Shows
ElucidationsEpsiode 152: Luca Gattoni-Celli discusses the housing crisisThis time around, Matt talks to Luca Gattoni-Celli about why it’s so expensive to buy a house.In the 80s, people from all sorts of socioeconomic backgrounds were able to afford apartments and houses in places like New York City, San Francisco, or London. Now, on the other hand, even many wealthy people are getting priced out of the city. And indeed, the issue is no longer specific to urban areas: the problem of seemingly infinitely increasing real estate prices would appear to be creeping into the rest of the US, and into many other area...
2025-11-2243 min
Picture Me CodingLanguage, Meaning, and Functional Programming with Matt TeichmanThis week Matt Teichman, host of the Elucidations podcast, dropped by the show to chat about functional programming and its surprising relationship to linguistics and philosophy. Matt teaches Linguistics, Philosophy, and Computer Science at the University of Chicago and he also works on open-source software for the University of Chicago library, including an interesting OCaml project used by archivists called Attachment Converter.Thanks to our newest Patreon subscribers: Ralph Minderhoud and Tim Lavoie!Stuff to Check OutMatt's podcast: ElucidationsMatt's website: Matt Teichman - Philosophy - University of ChicagoAttachment Converter, open-source library: Att...
2025-06-111h 16ElucidationsEpisode 151: Witold Więcek discusses statistics and academic researchNote: this episode was recorded in August of 2022.In the latest Elucidation, Matt talks to Witold Więcek about the difficulties that come up for researchers who would like to draw upon statistics. Lots of academic fields need to draw heavily on statistics, whether it’s economics, psychology, sociologym, linguistics, computer science, or data science. This means that a lot of people coming from different backgrounds often need to learn basic statistics in order to investigate whatever question they’re investigating. But as we’ve discussed on this podcast, statistical reasoning is easy for beginne...
2025-05-0346 min
Moral MayhemFrom Peterson's Lobsters to Trump's Fine People: Matt Teichman on Conversational ImplicatureIn this episode, philosopher and host of the Elucidations podcast, Matt Teichman, joins us to explore conversational implicature & the hidden rules that help us understand what people mean beyond their literal words. We dive into Paul Grice's cooperative principle and discuss a few real-world examples where communication famously broken down, like the infamous Kathy Newman/Jordan Peterson interview and Trump's "very fine people" comment. We also discuss implicatures in the corporate world and dating etiquette. Matt helps us unpack why some conversations go catastrophically wrong, how different communities develop their own communication norms, and why sometimes saying things indirectly...
2025-04-221h 30ElucidationsEpisode 150: Shruti Rajagopalan discusses talent in IndiaIn this episode, Matt sits down with Shruti Rajagopalan (Mercatus Center) to talk about what the future holds for India.We often have a tendency to think of the current economic and geopolitical situation as simply the way things are. Especially for people who grew up in the United States over the past 50 years, the fact that it is an economic and military superpower sorta feels set in stone. But in this episode, Shruti Rajagopalan encourages us to take the long view, regarding the current state of the US as just one phase in a decades or...
2024-08-2046 minElucidationsEpisode 148: Christos Lazaridis discusses brain deathIn this episode, Matt sits down with Christos Lazaridis (University of Chicago Medicine) to chat about what brain death is and whether brain death should count as, like, death death.Modern life support technology really hits its stride in the 1960s, allowing doctors to buy themselves more time to save their patients by connecting them to machines that can assist with breathing, blood oxygenation and/or heart pumping. But the flipside to that incredible technological breakthrough was that the medical community now needed to get more precise about the moment at which a person goes from be...
2023-10-2037 min
The Partially Examined Life Philosophy PodcastPhilosophy vs. Improv #60: Elu-Sedations w/ Matt TeichmanPhilosopher Matt, host of the Elucidations podcast and frequent PEL guest, finally gets in on Philosophy vs. Improv in this, our Season Two Finale. And many is he a de dicto. Or is he a de re? Slowly learn the difference as we make things personal through scenes of shit-talking and crime reporting.
Mark philosophizes at partiallyexaminedlife.com. Take a class this fall from him at partiallyexaminedlife.com/class.
Bill improvises (and teaches) at chicagoimprovstudio.com.
