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Social media, knowledge of others, and self-knoweldge
10
Oct 2015
A recent Radiolab podcast relates an amazing story about Allen Funt, the creator of the television show, Candid Camera. Funt found himself on a plane that was being hijacked. However, as Funt was by then well-known as the creator of the show, one of the passengers on the hijacked plane spotted Funt, started to grin and, pointing at Funt, yelled out, “we’re on Candid Camera!” The rest of the people on the plane began to recognize Funt as well and, despite Funt’s protestations to the contrary, became convinced that the hijacking was all an elaborate hoax—a show. But it wasn’t a show, and by...
Read moreHow #MeToo Helps Men
Neil Van Leeuwen
23
Oct 2018
One of my college friends recently posted a meme on Facebook that read: Every mother of boys should be TERRIFIED that at ANY time ANY girl can fabricate ANY story, with no proof, & RUIN her boy’s life. And she shared her own comment on it: “Regardless of where you stand on the Kavanaugh issue, this is the reality many of us are coming to understand.” As it happens, she’s the mother of three young boys. Accordingly, she must be “TERRIFIED” that inheritors of the #MeToo movement will one day vindictively “fabricate” a story (“ANY story”) and “RUIN” life for one or more of her sons. The...
Read moreMachine Consciousness
Ken Taylor
21
Oct 2019
Is artificial intelligence bound to outstrip human intelligence? Should we be excited about using AI to enhance the human mind? Or should we fear the rise of robot overlords? These are the kinds of questions we’re asking in this week’s show. Since the 1950s, AI cheerleaders have been breathlessly shouting: The Robots are Coming! They will be conscious and free and they will be much smarter than us. But we’re still waiting, so excuse me if don’t buy into the latest hype. Of course, I admit that it is not the 1950s anymore. It’s not even 1996 anymore. That was year IBM’s chess playing...
Read morePrivacy and the Internet of Things
Ken Taylor
16
Oct 2017
This week, our topic is "The Internet of Things." What will life be like when every road you travel, every device you own, every building you enter is connected to the internet? Will these developments transform our world in ways that enrich our lives? Or will they just create more opportunities for hackers, corporations, and governments to pry into every aspect of our lives? Now in one way the internet of things can seem like it can’t be all that big of a deal. The internet has been around for several decades. And while the internet has already affected our lives in many ways, it’s not...
Read moreInside Money: The Shadow Banking System
Guest Contributor
28
Mar 2009
Posted by Alex Gould Hi Everyone, Thanks again to John and Ken for having me on the show today and to the whole team (Ben, Devon, Daniel, et. al.) for their organization and professionalism. MAJOR NOTE: I am an Instructor in the Department of Economics at Stanford University, NOT at the GSB (Graduate School of Business) at Stanford. Given the flow of the show, I didn't feel that it was appropriate to make the correction on the air as it would have been disruptive. BUT, I am making it now. :) I'm sorry we only had part of an hour to talk about the mysteries of...
Read moreToppling the Dehumanization Thesis
Eliane Mitchell
30
Apr 2018
Often, the perpetrators of the worst atrocities in human history have used rhetoric that labels the group they oppress as animals or objects, like "vermin" or "roaches." In turn, philosophers, such as Philosophy Talk's featured contributor David Livingtone Smith, argue that dehumanization enables the infliction of widespread violence since the perpetrators think of their victims as "nonhuman." While this "dehumanization thesis" certainly sounds intuitive, is it correct? In this article from The New Yorker, Paul Bloom argues that the dehumanization thesis is limited....
Read more[VIDEO] What Is Metaethics?
Spencer Giel
14
Apr 2017
Most of us probably have some ideas about what constitutes our personal brand of ethics: questions about what is morally right and wrong pervade philosophy and everyday life. But what about metaethics? What is the difference between a moral realist and anti-realist? Between a moral absolutist and cultural relativist? Which one are you? Examining these broader categorizations of ethical thought could help you gain a better grasp of some of your underlying metaethical beliefs, your beliefs about what morality is. In this episode of Crash Course Philosophy, we are given a brief...
Why Believe (or Disbelieve) in God?
Ken Taylor
19
Dec 2005
Today's show is about the existence, or non-existence, of God. Our guest will be Walter Sinnot-Armstrong. This is Walter's second appearance on Philosophy Talk. He did a great job on our episode about moral dilemmas. And we're pleased to have him back. I gather, from our research team's pre-interview with Walter, that he is a die-hard atheist. He thinks that there is ample reason to doubt God's existence and no good reason to affirm god's existence -- at least if one means the all powerful, all loving, all knowing god,...
