Twitter: @ElucidationsPod
Site: elucidations.now.sh
149 episodes
2009 to present
Average episode: 37 minutes
Open in Apple Podcasts • RSS
Categories: Interview-Style
Podcaster's summary: Elucidations is an unexpected philosophy podcast produced in association with Emergent Ventures. Every episode, Matt Teichman temporarily transforms himself back into a student and tries to learn the basics of some topic from a person of philosophical interest. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
| Episodes |
| 2024-Apr-14 • 42 minutes Episode 149: Lainie Ross and Christos Lazaridis talk about defining death Do you have the right to choose the criterion doctors will use to determine whether you have died? |
| 2023-Oct-20 • 38 minutes Episode 148: Christos Lazaridis discusses brain death When a person permanently loses consciousness, should that count as death? |
| 2023-Jul-15 • 40 minutes Episode 147: Gabriella Gonzalez discusses the intersection of algebra and programming Can abstract algebra help make it easier to write complex software? |
| 2023-Mar-30 • 40 minutes Episode 146: Gaurav Venkataraman discusses memory in DNA and RNA Can memories be stored outside the brain? |
| 2023-Jan-21 • 40 minutes Episode 145: Andrew Sepielli discusses quietism and metaethics Can you settle ethical questions by turning to other fields, like metaphysics or the philosophy of language? |
| 2022-Nov-20 • 38 minutes Episode 144: Christopher Beem discusses democratic virtues How can we make ourselves into the kind of people who can get along well enough to have a democracy? |
| 2022-Oct-05 • 44 minutes Episode 143: Mark Linsenmayer discusses alternative models of education Formal education can be great, but why does it have to end? With podcasts, it kinda doesn't. |
| 2022-Aug-02 • 36 minutes Episode 142: Emily Dupree discusses the rationality of revenge Can seeking vengeance be a rational thing to do? |
| 2022-Jun-13 • 35 minutes Episode 141: Rob Goodman discusses eloquence What is it that makes a great public speaker? |
| 2022-Apr-10 • 44 minutes Episode 140: Meghan Sullivan and Paul Blaschko discuss the good life Is there a simple formula for figuring out how to life your best life, or is it all a bit messier? |
| 2022-Feb-13 • 32 minutes Episode 139: Jessica Tizzard discusses the philosophy of pregnancy Could it make sense to think of a gestating fetus as a part of the person who is pregnant with it? |
| 2022-Jan-23 • 43 minutes Episode 138: Toby Buckle discusses Mill's liberty principle What's the largest amount of freedom we can give everyone without people getting in each other's way? |
| 2022-Jan-02 • 73 minutes Episode 137: Bryan Caplan discusses open borders Does every person have a moral right to live and work wherever they please? |
| 2021-Oct-25 • 42 minutes Episode 136: Christian Miller discusses virtue and character What are the different ways of being a good person, and how many of us actually are good in those ways? |
| 2021-Jul-15 • 38 minutes Episode 135: Sara Protasi discusses the philosophy of envy Is it always bad to feel envy, or can it sometimes be good? |
| 2021-May-29 • 41 minutes Episode 134: Claire Kirwin discusses value realism Is mint chocolate chip ice cream REALLY tasty, like, in and of itself, or is it just tasty to me? |
| 2021-Apr-04 • 45 minutes Episode 133: Aristotle discusses his philosophy Listen to Aristotle outline his view of physics, biology, causality, and ethics! |
| 2021-Mar-02 • 46 minutes Episode 132: Rebecca Valentine discusses queer hackerspaces What happens when the creative side of tech joins forces with queer anarcha-feminism? |
| 2021-Jan-03 • 50 minutes Episode 131: Greg Salmieri discusses egoism and altruism Should you do everything that you do in order to benefit yourself? |
| 2020-Nov-22 • 36 minutes Episode 130: Jessica Tizzard discusses weakness of the will What's really going on when you lack the willpower to do the right thing? |
| 2020-Sep-27 • 51 minutes Episode 129: Nethanel Lipshitz discusses discrimination Do you have to be part of a recognized social group to be the victim of discrimination? |
| 2020-Aug-16 • 41 minutes Episode 128: Melissa Fusco discusses free choice permission Our best theory of obligation and permission is mostly on track--except for one big thing. |
| 2020-Jul-15 • 41 minutes Episode 127 - Nic Koziolek discusses self-knowledge What's the difference between knowing about some third-personal fact and knowing about your own mental states? |
