More at https://philosophytalk.org/shows/shakespeares-outsiders.Over 400 years after his death, Shakespeare is still widely regarded as the greatest dramatist of all time. His many plays tackle questions about power, influence, identity, and moral and social status. His characters—be they villains or heroes—are often disdained because of their race, religion, class, disability, or gender. So what do Shakespeare’s plays reveal about identity and status in his time? How might they shed light on who we include and who we exclude today? Could Shakespearian dramas have more in common with modern day soap operas than we think? Ray and guest-host Adrian Daub go inside with David Sterling Brown from Trinity College, author of Shakespeare’s White Others.
More at https://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 University, editor of Korean Women Philosophers and the Ideal of a Female Sage: The Essential of Writings of Im Yungjidang and Gang Jeongildang.
More at https://philosophytalk.org/shows/gilbert-ryle.Gilbert Ryle (1900-1976) was a British philosopher of mind and language best known for his book The Concept of Mind. He developed a novel argument against Cartesian dualism, which he called “the doctrine of the ghost in the machine”—the idea that our minds and bodies are separate substances. Ryle introduced a new term for the problem with this argument: Descartes was making a “category mistake.” But what exactly is a category mistake, and how bad is it to make one? If Cartesian dualism is false, what is the relationship between our minds and our bodies? And what does it have to do with the distinction between “knowing-how” and “knowing-that”? Josh and Ray turn their minds to Michael Kremer from the University of Chicago.
More at https://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.
More at https://philosophytalk.org/shows/margaret-cavendish.Margaret Cavendish was a writer of poetry, philosophy, polemics, histories, plays, and utopian fiction. She employed many different genres as a way to overcome access barriers for women and build an audience for her subversive philosophical ideas. So, what was so radical about Cavendish’s views? Why did she think all matter, even rocks, was at least partially rational? And how did she anticipate the term “epistemic injustice” 400 years before it was coined? Josh and Ray explore the life and thought of Margaret Cavendish with Karen Detlefsen from the University of Pennsylvania, co-editor of The Routledge Handbook of Women and Early Modern European Philosophy.Part of our series Wise Women, generously supported by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
More at https://philosophytalk.org/shows/narrative-and-the-meaning-of-life.Humans are uniquely storytelling creatures who can narrate the events of their own lives. Some argue that our lives derive meaning from our ability to see them as an ongoing story. So is telling our own life story the key to a meaningful life? Is it the events that matter, or how we describe them? Does it matter if we’re unreliable narrators who fudge the facts to make ourselves look good? Josh and Ray tell tales with Helena de Bres from Wellesley College, author of Philosophy in the First Person (forthcoming).
More at https://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 Mary Astell.
More at https://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.
More at https://philosophytalk.org/shows/making-and-breaking-habits.We often hear that “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.” The idea seems to be that long-standing habits are too entrenched to change. But are habits always so rigid and inflexible? Why does it seem that it’s hard to break bad habits and form virtuous ones? And do habits help or hinder our creative impulses? Josh and Ray habituate themselves with Shaun Gallagher from the University of Memphis, author of Action and Interaction.
More at https://philosophytalk.org/shows/elisabeth-bohemia.Princess Elisabeth of Bohemia 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 Routledge Handbook of Women and Early Modern European Philosophy.Part of our series Wise Women, supported by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
More at https://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.
More at https://philosophytalk.org/shows/robert-musil.Robert Musil (1880-1942) was an Austrian novelist, famous for The Man Without Qualities. Set in Austria just before the start of World War I, it features a character who tries to live without fixed principles. But is it a good idea to conduct your life in this way? Is it even possible? Could having a rigid system of beliefs make you insensitive to changes in society? Is there a happy medium between dogmatism and spinelessness? Josh and Ray remain flexible with Bence Nanay from the University of Antwerp, author of Philosophy Without Qualities: Robert Musil, the Thinker (forthcoming).
More at https://philosophytalk.org/shows/hildegard-of-bingen.Hildegard von Bingen was a 12th century mystic, polymath, and composer whose work spanned visionary theology, philosophy, cosmology, medicine, botany, and music. Her extraordinary intellectual accomplishments belie her humble claim to be “just a woman”. Was her humility justified in the face of the divine, internalizing misogynistic stereotypes, or a strategic decision to get her voice heard? What can mystical experience teach us about the world? And how can we understand ourselves in relation to the divine? Josh and Ray explore her life and thought with Jennifer Bain from Dalhousie University, editor of The Cambridge Companion to Hildegard of Bingen.Part of our series Wise Women, generously funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
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.
More at https://philosophytalk.org/shows/henri-bergson-and-the-flow-of-time.Many people think of time as a series of events, like successive frames in a movie. But French philosopher Henri Bergson (1859-1941) argued that this widespread picture was wrong: everything is in constant motion, and can’t be captured by a series of static descriptions. So why does Bergson think our intuition guides us and reason leads us astray? If your self is constantly in flux, is there any such thing as the real you? And how would we have to change our language to reflect the truth? Josh and Ray go with the flow of Barry Allen from McMaster University, author of Living in Time: The Philosophy of Henri Bergson.
More at 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 Chalmers from NYU, author of Reality+: Virtual Worlds and the Problems of Philosophy.
More at https://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 Hypatia: The Life and Legend of an Ancient Philosopher.
More at https://philosophytalk.org/shows/what-is-music.From classical concerts to commercial jingles, music fills our lives every day. But philosophers disagree about what exactly music is and why it’s valuable. Among the world’s diverse musical cultures and styles, are there any universals? If you play Bach’s cello suites on a synthesizer, is it still the same piece of music? And why do people deliberately listen to sad songs? John and Ray sing it with Andrew Kania from Trinity University, author of Philosophy of Western Music: A Contemporary Introduction.
More at https://philosophytalk.org/shows/james-baldwin-and-social-justice. Sometimes, we struggle to tell the truth—especially when it’s the truth about ourselves. Why did James Baldwin, a prominent Civil Rights-era intellectual and novelist, believe that telling the truth about ourselves is not only difficult but can also be dangerous? How can truth deeply unsettle our assumptions about ourselves and our relations to others? And why did Baldwin think that this abstract concept of truth could play a concrete role in social justice? The Philosophers seek their own truth with Christopher Freeburg from the University of Illinois, author of Counterlife: Slavery after Resistance and Social Death.
T. Teodora
Yeah... god:if you cheat you go to hell. Christian cheats but also truly believes?!? vs oh I believe sport is good for me but I rarely do it. sorry but when the end of your actions is eternal damnation you can't compare it with me not doing sport all the time, I lts not like if you don't run 30 mins every day you will die at 25 or go to hell
Clau Schwa
Be warned: you will not find full episodes here. For some reason, you are required to visit the podcast website if you wish to listen to more than 5 or 10 minutes (which I would assume you do, since you are checking out this entry). The simple idea of listening to all your podcasts in one app seems to escape some podcasters/listeners still.
Tzu Kit Chan
Came from Stanford's website on History of Philosophy Department! keep up the great content!