The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast

A Philosophy Podcast and Philosophy Blog

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Ep. 223: Guest Ned Block on Consciousness (Part Two)

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We talk with Ned about a second Blockheads (2019) article, Michael Tyle’s “Homunculi Heads and Silicon Chips: The Importance of History to Phenomenology,” which provides a variation off of the David Chalmers fading qualia argument, and then Mark, Seth, Dylan, and Wes continue exploring the details uncovered by our interview after Ned leaves.

Listen to part one first, or get the ad-free, unbroken Citizen Edition. Please support PEL!

End song: “Your So Dark Sleep/Goodbye” by The Black Watch, as interviewed on Nakedly Examined Music #102.

Sponsors: Visit thegreatcoursesplus.com/PEL for a free trial of The Great Courses Plus Video Learning Service and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

NEM#103: Homer Flynn on The Residents’ 50 Years

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The Residents were formed in 1969 and have released around 50 albums of theatrical, experimental music with humor and humanity. They’re great to freak people out with. The band is anonymous; Homer is the head of their management arm, The Cryptic Corporation.

We discuss “Good Vibes” from Intruders (2019), “Blue Rosebuds,” from Duck Stab (1978) and the live Shadowland (2014), “Kiss of Flesh” from God in Three Persons (1988), and we listen to “If Only” from the Hardy Fox tribute album The Godfather of Odd (2019). Intro: “Fire (Santa Dog)” (1972) and outro: “The Simple Song” from Commercial Album (1980). For more, visit residents.com.

Hear more Nakedly Examined Music. Like our Facebook page. Support us on Patreon.

Sponsors: Visit masterclass.com/EXAMINED for $30 off a MasterClass All-Access Pass. Check out Mark’s new TV/film/etc. podcast at prettymuchpop.com.

Pretty Much Pop #6: Adults Playing Video Games

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Ian Maio (who’s worked in e-sports marketing) joins Erica, Brian and Mark to talk about why adults play video games, types of gamers, gaming disorders, gamer shaming, inclusivity, and more.

For more, visit prettymuchpop.com. Hear bonus content for this episode, and more episodes in advance, at patreon.com/prettymuchpop.

This podcast is part of the Partially Examined Life podcast network and is curated by openculture.com. Please go check out Modern Day Philosophers at moderndayphilosophers.net and See You on the Other Side at othersidepodcast.com.

Ep. 223: Guest Ned Block on Consciousness (Part One)

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The climax and denouement of our summer philosophy of mind series: Ned Block visits to fill in the gaps about functionalism and attributing consciousness to machines and discuss essays from Blockheads (2019), focusing here on Brian McLaughlin’s “Could an Android be Sentient?”

Don’t wait for part 2! Get the ad-free, unbroken Citizen Edition now. Please support PEL!

Please go check out Modern Day Philosophers at moderndayphilosophers.net and See You on the Other Side at othersidepodcast.com. Also, subscribe to Mark’s Pretty Much Pop at prettymuchpop.com.

Ep. 223: Guest Ned Block on Consciousness (Citizen Edition)

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The climax and denouement of our summer philosophy of mind series: Ned Block visits to fill in the gaps about functionalism and attributing consciousness to machines. We discuss two essays from Blockheads (2019): Brian McLaughlin’s “Could an Android be Sentient?” and Michael Tye’s “Homunculi Heads and Silicon Chips: The Importance of History to Phenomenology.”

End song: “Your So Dark Sleep/Goodbye” by The Black Watch, as interviewed on Nakedly Examined Music #102.

NEM#102: John Andrew Fredrick (The Black Watch): Literary Anglophilia

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John has released 17 albums and 5 EPs of guitar-based post-punk as the Black Watch since 1988. He’s also an English professor who’s published 5 books.
 
We discuss “Eustacia’s Dream” from Magic Johnson (2019), “Emily, Are You Sleeping?” from Led Zeppelin Five (2011), “Inner City Garden” from The Hypnotizing Sea (2005), and premiere “Much of a Muchness” from the forthcoming Crying All the Time EP. For more, see johnandrewfredrick.com.

Hear more Nakedly Examined Music. Like our Facebook page. Support us on Patreon.

Pretty Much Pop #5: True Crime with Lucy Lawless

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Lucy Lawless (Xena the Warrior Princess, currently starring in My Life Is Murder) joins Mark, Erica, and Brian to think about the true crime genre, of both the documentary and dramatized variety. What’s the appeal? Why do women in particular gravitate to it?

For more, visit prettymuchpop.com. Hear bonus content for this episode, and more episodes in advance, at patreon.com/prettymuchpop.

This podcast is part of the Partially Examined Life podcast network and is curated by openculture.com.

