Kranti Saran

@KrantiSaran
640 Followers
523 Following
38 Posts
Philosophy of mind, also interested in the wider world. Toots are personal. Boosts aren't necessarily endorsements. Associate Professor of Philosophy at Ashoka University.
Website:http://krantisaran.net/
PhilPeople/PhilPapers:https://philpeople.org/profiles/kranti-saran
Cambridge Global Humanities Network:https://globalhumanities.org/equipo/kranti-saran/
Kranti Saran
Kranti SaranDec 22, 2022
Arvind NarayananDec 20, 2022

Mastodon has roughly 1% as many active users as Twitter. But it feels like much more than 1%. Why is that?

Because we're not a random 1%. People in some communities are much more likely to find Mastodon appealing. For example, at least 30% of the people I follow on Twitter are on here, based on their Twitter bios.

This "homophily" makes it easier for communities to reach critical mass. The downside is that it makes Mastodon more of an echo chamber (on top of the other reasons that make it so).

Kranti SaranDec 22, 2022
Show threadAyeshaNoorDec 21, 2022
I can’t stop thinking about the Afghan girls Robotic team knows as Afghan Dreamers. The girls with minimal resources were able to design and build low cost ventilators and their expertise were used during Covid crisis. Roya, a member of Afghan dreamers was ranked among Time’s 100 most influential people for her work in building internet classrooms in Afghan high schools.
#afghangirls
Kranti SaranDec 20, 2022

A couple of years after finishing I got my current job at Ashoka University, then brand new. There were lots of applications and LORs to read, every year.

Reading LORs came as a shock to me... because people were almost always so kind and supportive, even discounting for inflation. I kept wondering if the writers ever unambiguously communicated that kindness and support to the people they wrote for. I imagine it could make all the difference for some.

Kranti SaranDec 19, 2022
Show threadGreg RestallDec 19, 2022

Here’s the table of contents, in case you’d like to see what a serious 21st Century intro to logic, pitched to philosophy students can look like.

I’m particularly pleased about two features of the book and its pedagogy:

1. Each chapter has a summary of the key concepts, and a set of exercises students can use (a) to practice working with those concepts; (b) check that they have mastered the material, and finally (c) explore some of the interesting philosophical issues that arise,

and…

Kranti SaranDec 17, 2022

I had the opportunity to watch “The Quiet Girl” in a theatre this summer and it was everything that the review says and more. I particularly liked how the film played on our conditioned—coarsened?—responses to particular kinds of scenes as presaging disaster, only to then reveal goodness and decency. Catherine Clinch gives a performance of such subtlety and psychological depth that you have to see it for yourself to believe it.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/15/movies/the-quiet-girl-review.html

‘The Quiet Girl’ Review: Welcome Home

This luminous drama, Ireland’s entry for best international feature, may not be holiday fare, but it does express the season’s benevolent ethos.

Kranti SaranDec 16, 2022
Show threadKeith WilsonDec 16, 2022
@MichCiurria @eyssette has a useful list here: https://eyssette.github.io/Mastodon-Philosophy/. There’s also a #philosophy group on @a.gup.pe that you can follow and tag to boost posts at: https://a.gup.pe/u/philosophy
Philosophers and philosophy teachers on Mastodon

A list of philosophers and philosophy teachers in the Fediverse

Kranti SaranDec 11, 2022
ⒷDec 10, 2022
Oh, I guess I should share this here. It needed about 200 more pages to work the way I wanted it to, but it’s a first pass at a lot of stuff I’ve been thinking about on the biology side of things with an awesome friend and collaborator, Jay Schulkin (free to download until 23 December) https://www.cambridge.org/core/elements/biological-cognition/BB78D9F2B8434933AEED70DE7F63E4EE
Kranti SaranDec 8, 2022
Stuart Hampshire: "the value of a democratic constitution lies in the defense of minorities, not of majorities."
Kranti SaranNov 29, 2022
Arendt on Nadav Lapid's truth-telling:
Kranti SaranNov 27, 2022
Tucker TeagueNov 26, 2022
If you enjoy someone's post on #Mastodon go ahead and click the star. If someone tells you that's meaningless because there's no #algorithm, ignore them. Sure, boost the post too if you want others to also see the post, but don't think telling someone you like what they posted is somehow unimportant. In real life I don't tell someone, "good job," or "well said," or "I love that," for the sake of some algorithm, I do it because I'm human and they are too. It's fundamental to being truly social.