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Philosophy
Philosophy October 11, 2021

Artful Truths

The Philosophy of Memoir

Helena de Bres

Hosted by Carrie Figdor
What is a memoir? What makes a memoir both nonfictional and literary? What are the memoirist’s moral obligations to the people they write about besides themselves, and to their potential …

Philosophy

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Interviews with philosophers about their new books.

Philosophy October 1, 2021

The Dialogical Roots of Deduction

Historical, Cognitive, and Philosophical Perspectives on Reasoning

Catarina Dutilh Novaes

Hosted by Robert Talisse
If all men are mortal, and Socrates is a man, then it must be that Socrates is mortal. What could be more obvious? Well, sometimes obviousness serves to conceal philosophical …
Philosophy September 20, 2021

Jewel of Reflection on the Truth about Epistemology

A Complete and Annotated Translation of the Tattva-cintā-maṇi

Stephen Phillips (trans.)

Hosted by Malcolm Keating
In the first complete English translation of a monumental 14th century Sanskrit philosophical text, the Jewel of Reflection on the Truth about Epistemology (Bloomsbury 2020), Stephen Phillips introduces modern readers to …
Philosophy September 10, 2021

Leveraging Distortions

Explanation, Idealization, and Universality in Science

Collin Rice

Hosted by Carrie Figdor
Most of us agree that science aims to tell us what is true about the world. But how do we get at the truth by using theories and models that …
Philosophy September 1, 2021

The Mismeasure of the Self

A Study in Vice Epistemology

Alessandra Tanesini

Hosted by Robert Talisse
Epistemology traditionally focuses on the analysis of central epistemological concepts, such as knowledge, justification, evidence, truth, and belief. But having knowledge is also a matter of acquiring knowledge. And this …
Philosophy August 20, 2021

Nos/Otras: Gloria E. Anzaldúa, Multiplicitous Agency, and Resistance

Andrea J. Pitts

Hosted by Sarah Tyson
How can we think together multiplicity and agency? How can we resist oppression and build transformative political coalitions while attending to the ambivalences and incommensurabilities born of the collective conditions …
Philosophy August 10, 2021

When Maps Become the World

Rasmus Grønfeldt Winther

Hosted by Carrie Figdor
There are maps of the Earth’s landmasses, the universe, the ocean floors, human migration, the human brain: maps are so integral to how we interact with the world that we …
Philosophy August 2, 2021

The Right to Know

Epistemic Rights and Why We Need Them

Lani Watson

Hosted by Robert Talisse
We often talk as if individuals have entitlements to certain kinds of information: medical test results, political representatives’ voting records, crime statistics, and the like. We also talk as if …
Philosophy July 20, 2021

Buddhist Feminism

Transforming Anger against Patriarchy

Sokthan Yeng

Hosted by Malcolm Keating
How can Buddhism and feminism be brought together in a constructive way to challenge patriarchial structures? What could such a philosophy say about anger over injustice and oppression? In Buddhist …
Philosophy July 9, 2021

The World in the Wave Function

A Metaphysics for Quantum Physics

Alyssa Ney

Hosted by Carrie Figdor
Quantum mechanics is full of weird findings – for example, that systems widely separated can somehow still be correlated, and that a system may be in two different possible states …
Philosophy July 1, 2021

Immigration and Freedom

Chandran Kukathas

Hosted by Robert Talisse
Discussions of the ethics and politics of immigration tend to focus on those seeking entry into a new society. We ask whether a country has the “right to exclude” those …
Philosophy June 24, 2021

Colonial Debts

The Case of Puerto Rico

Rocío Zambrana

Hosted by Sarah Tyson
What can debt reveal to us about coloniality and its undoing? In Colonial Debts: The Case of Puerto Rico (Duke University Press, 2021), Rocío Zambrana theorizes the way debt has …
Philosophy June 10, 2021

Shifty Speech and Independent Thought

Epistemic Normativity in Context

Mona Simion

Hosted by Carrie Figdor
At the intersection of epistemology and philosophy of language is a puzzle. First, it seems we don’t need less evidence for a claim that we know something if the practical …
Philosophy June 1, 2021

Rejecting Retributivism

Free Will, Punishment, and Criminal Justice

Gregg D. Caruso

Hosted by Robert Talisse
According to an intuitive view, those who commit crimes are justifiably subject to punishment. Depending on the severity of the wrongdoing constitutive of the crime, punishment can be severe: incarceration …
Philosophy May 20, 2021

Realisms Interlinked

Objects, Subjects, and Other Subjects

Arindam Chakrabarti

Hosted by Malcolm Keating
Arindam Chakrabarti’s Realisms Interlinked: Objects, Subjects, and Other Subjects (Bloomsbury Academic, 2019), not only brings together his wide-ranging research from the past three decades, but brings together Indian philosophers with …
Philosophy May 10, 2021

Cassirer

Samantha Matherne

Hosted by Carrie Figdor
Ernst Cassirer (1874-1945) was a leading neo-Kantian who developed a systematic view of how we construct and experience culture, widely construed to include mathematics, science, religion, myth, art, politics, ethics …
Philosophy May 3, 2021

The Epistemology of Groups

Jennifer Lackey

Hosted by Robert Talisse
We commonly ascribe beliefs and similar attitudes to groups. For instance, we say that a foreign government believes that members of the press are spies, or that a corporation denies …
Philosophy April 20, 2021

Curiosity and Power

The Politics of Inquiry

Perry Zurn

Hosted by Sarah Tyson
Is curiosity political? Does it have a philosophical lineage? In Curiosity and Power: The Politics of Inquiry (University of Minnesota Press, 2021), Perry Zurn shows, consequentially, yes. He further asks …
Philosophy April 9, 2021

Marcus Aurelius

John Sellars

Hosted by Carrie Figdor
Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations is one of the most popular philosophical works by sales to the public, while in academic philosophy he is considered somewhat of a philosophical lightweight. In Marcus …
Philosophy April 1, 2021

Being Evil

A Philosophical Perspective

Luke Russell

Hosted by Robert Talisse
Evil is among our everyday moral concepts. It is common to hear politicians and others condemn certain acts, purposes, people, or even populations as evil. But what does it mean …