Hear more at philosophyimprov.com. Support the podcast to get all our post-game discussions and other bonus...
2023-09-0100 minElucidationsEpisode 147: Gabriella Gonzalez discusses the intersection of algebra and programmingIn this episode, Matt talks to Gabriella Gonzalez about how basic concepts from the branch of math known as abstract algebra can help us simplify our computer programs and organize our thoughts.Algebra. That thing they make us do in school. What was that again? Oh yeah, that’s right; it’s where you get to manipulate equations containing variables. Like, if I have an equation that looks like this:2⋅x = 16Then I can divide both sides by two and get a new version where x stands alone, i.e. solve f...
2023-07-1540 minElucidationsEpisode 146: Gaurav Venkataraman discusses memory in DNA and RNAIn this episode, Matt sits down with Gaurav Vankataraman (Trisk Bio) to talk about how human memory is physically realized.Where do your memories live? In the brain, right? They’re, like, imprinted there somehow? We often think of memories as analogous with recordings, like when you do an audio recording and the air vibrations get translated into an electrical signal which reorients the magnetic particles on some tape. But is that really how it works? Is the brain some tape waiting to get recorded to, or a hard drive waiting to get data written to it...
2023-03-3039 minElucidationsEpisode 145: Andrew Sepielli discusses quietism and metaethicsThis episode, Matt and Joseph sit down with Andrew Sepielli (University of Toronto) to talk about metaethical quietism. His new book on the topic, Pragmatist Quietism, is out now from Oxford University Press. Click here to listen to episode 145 of Elucidations.Metaethical quietism is the view that ethical statements—or anyway, a large portion of the ethical statements we’re usually interested in—can’t be justified or disproved by statements from outside of ethics. There’s something autonomous about the topic of ethics (or rather, about a lot of ethics). Consider the question: in the scenario where a t...
2023-01-2139 minElucidationsEpisode 144: Christopher Beem discusses democratic virtuesThis episode, Matt talks to Christopher Beem (Penn State University) about how we can cultivate those skills that conduce to having a functioning democracy. His book on the topic, The Seven Democratic Virtues, is out now from Penn State University Press.The storming of the US Capitol Building in 2021 was an eyebrow-raising event, to say the least. It prompted historians, political scientists, and political philosophers to ask whether deep down, everything was going okay with our democratic system. Was this event some kind of sign that the voting process was under unusual strain? Was it time to...
2022-11-2037 minElucidationsEpisode 143: Mark Linsenmayer discusses alternative models of educationThis episode, Matt Teichman talks to Mark Linsenmayer about alternative models of education. Mark is creator and host of the Partially Examined Life, Nakedly Examined Music, Pretty Much Pop, and Philosophy vs. Improv podcasts. He is also the author of the recent book, Philosophy For Teens.There’s going to college and there’s listening to podcasts. Both can give you a way to learn new things, so in that general sense, both can count as forms of education. Going to college has advantages over listening to podcasts when it comes to learning—a college class can ki...
2022-10-0544 minElucidationsEpisode 142: Emily Dupree discusses the rationality of revengeIn this episode of Elucidations, Matt sits down with Emily Dupree to learn about whether it’s rational or irrational to try to seek revenge.As a culture, we kind can’t decide what we think about revenge. Out of one side of our mouths, we talk a big game about letting bygones be bygones, about how revenge and retaliation lead to cycles of violence, and about how nothing good can really come of getting back at people. But acts of revenge, where clearly warranted, also have a visceral moral appeal that it would be absurd to den...
2022-08-0336 minElucidationsEpisode 141: Rob Goodman discusses eloquenceThis time around, Matt sits down with Rob Goodman to talk about political eloquence. Goodman is the author of a new book on this topic called Words on Fire, which you can pick up a copy of wherever you like to get books. Can you think of the last time you saw someone give a rousing speech? They step up to the podium with throngs of onlookers staring at them. Somehow, rather than nervously scampering offstage or melting into a puddle, they speak off the cuff in a way that transfixes everyone listening. Their words feel...