| 2020-Jun-11 • 48 minutes Episode 126 - Listener Q&A with Agnes Callard and Ben Callard In this episode, Matt Teichman, Agnes Callard, and Ben Callard answer philosophical questions submitted by listeners. |
| 2020-Apr-17 • 39 minutes Episode 125: James Koppel discusses counterfactual inference and automated explanation Ever wonder how you can get a computer to help you figure out why something broke? |
| 2020-Mar-21 • 41 minutes Elucidations Episode 124: Graham Priest discusses Buddhist political philosophy What would a society organized around the desire to minimize suffering look like? |
| 2020-Feb-15 • 48 minutes Episode 123: Graham Priest discusses Buddhist metaphysics What are some of Buddhism's core commitments when it comes to the nature of the universe? |
| 2020-Jan-17 • 40 minutes Episode 122: Frithjof Bergmann and David Helmbold discuss new work, new culture What if you not only didn't mind your job, but your job was the best thing in your life? |
| 2019-Dec-05 • 42 minutes Episode 121: Aaron Ben Ze'ev discusses the arc of love What is love, and what makes it last for a long time? |
| 2019-Nov-10 • 33 minutes Episode 120: Robin Dembroff on going beyond the gender binary A survey of recent developments in gender. |
| 2019-Oct-15 • 45 minutes Episode 119: Stephanie Kapusta discusses misgendering Can a theory of gender misgender people? |
| 2019-Sep-12 • 53 minutes Episode 118: Tyler Cowen discusses Stubborn Attachments Maybe you can be a guilt-free utilitarian by taking future people's needs as seriously as ours. |
| 2019-Aug-30 • 38 minutes Episode 117: Brian L. Frye says to plagiarize this podcast We take it for granted that plagiarizing is a moral abomination. But is that right? |
| 2019-Aug-05 • 59 minutes Episode 116: Tommy Curry discusses black male studies Where does the category of 'oppressed people' come from, historically? |
| 2019-Jul-01 • 40 minutes Episode 115: Katherine Ritchie discusses social groups What's the difference between some people chosen at random and a group of people? |
| 2019-May-14 • 41 minutes Episode 114: Sally Haslanger discusses ideology What is the nature of a person's political outlook? |
| 2019-Apr-08 • 36 minutes Episode 113: Tom Pashby discusses quantum mechanics Quantum mechanics seems like the best physical theory we have, but does it make coherent sense? |
| 2019-Mar-07 • 44 minutes Episode 112: Myisha Cherry discusses the skill of conversation What's the difference between a good conversationalist and a bad one? |
| 2019-Jan-27 • 41 minutes Episode 111: Greg Kobele discusses mathematical linguistics How can abstract mathematics help us understand the ability people have to speak? |
| 2018-Dec-15 • 37 minutes Episode 110: Chike Jeffers discusses the social and political philosophy of W.E.B. Du Bois What is the best way forward for racial justice in America? |
| 2018-Oct-13 • 48 minutes Episode 109: Bonus Episode with Matt Teichman and Toby Buckle A joint episode between Elucidations and the Political Philosophy Podcast |
| 2018-Sep-15 • 36 minutes Episode 108: Mariam Thalos discusses freedom This episode is about the labels we use to categorize ourselves and whether it's possible to create our own labels. |
| 2018-Aug-03 • 50 minutes Episode 107: Linda Martín Alcoff discusses identity and history How can the history of your social group affect what it's like for you to be a member of that group? |
| 2018-Jun-22 • 37 minutes Episode 106: R. A. Briggs discusses gender What is gender, anyway? |
| 2018-Apr-20 • 37 minutes Episode 105: R. A. Briggs discusses epistemic decision theory How do we tell what the best strategies for changing our beliefs on the basis of new evidence might be? |
| 2018-Mar-04 • 39 minutes Episode 104: Seth Yalcin discusses the question-sensitivity of belief What determines when a belief of mine is operative and when I'm not attending to it? |
| 2018-Jan-09 • 51 minutes Episode 103: Brian Leiter explains why we should think about Marx Can Marx help us understand our current political situation? |
| 2017-Dec-01 • 33 minutes Episode 102: Josh Knobe discusses the true self Who are you, really, deep down, in your core? |
| 2017-Oct-21 • 50 minutes Episode 101: Miranda Fricker discusses blame and forgiveness Why do we blame people, and should we blame them? |
| 2017-Sep-22 • 49 minutes Episode 100: Agnes Callard discusses aspiration What is the process of moving from one set of values to another? |
| 2017-Aug-13 • 39 minutes Episode 99: Steven Nadler discusses Spinoza on freedom What does it mean to be free in a universe where every event is determined? |
