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Theological Correctness Part I: The Question
Neil Van Leeuwen
23
Jul 2014
I grew up as a boy going to the Christian Reformed Church, in which every Sunday we would recite the Apostle’s creed. It starts: “I believe in God, the Father almighty, maker of Heaven and Earth.” There are two things to note here. First, the creed mentions the psychological state of “belief.” Second, the belief is supposed to be in a being that is almighty, or omnipotent.I wrote last time on whether cognitive science of religion impacts whether one should believe in God. Today I’d like to discuss a finding that raises a different but related question.What is the ...
Read moreIs Nothing Sacred Anymore?
John Perry
12
Nov 2011
Today we're asking the question: Is Nothing Sacred Anymore? Holding something sacred is often associated with religion and God. Some things are held to be sacred because of their relation to God’s wishes and commands. I think our question is in part about contemporary mores. It's also about what sort of convincing rationale there might be for something being sacred, in our more or less secular age. For example, we might agree that human life is sacred. For some people this is explained by God’s wishes, but others might think there's just something about...
Read moreSelf Deception
Ken Taylor
26
Aug 2010
Our topic this week is self-deception. Self-deception is rampant in human affairs. And although too much self-deception is probably a bad thing, a little self-deception may be just what a person needs to get through the day. One should never underestimate the power of positive illusions. For example, psychological studies show that people who are overly optimistic about their own abilities often have enhanced motivation, which enables them to do better in the face of challenges than people with more realistic assessments of their own talents. Of course, it may be...
Read moreRename that Radio Show??
Ken Taylor
05
Dec 2007
Believe it or not, program directors, the gate-keepers of public radio, almost universally hate the name 'Philosophy Talk' -- whatever they think of the program Philosophy Talk. Even PD's who seem otherwise to like the program quite a lot, sometimes say they hate both the 'talk' part of our name and the 'Philosophy' part of our name. But folks seem particularly to hate the combination of 'Philosophy' and 'Talk'. A PD at a very major station on the West Coast hated our name so much that he/she even cited it as one reason for not putting us on the air when we were first starting out. Because we...
Read moreAre we a white supremacist nation?
21
Feb 2016
In a recent episode of Philosophy Talk, Ken, John, and their guest, Naomi Zack, considered Cornell West’s criticism of Obama the crux of which is that Obama is afraid to acknowledge that the United States is a white supremacist society, which is the root of all other race-related problems in the United States. Ken, John and Naomi all seemed to agree that West’s criticism was off-mark, citing the important difference between “formal” and “material” equality (or rights). The idea seemed to be that there is an important difference between a society that allows legal discrimination based on...
Read moreDemocracy in Crisis
John Perry
19
Mar 2015
This week we're thinking about Democracy in Crisis. Now if we're talking about American Democracy, then our title is pretty optimistic, since it presupposes there is an American democracy to be in crisis. If you told me the passenger pigeon was in crisis, that would also be optimistic, since the passenger pigeon went extinct a century or so ago. Why isn't it crazy to think that American democracy has gone extinct? Consider the 2014 election, where the Democrats won a considerable majority of the votes for the House of Representatives, but the Republicans...
Read moreIn Praise of Affirmative Consent
Ray Briggs
22
Dec 2017
The recent Twitter popularity of the #MeToo movement (originally started by activist Tarana Burke) has shone a public spotlight on ongoing conversations about rape and sexual assault. There is no single, magical solution to the problem of sexual assault, but an important piece of the puzzle is changing the way we understand sex and consent. Prevailing social rules excuse—or actively encourage—powerful people who exploit the less powerful, and they make even consensual sex a needlessly unpleasant experience. Fortunately, more people and institutions are coming to embrace a better standard:...
Read morePhilosophers and the Meaning of Life
Mohit Mookim
13
Jun 2018
What's the meaning of life? There have been moments in philosophy that placed a deal of emphasis on questions like this. We can think of French existentialists like Sartre and Camus that seem to be very sensitive to concerns about the futility of existence. Currently, academic philosophers in the English speaking world are not prone to take this question seriously on its own terms. At least this is what Professor of Philosophy Kieran Setiya argues in this Aeon article. Many philosophers nowadays think of the question as confused or misguided. Or they try to explain what...