2022-06-1335 minElucidationsEpisode 140: Meghan Sullivan and Paul Blaschko discuss the good lifeIntro philosophy classes often get stuck in a rut. Some philosophy classes go through a list of old dead people and try to understand excerpts from some of their most influential writings, over the course of a semester. Could be something like: Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, Hume, Kant, Mill, and Nietzsche. Other types of intro classes go through a list of topics that contemporary philosophers feel are canonical and have students read papers on those topics. Could be something like: the problem of evil, the mind-body problem, arguments for the existence (or non-existence) of God, the is/ought distinction, and...
2022-04-1043 minElucidationsEpisode 139: Jessica Tizzard discusses the philosophy of pregnancyThis month, Jessica Tizzard (University of Tuebingen) makes her second appearance on Elucidations to talk to Matt about pregnancy.Human pregnancy is weird. Try talking to a reproductive endochrinologist about it, and you’ll soon find that there’s a lot we don’t really understand about it even at the scientific level. But even when it comes to thinking about pregnancy at the commonsense reasoning level, puzzles begin popping up the second you start trying to think about it systematically. Like, consider the commonsense idea that a fetus is ‘inside’ the person who is pregant with it. They...
2022-02-1331 minElucidationsEpisode 138: Toby Buckle discusses Mill's liberty principleThis month, Toby Buckle, host of the Political Philosophy Podcast, returns to talk about John Stuart Mill’s liberty principle! (Also sometimes called the ‘harm principle’.) The occasion for the episode is the recent release of Toby’s cool new book, What is Freedom?, which is out now from Oxford University Press. Get it while it’s hot!John Stuart Mill is probably one of the most influential intellectuals of the 19th century, having penned treatises on markets, logic, feminism, utilitarianism, and freedom of speech that people continue to pick up and rea...
2022-01-2343 minElucidationsEpisode 136: Christian Miller discusses virtue and characterThis month, Yuezhen Li and I sit down with Christian Miller (Wake Forest University) to talk about how to be virtuous. Also known as how to be good.‘Virtue’ is sort of an old-timey word. But the concept is still alive and well today, even though we tend to use different words for it. The idea behind a virtue is: there’s such a thing as being a good person and doing good things, and that there are different ways of being a good person and doing good things. For example, you can be good in the sense...
2021-10-2542 min
ElucidationsEpisode 134: Claire Kirwin discusses value realismThis month, Josh Kaufman and I talk to Claire Kirwin about whether things are objectively good or bad, or whether it’s all in the eye of the beholder. Professor Kirwin is a fan of peanut butter cup ice cream, and Josh and I are fans of mint chocolate chip. Is there an objective fact of the matter about whether either is good, or whether one is better than the other? Or are we all just expressing our preferences, i.e. doing nothing more than providing information about ourselves? Can goodness be ‘in’ ice cream, or is it just...
2021-05-2940 minElucidationsEpisode 133: Aristotle discusses his philosophyThis month, Agnes Callard and I talk to Aristotle about his philosophy, including his work on physics, biology, and ethics. Featuring an introduction by our awesome intern, Noadia Steinmetz-Silber! Click here to download Episode 133 of Elucidations.Not everyone is familiar with Aristotle’s work today, but the case could be made that science, political theory, logic, ethics, and philosophy exist in their current form largely due to the precedent he set. That said, in this episode, Aristotle opens by telling us a little about how the foundational assumptions made by a number of today’s scientists and philos...
2021-04-0445 min
ElucidationsEpisode 129: Nethanel Lipshitz discusses discriminationThis month, Ben Andrew and I are joined by Nethanel Lipshitz (Tel Aviv University, Bar-Ilan University) to talk about discrimination.If someone treats me unequally--that is, if they give other people a relative advantage but not me--am I the victim of discrimination? Our guest says yes. That is enough for me to count as having been discriminated against, and that is enough for it to be morally wrong.All fine and dandy. But then what's the big deal? The big deal is that the standard view in political philosophy tells us that discrimination...
2020-09-2751 min
ElucidationsEpisode 128: Melissa Fusco discusses free choice permissionOne of the foundational ideas behind philosophical logic is that when you say something, that has further implications beyond the single thing you said. Like, if I think ‘every single frog is green’ and ‘Fran is a frog’, then I am committed to thinking that Fran is green. I don't have to have actually thought to myself or said out loud that Fran is green—I'm just required to believe that Fran is green, given that I thought the first two things, and if I fail to believe that, I've made some kind of mistake. Like I haven't thought through al...