Ep. 222: Debating Functionalism (Block, Chalmers) (Part Two)

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Continuing on Ned Block’s “Troubles with Functionalism” (1978) and David Chalmers’s “Absent Qualia, Fading Qualia, Dancing Qualia” (1995).

What would it be like to be halfway between person and machine? If you think the machine can’t have consciousness, then Chalmers thinks that there’s no sensible way to describe such an experience, ergo the machine (if functionally equivalent to the person) must have consciousness after all.

Listen to part one first, or get the unbroken, ad-free Citizen Edition. Please support PEL!

End song: “Machine” by Helen Money as interviewed on Nakedly Examined Music #101.

Sponsors: Visit thegreatcoursesplus.com/PEL, mintmobile.com/PEL, and omnifocus.com.

Subscribe to Pretty Much Pop: A Culture Podcast at prettymuchpop.com.

Ep. 222: Debating Functionalism (Block, Chalmers) (Part One)

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On Ned Block’s “Troubles with Functionalism” (1978) and David Chalmers’s “Absent Qualia, Fading Qualia, Dancing Qualia” (1995).

If mental states are functional states, there couldn’t be zombies. Yet Block claims that there could be zombies: for example, a functional duplicate of you whose components are actually citizens of China obeying algorithmic rules. Even if the resulting system acts like you, it obviously isn’t conscious. Chalmers argues that you’d then need to explain the experiences of a creature half way between you and the zombie, but you can’t, so Block’s argument doesn’t work and functionalism is left standing. What do you think? Do you hate weird thought experiments like these?

Don’t wait for part two! Get the full, ad-free Citizen Edition now. Please support PEL!

Sponsor: Visit the St. John’s College Graduate Institute: partiallyexaminedlife.com/sjcgi.

Subscribe to Mark’s new podcast at prettymuchpop.com.

Ep. 222: Debating Functionalism (Block, Chalmers) (Citizen Edition)

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On Ned Block’s “Troubles with Functionalism” (1978) and David Chalmers’s “Absent Qualia, Fading Qualia, Dancing Qualia” (1995).

If mental states are functional states, there couldn’t be zombies. Yet Block claims that there could be zombies: for example, a functional duplicate of you whose components are actually citizens of China obeying algorithmic rules. Even if the resulting system acts like you, it obviously isn’t conscious.

Chalmers argues that you’d then need to explain the experiences of a creature half way between you and the zombie, but you can’t, so Block’s argument doesn’t work and functionalism is left standing. What do you think? Do you hate weird thought experiments like these?

End song: “Machine” by Helen Money as interviewed on Nakedly Examined Music #101.

Pretty Much Pop #3: CONFORM w/ Yakov Smirnoff

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Is media trying to brainwash us into being ALL THE SAME? Are the excesses of the mob scaring us into conformity? Mark, Erica, and Brian muse on cultural homogenization and are joined by comedian Dr. Yakov Smirnoff to talk about growing up in a repressive society and the shadow of political correctness over comedy.

For more about this podcast, see prettymuchpop.com. Hear bonus content for this episode, and more episodes in advance, at patreon.com/prettymuchpop.
This podcast is curated by openculture.com.

NEM#101: Helen Money (Alison Chesley): Rock Cellist

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Alison was studying classical music when she joined Jason Narducy in 1994 in a duet that grew into two Verbow albums. She’s since recorded four solo cello albums and been a guest musician on over 100 albums, playing with Bob Mould, Superchunk, Anthrax, Broken Social Scene, etc.

We discuss “Become Zero” and “Vanished Star” from Become Zero (2016), then “Beautiful Friends” from Arriving Angels (2013), and listen to “For My Father” by Jarboe/Helen Money (2015). Intro: “New History” by Verbow from White Out (2000); closing music from “Political Song for Michael Jackson to Sing” from In Tune (2009). For more, see helenmoney.com.

Hear more Nakedly Examined Music. Like our Facebook page. Support us on Patreon.

Pretty Much Pop #2: Binge Watching

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What counts as binge watching? Why do we do it? Is it bad for us? Mark, Erica, and Brian think about what we get out of binge watching, whether it’s bad for us, what kind of shows taste better in bulk than others, and much more.

For more about this podcast, see prettymuchpop.com. Hear bonus content for this episode,and more episodes in advance, at patreon.com/prettymuchpop.

Check out our friends at BroadwayRadio.com. This podcast is curated by openculture.com and The Partially Examined Life Podcast Network.

Ep. 221: Functionalist Theories of Mind (Putnam, Armstrong) (Part Two)

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Continuing on functionalism with David M. Armstrong’s “The Causal Theory of the Mind” (1981).

