Visiting Professor of Philosophy @UVA and E.B. McFarlin Chair in Philosophy @utulsa. Lesser half to @jennfrey. philpeople.org/profiles/chri…
Tulsa, OK
- Tweets 6,935
- Following 647
- Followers 6,895
- Likes 6,057
My AI reply guys are not impressed with my knowledge of Aristotle. And The Philosopher himself? Please. He’s never even heard of J-Space.
2
18
632
More seriously, I’ve seen a lot worse. They’re upfront the focus is western civ (why one Confucius exception then). And there’s a separate world lit list. I’d make some dif choices (Sappho, Boethius...) But the downsides of a huge list are real and subtractions aren’t obvious
A faculty member shared this with me today: a preliminary list of 50 “foundational authors” for @UTAustin’s proposed Great Questions of Human Life core courses. At least two-thirds of each course would draw from the list. What do you make of this list?
texastribune.org/2026/08/13/…
3
2
22
2,711
Better Call Saul is a slow burn. I could appreciate the acting/writing in the first couple seasons. But I just wasn’t that interested in elder law and it was often a slog. But once it gets rolling, it’s better than Breaking Bad.
15
1,050
The size and speed of the reply guy swarms that descend on even the most mundane posts about AI is remarkable
5
1
19
1,027
Am I “an expert in the field?” I defended a dissertation in phil mind and have taught it, including questions about AI, for almost 20 years. My vote is no, they don’t think. Probably “biased” then. 🤷♂️
IDK if you polled some unbiased sample of experts in the field (granted, "experts" and "unbiased" are doing a lot of work there), I imagine most of them would roughly agree with the idea that AI models "think," at least for more advanced tasks.
31
33
497
12,929
Want to see whose syllabus is 2/3 Marx and 1/3 whatever they want. 🙃
A faculty member shared this with me today: a preliminary list of 50 “foundational authors” for @UTAustin’s proposed Great Questions of Human Life core courses. At least two-thirds of each course would draw from the list. What do you make of this list?
texastribune.org/2026/08/13/…
3
8
2,695
I know these lists are ultimately rage inducing click bait. Well, it worked. Placing Twin Peaks: The Return at 47, one place behind Broad City of all shows, was designed in a lab to enrage me
The New York Times’ final list of the 100 Best TV Shows of the 21st Century is now complete.
What do you make of the final ranking? Which placements surprised you the most?
4
2
24
2,864
Does anyone know the details of how UT counts this? I’ve been places where only one of a double major’s areas figures in these numbers and the humanities major is typically listed second. (Numbers would still be terrible but curious to know)
Wow: Of 11-12,000 undergraduate degrees at UT, only 300 were in any humanities program. That includes History and English: thedailytexan.com/2026/09/22…
1
2
20
1,719
It seems like the primary motives to bash Pangram here are (i) I use AI all the time and want to do so with impunity, or (ii) a friend of mine just got busted.
2
32
1,123
The superficial irony folks notice in the dialogues belies their true esoteric core: Socrates is among the most sincere human beings to have ever lived 🙃😂
Some non-Strauss-y literature on the method of Socratic elenchus touches on this. But they miss the obvious irony. So, not sure how helpful it ultimately is,
3
22
3,515
If your work is neither true nor good you should “aspire” for it to “matter” as little as possible
I find this attitude from academic philosophers baffling
I have deep philosophical disagreements with EA (eg matthewmandel.com/writing/on…)
But it’s easily the most vital philosophical movement of the 21st century so far. Far from finding it embarrassing, other philosophers should aspire to do work that matters as much
3
1
27
3,062
Folks in AI aren’t building things to kill you. They are just lying and saying that to manipulate you. So … we should trust them.
8
2
30
1,290
wife: stop eating so many donuts
me: I'm combating genocide you fascist!
🚨 Da’Shaun L. Harrison at Socialism 2026 argues that the political deployment of GLP-1 drugs is “fascistic” because they exist in “a world fixated on genociding fat people.”
“The political deployment of GLP-1s is fascistic, not because individuals take them, but because the conditions under which they become necessary are shaped by a world fixated on genociding fat people.”
And to explain why that is supposedly fascistic, Harrison turns to Frantz Fanon and “Black flesh under colonial surveillance.”
If GLP-1s are already “body fascism,” the dual and triple agonists are going to require an entirely new theoretical vocabulary.
4
10
331
6,798
Christopher Frey retweeted
One thing I miss about being a dean is welcoming a new class of students at the start of their first academic year. Happily, Providence College invited me to welcome their incoming class last Friday. Speech is in the following post, on why a liberal education is about freedom.
3
7
116
8,055