MeaningofLife.tv: Sophia

Rob and Kevin make small talk ... Kevin describes and laments the grade economy ... What's the relationship between grades and learning? ... Bryan Caplan's "The Case Against Education" and how it has traumatized Rob ... Unschooling ... If schools suck so much, how did Rob and Kevin learn? ...

A new home for Sophia ... The (latest) defenestration of Kathleen Stock ... How sincere are pro-trans rights public intellectuals? ... Justin Weinberg's essay on the Kathleen Stock incident ... David: "It's the squishy middles that are gonna kill us" ... Dan: deplatforming people on social media is effectively censorship ... The death of public discourse and the rise of Trump ... How consensus crumbles ... David: we should get rid of the harm principle ...

Kevin's book, Education in the Marketplace ... Dan and Kevin's concern for Coleman Hughes' intellectual freedom ... How young is too young for movement conservatism? ... What was the Intellectual Dark Web? ... The IDW's central contradiction ... How Dan got involved with the conservative movement ... ... ... and why he left it ... Dan's advice to Hughes: don't trust the movement ...

Megan: philosophy of religion shouldn't focus on "proofs for God" ... Determining rational grounds for supernaturalism ... Why Dan rejects epistemic foundationalism ... Megan's Christian agnosticism, Dan's Jewish atheism ... Wittgenstein's engagement with philosophy of religion ... What kind of authority would it be good for us to submit to? ... Dan has a revelation ... Has philosophy forgotten that it's a humanistic discipline? ...

Robert's essay, "The Philosophy Rapture" ... What counts as "relevant" philosophy? ... Philosophy's "dirty insider game" ... Why are great philosophers overrepresented at elite universities? ... Generational decline, intellectual and attitudinal ... Do intellectual celebrity cultures produce shrinking intellectual gene pools? ... Dan: Our present-day celebrity philosophers will destroy the discipline ...

The new issue of Milton's comic book, Thompson Heller: Detective Interstellar ... Christopher Hitchens' influence on Milton's comic ... The anxieties of robot personhood ... The economic determinants of comic book production ... How a new comic writer finds an artist ... The comic book art division of labor ... Thompson Heller's future ...

Joshua’s views on basic beliefs ... How do we get from experience to justified belief? ... The connection between knowledge and awareness ... Is Dan actually a foundationalist? ... Where the chain of warrant ends ... Joshua’s engagement with the big questions in philosophy ... Running up against the boundaries of inquiry ...

Why Kevin chose not to vote ... The two-party system vs. a multiparty parliamentary system ... Dan accuses Kevin of not confronting what the election was about ... Is Kevin acting like a spoiled brat? ... The logic of straight-ticket voting ... Kevin accuses Dan of having a pessimistic view of democracy ...

The origins of "standpoint theory" ... Are Dan and Crispin white? ... Defining standpoint theory ... Dan: Standpoint theory presents an irrefutable hypothesis ... Crispin: "All knowledge is from some standpoint" ... Dan: There is no single black perspective on race ... Why don't people trust experts? ... Is this argument good for society right now? ...

A review of Kate Manne’s book Entitled sparks an online philosophy feud ... Is America systematically misogynistic? ... How Twitter incentivizes bad behavior ... The professional norms around book reviewing ... Dan sees “no honor all the way down” on the other side ... Self-immolating philosophers ... Is there a case for keeping some topics off limits? ...

Jaime explains how Marx understood ideology ... Our tendency to get facts wrong in a self-serving way ... Cognitive biases that lead the working class astray ... Why do we have reason? ... "Thank God for the ruling class!" ... How do the elite get what they want? ... Imagining the meetings of the megarich ...

How can there be persons? ... Against hypostatic ontological commitment ... Things vs. thingy things ... Mind over matter, or vice versa? ... Are there minds? Dan isn't sure. ... Have philosophers gone beyond their ambit? ... Philosophy as service to people ...

The incredible achievement of the Marvel Cinematic Universe ... The choices that led to the MCU's greatness... ... ...and the choices that didn't quite work out ... Critiquing Black Panther, Captain Marvel, and Dr. Strange ... Milton foresees future “Has Marvel Lost Its Way?” thinkpieces ... Blatant speculation on upcoming films ... Dan fears wokeness ruining Marvel movies ...

