Kenneth Novis

Two weeks until Trump claims the Iran war would never have happened if he’d been president.

Commands around the world, including U.S. Central Command in the Middle East, use Anthropic’s Claude AI tool, people familiar with the matter confirmed. Centcom declined to comment about specific systems being used in its ongoing operation against Iran. The command uses the tool for intelligence assessments, target identification and simulating battle scenarios even as tension between the company and Pentagon ratcheted up, the people said, highlighting how embedded the AI tools are in military operations.

The WSJ is reporting that AI, specifically Claude, was used in targeting for the attacks by the Epstein Empire.

That would mean the use of AI led directly to the massacre of 115 schoolchildren and 20 volleyball players.

www.wsj.com/livecoverage...

I have a hunch that it's from Peter Millican somewhere, contrasting 17th century rationalism with the more casual appeals to reason we see being made by Hume

I remember reading something about how the concept of 'reason' changed over the Enlightenment, from mathematical, deductive reason to something discursive and rhetorical. Does anyone here have an inkling about where that claim is from? I've frustratingly forgotten.

A girls' elementary school. Dozens dead. Perhaps hundreds. Sitting with the profound evil and the mindfck and the knowledge that this war may well have been declared to distract us from the Epstein files and the conspicuously missing evidence that the president of this nation raped 13 year-old girls

A conversation I just overheard in central Oxford, about the US and Israel bombing Iran:
“Well, my father used to tell me that the Arabs are the most violent people he’d ever met.”

Italian thought is a major field within continental philosophy. But what are the latest developments since its popularity peak in the 2000s?

An 'Introduction to Contemporary Italian Thought' is available now!

Order now: https://bit.ly/4qwDVJv
Preview: https://bit.ly/3LXeaD7

Very pleased to receive my copy of the @bloomsburybooksuk.bsky.social
Handbook of Wittgensteinian Feminism, for which I co-wrote a chapter with the wonderful Daniele Moyal-Sharrock.

The book is an excellent addition to any library👇

www.bloomsbury.com/uk/bloomsbur...

“One should let the reader guess at least half of what one means and one should not fear that he will not understand; the reader’s malignity goes often far beyond us, and we must count on it, that is the safest way.” - Pierre Bayle

I've gotten approval from my supervisors for my latest dissertation chapter, so I can now say that I'm done with Spinoza's theory of the affects (for now). What I have left to do are the scary parts of the dissertation: Spinoza on virtue, and Bayle on the passions.

We're excited to announce the publication of Board Member Cathy Mason's new book: "Iris Murdoch's Moral Philosophy: Reframing the True, the Real, and the Good"

global.oup.com/academic/pro...

Speaking from the position of the institution I'm at, I really suspect that there are people here who are doing philosophy at the University of Oxford so that they can be a person Who Has A Philosophy Degree From Oxford

Fondly remembering a philosophy induction where the program director openly admitted that their system was designed to offer many freedoms, but could be abused to get a degree with little effort. "But why would you do that? Having this degree won't get you anywhere, the content is the entire point"

I kinda feel like this is one of those rare places where Baudrillard is actually somewhat helpful? The point isn't to get a philosophy degree, but to become a person with a philosophy degree, and any (misguided, probably incorrect) glory you think others will offer you for that.

I've not seen this book before, but it looks great - congrats comrade!

Many thanks to the good folks at Waterstones who are offering my Forgiveness book at 25% off (till Friday) - use code FEB26 when ordering.

www.waterstones.com/book/revolut...

People are getting paid for this?? I thought we had to do it for free

I picked up a copy of Clara Mattei's new book at an event last night. It's a strong read so far!

At least half of it comes down to having a cool-sounding name

'Interpellate' could theoretically do the same job, but it's a lot harder to work into ordinary conversation

I've found that a good way of tricking people into engaging with Marxism is to start throwing around the word 'aleatory.' Inevitably, they'll look it up, and then they'll end up reading Althusser.

Saw this in the new Verso catalogue, hopefully it'll serve as a corrective for the Losurdo-inspired dreck that seems to have been dominating the discussions of Nietzsche among the (too online) left since last year

My co-authored article with Jonathan Egid on the controversy over the authorship of the Ḥatäta Zärʾa Yaʿǝqob – a brilliant philosophical autobiography set in seventeenth-century Ethiopia – is finally out (advanced access) in the Journal of the History of Ideas (@jhideas.bsky.social)! 🧵
#philsky

Georgie Newson · Artificial reason (2026)

I reviewed Pete Wolfendale’s new book, ‘The Revenge of Reason’, for @radical-philosophy.bsky.social

www.radicalphilosophy.com/reviews/arti...

Just so we're clear, this is a canonical admission that Danish Marxism is diegetically the dark side?

I'm somewhere on the outskirts of the academic philosophy community

I'm currently teaching Nietzsche's 'On the Genealogy of Morality,' and one thing which stands out to me whenever I'm reading him is how great some of his lines would be as metal song titles (like 'the agony of a tortured heart').

Today would have been Simone Weil's 117th birthday. I have been thinking a lot about her essay 'God's Love and Affliction.' A few years ago I also wrote a short biography of her for the UK Simone Weil Research Network @simoneweiluk.bsky.social : 19006198.wixsite.com/simone-weil-....

I've been thinking about this line from Pascal's Pensées lately. It does feel like a lot of life is simply finding things to avoid having to think about life, how empty and meaningless it can feel, or how hopeless it can be.