New Books Network

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 …

Philosophy February 11, 2022

Causation with a Human Face

Normative Theory and Descriptive Psychology

James Woodward

Hosted by Carrie Figdor

How do we reason about causal relationships, how do we determine what the causal relatiomships in nature are, and how are these two things – causal cognition and causation – …

Philosophy February 1, 2022

Conceiving People

Genetic Knowledge and the Ethics of Sperm and Egg Donation

Daniel Groll

Hosted by Robert Talisse

In the United States, tens of thousands of children are conceived every year with donated gametes. When people decide to create a child with donated gametes, they’ll typically have to …

Philosophy January 20, 2022

The Analects: A Guide

Erin M. Cline

Hosted by Malcolm Keating

Probably the most well-known Chinese philosopher around the world is Kongzi, typically called by his Latinized name, “Confucius.” And yet he did not write a single book. Rather, his students …

Philosophy January 10, 2022

Creolizing the Nation

Kris F. Sealey

Hosted by Sarah Tyson

Can the concept of the nation be a resource for liberatory political struggle? Are the dangers of nationalism simply too great? In Creolizing the Nation (Northwestern UP, 2020), Kris F …

Philosophy December 31, 2021

Grief

A Philosophical Guide

Michael Cholbi

Hosted by Robert Talisse

We think of grief as a normal response to the death of a loved one. We’re familiar with the so-called “five stages” of grief. Grief seems as an emotional episode …

Politics & Polemics December 20, 2021

Intolerable

Writings from Michel Foucault and the Prisons Information Group (1970-1980)

Edited by Kevin Thompson and Perry Zurn

Hosted by Kirk Meighoo

Intolerable: Writings from Michel Foucault and the Prisons Information Group (1970-1980) (University of Minnesota Press, 2021), edited by Kevin Thompson and Perry Zurn, is a groundbreaking collection of writings by Michel Foucault …

Philosophy December 1, 2021

Responsible Citizens, Irresponsible States

Should Citizens Pay for Their States' Wrongdoings?

Avia Pasternak

Hosted by Robert Talisse

We tend to think that states can act wrongfully, even criminally. Thus, we also tend to think that states can be held responsible for their acts. They can be made …

Philosophy November 19, 2021

Reconsidering the Life of Power

Ritual, Body, and Art in Critical Theory and Chinese Philosophy

James Garrison

Hosted by Malcolm Keating

Reconsidering the Life of Power: Ritual, Body, and Art in Critical Theory and Chinese Philosophy by James Garrison (SUNY Press 2021), argues that the tradition of Confucian philosophy can provide …

Philosophy November 10, 2021

Living as a Bird

Vinciane Despret

Hosted by Carrie Figdor

Birds sing to set up a territory, but the relationships between the bird, the song, the territory, and the bird’s community are highly complex and individually variable. In Living as …

Language November 3, 2021

Making AI Intelligible

Philosophical Foundations

Herman Cappelen and Josh Dever

Hosted by Malcolm Keating

In their open-access publication, Making AI Intelligible: Philosophical Foundations (Oxford University Press, 2021), Herman Cappelen and Josh Dever argue that philosophers of language can contribute to a deeper understanding of …

Philosophy November 1, 2021

Reasons First

Mark Schroeder

Hosted by Robert Talisse

A leading approach in ethics takes the reason as in some sense primary or basic. This approach claims that a range of moral concepts – goodness, rightness, obligation, and so …