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About Robert Talisse
Robert Talisse
is the W. Alton Jones Professor of Philosophy at Vanderbilt University.
NBN Episodes hosted by Robert:
Philosophy
February 1, 2021
Overcoming Necessity
Emergency, Constraint, and the Meanings of American Constitutionalism
Thomas P. Crocker
Hosted by Robert Talisse
A core duty of government is keeping those it governs safe. However, in modern democratic states, government is structured by a Constitution, which establishes constraints and checks on the power …
Philosophy
January 4, 2021
The Ethics of Microaggression
Regina Rini
Hosted by Robert Talisse
Seemingly fleeting and barely legible insults, slights, and derogations might seem morally insignificant. They’re the byproducts of ordinary thoughtlessness and insensitivity; moreover, insofar as they inflict harm at all, the …
Philosophy
December 1, 2020
Unconscionable Crimes
How Norms Explain and Constrain Mass Atrocities
Paul C. Morrow
Hosted by Robert Talisse
The moral horrors of genocide and mass atrocity lead us to wonder how such things are even possible. A common and understandable reaction is to see events of this kind …
Philosophy
November 2, 2020
Lost in Thought
The Hidden Pleasures of an Intellectual Life
Zena Hitz
Hosted by Robert Talisse
We live in a culture that tends to view thought with a degree of suspicion. Thinking is frequently associated with uselessness, idleness, laziness. These suspicions can be somewhat allayed when …
Philosophy
October 1, 2020
No Refuge
Ethics and the Global Refugee Crisis
Serena Parekh
Hosted by Robert Talisse
Discourse in wealthy Western countries about refugees tends to follow a familiar script. How many refugees is a country morally required to accept? What kinds of care and support are …
Philosophy
September 1, 2020
The Epistemic Innocence of Irrational Beliefs
Lisa Bortolotti
Hosted by Robert Talisse
There is something intuitive about the idea that when we believe, we ought to follow our evidence. This entails that beliefs that are the products of garden varieties of irrationality …
Philosophy
July 1, 2020
Grandstanding
The Use and Abuse of Moral Talk
Justin Tosi and Brandon Warmke
Hosted by Robert Talisse
College courses in Ethics tend to focus on theories of the moral rightness or wrongness of actions. This emphasis sometimes obscures the fact that morality is a social project: part …
Philosophy
June 1, 2020
Free to Move
Foot Voting, Migration, and Political Freedom
Ilya Somin
Hosted by Robert Talisse
When we think of democracy, we typically think of voting; and when we think of voting, we ordinarily have elections and campaigns in minds. In this intuitive sense, voting is …
Philosophy
May 1, 2020
The Meaning of Travel
Philosophers Abroad
Emily Thomas
Hosted by Robert Talisse
Travel has been a topic lurking in the background (at least) of a lot of philosophy. Socrates was keen to remind his jury as well as his interlocutor Phaedrus that …
Philosophy
February 28, 2020
Utopophobia
On the Limits (If Any) of Political Philosophy
David Estlund
Hosted by Robert Talisse
It is tempting to hold that any proposed principle of social justice is defective if it demands too much of people, given their proclivities. A stronger view, one that many …
Philosophy
January 31, 2020
How to Be Trustworthy
Katherine Hawley
Hosted by Robert Talisse
It is obvious that in our day-to-day lives, a lot hangs on trust, and thus on whether those around us are trustworthy. Yet there are several philosophical issues surrounding trust …
Philosophy
January 2, 2020
Automation and Utopia
Human Flourishing in a World without Work
John Danaher
Hosted by Robert Talisse
The future is a constant focus of anxiety, and we are all familiar with the pressures that come distinctively from automation – the transformation by which tasks formerly assigned to …
Philosophy
December 5, 2019
The Duty to Vote
Julia Maskivker
Hosted by Robert Talisse
When asked what democracy is, many of us instantly think of elections, and thus voting. Although we tend to see voting as central to democracy, we also think that voting …
Philosophy
November 1, 2019
John Stuart Mill and the Meaning of Life
Elijah Millgram
Hosted by Robert Talisse
According to an intuitive view, lives are meaningful when they manifest a directedness or instantiate a project such that the disparate events and endeavors “add up to” a life. John …
Philosophy
October 1, 2019
The Shared World
Perceptual Knowledge, Demonstrative Communication, and Social Space
Axel Seemann
Hosted by Robert Talisse
Much of what we are able to accomplish in our day-to-day lives depends on the ability to act and think in concert with others. Often this involves not only the …
Philosophy
September 2, 2019
Philosophy of Sex and Love
Patricia Marino
Hosted by Robert Talisse
For those who think that philosophy must speak to everyday experience and ordinary life, it would seem that philosophical questions occasioned by love and sex should take center stage. Moral …
Philosophy
August 1, 2019
Vices of the Mind
From the Intellectual to the Political
Quassim Cassam
Hosted by Robert Talisse
Sometimes people are blameworthy or otherwise not admirable because of what they believe. And sometimes they are blameworthy or otherwise not admirable because of how they believe – broadly, their …
Philosophy
July 1, 2019
Why Free Will is Real
Christian List
Hosted by Robert Talisse
Given our modern scientific view of the world, how is freedom of the will possible? That is the classical problem of free will. Strategies for addressing this problem include the …
Philosophy
May 31, 2019
Just Words
On Speech and Hidden Harm
Mary Kate McGowan
Hosted by Robert Talisse
We’re all familiar with the ways in which speech can cause harm. For example, speech can incite wrongful acts. And I suppose we’re also familiar with contexts in which a …
Philosophy
May 1, 2019
The Ethics and Practice of Refugee Repatriation
Mollie Gerver
Hosted by Robert Talisse
Moral and political theorists have paid a healthy amount of attention to states’ rights to determine who may reside within their territory. Accordingly, there’s a large literature on immigration, borders …
Philosophy
April 1, 2019
What's the Point of Knowledge?
A Function-First Epistemology
Michael Hannon
Hosted by Robert Talisse
Epistemologists working traditional modes have sought to discover the necessary and sufficient conditions under which one has knowledge. This has led to several tricky philosophical problems. Perhaps most notorious of …
Philosophy
March 1, 2019
Problems of Religious Luck
Assessing the Limits of Reasonable Religious Disagreement
Guy Axtell
Hosted by Robert Talisse
Our lives are shot through with contingency – where, when, and into what circumstances we are born is largely a matter of chance. And yet those features play determining roles …
Philosophy
February 1, 2019
Articulating the Moral Community
Toward a Constructive Ethical Pragmatism
Henry S. Richardson
Hosted by Robert Talisse
Even those among us who think that morality is rooted in timeless normative truths will acknowledge that the overall moral fabric that binds us to one another is subject to …
Philosophy
December 3, 2018
Pieces of Mind
The Proper Domain of Psychological Predicates
Carrie Figdor
Hosted by Robert Talisse
We’re all familiar with cases where one attributes certain psychological states or capacities to creatures and systems that are not human persons. For example, your cat might prefer a certain …
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