This is a short preview of the full episode. Buy Now Purchase this episode for $2.99. Or become a PEL Citizen for $5 a month, and get access to this and all other paywalled episodes, including 68 back catalogue episodes; exclusive Part 2's for episodes published after September, 2020; and our after-show Nightcap, where the guys respond to listener email and chat more Continue Reading …
Episode 68: David Chalmers Interview on the Scrutability of the World (Citizens Only)
On his book Constructing the World (2012). How are all the various truths about the world related to each other? David Chalmers, famous for advocating a scientifically respectable form of brain-consciousness dualism, advocates a framework of scrutability: if one knew some set of base truths, then the rest would be knowable from them. What sort of base? Well, there may be Continue Reading …
Carnap vs. Whitehead on Demonstration vs. Description
A feature of Carnap's system discussed in the episode was his his attempt to objectivize our talk of objects by removing any demonstrative or ostensive elements. Though the "elementary experiences" as I examine them are of course mine, and not analyzable in themselves according to Carnap's account, the only way they become useful to science is through their connection with Continue Reading …
Episode 67: Carnap on Logic and Science (Citizens Only)
On Rudolph Carnap's The Logical Structure of the World (1928). What can we know? Carnap thinks that all the various spheres of knowledge (e.g. particle physics, attributions of mental states, moral claims, the economy) are logically interrelated, that you can in fact translate sentences about any of these into sentences about sets of basic, momentary experiences. This book, Continue Reading …
PREVIEW-Episode 67: Carnap on Logic and Science
This is a short preview of the full episode. Buy Now Purchase this episode for $2.99. Or become a PEL Citizen for $5 a month, and get access to this and all other paywalled episodes, including 68 back catalogue episodes; exclusive Part 2's for episodes published after September, 2020; and our after-show Nightcap, where the guys respond to listener email and chat more Continue Reading …
Topic for #68: Interviewing David Chalmers on Conceptual Analysis and Metaphysics
On 12/4 we spoke with David Chalmers about his new book, Constructing the World. Listen to the episode. The book explores a series of related positions that attempt to generalize and improve upon Carnap's project of logical construction in the Aufbau, the subject of our episode 67 (which will be posted soon). Carnap's project was problematic mainly because first, it was Continue Reading …
Daniel Little (UnderstandingSociety) on “Marketing Wittgenstein”
A good new-to-me web find today is The UnderstandingSociety blog from U. of Michigan-Dearborn's Daniel Little, who writes about philsoophy from a sociological perspective. This is very relevant to our recent discussion of fame among philosophers on our Lucy Lawless episode, and in this article, Little reflects on why it might be that Wittgenstein is so famous, given, as I've Continue Reading …
Topic for #67: Carnap on Logic and Science
On 11/15/12 we recorded a discussion of Rudolph Carnap's The Logical Structure of the World (1928), often referred to as "the Aufbau," because it sounds cool, and the German title is Der Logische Aufbau der Welt. Listen to the episode. To get a good sense of Carnap's project, we read pages 1-136, plus the subsequent chapter summaries: pages 166-171, 240-243, 298-300. The Continue Reading …