Twitter: @Jordan_C_Myers
Site: muckrakermedia.fireside.fm/platoscave
76 episodes
2020 to present
Average episode: 85 minutes
Open in Apple Podcasts • RSS
Categories: Interview-Style
Podcaster's summary: I'm Jordan Myers and I'm a Master's student studying philosophy at the University of Houston. Plato's Cave is my attempt to exit... well, the cave. It's a philosophy podcast meant to help me guide my ascent to the real world, the truth, the place where life is worth living; and apparently that means giving up a regular job with good pay to pursue the security of the academic job market - the philosophy job market nonetheless. Join me on my journey as I cover philosophical works and speak with the best philosophical minds I can convince to come on the show!
| Episodes |
| 2024-Mar-14 • 87 minutes Ep. 71 - Martha Nussbaum on Anger and Forgiveness (Part 2) Part two of Martha Nussbaum's book, Anger and Forgiveness. |
| 2024-Mar-07 • 109 minutes Ep. 70 - Martha Nussbaum's Anger and Forgiveness (Part 1) In the second episode of our series on anger, we dive into the first chapters of Martha Nussbaum's recent book, Anger and Forgiveness. The first two chapters focus on the myth of payback's value. |
| 2024-Feb-23 • 111 minutes Ep. 69 - Anger: Seneca & Stoicism Episode 1 of a new series on the philosophy of emotion--specifically, anger. We discuss some introductory questions and Seneca's 'On Anger.' |
| 2023-Sep-12 • 55 minutes Ep. 68 - Sukaina Hirji: Outrage and the Bound of Empathy I speak with Sukaina Hirji about her (very) recent paper discussing a type of anger referred to as outrage: what it is, how it differs from other emotions, & how it functions in our emotional lives. |
| 2023-Aug-31 • 87 minutes Ep. 67 - Two Levels of Pluralism (Celebrating Susan Wolf) In the final episode of the series, we discuss Wolf's article "Two Levels of Pluralism" which investigates whether pluralism reduces into relativism. Spoiler--it doesn't! |
| 2023-Aug-24 • 77 minutes Ep. 66 - Moral Luck (Celebrating Susan Wolf [& Bernard Williams]) In this episode, we discuss the seminal paper "Moral Luck" by Bernard Williams and a new replies to the problem of moral luck. |
| 2023-Aug-17 • 105 minutes Ep. 65 - The Role of Rules (Celebrating Susan Wolf) In this episode, Adam, Giffin, and I discuss two essays by Wolf: "The Role of Rules" and "Two Concepts of Rule Utilitarianism." |
| 2023-Aug-10 • 87 minutes Ep. 64 - Above and Below the Line of Duty (Celebrating Susan Wolf) In this episode, we discuss an underrated paper by Wolf. We discuss the connection between decency, moral duty, and reasonably violating your obligations. |
| 2023-Aug-03 • 91 minutes Ep. 63 - Moral Obligations and Social Commands (Celebrating Susan Wolf) In this episode, Adam, Giffin, and I discuss Wolf's essay "Moral Obligations and Social Commands," which asks where the true authority of moral enforcement originates from. |
| 2023-Jul-27 • 81 minutes Ep. 62 - Moral Saints (Celebrating Susan Wolf) A new (mini) series! This begins a 6 part series on the moral philosophy of Susan Wolf in conjunction with a graduate seminar I took at Rice in the Fall of 2022. This episode is a discussion of her famous essay "Moral Saints." |
| 2023-Apr-07 • 64 minutes Ep. 61 - Glen Pettigrove: Meekness and Moral Anger I speak with Glen Pettigrove about his paper "Meekness and Moral Anger." We discuss his attempt to breathe new life into meekness as a virtue, his diagnosis of anger's downsides, and the ways in which meekness can avoid these pitfalls. |
| 2022-Nov-21 • 56 minutes Ep. 60 - Cameron Boult: Epistemic Blame & Relationship Modification I speak with Cameron Boult about his series of papers and forthcoming book on epistemic blame: what it means, when it's appropriate, and how we modify our epistemic relationships with others. |
| 2022-Sep-21 • 102 minutes Ep. 59 - Existentialism: Jacques the Fatalist, by Diderot (PART 2) Part 2 of Jacques the Fatalist and His Master by Denis Diderot. |
