Valhalla monitor
@joelpust.bsky.social
Philosopher at @UDelaware. For free expression, academic freedom, a priori philosophy. Posting entirely in a personal capacity. Pessimism of the intellect, Optimism of the will.
https://philpeople.org/profiles/joel-pust
https://philpeople.org/profiles/joel-pust
Next Week.
Join us on Friday, November 21 for a day of events celebrating the APA's 125th anniversary and 50 years of the APA at the @udelaware.bsky.social! Pre-registration is encouraged but not required. bit.ly/491r2RY
November 11, 2025 at 2:15 PM
Next Week.
New Issue of the the Journal of Controversial Ideas, including an article on Genocide by Frances Kamm.
Volume 5, Issue 3 (November 2025)
journalofcontroversialideas.org
November 11, 2025 at 2:01 PM
New Issue of the the Journal of Controversial Ideas, including an article on Genocide by Frances Kamm.
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Good morning to all those people who wasted the last decade saying, "there's no point tackling climate change in the UK, because China."
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...
China’s CO2 emissions have been flat or falling for past 18 months, analysis finds
World’s biggest polluter on track to hit peak emissions target early but miss goal for cutting carbon intensity
www.theguardian.com
November 11, 2025 at 7:08 AM
Good morning to all those people who wasted the last decade saying, "there's no point tackling climate change in the UK, because China."
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...
Really worth a listen.
New episode! @minzlicht.bsky.social is back and fired up about citation diversity staments. We discuss the much-criticised Nature Reviews Psychology editorial encouraging authors to include them in their articles, as well as Mickey's very problematic beer tastes. share.fireside.fm/episode/Ah1O...
Two Psychologists Four Beers Episode 125: Citation Diversity Statements? (with Mickey Inzlicht)
Mickey is back and fired up about citation diversity statements. We discuss a recent editorial from Nature Reviews Psychology encouraging authors to include a "citation diversity statement" in their a...
share.fireside.fm
November 11, 2025 at 1:13 AM
Really worth a listen.
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Many thanks to @npr.org's All Things Considered for talking to me about inequality. When .41 cents of every $1 of new wealth has gone to the richest 1% since 2000 while the bottom half of humanity received just .1 cent of every $1, you know there's a problem
www.npr.org/2025/11/09/n...
www.npr.org/2025/11/09/n...
'Affordability,' and the repercussions of the increasing global wealth gap : Consider This from NPR
‘Affordability’ was the word that resonated across America during elections last week, reflecting voters’ demand for elected officials to address the rising cost of living. But the wealth gap in Ameri...
www.npr.org
November 10, 2025 at 3:09 PM
Many thanks to @npr.org's All Things Considered for talking to me about inequality. When .41 cents of every $1 of new wealth has gone to the richest 1% since 2000 while the bottom half of humanity received just .1 cent of every $1, you know there's a problem
www.npr.org/2025/11/09/n...
www.npr.org/2025/11/09/n...
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Proposed revision of Texas A&M system policy 08.01 poses significant risks to academic freedom, back to early 20th century fights over presidents vetoing course materials that offend political sensibilities
November 10, 2025 at 2:26 PM
Proposed revision of Texas A&M system policy 08.01 poses significant risks to academic freedom, back to early 20th century fights over presidents vetoing course materials that offend political sensibilities
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Today in @aeon.co Andreas Mogensen and I discuss animal welfare, AI welfare, and probabilistic ethics. We make the case for addressing the moral status of animals and AI systems as we address health, climate, and other big issues: with probabilistic reasoning and proportional responses.
An ant is drowning: here’s how to decide if you should save it | Aeon Essays
Should we simply assume that all animals can feel pain and are of moral concern? Or is that taking things too far?
aeon.co
November 10, 2025 at 1:03 PM
Today in @aeon.co Andreas Mogensen and I discuss animal welfare, AI welfare, and probabilistic ethics. We make the case for addressing the moral status of animals and AI systems as we address health, climate, and other big issues: with probabilistic reasoning and proportional responses.
