Micro-Digressions: A Philosophy Podcast

Ben Burgis rejoins Spencer to defend Marx's record.

This episode tackles one of the most controversial topics of the day (really, most days over the last several decades): Israel/Palestine. Craig White, a former diplomat and the author of Iraq: The Moral Reckoning, and Mark Oppenheimer of Brain in a Vat podcast fame join Spencer to discuss the issue.

Ryan W. Davis, a philosophy professor at Brigham Young University, joins Spencer Case to discuss the ethics and politics of gun ownership in the US. Check out his new book, Why it's OK to Own a Gun (Routledge, 2024).

What is death? Does fear of death affect our everyday lives? And will your death harm you or not? Travis Timmerman, associate professor at Seton Hall University, joins Spencer to discuss these and other questions. Timmerman is coeditor, along with Michael Cholbi, of a fine anthology on the philosophy of death, Exploring the Philosophy of Death and Dying. Purchase your copy here: https://www.amazon.com/Exploring-Philosophy-Death-Dying-Contemporary/dp/1138393584/ref=sr_1_1?crid=15H1NSANTN5NL&keywords=exploring+the+philosophy+of+death+and+dying&qid=1706235275&sprefix=%2Caps%2C656&sr=8-1

It's the end of the year again and time to rant! This year's collection of rants includes: Links: Virtue Vibes Podcast: https://www.virtuevibes.org/ Bentham's Bulldog substack: https://benthams.substack.com/ Brain in a Vat podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/brain-in-a-vat/id1509951964 Humean Being Substack: https://humeanbeing.substack.com/

Oliver Traldi rejoins Spencer Case to discuss the nature of political beliefs. Topics they cover include the bad incentives that influence political beliefs, how political beliefs should be defined, and the need for (and possibility of) politically neutral language in which to discuss political issues.

His Offensiveness Stephen Kershnar returns to the podcast for a wide-ranging conversation about the philosophy of law. This leads to a discussion of the Students For Fair Admissions (SFFA) Supreme Court Case. Music: "Sweet, Man" by Jeremy Mohney. Available for download $1 here: https://jeremymohneymusic.bandcamp.com/

Kevin Vallier joins Spencer Case to talk about social trust and the role it plays in the psychological and moral foundations of liberal societies.

Alex Byrne discusses the controversy around his article on pronouns in the Journal of Controversial Ideas. Byrne and Matt Lutz debate the meaning of the word 'woman.' Alex's view is that women are adult human females, whereas Matt thinks that the word is ambiguous between that traditional definition and a trans-inclusive meaning. We can be tolerant and accept both are legitimate meanings of the word. The conversation eventually comes to focus on the idea that the meanings of words are outcomes of social negotiations of various kinds. Spencer concludes the episode with some thoughts on how this might mean that semantics is morally entangled.

Commentator Charles "Concealed Weapon" Cooke joins Spencer to discuss American identity and patriotism.

MIT philosophy professor Alex Byrne and podcast regular Matt Lutz join Spencer to discuss an article that recently appeared in the Journal of Controversial Ideas entitled "A Defense of Merit in Science." The article, which was written by 27 co-authors, including many social scientists, alleges that the "liberal epistemology" that underlies science is under threat by the institutionalized influence of identity-based ideologies. (The article doesn't use the term "wokeness", but the left identitarian ideologies whose influence it critiques can plausibly be called "woke.") The three conversation partners consider the strengths and weaknesses of the article and also evaluate some of the objections critics have raised.

Mark Oppenheimer and Jason Werbeloff of Brain in a Vat join Spencer to discuss one of their favorite subjects: thought experiments.

Keshav Singh joins Spencer to discuss Sikh religion and philosophy. ("Sikh" is pronounced with the short 'i' sound, and not like "seek"). They cover they history and basic tenets of the Sikh faith, its idea of divinity, and the Sikh idea that "haumai", meaning roughly obsession with oneself, is the root of all human evil. Keshav's personal webpage is here: https://www.keshavsingh.com/

Johnny the Anomaly joins Spencer Case to argue that the potential benefits of genetic enhancement outweigh the risks (Spencer is skeptical). The electronic version of Anomaly's book, Creating Future People: The Ethics of Genetic Enhancement can be downloaded free at Amazon for Kindle or here: https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-mono/10.4324/9781003014805/creating-future-people-jonathan-anomaly?_gl=1*1ui59as*_ga*MjA2NDM2ODk5NS4xNjcxNzM5MTQ4*_ga_0HYE8YG0M6*MTY4MDE0OTA5My44LjAuMTY4MDE0OTA5My4wLjAuMA..

Mike Huemer joins Spencer Case for a wide-ranging discussion about epistemology. Mike argues that you should trust the experts rather than relying on your own "critical thinking"; Spencer's not so sure. They also discuss two strategies for rejecting the Brain-in-a-Vat argument for external world skepticism. Music: "April Kisses" by Eddie Lang (1929), www.openaccessmusic.org

Ryan Jenkins, professor of philosophy at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, rejoins Spencer for the first time since the inaugural episode of Micro-Digressions to resume the conversation about how technology can make our lives worse. The topics discussed include anti-Covid measures, government and corporate surveillance, content moderation on social media, and (taking a page from Oliver Burkeman's Four Thousand Weeks), the ways in which technology encourages us to instrumentalize our everyday experiences.

Featuring: Mark Oppenheimer and Jason Werbeloff from the Brain in the Vat podcast ranting against each other, Perry Hendericks on biased refereeing, Bob Pasnau on contemporary philosophy versus history of philosophy, Matt Lutz on probability and China's zero Covid meltdown, Mike Burke on woke enablers, Spencer Case on why moral extremism is bad, and Oliver Traldi on conceptual engineering.

Jim Skidmore joins Spencer to continue the discussion of Singer's argument in "Famine, Affluence, and Morality."

The first of a two-part series on Peter Singer's famous argument that we must give our expendable income to highly effective charities. This episode features guest Travis Timmerman of Seton Hall University. (Note: Jim Skidmore participated in the first part of this conversation, but his audio wasn't useable due to technical difficulties. That explains a few references to a third participant. Skidmore will appear in part 2).

Philippe Lemoine returns to Micro-Digressions to talk about the difference between realism and idealism in foreign policy thinking, and why he thinks excessive idealism led to the ongoing Russo-Ukraine war.