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Reposted by Caro Flores

Chaz Firestone @chazfirestone.bsky.social · 1h

This is a big one! A 4-year writing project over many timezones, arguing for a reimagining of the influential "core knowledge" thesis.

Led by @daweibai.bsky.social, we argue that much of our innate knowledge of the world is not "conceptual" in nature, but rather wired into perceptual processing. 👇

Screenshot of a paper abstract:

“Core knowledge” refers to a set of cognitive systems that underwrite early representations of the physical and social world, appear universally across cultures, and likely result from our genetic endowment. Although this framework is canonically considered as a hypothesis about early emerging conception — how we think and reason about the world — here we present an alternative view: that many such representations are inherently perceptual in nature. This “core perception” view explains an intriguing (and otherwise mysterious) aspect of core-knowledge processes and representations: that they also operate in adults, where they display key empirical signatures of perceptual processing. We first illustrate this overlap using recent work on “core physics”, the domain of core knowledge concerned with physical objects, representing properties such as persistence through time, cohesion, solidity, and causal interactions. We review evidence that adult vision incorporates exactly these representations of core physics, while also displaying empirical signatures of genuinely perceptual mechanisms, such as rapid and automatic operation on the basis of specific sensory inputs, informational encapsulation, and interaction with other perceptual processes. We further argue that the same pattern holds for other areas of core knowledge, including geometrical, numerical, and social domains. In light of this evidence, we conclude that many infant results appealing to precocious reasoning abilities are better explained by sophisticated perceptual mechanisms shared by infants and adults. Our core-perception view elevates the status of perception in accounting for the origins of conceptual knowledge, and generates a range of ready-to-test hypotheses in developmental psychology, vision science, and more.

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Reposted by Caro Flores

Zeke Hernandez @profzeke.bsky.social · Jun 23

🚨🚨🚨Blockbuster paper out today! Bear with me as I explain why this one is so important.

🤔 The *economic* anger about immigration is based on the false notion that immigrants take jobs or lower wages. A major misunderstanding behind this view is that immigrants only increase the supply of labor.

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Reposted by Caro Flores

Philosophical Psychology @journalphp.bsky.social · 13d

Call for papers: Ian Hacking and the Philosophy of Psychiatry. Deadline: 1st February 2026. Guest editors: Şerife Tekin and Jonathan Y. Tsou. Submit your work! think.taylorandfranc... #philsky #philpsy #philsci

Ian Hacking and the Philosophy of Psychiatry

Submit work that examines how Hacking’s historical and pragmatic approach to philosophy has reshaped inquiries into psychiatry.

think.taylorandfrancis.com

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Reposted by Caro Flores

Alex Fisher @alex-fisher.bsky.social · 7h

Today I discovered a great set of BPA resources for early-career philosophers on publishing, grants/fellowships, and job apps, with loads of sample materials like cover letters, research statements, etc.

Do share with those who might find these useful!

bpa.ac.uk/resources-fo...

#philjobs #philsky

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Caro Flores @floresophize.bsky.social · 21h

This database of political deepfakes is really interesting! It suggests that deepfakes are more often used for satire that doesn't aim to even *look* real - instead of to trick people into believing false things.

Tracking Political Deepfakes: New Database Aims to Inform, Inspire Policy Solutions

The creators of the Political Deepfakes Incidents Database ‒ Christina Walker, Purdue University PhD candidate in political science; Daniel Schiff, Purdue assistant professor of technology policy; and...

casmi.northwestern.edu

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Caro Flores @floresophize.bsky.social · 1d

For anyone working in Cool Philosophy (social philosophy intersected with M&E), this looks like a fantastic opportunity! philjobs.org/job/show/30010

Lecturer or Associate Professor, University of Leeds - PhilJobs:JFP Lecturer or Associate Professor, University of Leeds

An international database of jobs for philosophers

philjobs.org

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Reposted by Caro Flores

Alex Fisher @alex-fisher.bsky.social · 1d

This article is now published open access here:

doi.org/10.1093/aest...

See below for a thread summary with lots of pretty pictures!
#philtech #techethics

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Caro Flores @floresophize.bsky.social · 2d

Can't wait to dive into the fabulous @quillkukla.bsky.social's new book "S*x Beyond 'Yes'" - a much-needed corrective to the tendency for feminist discourse on s*x to focus exclusively on how straight women can avoid terrible s*x, not on what sexual agency actually involves and how we can build it.

Cover of Quill Kukla's book "Sex beyond 'yes'"

Quill and Elliot Kukla sit on foldable chairs in front of bookshelves and a banner reading "Fabulosa Books"

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Reposted by Caro Flores

Jacobin @jacobinmag.bsky.social · 2d

The global right today excels at leveraging nostalgia for reactionary ends. Yet memories of periods of revolutionary hope and collective victories can provide the materials for a form of nostalgia that the Left can use.

