about quantum gravity and the early universe, the Umwelt of a cat, junky AI-written papers, and whether public debates serve a useful purpose. #MindscapePodcast
www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2026...
An excellent source! #WiseWomen
Two-Year Post-Doc in Ethics of AI and Emerging Technologies #philsky
What Itβs Like to Have a Brain Implant for 5 Years. No one has had a Synchron brain-computer interface longer than Rodney Gorham. He's still finding new ways to use it. | WIRED www.wired.com/story/synchr...
The BSA Postdoc Award is open again!
We invite applications for a two-year postdoctoral award in philosophical aesthetics, to the value of Β£30,000 per year, to start in the Autumn term in 2026. Find out how to apply here: british-aesthetics.org/portfolio/po...
#aesthetics #philosophy #postdoc
From the archive: "Laughing at Darkness: Batailleβs Theory of Laughter", by Tung-Wei Ko #Philosophy #Philsky
found out that my article, "Practicing Screaming: Aesthetic Explanations, Aesthetic Value, and the Screamed Vocals Problem," was accepted in Contemporary Aesthetics! It's all about metal, hardcore, and screamo (and secretly metaphilosophy)! You can read the preprint here! philpapers.org/rec/MALPSA-8
Three-year postdoc in our ANR- and DFG-funded project (with Kourken Michaelian) on the semantics of episodic representations: jobs.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/jobposting/3... Please share widely!
A really nice review by Ruby Main of my @anthempress.bsky.social book, Wittgenstein on Other Minds, published this week in Philosophical Investigations
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10....
My book Hegel on History, Politics and Philosophy is just published. Essays, old and nw, with the last essay dealing with Hegel today. link.springer.com/book/10.1007...
Very pleased to receive my copy of the @bloomsburybooksuk.bsky.social
Handbook of Wittgensteinian Feminism, for which I co-wrote a chapter with the wonderful Daniele Moyal-Sharrock.
The book is an excellent addition to any libraryπ
www.bloomsbury.com/uk/bloomsbur...
Plato Warned Us About ChatGPT (And Told Us What to Do About It) | By Elay Shech www.templeton.org/news/plato-w... #Plato #Socrates #dialogue #AI #LLM #philosophy #philsky #PhilosophySky
Come to Europe, friends!
The European Research Council (ERC) has just confirmed increased ERC funding for top global researchers moving to Europe. Drop me an email if you want to know more.
erc.europa.eu/news-events/...