philosophy podcast

Ep. 226: Francis Bacon Invents Science (Part Two)

September 30, 2019 by Mark Linsenmayer 3 Comments

Continuing on Sir Francis Bacon’s New Organon (1620).

We cover more of Bacon’s “idols” and how Bacon divides religion from science (and what this means politically). We then move on to book 2, including Bacon’s novel update of the term “form,” and take a look at Bacon’s method of doing science by filling out tables before actually doing experiments.

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End song: “Stuck in a Cave” by Chrome Cranks; hear Mark talk to singer/songwriter Peter Aaron on Nakedly Examined Music #93.

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Ep. 226: Francis Bacon Invents Science (Part One)

September 23, 2019 by Mark Linsenmayer 1 Comment

On Sir Francis Bacon’s New Organon (1620).

Bacon claims to have developed a new toolset that will open up nature to inquiry in a way that wasn’t possible for ancient and modern natural philosophy.

Mark, Wes, and Dylan consider how much what Bacon describes resembles modern scientific method, talk through Bacon’s “four idols” that interfere with impartial inquiry, and consider how Bacon’s method fits in with his larger political-ethical-religious views.

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Ep. 225: Simone Weil on War and Oppression (Part Two)

September 16, 2019 by Mark Linsenmayer 4 Comments

Continuing on Simone Weil’s essays “The Iliad, or the Poem of Force” (1939) and “Analysis of Oppression” (1934) with guest Corey Mohler.

We talk about the self-contradictions of power, why oppression and war are so intractable, and her positive solution (what there is of it here). Weil cuts through our left-right political dichotomy in a way that might interest you. Plus, why the Iliad is so great.

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End song: “Throw Down the Sword” from Wishbone Ash; hear Andy Powell on Nakedly Examined Music #51.

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Ep. 225: Simone Weil on War and Oppression (Part One)

September 9, 2019 by Mark Linsenmayer 5 Comments

On Simone Weil’s essays “The Iliad, or the Poem of Force” (1939) and “Analysis of Oppression” (1934).

How do circumstances oppress and dehumanize us? Weil describes the mechanisms that keep people at war and maintain oppression even through revolutions as inherent to the logic of power. With guest Corey Mohler.

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

August 19, 2019 by Mark Linsenmayer 1 Comment

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.

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

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

August 12, 2019 by Mark Linsenmayer 4 Comments

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?”

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

August 5, 2019 by Mark Linsenmayer 2 Comments

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.

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

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

July 29, 2019 by Mark Linsenmayer 2 Comments

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?

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

July 22, 2019 by Mark Linsenmayer 7 Comments

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?

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

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

July 15, 2019 by Mark Linsenmayer 5 Comments

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?

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Combat and Classics #29: Emerson’s Divinity School Address

July 9, 2019 by Sanya Kerksiek 1 Comment

How does speech move the human soul? How can a leader use speech inspire others to action? Lise, Jeff, and Brian tackle those questions in their discussion of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s address to the graduating class of Harvard’s divinity school in 1838.

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Ep. 219: The Harder Problem of Consciousness (Block & Papineau)

July 1, 2019 by Mark Linsenmayer 10 Comments

On Ned Block’s “The Harder Problem of Consciousness” (2002) and David Papineau’s “Could There Be a Science of Consciousness?” (2003).

What would give us sufficient reason to believe that a non-human was conscious? Block thinks this is a harder problem that we might suspect. We can’t know for sure exactly what consciousness in us is, so we can’t know for sure what such a being might require (a brain? certain patterns of behavior?) for them to be enough like us that we could safely apply our own experience of our own conscious states to them. Papineau diagnoses this as a fundamental vagueness in the concepts we use to describe our conscious states.

This conversation continues from ep. 218, with guest Gregory Miller from the Panpsycast still with us.

End song: “Mindreader” by Phil Judd as interviewed on Nakedly Examined Music #98.

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Episode 218: The Hard Problem of Consciousness (Chalmers, et al) (Part Two)

June 24, 2019 by Mark Linsenmayer 4 Comments

Continuing on “Consciousness and Its Place in Nature” by David Chalmers (2003).

We finish Chalmers’s account of the types of physicialism, then move on to dualism (including epiphenomenalism), and finally dally with panpsychism, the specialty of our guest, Gregory Miller from the Panpsycast.

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End song: “Georgia Hard” by Robbie Fulks, as interviewed on Nakedly Examined Music #36.

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Episode 218: The Hard Problem of Consciousness (Chalmers, et al) (Part One)

June 17, 2019 by Mark Linsenmayer 26 Comments

On “Consciousness and Its Place in Nature” by David Chalmers (2003), with special guest Gregory Miller from the Panpsycast Philosophy Podcast.

Can we explain human experience using the terms of brain physiology? Chalmers thinks not, and lays out the arguments against this and the range of positions philosophers have taken in response to these objections.

Continues on part two, or get the full, ad-free Citizen Edition now. Please support PEL!

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Can Meditation Help Enable Human Flourishing?

June 11, 2019 by Lachlan Dale 4 Comments

In the years since Owen Flanagan’s The Bodhisattva’s Brain, there have been thousands of studies, of varying degrees of quality, on the effects of meditation on the human brain. Here, Lachlan Dale reviews some of the highlights of that research as it’s presented by Daniel Goleman and Richard Davidson in Altered Traits.

REISSUE-Ep. 21: What Is the Mind? (Turing, et al) w/ New Intro

June 10, 2019 by Mark Linsenmayer 3 Comments

Discussing articles by Alan Turing, Gilbert Ryle, Thomas Nagel, John Searle, and Dan Dennett. What is this mind stuff, and how can it “be” the brain? Can computers think? What is it like to be a bat? With guest Marco Wise.

Plus a new intro by Mark, Wes, and Seth reflecting back on this 2010 discussion, which we’re re-releasing to help you prepare for our upcoming episodes in this area.

End Song: “No Mind” by Mark Lint and the Fake Johnson Trio (1998).

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Combat and Classics #28: Aristotle’s Politics Bk. I, Part 4

June 5, 2019 by Sanya Kerksiek Leave a Comment

Jeff, Lise, and Brian continue a “close-read” series on Aristotle’s Politics. They continue to tackle Aristotle’s discussion of slavery, which raises questions about nature, law, and virtue.

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Episode 217: Discussing Calderón’s “Life Is a Dream”

June 3, 2019 by Mark Linsenmayer Leave a Comment

On the 1636 comedy by Pedro Calderón de la Barca, considering destiny (Christian vs. Ancient Greek), skepticism, meta-theater, and the ethic of honor. Listen to our performance first. With guests Bill Youmans and Erica Spyres.

End song: “Pulling Apart” by Jonathan Segel. Hear him on Nakedly Examined Music #38.

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