Philosophy Talk https://www.philosophytalk.org/rss/feeds en The First Confucian Feminist https://www.philosophytalk.org/blog/first-confucian-feminist Thu, 22 Feb 2024 13:02:30 PST https://www.philosophytalk.org/blog/first-confucian-feminist Welcome Our New Language-Learning Robot Overlords https://www.philosophytalk.org/blog/welcome-our-new-language-learning-robot-overlords Fri, 02 Feb 2024 17:49:05 PST https://www.philosophytalk.org/blog/welcome-our-new-language-learning-robot-overlords Quiz Night: The Slides https://www.philosophytalk.org/blog/quiz-night-slides Thu, 25 Jan 2024 00:00:00 PST Devon Strolovitch https://www.philosophytalk.org/blog/quiz-night-slides Farewell to the Republic We Once Dreamt of? https://www.philosophytalk.org/blog/farewell-republic-we-once-dreamt Tue, 26 Dec 2023 00:00:00 PST Ken Taylor https://www.philosophytalk.org/blog/farewell-republic-we-once-dreamt The 2024 Dionysus Awards https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/2024-dionysus-awards What movies of the past year challenged your assumptions and made you think about things in new ways? Josh and guest co-host Jeremy Sabol present our annual Dionysus Awards for the most thought-provoking movies of 2023, including: Best Film about Social Justice that Wonders What Makes a Good Film about Social Justice Most Disturbing Exploration of a Female Criminal Who Thinks She May Be Innocent Most Moving Film (or TV show!) about Difficult Choices Sun, 10 Mar 2024 00:00:00 PST https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/2024-dionysus-awards Can A.I. Help Us Understand Babies? https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/can-ai-help-us-understand-babies Artificial intelligence is everywhere in our day-to-day lives and our interactions with the world. And it's made impressive progress at a variety of visual, linguistic, and reasoning tasks. Does this improved performance indicate that computers are thinking, or is it just an engineering artifact? Can it help us understand how children acquire knowledge and develop language skills? Or are humans fundamentally different from machines? Josh and Ray decode the babble with Michael Frank, Professor of Human Biology at Stanford University and Director of the Symbolic Systems Program. Sun, 04 Feb 2024 00:00:00 PST https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/can-ai-help-us-understand-babies 20th Anniversary Quiz Night https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/20th-anniversary-quiz-night Philosophy Talk made its radio debut on August 20, 2003 with a live pilot on KALW San Francisco and weekly broadcasts beginning in January 2004. To celebrate two decades on the air, in November 2023 we held our first-ever Quiz Night. Longtime listeners and first-time fans filled KALW's popup space in downtown San Francisco as Director of Research Laura Maguire ran eight teams through the gauntlet of a philosophical pub quiz. In this special 20th anniversary episode, Josh and Ray (who participated in the quiz as regular contestants) revisit the drama and intellectual derring-do from that... Sun, 28 Jan 2024 00:00:00 PST https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/20th-anniversary-quiz-night The Possibility of Impossibility https://www.philosophytalk.org/blog/possibility-impossibility Fri, 15 Dec 2023 07:27:39 PST https://www.philosophytalk.org/blog/possibility-impossibility Wondrous Wonderment https://www.philosophytalk.org/blog/wondrous-wonderment Fri, 01 Dec 2023 00:00:00 PST https://www.philosophytalk.org/blog/wondrous-wonderment The First English Feminist https://www.philosophytalk.org/blog/first-english-feminist Fri, 17 Nov 2023 12:59:52 PST https://www.philosophytalk.org/blog/first-english-feminist The Tao of Zhuangzi https://www.philosophytalk.org/blog/tao-zhuangzi-0 Fri, 03 Nov 2023 20:30:17 PDT https://www.philosophytalk.org/blog/tao-zhuangzi-0 American Futures (Ken Taylor Memorial Episode) https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/american-futures When Ken Taylor passed away, he was working on a manuscript titled Farewell to the Republic We Once Dreamed of. Was Ken right to think the American experiment is on the verge of collapse? Are we heading for authoritarian rule, a national divorce, or even a civil war? Or could better days be on the horizon? In Ken’s honor, Josh and Ray devote their end-of-year special to probing the future of the American republic with Barbara Walter from UC San Diego, Tamsin Shaw from New York University, and Rob Reich from Stanford University. This episode was made possible by contributors to the Ken... Sun, 31 Dec 2023 00:00:00 PST https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/american-futures