Explaining Crispin’s position on explanatory unity ... Dan: Meaning is part of social reality, it’s not all in our heads ... What is the substance of our ontological commitments? ... Why Dan thinks philosopher W.V.O. Quine is almost right ... The conspicuous absence of philosophers from the public discourse about values ... Metaphysics is not as complicated and important as people think it is ...

Why does bad CGI make us feel weird? ... Where digital effects work (The Avengers) vs. where they don’t (CATS) ... Gollum vs. Thanos, Roger Rabbit vs. Jar Jar Binks ... The tragic digital miscues of The Irishman ... Are practical effects dead? ... The closing of aesthetic diversity ...

Russell’s book, The Tyranny of Opinion: Conformity and the Future of Liberalism ... Preserving the liberal tradition ... Can the genie of stakes-inflation be put back in the bottle? ... Dan: Woke illiberalism is a kind of luxury ... Russell’s recommendations for keeping the liberal tradition alive ... The role of legislation and institutions in tamping down illiberalism ...

What are persons? ... Why don't we say "my legs went to the store"? ... Actions and intentions ... The case of the robot who voted ... Are addicts in control of their actions? ... The moral culpability of a naughty dog ...

Doug's new book, Philosophy Smackdown ... Plato's Cave and the three layers of wrestling reality ... What it means when wrestlers break the fourth wall ... Real life can be "just as scripted as wrestling, if not more so" ... How and why moral virtue changed in wrestling ... The only performance where people say "you know it's fake, right?" ... What philosophers could learn from professional wrestling ...

Are we really as social as the Stoics believed? ... Distinguishing between the “objective” and the “real”... ... ...and between the “real” and representations of the “real” ... Dan: It makes no difference whether or not values are objective ... Massimo’s solution to the omnivore’s dilemma ... Massimo: “Values are never separate from facts” ...

Spoiler alert! Critiquing Star Trek: Discovery and Picard ... Serial vs. episodic storytelling ... Why Dan hated Discovery's main character ... Is the show too woke? ... Debating the big twist in Picard ... Dan: Two things screw up Picard as a Star Trek show ... Throwing science out the window ... Milton: Audiences don't know what they want ... Have younger viewers turned away from science fiction? ...

Dan's in-progress book, Prolegomena for a Pluralist Metaphysics ... Avoiding the "crazy positions" ... A stereoscopic view of the "scientific" and "manifest" images ... Dan: A world with people in it is only explainable in fragmentary terms ... Crispin sees the leading edge of the new dualism ... On the ontological status of coming-of-age stories ... Previewing future fights ...

The continuing battle over gender in philosophy ... Harm avoidance vs. competing interests ... Jesse: There's disagreement within the trans community over what it means to be trans ... Dan: "This is madness to everyone other than the people inside the tent" ... The social dynamics of philosophy ... Ordinary language and "they" ... Will the trans movement moderate? ... Dan: Philosophy is in trouble and the pandemic is making it worse ...

How to model an epidemic ... The costs and benefits of cost-benefit analysis ... Turning coronavirus models into coronavirus policy ... Eric: Your intuitions about the virus’s spread are "useless" ... The use and abuse of epidemiological models ... Pandemic models and failures of political leadership ... Our scandalous lack of infection-rate data ... Why suppressing the virus “is a marathon, not a sprint” ...

Will the pandemic forever change college education? ... Laying out the "hard problem" of consciousness ... Why panpsychism is not a solution to the problem ... The battle between radicals and conservatives in physics ... Physicalism vs. idealism ... Massimo explains "scientific metaphysics" ... Why illusionism is not a solution to the problem ... Misrepresentations vs. useful representations ...

Robert's new book, Overdoing Democracy ... The revealing differences between Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts ... The diminishing importance of place in American culture ... How homogeneity distorts groups ... Partisan identity has become the core of our social selves ... Is this the inevitable product of late capitalism? ... What happens after Trumpism runs its course? ... Robert finds optimism in a Nashville bluegrass club ...

Helen's forthcoming book on gender ... Why are younger women attracted to novel gender theories? ... Social constructivism vs. self-constructivism ... Did feminists bring this upon themselves? ... Helen: Immigration caused Britain's political realignment ... Helen's narrative of the evolution of trans identity ... Why is it harder to be a girl now, when society is less sexist? ... Dan: Online porn has made teenage boys undateable ...

