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Helena Fang

@helenafang.bsky.social
104 followers 107 following 65 posts

PhD student at MIT philosophy; learning how to flip a fair coin. (Literally.) www.helenafang.com

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Helena Fang @helenafang.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
passing down the mit tradition (to usc) of making fun of ppl i love on my handouts
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Kenneth Black @kennethblack.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
New paper! “Order of Explanation: Having it Both Ways” is now forthcoming in Noûs. It’s been a really fun paper to write and I’m stoked to share it.
philpapers.org
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Helena Fang @helenafang.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
my fav type of ai summary
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Helena Fang @helenafang.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
i appreciate it whenever ppl use extremely realistic examples
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Philip Sink | Rorty Vindicator @thrillhouse1701.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
I think it's called "Attack on Titan"?
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Helena Fang @helenafang.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
I just successfully defended my “fifth term paper” - officially ABD now! Here's the introductory paragraph: the reason why I sometimes call it the "sausage making paper".
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Helena Fang @helenafang.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
my whole career is about studying partitions
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Helena Fang @helenafang.bsky.social · 18/05/2026
proudest achievement of the semester: made my first ever single page double sided handout that’s for a conference presentation
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Helena Fang @helenafang.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
Now things are all settled: I’ll be a visiting student at the University of Southern California in Fall 2026, sponsored by the wonderful @dmitrigallow.bsky.social :) I’m super excited about this—friends in SoCal HMU!!
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Dmitri Gallow @dmitrigallow.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
This semester, I taught an undergraduate course on Probability and Rational Choice for the first time. My lecture notes are here: jdmitrigallow.com/teaching/par...
jdmitrigallow.com
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Helena Fang @helenafang.bsky.social · 15/04/2026
Me putting on Roger White's universal persuasion machine, which makes you rationally have any arbitrary credence in any proposition (in this case, 'the ship is seaworthy').
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Helena Fang @helenafang.bsky.social · 09/04/2026
my life in a nutshell
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Helena Fang @helenafang.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
Actually just found a second one
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Helena Fang @helenafang.bsky.social · 06/04/2026
Just wrapped up an absolutely dreamlike three-day-marathon at the Northeastern Epistemology Workshop and realized that I have taken only one (!) photo to capture the wonderful memory. Featured: @wiglet1981.bsky.social, Branden Fitelson, me, and me & Richard's scribbles.
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Helena Fang @helenafang.bsky.social · 16/03/2026
when you’re over caffeinated and happen to do formal epistemology
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Kenneth Black @kennethblack.bsky.social · 16/03/2026
Love: also systematic and productive
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Helena Fang @helenafang.bsky.social · 25/02/2026
The official version is available online! It's open access. (And yes, it's in double column.) onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
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Kenneth Black @kennethblack.bsky.social · 17/02/2026
A grad student put up a bunch of these MIT philosophy themed valentines. I thought this one was fantastic and told them so. Turns out I came up with it a couple years ago and they had just parroted me. Perry’ed again
Your context set and my context set are like this 