In Awe of Wonder https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/awe-wonder Descartes said that the purpose of wonderment is “to enable us to learn and retain in our memory things of which we were formerly unaware.” He also said that those who are not inclined to wonder are “ordinarily very ignorant.” So what exactly is wonder, and how is it different from awe? Is wonder at the core of what drives us to search for novel insights? And can we suffer from an excess of wonderment? Josh and Ray stand in awe of Helen De Cruz from St. Louis University, author of Wonderstruck: How Wonder and Awe Shape the Way We Think (forthcoming). Sun, 03 Dec 2023 00:00:00 PST https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/awe-wonder Impossible Worlds https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/impossible-worlds Philosophers often speculate about possible worlds: ways that things could be. Some of them also believe in impossible worlds: ways that things couldn't be. Are impossible worlds places where strange things happen, or descriptions, or abstract objects, or something else entirely? How can you describe an impossibility without contradicting yourself? Could we imagine worlds where even the laws of logic are different? Josh and Ray imagine the unimaginable with Koji Tanaka from the Australian National University, author of "Logically Impossible Worlds."   Sun, 17 Dec 2023 00:00:00 PST https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/impossible-worlds The Philosophical Princess https://www.philosophytalk.org/blog/philosophical-princess Fri, 20 Oct 2023 14:23:38 PDT https://www.philosophytalk.org/blog/philosophical-princess The Politics of Architecture https://www.philosophytalk.org/blog/politics-architecture Fri, 06 Oct 2023 00:00:00 PDT https://www.philosophytalk.org/blog/politics-architecture Zhuangzi: Being One with Ten Thousand Things https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/zhuangzi Zhuangzi, the 4th-century BCE Chinese philosopher, was arguably the most important figure in Taoism. He believed that a person’s ideal relationship to the world was to "be one with ten thousand things." So how is someone supposed to achieve this ideal? What is at the core of Zhuangzi's conception of the good life? And how could contemporary western readers benefit from his way of thinking? Josh and Ray welcome back Paul Kjellberg from Whittier College, editor of Essays on Skepticism, Relativism, and Ethics in The Zhuangzi. Sun, 05 Nov 2023 00:00:00 PDT https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/zhuangzi Is It Real or Is It Simulated? https://www.philosophytalk.org/blog/it-real-or-it-simulated Wed, 13 Sep 2023 16:52:57 PDT https://www.philosophytalk.org/blog/it-real-or-it-simulated Can Architecture Be Political? https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/can-architecture-be-political It’s common to judge a piece of architecture based on its functional and aesthetic values, and how the two might complement or compete with one other. It’s less common to judge architecture based on its political values. But can’t a building’s design also express a political viewpoint? Why are different styles of architecture associated with different ideologies? And can a historical edifice's social purpose change over time? Josh and Ray build a foundation with Vladimir Kulić from Iowa State University, editor of Toward a Concrete Utopia: Architecture in Yugoslavia, 1948–1980. This... Sun, 08 Oct 2023 00:00:00 PDT https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/can-architecture-be-political Are We Living in a Simulation? https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/are-we-living-simulation With rapid advances in Virtual Reality technology and the like, it’s now possible for us to become absorbed in completely made-up worlds. We might wonder how soon it will be till we reach a point where VR is so good, we can’t tell it apart from the real world. But what if we’ve already reached that point? How would we know if we were currently living in a simulated reality, or are there always telltale signs? And if we were in a simulation, what difference would it make—pragmatically or morally—in how we live our lives and treat other people? Josh and Ray don't fake it with David... Sun, 17 Sep 2023 00:00:00 PDT https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/are-we-living-simulation Perverse Desire https://www.philosophytalk.org/blog/perverse-desire Fri, 18 Aug 2023 10:32:42 PDT Joshua Landy https://www.philosophytalk.org/blog/perverse-desire Making a (More) Moral World https://www.philosophytalk.org/blog/making-more-moral-world Wed, 09 Aug 2023 07:16:08 PDT