About Robert Talisse

Robert Talisse is the W. Alton Jones Professor of Philosophy at Vanderbilt University.

NBN Episodes hosted by Robert:

Omar Dahbour, "Ecosovereignty: A Political Principle for the Environmental Crisis" (Routledge, 2024)

March 1, 2025

Ecosovereignty

Omar Dahbour
Hosted by Robert Talisse

Part of what makes the challenges that collectively are called the “environmental crisis” so difficult is that the vocabulary we deploy in thinking an…

Michael Fuerstein, "Experiments in Living Together: How Democracy Drives Social Progress" (Oxford UP, 2024)

January 1, 2025

Experiments in Living Together

Michael Fuerstein
Hosted by Robert Talisse

Various kind of philosophical considerations have been offered in favor of democracy. By some accounts, democracy realizes some intrinsic value, such…

Alexander Guerrero, "Lottocracy: Democracy Without Elections" (Oxford UP, 2024)

December 4, 2024

Lottocracy

Alexander Guerrero
Hosted by Robert Talisse

Elections loom large in our everyday understanding of democracy. Yet we also acknowledge that our familiar electoral apparatus is questionable from a…

Samuel Ely Bagg, "The Dispersion of Power: A Critical Realist Theory of Democracy" (Oxford UP, 2023)

October 1, 2024

The Dispersion of Power

Samuel Ely Bagg
Hosted by Robert Talisse

We commonly think of democracy as a social order governed by the people’s collective will. Given the size of the modern states, this picture is typic…

Wendy Salkin, "Speaking for Others: The Ethics of Informal Political Representation" (Harvard UP, 2024)

September 1, 2024

Speaking for Others

Wendy Salkin
Hosted by Robert Talisse

We are familiar with the idea of a formal representative, and perhaps the idea of a formal political representative readily comes to mind. Roughly, t…

Oliver Traldi, "Political Beliefs: A Philosophical Introduction" (Routledge, 2024)

August 1, 2024

Political Beliefs

Oliver Traldi
Hosted by Robert Talisse

The idiom of contemporary politics is a kind of philosophical hodge-podge. While there’s plenty of talk about the traditional themes of freedom, just…

Alexandre Lefebvre, "Liberalism as a Way of Life" (Princeton UP, 2024)

July 1, 2024

Liberalism as a Way of Life

Alexandre Lefebvre
Hosted by Robert Talisse

In political philosophy, “liberalism” is not the name of a particular social platform. Rather, it refers to a framework for thinking about politics. …

Ronald R. Sundstrom, "Just Shelter: Gentrification, Integration, Race, and Reconstruction" (Oxford UP, 2024)

June 1, 2024

Just Shelter

Ronald R. Sundstrom
Hosted by Robert Talisse

It is widely acknowledged that the United States is in the grip of an enduring housing crisis. It is less frequently recognized that this crisis amou…

J. P. Messina, "Private Censorship" (Oxford UP, 2024)

May 1, 2024

Private Censorship

J. P. Messina
Hosted by Robert Talisse

When we think of censorship, our minds might turn to state agencies exercising power to silence dissent. However, contemporary concerns about censors…

Charlotte Witt, "Social Goodness: The Ontology of Social Norms" (Oxford UP, 2023)

March 5, 2024

Social Goodness

Charlotte Witt
Hosted by Robert Talisse

In our day-to-day lives, we are subject to normative requirements, obligations, and expectations that originate in the social roles we occupy. For ex…

Lisa Herzog, "Citizen Knowledge: Markets, Experts, and the Infrastructure of Democracy" (Oxford UP, 2023)

February 1, 2024

Citizen Knowledge

Lisa Herzog
Hosted by Robert Talisse

For better or worse, democracy and epistemology are intertwined. For one thing, politics is partly a matter of gathering, assessing, and applying inf…

Melvin L. Rogers, "The Darkened Light of Faith: Race, Democracy, and Freedom in African American Political Thought" (Princeton UP, 2023)

