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David Chapman Profile picture
@Meaningness
Sep 29, 2020 • 4 tweets • 1 min read • Read on X
When I first learned about the Filioque—the supposed “controversy” about whether the Holy Ghost “proceeds” from only the Father or the Father AND the Son—which supposedly split Eastern and Western Christianity—I was incredulous for about thirteen seconds…
And then I thought “oh, right, presumably this is just a pretext for alpha monkeys fighting for money, sex, and power,” and I looked it up, and of course I was right.

The relevant Wikipedia articles are 50,000 words of ferocious edit warring….
If you think you care passionately about some principle, consider the possibility that you are a dupe enlisted as a foot soldier in an army controlled by men who have no ideology and are motivated by mundane self-interest.
Principles are important (systematic ethics are better than communal ethics).

Taking principles as sacred and absolute blinds you to messy reality and inflames unresolvable holy wars (meta-systematic ethics are better than systematic). vividness.live/2015/10/12/dev…

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More from @Meaningness

David Chapman Profile picture
Aug 18, 2023
"People tell you everything you need to know about them in the first minute after you meet them"

On graduating, my sometime-collaborator Phil Agre went to interview for a faculty job at Yale, where Roger Schank was the senior AI guy. Phil came back somewhat shaken... (1/n)Image
Schank was a very weird dude. Phil was also a very weird dude.

In fact, everyone of significance in AI at that time was stupid, crazy, or evil.

Everyone of significance in AI now is also stupid, crazy, or evil. This is important; try not to forget it over the next few years.
Schank opened the interview with "why are you so hostile?"

Phil was not sure how to answer that, sputtered a bit, and asked why Schank would ask.

The conversation piled on layers of meta at a dizzying rate.
Read 8 tweets
David Chapman Profile picture
Jul 2, 2023
Huh! Just figured something out (I think). It was bugging me that the silly “pandita hat” worn by Buddhist academics (pandita=pundit) reminded me of something…
It’s the “Phrygian cap” worn throughout the Iranian world in ancient times…
Is it historically plausible that the pandita hat is a variant of the Phrygian cap? Yes it is! The Sakas, an Iranian people, controlled Gandhara and Taxila, which were the centers of Buddhist academia when Buddhist academia was just getting started (circa 100 BC).
Read 6 tweets
David Chapman Profile picture
Jun 15, 2023
An academic rant: startling cluelessness where I'd expected intelligent error...

I'm trying to understand how pomo replaced the classical undergraduate humanities curriculum, and how how people thought about it at the time, in preparation for writing about the consequences.… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
@StephenPiment BTW I'm reading Douthat's Privilege, about his time at Harvard, which is relevant and fun. I recommend it! twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
Replies have been helpful, thank you!

My interest here is somewhat unusual. I understand pomo, and the opposition to it. What I don't know is why decision makers didn't understand replacing the undergrad humanities curriculum would be a disaster.
Read 8 tweets
David Chapman Profile picture
Mar 29, 2023
⌚️ I did not anticipate a future in which you lie to your watch about meeting your hydration goal for the day so it doesn't give you a hard time the next morning.
⌚️ When I was a kid, watches were all radioactive. The hands were coated in radium so you could see the time in the dark by the radioactive glow. Miniaturizing either a battery or an incandescent bulb into a watch was completely technologically impossible.
⌚️ The world with radioactive watches seems even more alien than the world with watches you have to lie to. It might as well be Ancient Rome, although I lived in it.
Read 5 tweets
David Chapman Profile picture
Mar 25, 2023
Incisive thinking about AI interaction, drawing on Brian Smith's work and reminiscent of the ethnomethodological stance, from @jessi_cata
Incisive thinking about transness, also from @jessi_cata. "Trans" is a iron maiden category constructed by cis authorities which, for many people trying to fit into it, is grossly false to facts and harmful, painful, sometimes fatal. unstableontology.com/2023/02/07/am-…
On May 7th, @_awbery_ and I will participate in an Evolving Ground community discussion of gender, including trans/enby, from a Vajrayana Buddhist perspective. This is something we've planned for ~15 years but never quite gotten to before!
Read 4 tweets
David Chapman Profile picture
Mar 13, 2023
An extraordinary essay on ethics by @jkcarlsmith, highly recommended for those willing to work through its difficulty.

What happens when you realize moral philosophy doesn't and can't work, but saying "whatever, then, I guess" is also utterly inadequate? joecarlsmith.com/2023/02/17/see…
"Seeing more whole" is difficult both textually and conceptually. I had to read it three times. It's probably also necessary to have read a precursor essay, which is less exciting but lays out distinctions the later one relies on: joecarlsmith.com/2023/02/16/why…
What follows are some reactions to "Seeing more whole." These should not be taken as a reliable summary; I may misunderstand it, and the ways I think about ethics have different sources and vocabulary, although perhaps convergent implications. I will talk in my terms, not his.
Read 29 tweets

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