Can artificial agents have free will? Here is a framework for thinking about this question. I discuss two kinds of artificial agents: group agents (e.g., corporations, states etc.) and AI systems (e.g., LLMs, autonomous decision-making systems etc.). Both raise important questions of responsibility.
And today is not such a good day to be a NZ cricket fan... Congrats India!!
Remembering Katherine today 🤍 katherinehawley.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk
Happy International Women’s Day, #philsky
Women's History Month is the perfect time to listen to this series I designed about the overlooked and underrated contributions of women in philosophy.
From Hypatia to Hildegard, Mary Wollstonecraft to Mary Midgley, learn about philosophy's unsung heroines!
#WomensHistoryMonth #Philosophy #PhilSky
New and free online: @msgjonhere.bsky.social
& my edited collection of essays on belief with Oxford University Press:
academic.oup.com/book/62410
Table of Contents in thread
Oh that is sad news. I'm sorry for your loss.
Just heard the very sad news that my former teacher and colleague Malcolm Budd has died. One of the leading philosophers of art, music and natural beauty of our time.
1604: Scene of a murder? Or perspective demonstration? These things are sometimes hard to tell with Hans Vredeman de Vries, whose day is today.
Def agree. But I wonder if there still some kinds of consistency constraints on wishes/hopes. "I wish you could both get the job" is fine. But is it ok to say "I wish you good luck for getting the job" to one of the two final candidates and then say the exact same thing to the other?
For the ARC project we have a great team: Tim Bayne (Monash), Rick Skarbez @rickskarbez.bsky.social (La Trobe), Margot Strohminger (ACU), and Mary Walker (La Trobe). This 3-year project should be starting soon with ads for a post-doc and PhD position, which I'll post here when they're ready.
A story on La Trobe's website about my research and the related ARC Discovery Project I will be leading on 'Virtual Reality and Knowing What It Is like'. #philsky
www.latrobe.edu.au/news/announc...
If an article is published and no one (other than an LLM) is around to read it, and no one (other than an LLM) wrote it, does it make a sound in the space of reasons?
Writing is thinking.
It's not some marginal boring task you can skip. It's the heart of it.
Yeah it's the later kind of case I'm wondering about. Can I wish that Sue wins the gold medal and that Sarah wins it (assuming no joint winners in the sport, and thinking equally of them)? Could also frame it in terms of hopes.
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York © 2007 Mondrian/Holtzman Trust
Still Life with Gingerpot I by Piet Mondrian, 1911
https://botfrens.com/collections/212/contents/137552
Random thoughts after channel surfing and stumbling on a reality tv show 🫠
You can sincerely wish both of them good luck for, say, doing well in the job interview. But can you sincerely wish both of them good luck for *getting* the job (that only one of them can get)? I guess, it just seems a little weird to me but I suppose wishes aren't subject to consistency norms.
Suppose two people are both going for the same job (prize/opportunity...) and you know that only one of them can get it. Can you sincerely wish them both good luck?
Painting of a butterfly
www.historyofphilosophy.net/zhuangzi-death
Time for a new #HoPWaG episode! Today we tackle the many passages in the Daoist classic, the Zhuangzi, that deal with death - including the famous "dreaming you are a butterfly" passage.
#daoism #zhuangzi #philsky #philosophy #podcasts
Thanks Keith and I hope you are recovering well now! Its looking like I will need a root canal too (maybe even an extraction and implant...) but its all still in process (been in and out of the dentist a lot this month). Fingers crossed I can get it sorted soon.
Ok real or not, I am really f-ing over this particular species of qualia. So much for the consolations of philosophy.
I'm sure I've said this before here but the phil mind equivalent of the "there are no atheists in fox holes" line has to be "there are no qualia deniers in the dentist's chair".
On the one hand, this toothache is awful and it is keeping me up all night. On the other hand, it is quite interesting (and slightly pain distracting) to introspect it whilst thinking about transparency and representationalism, and illusionism etc. Who says philosophy is useless?
Oh gosh, I'm sorry to hear that. Best wishes to your partner for a good recovery.
He wasn't a domestic terrorist. A domestic terrorist was the Oklahoma City bomber. This was a VA nurse looking out for his neighbors.
How to help Minnesota (and yourself): a clear, straightforward guide of steps you can take
naomikritzer.com/2026/01/21/h...
The park behind the building on the right was also just as full!
Fascism cannot take Minnesota anymore than the darkness can cover the North Star.
The darker it is, the brighter we’ll shine
Actually it's worse -- they're looking for people based on skin color and then, only once they've found them, trying to determine if they can charge them with violating the law.
They targeted Somali-Americans and stopped people on the street to ask "where are the Asians?"
It's pure racism.