2020-08-1641 min
ElucidationsEpisode 127 - Nic Koziolek discusses self-knowledgeIn this episode, Nic Koziolek (Washington University in St. Louis) returns to talk to me and Nora Bradford about self-consciousness.Self-consciousness, as philosophers use the term, is a word for when you know something about one of your own mental states. Like when I really enjoy some pizza and note that I'm enjoying it. Someone else might ask me: ‘Hey Matt, do you like that pizza?’ And I'm typically the best person to ask about that, which is a sign that I typically know whether I like the pizza. Or when I have an itch, and I no...
2020-07-1540 min
ElucidationsEpisode 126 - Listener Q&A with Agnes Callard and Ben CallardThree philosophers. Eight head-scratchers. 50 minutes. In this episode, Agnes Callard, Ben Callard and I respond to the world's most awesome listener-recorded questions.A lot of people have the impression that philosophy is, first and foremost, an enterprise in which college professor types read books that no one can understand, then issue a response in the form of more books that no one can understand. It's not. Don't get me wrong—I love books. I'm constantly trying to talk friends and acquaintances who don't like reading books into giving them another shot, if only for the simple re...
2020-06-1147 min
ElucidationsEpisode 125: James Koppel discusses counterfactual inference and automated explanationEpisode link here.In this episode, James Koppel (MIT, James Koppel Coaching) joins me and Dominick Reo to talk about how we can write software to help identify the causes of disasters.These days, there's often a tendency to think of software primarily as a venue for frivolous pleasures. Maybe there's a new app that's really good at hooking me up with videos of alpacas on skateboards, or making my mom look like a hot dog when she's video chatting with me, or helping me decide what flavor of cupcake I want delivered...
2020-04-1738 min
ElucidationsElucidations Episode 124: Graham Priest discusses Buddhist political philosophyEpisode link here:https://elucidations.now.sh/posts/episode-124/In this episode, Graham Priest returns to discuss Buddhist political philosophy with me and Henry Curtis. (Last month, we talked with him about Buddhist metaphysics.) Last month, we discussed the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism: that suffering happens, that this suffering is (partially) caused by emotional attachment, that you can deal with it by changing your headspace, and that you can change your headspace by understanding the world, understanding your mind and body, and treating other people well. In this episode, our gue...
2020-03-2140 min
ElucidationsEpisode 123: Graham Priest discusses Buddhist metaphysicsIn this episode, Matt Teichman and Henry Curtis talk to Graham Priest (CUNY Graduate Center) about the philosophical foundations of Buddhism.Buddhism isn't just a religion--it's an entire family of philosophical traditions that took root all over the Asian continent for thousands of years. The historical Buddha articulated views in what we consider to be many different areas of philosophy, including metaphysics, ethics, and political philosophy. For this episode, we're focusing on the metaphysics.Metaphysics means different things to different people, but our guest thinks of it as a broad inquiry into the...
2020-02-1548 min
ElucidationsEpisode 122: Frithjof Bergmann and David Helmbold discuss new work, new cultureIn this episode, Frithjof Bergmann and David Helmbold make the case for a different approach to working in the modern world. A lot of us experience our day to day work as a 'mild disease'--not terrible, not excruciating, but also not our #1 choice about how to spend weekdays. Instead, they argue, a person's work should be the best part of their life. But making that a possibility for everyone requires not just our social structures to transform--it requires a kind of personal psychological transformation.Check out our blog for more info!https://elucidations.now...
