Jamesian Philosophy Refreshed

 There is a new book out about the Greek philosopher Parmenides, the central figure of the Eleatic school. Well, it is listed as a 2025 publication.  I, for one, will call that "new" given the antiquity of the subject matter.  It is an anthology titled simply, Parmenides: New Perspectives , edited by A.G. Long and Barbara M. Sattler. The Eleatics may have made their greatest impact on subsequent philosophy through Parmenides' disciple Zeno. The simplistic view (my view) is that Parmenides took a position that seemed, simply, nuts. There is no change, no motion, and no division in the word, there is only Being.     Zeno provided arguments for that position that made it seem less nutso, by making the common sensical world of change, gaps, and differences itself seem oddly paradoxical. That conventional understanding makes Zeno seem the more interesting figure in that dyad.  But the Long/Sattler book offers "new perspectives". One of them is that Parmenid...

People are looking for "tells".  What is a quick way to tell when I am reading AI slop, rather than something some real human has composed?  One of the better tells is the frequent use of the adverb "quietly" in metaphorical contexts. LLMs have received a level of publicity out of proportion to their role within the AI world (see the above Venn diagram) in part because they impact and indeed may threaten the livelihood of people like me. So we, because loquacious folk, talk about it. LLMs, large language models, have quietly developed the tick of using the word "quietly" a lot. You may recently have read about how a certain individual has "quietly" become important in deliberations of Congress, or how Stephen King has "quietly" amassed some large number of acreage of Maine real estate, or some whatever. "Quietly" does a lot of work for these models. It sounds as if it is saying something about something conspiratorial or trick...

Prelude: for those who were paying close attention to my haiku last week: yes, I did have the procedure done and, yes, things turned out well.  There is nothing nasty growing inside my butt. Prelude complete.  Anyway: I don't want to say much here about the ROYAL CARRIBEAN case issued by the US Supreme Court last week, in part because I may have something to say about it two months from now, as part of my annual round-up of  all things SCOTUS.  I'll only for today note that the case has Justice Thomas writing for the court, as one of an eight-member majority thereof, with Justice Kagan the sole standout.    And my only point is to ask a question. Does anyone know of another decision within the last couple of years that came down just that way?  In many politically sensitive cases, one gets a 6-3 lineup.  Sometimes the split consists of appointees of Presidents of the Republican Party versus those of Presidents of the Democratic Party, as in LOUISI...

Next time I do this  Really short poem thing for you, I'll use limericks. 

 Fifty five years now Since Gaye asked "what's goin' on". We still can't answer. 

One of the reasons  I must keep these posts short is: I've got shit to do.