We delve into this version of functionalism that is supposed to clear the way for the scientific identification of mental states with brain states. Mental states are defined by their causal relations with other states and with behavior, and the content of a mental state is exhausted by its intentional object, e.g., the content of a perception is the thing you’re perceiving that (normally) causes the perception. So what about things like colors and sounds that aren’t really out in the world? Can functionalism explain how these seem to us?

Listen to part one first or get the full, ad-free Citizen Edition. Please support PEL!

End song: “Pain Makes You Beautiful” by Jeff Heiskell’s JudyBats, as featured on Nakedly Examined Music #5.

Sponsors: Visit thegreatcoursesplus.com/PEL and BroadwayRadio.com.

Subscribe to Mark’s new podcast at prettymuchpop.com.

Pretty Much Pop #1: Pop Culture vs. High Culture

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The debut episode of a new podcast hosted by Mark Linsenmayer, Erica Spyres, and Brian Hirt covering films, TV, novels, games, music, comedy, theater, and more.

What is pop culture? Does it make sense to distinguish it from high culture, or can something be both?

For more, visit prettymuchpop.com, or support us to hear episodes in advance and get bonus content for every episode at patreon.com/prettymuchpop. Follow the new podcast on Facebook.

Ep. 221: Functionalist Theories of Mind (Putnam, Armstrong) (Part One)

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On Hilary Putnam’s “The Nature of Mental States” (1973).

What is the mind? Functionalist theories identify the mental not with the brain exactly, but with something the brain does. So some other creature without a brain (maybe a computer) might be able to do that same thing if it could duplicate the structure of what our brains do. Is this a satisfying account of the mind?

Don’t wait for part 2! Get the full, ad-free Citizen Edition now. Please support PEL!

Sponsors: Visit omnifocus.com for a free trial of a great to-do list manager. Visit the St. John’s College Graduate Institute: partiallyexaminedlife.com/sjcgi. Check out our new culture/entertainment podcast, Pretty Much Pop, at prettymuchpop.com.

Ep. 221: Functionalist Theories of Mind (Putnam, Armstrong) (Citizen Edition)

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On Hilary Putnam’s “The Nature of Mental States” (1973) and David M. Armstrong’s “The Causal Theory of the Mind” (1981).

What is the mind? Functionalist theories identify the mental not with the brain exactly, but with something the brain does. So some other creature without a brain (maybe a computer) might be able to do that same thing if it could duplicate the structure of what our brains do. Is this a satisfying account of the mind?

End song: “Pain Makes You Beautiful” by Jeff Heiskell’s JudyBats, as featured on Nakedly Examined Music #5.

Ep. 220: 10-Year Retrospective of The Partially Examined Life

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Mark, Seth, Dylan, and Wes reflect on the changing state of podcasting and public philosophy over the last decade, how our goals and interests have changed since we started we started. Why don’t colleges pay their faculty to educate the public through regular, broadcasted conversations like ours? If you think we’re snarky, take a look at actual philosophy faculty! Should we continue to do more literature, poetry, and other topics that are not strictly philosophy? Also, the stalled state of the PEL book. Thanks so much to each and every Partially Examined Life listener for making it worth our time to do this!

End song: “High Rollin’ Cult” by Mark Lint with Erica Spyres, celebrating a new attempt to capture the fun of the beginning of PEL: Pretty Much Pop, which you get to hear a teaser of. Listen now to the latest episodes in advance of the masses, including our interview with Yakov Smirnoff, at patreon.com/prettymuchpop.

Sponsor: Visit thegreatcoursesplus.com/PEL for a free trial of The Great Courses Plus Video Learning Service.

Ep. 220: 10-Year Retrospective of The Partially Examined Life (Citizen Edition)

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Mark, Seth, Dylan, and Wes reflect on the changing state of podcasting and public philosophy over the last decade, how our goals and interests have changed since we started we started. Why don’t colleges pay their faculty to educate the public through regular, broadcasted conversations like ours? If you think we’re snarky, take a look at actual philosophy faculty! Should we continue to do more topics that are not strictly philosophy? Also, the stalled state of the PEL book.

End song: “High Rollin’ Cult” by Mark Lint with Erica Spyres, celebrating Pretty Much Pop. Listen now to the latest episodes, including our interview with Yakov Smirnoff, at patreon.com/prettymuchpop.

About The Partially Examined Life

The Partially Examined Life is a philosophy podcast by some guys who were at one point set on doing philosophy for a living but then thought better of it. Each episode, we pick a text and chat about it with some balance between insight and flippancy. You don’t have to know any philosophy, or even to have read the text we’re talking about to (mostly) follow and (hopefully) enjoy the discussion

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