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New links… Despite skepticism about philosophy as a whole, specific philosophical research programs make progress. But probably not yours. — Still, “you might be contributing to, even if not helping to constitute, philosophical progress,” argues Lewis Ross. Feel better? “For the very first time, biologists packed nonliving components into a cell-like membrane, piece by piece, and witnessed the bag of molecules start to behave like life” — a new development in synthetic biology “Who, after all, would ask a machine to express their own final reflections to the people they love? Lots of people, it turns out.” — Amy Olberding on what AI is costing her students Does thought require sensory grounding? — David Chalmers’ 2023 APA Eastern Division Presidential Address “It betrays a simplistic and superficial understanding of the development of intellectual trends… to suggest that the degeneration of scholarly standards… in certain domains could possibly be explained by the failure to…