| 2022-Sep-19 • 78 minutes Ep. 58 - Existentialism: Jacques the Fatalist, by Diderot (PART 1) Part 1 of Jacques the Fatalist and His Master by Denis Diderot. |
| 2022-Sep-17 • 110 minutes Ep. 57 - Existentialism: The Stranger, by Camus The Stranger by Albert Camus. |
| 2022-Sep-15 • 95 minutes Ep. 56 - "Existentialism is a Humanism," by Sartre "Existentialism is a Humanism" by Jean-Paul Sartre. |
| 2022-Sep-13 • 123 minutes Ep. 55 - Existentialism: Nausea, by Sartre (PART 2) Part 2 of Nausea by Jean-Paul Sartre. |
| 2022-Sep-10 • 69 minutes Ep. 54 - Existentialism: Nausea, by Sartre (PART 1) Part 1 of Nausea by Jean-Paul Sartre. |
| 2022-Sep-08 • 117 minutes Ep. 53 - Existentialism: Notes from Underground, by Dostoyevsky (PART 2) Part 2 of Notes from Underground. The Underground Man's past. |
| 2022-Sep-05 • 107 minutes Ep. 52 - Existentialism: Notes from Underground, by Dostoyevsky (PART 1) Part 1 of Notes from Underground. The Paradoxicalist's philosophy. |
| 2022-Aug-19 • 8 minutes Ep. 51 - Manuel Vargas: Free Will Revisionism In this episode, I discuss a view about Free Will and Moral Responsibility, Revisionism, with Manuel Vargas. We talk about what it means to be a revisionist about theories in general, how he thinks our view of free will should be reshaped, and how the way we talk about free will and moral responsibility shapes the way we think about the debate. |
| 2022-Aug-18 • 109 minutes Ep. 50 - Declaration of the Rights of Man (PPE series prt7) In part 7 of the Political Philosophy Reading Group series, Adam, Giffin, and I discuss the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen, a foundational Enlightenment document that inspired some of the United States' own formational ideas. |
| 2022-Aug-16 • 69 minutes Ep. 49 - "Two Concepts of Liberty" by Isiah Berlin (PPE series prt6) In part 6 of the Political Philosophy Reading Group series, Adam, Giffin, and I discuss Berlin's famous concepts of positive and negative liberty. |
| 2022-Aug-14 • 122 minutes Ep. 48 - The Communist Manifesto (PPE series prt5) In part 5 of the Political Philosophy Reading Group series, Adam, Giffin, and I keep the Marx train going with a discussion of the Communist Manifesto, a political call to arms for the global workers of the 19th century. We talk about its historical and present day relevance. |
| 2022-Aug-12 • 120 minutes Ep. 47 - Estranged Labor by Karl Marx (PPE series prt4) In part 4 of the Political Philosophy Reading Group series, Adam, Giffin, and I discuss the pamphlet/writings of Karl Marx. We talk about the concept of estrangement or alienation with respect to present day and historical work environments and detail our own experiences with the concept. |
| 2022-Aug-08 • 99 minutes Ep. 46 - Reactive Attitudes and Restorative Justice (PPE series prt3) In part 3 of the Political Philosophy Reading Group series, Adam, Giffin, and I discuss the paper "Co-Reactive Attitudes and the Making of Moral Community" by Victoria McGeer, wherein she links an adoption of P.F. Strawson's thesis about the reactive attitudes directly to the practice of restorative justice. |
| 2022-Aug-04 • 163 minutes Ep. 45 - "What is the Point of Equality?" by Elizabeth Anderson (PPE series prt2) In part 2 of the Political Philosophy Reading Group series, Adam, Giffin, and I discuss the paper "What is the Point of Equality?" by Elizabeth Anderson, which investigated the role of luck in creating egalitarian outcomes. Anderson focuses on a capabilities approach to political equality which differs from some common intuitions held by luck egalitarians. |
| 2022-Jul-30 • 93 minutes Ep. 44 - Conflict as Property and Restorative Justice (PPE series prt1) In part 1 of the Political Philosophy Reading Group series, we discuss the formative paper "Conflict as Property" by Nils Christie along with some of its more modern applications in restorative justice. |
