Andrew Allison is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Calgary. His research interests are in finance ethics, political...
In the last post of this series, I introduced the issue of algorithmic bias. Inspired by the well-meaning but ultimately flawed efforts of Google’s chatbot, Gemini, towards inclusivity, I looked at the challenges of addressing bias—such as the conceptual ambiguity of terms like 'fairness' and the inherent subjectivity in correcting bias. This raised the fundamental question of how best to approach the issue: should we adopt a normative stance, based on how we think the world should be, or a descriptive one, reflecting how the world actually is? The former approach has subjectivity problems, risks distorting the truth, and importantly might deprive us of insights into inequality that we need to address. However, bias is damaging on so many levels and needs to be dealt with somehow.
Vasilis Grollios is currently an independent postdoctoral researcher and author of the new book, Illusion and Fetishism in Critical Theory: A study of Nietzsche,...
AI developers have rapidly integrated their products into society, including the education sector. This has made us, the educators, feel overwhelmed and threatened, and...
Ex Machina (2014)
Arrival (2016)
Annihilation (2018)
I Am Mother (2019)
I am a huge science fiction film buff. In my adolescence, I was a prolific reader of so...
Making critical thinking fun
In a recent review paper, Alan Bensley concludes that “people who endorse unsubstantiated claims less tend to show better critical thinking...
I have been thinking for a while about the mathematics used to formulate our physical theories, especially the similarities and differences among different mathematical...
In 2023, shortly before his death, Klee Benally published No Spiritual Surrender: Indigenous Anarchy in Defense of the Sacred, a book of emancipatory thought...
1. Introduction
Why teach philosophy in wartime Ukraine? It’s a fair question. It’s a necessary question. Given the variety and gravity of Ukraine’s urgent needs,...
A recent issue of Aeon featured an article entitled “The Missing Conversation,” with the subtitle, “To the detriment of the public, scientists and historians don’t engage...
Julia Jorati currently chairs the APA Committee on Inclusiveness in the Profession and is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She...
Classic psychedelics, such as psilocybin and LSD, are currently being studied for their potential therapeutic impact—primarily in conjunction with some form of psychotherapy—on a...
