A blog on (writing) philosophy
Especially since the arrival of LLMs, there are quite a few pieces that claim “writing is thinking” or portray writing as thinking in a certain way (even Nature featured a piece on it). The idea is that you don’t just jot down what you thought out beforehand. Rather, the writing and rewriting process often produces Continue reading Why much academic writing isn’t thinking. A response to Lavinia…
Here is a test (for philosophy students) of how philosophical writing can be improved through the use of Large Language Models: The Test 1. Please write a brief introduction to a paper topic of your choice (ideally one that you had to write already). 2. Please feed the text into an LLM of your choice. Continue reading How do LLMs improve philosophical writing? A test design
It was probably in 2015, when a friend took me along to a workshop of professionals involved in social entrepeneurship. Located in a hip place in Berlin Kreuzberg, it was a gathering of well-educated people, mostly in their early thirties, brimming with ideas of social change. Something of an outsider myself, I quickly noticed another Continue reading On identity – between datafication and finding…
The fifth Collegium Spinozanum attracted guests from all over the world to Hagen. Organizer Prof. Martin Lenz explains what makes the early modern thinker so fascinating. The relatively low public awareness of Spinoza s work stands in stark contrast to the enormous influence the Dutch philosopher (1632-1677) has had on the history of ideas within academia. Continue reading Summer School on…
Hier findet sich das Video meines gleichnamigen Vortrags vom 25. Juni 2026 im Rahmen des Hagener forum philosophicum sowie als Keynote des Workshops Phänomenologie der Situation Situierte Lektüren: Abstract: Lesekompetenz als schwindende Situiertheit? (Here is an English version of the talk.) Ausgangspunkt ist die These, dass Lesekompetenz nicht lediglich eine Kulturtechnik, sondern eine…
In Deutschland wird derzeit über den Kabarettisten Dieter Nuhr debattiert, dem vorgeworfen wird, kürzlich einen ausgesprochen schlechten Witz über Femizide gemacht zu haben. Nachdem die öffentliche Empörung nicht abebbte, erklärte er in den sozialen Medien, er habe nie einen Witz über Femizide gemacht; sein eigentliches Anliegen sei vielmehr die Kritik am Missbrauch des Begriffs „strukturell“…
As at least some of you know, I work on reading, specifically reading as a social practice. My basic idea is that the meaning of texts is not determined by the text itself or by the individual reader, but by the interactions among readers. This thesis rests on numerous assumptions. Today I would like to Continue reading Reading Competence as a Disappearing Form of Situatedness?
Confronted with the suggestion that we should get an AI friend or AI carer, many of us are up in arms. Yet, confronted with the suggestion that we should have a long text summarized by an AI assistant, our reactions are mixed. What s the big deal?
Reading books is slowly turning into a very special skill again, like reading musical scores. Currently, I’m reading an intriguing book by Lavinia Marin and am struck by a couple of thoughts that answer a number of questions I have been pondering on for the last year. The motto above captures the issue quite well. Continue reading Texts as tools. But what for?