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Eric Schwitzgebel @eschwitz.bsky.social · 19h

Why Philosophy? has published a brief interview of me on the nature and practice of philosophy

celineleboeuf.substack.com/p/eric-schwi...

Eric Schwitzgebel

In living life thoughtfully, we are always already practicing philosophy.

celineleboeuf.substack.com

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Eric Schwitzgebel @eschwitz.bsky.social · 5d

schwitzsplinters.blogspot.com/2025/10/earl...

Early Career Hugo Nominations -- Yes, They Definitely Happen

schwitzsplinters.blogspot.com

Eric Schwitzgebel @eschwitz.bsky.social · 5d

Early Career Hugo Nominations -- Yes, They Definitely Happen
a quantitative analysis [link in thread]
Almost half of Hugo nominations go to early-career authors: 51/112 (46%)

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Eric Schwitzgebel @eschwitz.bsky.social · 8d

And that, it turns out, is why John Searle didn't want to sit in the same room with Alison Gopnik. 11/11

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Eric Schwitzgebel @eschwitz.bsky.social · 8d

in the Dennes Room and there was this obviously best chair and no one was sitting in it. I thought, that's weird, so I just sat in it. And then John came in and said something about his back. I said, John, if your back starts hurting, just let me know."
10/11

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Eric Schwitzgebel @eschwitz.bsky.social · 8d

(Indeed, he did have back troubles.)
Barry relented. "Well, if it's about your back...." He relocated to one of the bench couches. Searle settled into the Searle Chair. Order restored!
Later I shared this story with Alison. She said, "Oh, that's very interesting! One time I was at this meeting 9/11

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Eric Schwitzgebel @eschwitz.bsky.social · 8d

Kim, Searle arrived and practically sat on Barry, then mumbled something grumpy.
Barry, feigning innocence, said "Well, no one was sitting here."
Searle replied that he needed that chair because of his back -- something like "If my back starts hurting too much, I guess I'll just leave." 8/11

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Eric Schwitzgebel @eschwitz.bsky.social · 8d

Searle attended a meeting, that's where he sat. Even if he arrived late, no one dared claim it.
My girlfriend Kim, briefly the graduate student representative at faculty meetings, once saw Barry Stroud make a play for the Searle Chair. Searle was late, so Barry sat in the chair. According to 7/11

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Eric Schwitzgebel @eschwitz.bsky.social · 8d

smaller seats.
One armchair sat awkwardly near the front, angled partly away from the chalkboard. The other occupied the corner by the window, with a commanding view of the room. This corner armchair was plainly the best seat in the house. Everyone called it the Searle Chair, because whenever 6/11

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Eric Schwitzgebel @eschwitz.bsky.social · 8d

person leading the meeting. (I seem to remember it as a little folding chair with a card table, but it might not have been quite as informal as that.) Two elegant but uncomfortable antique couches lined the walls, and the remaining wall featured two large cozy armchairs, separated by a few 5/11

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Eric Schwitzgebel @eschwitz.bsky.social · 8d

To understand this specific meaning, you need to know about the Searle Chair. At the time, the main seminar and meeting room in the Philosophy Department -- the Dennes Room -- had a peculiar and inconvenient layout. There was no seminar table. Up front by the chalkboard was a chair for the 4/11

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Eric Schwitzgebel @eschwitz.bsky.social · 8d

sit in the same room with her."
I thought, wow, he must really hate Alison! But Berkeley dissertations didn't require an oral defense, so indeed he wouldn't have to sit in the same room with her. I took his answer as a yes. Only later did I realize that his comment had a very specific meaning. 3/11

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Eric Schwitzgebel @eschwitz.bsky.social · 8d

toward philosophy of mind, and Martin graciously suggested that if John Searle was willing to join, I might consider swapping him in.
So I approached Searle, mentioning that Lisa and Alison were the other members. He said, "Alison Gopnik?! Well, I guess it's okay, as long as I don't have to 2/11

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Eric Schwitzgebel @eschwitz.bsky.social · 8d

The Searle Chair

John Searle died a couple weeks ago. Since people are sharing stories, I'll share one of my own.
As a philosopher of science studying developmental psychology, my dissertation committee initially consisted of Elisabeth Lloyd, Martin Jones, and Alison Gopnik. The topic led me 1/11

The Dennes Room as it looks now, with John Searle's photo in the corner that used to house the Searle Chair.

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Eric Schwitzgebel @eschwitz.bsky.social · 11d

Interesting. We assumed we had effectively communicated that we had asked the questions of the then-living 2022 Dan and got those replies -- but maybe that wasn't clear!

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Eric Schwitzgebel @eschwitz.bsky.social · 11d

schwitzsplinters.blogspot.com/2025/09/digi...

DigiDan's "Mistake": Fidelity vs Novelty in Digital Replicas

schwitzsplinters.blogspot.com

Eric Schwitzgebel @eschwitz.bsky.social · 11d

Today's blog post (link in comments):
DigiDan's "Mistake": Fidelity vs Novelty in Digital Replicas

Philosopher Dan Dennett's digital replica was sometimes arguably truer to the overall gist of his corpus than Dennett himself was at the end of his life.

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Eric Schwitzgebel @eschwitz.bsky.social · 19d

schwitzsplinters.blogspot.com/2025/09/the-...

The Social Semi-Solution to the Question of AI Consciousness

schwitzsplinters.blogspot.com

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Eric Schwitzgebel @eschwitz.bsky.social · 19d

Today's blog post: The Social Semi-Solution to the Problem of AI consciousness

Tenuous consciousness science will bend to support socially motivated reasoning about the consciousness, or not, of AI systems. We will come to think we know, even if we don't know.

Link in comments

Still from Ex Machina; source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/23925401@N06/20167701293

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Eric Schwitzgebel @eschwitz.bsky.social · 20d

First draft of a new book finished! AI and Consciousness, for Cambridge. Not yet in circulating shape — maybe in a couple of weeks.

🎉

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Eric Schwitzgebel @eschwitz.bsky.social · 27d

It’s definitely hard to disentangle men attriting out at higher rates from women attriting at lower rates. Even absolute numbers wouldn’t reveal this, unless we also had numbers for entering the major or PhD program.

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Eric Schwitzgebel @eschwitz.bsky.social · 28d

Yes -- and thanks for reminding me about that post!

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Eric Schwitzgebel @eschwitz.bsky.social · 28d

schwitzsplinters.blogspot.com/2025/09/wome...

schwitzsplinters.blogspot.com

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Eric Schwitzgebel @eschwitz.bsky.social · 28d

Women earned 37% of U.S. philosophy doctorates in 2024, up from 28% ten years ago.

Bachelor's degrees show a similar pattern. If it were a pipeline effect, the increase in doctorates should be several years later than the increase in BAs, but it's not. So why explains it?

link in comments

[chart showing an increase from about 17% in the 1970s, to about 27% in the 1980s, 1990s, and 2010s, rising to 37% in 2024; click to enlarge and clarify]

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Eric Schwitzgebel @eschwitz.bsky.social · Sep 5

Today's blog post: Are Weird Aliens Conscious? Three Arguments (Two of Which Fail)

1. Behavioral sophistication is best explained by consciousness.
2. The functional equivalent of a human could be made from a different substrate.
3. Copernican mediocrity of neurons.

Are Weird Aliens Conscious? Three Arguments (Two of Which Fail)

schwitzsplinters.blogspot.com

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