elisa freschi

citing correctly is not just a formal problem, it's an epistemological issue.

AI is inventing academic articles – and scholars are citi... From fake footnotes to phantom studies, AI-generated citations are slipping into real academic publishing. Scholars and publishers fear this ‘scholarly slop’ is polluting truth and science

If you can't trust a citation, what can you trust? AI chatbots are inventing academic sources – and some scholars are citing them. My latest on "scholarly slop" for @theobserveruk.bsky.social

w/ thanks to @benpatrickwill.bsky.social & everyone who spoke to me
observer.co.uk/news/science...

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Perhaps also relevant: bsky.app/profile/jere...

will there be a recording or live version of it?

AI is strongly encouraged by the university I work for and whenever I tried to suggest discussing common limits to its use those invitations have not been followed up. Some colleagues have moved to in-class assignments, others are fully on board w AI.

Just for the records: Not my experience at all.

Wow. I had no idea.

Upcoming online talk about women philosophers in the middle ages:

www.festival.cam.ac.uk/events/did-w...

#philsky

If you have ideas to share, please do so!

I’m at a day long workshop on animal ethics at the University of Tartu, Estonia. Really exciting to see people from all over the world, and from different areas of philosophy, none of whom I’ve met before.

OK, forget. Probably not worth repeating.

What's the reasoning behind this conclusion?

It is tragic.
I am just not sure about the "limited news coverage". It is No. 1 on Bsky, ahead of M. Khamenei, and it is the first time I see a piece of non-US local news in this position. (Usually bsky seems very US-centric to me).

Yes! I agree that if you talk to someone or have repeated interactions, then a judgement is so much easier. I still would like to find a way to create a reliable long- and short-list of applicants.

Thanks! Just to be sure I am following: Is there anything you would use as a quick litmus test of unwillingness to put hard work?

I reported the dialogue without claiming that I'm right. To me, sloppiness is a sign of not wanting/not being able to put hard work into what one does and I don't think you'll ever become a good scholar if you don't put hard work in it. Pure "philosophical genius", even if it exists, is not enough

I had an interesting discussion with a colleague. Short form thereof:
Me: sloppy bibliography or logical formulations (in a student's WS) are a red flag.
Them: They are not.
Me: Suppose they become your grad student, then you'll have to fix typos etc.
Them: I just wouldn't. It's irrelevant.

People who are able to translate complex Sanskrit texts should continue doing it as much as possible, because it is a general priority and because confronting great thinkers refines our philosophical skills.

I also get the desire for efficiency. I have more ideas than I will ever be able to publish and I keep thinking of new ones. But, again, LLMs don't solve that problem. They produce Baudrillardian simulacrums of scholarship - they have the trappings of academic writing without any of the substance.

If you feel the need to write articles using AI, please find another job. Your students and colleagues deserve a lot better.

I think that everything adding complexity helps.

(I discussed this topic with several colleagues over the years, but most recently with Parimal Patil, to whom gratitude is always appropriate)

Is there a hierarchy among them? Is there a dependency among clusters of virtues?…
9/9

For instance, when Rāmānuja and Veṅkaṭanātha list virtues, what classification do they have in mind? Are these virtues that are about interaction in society (like generosity) or virtues that could be seen also in isolation (like serenity)?
8/

This is not to say that Sanskrit philosophy is less good than Greek or European philosophy, unless one would be willing to also say that European philosophy is less worthy because it does not discuss philosophy of ritual.
This being said, some interesting reflections can nonetheless be done.
7/

Short, one would need to start with the fundamental premiss that the comparison will be asymmetric because of the reasons mentioned above.
6/

An example I am currently working on is Rāmānuja's Śaraṇāgatigadya with his commentary by Veṅkaṭanātha. Another interesting case are texts that deal with Dharmaśāstra-related topics, such as Kumārila's discussion of the behaviour of good people (sadācāra).
5/

Hence, any comparison will need to focus on a well-developed framework against one which is only implicitly hinted at, mostly in texts that are not primarily philosophical, e.g., in ones dealing with religious topics.
4/

They worked on theory of motivation, on deontics etc., which are relevant for ethics, but not on ethics directly.
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