The Left Can’t Abandon Nostalgia to the Right

The global right today excels at leveraging nostalgia for reactionary ends. Yet memories of periods of revolutionary hope and collective victories can provide the materials for a form of nostalgia that the Left can use.

jacobin.com

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Caro Flores @floresophize.bsky.social · 3d

Left nostalgia has been harnessed in the US in important ways - the Green New Deal is about nostalgia for the New Deal, the Palestine encampments are nostalgic for anti-Vietnam-war activism. But we should do it more!

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Caro Flores @floresophize.bsky.social · 3d

Nostalgia can also be a crucial ingredient in dreaming of a better future. Nostalgia is actually about creative reinterpretation of the past in light of today's needs. So it can be very helpful in coming up with new political visions. 4/

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Caro Flores @floresophize.bsky.social · 3d

Why? First: nostalgia has an unparalleled capacity to coordinate large groups of people around shared rituals, memories, and desires. It can really bring people out together instead of divide us. 3/

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Caro Flores @floresophize.bsky.social · 3d

It can seem that nostalgia is inherently fascist-leaning. But not only can nostalgia be directed at periods of hope, solidarity, and revolution, we need to actively do so on the left. 2/

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Caro Flores @floresophize.bsky.social · 3d

Super stoked to have a piece out in Jacobin! It's a personal essay about nostalgia for the Portuguese Carnation Revolution and a reclamation of the power of nostalgia for the left. 1/

The Left Can’t Abandon Nostalgia to the Right

The global right today excels at leveraging nostalgia for reactionary ends. Yet memories of periods of revolutionary hope and collective victories can provide the materials for a form of nostalgia tha...

jacobin.com

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Caro Flores @floresophize.bsky.social · 3d

Lantern attention is open awareness of reality - good for learning and exploring, and what children have way more than adults.

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Caro Flores @floresophize.bsky.social · 3d

Spotlight attention is what we usually mean by “attention”: inhibiting lots of information to focus only on things relevant to our goals - good for getting stuff done, encouraged by capitalism.

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Caro Flores @floresophize.bsky.social · 3d

One fascinating distinction Gopnik draws: between spotlight and lantern attention.

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Caro Flores @floresophize.bsky.social · 3d

Listen for fascinating ideas on learning, play, children’s and adults’ minds, the explore-exploit and imitate-innovate trade-offs, varieties of consciousness and attention, cultural change, the limitations of AI, among others.

(And decidedly not endorsing Ezra Klein’s recent political takes)

Opinion | Why Adults Lose the ‘Beginner’s Mind’ (Published 2021)

www.nytimes.com

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Caro Flores @floresophize.bsky.social · 4d

Art for social good: these artists have developed a piece where "you’re invited to phone CEOs and executives in the fossil fuel industry and waste as much of their time as you can. We’ve developed a kind of methodology to quantify how much time wasted would result in what amount of carbon savings."

Climate Hacks | Broadcast

Tega Brain and Sam Lavigne’s pirate solutions to climate change.

pioneerworks.org

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Caro Flores @floresophize.bsky.social · 4d

Maybe everyone mistrusts institutions, and rationalizes this distrust by thinking they represent “the other side”?

Take Sipma @takesipma.bsky.social · 6d

... We show that citizens' perceptions of bias are widespread in 🇩🇪, 🇳🇱, 🇬🇧, 🇵🇱 and 🇪🇸. Most notably, we find that the direction of perceived bias mirrors one’s own ideological position. Left- and right-leaning citizens tend to associate institutional actors with the opposite (‘hostile’) ideology. (3/3)

Caro Flores @floresophize.bsky.social · 5d

That’s just what someone in a simulation would say, though!

(The line between philosophy and trolling is thin here xD)

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Reposted by Caro Flores

Natalie Weiner @natalieweiner.bsky.social · 5d

for every post you make about a major pop album today i decree you make one bandcamp friday purchase

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Caro Flores @floresophize.bsky.social · 5d

Wild how I have a job that involves standing in front of 300 teenagers going "Maybe you're living in a simulation! What if other people don't actually have any thoughts and feelings? What if you don't have hands?" and there is actually no convincing reply.

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Reposted by Caro Flores

Peter Tennant @pwgtennant.bsky.social · 7d

GENERAL REMINDER FOR EUROPEAN TRAVELLERS: don't go through to the non Schengen area of a European airport until *after* you have eaten.

Else you will be left buying dinner from a small sandwich kiosk. And you deserve better.

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Reposted by Caro Flores

News Eye @newseye.bsky.social · 7d

BREAKING: Striking workers are currently storming Tesla showrooms in Paris, demanding higher taxes on the ultra-wealthy.

(🎥 Luc Auffret)

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