https://www.philosophytalk.org/blog/making-more-moral-world Ancient Renaissance Woman https://www.philosophytalk.org/blog/ancient-renaissance-woman Fri, 21 Jul 2023 05:55:41 PDT https://www.philosophytalk.org/blog/ancient-renaissance-woman Philosophy In, Of, and About Mexico https://www.philosophytalk.org/blog/philosophy-and-about-mexico Fri, 07 Jul 2023 08:02:26 PDT https://www.philosophytalk.org/blog/philosophy-and-about-mexico Weird Wants https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/weird-wants Philosophers from Aquinas to Anscombe have claimed that wanting something means seeing the good in it. Even if what you want is bad overall, like procrastinating on important work, you can still desire it for its positive qualities. But don't we sometimes want things because of their badness, not in spite of it? Isn't there joy in doing something totally pointless, or even in breaking the rules? And is it really impossible, logically speaking, to want to be bad? Josh and Ray unravel our weird wants with Paul Bloom from the University of Toronto, author of The Sweet Spot: The Pleasures of... Sun, 20 Aug 2023 00:00:00 PDT https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/weird-wants Summer Reading Uncut https://www.philosophytalk.org/blog/summer-reading-uncut Sun, 25 Jun 2023 09:15:36 PDT Devon Strolovitch https://www.philosophytalk.org/blog/summer-reading-uncut The Gender Box(es) https://www.philosophytalk.org/blog/gender-boxes Sun, 18 Jun 2023 08:37:23 PDT https://www.philosophytalk.org/blog/gender-boxes Nísia Floresta https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/n%C3%ADsia-floresta Nísia Floresta was a 19th-century writer and translator known as “the Brazilian Mary Wollstonecraft.” She published the first book on women’s rights in South America and argued for indigenous rights during the post-colonial period in Brazil. Josh and Ray explore her lifeand thought with Nastassja Pugliese from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, author of Nísia Floresta (Elements on Women in the History of Philosophy). Wed, 31 Dec 1969 16:00:00 PST https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/n%C3%ADsia-floresta Im Yunjidang https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/im-yunjidang 18th-century Korean philosopher Im Yunjidang was the first Confucian to argue for women’s equality in matters of morality and to claim that women, just like men, can be sages. She also argued that it isn't just what you do that matters morally—it's also how you decide. So what does it mean to be a sage and how does someone become one? How did Im Yunjidang use traditional Confucian texts to argue for women's spiritual equality? And what did she think was important when it comes to making difficult moral choices? Josh and Ray explore her life and thought with Hwa Yeong Wang from Duke Kunshan... Sun, 25 Feb 2024 00:00:00 PST https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/im-yunjidang Mary Astell https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/mary-astell Mary Astell (1666–1731) was an English philosopher and writer who advocated for equal rights for women. While she described marriage as a type of “slavery,” she was also a staunch conservative who claimed that women who did marry should accept subordination to their husbands. So what was Astell's vision for the education of women? How did she reconcile her seemingly conflicting views on marriage? And why did philosopher John Locke criticize her views on natural law? Josh and Ray explore her life and thought with Allauren Forbes from McMaster University, author of the Oxford Bibliography on... Sun, 19 Nov 2023 00:00:00 PST https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/mary-astell Elisabeth of Bohemia https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/elisabeth-bohemia Princess Elisabeth of Bohemia (1618–1680) is best known for her correspondence with René Descartes. In her letters, she articulated a devastating critique of his dualist theory of mind, in particular on the impossibility of mind-body interaction. So what was Elisabeth's own position on the nature of mind? What can we ascertain about her moral and political concerns based on her various correspondences? And how are her ideas still relevant to current debates in philosophy? Josh and Ray explore Elisabeth's life and thought with Lisa Shapiro from McGill University, editor of The... Sun, 22 Oct 2023 00:00:00 PDT https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/elisabeth-bohemia Hypatia of Alexandria https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/hypatia-alexandria Hypatia of Alexandria, late antiquity public figure and scholar, made