AI discourse bringing out the behaviorists (and operationalists).
November 9, 2025 at 1:15 PM
AI discourse bringing out the behaviorists (and operationalists).
Agree but would like to have seen it "actively practiced" against internal attacks during 2015-2024.
"Rights, liberties, and freedoms are never secure when they lie dormant or unused." Interesting article in the latest volume of the Journal of Academic Freedom. Rather than thinking of #AcademicFreedom as a defense against attacks, we should make it an active practice.
www.aaup.org/JAF16/conspi...
www.aaup.org/JAF16/conspi...
Conspicuously Exercising Academic Freedom as a Response to Incremental Threats
Abstract:
www.aaup.org
November 7, 2025 at 3:24 PM
Agree but would like to have seen it "actively practiced" against internal attacks during 2015-2024.
Why can't we do things?
November 7, 2025 at 1:22 PM
Why can't we do things?
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"What is success? You can be successful at many things. You can be successful at fleeing the county. Is that success? That isn't success!"
November 7, 2025 at 3:15 AM
"What is success? You can be successful at many things. You can be successful at fleeing the county. Is that success? That isn't success!"
“Lovely justified true belief you have there. . . . It would be a real shame if it weren’t knowledge.”
November 6, 2025 at 2:54 PM
“Lovely justified true belief you have there. . . . It would be a real shame if it weren’t knowledge.”
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:(
Ok, just wow. If the content of this article is right, this is depressing. We're slowly reaching the point where ~100% of what I was taught in Social Psych was either innocently wrong or plainly frauded
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...
Debunking “When Prophecy Fails”
In 1954, Dorothy Martin predicted an apocalyptic flood and promised her followers rescue by flying saucers. When neither arrived, she recanted, her group dissolved, and efforts to proselytize ceased....
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
November 6, 2025 at 2:51 AM
:(
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"A university, at its best, is just a place carefully set up to allow other things to happen within. Beyond that, it does not have a role, a goal, a purpose, an identity, an agenda. It is not 'for' anything – except academic inquiry and excellence – or 'against' anything."
How to save the American university
As Trump threatens funding and public trust plummets, US schools are in the fight of a lifetime. This is how they can survive – with their souls intact
www.theguardian.com
November 5, 2025 at 6:12 AM
"A university, at its best, is just a place carefully set up to allow other things to happen within. Beyond that, it does not have a role, a goal, a purpose, an identity, an agenda. It is not 'for' anything – except academic inquiry and excellence – or 'against' anything."
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TL;DR: Even the most advanced language models crumble on first-person false beliefs, showing sharp accuracy drops and revealing that their “understanding” of others’ minds is still shallow pattern mimicry, not genuine epistemic reasoning.
www.nature.com/articles/s42...
www.nature.com/articles/s42...
Language models cannot reliably distinguish belief from knowledge and fact - Nature Machine Intelligence
Suzgun et al. find that current large language models cannot reliably distinguish between belief, knowledge and fact, raising concerns for their use in healthcare, law and journalism, where such disti...
www.nature.com
November 4, 2025 at 9:19 PM
TL;DR: Even the most advanced language models crumble on first-person false beliefs, showing sharp accuracy drops and revealing that their “understanding” of others’ minds is still shallow pattern mimicry, not genuine epistemic reasoning.
www.nature.com/articles/s42...
www.nature.com/articles/s42...
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The day will include a panel discussion featuring APA board members & @udelphilosophy.bsky.social faculty; lightning presentations on topics connected to philosophy & issues of public interest; the annual APA lecture by @amiethomasson.bsky.social (Dartmouth College); and trivia night (with prizes!).
November 4, 2025 at 7:05 PM
The day will include a panel discussion featuring APA board members & @udelphilosophy.bsky.social faculty; lightning presentations on topics connected to philosophy & issues of public interest; the annual APA lecture by @amiethomasson.bsky.social (Dartmouth College); and trivia night (with prizes!).
