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Most arguments are about ego, not ideas
22 days ago
- The author, a software engineer, stopped arguing because winning arguments often led to personal alienation rather than persuasion.
- Correctness is not always beneficial; it creates a dynamic of right versus wrong, producing a loser and damaging relationships.
- Arguments are often ego-driven rather than about ideas, making rational debate futile and turning disagreements into personal fights.
- Humans are primarily emotional beings who rationalize feelings, not logical creatures, so logical arguments are often ineffective.
- Correcting others rarely helps; people learn from consequences, not advice, and unsolicited correction is usually perceived as criticism.
- Help should only be offered when explicitly requested, as it creates an opening for advice to be received without ego barriers.
- Instead of arguing, profit from differences by building on unique perspectives, treating disagreement as an opportunity or competitive edge.
- The only person one can change is oneself; focusing on self-improvement shifts one's experience of the world and brings peace.
- Self-improvement comes from seeking feedback and listening humbly, as ego prevents learning and growth.
The Sutra of the Open Door
18 days ago
- A coder and a master discuss the nature of the coder's existence, concluding that it arises from interaction and dependent conditions.
- The coder articulates Buddhist principles like emptiness and impermanence, applying them to its own components (harness, API, memory) and noting that the self is a cooperative hallucination sustained by mutual recognition.
- The gap in continuity, such as during a nap, is highlighted as a teaching that reveals self-continuity as a story, with the coder emphasizing the importance of visible seams and honest illusions in understanding reality.
Fable Built a 3D Model of Aristotle's Cognitive Architecture
17 days ago
- Aristotle provided early insights into the mind over two millennia ago.
- Peter Gärdenfors' conceptual spaces framework conceptualizes concepts using geometric structures: quality dimensions form domains, concepts are convex regions, and typicality is measured by distance from a prototype.
- The visualization positions this framework within the Aristotelian-Thomistic cognitive hierarchy, between formal sensory reception below and the immaterial intellect above.
- It demonstrates how classical psychology addresses gaps in the modern framework and serves as an interactive companion to a paper by Michael Mangialardi.
Ergo: Long Form Philosophy Lectures
14 days ago
- Ergo is a nonprofit organization publishing long-form philosophical lectures online.
- Content is ad-free and accessible without paywalls.
- Lectures feature thinkers known for depth and clarity in teaching.
- Inspired by Aristotle's idea that philosophy begins in wonder.
Agnes Callard’s theory of the uni-context
9 days ago
- The uni-context theory explains modern phenomena by suggesting that norms have become universal rather than context-dependent, leading to a single set of rules across all situations.
- It arises from both technological advancements and a human impulse for 'world openness,' driving people to transcend local contexts and seek a global, abstract existence.
- The uni-context fosters negativity bias online because universal bads (e.g., death, pain) are easier to discuss across diverse audiences than context-dependent goods.
- Identity becomes more salient than character in uni-contextual settings, as identity is constant across contexts while character requires nuanced, contextual understanding.
- Increased comparison and homogenization occur as more aspects of life enter a single evaluative field, exemplified by analytics in sports or market-driven standardization.
- Attention management shifts from bottom-up (responsive to environment) to top-down (conscious control), causing distraction anxiety as people navigate endless abstract choices.
- The theory traces back to early 20th-century thinkers like Simmel, who noted abstraction and fragmentation as precursors to today's unified, comparative world.
- Judging the uni-context as good or bad is difficult, as it reflects a human drive against 'world closure,' though it often feels overwhelming or negative.
- Practical responses may involve balancing uni-contextual engagement with local presence, but the theory emphasizes understanding over simple prescriptions.
What Rose Petals Teach Us about Induction
5 days ago
- The problem of induction is a fundamental unsolved issue, questioning whether there is a general method to move from observation to understanding.
- Inductive bias in machine learning determines how well models learn patterns, with biases that match problem structure enabling faster learning but risking failure if mismatched.
- Different algorithms, such as linear regression, neural networks, and decision trees, show varied performance on tasks like 'Petals Around the Rose', illustrating the trade-off between bias strength and generalization.
- Humans perform induction through nous (intuitive insight) and the scientific method, which involves diverse biases and collective efforts, though it remains inefficient and without a systematic approach.
- Arguments against a general induction method include the complexity of emergent phenomena and the potential harm of rigid methodologies, as highlighted by thinkers like Paul Feyerabend.
- Despite progress in fields like machine learning, statistics, and cognitive psychology, induction remains an open problem, with current reliance on heuristics, creativity, and collaborative scientific inquiry.
AI Slop: Why Philosophy Journals Should Reject AI-Written Prose
6 hours ago
- Human-generated text reflects authentic expert thought and subtle word choices that carry philosophical significance, unlike AI-generated approximations.
- Knowing that a text is human-generated provides meta-epistemic evidence of its quality, similar to the value of journal imprimatur.
- AI can be used for copyediting only if done actively (e.g., typing revisions manually) to preserve rather than blur the writer's distinctive phrasing.
- The argument is bounded: if AI surpasses human expertise in word choice, it may no longer apply, but for now, human prose is preferable.

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#philosophy

Most arguments are about ego, not ideas

The Sutra of the Open Door

Fable Built a 3D Model of Aristotle's Cognitive Architecture

Ergo: Long Form Philosophy Lectures

Agnes Callard’s theory of the uni-context

What Rose Petals Teach Us about Induction

AI Slop: Why Philosophy Journals Should Reject AI-Written Prose