| 2022-Jun-28 • 73 minutes Ep. 43 - Garrett Pendergraft: "Free Will and Human Agency" (50 Thought Experiments) In this episode, I speak with Garrett Pendergraft about his forthcoming book: FREE WILL AND HUMAN AGENCY: 50 PUZZLES, PARADOXES, AND THOUGHT EXPERIMENTS, which will be out in July 2022! We discuss three chapters on the Garden of Forking Paths, Uncertainty and Deliberation, and Divine Foreknowledge. |
| 2022-Jun-16 • 84 minutes Ep. 42 - FW/MR: "For the Law, Neuroscience Changes Nothing and Everything" by Greene & Cohen In this reading group episode, we wrap up the free will and moral responsibility series with a discussion of Greene and Cohen's "For the Law, Neuroscience Changes Nothing and Everything." We talk about the legal and cultural implications of the series through the lens of Green ad Cohen's work. |
| 2022-Jun-15 • 102 minutes Ep. 41 - FW/MR: "Asymmetrical Freedom" by Susan Wolf In this reading group episode, Giffin, Adam, Brian, and I talk about the crazy (in the best way) paper by Susan Wolf, "Asymmetrical Freedom." Can we be responsible for bad actions? Only good ones? What does the role of determinism do to our judgements? |
| 2022-Jun-14 • 107 minutes Ep. 40 - FW/MR: "Reply: The Free Will Revolution" by John Martin Fischer In this reading group episode, Adam, Giffin, Brian, and I follow up on JMF's reasons-responsive view of responsibility by looking to an earlier paper of his: "Reply: The Free Will Revolution." |
| 2022-Jun-13 • 115 minutes Ep. 39 - FW/MR: "Semicompatibilism and its Rivals" by John Martin Fischer In this reading group episode, Adam, Giffin, and I discuss reasons-responsive compatibilism by looking into J.M.F.'s work, excellently laid out in this article. We also discuss JMF's critique of Frankfurt's second order desire account. |
| 2022-Jun-12 • 158 minutes Ep. 38 - FW/MR: "The Importance of Free Will" by Susan Wolf In this reading group episode, Adam, Brian, Giffin, and I discuss "The Importance of Free Will" by Susan Wolf, a discussion spawned by our disagreements in the previous episode about the plausibility of Sommers 2007. |
| 2022-Jun-11 • 152 minutes Ep. 37 - FW/MR: "The Objective Attitude" by Tamler Sommers In this reading group episode, we discuss "The Objective Attitude" by Tamler Sommers. Giffin thinks that he could happily exist in this state - Adam and I strongly disagree. Brian join us for the rest of the series! |
| 2022-Jun-10 • 113 minutes Ep. 36 - FW/MR: "Alternate Possibilities and Moral Responsibility" by Harry Frankfurt In this reading group episode, we discuss Harry Frankfurt's landmark 1969 paper, "Alternate Possibilities and Moral Responsibility" |
| 2022-Jun-09 • 109 minutes Ep. 35 - FW/MR: "Freedom of the Will and the Concept of a Person" by Harry Frankfurt In this reading group episode, we discuss Frankfurt's famous paper, Freedom of the Will and the Concept of a Person. |
| 2022-Jun-08 • 153 minutes Ep. 34 - FW/MR: "Responsibility and the Limits of Evil" by Gary Watson In this reading group episode, we discuss Gary Watson's paper on Intelligible Moral Demand being a way to view the debate on moral responsibility. That paper is his Responsibility and the Limits of Evil: Variations on a Strawsonian Theme. |
| 2022-Jun-07 • 117 minutes Ep. 33 - FW/MR: "Freedom and Resentment" by P.F. Strawson In this reading group episode, we go deep into the weeds of PF Strawson's "Freedom and Resentment." |
| 2022-Jun-06 • 78 minutes Ep. 32 - FW/MR: The Four Case Argument and Basic Argument by Galen Strawson and Derk Pereboom In this reading group discussion episode, we discuss Galen Strawson's "The Impossibility of Moral Responsibility" and Derk Pereboom's Four Case Argument against compatibilism. |
| 2022-Jun-04 • 54 minutes Ep. 31 - FW/MR: SEP on Free Will and Determinism In this reading group discussion episode, we discuss a follow up to our part 1 episode using the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entries on free will and determinism. |