| 2017-Jul-17 • 32 minutes Episode 98: Jennifer Lackey discusses credibility Who should we trust more and who should we trust less? |
| 2017-Jun-11 • 56 minutes Episode 97: Meghan Sullivan discusses time biases Should we care more about the future than the past? |
| 2017-May-08 • 41 minutes Episode 96: Nic Koziolek discusses the role of belief in reasoning What are the component parts of reasoning? |
| 2017-Apr-10 • 33 minutes Episode 95: Zed Adams discusses the genealogy of color How did we get to wondering whether colors were real? |
| 2017-Mar-23 • 36 minutes Episode 94: Zsofia Zvolenszky discusses fictional names What does the name 'Princess Leia' stand for? |
| 2017-Jan-30 • 42 minutes Episode 93: Barry Lam discusses obligations after death Should we honor the wishes of someone who passed away, no matter what they are, indefinitely? |
| 2017-Jan-14 • 44 minutes Episode 92: Kristie Dotson discusses epistemic oppression How does oppressing or being oppressed affect your ability to know and learn things? |
| 2016-Dec-23 • 35 minutes Episode 91: Paolo Santorio discusses counterfactuals What do statements like 'If A were, then B would be' mean? |
| 2016-Nov-20 • 29 minutes Episode 90: Ásta Sveinsdóttir discusses social construction Is being disabled a social status, or a physical impairment, or both? |
| 2016-Oct-28 • 41 minutes Episode 89: John Collins discusses language universals Why are people so good at acquiring languages? |
| 2016-Oct-12 • 30 minutes Episode 88: Kent Bach discusses jumping to conclusions and knowing when to think twice Can the fact that you aren't thinking about something be evidence that it isn't worth thinking about? |
| 2016-Sep-11 • 31 minutes Episode 87: Susanna Schellenberg discusses perceptual particularity What distinguishes hallucinations from ordinary visual experience? |
| 2016-Aug-18 • 46 minutes Episode 86: Daniel Smyth discusses photographs and their vicissitudes Photography as a Recording Technology |
| 2016-Aug-01 • 35 minutes Episode 85: Bryce Huebner discusses race and cognitive science In this episode, Bryce Huebner argues that our implicit racial biases are shaped by the physical environments we inhabit. |
| 2016-Jun-10 • 43 minutes Episode 84: Amanda Greene discusses the legitimacy of democracy In this episode, Amanda Greene argues that democracy is the form of government that most reliably leads to long-term stability and acceptance. |
| 2016-May-12 • 36 minutes Episode 83: Bob Simpson discusses genealogical anxiety In this episode, Bob Simpson discusses how a person should respond to the realization that they only believe something because of how they were brought up. |
| 2016-Apr-13 • 41 minutes Episode 82: Robert May discusses Frege and the problem of identity In this episode, Robert May discusses the problems that arise when we try to explain what simple statements of arithmetic are saying. |
| 2016-Mar-15 • 38 minutes Episode 81: Cathy Legg discusses what Peirce's categories can do for you In this episode, Cathy Legg talks about why Charles Sanders Peirce thought that existing was only one of three ways of being. |
| 2016-Feb-10 • 32 minutes Episode 80: Mark Hopwood discusses love and moral value In this episode, Mark Hopwood discusses the moral relation that results when one person values another as a particular individual. |
| 2016-Jan-06 • 33 minutes Episode 79: Anthony S. Gillies discusses conditionals In this episode, Anthony S. Gillies shows us how difficult it is to figure out what if/then statements mean! |
| 2015-Dec-09 • 32 minutes Episode 78: Stephen Engstrom discusses the categorical imperative In this episode, Stephen Engstrom discusses the principle that Immanuel Kant thought to underlie all of ethics. |
| 2015-Nov-13 • 39 minutes Episode 77: Mark Schroeder discusses reasons for action and belief In this episode, Mark Schroeder discusses an example of how something other than evidence against a claim can give you a reason not to believe that it's true. |
| 2015-Oct-13 • 42 minutes Episode 76: Barbara Herman discusses gratitude In this episode, Barbara Herman describes the intricacies of the relationship between two people that is created when one does a favor for the other. |
| 2015-Sep-08 • 32 minutes Episode 75: Malte Willer discusses non-monotonic logic In this episode, Malte Willer discusses attempts to give a formal theory of commonsense reasoning, and how it differs from the kind of reasoning that has traditionally been studied. |