November 1, 2023

The Darkened Light of Faith

Melvin L. Rogers
Hosted by Robert Talisse
Listen:

Frederick Douglass’s 1852 speech “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July” is notoriously fiery. No doubt part of what’s gripping about it is its int…

Emily McTernan, "On Taking Offence" (Oxford UP, 2023)

October 1, 2023

On Taking Offence

Emily McTernan
Hosted by Robert Talisse

A lot of work in moral, political, and legal theory aims to define the offensive. Surprisingly, relatively little attention has been paid to the affe…

Chrisoula Andreou, "Choosing Well: The Good, the Bad, and the Trivial" (Oxford UP, 2023)

August 1, 2023

Choosing Well

Chrisoula Andreou
Hosted by Robert Talisse
Listen:

It is common to think that rational agency involves acting in ways that, given one’s options, maximize the satisfaction of one’s preferences. This in…

Kevin J. Elliott, "Democracy for Busy People" (U Chicago Press, 2023)

July 1, 2023

Democracy for Busy People

Kevin J. Elliott
Hosted by Robert Talisse
Listen:

John Dewey and Jane Addams are both credited with the claim that the cure for democracy’s ills is more democracy. The sentiment is popular to this da…

Darrel Moellendorf, "Mobilizing Hope: Climate Change and Global Poverty" (Oxford UP, 2022)

May 1, 2023

Mobilizing Hope

Darrel Moellendorf
Hosted by Robert Talisse

The news concerning climate change isn’t good. The warming of our planet now threatens to trap millions of people in extreme poverty while destabiliz…

Karen Frost-Arnold, "Who Should We Be Online?: A Social Epistemology for the Internet" (Oxford UP, 2023)

April 1, 2023

Who Should We Be Online?

Karen Frost-Arnold
Hosted by Robert Talisse

The Internet plays a central role in how we communicate, share information, disseminate ideas, maintain social connections, and conduct business. The…

Thomas Kelly, "Bias: A Philosophical Study" (Oxford UP, 2023)

March 1, 2023

Bias

Thomas Kelly
Hosted by Robert Talisse

The concept of bias is familiar enough, partly because it is deployed frequently and in different contexts. For example, we talk about biased jurors,…

Derrick Darby, "A Realistic Blacktopia: Why We Must Unite to Fight" (Oxford UP, 2022)

February 1, 2023

A Realistic Blacktopia

Derrick Darby
Hosted by Robert Talisse

In the United States, unjust disparities in things like income, opportunity, health, safety, and education tightly track racial categorizations of the…

Tommie Shelby, "The Idea of Prison Abolition" (Princeton UP, 2022)

December 30, 2022

The Idea of Prison Abolition

Tommie Shelby
Hosted by Robert Talisse

By any reasonable metric, prisons as they exist in the United States and in many other countries are normatively unacceptable. What is the proper mor…

Alexander Kirshner, "Legitimate Opposition" (Yale UP, 2022)

December 1, 2022

Legitimate Opposition

Alexander Kirshner
Hosted by Robert Talisse

The idea of legitimate political opposition is familiar. A decent political order permits citizens, parties, and coalitions to challenge those in pow…

Saba Bazargan-Forward, "Authority, Cooperation, and Accountability" (Oxford UP, 2022)

November 1, 2022

Authority, Cooperation, and Accountability

Saba Bazargan-Forward
Hosted by Robert Talisse

We often find ourselves acting in concert with others, where what we do together goes beyond the causal contribution of any single participant. When …

Michele Moody-Adams, "Making Space for Justice: Social Movements, Collective Imagination, and Political Hope" (Columbia UP, 2022)

October 3, 2022

Making Space for Justice

Michele Moody-Adams
Hosted by Robert Talisse

A standard way of proceeding in political philosophy is to start with some form of conceptual inquiry: we first try to figure out what justice, equali…

Kelly McCormick, "The Problem of Blame: Making Sense of Moral Anger" (Cambridge UP, 2022)

September 1, 2022

The Problem of Blame

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.…