Read more#FrancisOnFilm: Is Wonder Woman a Feminist Movie?
Leslie Francis
28
Jun 2017
Wonder Woman is a wonderfully engrossing movie, but is it a feminist one? The answer depends on what you think it means to be a feminist and what you make of the beauty of Gal Gadot. Here are three reasons why you might think it’s feminist—or maybe not. 1. Wonder Woman is very strong. Very, very strong. She’s taught to be self-confident and tough. She comes up on top in some of the best movie fight scenes ever. Her super powers are truly impressive and she looks gorgeous using them. Indeed, one of her super powers just may be her beauty. It captivates a lot of people in the movie,...
Read moreIntroducing: Francis on Film
Laura Maguire
05
Jan 2017
Philosophy Talk is delighted to announce a new column on our blog called "Francis on Film" with our newest contributor, Leslie Francis! Leslie is a philosophy professor and law professor at the University of Utah. A major attraction of Utah for her is the Sundance Film Festival; last year, she saw 22 movies in 9 days and she’s planning to see more this year. She will be blogging and tweeting for Philosophy Talk from Sundance, January 19-29, so look out for her here on Philosophers'...
Read moreIdentities Lost and Found in a Global Age
Laura Maguire
05
Nov 2014
In this week’s show, we’re thinking about the role place and culture play in shaping identity. There was a time when identities were much more tied to geography than they are now. Most people in the world spent their entire lives living in or close to the place in which they were born. Take the 18th century German philosopher Immanuel Kant, for example, who in 79 years of life, never strayed further than a few miles outside his hometown of Königsberg! Now that we’ve entered the so-called “Global Age,” where planes, trains, and automobiles have made traveling great...
Read moreWhat Are Leaders Made of?
Ken Taylor
12
Apr 2012
This week we’re asking the question: What Are Leaders Made of? That depends on what you’re the leader of. After all, what do Girl Scout leaders, Army generals, corporate honchos, and Philosophy Department heads all have in common? Not much, I’d say. For example: whether you’re talking Girl Scout troops or Army troops -- an effective leader still has to have the ability to communicate and motivate. But motivating a troop of pre-teen girls to work hard and earn their badges is a lot different from motivating a troop of soldiers in the face of battle. It's easy to see how someone could be...
Read moreLiterary Minds
09
Jul 2021
What can neuroscience tell us about novels, poems, and plays? Can fiction help us develop real-world cognitive skills? And can writers exploit our mental weaknesses—for our own good? These are some of the questions we'll be asking on this week’s show, “Your Brain on Literature.” I think readers and writers of literature have a lot to learn from today’s sciences of mind. And this week’s guest, neuroscientist David Eagleman, does too. David and I recently taught a class together called “Literature and the Brain,” and we looked at all kinds of fascinating ideas coming from the world of...
Read moreThe Ancient Cosmos
Laura Maguire
09
Mar 2016
We are delighted to present this week’s show on the ancient cosmos, the first of eight episodes in our new and exciting cosmology series, A Philosophical Guide to the Cosmos.Cosmology—the study of the universe, how it was formed, and what laws govern its evolution—has exploded in the last few decades. But it’s not a new area of human inquiry. In fact, theories about the origin, nature, and structure of the cosmos go back thousands of years. That’s not to say that ancient cosmologies were anything like our modern scientific theories of the cosmos. Many were more...
Read moreBrazil's First Feminist?
03
Jul 2024
Nísia Floresta is often called "the Brazilian Mary Wollstonecraft" because people thought her first book was a translation of Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Women. We now know that she was really translating a political pamphlet by someone who wrote under the name Sophia. But Floresta does have some things in common with Wollstonecraft, especially with regard to women’s rights. Like Wollstonecraft, Floresta called for women to have the same rights as men. This was part of her commitment to Cartesian dualism: if the soul is totally separate from the body, it has...
Read moreThe McDonalds-ification of Education
29
Mar 2015
There is an approach to learning that is corroding education, especially higher education, in the US: the "McDonalds-ification of Education." "Fast food" has been around for a long time. The ancient Romans had it. But McDonald's raised it to a high art. You come in, you look at the menu up on the wall while you are in line, you order, and you immediately get your food. In many ways, McDonald's has become a paradigm for how our consumer society works. The internet is basically McDonald's for information and entertainment. Pick what you want, get it immediately, move on to the next thing. There...