Picture of perfect circle
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Helena Fang @helenafang.bsky.social · 13/02/2026
this is the weirdest valentine thing I've seen (it's MILDLY SWEET tho)
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Helena Fang @helenafang.bsky.social · 17/01/2026
I'm excited to share that my first paper "Guessing and its Limits" is forthcoming in Philosophy and Phenomenological Research! Thread below. TLDR: I present a novel puzzle for a recent "question-sensitive" theory of guessing/belief in multi-question scenarios. philpapers.org/rec/FANGAI-2
philpapers.org
Helena Fang, Guessing and its Limits - PhilPapers
Guessing is the thesis that, roughly put, you may believe something iff it is among the most probable answers to a salient question. The thesis is motivated by observed features of ...
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Helena Fang @helenafang.bsky.social · 02/01/2026
Come to our session at the Eastern APA next week! @chenhao345.bsky.social will present an excellent solution to my puzzle about inter-question guessing (so-called "weak belief"); then @benholguin.bsky.social and I will respond. (AFAIK this is the first response in the literature!) Should be fun.
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Helena Fang @helenafang.bsky.social · 22/12/2025
I’ve been harassing every single person I know over the past couple of months about this paper nonstop and now here’s an even better promotion
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Juan Murillo Vargas @jimurillo98.bsky.social · 17/12/2025
I know of some work vaguely in this direction (e.g., studies on how non-human primates don't learn language) but wanted to ask: does anyone know studies/literature on whether non-human animals ask questions? (My understanding is they don't but want to read the lit before I form a strong view.)
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Zoe Drayson @zoedrayson.bsky.social · 22/11/2025
There’s more. She reviews “Steffan Yabble” here.
amazon.com
Watch Honest Review of Aboutness Book on Amazon Live
Shop with expert advice from The Munro’s in their latest video Honest Review of Aboutness Book.
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Kevin Zollman @kevinzollman.com · 17/11/2025
Happy to report that this paper is now out (Open Access!) onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10....
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
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Helena Fang @helenafang.bsky.social · 07/11/2025
writing my paper for my history course at harvard in the most mit way possible:
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Kate Klonick @klonick.bsky.social · 26/10/2025
Everything I know about legal formalism I learned from It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.
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Helena Fang @helenafang.bsky.social · 26/10/2025
or as Helena calls it "simple-modelogy"
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Helena Fang @helenafang.bsky.social · 25/10/2025
As a formal epistemologist AND rhythm game nerd I just came to the realization that the two fields ARE THE SAME---both are about MAXIMIZING ACCURACY
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Helena Fang @helenafang.bsky.social · 18/10/2025
Okay this is for next week
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Helena Fang @helenafang.bsky.social · 07/10/2025
me: so i decided to write my fifth term paper on a cursed topic; guess which one my committee: de se belief me: not THAT cursed
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Helena Fang @helenafang.bsky.social · 06/10/2025
Having so much fun making my advising meeting handouts
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Kenneth Black @kennethblack.bsky.social · 17/07/2025
Pleased to announce that my paper, “Common Ground, Conditionals, and Ceteris Paribus Pragmatics,” is forthcoming in the Australasian Journal of Philosophy! 🧵
philarchive.org
Kenneth Black, Common Ground, Conditionals, and _Ceteris Paribus_ Pragmatics - PhilArchive
In conversation, we make use of shared information in order to communicate. But what shared information? In theorising about conversation, it’s popular to allot a privileged position to a single body ...
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Juan Murillo Vargas @jimurillo98.bsky.social · 28/07/2025
Happy to announce that my paper "How Language-Like is the Language of Thought?" is forthcoming at Ergo! Thread with a TL;DR below! philpapers.org/rec/MURHLI-3
philpapers.org
Juan Murillo Vargas, How Language-Like is the Language of Thought? - PhilPapers
The language of thought hypothesis (LoTH) claims that thoughts are underpinned by language-like vehicles. A central motivation is that there is a relevant similarity between language and thought expla...
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Brett Karlan @oldjerryfodor.bsky.social · 02/07/2025
New theory of deontic modality just dropped
A sign in Ann Arbor that reads:
LEFT LANE
MUST
LEFT LANE
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Experimental Philosophy @xphilosopher.bsky.social · 30/06/2025
Yale Philosophy offers a course on “Formal Philosophical Methods” — a broad introduction to probability, logic, formal semantics, etc. Instructor Calum McNamara has now made all materials for the course (78 pages) freely available static1.squarespace.com/static/6255f...
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Dmitri Gallow @dmitrigallow.bsky.social · 14/06/2025
Last semester, I taught a graduate seminar on Bayesian epistemology. Here are my lecture notes: jdmitrigallow.com/teaching/epist25/aitbe.pdf
jdmitrigallow.com
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Helena Fang @helenafang.bsky.social · 27/05/2025
Four reasons why one should come to Iceland: 1. For my FEW 2. For @somayehtohidi.bsky.social 's amazing comments and epic table 3. For seeing a normal distribution in real life 4. For THE CLOCK (a marked one though)
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Helena Fang @helenafang.bsky.social · 07/04/2025
increasingly convinced that philosophy is all about preorders
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Helena Fang @helenafang.bsky.social · 02/04/2025
Did 3 presentations in 4 days consisting of (i) my first talk in a room full of strangers (ii) a prosem presentation where I made my handout in an hour and (iii) presenting for the epistemology reading group during prospective visits on a paper almost impossible to present. EXTREMELY proud of myself
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Helena Fang @helenafang.bsky.social · 01/04/2025
Absolutely horrendous truth: I didn't know how to flip a coin. (Until was taught this morning.) I literally did not know. Even though all my papers are on coinflips rip
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Helena Fang @helenafang.bsky.social · 04/03/2025
my second fav argument in philosophy: argument from elegance
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Helena Fang @helenafang.bsky.social · 08/02/2025
@chenhao345.bsky.social : i think when ppl say 'might or might not p' they simply ARE conveying trivial information (hence triviality doesn't matter) Me: oops guess i should stop writing like that in my paper
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Helena Fang @helenafang.bsky.social · 27/01/2025
am at a point where I simply hate partition sensitivity: it makes everything too easy that it makes everything too hard
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Helena Fang @helenafang.bsky.social · 10/01/2025
everything in Knowledge and its Limits
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Richard Pettigrew @wiglet1981.bsky.social · 23/12/2024
Same thing almost made Lewis give up Humeanism
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Kenneth Black @kennethblack.bsky.social · 21/12/2024
First two chapters of Inquiry *obviously*
Front cover of Stalnaker’s Inquiry
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Helena Fang @helenafang.bsky.social · 22/12/2024
Finally found my way here!
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