significant contributions to mathematics, philosophy, and astronomy. Her embrace of Neoplatonism was seen as such a threat to the political elite in Alexandria that she was murdered by a mob of Christians. So what made her ideas so dangerous and revolutionary for her time? As a woman in Ancient Egypt, how did she exert power over her own narrative? And should she really be considered a "martyr" for philosophy? Josh and Ray explore Hypatia's life and thought with Edward Watts, Professor of History at UCSD and author of... Sun, 23 Jul 2023 00:00:00 PDT https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/hypatia-alexandria Making a Better World https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/making-better-world Some philosophers think that morality boils down to one idea: we should make the world better for everyone. But who counts in "everyone"—babies, animals, future people? How can we tell what makes the world better for others? And in an uncertain world, how can anyone gauge the effects of their actions? Josh and Ray try to save the world with acclaimed Princeton philosopher Peter Singer, author of Ethics in the Real World: 90 Essays on Things That Matter. Sun, 13 Aug 2023 00:00:00 PDT https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/making-better-world Art as Climate Action https://www.philosophytalk.org/blog/art-climate-action Sun, 28 May 2023 07:15:18 PDT https://www.philosophytalk.org/blog/art-climate-action Mexican Philosophy https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/mexican-philosophy From early feminist Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz to existentialist Emilio Uranga, from Indigenous thought to theorists of aesthetic utopia, Mexican philosophy is full of fascinating figures with brilliant insights. What can we learn from them today about belief, desire, freedom, morality, and education? And do Mexican philosophers speak with one voice or in a complicated harmony, stretching across the centuries? Josh and Ray travel through space and time with Manuel Vargas from UC San Diego, author of Building Better Beings: A Theory of Moral Responsibility. Sun, 09 Jul 2023 00:00:00 PDT https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/mexican-philosophy This Blog Post Is False https://www.philosophytalk.org/blog/blog-post-false Sun, 21 May 2023 16:22:50 PDT https://www.philosophytalk.org/blog/blog-post-false Summer Reading List 2023 https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/summer-reading-list-2023 What books should thoughtful people read this summer? Josh and Ray talk to the authors and editors of new and recent books as they compile their annual Summer Reading List: Michael Schur, creator of TV's The Good Place and author of How to Be Perfect: The Correct Answer to Every Moral Question Lori Gruen, Professor of Philosophy at Wesleyan University and co-editor of The Good It Promises, The Harm It Does: Critical Essays on Effective Altruism Gabriella Safran, Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures at Stanford University and author of Recording Russia: Trying to... Sun, 03 Sep 2023 00:00:00 PDT https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/summer-reading-list-2023 What Is Gender? https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/what-gender Gender is a controversial topic these days, but people can't seem to agree about what gender is. Is it an inner identity, a biological fact, or an oppressive system? Should we respect it or resist it? Should it even be a thing? Josh and guest-host Blakey Vermeule question gender with regular co-host Ray Briggs, co-author of What Even Is Gender? Sun, 18 Jun 2023 00:00:00 PDT https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/what-gender The Brain as Prediction Machine https://www.philosophytalk.org/blog/brain-prediction-machine Tue, 25 Apr 2023 10:22:34 PDT https://www.philosophytalk.org/blog/brain-prediction-machine Can Art Save Us? https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/can-art-save-us The world is facing an unprecedented environmental crisis, and we urgently need good ways to address it. Courageous politicians would help, of course, as might scientific innovations. But how much of the problem is a failure of imagination? Could the arts help us see our way out of the problem? How can literature, painting, and movies redraw the landscape in our minds? Josh and Ray imagine a conversation with Harriet Hawkins, Professor of Human Geography and Co-Director of the Centre for GeoHumanities at Royal Holloway, University of London. Sun, 28 May 2023 00:00:00 PDT https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/can-art-save-us Parfit and the