2020-01-1739 min
ElucidationsEpisode 121: Aaron Ben Ze'ev discusses the arc of loveIn this episode, Matt Teichman and Julia Liu talk to Aaron Ben Ze'ev (University of Haifa) about lifelong romantic love. What is love? Is it just a private feeling that each individual person experiences, or is it something that crucially involves multiple people? Our guest argues that although it is primarily a feeling, it is also something that emerges out of the interaction between two people. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2019-12-0541 min
ElucidationsEpisode 120: Robin Dembroff on going beyond the gender binaryEver wonder what 'gender non-binary' means? Don't worry--Robin Dembroff (Yale University) is here to walk us through the relevant terminology, along with the everyday moral issues that are tied up with the gender concepts we use. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2019-11-1032 min
ElucidationsEpisode 119: Stephanie Kapusta discusses misgenderingIn this episode, our guest argues that in addition to ordinary individual cases of misgendering, in which one person gets another person's gender wrong when they address them, there's a broader sense of the term. In the broader sense, a philosophical account of what gender is can also misgender people. How? The idea is that in signing yourself up for an incorrect philosophical account of gender, you could be committing yourself to the view that certain people are not the gender they (correctly) claim to be. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2019-10-1545 min
ElucidationsEpisode 118: Tyler Cowen discusses Stubborn AttachmentsIn this episode, Tyler Cowen lays out an interesting normative ethical theory according to which we should be utilitarians, but with a twist: we should be utilitarians who care just as much about the humans of the future as we care about people now. Re-emphasizing our commitment to future people, he argues, has the effect of allowing us to embrace utilitarianism wholeheartedly without having to feel like we aren't doing enough. Why? The best way to make life better for future generations is to help bring about economic growth, and we have good reason to think that a lot of...
2019-09-1252 min
ElucidationsEpisode 117: Brian L. Frye says to plagiarize this podcastIn this episode, Brian L. Frye (University of Kentucky) argues that we should think more carefully about our moral reaction to instances of plagiarism. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2019-08-3038 min
ElucidationsEpisode 116: Tommy Curry discusses black male studiesIn this episode, Tommy Curry argues that if we really want to understand gender-based oppression, we have to look at how black men have been targeted for it. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2019-08-0659 min
Ipse DixitMatt Teichman on Offensive Generic StatementsIn this episode, Matt Teichman, a full-time lecturer in the humanities at the University of Chicago and the host of the Elucidations philosophy podcast, discusses his work on generic statements and their implications for implied ethics. Teichman begins by identifying generic statements and explaining why they present a philosophical problem. He observes that generic statements are especially contentious in relation to groups of people, because they can be offensive. But he argues that some offensive statements can be desirable, especially when they are made in the service of social justice. And he suggests that understanding the function of generic...
2019-08-0248 min
ElucidationsEpisode 115: Katherine Ritchie discusses social groupsIn this episode, Katherine Ritchie (CUNY Graduate Center, City College) lays out what it means to belong to a social group, and what kind of thing a social group is. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2019-07-0140 minElucidationsEpisode 114: Sally Haslanger discusses ideologyWhat is the nature of a person's political outlook? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2019-05-1440 min
ElucidationsEpisode 113: Tom Pashby discusses quantum mechanicsIn this episode, Tom Pashby explains how quantum physics is different from theories that came before, and runs through some of the ways that philosophers and physicists have tried to make intuitive sense of this challenging framework. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2019-04-0835 min
ElucidationsEpisode 112: Myisha Cherry discusses the skill of conversationIn this episode, Myisha Cherry argues that having a productive conversation with someone often involves explicitly laying out each person's background experiences and expectations. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2019-03-0743 minElucidationsEpisode 111: Greg Kobele discusses mathematical linguisticsIn this episode, Greg Kobele discusses how abstract mathematics can be useful for arriving at a unified theory of what patterns a person has mastery over when they can speak a language. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2019-01-2841 minElucidationsEpisode 110: Chike Jeffers discusses the social and political philosophy of W.E.B. Du BoisWhat is the best way forward for a group of people fairly recently freed from slavery? Booker T. Washington emphasized economic enfranchisement, whereas W.E.B. Du Bois thought it was necessary to achieve political enfranchisement alongside economic enfranchisement. Join us as our guest discusses how threads from this 100-year-old debate persist in today's discussions about racial justice in America. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2018-12-1537 minElucidationsEpisode 109: Bonus Episode with Matt Teichman and Toby BuckleBonus episode! In this joint edition of Elucidations and the Political Philosophy Podcast, Matt Teichman and Toby Buckle sit down and have a freeform conversation about why we do podcasts, the nature of moral disagreement, and the existence of political divides. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2018-10-1347 minElucidationsEpisode 108: Mariam Thalos discusses freedomWhat do you think of yourself as? A musician? A mother? A political organizer? In this episode, our guest argues that your ability to act and reason freely is premised on your ability to shape and sometimes even invent the labels you apply to yourself. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2018-09-1636 minElucidationsEpisode 107: Linda Martín Alcoff discusses identity and historyIn this episode, Linda Martín Alcoff discusses the subtle ways that things like your race, gender, sexual orientation, and class can influence your life. She argues that the best way to understand that kind of influence is by looking to the history of the relevant social group. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2018-08-0350 minElucidationsEpisode 106: R. A. Briggs discusses genderIn this episode, R. A. Briggs discusses some complexities underlying our use of the terms 'man' and 'woman.' Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2018-06-2337 min
ElucidationsEpisode 105: R. A. Briggs discusses epistemic decision theoryHow do we tell what the best strategies for changing our beliefs on the basis of new evidence might be? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2018-04-2137 min
ElucidationsEpisode 104: Seth Yalcin discusses the question-sensitivity of beliefIn this episode, Seth Yalcin argues that every belief we have is implicitly framed as the answer to a question, and that at different times we're considering different questions. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2018-03-0438 min
ElucidationsEpisode 103: Brian Leiter explains why we should think about MarxIn this episode, we talk to Brian Leiter about why the writings of Karl Marx are helpful for understanding the current situation of the working and middle class in America, the 2016 Presidential election, and related topics! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2018-01-0950 min
ElucidationsEpisode 102: Josh Knobe discusses the true selfIn this episode, Josh Knobe discusses a series of experiments that try to tease out what we implicitly assume about who a person really is, deep down. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2017-12-0133 min
ElucidationsEpisode 101: Miranda Fricker discusses blame and forgivenessIn this episode, Miranda Fricker argues that the purpose of blaming someone is to communicate to them your sense of why what they did was wrong. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2017-10-2149 min
ElucidationsEpisode 100: Agnes Callard discusses aspirationIn this episode, Agnes Callard explains why she thinks aspiration is the process of moving from one set of values to a new set of values in the way you live your life. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2017-09-2249 min
ElucidationsEpisode 99: Steven Nadler discusses Spinoza on freedomIn this episode, Steven Nadler discusses Benedict de Spinoza's unique reason-centric conception of what it is to live a good life and be free. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2017-08-1339 min
ElucidationsEpisode 98: Jennifer Lackey discusses credibilityIn this episode, Jennifer Lackey discusses both how you can get things factually wrong and do something morally wrong by trusting people more than they deserve to be trusted. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2017-07-1732 min
ElucidationsEpisode 97: Meghan Sullivan discusses time biasesIn this episode, Meghan Sullivan argues that if it's irrational to sacrifice long-term benefits for short-term gain, then it's also irrational to prefer for bad experiences to have already happened. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2017-06-1155 min
ElucidationsEpisode 96: Nic Koziolek discusses the role of belief in reasoningIn this episode, Nic Koziolek offers an account of what thought, belief, and reasoning are in terms of what knowledge is. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2017-05-0841 min
ElucidationsEpisode 95: Zed Adams discusses the genealogy of colorIn this episode, Zed Adams argues that philosophers are in an irresolvable debate about whether colors are real because they inherited multiple conflicting conceptions of what color is from previous generations. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2017-04-1032 minElucidationsEpisode 94: Zsofia Zvolenszky discusses fictional namesIn this episode, Zsofia Zvolenszky argues that names like 'Harry Potter' or 'Princess Leia' stand for non-concrete human-made artifacts. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2017-03-2336 min
ElucidationsEpisode 93: Barry Lam discusses obligations after deathIn this episode, Barry Lam examines our common assumption that we should prioritize honoring the wishes of dead people. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2017-01-3041 min
ElucidationsEpisode 92: Kristie Dotson discusses epistemic oppressionIn this episode, Kristie Dotson discusses how imbalances in the way we share information with each other reflect broader power imbalances between social groups. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2017-01-1443 min
ElucidationsEpisode 91: Paolo Santorio discusses counterfactualsIn this episode, Paolo Santorio argues that to explain what statements like 'If A were, then B would be' mean, we need to understand them as statements about causal networks. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2016-12-2335 min