| 2022-Jun-02 • 78 minutes Ep. 30 - FW/MR: "Free Will" by Sam Harris In this reading group discussion episode, we start a series on Free Will, Determinism, and Moral Responsibility with Sam Harris's book. |
| 2022-Feb-15 • 57 minutes Ep. 29 - Max Kiener: Consenting to Objectification I spoke with Max Kiener about his work in moral responsibility, consent, and Strawson's reactive and objective attitudes. We discussed applied cases of the objective stance, such as manipulating someone into getting the Covid vaccine, undergoing a medical operation, or for someone's best interests. |
| 2022-Feb-10 • 43 minutes Ep. 28 - Eddy Nahmias: Neuroscience as a (Non) Threat to Free Will I spoke with the philosopher Eddy Nahmias about his work in Free Will and Moral Responsibility. What type of freedom do we have, or want to have? And does the increasing understanding of the brain threaten our sense of acting freely? Find out all this and more in my talk with Eddy. |
| 2022-Jan-20 • 66 minutes Ep. 27 - Seth Shabo: Free Will Mysterianism In this episode, I speak with Seth Shabo about Mysterianism, a view originated by Peter van Inwagen. We also touch related topics: determinism's relevance to responsibility, reactive attitudes, and the Luck Objection to free will. |
| 2021-Dec-29 • 69 minutes Ep. 26 - Adam Kadlac: Objectification in Sports In this episode, I speak with Adam Kadlac about a chapter in his newly published book, The Ethics of Sports Fandom. We discuss the pitfalls of objectification within various areas of athletics and from different perspectives. You can purchase the full book now! |
| 2021-Dec-13 • 51 minutes Ep. 25 - Matthew Flummer: The Free Will Show and Moral Responsibility In this episode, I speak with Matthew Flummer about various episodes and topics from his podcast, The Free Will Show. We discuss Frankfurt cases, God's Foreknowledge as a threat to freedom, and the type of control needed for responsibility. |
| 2021-Nov-18 • 74 minutes Ep. 24 - Paul Russell: Free Will, Art, and Morality (& Compatibilism) In this episode, I speak with Paul Russell about his 2008 paper, "Free Will, Art, and Morality," along with more general topics within the responsibility debate, included in Paul's chapter in the Oxford Handbook on Moral Responsibility (forthcoming). We discuss his case for compatibilism between determinism and moral responsibility. |
| 2021-Oct-22 • 60 minutes Ep. 23 - Susan Wolf: On Moral Responsibility In this episode, I speak with Susan Wolf about her first two papers, "Asymmetrical Freedom" and "The Importance of Having Free Will." These papers have been influential to me and I was lucky enough to discuss them with Dr. Wolf. We discuss her views on moral responsibility, reactive attitudes, and her upcoming projects. |
| 2021-Sep-16 • 69 minutes Ep. 22 - John Martin Fischer: Moral Responsibility Semicompatibilism In this episode, I speak with John Martin Fischer about his semicompatibilism about moral responsibility. We use his 2012 paper, "Semicompatibilism and its Rivals" as a framework for the discussion. |
| 2021-Jun-04 • 86 minutes Ep. 21 - Gregg Caruso: Just Deserts & Rejecting Retributivism In this episode, I speak with Gregg Caruso about this recent book, Just Deserts, co-authored with Dan Dennett. We discuss his claims about rejecting deep moral responsibility while still preserving many distinctions that compatibilists like Dan find important. We also dive into the divide between he (and myself) and Dennett. |
| 2021-May-08 • 66 minutes Ep. 20 - Per-Erik Milam: Letting Go & Forgiveness In this episode, I speak with Per Milam about his recent work on letting go as an alternative to forgiveness. These topics naturally touch on the practices of blame and responsibility and Strawson's reactive attitudes. |
