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Michael Vazquez

@mvazquez.bsky.social
257 followers 175 following 12 posts

philosopher at unc-chapel hill

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Reposted by Michael Vazquez
Jeff Greene @jeffgreene.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Very excited to be contributing one of two brains to this event with @mvazquez.bsky.social ! (Well, to be fair, Michael's contribution is worth 1.5 of the brains, and I'll contribute my own .5) Join us in person or online to talk about Technology, Attention, and Flourishing!
humanities.unc.edu
Two Brains: Technology, Attention, and Flourishing - Carolina Public Humanities
Explore one topic with two experts who bring different perspectives. Mini-lectures fuel lively group conversations and expand our understanding of complex ideas.
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rogueclassicist ~ david meadows @rogueclassicist.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Rare 1517 copy of the Odyssey on display at UNC Chapel Hill :: WRAL.com www.wral.com/news/local/r...
wral.com
WRAL | News and Weather in Raleigh NC
Raleigh breaking news and weather, Raleigh North Carolina news today, WRAL 7-day forecasts, NC lottery updates. WRAL news in Raleigh, NC.
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Rob Sica @robsica.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
"Overall, our findings reveal an important and growing divide in political identity; they also undermine sweeping claims about ideological effects of higher education"
psypost.org
The diploma divide is real, but college doesn't make students as liberal as people think
New research shows that while college graduates increasingly identify as liberal, the actual leftward shift during college is much smaller than the public assumes. Individual traits and majors matter ...
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Aeon Magazine @aeon.co · 09/05/2026
Ancient Athenians often used a lottery system called sortition, believing it to be fairer and less divisive than elections. In this animation, Michael Vazquez explores how lottery-based democracy worked, why it faded, and whether it could help address today’s political polarisation and distrust
buff.ly
Is democracy without elections possible? Could a lottery be better? | Aeon Videos
Ancient Athenians chose leaders by lottery rather than elections. Could this solve the problems facing democracy today?
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Michael Prinzing @mprinzing.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
Philosophy was mostly "armchair" in the mid-20th century—but it's not anymore! Philosophers have increasingly cited empirical sources and discussed empirical data and evidence. In fact, as of the 2020s, non-empirical philosophy has become the minority.
A graph showing the percentage of philosophy articles that cited empirical sources each year between 1970 and 2024. That proportion has increased from approximately 10% in the 1970s to over 50% in the 2020s.
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Michael Prinzing @mprinzing.bsky.social · 25/03/2026
This IHE article discusses my recent work with @mvazquez.bsky.social about how students' politics change during college. Simply put, independently of political *beliefs* students seem to adopt an "educated liberal" *identity.*
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Inside Higher Ed @insidehighered.com · 24/03/2026
Opinion | The Real ‘Diploma Divide’ Is About Identity, Not Beliefs The familiar narrative that colleges are fueling a growing divide in political beliefs is not backed up by the data. But something else consequential has changed. By Michael Vazquez and Michael Prinzing. bit.ly/4uQcSeM
A blue chess pawn and a red pawn, each mounted on a wooden block, face one another.
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Michael Prinzing @mprinzing.bsky.social · 24/01/2026
Does going to college make people more liberal? Probably yes, but it’s complicated… For decades, US adults with degrees have held more left-leaning views on social issues, but not on economic ones. And, until the 2010s, grads did not *identify* as more liberal than non-grads.
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Justin Weinberg @dailynous.com · 25/09/2025
“We got so lucky to follow such an inspiring group of students. Their journey is an excellent snapshot of how rewarding the ethics bowl experience can be.”