ElucidationsEpisode 90: Ásta Sveinsdóttir discusses social constructionIn this episode, our guest argues that we confer social statuses on each other by treating each other has having different obligations and entitlements. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2016-11-2029 min
ElucidationsEpisode 89: John Collins discusses language universalsIn this episode, John Collins discusses the philosophical significance of Noam Chomsky's theory of universal grammar, along with some of the scientific evidence for it. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2016-10-2841 min
ElucidationsEpisode 88: Kent Bach discusses jumping to conclusions and knowing when to think twiceIn this episode, Kent Bach discusses the importance of subconscious processes that underlie ordinary, everyday reasoning. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2016-10-1230 min
ElucidationsEpisode 87: Susanna Schellenberg discusses perceptual particularityIn this episode, Susanna Schellenberg argues that hallucination involves the very same ability as ordinary visual experience--it's just that the ability goes wrong. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2016-09-1231 min
ElucidationsEpisode 86: Daniel Smyth discusses photographs and their vicissitudesIn this episode, Daniel Smyth discusses the vast amount of background knowledge that goes into interpreting a photograph. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2016-08-1846 minElucidationsEpisode 85: Bryce Huebner discusses race and cognitive scienceIn this episode, Bryce Huebner argues that our implicit racial biases are shaped by the physical environments we inhabit. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2016-08-0135 minElucidationsEpisode 84: Amanda Greene discusses the legitimacy of democracyIn this episode, Amanda Greene argues that democracy is the form of government that most reliably leads to long-term stability and acceptance. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2016-06-1043 minElucidationsEpisode 83: Bob Simpson discusses genealogical anxietyIn this episode, Bob Simpson discusses how a person should respond to the realization that they only believe something because of how they were brought up. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2016-05-1235 minElucidationsEpisode 82: Robert May discusses Frege and the problem of identityIn this episode, Robert May discusses the problems that arise when we try to explain what simple statements of arithmetic are saying. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2016-04-1341 minElucidationsEpisode 81: Cathy Legg discusses what Peirce's categories can do for youIn this episode, Cathy Legg talks about why Charles Sanders Peirce thought that existing was only one of three ways of being. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2016-03-1537 minElucidationsEpisode 80: Mark Hopwood discusses love and moral valueIn this episode, Mark Hopwood discusses the moral relation that results when one person values another as a particular individual. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2016-02-1031 minElucidationsEpisode 79: Anthony S. Gillies discusses conditionalsIn this episode, Anthony S. Gillies shows us how difficult it is to figure out what if/then statements mean! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2016-01-0632 minElucidationsEpisode 78: Stephen Engstrom discusses the categorical imperativeIn this episode, Stephen Engstrom discusses the principle that Immanuel Kant thought to underlie all of ethics. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2015-12-0932 minElucidationsEpisode 77: Mark Schroeder discusses reasons for action and beliefIn this episode, Mark Schroeder discusses an example of how something other than evidence against a claim can give you a reason not to believe that it's true. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2015-11-1338 minElucidationsEpisode 76: Barbara Herman discusses gratitudeIn this episode, Barbara Herman describes the intricacies of the relationship between two people that is created when one does a favor for the other. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2015-10-1342 minElucidationsEpisode 75: Malte Willer discusses non-monotonic logicIn this episode, Malte Willer discusses attempts to give a formal theory of commonsense reasoning, and how it differs from the kind of reasoning that has traditionally been studied. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2015-09-0831 minElucidationsEpisode 74: Christina van Dyke discusses gender and medieval mysticismIn this episode, Christina van Dyke discusses the medieval mystics, a loose collection of authors who thought through philosophical issues by writing about their religious experiences. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2015-08-0730 minElucidationsEpisode 73: Greg Salmieri discusses Ayn Rand's moral philosophyIn this episode, Greg Salmieri explains why Ayn Rand thought a good life is oriented, first and foremost, toward the goal of benefitting oneself. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2015-07-1539 minElucidationsEpisode 72: Robert May discusses pejorative expressionsIn this episode, Robert May explains what racial, ethnic, and homophobic slurs literally mean. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2015-06-2538 minElucidationsEpisode 71: Kent Schmor discusses Carnap's AufbauIn this episode, Kent Schmor introduces us to Rudolf Carnap's classic work, _The Logical Construction of the World_. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2015-06-0534 minElucidationsEpisode 70: Susan James discusses Spinoza on the good embodied lifeIn this episode, Susan James explains Spinoza's view that the mind and the body are really just different aspects of the same thing, and how that view led him to think of moral reasoning as having an emotional component. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2015-05-0633 minElucidationsEpisode 69: Christel Fricke discusses Adam Smith's theory of moral sentimentsIn this episode, Christel Fricke discusses a view in ethics according to which you determine the right thing to do by imitating the perspective of an ideal, impartial spectator. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2015-03-2532 minElucidationsEpisode 68: Mark Lance discusses anarchismIn this episode, Mark Lance defends the view that instead of answering to a central authority, our society should self-govern, only scaling up what it has to. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2015-02-1842 minElucidationsEpisode 67: John Protevi discusses Darwin, disaster, and prosocialityIn this episode, John Protevi discusses research across several different disciplines which supports the hypothesis that human beings evolved to cooperate with each other. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2015-01-1231 minElucidationsEpisode 66: Haim Gaifman discusses mathematical reasoningIn this episode, Haim Gaifman argues that there are mathematical facts about real, objective, mathematical entities. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2014-12-1740 minElucidationsEpisode 65: Julian Savulescu discusses doping in sportsIn this episode, Julian Savulescu argues that professional sports should change their regulations so as to allow for a certain amount of doping. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2014-11-1739 minElucidationsEpisode 64: James Conant and Jay Elliott discuss the analytic traditionIn this episode, James Conant and Jay Elliott go into the history of the movement known as analytic philosophy. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2014-10-1852 minElucidationsEpisode 63: Michael Devitt discusses referenceIn this episode, Michael Devitt explains why we need a theory of what it means for a proper name to stand for a person or place. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2014-09-1938 minElucidationsEpisode 62: Sally Sedgwick discusses Hegel’s critique of KantIn this episode, Sally Sedgwick runs through Immanuel Kant’s idea that doing the right thing means doing whatever respects the dignity of all rational creatures, along with G. W. F. Hegel’s worry that Kant neglected how his moral theory was the product of a particular historical moment. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2014-08-2130 minElucidationsEpisode 61: Jeff Buechner discusses Kripke and functionalismIn this episode, Jeff Buechner gives us an overview of the work of Saul Kripke, and explains his (not yet published) argument against the idea that the human mind is a kind of computer. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2014-07-1644 minElucidationsEpisode 60: Fabrizio Cariani shares some thoughts about oughtsIn this episode, Fabrizio Cariani explains some of the challenges that arise when we try to precisely define the words 'ought' and 'should.' Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2014-06-2326 minElucidationsEpisode 59: Quill Kukla discusses reproductive riskIn this episode, Quill Kukla questions the assumptions behind the idea that keeping unborn fetuses safe is simply a matter of individual mothers managing risk responsibly. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2014-05-1437 minElucidationsEpisode 58: Stewart Shapiro discusses vagueness, part IIIn this episode, we return to the topic of vagueness from a new perspective. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2014-04-1727 minElucidationsEpisode 57: Julia Annas discusses virtue ethicsIn this episode, Julia Annas introduces us to the ancient Greek conception of ethics. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2014-03-1939 minElucidationsEpisode 56: Philip Pettit discusses corporate rights and responsibilitiesIn this episode, Philip Pettit considers whether a corporation can have any special privileges or rights. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2014-02-1054 minElucidationsEpisode 55: Branden Fitelson discusses paradoxes of consistency. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2014-01-0845 minElucidationsEpisode 54: Patricia Blanchette discusses Frege's logicismIn this episode, Patricia Blanchette explains why Gottlob Frege and other early 20th century philosophers wanted to understand all of mathematics as really being about logic. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2013-12-0644 minElucidationsEpisode 53: Martin Stokhof discusses formal semantics and WittgensteinIn this episode, Martin Stokhof argues that understanding what formal theories of linguistic meaning are actually doing is less straightforward than it might seem. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2013-11-1437 minElucidationsEpisode 52: Rafeeq Hasan discusses Rousseau on freedom and happinessIn this episode, Rafeeq Hasan argues that according to Jean-Jacques Rousseau, there isn't any conflict between being a free individual and living in a cooperative society. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2013-10-1437 minElucidationsEpisode 51: Jeroen Groenendijk and Floris Roelofsen discuss inquisitive semanticsIn this episode, Jeroen Groenendijk and Floris Roelofsen discuss a new theory of linguistic meaning that brings out a deep commonality between statements and questions. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2013-09-2333 min