| 2015-Aug-07 • 30 minutes Episode 74: Christina van Dyke discusses gender and medieval mysticism In this episode, Christina van Dyke discusses the medieval mystics, a loose collection of authors who thought through philosophical issues by writing about their religious experiences. |
| 2015-Jul-15 • 40 minutes Episode 73: Greg Salmieri discusses Ayn Rand's moral philosophy In this episode, Greg Salmieri explains why Ayn Rand thought a good life is oriented, first and foremost, toward the goal of benefitting oneself. |
| 2015-Jun-25 • 39 minutes Episode 72: Robert May discusses pejorative expressions In this episode, Robert May explains what racial, ethnic, and homophobic slurs literally mean. |
| 2015-Jun-05 • 35 minutes Episode 71: Kent Schmor discusses Carnap's Aufbau In this episode, Kent Schmor introduces us to Rudolf Carnap's classic work, _The Logical Construction of the World_. |
| 2015-May-06 • 33 minutes Episode 70: Susan James discusses Spinoza on the good embodied life In this episode, Susan James explains Spinoza's view that the mind and the body are really just different aspects of the same thing, and how that view led him to think of moral reasoning as having an emotional component. |
| 2015-Mar-25 • 33 minutes Episode 69: Christel Fricke discusses Adam Smith's theory of moral sentiments In this episode, Christel Fricke discusses a view in ethics according to which you determine the right thing to do by imitating the perspective of an ideal, impartial spectator. |
| 2015-Feb-18 • 43 minutes Episode 68: Mark Lance discusses anarchism In this episode, Mark Lance defends the view that instead of answering to a central authority, our society should self-govern, only scaling up what it has to. |
| 2015-Jan-12 • 32 minutes Episode 67: John Protevi discusses Darwin, disaster, and prosociality In this episode, John Protevi discusses research across several different disciplines which supports the hypothesis that human beings evolved to cooperate with each other. |
| 2014-Dec-17 • 41 minutes Episode 66: Haim Gaifman discusses mathematical reasoning In this episode, Haim Gaifman argues that there are mathematical facts about real, objective, mathematical entities. |
| 2014-Nov-17 • 39 minutes Episode 65: Julian Savulescu discusses doping in sports In this episode, Julian Savulescu argues that professional sports should change their regulations so as to allow for a certain amount of doping. |
| 2014-Oct-18 • 52 minutes Episode 64: James Conant and Jay Elliott discuss the analytic tradition In this episode, James Conant and Jay Elliott go into the history of the movement known as analytic philosophy. |
| 2014-Sep-19 • 38 minutes Episode 63: Michael Devitt discusses reference In this episode, Michael Devitt explains why we need a theory of what it means for a proper name to stand for a person or place. |
| 2014-Aug-21 • 31 minutes Episode 62: Sally Sedgwick discusses Hegel’s critique of Kant In this episode, Sally Sedgwick runs through Immanuel Kant’s idea that doing the right thing means doing whatever respects the dignity of all rational creatures, along with G. W. F. Hegel’s worry that Kant neglected how his moral theory was the product of a particular historical moment. |
| 2014-Jul-16 • 45 minutes Episode 61: Jeff Buechner discusses Kripke and functionalism In this episode, Jeff Buechner gives us an overview of the work of Saul Kripke, and explains his (not yet published) argument against the idea that the human mind is a kind of computer. |
| 2014-Jun-23 • 27 minutes Episode 60: Fabrizio Cariani shares some thoughts about oughts In this episode, Fabrizio Cariani explains some of the challenges that arise when we try to precisely define the words 'ought' and 'should.' |
| 2014-May-14 • 37 minutes Episode 59: Quill Kukla discusses reproductive risk In this episode, Quill Kukla questions the assumptions behind the idea that keeping unborn fetuses safe is simply a matter of individual mothers managing risk responsibly. |
| 2014-Apr-17 • 28 minutes Episode 58: Stewart Shapiro discusses vagueness, part II In this episode, we return to the topic of vagueness from a new perspective. |
| 2014-Mar-19 • 39 minutes Episode 57: Julia Annas discusses virtue ethics In this episode, Julia Annas introduces us to the ancient Greek conception of ethics. |
| 2014-Feb-10 • 54 minutes Episode 56: Philip Pettit discusses corporate rights and responsibilities In this episode, Philip Pettit considers whether a corporation can have any special privileges or rights. |