dailynous.com
New Film Captures the Value and Excitement of Ethics Bowl - Daily Nous
The Bowl is a new documentary that follows a team of six girls and their teacher as they prepare for and compete in the National High School Ethics Bowl---and you may be able to arrange an interactive screening of it in your town. . Created by documentary filmmaker Eli Yetter-Bowman of Ethereal Films, The Bowl aims
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Aeon Magazine @aeon.co · 06/08/2025
Should ideas be owned like physical objects, or are these property rights different? How can societies encourage innovation while making ideas accessible for the greater good? Watch this animated TED-Ed short examining philosophers’ perspectives on intellectual property rights through history
buff.ly
What’s an idea worth? How prominent thinkers have understood intellectual property | Aeon Videos
Should it be possible to own an idea? The debate around intellectual property has deep roots in the history of philosophy
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Michael Prinzing @mprinzing.bsky.social · 29/08/2025
I had a great chat about how studying philosophy can make people better thinkers with @mvazquez.bsky.social, @markalfano.bsky.social, Deborah Mower, and Heather Battaly. Thanks to @apaphilosophy.bsky.social for hosting and making the recording available! www.apaonline.org/mpage/benefi...
apaonline.org
Benefits of Studying Philosophy | APA On DemandAPA Mission - The American Philosophical Association
To activate captions, click on the CC icon at the bottom of the video, then select English from the menu.
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The Conversation U.S. @us.theconversation.com · 21/08/2025
Turns out studying philosophy is actually valuable. Philosophy majors don’t just argue well, they actually become better thinkers and do better on tests. Data from 600k students shows they outscore every other major on reasoning, curiosity and open-mindedness.
buff.ly
Studying philosophy does make people better thinkers, according to new research on more than 600,000 college grads
Philosophers are fond of saying that their field boosts critical thinking. Two of them decided to put that claim to the test.
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American Philosophical Association @apaphilosophy.bsky.social · 20/08/2025
Are you a faculty member trying to convince university administrators that philosophy is important? Or a student wondering about the benefits of taking philosophy courses? Join us for “Benefits of Studying Philosophy” on August 27. Registration is open to all: www.apaonline.org/events/Event...
APA Live | “Benefits of Studying Philosophy,” Wednesday, August 27, 6 p.m. Eastern / 3 p.m. Pacific, with panelists Michael Prinzing, Michael Vazquez, Deborah Mower, Mark Alfano, and Heather Battaly.
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Will Fleisher @willfleisher.bsky.social · 18/08/2025
We are excited to announce the 4th Annual Penn-Georgetown Digital Ethics Workshop, organized by Brian Berkey and myself. The conference will take place April 3-4, 2026, at Penn. If you work on digital technology ethics, broadly construed, please consider submitting an abstract.
philevents.org
4th Annual Penn-Georgetown Digital Ethics Workshop
We invite submissions for the 4th Annual Penn-Georgetown Digital Ethics Workshop, to be held at the University on Pennsylvania on April 3rd-4th, 2026. Submissions in any area of digital ethics, broadl...
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Rob Townsend @rbtownsend.bsky.social · 17/07/2025
“When students realize their own humanity is at stake in their education, they are deeply invested in it.” bit.ly/457AAYZ
bit.ly
Opinion | Students Want the Liberal Arts. Administrators Are Ignoring Them.
Students want to study the humanities and liberal arts. But university administrators keep getting in the way.
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Justin Weinberg @dailynous.com · 14/07/2025
New research on the question of whether studying philosophy makes students better thinkers...
dailynous.com
Studying Philosophy Makes People Better Thinkers: Further Data - Daily Nous
A new study "offers the strongest evidence to date that studying philosophy does indeed make people better thinkers." Readers may recall the previous research of Michael Prinzing (Baylor) & Michael Va...
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Journal of the American Philosophical Association @apa-journal.bsky.social · 14/07/2025
Join us for an APA Live event: The Benefits of Studying Philosophy Wednesday, August 27, 2025 6 p.m Eastern / 3 p.m. Pacific Register here: tinyurl.com/4773k45a
apaonline.org
American Philosophical Association
The panelists for this event are as follows:
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Michael Prinzing @mprinzing.bsky.social · 12/07/2025
@mvazquez.bsky.social and I analyzed data from over half a million college students, looking at tests of verbal, logical, and mathematical reasoning, plus self-report measures of valuable habits of mind (a mix of curiosity, open-mindedness, intellectual rigor, etc.) 2/4
doi.org
Studying Philosophy Does Make People Better Thinkers | Journal of the American Philosophical Association | Cambridge Core
Studying Philosophy Does Make People Better Thinkers
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Jo Wolff @jowolff.bsky.social · 01/06/2025
Elizabeth D. Rockwell Center Prize for Best Article on Ethics, Leadership, and Public Policy, for paper published in print or online in the last three years. uh.edu/hobby/edr-ce...
