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  1. Mark's avatar

    I’d like to pose a question. Let’s be pessimistic for the moment, and assume AI *does* destroy the university, at…

  2. A in the UK's avatar
  3. Jonathan Turner's avatar

    I agree with all of this. The threat is really that stark. The only solution is indeed in-class essay exams,…

  4. Craig Duncan's avatar
  5. Ludovic's avatar

    My big problem with LLMs at the present time, apart from being potentially the epitome of Foucault’s panopticon & Big…

  6. A in the UK's avatar

    I’m also at a British university (in a law school) and my sentiments largely align with the author’s. I see…

  7. André Hampshire's avatar

    If one is genuinely uninterested in engaging with non-human interlocutors, it is unclear why one continues to do so—especially while…

Indexicals, Children, and Kant

I was corresponding with a distinguished philosopher about the shared affection of our small children for indexicals and possessive pronouns (such as “me” and “mine”). My anecdote about my oldest, when he was 2:

Father: “I’m me, you’re you.”

Son: “No, I’m me, and you’re you.”

Father: No, I”m me, you’re you.”

Son: “No, no, no, I’m me, and you’re you.”

etc.

Debates about “me” and “you,” this philosopher noted, soon give way to reflections on “me” and what’s “mine.” This philosopher observed: “Kant got it all wrong about the basic categories of conscious experience. Concepts of possession beat those of causality and substance any day.” Indeed!

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