| 2014-Jan-08 • 46 minutes Episode 55: Branden Fitelson discusses paradoxes of consistency In this episode, Branden Fitelson proposes a new notion of coherence to explain certain unusual situations in which the need to believe what's true conflicts with the need to believe what's supported by evidence. |
| 2013-Dec-06 • 44 minutes Episode 54: Patricia Blanchette discusses Frege's logicism In this episode, Patricia Blanchette explains why Gottlob Frege and other early 20th century philosophers wanted to understand all of mathematics as really being about logic. |
| 2013-Nov-14 • 38 minutes Episode 53: Martin Stokhof discusses formal semantics and Wittgenstein In this episode, Martin Stokhof argues that understanding what formal theories of linguistic meaning are actually doing is less straightforward than it might seem. |
| 2013-Oct-14 • 38 minutes Episode 52: Rafeeq Hasan discusses Rousseau on freedom and happiness In this episode, Rafeeq Hasan argues that according to Jean-Jacques Rousseau, there isn't any conflict between being a free individual and living in a cooperative society. |
| 2013-Sep-23 • 33 minutes Episode 51: Jeroen Groenendijk and Floris Roelofsen discuss inquisitive semantics In this episode, Jeroen Groenendijk and Floris Roelofsen discuss a new theory of linguistic meaning that brings out a deep commonality between statements and questions. |
| 2013-Aug-21 • 36 minutes Episode 50: Greg Salmieri discusses the Aristotelian good life and productive work In this episode, Greg Salmieri looks at the attitudes ancient philosophers used to take towards craftsmanship. |
| 2013-Jul-17 • 47 minutes Episode 49: Hans Kamp discusses discourse representation theory In this episode, Hans Kamp discusses his influential dynamic theory of linguistic meaning. |
| 2013-Jun-10 • 32 minutes Episode 48: Jennifer Frey discusses the philosophy of Thomas Aquinas In this episode, Jennifer Frey discusses the medieval philosopher Thomas Aquinas' idea that what's ethically right or wrong is determined by our nature as human beings. |
| 2013-May-14 • 40 minutes Episode 47: Alexandru Baltag discusses the logic of knowledge In this episode, Alexandru Baltag gives us a tour through a number of formal definitions of knowledge that have been proposed in recent years. |
| 2013-Apr-19 • 27 minutes Episode 46: Frank Veltman discusses normality In this episode, Frank Veltman discusses the central role that the idea of normality (along with abnormality) plays in our everyday reasoning. |
| 2013-Mar-22 • 32 minutes Episode 45: Anubav Vasudevan discusses probability and determinism In this episode, Anubav Vasudevan argues that there is no conflict between the belief that the future is completely determined by the past and the belief that some things truly happen by chance. |
| 2013-Feb-15 • 34 minutes Episode 44: Joelle Proust discusses metacognition In this episode, Joelle Proust discusses whether you need to have the concept of memory in order to evaluate your ability to remember things. |
| 2013-Jan-01 • 42 minutes Episode 43: Peter Adamson discusses the philosophy of Al-Kindi In this episode, Peter Adamson gives us a tour through the impressively wide-ranging work of Al-Kindi, including his arguments for the unity of God and against the eternity of the universe. |
| 2012-Dec-12 • 37 minutes Episode 42: Agustin Rayo discusses the construction of logical space In this episode, Agustin Rayo considers whether the number of dinosaurs being zero is the same thing as there being no dinosaurs, whether some wood blocks being nailed together into the shape of a table is the same thing as there being a table, and similar matters. |
| 2012-Nov-09 • 40 minutes Episode 41: David Enoch discusses metaethics In this episode, David Enoch argues that there are real facts of the matter about whether something is right or wrong, and that our ability to deliberate about what to do depends on this. |
| 2012-Oct-08 • 36 minutes Episode 40: Johan van Benthem discusses logical dynamics In this episode, Johan van Benthem argues that the subject matter of logic should be broadened to encompass not only processes of inference performed by individuals, but also the sharing of information among groups of people. |
| 2012-Sep-04 • 31 minutes Episode 39: Nicholas Asher discusses the philosophy of language In this episode, Nicholas Asher discusses some of the challenges faced by philosophers, linguists, and computer scientists when it comes to developing a formal theory of meaning that (for example) a computer could understand. |