Selves That Matter https://www.philosophytalk.org/blog/parfit-and-selves-matter Mon, 10 Apr 2023 11:33:16 PDT https://www.philosophytalk.org/blog/parfit-and-selves-matter True Contradictions https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/true-contradictions If you want to tell the truth, you shouldn’t contradict yourself—that’s just common sense. A suspect who was home on the night of the crime can’t have been elsewhere, and whatever the weapon, we can rule out the hypothesis that it was both a candlestick and not a candlestick. But there are philosophers who claim we shouldn’t overgeneralize based on murder mysteries: some contradictions are true. Could a badly written law make the dastardly deed both legal and illegal? Do mathematical paradoxes create weird things that both do and don’t exist? If we embrace contradictions, will we still be... Sun, 21 May 2023 00:00:00 PDT https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/true-contradictions Olfactory Philosophy https://www.philosophytalk.org/blog/olfactory-philosophy Wed, 22 Mar 2023 08:11:58 PDT https://www.philosophytalk.org/blog/olfactory-philosophy Women Talking https://www.philosophytalk.org/blog/women-talking Wed, 08 Mar 2023 06:57:45 PST Jeremy Sabol https://www.philosophytalk.org/blog/women-talking The Power of Prediction https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/power-prediction You’re standing at the top of a mountain, surveying the vast landscape below. The information your senses take in flows to your brain, which processes it to create a representation of the scene. Or does it? What if instead of directly perceiving the world around us, the brain is more like a prediction machine that hallucinates a picture of the world? If that were the case, could we still rely on the so-called “evidence of our senses”? Would it be possible to avoid unpleasant sensory experiences, like hunger or pain, by simply changing our expectations? How can we harness the power of... Sun, 30 Apr 2023 00:00:00 PDT https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/power-prediction Derek Parfit and Your Future Self https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/derek-parfit-and-your-future-self The works of Derek Parfit (1942-2017) have had a profound influence on how philosophers understand rational decision-making, ethics, and personal identity. At the heart of Parfit's thinking are questions about how you should relate to your future self, and whether you should treat your future self any differently than other future people. So why does Parfit argue that it's wrong to place a special value on your own survival? What would it take to value others in the way that you value yourself? And how might we harness Parfit's insights to make the world a better place? Josh and Ray's... Sun, 16 Apr 2023 00:00:00 PDT https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/derek-parfit-and-your-future-self Cancelling in Public and Private https://www.philosophytalk.org/blog/cancelling-public-and-private Fri, 17 Feb 2023 10:09:50 PST https://www.philosophytalk.org/blog/cancelling-public-and-private The Philosophy of Smell https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/philosophy-smell When philosophers think about human perception, they tend to focus on vision and turn their noses up at olfaction, the sense of smell. So what insights can we gain about perception, thought, and language by focusing on olfaction? How culturally variable is the ability to distinguish one scent from another? Do we need to learn certain concepts before we can detect certain odors, or can our noses pick up things we can’t yet name? And why do we have so many words to describe what we see, yet so few to describe what we smell? Josh and Ray sniff out the details with experimental psychologist and... Sun, 26 Mar 2023 00:00:00 PDT https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/philosophy-smell Why (Not) Trust Science? https://www.philosophytalk.org/blog/why-not-trust-science Fri, 20 Jan 2023 17:33:22 PST https://www.philosophytalk.org/blog/why-not-trust-science The 2023 Dionysus Awards https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/2023-dionysus-awards What movies of the past year challenged your assumptions and made you think about things in new ways? Josh and guest co-host Jeremy Sabol present our annual Dionysus Awards for the most thought-provoking movies of 2022, including: Meatiest Meditation on Mortality and Meaning (in the British Isles) Coolest Contemplation of Complicated Comeuppances The Combo Cup for Greatest Genrepalooza Sun, 30 Jul 2023 00:00:00 PDT https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/2023-dionysus-awards