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elisafreschi.bsky.social
elisa freschi
@elisafreschi.bsky.social
3.3K followers 920 following 2.7K posts

Sanskrit (and) philosophy. Permanently in beta phase. Blogging at http://elisafreschi.com and http://indianphilosophyblog.org. Articles at PhilPapers Here to learn & share

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Philosophy 47%
History 21%
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elisafreschi.bsky.social
elisa freschi @elisafreschi.bsky.social · 19h
Fixed duties (nityakarman) are not "imperfect duties"

elisafreschi.com/2026/02/11/4...
Fixed duties vs imperfect duties
Mīmāṃsā authors distinguish between fixed/conditional duties on the one hand, and elective duties on the other. Even Maṇḍana wants to keep them distinct, though insisting that in both cases the comman...
elisafreschi.com

elisafreschi.bsky.social
elisa freschi @elisafreschi.bsky.social · 20h
In my experience, AI can take away some "fun" work (e.g., creating slides, writing) and adds a lot of boring/annoying tasks, like checking for mistakes.
lutzfernandez.bsky.social Anne Lutz Fernandez @lutzfernandez.bsky.social · 20h
🧵
"workers increasingly absorbed work that might previously have justified additional help or headcount"

"spent more time reviewing, correcting, and guiding AI-generated or AI-assisted work produced by colleagues"

"workers slipped small amounts of work into moments that had previously been breaks"
AI Doesn’t Reduce Work—It Intensifies It
One of the promises of AI is that it can reduce workloads so employees can focus more on higher-value and more engaging tasks. But according to new research, AI tools don’t reduce work, they consisten...
hbr.org

Reposted by Elisa Freschi

lutzfernandez.bsky.social
Anne Lutz Fernandez @lutzfernandez.bsky.social · 20h
🧵
"workers increasingly absorbed work that might previously have justified additional help or headcount"

"spent more time reviewing, correcting, and guiding AI-generated or AI-assisted work produced by colleagues"

"workers slipped small amounts of work into moments that had previously been breaks"
AI Doesn’t Reduce Work—It Intensifies It
One of the promises of AI is that it can reduce workloads so employees can focus more on higher-value and more engaging tasks. But according to new research, AI tools don’t reduce work, they consisten...
hbr.org

elisafreschi.bsky.social
elisa freschi @elisafreschi.bsky.social · 21h
#AnimalMinds, animal rights

Reposted by Jonathan Birch, Elisa Freschi

stevecooke.org
Grumpy Philosopher @stevecooke.org · 21h
My book: a snip at £8.99. Buy it before I decide I was wrong about half the things I wrote. bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/trade/what-a...
What Are Animal Rights For?
What Are Animal Rights For?; How should we treat animals? The field of animal rights raises pressing questions about how humans treat the other animals as livestock farming exerts an increasing toll o...
bristoluniversitypress.co.uk

Reposted by Elisa Freschi

sonjadrimmer.bsky.social
Sonja Drimmer @sonjadrimmer.bsky.social · 1d
People responding to this inane quote are getting distracted by a classroom activity (can machines think?), grappling in the mud w the pig of the data expropriation industry. You get covered in mud, the industry likes it, & now you’re busy trying to get yourself clean while it’s stealing your job.

elisafreschi.bsky.social
elisa freschi @elisafreschi.bsky.social · 1d
Personal opinion only: There are in fact many "good" (bright, naturally talented, hard-working) students. The difference is done by the community they are in and the education they receive.

elisafreschi.bsky.social
elisa freschi @elisafreschi.bsky.social · 1d
He can be a determinist only in the following: Every being is determined towards/has an inclination towards one thing, but things can go wrong.
EF: So, dispositions, not determinism.
IS: Yes, but Aquinas says that things are "determinata ad unum"

8/

elisafreschi.bsky.social
elisa freschi @elisafreschi.bsky.social · 1d
IS does not think that Thomas Aquinas is a determinist about nature because he is adamantly against the Megarians, who were determinist. Thomas Aquinas thinks that the world is contingent.

7/

elisafreschi.bsky.social
elisa freschi @elisafreschi.bsky.social · 1d
Again on occasionalism: God could do miracles all the time, but He wants to respect the autonomy of nature.
EF: This comes close to Richard Swinburne's account of miracles.
6/

elisafreschi.bsky.social
elisa freschi @elisafreschi.bsky.social · 1d
God creates each soul individually. In sacramental theology, for the time of the sacraments, the priest is the instrument of God's power. But this does not seem to be the case in human generation.
5/

elisafreschi.bsky.social
elisa freschi @elisafreschi.bsky.social · 1d
God guides the universe to God's ends. Thomas presents 4 ways of God's acting providentially.
Most scholars place miracles within natural philosophy, whereas Thomas puts them in the discussion about natural providence (all my notes, as usual the speaker is much better!)
4/

elisafreschi.bsky.social
elisa freschi @elisafreschi.bsky.social · 1d
Acc. to IS, "Special divine action or special providence vs general divine action or special providence" are terms that came up at a later time to distinguish general cases and God's action here and now when They have specific goals in mind.