Robert's essay examining whether pansexuality is obligatory ... Orientation vs. desire ... Is the push for trans rights undermining gay and lesbian rights? ... Dan: Sexual attractions can't be subject to moral scrutiny ... Kant and the malleability of sexual consciousness ... Dan fears the totalitarian impulse ... Trans activists vs. lesbians ...

In praise of Uncut Gems ... Why does Adam Sandler's dirtbag character evince such sympathy? ... Punishment and forgiveness in narrative storytelling ... In praise of Dolemite Is My Name ... Eddie Murphy's triumphant return to SNL ... Is offensive comedy coming back? ... Why were these two films snubbed by the Oscars? ... Expertise vs. experience in cultural criticism ...

Spencer describes being quarantined in Wuhan, China ... What is "moral realism"? ... Can you be a moral realist and a moral subjectivist at the same time? ... Revisiting Plato's Ring of Gyges ... Dan: There's no evidence of morality beyond performances ... The trouble with giving advice ... "All things considered," what ought you to do? ... What we lost in the Scientific Revolution ...

Why Joe left academia ... Bemoaning the apathy of today's college students ... Joe's nonprofit, the Gotham Philosophical Society ... How can philosophers help improve a place like New York City? ... Should philosophy be parochial or universalist? ... Philosophical anti-realism and parochialism ... Neighborhood pride in the cosmopolitan city ...

In praise of non-elite institutions ... Spencer’s journey from Mormonism to professional philosophy ... Does philosophy matter? ... The role of temperament in shaping philosophers’ views ... Does moral philosophy contribute to moral progress? ... Dan: It doesn’t matter whether God exists ... Dan and Spencer’s concerns about the role of activism in philosophy ... Does it matter if philosophy matters? ... Spencer: Trying to live with integrity is central to philosophy ...

Are philosophers experts? ... Socrates didn't have a PhD ... Massimo hates when teachers claim to learn "just as much" from their students ... What does philosophers' expertise actually consist of? ... How much is philosophy like mathematics? ... What philosophers of science can teach scientists ... The disappointing personal morality of moral philosophers ... Grandmothers, the examined life, and the people who live best ...

How should we define censorship? ... The sort of censorship that has no inherent moral valence ... Various ways non-state actors can censor ... When private censorship has moral stakes ... Examining moral grandstanding ... A changed heart vs. a false front ... Could we ever resolve all our disagreements? ... Reason, passion, and the founding of the Republic ...

Meghan’s new book, The Problem with Everything ... The premature obsolescence of Generation X ... Meghan’s positive reaction to negative reviews of her book ... Joan Didion’s critique of the Women’s Movement ... The effect of online porn on Millennials ... Why do institutions capitulate to Twitter mobs? ... How Gen Xers are dealing with aging ...

Why Crispin loves writing takedowns of cultural icons ... Crispin: Ludwig Wittgenstein is overrated ... Dan objects to people who try to live their lives philosophically ... Hume and the limits of human reason ... Wittgenstein's critique of representationalism ... Did Wittgenstein debunk philosophical skepticism? ... Crispin: I want my metaphysics to be compatible with my common sense ...

What are “natural kinds”? ... What the former planet Pluto can teach us about natural kinds ... Massimo’s changing views on theoretical entities ... Is there a paradigm shift on the horizon in evolutionary biology? ... Is skepticism toward natural kinds the same as skepticism toward essential properties? ... Why Massimo is skeptical of the concept of "laws of nature" ... Describing “ultimate reality” ... Can we distinguish between sex and gender without natural kinds? ... Can we have a conception of “normal” without natural kinds? ...

Our era of boycotts, from Jimmy Johns to Uber to Nike ... The ethics and political philosophy of boycotts ... "Society is not a person" ... Waheed Hussein's concept of social change economic consumerism ... Group power and coercion ... Why boycotts usually fail ... How can we judge the worthiness of a boycott's goals? ...

The fight, and meta-fight, in philosophy over trans issues ... David's essay on philosophy and activism ... The admonition to "go read the literature" ... Dan: The profession needs to push back against the mob ... Should philosophers avoid signing petitions? ... David regrets the "neglect of the ordinary virtues" in this battle ... How professors should teach controversial subjects ...

A brief history of 20th-century literary criticism ... John's battles against radical feminists as a grad student at SUNY Albany ... Post-structuralism and "how modernity failed itself" ... English department politics ... John: "Postmodernity is all around us" ... Postmodernity in the world vs. in the academy ... Post-postmodernism and cultural stagnancy ...