| 2012-Aug-08 • 25 minutes Episode 38: Christopher Frey discusses Aristotle on living organisms and their parts In this episode, Christopher Frey explains why Aristotle thought that after you sever a person's hand, it isn't really a hand anymore. |
| 2012-Jul-10 • 25 minutes Episode 37: Catarina Dutilh Novaes discusses methods in philosophy In this episode, Catarina Dutilh Novaes talks about whether there is any one method that's specific to philosophy, the way there is (for example) something we call the scientific method. |
| 2012-Jun-15 • 33 minutes Episode 36: Robert van Rooij discusses vagueness In this episode, Robert van Rooij talks about a paradox that arises when you try to decide exactly how many millimeters high someone has to be in order to count as tall. |
| 2012-May-07 • 29 minutes Episode 35: Martha Nussbaum discusses the capabilities approach In this episode, Martha Nussbaum proposes a new set of criteria for determining the overall health and prosperity of a country. |
| 2012-Apr-09 • 31 minutes Episode 34: Kieran Setiya discusses moral disagreement In this episode, Kieran Setiya discusses the difference between disagreeing with someone about how you should live your life and disagreeing with someone about what you just saw (like, for example, who was the winner of a very close race). |
| 2012-Mar-14 • 31 minutes Episode 33: Daniel Sutherland discusses the philosophy of mathematics In this episode, Daniel Sutherland explains some of the difficulties involved in trying to say what numbers are. |
| 2012-Feb-09 • 24 minutes Episode 32: Jennifer Lockhart discusses ignorant knowledge In this episode, Jennifer Lockhart tells us what happens when a person is unable to go ahead and do something they know how to do in theory. |
| 2012-Jan-11 • 44 minutes Episode 31: Branden Fitelson discusses reasoning fallacies In this episode, Branden Fitelson discusses some mistakes we often make when reasoning about probabilities, and explains why we may even have evolved to make these mistakes. |
| 2011-Dec-12 • 31 minutes Episode 30: Marko Malink discusses modal syllogistic In this episode, Marko Malink discusses what Aristotle meant by words like 'every' and 'some,' and how his use of these words differs subtly from ours. |
| 2011-Nov-08 • 34 minutes Episode 29: Peter Kail discusses Hume's legacy In this episode, Peter Kail discusses the importance of David Hume's contributions to philosophy, including his thoughts on the scientific method, human psychology, and religious belief. |
| 2011-Oct-18 • 39 minutes Episode 28: John Searle discusses human reality and basic reality In this episode, John Searle explores some of the problems that come up when we try to reconcile what's obvious and self-evident about human experience with what we know about how the world works. |
| 2011-Sep-26 • 32 minutes Episode 27: Emma Borg discusses semantic minimalism In this episode, Emma Borg explains why it's important to have a sharp distinction between what a person literally means when they say something and what they merely imply. |
| 2011-Sep-08 • 36 minutes Episode 26: Robert Richards discusses evolutionary ethics In this episode, Robert Richards argues that we have evolved an instinct to act for the benefit of other people. |
| 2011-Jul-18 • 29 minutes Episode 25: Robert Stalnaker discusses conversational context In this episode, Robert Stalnaker draws a distinction between two different meanings of the word 'context,' then explores some of its philosophical ramifications. |
| 2011-Jun-13 • 31 minutes Episode 24: Christopher Peacocke discusses the perception of music In this episode, Christopher Peacocke discusses what it is to hear emotion in music. |
| 2011-May-17 • 32 minutes Episode 23: Quassim Cassam discusses transcendental arguments In this episode, Quassim Cassam discusses an influential strategy for arguing against the idea that (for example) we're all in the Matrix. |
| 2011-Apr-06 • 30 minutes Episode 22: Ben Laurence discusses collective action In this episode, Ben Laurence discusses the difference between what an individual person does and what a group of people does. |
| 2011-Mar-07 • 33 minutes Episode 21: Raymond Geuss discusses political liberalism In this episode, Raymond Geuss critiques the idea that we should always look to what the general consensus is when deciding which political policies to adopt. |
