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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 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 as arising from the collapse and eventual disappearance of norms. That is, because we find genocide and mass atrocity so difficult to comprehend, we grasp for an explanation that ascribes to such episodes the absence of compressibility. In Unconscionable Crimes …
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 …
World Affairs 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 …
Communications 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 …
World Affairs 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 …
Anthropology 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 …
British Studies 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 …