Emily Bender has claimed that large language models (LLMs) are “stochastic parrots” in that they repeat their training data with statistical variations rather than use language like humans do. LLMs are like parrots in that neither produce meaningful … Read the rest
Tag: Philosophy
How Wittgenstein’s Philosophy of Language Complicates Protestant Salvation
One of the members of a Lutheran Bible study group I attend recently said some unkind words about Catholics. That encouraged me to think up a theology that would allow for the salvation of Catholics while implying the damnation of … Read the rest
Speculative Fiction and Knowledge
This is part of a series of posts about the value of speculative fiction in understanding religion.
Generally, speculative fiction is a poor place to learn about the real world. In other words, there are reasons to doubt the cognitive … Read the rest
Freedom is Slavery to One’s Good Sense
The formula “Freedom is Slavery” seems Orwellian but a version of it is true. Freedom is not slavery to a regime, government bureaucrats, a master race, one’s work, or another person, but to good sense, to rationality. Why is this? … Read the rest
I Am Beginning to Believe That Morality is Bunk
Before I discuss why the Argument from Moral Knowledge has pushed me in the direction of moral non-realism—the view that there are no objective more facts but only preferences, folkways, and the like—I want to discuss one of a family … Read the rest
Gettier Cases and Moral Knowledge
I’ve said that probabilistic arguments for God don’t do much to convince a committed atheist. But the Argument from Moral Knowledge can be reformulated so that it is not merely probabilistic. In other words, the standard atheist picture (humans … Read the rest
A Compelling Argument for God
I’ve already discussed how unconvincing I find William Lane Craig’s Moral Argument for God, so it is interesting that there is a cousin to this argument that I find compelling, the Argument from Moral Knowledge:
- We have knowledge
A Very Bad Argument for God
Some arguments for theism seem to either rest on a metaphysical confusion, like the Ontological Argument. Others might furnish evidence for God, such as the Cosmological Argument and the Argument From Design. But these arguments rarely convince non-theists, … Read the rest
Examples of Backwards Causation
We tend to believe that all causation is forwards; a cause must temporally precede its effect. But there are some delightful examples of at least possible backwards causation. Even if all they do is demonstrate the ridiculousness of backwards causation, … Read the rest
The Difficulty of Giving
In Theravada Buddhism, the Bodhisattva (the Buddha pre-enlightenment) spent 540 lives cultivating the ten perfections so that he could at last be enlightened as Siddhartha. The most difficult to master is generosity. The Bodhisattva began by giving his wealth. Then … Read the rest