3/

elisafreschi.bsky.social
elisa freschi @elisafreschi.bsky.social · 1d
At times the lecture seems to come very close to a form of occasionalism. In the whole creature there is an "obedential potency" (an unlimited passive potency) which is the counterpart of the unlimited active potency of God. God can thus perform miracles by actualising this potency.
2/

elisafreschi.bsky.social
elisa freschi @elisafreschi.bsky.social · 1d
Currently listening to a talk by Ignacio Silva on "Divine Action:
Thomas Aquinas on How God Acts in the World". So far, the main thesis is: God's intervention needs to be restricted to where causality is not deterministic, as in quantum mechanics.
1/

elisafreschi.bsky.social
elisa freschi @elisafreschi.bsky.social · 1d
Thanks, I had no idea (but this is probably because I never visited a doctor in the US).

elisafreschi.bsky.social
elisa freschi @elisafreschi.bsky.social · 2d
#AnimalMinds #OtherMinds
joshmilburn.bsky.social Josh Milburn @joshmilburn.bsky.social · 2d
Conference announcement/CFP:

Social Ties in Animal Politics: Mutuality Beyond Humanity
University of Sheffield
8-9 September 2026

This is the latest installment in the long-running Animal Politics series. Abstracts due 12 June. Spread the word!
Social Ties in Animal Politics: Mutuality Beyond Humanity
Social and political relationships constitute the foundation of our shared communities. Yet, scholars working in the field of animal politics have not had these social ties as their primary focus. The...
philevents.org

elisafreschi.bsky.social
elisa freschi @elisafreschi.bsky.social · 2d
Compulsory pregnancy test?

elisafreschi.bsky.social
elisa freschi @elisafreschi.bsky.social · 2d
In universities, some colleagues use AI for emails etc. (time saved), but we all spend much more time rethinking assignments, checking for use of AI, having in-person invigilators etc. (tons of time lost)
carlquintanilla.bsky.social Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 2d
HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW: “.. In our in-progress research, we discovered that AI tools didn’t reduce work, they consistently intensified it.”

hbr.org/2026/02/ai-d...

Reposted by Gavin A. Schmidt, Lesley A. Hall, Daniel S. Goldberg , and 7 more

carlquintanilla.bsky.social
Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 2d
HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW: “.. In our in-progress research, we discovered that AI tools didn’t reduce work, they consistently intensified it.”

hbr.org/2026/02/ai-d...

Reposted by Elisa Freschi

joshmilburn.bsky.social
Josh Milburn @joshmilburn.bsky.social · 2d
Conference announcement/CFP:

Social Ties in Animal Politics: Mutuality Beyond Humanity
University of Sheffield
8-9 September 2026

This is the latest installment in the long-running Animal Politics series. Abstracts due 12 June. Spread the word!
Social Ties in Animal Politics: Mutuality Beyond Humanity
Social and political relationships constitute the foundation of our shared communities. Yet, scholars working in the field of animal politics have not had these social ties as their primary focus. The...
philevents.org

elisafreschi.bsky.social
elisa freschi @elisafreschi.bsky.social · 2d
Honest Q, but are you posting it because you agree with it? If so, why? (I found it philosophically weak, but am happy to discuss)

elisafreschi.bsky.social
elisa freschi @elisafreschi.bsky.social · 3d
Back to hypergamy: chastity to the women to whom you are connected is a status symbol, the higher status women would have less sexual partners. So, it's easier that chastity becomes a status symbol in a hypergamous society.
5/

elisafreschi.bsky.social
elisa freschi @elisafreschi.bsky.social · 3d
3. On niyoga, DB also notices a tension between the duty to chastity and the duty to have sons. (Unfortunately, no author explicitly acknowledges it as such)

elisafreschi.bsky.social
elisa freschi @elisafreschi.bsky.social · 3d
2. DB notices an increase in restrictions in widows' behaviour, probably bc women's chastity was a form of status symbol. However, widows' larger access to inheritance over time (Vijñāneśvara—>) runs against this

elisafreschi.bsky.social
elisa freschi @elisafreschi.bsky.social · 3d
1. Why was the levirate (niyoga) abolished? DB suggests that this might have to do with hypergamy (I am not sure I understand why)
2/

elisafreschi.bsky.social
elisa freschi @elisafreschi.bsky.social · 3d
Listening to an amazing talk by David Brick (Michigan) on the status of widows in Dharmaśāstra (Sanskrit jurisprudence), to which he dedicated a recent book. Widows are discussed in four contexts (widow-remarriage and niyoga, inheritance, satī, asceticism).
1/

Reposted by Elisa Freschi, Jeroen Van Bouwel

pasliwa.bsky.social
Paulina Sliwa @pasliwa.bsky.social · 3d
The University of Vienna is advertising a number of fully funded PhD positions in the Humanities (4 years), including in Philosophy. If you are interested or know any philosophy MA student who would be interested, please tell them to get in touch! careers.univie.ac.at/en/praedoc/p...
careers.univie.ac.at

elisafreschi.bsky.social
elisa freschi @elisafreschi.bsky.social · 3d
#PhilosophyJobs
lisabortolotti.com Lisa Bortolotti @lisabortolotti.com · 3d
Come and work with us on project EPIC at @unibirmingham.bsky.social. We are looking for a #Philosophy postdoc with an interest in the area at the intersection of philosophy, psychology, and mental health. edzz.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid... #philsky #jobs #epistemicinjustice
EPIC logo

Reposted by Laura Salisbury, Elisa Freschi

lisabortolotti.com
Lisa Bortolotti @lisabortolotti.com · 3d
Come and work with us on project EPIC at @unibirmingham.bsky.social. We are looking for a #Philosophy postdoc with an interest in the area at the intersection of philosophy, psychology, and mental health. edzz.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid... #philsky #jobs #epistemicinjustice
EPIC logo