The Origin of Philosophy
This week, I cried reading a philosophy book. I can’t remember the last time that happened. In The Origin of Philosophy , Spanish...
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Ricky Mouser
Rapid Fire
Basically a blog where I try to do philosophy outside.
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- Aug 9
What Deck-Builders get Right
Skill explosions are all around us. Just compare Simone Biles’s 2024 gold medal vault with Larisa Latynina’s 1956 gold medal vault, set...
- Jul 12
What Experts Don’t Know
(Now that I have a PhD, here’s a follow-up to last week’s article on the value of expert opinion.) As you become an expert in a field,...
- Jul 5
Expert Opinion
My last few blogs have a bit long and technical—sorry, I’m prepping to defend my dissertation next week, so my brain’s in a weird...
- May 17
Autonomy is Overrated
So now that I have a job in Bioethics, it’s time for me to figure out what Bioethics is. Unfortunately, it looks like Bioethics is a huge...
- Apr 19
What makes You think you’re so Special? (a reluctant defense of X-Risk)
I spent this past week at The Midwest Ethics Symposium on AI presenting my research and meeting lots of great folks from academia and...
- Mar 15
Let a thousand flowers bloom
Last week, we saw Three Rival Versions of Moral Enquiry square off head-to-head. (I’ll try not to get too technical, but I wanna lay out...
- Mar 8
I got a Job
First off, if you’re on the committee of a university I’ve applied to, I’m very sorry. It took me thirty minutes to figure out how to...
- Mar 1
I made a Video Essay
Two weeks ago, I had no idea how to use Adobe Premiere Pro. But now, I’m pretty good at Googling. Indiana University is holding a...
- Dec 29, 2023
Why is Racism bad?
I recently spoke to a trained economist who argued that racism was bad, but only because it was bad for the economy. What can we say...
- Dec 22, 2023
Arguments are Powerful Tools
Arguments are powerful tools for seeing how commitments hang together. Take the classic reductio ad absurdum, where I try to show that my...
- Dec 15, 2023
3 things I learned Writing the Rules
Next month, I’m giving a talk at the University of Kentucky Esports Lounge (yes, really) about rethinking the place of rules in the...
- Dec 1, 2023
3 mistakes in Intro Philosophy
As finals approach, I’ve been hired as a grader for my advisor’s Intro Philosophy class. I love these classes, where we’re trying to give...
- Nov 24, 2023
So there’s this psychology paper I keep thinking about
It starts, like all psychology papers, with a competitor for the most boringest sentence ever: One of the essential insights from...
- Nov 17, 2023
Getting Better at Criticism
Last week, I got to hear Wycliffe Gordon play Amazing Grace live. It was awesome. And then, he pulled out his mute. No recording’s gonna...
- Oct 20, 2023
Look at me I’m on a Panel
Last week, I was sick as a dog and downright loopy. What a perfect time to be invited to an APA Panel on AI ethics! Fortunately, I...
- Oct 13, 2023
Someone could get it Wrong
I had a really interesting conversation about art criticism this week. So here we go: What does it mean to be great at jazz? Look, I know...
- Jul 21, 2023
SlamBall and the Skill Explosion
Darius Clark, 25, is a highly decorated long jumper who holds the Guinness World Record for the highest vertical leap with a running...
- Jul 7, 2023
Why do (some) scientists hate philosophy?
My concern here is that the philosophers believe they are actually asking deep questions about nature... It’s not that there can’t be...
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