Read moreIdeology and Belief
08
May 2022
This week we’re thking about Ideology—a system of false beliefs that’s opposed to reason, like fascism or Scientology. Of course we shouldn’t tar all ideologies with the same brush. After all, what about liberal democracy, i.e. the belief that everybody deserves the same freedoms, a say in their government, and the protection of the law? Nothing wrong with that ideology, right? But is that really an ideology, or just... the truth? Well, believing in liberal democracy isn’t like believing in gravity. It’s fine to say that physical facts are true, but values aren’t like that. We may value...
Read moreArt, Origins, and the Fearless Girl
Neil Van Leeuwen
25
Apr 2017
Have you ever seen a beautiful television spot, only to have it ruined by learning it’s an advertisement? Have you ever been delighted by a musical performance, only to learn the singers were lip-synching? Have you ever seen a heart-melting painting and then found out it’s fake? Such experiences are common but strange. Like jilted lovers, we feel played. Something about the origins or intentions behind the pieces ruins them. But is that the right response? From another perspective, it seems rational to say, “Well, I suppose rapacious oil companies can make beautiful advertisements after all...
Read moreCan the Laws of Physics Change?
Ken Taylor
12
Aug 2017
What if gravity suddenly stopped working? Or what if e gradually came to equal mc3 rather than mc2? Could the fundamentals of physics really change? Or Is this just the stuff of science fiction? That’s the question we’re addressing this week on Philosophy Talk. Now I must admit that part of me wonders whether this idea even makes sense. I admit, though, that we can surely imagine such a thing. Early in the history of the cosmos, the fundamental constants have one set of values. Later, they have a different set. No doubt that would be surprising, but the idea itself...
Read moreAgainst Introspection
04
Sep 2019
In last month’s essay, I discussed the time-honored adage “know thyself.” According to tradition, this was first uttered by the ancient Greek philosopher Thales, and it’s certainly had staying power. It seems that most people—at least, most of the ones I talk to—think that knowing oneself is a really good idea. But not everyone has been on board with this. Some very smart people have cast shade on the project of self-knowledge. The philosopher Immanuel Kant claimed that self-knowledge is the gateway to mental illness. The German polymath Johann Wolfgang von Goethe had a different beef....
Read moreMohan's Question
John Fischer
30
Mar 2005
During the call-in component of the show, Mohan asked a question about the relationship between political freedom and metaphysical freedom. Although it was a bit off the central topics, it does raise a question that has troubled me. That is, I believe that genuinely available metaphysical alternatives or possibilities are not required for moral agency--the forward-looking aspect (practical reasoning) or the backward-looking aspect (moral responsibility). But then why would I prefer to live in a nation with political liberties, such as freedom of speech, freedom of...
Read moreWhat are Crony Beliefs?
Mohit Mookim
14
Mar 2017
According to Kevin Simler's essay called "Crony Beliefs," crony beliefs are beliefs that you have partly because you want to believe them. This article talks at length about how beliefs form and when things go wrong. Why does it seem like so many people end up believing things that end up serving their self-interest? In a political context, I'm sure it would be easy to find boatloads of evidence for this on both sides of the aisle. However, taking a step back, some philosophers doubt that such a thing as "crony beliefs" could even exist. They argue as follows: if the...
Read moreMy Discovery of the X-Files
23
Jun 2013
I missed the X-Files in its hey-day. The nine seasons running from 1993 to 2002 corresponded almost exactly with my teenage years. But I was too busy watching Star Trek: TNG, DS9, and Voyager, too busy reading the classics of science fiction and fantasy, or quickly paging through the latest literary addition to the Stars Wars universe. Though the literary quality, it needs to be said, went quickly downhill after Timothy Zahn's Thrawn trilogy. For the longest time, the X-Files lay just over my cultural horizon. Until this summer, actually. Netflix offered a free month subscription a week...
Read moreProcrastination
John Perry
27
Jan 2011
This week we talk about procrastination. Now I am not only an expert practitioner of the procrastinating arts, but have actually written an essay on this topic [ed.note: which has been expanded -- finally! -- into a book, The Art of Pracrastination]. In fact, in spite of my many outstanding contributions to philosophy (IMHO) I’m pretty sure it's the most read thing I have ever written. You can find it at http://www. structuredprocrastination.org. However, this doesn’t mean I’m really and expert on...
Read moreThe Post-Modern Family Values: Open Blog Entry
Ken Taylor
12
Sep 2009
It's pledge week on KALW, our host station. And we're doing a live pledge show that will only be heard on that station and not on our affiliates around the country. But if you'd like to tune it, you can do so at 10am PST time, on KALW's Website where the show is streamed live. Join the conversation. Of course, even if you can't hear a broadcast version of the show, we will eventually put the streaming version up on our own website, from which you can also purchase an downloadable version. A couple of weeks ago, I started an open...