uh.edu
Elizabeth D. Rockwell Center Prize for Best Article on Ethics, Leadership, and Public Policy | Hobby School of Public Affairs | University of Houston
Elizabeth D. Rockwell Center Prize for Best Article on Ethics, Leadership, and Public Policy
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Michael Vazquez @mvazquez.bsky.social · 27/05/2025
What do we owe the dead? In this new TED-Ed video, Sarah Stroud and I examine promises made to a dying spouse—and what moral philosophy says about keeping them: go.unc.edu/wishes This is part of an ongoing partnership with TED-Ed to build educational resources in ethics: go.unc.edu/ted-ed
go.unc.edu
The ethical dilemma of deathbed wishes - Sarah Stroud and Michael Vazquez
Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.
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The Applied Epistemology Project @ UNC @unc-aep.bsky.social · 21/01/2025
On Saturday, K-12 educators from across the Triangle joined us on UNC's campus for "The Art of Inquiry: Promoting Responsible Belief in the Classroom." With guidance from @jeffgreene.bsky.social (UNC) and Paula McAvoy (NCState), participants learned strategies for fostering critical thinking...(1/2)
Jeff Greene standing in front of a slide that reads: "So...what can teachers do to help students form responsible beliefs in the modern world?"Paula McAvoy presenting a group activity.
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Jeff Greene @jeffgreene.bsky.social · 18/01/2025
So fun talking to teachers about "Educating for Responsible Belief" at the “The Art of Inquiry: Promoting Responsible Belief in the Classroom” event hosted by the Applied Epistemology Project at UNC-CH (@unc-aep.bsky.social). Slides available if you're curious: buff.ly/4jeXJhr
Slide with the title "Three Ways to Educate for Responsible Believing" listing Debunking/prebunking/inoculation, Teaching lateral reading, and Developing intellectual virtues.
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Society for Philosophy and Psychology @socphilpsych.bsky.social · 30/12/2024
Abstracts for the 2025 SPP at Cornell are due on January 24th!
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Alex Guerrero @alexgphilosophy.bsky.social · 30/12/2024
Excellent reporting on how the Cuban govt military dept GAESA has billions that could be used for urgent aid but is instead being used (through GAESA owned Almest and Gaviota) to invest in tourism. Crony communist corruption, not egalitarianism, rules the island. www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-...
miamiherald.com
Leaked documents show Cuban military sitting on billions of dollars amid humanitarian crisis
Internal documents show how much the Cuban military has diverted resources to build hotels.
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Jo Wolff @jowolff.bsky.social · 17/12/2024
Them “It’s all a bit academic really.” Me (in my head) “You’re right, it’s so important we need to concentrate efforts to study it!”
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Jo Wolff @jowolff.bsky.social · 27/11/2024
If you’ve read Nudge you don’t make a New Year’s Resolution. You make a New Year’s Adjustment to Your Choice Architecture.
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Edouard Machery @edouardmachery.bsky.social · 19/11/2024
The SPP can for papers is out. The Society for Philosophy and Psychology (SPP) invites submissions of papers to be presented at its 51st Annual Meeting, to be held June 19-21, 2025 at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY. Please submit an abstract by January 24, 2025 at 11:59pm EST.
