The hottest Philosophy of Mind Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
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Notes of many things

Philosophy bear • 114 implied HN points • 11 Mar 26
đź“– Philosophy Philosophy of Mind
  1. Many people form quick, lasting judgments about others and then defend those first impressions forever, and that habit of instant categorizing gives people a false sense of power and can warp institutions that need fair judgment.
  2. Mental illness often explains or partly explains harmful actions, which makes blaming people complex, and treating disorders like OCD is delicate because you must both teach tolerance for uncertainty and correct exaggerated fear estimates.
  3. Luxury consumption rarely brings deep, lasting happiness and can waste time and money that would buy richer social experiences, and making traits like beauty or sex fully mutable would, for many, remove a central source of meaning in life.

First Hand Data

David Friedman’s Substack • 368 implied HN points • 08 Dec 25
đź“– Philosophy Philosophy of Mind
  1. Firsthand experience can change your beliefs because much accepted knowledge is passed secondhand or can be wrong or dishonest, so stay skeptical of orthodoxies.
  2. Don’t assume experts or enforcers will behave as theory says; their incentives shape their actions, so judge institutions by how people actually act.
  3. Try new activities to learn your real strengths and weaknesses, and remember that as you age you may shift from inventing solutions to relying on past experience, so use fluid thinking for novel problems.

Bayesian Updates Require Ego Death

apxhard • 76 implied HN points • 31 Jan 26
đź“– Philosophy Philosophy of Mind
  1. Acceptance is like a Bayesian update: when you revise your model to fit reality you only change once, but rejecting evidence is like holding a beach ball underwater and costs constant effort and suffering.
  2. Suffering often comes from an internal split where your conscious story denies what your body and emotions already know. Bringing all parts of you into the same reality restores coherence and drops the tension.
  3. Real updates feel like a small death of your old self because letting go of fixed self-images is painful, but choosing to accept experience voluntarily (through practices like meditation or voluntary discomfort) prevents the extra suffering caused by resistance.

On gentleness

The Stoic Journal • 60 implied HN points • 25 Jan 26
đź“– Philosophy Philosophy of Mind
  1. Announcing your gentleness makes it performative and signals a subtle superiority.
  2. Real gentleness is effortless and shows naturally in your voice and eyes; it comes from being the kind of person who doesn’t have to try.
  3. To be genuinely gentle, change what you believe about others — assume they’re doing their best and that mistakes come from limited perspective, not malice.

A Conversation Between A Philosopher and an AI Researcher

Teaching computers how to talk • 115 implied HN points • 19 Nov 25
đź“– Philosophy Philosophy of Mind
  1. AI is not just a library of knowledge; it does more than store information. It can analyze, create, and have conversations, making it unique compared to traditional libraries.
  2. Cultural and social technologies, like AI, reflect human beliefs and the ability to pass information across generations. This shapes how society evolves, just like the printing press and the internet did.
  3. While AI can produce novel ideas, it's more about reading patterns from the information it has seen before. If it creates something new, it's similar to a random mix of ideas rather than true creativity.
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The view from above

The Stoic Journal • 15 implied HN points • 26 Jan 26
đź“– Philosophy Philosophy of Mind
  1. Imagining a 'view from above'—zooming out until your problems look tiny—makes urgent feelings fade.
  2. This perspective doesn't fix the situation, but it helps you right-size problems and stay calmer and clearer.
  3. You are both a small speck in the world and a mind that can hold the whole picture, and remembering that duality lets you change how you feel even when things stay the same.

Turing Coda: From The AI Mailbag

Technohumanism • 19 implied HN points • 06 Aug 24
đź•ą Technology Philosophy of Mind
  1. The term 'artificial intelligence' was created as a marketing concept and doesn’t fully capture the complexities of human consciousness. Imitation isn't the same as true intelligence or awareness.
  2. Desire and emotions are central to human thinking, which machines try to replicate but can't truly understand. It's not enough for a machine to just perform tasks; it must have human-like motivations and feelings.
  3. The debate on whether humans are just machines reveals a longing for certainty in our understanding of consciousness. People act with free will, which challenges the idea that we are purely mechanical beings.

Random bits of philosophy

Philosophy bear • 50 implied HN points • 20 Nov 25
đź“– Philosophy Philosophy of Mind
  1. Today, many people view exploitation as worse than disobedience, reflecting a shift in values compared to the past. We are more horrified by the abuse of power than by the breaking of traditional rules.
  2. When judging past actions, it's often argued that people from history should be seen in their own context. However, it's important to recognize that some actions, like slavery, were wrong regardless of the era.
  3. Intuitions guide our understanding of moral and philosophical concepts but may not always point to objective truths. They often reflect our own principles instead of revealing universal truths.

"Mary's Room" Is Not a Case Against Physicalism (But Physicalism Still Fails)

Ethics Under Construction • 15 implied HN points • 28 Dec 25
đź“– Philosophy Philosophy of Mind
  1. The knowledge argument shows you can know all the physical facts and still not know what an experience is like, so there is an epistemic gap between description and lived experience.
  2. Experiencing something (like red or sweetness) is itself a fact about that property, not an extra mysterious add-on, so leaving out experience misunderstands what those properties are.
  3. Physicalism can reply that the epistemic gap is just a different mode of presentation, but that misses the deeper point that subjective facts are immediate and foundational, so physical explanations are grounded in, rather than fully exhaustive of, experience.

Finite Minds

Fake Noûs • 188 implied HN points • 04 Jan 25
đź“– Philosophy Philosophy of Mind
  1. Infinitism in beliefs means you could have an endless chain of reasons for thinking something is true. However, since our minds are limited, it's hard to have a true infinite number of reasons.
  2. Beliefs must be based on more than just potential ideas or past thoughts; they need to be actively supported by real experiences or evidence to count as justified.
  3. Even when considering complex ideas like math or colors, our ability to truly grasp or hold onto those beliefs is still bound by our finite understanding and memory.

When does AI have rights?

The Future of Life • 19 implied HN points • 29 Feb 24
đź•ą Technology Philosophy of Mind
  1. AI might need rights if it mimics human behavior closely enough. We should think about this now before AI becomes super intelligent.
  2. Consciousness, sentience, and rights are important ideas, but they're not well-defined and can differ between people. Understanding these can help us decide who deserves rights.
  3. Sapience is being smart in a deep way, and it seems to be the best indicator for deciding if something deserves rights. It's more than just feeling or basic thinking.

A Short Reflection on Examining

Theory Matters • 1 implied HN point • 02 Jan 26
đź“– Philosophy Philosophy of Mind
  1. Self-examination is important for growth and moral improvement, pushing us to question life instead of passively accepting it.
  2. Easy shortcuts to knowledge—like AI, quick videos, and the internet—can undermine deep contemplation and make us intellectually and emotionally poorer while also spreading shallow or false ideas.
  3. Too much introspection can be paralyzing, so we need a balance that preserves the difficult work of learning and meaning without falling into harmful overthinking.

2025-12-06 Sa: Food for Thought...

Brad DeLong's Grasping Reality • 0 implied HN points • 06 Dec 25
đź“– Philosophy Philosophy of Mind
  1. Human psychology can exhibit failure modes that come from our cooperative, anthology-style collective intelligence, where group-created knowledge shapes thinking in subtle ways.
  2. The idea is currently a saved note meant to be developed into a fuller piece later, after the thoughts and analysis have had time to settle.
  3. This material is positioned as paid subscriber content, restricted to Sustainers-level access behind a paywall.