Read moreWhat the Imagination is For
Ken Taylor
29
May 2006
Today's show features Alison Gopnik on the Imagination. This is Alison's second visit to Philosophy Talk. Check out the show she did with us on Nature vs. Nurture. Since it's been awhile since I've done a pre-show blog, I thought I'd jot down a few initial thoughts before we take to the air. First, thought. The imagination is a pretty cool thing, but also in some ways puzzling. On the one hand, it seems sometimes to give us cognitive acquaintance with real possibilities. A kid from Hope Arkansas imagines growing up to be president of the United States. And lo and behold that kid...
Read moreAesthetics for Dogs?
Laura Maguire
11
Apr 2017
Dogs love art! At least, when that art is designed with them in mind. The Huffington Post reported the first ever canine-centric art show, created by London artist Dominic Wilcox. To help him design the exhibit, Wilcox did a lot research about the canine visual system, and added various scents to the artwork. Judging from the photos, the dogs looked engaged by the art.“The dogs seemed to love their visit,” Wilcox told The Huffington Post. “Tails were wagging like crazy at the giant dog food bowl filled with brown balls. They were jumping in and out of...
Read moreWhat is a Culture of Victimhood?
Ken Taylor
20
Sep 2015
A few thoughts about so-called cultures of victimhood and whether it's a new, old, or even real phenomenon, prompted partly by recent "debates" over trigger warnings, but also by our recent episode on the Changing Face of Feminism. I put "debates" in quotes like that because I think of the debates more as heated exchanges. Way too much talking past each other and way too little sympathetic listening has gone on.But enough of that. I start with the observation that it's surely true that there have been victims as long as there have been humans...
Read moreGetting Rid of "Racism"
David Livingstone Smith
03
Oct 2017
Most people agree that racism is morally wrong, and therefore that we should all make an effort to get rid of racism. I completely agree. But this essay isn’t about getting rid of racism; it’s about getting rid of “racism.” The quotation marks make all the difference. When philosophers put quotation marks around a word, it’s usually to show that they’re talking about the word rather than the thing that the word names. So, when I say that this essay is about getting rid of “racism,” I mean that it’s about getting rid of the word “racism” rather than getting rid of the thing...
Read moreTechnology Ethics
Serena Wong
04
Apr 2018
"Move fast and break things" is well known as Facebook's former motto, but it may well be the motto of all of Silicon Valley. Put another way, the Valley builds first, and deals with the consequences later. But this approach is creating bigger and bigger problems, from Facebook's fake news to lewd children's videos on Youtube. Do universities, often the teachers of engineers, have a responsibility to address the apparent lack of ethics in our growing tech industry? A number of universities with leading computer science programs certainly believe so, incorporating new classes focusing on...
Read moreIs Meritocracy Possible? (A Solution)
16
Apr 2021
In my last blog, I raised the following question as my sixth pandemic puzzle: Given that meritocracy as traditionally defined is practically impossible, is there any point at all to appealing to meritocracy as a social ideal? Let me rehash how I got to the premise of that question. I gave the analogy of a tweak that could be made to the rules of competitive running, and I called that tweak the “2n rule.” Here’s the rule: every time person A finishes ahead of person B by n seconds, A gets to start the next race against B 2n seconds earlier than B. I then pointed out that in this...
Read moreThe First Confucian Feminist
22
Feb 2024
Im Yunjidang was an 18th-century philosopher from Korea, and considered the first woman philosopher in the Confucian tradition. She was an early proponent of egalitarianism: since all human beings have the same nature, she argued, anybody can achieve spiritual perfection, if they just work hard enough at it. That was a pretty radical idea at the time. Very few women were even taught to read; if they married, they weren’t allowed to leave the home during the day; if their husband died, they couldn’t inherit property—things were pretty unequal back then. But Im’s brother taught her to read,...
Read moreIs Consciousness an Illusion?
Mohit Mookim
20
Mar 2017
Prominent philosophers go head to head in this New York Review of Books piece. Thomas Nagel writes a critical review of Daniel Dennett's new book From Bacteria to Bach and Back: The Evolution of Minds. Front and center in Dennett's picture is the difference between the "manifest image"—a colorful world filled with ideas, experiences, colors, sounds, emotions, and ordinary objects—and the "scientific image"—a more barebones picture of atoms, subatomic particles, and forces. In essence, Dennett wants to reject the manifest image altogther; he claims that consciousness is...
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