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Michael Vazquez @mvazquez.bsky.social · 16/11/2024
Would you trade some privacy for safer roads? Sarah Stroud and I explore this question in a new TED-Ed video! Watch here: go.unc.edu/privacy And check out our growing library of ethics content: parrcenter.unc.edu/ted-ed
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Christian B. Miller @charactergap.bsky.social · 16/11/2024
2025 Request for Proposals: Building Capacity and Community at U.S. Colleges and Universities The Program for Leadership and Character at Wake Forest has announced another round of funding with grants for individuals and institutions. Check out: leadershipandcharacter.wfu.edu/eci/grants/
leadershipandcharacter.wfu.edu
Educating Character Initiative Grants - The Program for Leadership and Character
2025 Request for Proposals: Building Capacity and Community at U.S. Colleges and Universities In 2025, the Educating Character Initiative intends to award grants to both individuals and institutions, ...
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A. C. "Al" Duncan @adclassics.bsky.social · 21/02/2024
Excited for this year's colab on Euripides' Alcestis with Michael Vazquez (@mvazquez.bsky.social), Kari Lindquist, and other ultra-talented and inspiring individuals parrcenter.unc.edu/alcestis/ Alcestis is a peculiar play, and one that is peculiarly timely in 2024. Please spread the word!
parrcenter.unc.edu
Greek Tragedy in the Community | Parr Center for Ethics
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Jay Van Bavel, PhD @jayvanbavel.bsky.social · 07/01/2024
Colleges have fled standardized tests, on the theory that they hurt diversity. That’s not what the research shows. “Once we brought the test requirement back, we admitted the most diverse class that we ever had in our history,” www.nytimes.com/2024/01/07/b...
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Steve Esser @steveesser.bsky.social · 21/12/2023
Michael Prinzing and Michael Vazquez (@mvazquez.bsky.social) preprint: "Does Studying Philosophy Make People Better Thinkers." A wide ranging review of empirical work plus new research of their own. Some suggestive results but more research needed. Really interesting! #philsky
philpapers.org
Michael Prinzing & Michael Vazquez, Does Studying Philosophy Make People Better Thinkers? - PhilPape...
Philosophers often claim that doing philosophy makes people better thinkers. But what evidence is there for this empirical claim? This paper reviews extant evidence and presents some novel findings. W...
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Michael Vazquez @mvazquez.bsky.social · 04/10/2023
What makes life worth living? Would you choose extinction or posterity without culture & meaning? UNC philosopher Doug MacLean invites us to ponder these questions in our latest installment of the Parr Center + TED-Ed Ethical Dilemma series. Check it out! www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aEQ...
youtube.com
Ethical dilemma: What makes life worth living? - Douglas MacLean
Puzzle through a classic ethical dilemma and decide: can human existence be meaningful without its creativity and culture? --Life on your planet depends enti...
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Experimental Philosophy @xphilosopher.bsky.social · 02/10/2023
This paper is amazing Goal: To understand how philosophical education impacts philosophical intuitions Method: Tracking a sample of undergrad philosophy majors across their entire college career, giving them the same thought experiments each semester www.researchgate.net/publication/...
researchgate.net
(PDF) The influence of philosophical training on the evaluation of philosophical cases: a controlled...
PDF | According to the expertise defense, practitioners of the method of cases need not worry about findings that ordinary people’s philosophical... | Find, read and cite all the research you need o...
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Nick Byrd, Ph.D. @byrdnick.com · 23/09/2023
Has anyone tested the benefits of teaching people to make truth tables? Has it improved people's performance on any test of logical competence? A concise report of a controlled experiment would be great, but I'm interested in whatever you know about. #Logic #Teaching #edu
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Gregg D Caruso @greggdcaruso.bsky.social · 11/09/2023
Too humble for words by Neil Levy | Another interesting paper from the always insightful and original @neillevy.bsky.social | link.springer.com/article/10.1... | #OpenAccess |
link.springer.com
Too humble for words - Philosophical Studies
It’s widely held that a lack of intellectual humility is part of the reason why flagrantly unjustified beliefs proliferate. In this paper, I argue that an excess of humility also plays a role in all...
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Gregg D Caruso @greggdcaruso.bsky.social · 22/09/2023
Lucretius (new entry - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy) plato.stanford.edu/entries/lucr...
plato.stanford.edu
Lucretius (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
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