Crispin's recent essay, "Western Philosophy as White Supremacism" ... Dan accuses Crispin of ahistorical revisionism ... Descartes as a product of his age ... Privileging the intellectual over the physical ... Is "the conquest of nature" a good or bad thing? ... Crispin: Metaphysics and racism feed each other ... Is self-mastery a key to freedom, or antithetical to it? ... The worst political philosophy, except for all the others? ...

Journalism, from information scarcity to attention scarcity ... Is it harder to find “good” information these days? ... Oliver: Reliance on social media creates false controversies ... Has the mainstream media really drifted towards partisanship? ... How to dismantle the partisan divide ... Dan: Americans were more divided in 1968 than now ... Social injustice: Perception, reality, and urgency ...

Why Dan and Milton love Stranger Things ... How does the new season measure up? ... Is "the Upside Down" a coherent idea? ... Is Generation X about to have its moment in pop culture? ... Dan fears wokeness is ruining pop culture ... The risks of a fourth Stranger Things season ... Pop culture in an era of massive corporate control ... Speculating on HBO's mysterious Watchmen adaptation ...

Where have all the feminists gone? ... The feminist tradition in philosophy ... How does second-wave feminism distinguish sex from gender? ... Jane: Patriarchy hurts men, too ... On the present controversy around gender non-conformity and identity ... Was Prince genderqueer? ... Gender, feminism, and the classical liberal tradition ...

Nathan’s recent essay, "Is it Time for the Humanities to Strike?" ... The attack on the humanities goes international ... Are non-college graduates deficient voters? ... Why the educated elite aren’t the most ethical people ... Could a strike re-engage the public with the humanities? ... How to win over those who most thoroughly reject the humanities ...

Is the “Morality Everywhere Problem” really a problem? ... Why Robert finds the moral question difficult to dispel  ... Peter Singer’s “drowning child” thought experiment ... Is weakness of will keeping Robert from volunteering at the soup kitchen? ... Dan: “Embrace the normal” ... What do those living in dire poverty want first-worlders to do? ... Why Rob is repulsed by utilitarianism ... Dan: The end goal of charity is human flourishing ... Were people less sensitive in the past? ...

Robert: Is it permissible to remain a philosophy professor? ... Why Dan opposes the “morality everywhere” approach to life ... Can professors really leave a lasting impact on students? ... “First world problems” and moral obligation in the classroom ... What is the “White Paper” of philosophy, and does it have any authority? ... Rethinking the role of the academy in society ... Dan: Philosophy as a life guide is, well, misguided ...

Realism vs. anti-realism ... Is reality the sum of human senses? ... Why Crispin is allergic to idealism ... “Rabbity moments” and Quine’s radical translation scenario ... What does it mean to say someone lives “in another world”? ... Davidson’s closet analogy for conceptual schemes ... What makes a given statement true? ...

What explains the sharp divide between analytic and continental philosophy? ... Continental philosophy’s association with romanticism and fascism ... How Richard Rorty, Crispin’s dissertation advisor, bridged the gap between the two schools ... Heidegger’s skepticism of science ... Crispin articulates the divide in terms of substance and style ... How continental philosophy challenges the primacy of argument ...

Crispin’s book chapter on the nature of truth ... Do different uses of the word “truth” have a family resemblance? ... The challenge of connecting truth with reality ... Where does linguistics enter the picture? ... How Crispin bucks expectations of academic philosophical writing ... Dan: Analytic philosophy misses the forest for the trees ... What’s missing from Crispin’s exploration of truth? ...

Why Oliver quit law school ... Is it professionally risky to express heterodox views in philosophy? ... Philosophy as handmaiden to progressive politics ... Dan’s essay on philosophy’s abuse of the harm principle ... The chicken-or-egg question of students or faculty ... Is leftism corrupting scholarship? ... What politics can learn from the field of philosophy ... The irony of a leftist discipline that exploits labor ...

John’s personal history with punk rock ... Why was punk more political in the UK than in NYC? ... The far reach of capitalism into counterculture ... How the NYC punk scene fizzled out ... The early importance of record shops and FM radio stations ... Punk and suburban oppression ... Is punk dead or perennially youthful? ... John: Gender expression is the new embodiment of the punk ethos ...