Read moreWanting to Want for Its Own Sake
Antonia Peacocke
15
Apr 2019
Here is one of the most surprising findings that replicates well in social psychology: rewarding a kind of action does not boost motivation to perform that action. In fact, quite the opposite is true. Rewarding an action ultimately tends to decrease people’s motivation to perform that action. Part of the problem seems to be that rewards for behavior provide extrinsic motivation. Extrinsic motivation is motivation you have to do something for a different, further goal. When you’re motivated to watch a movie because it will please your friend, you have extrinsic motivation to watch that...
Read morePuzzle 2: What is an Identity?
16
Apr 2020
Since the Corona crisis rages on and we are already into April, it has come time for a second blog whose purpose is to distract you from the woes of the world. In case you missed it, I promised in my last blog that for the duration of the crisis I would write about philosophical puzzles in order to give you, readers, something to occupy your minds. Last month’s puzzle was about whether people have voluntary control over their beliefs. That issue is moderately big in philosophy of mind and epistemology, and most philosophers who think about it lean toward involuntarism—the idea that it...
Read moreWhat are Human Rights?
Ken Taylor
25
Jun 2010
Our question this week is “What are human rights?” The American declaration of independence offers a compelling answer to that question so its the first place one might think to look of for a characterization of human rights. It says in what I personally find stirring language that “All men are created equal … they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights … among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” The Declaration is rooted in the Enlightenment idea that every human being enjoys, just in virtue of being a human being,...
Read moreGender Fluidity & Social Construction
Mohit Mookim
30
Jan 2018
It is popular in certain circles to think of gender as a fluid spectrum: People can fall on many points between "very feminine" and "very masculine," and where they fall can change over time. In this Prospect article, Julian Baggini provides his own tweak to this framework. He argues for gender viscosity instead of gender fluidity, where one moves along the gender spectrum over a longer time frame. In making this argument, he advances some interesting claims regarding the status of gender as both biological and socially constructed. For me, it raised the question—how much of...
Read moreCheck us out Wednesday and Thursday in Portland
Philosophy Talk
17
Jun 2007
Be sure to check out the Philosophy Talk team this week in Portland. We'll be doing two events. On Wednesday, June 20th, we'll do a live taping a Powell's City of Books on Burnside. The show starts at 7:30. Our guest will be poet and philosopher Troy Jollimore, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award in Poetry for his collection of poems Tom Thomson in Purgatory. Come and be part of the audience. After the show, Troy will be signing copies of his very fine book. Plus you can meet and greet the entire Philosophy Talk team. We're really looking forward to it. Some come on over to...
Read moreOn Deepities and Bullshit
Neil Van Leeuwen
11
May 2018
I was sitting at a bar last week, when I had the misfortune of being asked the following question by the person next to me. In a profound tone of voice: “Do you believe in the Law of Attraction?” The so-called Law of Attraction is one of the cornerstones of New Age positive thinking, and one version of it (out of many) goes like this: if you sincerely believe with all your power that you already have what you want, then it will come to you. So for example, if you want to get into law school, then according to the Law of Attraction, you should “believe with all your power” that you...
Read moreWatered-down Philosophy for Tech Bros
Truman Chen
11
May 2017
Being told that philosophy is still useful—for tech executives who like ingesting pop wisdom in order to eliminate bullshit in their business lives—might make one wish philosophy were just dead instead. But this philosophy-as-bullshit-killer approach to the discipline is currently spreading around Silicon Valley in part due to the influence of a man named Andrew Taggart, who holds a PhD in philosophy. In a recent profile in Quartz, Taggart explains the services he provides as a "practical" philosopher who provides counseling: "Philosophers arrive on the scene at the moment when...
Read moreDo Genes Make the Person?
Ken Taylor
17
Apr 2005
Do genes make the person? If you listen to popular press reports of new genetic discoveries coming out at fairly rapid pace, you certainly might think so. Lung Cancer Gene! Gay Gene! Genius Gene! Little wonder that many people believe -- or should I say fear? -- that genes somehow directly and invariably determine who we are. One has visions of being able to choose the IQ, personality, and physical attributes of one's offspring with the ease and reliability with which one chooses a meal at a good Chinese restaurant. As Stephen Jay Gould once put it, "If we are programmed to be what we are,...
Read moreAre Americans All Nationalists?
Mohit Mookim
27
Sep 2017
Do you think America is the greatest country in the world? Even if you said no, do you implicitly believe in American exceptionalism? Do you think other countries have bigger problems and worse institutions than ours? Do you think that developing countries are trying to "catch up" to the US? Could you never imagine moving to another country? Why? And if so many of us do buy into American exceptionalism, is that just because government propaganda convinced us to? At whose expense does American exceptionalism come at? A recent article in The Guardian by Suzy Hansen...
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