At some point I want write a paper titled "In defense of the naive view".

I don't yet know which naive view I want to defend, but at least I've got a title!

PhilML@ICML26 Workshop Description

I'm tremendously excited to be giving an invited talk at the upcoming ICML conference in Seoul. Feel free to reach out if you are going to be there, or know people who I might want to look out for.

@icmlconf.bsky.social

sites.google.com/view/philmli...

This is what it feels like every time I google how to get better sleep and I find advice like: “I used to have trouble falling asleep, but then I stopped drinking three cups of coffee right before going to bed”

Bah! When I was young we used to have to cut of the box tops and bring them to school…

From a 1-star review of The Giving Tree

Few people are aware of how much progress has been made against cancers.

Leukemia is probably the most striking example.

Before the 1970s, most children affected by leukemia would soon die from it.

Now, most children in rich countries survive.
ourworldindata.org/childhood-le...

Prosody

Super thrilled that my article "Prosody" is now available to read in the Open Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science!

oecs.mit.edu/pub/1w4cqquc...

Thanks to @asifamajid.bsky.social and @mcxfrank.bsky.social for the opportunity and for creating such an amazing resource for our community!

Writing philosophy is like 'thought archaeology'--each rewrite and revision dregs up more and more of the underlying thought process that produced the text. Good but tiring!

😂

Why Does Causal Reasoning Work? | BJPS Short Reads Naftali Weinberger, Porter Williams and James Woodward on the role of worldly infrastructure

New BJPS Short Read!

Why Does Causal Reasoning Work?

Naftali Weinberger, Porter Williams & James Woodward on the role of worldly infrastructure

www.thebsps.org/short-reads/...

#philsci #philsky

Archaeological Dig Uncovers Ancient Race Of Skeleton People AL JIZAH, EGYPT—A team of British and Egyptian archaeologists made a stunning discovery Monday, unearthing several intact specimens of “skeleton people”—skinless, organless humans who populated the Ni...

Saving until I find a reason to include in a talk

theonion.com/archaeologic...

Statistical Rethinking 2026 is done: 20 new lectures emphasizing logical and critical statistical workflow, from basics of probability theory to causal inference to reliable computation to sensitivity. It's all free, made just for you. Lecture list and links: github.com/rmcelreath/s...

Please share it when you can! I'm a coauthor on the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on the paradox, and every few years we need to update it.

plato.stanford.edu/entries/para...

Useful life hack from an expert on data collection

E10: Are Race and Gender Causes? YouTube video by Causal Foundations

In the newest episode, I consider the debate over whether demographic variables such as race and gender are causes. In it, I clarify what's at stake, and what the answer does (and doesn't) depend on.

youtu.be/UzpReyvtKDU?...

@rmcelreath.bsky.social has one of the best communicators of causal methodology, and philosophy of science would be immensely improved if his Bayesian stats textbook became standard reading in grad school. So if he endorses the newest episode, who am I to disagree :)

in case you've never seen it, this is Roger Ebert on The Mummy

I’m at a philosophy conference and it is WILD. You philosophers are fascinating people.

I philosophize about #AI. Nothing that I have written or will ever write will ever use it. Not bc I distrust it or bc I think it couldn’t do it. Just bc, to me, figuring out ways to do some of the things it could do is part of the beauty, privilege, fun and the point of what I do.

#philtech

One thing you learn studying scientific social norms is how different norms are across the sciences and how often scientists think every field shares their norms.

This edition featuring keynotes by: Karoline Wiesner, Mats Stensrud & Naftali Weinberger (@dagophile.bsky.social)!

Folks, some news. No, not that kind of news – what do you think this is, LinkedIn? It's this:

1. The applied causal graphs workshop deadline is 28th Feb. so get your abstracts in and hang out with us in Potsdam this May. Form and description is below

2. @dagophile.bsky.social is giving a keynote 🥳

😄. As it happens I'm finishing up a draft of a paper in which I argue that causality is at least as fundamental as thermodynamics. So that seems pretty general.

I'm having so much fun writing this paper! For too long I was too intimidated to engage in depth with the philosophy of physics literature, but since the general quality of work in it is so high, that eases the entry into the conversation.

James Rebhorn - Wikipedia

Has anyone explored the possibility that the decline of the film industry is solely due to the irreplaceable loss of James Rebhorn in 2014?

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_R...

The Score by C. Thi Nguyen: 9780593655658 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books A philosophy of games to help us win back control over what we value The philosopher C. Thi Nguyen—one of the leading experts on the philosophy of games and the philosophy of data—takes us...

With the precision of a philosopher and the geekiness of a game-lover, Thi Nguyen shows how gaming has quietly colonized the rest of our lives. Required reading for understanding how values are being redefined through metrics, rankings, and scoring. www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/735252...

To be clear, to suppose that causal claims have counterfactual content is not to imply that causes reduce to counterfactuals (à la Lewis).

So I think Will is right to be skeptical of process theories beyond physics. And even "within" physics we should be skeptical that they work.

You can still ask whether there are any well defined causal relationships for which one cannot specify a counterfactual contrast in the cause. If causation implies manipulability, then no, but this is unresolved. But we should be skeptical of process theories as providing an adequate analysis...

I think Chris Hitchcock nailed this. My takeaway: process theories either have to appeal to counterfactuals (e.g. ability to transmit a mark) or are unable to capture the causal asymmetry (conserved quantity theories). Of course...

www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

So much stupid stuff happens when your institutions are motivated by the haunting fear that someone, somewhere is getting something they don't deserve.