Adam Robbert

Askēsis | Attention is an art form | Philosophy as a way of life | Building @theorosproject | Founded @TheSideViewCo | Substack:

[Adam Robbert @AE_Robbert]

A number of you know that I’ve been working on a dissertation for some time now, at points taking a year or more off in between drafts and revisions.

I’m happy to report that the manuscript is now done, and yesterday I successfully defended Askēsis and Perception: Philosophy as a Way of Life to my committee. I’d describe it as the longer, more technical version of the work I put out here.

I’ve included my presentation notes for the oral defense below.

[Adam Robbert @AE_Robbert]

@AlexanderJBoyd Thanks, Alexander! Happy to send you a copy of the diss if you want—there’s more Hadot in there than in the book.

[Adam Robbert @AE_Robbert]

I'm also posting video from my dissertation defense (Askēsis and Perception: Philosophy as a Way of Life). I was happy to see a few dozen students, faculty, and alumni show up to the event, many of them participating in the Q&A after the examination. I didn’t ask all who were present if they’d be up for me posting the full video, so I’ve included just my opening presentation. First time posting a video here, too.

[Adam Robbert @AE_Robbert]

@Platolanie Thank you!

[Adam Robbert @AE_Robbert]

I built a one-page website for my dissertation defense presentation.

I’m really into the idea that someone like me, with basically no coding experience, can now spin up a unique and aesthetic environment for a single essay without too much work.

I’m going to accidentally get back into publishing. Link below.

[Adam Robbert @AE_Robbert]

I built a one-page website for my dissertation defense presentation.

I’m really into the idea that someone like me, with basically no coding experience, can now spin up a unique and aesthetic environment for a single essay without too much work.

I’m going to accidentally get back into publishing. Link below.

[Imbue @imbue_ai]

As more of the world is designed to capture our attention, cultivating it begins with understanding how it works.

In this conversation, philosopher @AE_Robbert joins Imbue’s Ashley Zhang to explore what attention is and what it might mean to approach it as a practice.

From Socrates standing motionless at a party to the algorithms competing for our focus today, they trace how humans have wrestled with attention across centuries.

https://t.co/Jr0Ds5BhAU

[Adam Robbert @AE_Robbert]

@anod0s Somehow it’s in Barfield’s nature to be an influence everywhere and be cited nowhere.

[Adam Robbert @AE_Robbert]

@Khegan_Delport Awesome. Makes total sense how Evagrius fits in here. I cite him only briefly in the dissertation, but he’s shaped my thinking quite a bit.

[Adam Robbert @AE_Robbert]

Check out the digital essay here: https://t.co/b1vDOZ0I6o

[Adam Robbert @AE_Robbert]

@lukeburgis @DavidSHolz Yes.

[Adam Robbert @AE_Robbert]

Good thread here.

[Jon Stokes @jon_stokes]

You really can boil down my whole theory of the case around LLMs to: it's not a feeling, perceiving, conscious entity, or a stochastic parrot, but a secret third thing.

[Adam Robbert @AE_Robbert]

Even the following tab over here is pretty cooked these days. Just interacted with a mutual I assumed had disappeared from the site and now I see the fellow’s interactions all over the TL. I don’t see what most of you are posting.

[Adam Robbert @AE_Robbert]

We’re bringing back nonverbal philosophy.

[Adam Robbert @AE_Robbert]

We should blow right past using blue books for philosophy exams and just try doing philosophy without writing or books altogether.

[Adam Robbert @AE_Robbert]

@thomasmurphy__ 🗿🗿🗿

[Adam Robbert @AE_Robbert]

I think the novel contribution of the dissertation is my working out a reading of perception transformation in light of Plato’s reading of the Good beyond Being (epekeina tēs ousias) in the Republic at 509b and how we should understand his theory of forms in a different light, one indexed against acts of cultivated attention as form comes to presence in perception through a kind of immanent attunement. I had no sense that this is what I’d be doing when I set out to write the diss. So it goes!

[Adam Robbert @AE_Robbert]

@JaycelAdkins Yeah I know lots of people who prefer early mornings without issue. Seems like it’s a me thing.

[Adam Robbert @AE_Robbert]

I think the novel contribution of the dissertation is my working out a reading of perception transformation in light of Plato’s reading of the Good beyond Being (epekeina tēs ousias) in the Republic at 509b and how we should understand his theory of forms in a different light, one indexed against acts of cultivated attention as form comes to presence in perception through a kind of immanent attunement. I had no sense that this is what I’d be doing when I set out to write the diss. So it goes!

[Adam Robbert @AE_Robbert]

A number of you know that I’ve been working on a dissertation for some time now, at points taking a year or more off in between drafts and revisions.

I’m happy to report that the manuscript is now done, and yesterday I successfully defended Askēsis and Perception: Philosophy as a Way of Life to my committee. I’d describe it as the longer, more technical version of the work I put out here.

I’ve included my presentation notes for the oral defense below.

[Adam Robbert @AE_Robbert]

@StarkConor Thank you, Conor!