ICYMI (Philosophy) Daily Digest report

Die Getränke sind schon da. #dhd2024

New post on the EPIC blog, by Michela Massimi: https://buff.ly/3TppVTX #EpistemicInjustice #projectEPIC @philosophy #philosophy

Daily Nous || Minor Vandalism on PhilPapers

https://dailynous.com/2024/02/28/minor-vandalism-on-philpapers/

There’s 12 hours left in the #SIUDay of Giving. Please consider designating your donation for the Center for Dewey Studies! https://siuday.siu.edu

I see folks saying they are confident that ultimately this Supreme Court will reject Trump’s claim that presidents have absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts. I’m not. I meant it every time I have said that Trump appointed Justices Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Coney Barrett are almost certainly in the tank for him. Were they not, they’d be recusing themselves from all his appeals, as their participation certainly has, at the least, the appearance of impropriety. 1/ #LawFedi

Clearly, if Thomas weren’t in the tank for Trump, he too would be recusing himself from any decision involving him. Imagine if these 4 justices acted ethically and did recuse themselves. Then, Roberts, Alito, Kagan, Sotomayor, and Brown Jackson would be deciding. A very different situation. 2/

On the same day the Supreme Court makes yet another decision disgracing the American judiciary, another state court judge demonstrates the bravery and principle that rule of law requires. Illinois county circuit court judge has adopted the Colorado Supreme Court’s reasoning, combined with the court’s examination of relevant Illinois election law, to rule that Trump may not appear on the ballot as he is ineligible to serve as President per #14thAmendmentSection3. https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/28/politics/illinois-trump-removed-ballot-insurrectionist-ban/index.html #LawFedi

Back in the real world, though, the 4 clearly compromised Justices are not the only ones who want to empower authoritarian Presidents. Alito is a declared adherent of the the “unitary executive theory” which is Republican code for putting the President above the law. 3/

The Cook County, Illinois court’s opinion removing Trump from the Illinois ballot moves me precisely because it is a workmanlike, straightforward, judicial decision. Here’s the full text, with light annotations by me. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zagZ7azM2uN8JSEOQfjJYe_Sm1wCCNFV/view?usp=drivesdk 1/ #LawFedi

For simple judicial integrity , see this passage at pp. 22-23: “Until the U.S. Supreme Court renders a decision in Anderson v. Griswold…reviewing courts are still under a constitutional obligation to apply and interpret the law….” 2/2

An acquaintance recommended the 1998 film Dark City to me — a fairly obscure title, and I must say that it's quite good. It plays around with ideas of personal identity and memory, what it means to be human, in a noir sci-fi setting. Warmly recommended! 🍿

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118929/

#philosophy #film #movies #scifi #noir

Still kind of amazed that by now @DHdKonferenz has a whole section on DH and philosophy. https://dhd2024.dig-hum.de/programm-donnerstag-29-02-2024/ #dhd2024 I'll talk about the 'future of digital philosophy'.

Streetlight & sunrise

Es muss nicht immer Carnap sein: @stefan_hessbrueggen hat Schlick auf die #dhd2024 mitgebracht

OpenAI unveiled its video generation model Sora two weeks ago. The technical report emphatically suggests that video generation models like Sora are world simulators. Are they? What does that even mean? I'm taking a deep dive into these questions in a new blog post.

https://artificialcognition.net/posts/video-generation-world-simulators/

(Grab a levitating cup of coffee, it's a bit of a long read)

University fees haven‘t increased in 7 years. Given inflation, that means UK universities have been getting less income per student every year. The fees never really covered costs in the first place. Add in cost spikes from the pandemic and the energy crisis, together with the government’s attack on oversees students - is it any wonder that universities are struggling. The next government is going to have to act quickly, because the situation is dire.