| 2021-Apr-15 • 75 minutes Ep. 19 - Derek Leben: Pascal's Wager & Anti-Natalism for AI In this episode, I speak with Dr. Derek Leben about his recent Philosophy Now article, Pascal’s Artificial Intelligence Wager. We talk about Pascal's wager applied to AI, the control problem, consciousness, our ability to control the course of AI development, and the meaning that grounds moral realism. |
| 2021-Mar-26 • 38 minutes Ep. 18 - Tamar Schapiro: Weakness of Will In this episode, I speak with philosopher Tamar Schapiro about her work on weak willed action from a Kantian perspective. This all relates to her forthcoming book, Feeling Like it: a Theory of Inclination and Will. |
| 2020-Dec-16 • 59 minutes Ep. 17 - Philip Goff: Panpsychism In this episode, I speak with Dr. Phillip Goff about Panpsychism. We discuss what we mean by consciousness, why materialist reductionism doesn't satisfy as an explanation of its existence, and what Panpsychism can offer as a theory of consciousness. |
| 2020-Oct-11 • 106 minutes Ep. 16 - Patrick Lee Miller: Be Right Back and The Entire History of You In this episode, I speak with Dr. Patrick Lee Miller about two episodes of the phenomenal Netflix series, Black Mirror: BE Right Back and The Entire History of You. We discuss the episode's themes of grief, loss of self to technology, memory, loved ones, relationships, jealousy, and more. This was a ton of fun and I hope you enjoy it as well! |
| 2020-Sep-25 • 53 minutes Ep. 15 - Brandon Warmke: Moral Grandstanding In this episode, I speak with Brandon Warmke about his new book, Grandstanding, which he co-authored with Justin Tosi. Brandon is a professor of philosophy at Bowling Green State University. I highly recommend the book, and I hope this talk does it justice. I very much enjoyed speaking with Brandon, and I hope you enjoy our conversation as well. |
| 2020-Sep-04 • 55 minutes Ep. 14 - Brandon Robshaw: Eternal Recurrence In this episode, I speak with Dr. Brandon Robshaw about his recent piece in Philosophy Now on Nietzsche's Eternal Recurrence. We also discuss his new book, 'Should a Liberal State Ban the Burqa?' (The short answer is no.) |
| 2020-Aug-23 • 52 minutes Ep. 13 - David Papineau: Materialism and Consciousness In this episode, I talk with David Papineau about his rejection of the Hard Problem of Consciousness, how dualism infects thinking about theory of mind, and how materialism is the best account of why we have experiences. |
| 2020-Aug-17 • 60 minutes Ep. 12 - Bernardo Kastrup: Why Materialism Cannot Explain Consciousness In this episode, I speak with Bernardo Kastrup, who holds a PhD in Philosophy and Computer Engineering, about the hard problem of consciousness, idealism, theory of mind, panpsychism, and why materialistic reductionism cannot account for the fact of conscious experience. |
| 2020-Aug-14 • 69 minutes Ep. 11 - Russell Blackford: Philosophy's Future In this episode, I speak with the Philosopher Russell Blackford about his edited book with Damien Broderick on the problems of philosophical progress, pop-philosophy, academic isolation, interdisciplinary work, and more. This was a wonderful insight on the niche details of the field, and will be of interest to both PhD's and fans of philosophy alike. |
| 2020-Jun-18 • 112 minutes Ep. 10 - Jon Rosen: What's Fair Game in a Conversation? In this episode, I speak with Dr. Jon Rosen about his Facebook discussion group Fair Game and about how to have difficult conversations generally. We discuss the challenges, what it means to be a reasonable interlocutor, and more. |
| 2020-Jun-12 • 60 minutes Ep. 9 - Matthew McManus: Myth and Mayhem In this episode, I sit down with Matthew McManus to discuss the new book he co-authored: Myth and Mayhem: A Leftist Critique of Jordan Peterson. |
| 2020-Apr-24 • 86 minutes Ep. 7 - Public Historian Justin Clark In this episode, I speak with Public Historian Just Clark about the current social and economic situation surrounding COVID and about the underlying philosophy and logic of different political ideologies in general. |
