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Open for Debate

AI regulation and the right to meaningful explanation. Pt 1. Why (not)?

AI regulation and the right to meaningful explanation. Pt 1. Why (not)?

Posted on 11 November 2024 by

Ask anyone except a gun rights activist, and they will agree that the rise of new technologies requires the implementation of new regulations. Not too long ago, a law against […]

True Believers?

True Believers?

Posted on 28 October 2024 by

Introduction One popular image of the ‘brainwashed’ person is someone who repeats what their leader says and who professes conviction in what they repeat. But do brainwashed people really believe […]

How should we lead our intellectual lives?

How should we lead our intellectual lives?

Posted on 14 October 2024 by

This question has long preoccupied philosophers, but has recently taken on greater public urgency in response to fears about misinformation, disinformation, bullshit, tribalism, and other perceived epistemic threats. One answer […]

Values and Virtues in Philosophy and Psychology

Values and Virtues in Philosophy and Psychology

Posted on 30 September 2024 by

During the recent general election campaign in the UK, I received a flyer through my door from a local independent candidate who claimed to value, among other things, humanitarianism. He […]

Gatekeeping in Science

Gatekeeping in Science

Posted on 16 September 2024 by

It’s common in public discourse to see worries about pseudoscience. This is understandable, for the stakes are high. Although science surely can’t tell us about everything, it is our best […]

Transmitting Understanding of Indigenous Genocide and Historical Hermeneutical Injustice

Transmitting Understanding of Indigenous Genocide and Historical Hermeneutical Injustice

Posted on 2 September 2024 by

A Mexica, or Aztec, scribe communicated part of his experience of the Spanish conquest of Tenochtitlan, modern-day Mexico City, as follows: Along the roads the splintered javelins lie, scalps are […]

AI voices should sound weird

AI voices should sound weird

Posted on 19 August 2024 by

There has been a lot of discussion recently – both among academics and in the popular press –  about what kinds of limits should be placed on content generated by […]

Friendship and Understanding

Friendship and Understanding

Posted on 5 August 2024 by

In Nicole Holofcener’s recent film You Hurt My Feelings, an author, Beth, overhears her partner confess to a friend that he thinks her latest book is no good. This revelation […]

Extreme belief systems

Extreme belief systems

Posted on 22 July 2024 by

In Kirill Srebrennikov’s 2016 film, The Student, Venia, a lonely high school student begins to intensely read the bible and appeal to it for everything he says and does. Through […]

SUBJECTIVE JUSTICE

SUBJECTIVE JUSTICE

Posted on 8 July 2024 by

Can bad people be good judges? This question would have been unintelligible before the rise of the modern state, when moral character and expertise were deemed as inextricably linked.  Personal […]

Confessions, intersectionality and personal pronouns

Confessions, intersectionality and personal pronouns

Posted on 24 June 2024 by

In the past decade or so, great achievements have been made in the emancipation of genderqueer persons. Not only has there been increased visibility of these individuals in politics and […]

Truth, fiction and LLMs

Truth, fiction and LLMs

Posted on 10 June 2024 by

The trope of the working novelist isolated for months at a time, hunched over a desk with yellow stained and repetitively strained fingers clacking away on a keyboard is no […]

Non-ideal epistemology as a guidance for inquiry

Non-ideal epistemology as a guidance for inquiry

Posted on 27 May 2024 by

In our daily lives, we conduct numerous inquiries. Some of them are aimed at questions that have no significant impact on our lives, such as which restaurant in town has […]

On Hope and Despair (Part II)

On Hope and Despair (Part II)

Posted on 13 May 2024 by

In the previous post, I raised the possibility that people can hope without hope, that is, hope for things that they simultaneously despair or feel unhopeful about. Far from being […]

On Hope and Despair (Part I)

On Hope and Despair (Part I)

Posted on 29 April 2024 by

In today’s world, it is not difficult to find something to despair about: Climate change, mass shootings, wars, reproductive rights, racism, social and economic inequality, and politics, just to name […]

Rethinking Manipulation: The Indifference View of Manipulation

Rethinking Manipulation: The Indifference View of Manipulation

Posted on 15 April 2024 by

In the series' Unpacking Manipulation in the Digital Age,' the previous five posts covered the rise of problematic forms of digital influence (Posts 1, 2, and 3), the need to […]

Unravelling the Complexity of Manipulation Theories

Unravelling the Complexity of Manipulation Theories

Posted on 15 April 2024 by

In the previous four posts of this series on 'Unpacking Manipulation in the Digital Age'(Post 1; Post 2; Post 3; Post 4), I argued that more attention to different types […]

Types of Social Influence and Manipulation Without Intention

Types of Social Influence and Manipulation Without Intention

Posted on 1 April 2024 by

In the previous two posts of this series on online manipulation, I outlined three developments that warrant closer attention to digital influence (here), and argued that a peculiar result is […]

The Rise of Digital Manipulation

The Rise of Digital Manipulation

Posted on 30 March 2024 by

In the previous post of this series on 'Unpacking Manipulation in the Digital Age,' I argued that problematic forms of influence can be unintentional but not accidental and that the […]

The Dark Side of Digital Influence

The Dark Side of Digital Influence

Posted on 18 March 2024 by

In the previous post, I outlined three reasons for paying closer attention to social influence in the digital landscape: the proliferation of social influence, the informational empowerment of social influence, […]