Ehud
duhe.bsky.social
Ehud
@duhe.bsky.social
Do you really don’t know?

(I’m a philosopher and historian of biology, interested in all things evolutionary, #genetic, or #cognitive. I find most things ridiculous.)
http://www.ehudlamm.com
Pinned
New paper alert:
Finkel & Lamm, Cultural evolution beyond the individual: what human collective knowledge adds to high fidelity copying.

This is the third in the Distributed Adaptation series.

Many thanks to the diligent reviewers! #philbio #cultevo

link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Next time I need to explain the Stag Hunt game, I will use the three dogs carrying a big stick out of the lake.
Here are my top 10 dogs carrying big sticks!
November 25, 2025 at 4:12 PM
What's not to like?! LC conversion FTW!
"Unlike continental nonsense, analytic philosophy is clear and intelligible"
November 25, 2025 at 4:10 PM
November 25, 2025 at 3:08 PM
Finally, cultural universals supported by evidence!
Things almost every culture has in common:

• some sort of dumpling
• history of misogyny
November 25, 2025 at 1:54 PM
Here's an interim report. We've discussed chapters 1&2. 1 student loves the book and understands the argument.Another is insistent that the nature-nurture debate is solved ("interactions"), so EFK isn't convincing. A 3rd, a physician, says book is really hard for her to read&follow the argument.
After discussing it with the group, the students in my supervised reading course and I decided that we will be reading EFK's The Mirage of Space Between Nature and Nurture.
November 25, 2025 at 1:25 PM
Reposted by Ehud
This Millikan line goes (as they say) hard.
November 25, 2025 at 11:36 AM
Reposted by Ehud
I wish I didn’t have to share this. But the BBC has decided to censor my first Reith Lecture.

They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1
November 25, 2025 at 9:26 AM
Reposted by Ehud
I will be one of the speakers at next year's meeting of the European Network for the Philosophy of Social Sciences. Consider sbmitting something (by March 1).
#ENPOSS, #philsci
The European Network for the Philosophy of the Social Sciences (ENPOSS) invites submissions to its 15th Conference at the University of Helsinki, 26-28 August 2026. More info here: enposs.eu
European Network for the Philosophy of the Social Sciences (ENPOSS)
enposs.eu
November 25, 2025 at 11:00 AM
Reposted by Ehud
BREAKING: This is huge news, the EU's equivalent of the 🇺🇸Supreme Court's 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges ruling.

🇪🇺Court of Justice just ruled all 🇪🇺countries must recognise same-sex marriages granted in other member states.

This effectively legalises gay marriage across 🇪🇺
www.reuters.com
November 25, 2025 at 10:10 AM
My philosophy of teaching:

Always remain committed to the bit.
November 25, 2025 at 7:13 AM
I'm unconvinced that llms care less about truth than most humans.
November 25, 2025 at 7:10 AM
Reposted by Ehud
If I'm aware that I'm reading LLM text, I can do a reasonable job editing it, but if I don't it often winds up just bypassing a lot of my mental filters
November 25, 2025 at 5:12 AM
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Young chimps play weird with tools and other objects & this can lead to innovation! Moss sponging, doll play, leaf clipping to ask for carrying. If copied and retained, rare kid innovations can contribute to cultural complexity 🧪🔬🐵
My fav article I've ever worked on: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
October 21, 2025 at 12:15 PM
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Has anybody else gotten a flip phone just so it'll fit in your pocket? I need to replace an ancient iPhone mini and the new models are huge.
November 24, 2025 at 11:50 PM
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I had not seen this before. Very interesting, by Jane Goodall - taken from the transcipt of this interview: freakonomics.com/podcast/jane...
November 25, 2025 at 6:27 AM
Reposted by Ehud
New blogpost: Formal Methods in
Philosophy.

This is an entry I wrote five years ago for a handbook, but it hasn’t come out yet, so I figured it might be worth posting here. It’s sort of a paean to formal methods in philosophy. The idea was to give a sense of the variety and power of these methods.
Formal methods in philosophy
This is an entry I wrote five years ago for a handbook, but it hasn’t come out yet, so I figured it might be worth posting here.
open.substack.com
November 24, 2025 at 2:31 PM
Reposted by Ehud
If you want to read something completely nuts from the unregulated world of direct to consumer genomics, look no further.

And when I say completely nuts, I’m being restrained and polite. Criminal is another word that springs to mind.
November 25, 2025 at 2:13 AM
It's the time of year to start seriously considering making Pfeffernüsse cookies.
November 25, 2025 at 2:50 AM
Reposted by Ehud
Eh, I doubt this, though it's possibly that XTwitter may no longer be a useful or fruitful platform for influence operations targeting the left.

Anyway.
November 24, 2025 at 2:30 AM
Change we can get behind! Joining Lina Khan in recreating Biden's dream team.
Honored to serve on Mayor-elect @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social Transition Committee on Technology. For too long, too many New Yorkers have been left behind. NYC deserves governance that centers affordability, equity, and the public good-looking forward to the work ahead. www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news...
NYC Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani announces transition committees
New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani​ announced Monday the creation of 17 transition advisory committees made up of more than 400 people.
www.cbsnews.com
November 25, 2025 at 2:31 AM
Reposted by Ehud
🚨We're hiring! A tenure track position at McGill University in the area of #bioethics and / or philosophy of science, with a special focus on the ethics of medical technologies. Please share widely. #philsky #ethics #philsci philjobs.org/job/show/30402
Assistant Professor (Tenure Track), Department of Equity, Ethics, and Policy and Department of Philosophy, McGill University - PhilJobs:JFP Assistant Professor (Tenure Track), Department of Equity...
An international database of jobs for philosophers
philjobs.org
November 25, 2025 at 2:02 AM
Reposted by Ehud
In the latest issue of #HOPOS Jacob McDowell notes the surprising fact that Thomas Kuhn endorses "aspects of the causal theory [of reference] in several later essays while maintaining the possibility of incommensurability".

Link to the article: www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10....
November 24, 2025 at 8:01 AM
Reposted by Ehud
Learned recently that Gerd Gigerenzer appears in a 1974 Volkswagen Golf ad - and with a banjo, no less!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pxss...
Original TV ad for VW Golf with The Munich Beefeaters Dixieland Band
YouTube video by Thalia Gigerenzer
www.youtube.com
November 23, 2025 at 9:58 PM
Reposted by Ehud
I honestly find the MensWearGuy inspirational for what I think a good kind of cultured humanism can look like. This is the sort of presence I would like to have in the world.
A friend who teaches theology shared with me a post about CS Lewis's Mere Christianity, which discusses foundational Christian logic across denominations. It reminded me of Dale's tweet below, and I wanted to share some thoughts here regarding modesty and respectability, which are often hot topics.
November 24, 2025 at 8:12 AM