New Books Network Podcast

Philosophy September 20, 2022

Queering Philosophy

Kim Q. Hall

Hosted by Sarah Tyson

Why isn’t there a queer subfield in philosophy? How has institutionalized philosophy continued to develop without a recognized specialization in queer philosophy? What would it mean to care queerly for …

Philosophy September 1, 2022

The Problem of Blame

Making Sense of Moral Anger

Kelly McCormick

Hosted by Robert Talisse

Blame seems both morally necessary and morally dicey. Necessary, because it appears to be a central part of holding others to account for wrongdoing. Dicey, because – in its standard …

Philosophy August 19, 2022

African Philosophy

Emancipation and Practice

Pascah Mungwini

Hosted by Malcolm Keating

In African Philosophy: Emancipation and Practice (Bloomsbury, 2022), Pascah Mungwini considers the history of African philosophy in relationship to world philosophies. Arguing for the importance of African philosophy to know …

Philosophy August 10, 2022

The Art of Abduction

Igor Douven

Hosted by Carrie Figdor

How should we form new beliefs? In particular, what inferential strategies are epistemically justified for forming new beliefs? Nowadays the dominant theory is Bayesianism, whereby we ought to reason in …

Philosophy August 1, 2022

Spying Through a Glass Darkly

The Ethics of Espionage and Counter-Intelligence

Cécile Fabre

Hosted by Robert Talisse

On its face, spying and counter-intelligence activities seem morally suspect. They tend to involve sneaking, deceiving, and manipulating, as well as various forms of betrayal, treachery, and disloyalty. Yet intelligence …

Philosophy July 20, 2022

Animal Crisis

A New Critical Theory

Alice Crary and Lori Gruen

Hosted by Sarah Tyson

As we lose more individual animals and entire species to catastrophic climate change, habitat destruction, toxic dumping, and other human activities, it becomes increasingly difficult to register the full scope …

Philosophy July 11, 2022

Perspectival Realism

Michela Massimi

Hosted by Carrie Figdor

For many philosophers, the fact that scientists take different perspectives on the world is an obstacle to being a realist about the world. In Perspectival Realism (Oxford University Press, 2022) …

Philosophy July 1, 2022

On Believing

Being Right in a World of Possibilities

David Hunter

Hosted by Robert Talisse

According to many standard philosophical accounts, beliefs are a kind of stance one takes toward a proposition. To believe that Nashville is in Tennessee is to adopt a certain attitude …

Philosophy June 20, 2022

How Things Are

An Introduction to Buddhist Metaphysics

Mark Siderits

Hosted by Malcolm Keating

Mark Siderits’ How Things Are: An Introduction to Buddhist Metaphysics (Oxford University Press, 2022) is a wide-ranging survey of how Buddhist philosophers think about the nature of the world. The …

Philosophy June 10, 2022

Immaterial

Rules in Contemporary Art

Sherri Irvin

Hosted by Carrie Figdor

Art forms have rules, usually implicit, that govern the experiences that artists want their audiences to have: for example, a representational painting should be hung right-side-up, the same sort of …

Philosophy May 20, 2022

Metaphysical Emergence

Jessica M. Wilson

Hosted by Carrie Figdor

Is a tree nothing but its material makeup, or does reality include trees above and beyond what they are made of? How about consciousness – nothing but neural activity, or …

Philosophy May 13, 2022

Entropic Philosophy

Chaos, Breakdown, and Creation

Shannon M. Mussett

Hosted by Sarah Tyson

Everything is breaking down. Chaos is increasing. Entropy is not just a metaphor, although it also that. In Entropic Philosophy: Chaos, Breakdown, and Creation (Rowman and Littlefield, 2022), Shannon M …

Philosophy May 3, 2022

Public Reason and Political Autonomy

Realizing the Ideal of a Civic People

Blain Neufeld

Hosted by Robert Talisse

According to a familiar picture, a democracy is a free society of self-governing equals. This means that democratic citizens have a duty to participate in the processes of democratic governance …

Philosophy April 20, 2022

Language, Limits, and Beyond

Early Wittgenstein and Rabindranath Tagore

Priyambada Sarkar

Hosted by Malcolm Keating

What does a Bengali intellectual and poet have in common with a British-Austrian logician and philosopher? In Language, Limits, and Beyond: Early Wittgenstein and Rabindranath Tagore (Oxford University Press, 2021) …

Philosophy April 12, 2022

Wittgenstein's Artillery

Philosophy as Poetry

James C. Klagge

Hosted by Carrie Figdor

“One should really only do philosophy as poetry.” What could Ludwig Wittgenstein have meant by this? What was the context for this odd remark? In Wittgenstein’s Artillery: Philosophy as Poetry …

Philosophy April 1, 2022

Learning from Our Mistakes

Epistemology for the Real World

William J. Talbott

Hosted by Robert Talisse

The enterprise of Western epistemology has largely been devoted to a collection of issues concerning the definition and analysis of knowledge. What makes knowledge different from true belief? When is …

Philosophy March 21, 2022

Seen and Not Heard

Why Children's Voices Matter

Jana Mohr Lone

Hosted by Sarah Tyson

What happens when we take children seriously as philosophical thinkers? What if we try to hear them about topics such as climate change, solitude, and the meaning of friendship? In …

Philosophy March 10, 2022

Metaphysical Animals

How Four Women Brought Philosophy Back to Life

Clare Mac Cumhaill and Rachael Wiseman

Hosted by Carrie Figdor

What are the proper things for a philosopher to worry about? And who should be able to worry about them? These two questions, raised in the context of the disruptions …

Philosophy March 1, 2022

The Case for Rage

Why Anger Is Essential to Anti-Racist Struggle

Myisha Cherry

Hosted by Robert Talisse

According to a broad consensus among philosophers across the ages, anger is regrettable, counterproductive, and bad. It is something to be overcome or suppressed, something that involves an immoral drive …

Philosophy February 21, 2022

Buddhist Ethics

A Philosophical Exploration

Jay L. Garfield

Hosted by Malcolm Keating

In Buddhist Ethics: A Philosophical Exploration (Oxford University Press, 2022), Jay Garfield argues that Buddhist ethics is a distinctive kind of moral phenomenology whose ethical focus is not primarily cultivation …