| 2020-Apr-04 • 106 minutes Ep. 5 - The Milgram and Zimbardo Experiments (& Golhagen vs Browning on Nazis) In this episode, I discuss the Stanley Milgram and Phil Zimbardo experiments and what they say about our human nature. These experiments are also tied into the Browning vs Goldhagen debate on how he German population was convinced to do such terrible acts during the holocaust. |
| 2020-Mar-29 • 95 minutes Ep. 4 - Ben Burgis: Moral Responsibility in a Determined World In this episode, I speak with Ben Burgis for a second time about free will compatiblism in a deterministic world. We speak about the metaphysics of free will and determinism, and what should constitude ground for moral responsibility. We also discuss my grad school writing sample and Christine Korsgaard's work. |
| 2020-Mar-20 • 61 minutes Ep. 3 - Alastair Wilson: The Nature of Contingency In this episode, I spoke with Professor Alastair Wilson about his newly released book, The Nature of Contingency: Quantum Physics as Modal Realism. We spoke about contingency, counterfactuals, the multiple worlds interpretation of quantum physics, free will, and more. |
| 2020-Mar-16 • 97 minutes Ep. 2.11 - (ft.) Ben Burgis and Jon Rosen: Do We Have Free Will? In this episode, Ben Burgis and Jon Rosen join me for a discussion on whether we have free will, or not, and if we do have it, is it the important type of freedom? I very much enjoyed hearing the two of them spar and I hope you find it valuable as well. |
| 2020-Mar-16 • 82 minutes Ep. 2.9 - Moral Hypocrisy In this episode, Giffin, Jordan, Brian, and Adam talk about what moral hypocrisy is and what it is not. Plus, how bad is being a moral hypocrite really? Is is actually worse to be a hypocrite than just lie? Find out in this episode. |
| 2020-Mar-16 • 25 minutes Ep. 2.10 - Moral Responsibility: Freedom and Resentment by P.F. Strawson In this episode, I discuss P.F. Strawson's landmark paper on moral responsibility, Freedom and Resentment, and its posing challenges towards those who believe free will and determinism have anything to do with responsibility. |
| 2020-Mar-15 • 66 minutes Ep. 2.7 - (ft.) Clyde Rathbone In this episode, I speak with Clyde Rathbone who is a co-founder of Letter, a new and very engaging online marketplace of conversations. We discuss why the platform is very unique and inspiring, and about the health of out conversations, doing things that mater, and finding meaning in life. It was a all-around great talk, and I hope you think so too! |
| 2020-Mar-15 • 73 minutes Ep. 2.5 - Aristotelian Virtue Ethics vs Consequentialism In this episode, In this episode, Jordan, Brian, and Adam discuss the possible shortcomings of Aristotelian ethics as opposed to consequentialism or deontology. Plus, a quibble on moral relativism. |
| 2020-Mar-15 • 71 minutes Ep. 2.4 - Aristotle's Virtue Ethics Part 1 of a 2 part series on Aristotelian virtue ethics. |
| 2020-Mar-15 • 83 minutes Ep. 2.2 - (ft.) Pastor Paul Vanderklay In this episode, I spoke with Paul about many interesting topics: God, my religious experiences, his pastoral work, Jordan Peterson's religiosity, interpreting scripture, and more. This was a really interesting and fun episode, and I hope you think so too! |
| 2020-Mar-14 • 129 minutes Ep. 2.1 - (ft.) The Dirty History Podcast In this episode of Plato's Cave, I invite on Adam from That's BS and two guests from the Dirty History Podcast, Thomas and Woodrow. We talked about WWI and WWII, Imperialism, Rhetoric in history, Random history topics, Moral relativism, and Ethics in history. This was an amazing podcast to record and I hope you like it as well. |
| 2020-Mar-02 • 38 minutes Ep. 1 - The Allegory of the Cave In this episode of Plato's Cave, I unpack The Allegory of the Cave from Plato's Republic and Thus Spoke Zarathustra from Friedrich Nietzsche and use both works to explain what I'm hoping to accomplish with this podcast. |