| 2011-Feb-08 • 33 minutes Episode 20: Simon Critchley discusses faith In this episode, Simon Critchley considers whether religious faith can serve as a model for faith in ethical principles. |
| 2011-Jan-12 • 35 minutes Episode 19: Dan Sperber discusses epistemic vigilance In this episode, Dan Sperber discusses the psychological habits we develop in order to figure out whether the information we hear from other people is trustworthy. |
| 2010-Dec-06 • 34 minutes Episode 18: Mark Lance discusses language and power In this episode, Mark Lance discusses how the conventions by which we verbally address one another define the roles we play in society. |
| 2010-Nov-08 • 34 minutes Episode 17: Brandon Fogel discusses mechanism and causation In this episode, Brandon Fogel discusses how attitudes toward the idea of action at a distance have changed over the course of history. |
| 2010-Oct-06 • 28 minutes Episode 16: Amartya Sen discusses justice In this episode, Amartya Sen critiques the idea that in order to make our society more just, we have to model it on an ideal. |
| 2010-Sep-08 • 37 minutes Episode 15: Brian Leiter discusses religious toleration In this episode, Brian Leiter considers whether claims of religious conscience--as opposed to claims of other matters of conscience--should be given special status under the law. |
| 2010-Aug-02 • 33 minutes Episode 14: Edward Witherspoon discusses skepticism In this episode, Edward Witherspoon considers whether a disembodied brain could, in principle, have the ability to think. |
| 2010-Jul-09 • 23 minutes Episode 13: Fabrizio Cariani discusses judgment aggregation In this episode, Fabrizio Cariani discusses how the beliefs held by a single person in a group relate to the beliefs held by that group as a whole. |
| 2010-Jun-03 • 40 minutes Episode 12: Jason Bridges discusses contextualism In this episode, Jason Bridges discusses how a single sentence can mean completely different things in different contexts, and why this is of particular interest to philosophers. |
| 2010-May-07 • 23 minutes Episode 11: Martin Gustafsson discusses philosophical pictures In this episode, Martin Gustafsson discusses Ludwig Wittgenstein's thoughts on the commonsense belief that the meaning of a word is the thing for which the word stands. |
| 2010-Apr-05 • 23 minutes Episode 10: Richard Kraut discusses goodness In this episode, Richard Kraut discusses the contrast between being good for someone and simply being good. |
| 2010-Mar-04 • 32 minutes Episode 9: Ted Cohen discusses metaphor In this episode, Ted Cohen argues that metaphorical language is a tool we use to identify with other people. |
| 2010-Feb-12 • 23 minutes Episode 8: Chris Haufe discusses evolutionary psychology In this episode, Chris Haufe discusses the problems involved in trying to give an evolutionary account of our psychological traits. |
| 2010-Jan-04 • 24 minutes Episode 7: Daniel Groll discusses nature and ethics In this episode, Daniel Groll discusses how one might invoke the idea of nature when making an argument about what is right or wrong. |
| 2009-Dec-01 • 35 minutes Episode 6: Jesse Prinz discusses experimental philosophy In this episode, Jesse Prinz discusses a new movement in philosophy which makes use of findings in psychology and the social sciences to address traditional philosophical problems. |
| 2009-Nov-02 • 34 minutes Episode 5: Jocelyn Benoist discusses the philosophy of perception In this episode, Jocelyn Benoist reflects on whether our sense perception is reliable. Should we worry about whether we can be certain that there is a real, tangible, external world, or is that worry misplaced? |
| 2009-Oct-01 • 23 minutes Episode 4: Martha Nussbaum discusses sexuality and the law In this episode, Martha Nussbaum discusses how and whether sexual conduct should be legally regulated. |
| 2009-Sep-01 • 31 minutes Episode 3: Brian Leiter discusses Nietzsche on morality In this episode, Brian Leiter discusses Nietzsche's critique of morality and his naturalist approach to human psychology. |
| 2009-Aug-03 • 27 minutes Episode 2: Gabriel Richardson Lear discusses Plato's philosophy of poetry In this episode, Gabriel Richardson Lear tells us why Plato thought that the stylistic choices made by a poet could have ethical ramifications. |
| 2009-Jul-06 • 26 minutes Episode 1: Agnes Callard discusses desire and satisfaction In this episode, Agnes Callard offers a new account of what it is to want something, and what it means to get the thing you want. |