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Join us on Friday, November 21 for a day of events celebrating the APA's 125th anniversary and 50 years of the APA at the @udelaware.bsky.social! Pre-registration is encouraged but not required. bit.ly/491r2RY
November 4, 2025 at 7:05 PM
Join us on Friday, November 21 for a day of events celebrating the APA's 125th anniversary and 50 years of the APA at the @udelaware.bsky.social! Pre-registration is encouraged but not required. bit.ly/491r2RY
Reposted by Valhalla monitor
Studying social sciences & humanities makes students more left-leaning, controlling for initial views & major preference, driven by cultural views. Implies that if all students majored in business, college–noncollege ideological gap would shrink by 1/3
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
November 1, 2025 at 1:48 PM
Studying social sciences & humanities makes students more left-leaning, controlling for initial views & major preference, driven by cultural views. Implies that if all students majored in business, college–noncollege ideological gap would shrink by 1/3
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
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APA member Anastasia Berg (University of California, Irvine) has an op-ed in the New York Times on why AI use is bad for students. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/29/o...
Opinion | Why Even Basic A.I. Use Is So Bad for Students
Artificial intelligence threatens students’ most basic skills. If they lose their ability to understand what they read, will they lose their ability to think?
www.nytimes.com
November 3, 2025 at 3:15 PM
APA member Anastasia Berg (University of California, Irvine) has an op-ed in the New York Times on why AI use is bad for students. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/29/o...
Reposted by Valhalla monitor
"Emails seen by the Guardian show staff grappling with how to manage the relationship with China. In September 2024, the university informed Chinese state security that it would not be publishing a final phase of research on forced labour in China. 'Immediately, relations improved,' an admin wrote."
UK university halted human rights research after pressure from China
Exclusive: Leading professor at Sheffield Hallam was told to cease research on supply chains and forced labour in China after demands from authorities
www.theguardian.com
November 3, 2025 at 2:46 PM
"Emails seen by the Guardian show staff grappling with how to manage the relationship with China. In September 2024, the university informed Chinese state security that it would not be publishing a final phase of research on forced labour in China. 'Immediately, relations improved,' an admin wrote."
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Chris Ranalli and I have a new paper in the International Journal for the Study of Skepticism. We argue that philosophical scepticism need not lead to political conservatism. We also suggest that scepticism may support an anti-political stance that is worth cultivating.
brill.com/view/journal...
brill.com/view/journal...
brill.com
October 31, 2025 at 1:32 PM
Chris Ranalli and I have a new paper in the International Journal for the Study of Skepticism. We argue that philosophical scepticism need not lead to political conservatism. We also suggest that scepticism may support an anti-political stance that is worth cultivating.
brill.com/view/journal...
brill.com/view/journal...
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It's insane that this even needs to be said.
“A free country does not dispatch police in the dead of night to pull people from their homes because a sheriff objects to their social media posts,” @adamsteinbaugh.bsky.social speaking to @willoremus.com.
www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2025/...
“A free country does not dispatch police in the dead of night to pull people from their homes because a sheriff objects to their social media posts,” @adamsteinbaugh.bsky.social speaking to @willoremus.com.
www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2025/...
A retired policeman posted a Charlie Kirk meme. He spent a month in jail.
The 61-year-old Tennessee man plans to sue after authorities dropped charges over a political Facebook post. Free-speech advocates say it’s a symptom of a wider crackdown.
www.washingtonpost.com
October 31, 2025 at 1:36 PM
It's insane that this even needs to be said.
“A free country does not dispatch police in the dead of night to pull people from their homes because a sheriff objects to their social media posts,” @adamsteinbaugh.bsky.social speaking to @willoremus.com.
www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2025/...
“A free country does not dispatch police in the dead of night to pull people from their homes because a sheriff objects to their social media posts,” @adamsteinbaugh.bsky.social speaking to @willoremus.com.
www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2025/...