Academics: Want to learn how to write op-eds and other public-facing essays from an editor at the NY Times? And get PAID to do it?! Can't recommend this workshop enough, which just got funded again for several more years. Applications are due October 9th.

Workshop — Beyond the Ivory Tower

beyondtheivorytower.com

Will AI create abundance or inequality? My co-authors and I hash it out in this adversarial collaboration.

After the AI Revolution

Artificial intelligence may create abundance, but will it be shared? An adversarial collaboration between optimists and pessimists.

open.substack.com

“One of humanity’s oldest disciplines and one of its newest inventions feel distinctly made for each other. A.I. presents a fresh way for philosophers to ask ancient questions….”

The Revenge of the Philosophy Majors

nytimes.com

In which I wax poetic about patriotism… and sing part of a country song in the voiceover. open.substack.com/pub/joshdmay...

America isn’t Perfect. I Love it Anyway.

What living in Australia taught me about patriotism—and why Larry David is alright.

open.substack.com

Here’s an uncomfortable truth we can delve into—I now hesitate to write “uncomfortable truth” or “delve” or use em-dashes, thanks to LLMs.

Confession: I’m embarrassed that for so long I believed that Black and gay conservatives are anomalies. And that if more women were in Congress, then abortion would obviously be legal across America. And that Donald Trump would be a flash in the pan. And… that I wasn’t in an echo chamber.

Should you discount someone’s defense of AI because they get money from AI investors? Does a lack of financial stake make one more objective? Not necessarily. joshdmay.substack.com/p/conflicts-...

Conflicts of AI Interest

AI boosters and critics should focus more on the arguments

joshdmay.substack.com

Really thoughtful review of the Neuroethics book. Elzė Sigutė Mikalonytė & Brian D. Earp describe it as “nuanced, insightful and well-considered”—though they also raise some interesting concerns, well-captured by their review’s clever title. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Why gradual minds may still require sharp lines: a review of Joshua May’s Neuroethics

Published in Philosophical Psychology (Ahead of Print, 2026)

tandfonline.com

Some arguments against AI are solid. Others… not so much. In this adversarial collaboration, we attempt to sort the arguments into each box and recognize our own biases in the process. open.substack.com/pub/joshdmay...

Why Smart People Make Weak Arguments About AI

Tech CEOs aren’t the only ones captive to motivated reasoning

open.substack.com

Not an April Fool’s post, unfortunately. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Half of social-science studies fail replication test in years-long project

Results from massive, ‘eagerly awaited’ initiative reinforce concerns about the credibility of science — but raise hope for solutions.

nature.com

“In the same way that you’re unlikely to eat Twinkies as a regular snack or still believe that Pop-Tarts provide a balanced breakfast, stop consuming ultraprocessed content.” Provocative article by the great Cal Newport. Love the analogy to ultrprocessed foods.

Opinion | There’s a Good Reason You Can’t Concentrate

nytimes.com

Got interviewed for an episode of this great podcast, Unexplainable by Vox, which is about "everything we don't yet know." Perfect theme for an episode about neuroscience, free will, and the law. open.spotify.com/episode/5N0Q...

New paper out in Nature with some folks at Google DeepMind. We argue that AI systems should be evaluated for their *moral reasoning* just as they are evaluated for their ability to code or do math. And we provide a roadmap for evaluating moral competence in LLMs. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Is a targeted, month-long national economic strike an effective form of protest against the unchecked power of masked agents who treat the Bill of Rights as a suggestion? I don’t know, but it sure is an opportunity to rethink where my money is going.

Resist and Unsubscribe

resistandunsubscribe.com

I get asked a lot about how universities are dealing with AI. We can cope, I think. But we need to tread carefully and get back to basics. open.substack.com/pub/joshdmay...

Will Artificial Intelligence Break Universities?

Not if they elevate formation above information.

open.substack.com

The new University of Austin experiment doesn’t seem to be doing so well. Steven Pinker, who resigned from its board, says the university “had no coherent vision of what higher education in the 21st century ought to be. Instead, they created UnWoke U led by a Faculty of the Canceled.”

They Wanted a University Without Cancel Culture. Then Dissenters Were Ousted.

Inside the civil war at the anti-woke university backed by Bari Weiss.

politico.com

If respect for voters is rooted in strategy, is it really respect? This question has been puzzling me as I hear (and appreciate) the call for Democrats to stop looking down their noses at voters. joshdmay.substack.com

Philosophers + psychologists: Deadline extended to NOV 20th for the Southern Society for Philosophy & Psychology. Just over a week left to submit papers! southernsociety.org/AnnualMeeting/

The best analogy for social media is alcohol. Can you have a healthy relationship with it? Sure, but many don’t. Bad for society? Maybe on the whole, though problematic use is explained by both demand & supply. Should adults be free to use? Of course. Should 13-year-olds be regular users? Hell no.

We're hiring! Philosophers: Do you know someone working in applied ethics, especially bioethics and/or AI ethics? Let them know about this fantastic tenure-track job at UAB! Birmingham is wonderful, as is UAB and our Philosophy Department. Deadline = Nov. 20. philjobs.org

New post based on a lecture I gave in memory of Robin Lester, a neuroscientist and beloved member of the UAB community. joshdmay.substack.com

The best set of teaching tips I’ve ever seen, which I’ve long tried to follow. This tip certainly deserves to sit in the #1 slot. It’s also the reason I feel absolutely exhausted after a day of teaching three classes!

19 pieces of teaching advice

Because it's a new semester

open.substack.com

Interesting approach to AI in humanities courses with writing assignments.

You Don’t Need an AI Policy — You Need Two (guest post) - Daily Nous

What will tell your students about whether and how they may use AI for work you assign? It depends on the students, right? That's the main idea behind today's guest post by Victor Kumar (Boston Univer...

dailynous.com

The opening post on my Substack, Motivated Reasonings. Come for the self-flagellation, stay for the Matthew McConaughey quotes.

Confessions of a Motivated Reasoner

How Bias Shapes Politics, Science, and Everyday Life

joshdmay.substack.com

"broad and carefully executed, offering a wealth of insights" Really thoughtful review of my Neuroethics book in NDPR by Andrea Lavazza. ndpr.nd.edu/reviews/neur...

Neuroethics: Agency in the Age of Brain Science

Neuroethics is a young discipline with still-blurred boundaries, situated at the crossroads of neurology and philosophy. Yet it has successfully positio...

ndpr.nd.edu

What a privilege to engage with these commentaries on my Neuroethics book, all in an open access journal. Really grateful for their thoughts and to Carolyn Dicey-Jennings for facilitating it. 🙏 philosophymindscience.org/index.php/ph...

Why do liberal professors value tradition and hate bureaucracy within their own workplaces but not outside them? I suggest an answer:

Why Are Liberal Professors More Conservative On Campus? (guest post) - Daily Nous

"Academics pride themselves on critical thinking and intellectual virtues. But intellectual honesty demands that we recognize when we are applying principles selectively." In the following guest post,...

dailynous.com

New article coming out in Neuroethics! I started thinking about neurodiversity while in Rajesh Kana's autism lab. This paper has been years in the making, evolving through redrafting many times. Grateful to the many who provided feedback! 🙏

Joshua May, Neurodiversity with Nuance - PhilPapers

The neurodiversity movement grew out of the autism community but is now being applied to many neurological types, from dyslexia to schizophrenia. The resulting neurodiversity paradigm maintains that t...

philpapers.org

Are autism, ADHD, and other neurotypes deficits or mere differences? The question rests on a mistake. Or so I argue in this short piece.