Why We Argue

Cornel West is the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Professor at Union Theological Seminary. Professor West is among the nation’s most distinguished philosophers. For several decades running, Cornel West has infused into public life reflections on love, justice, grace, liberation, beauty, dignity, and truth.  He can be followed on Twitter at @CornelWest In this episode, we discuss the democratic need for social criticism, and the risk that social critique could foster cynicism and disillusionment.

Bonnie Honig the Nancy Duke Lewis Professor of Modern Culture and Media, and Political Science at Brown University. Bonnie works at the intersections of political theory, democratic theory, and culture. She has written broadly on traditional topics in political philosophy, while also examining the political significance of film, drama, and literature.  You can follow Bonnie on Twitter at @bonnie_honig. In this episode, we talk about the need in a democratic society for public things: an infrastructure of sites, spaces, services, institutions and venues in which citizens interact as citizens.

Catriona McKinnon is Professor of Political Theory at the University of Exeter. Her research focuses on climate ethics and environmental justice. Much of her recent work aims at addressing denialism about climate change.

Kevin Vallier is Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy at Bowling Green State University. His most recent book is titled Trust in a Polarized Age. You can follow him on Twitter @kvallier. Professor Vallier’s research focuses on the political challenges that emerge from moral diversity. Most recently, he has been examining the nature of social trust—trust among morally dissimilar citizens. As it turns out, the United States is a highly distrustful society. This episode explores why that may be so, and what can be done about it.

Jennifer Mercieca is Associate Professor in the Department of Communication at Texas A&M University. She is the author of Demagogue for President: The Rhetorical Genius of Donald Trump.  You can follow her on Twitter: @jenmercieca Professor Mercieca’s research focuses on political rhetoric, with special emphasis on presidential communication.  In this episode, we talk about the rhetorical strategies employed by Donald Trump during his presidency, how speech can be used to deflect responsibility, and whether a return to normal styles of political communication can restore civic trust in democratic institutions.

Myisha Cherry is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Riverside.  Myisha’s research focuses on the intersection of moral psychology and social and political philosophy. More specifically she is interested in the role of emotions and attitudes in public life. You can follow her on Twitter at @myishacherry. In this episode, we talk about the nature of anger and rage, and the role these emotions have in democratic politics. We also talk about forgiveness, and the need for healing to be preceded by an acknowledgement of wrongdoing.

Quassim Cassam is Professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Warwick.  You can follow him on Twitter at @QCassam.  Quassim’s research focus is epistemology, the area of philosophy that deals with topics pertaining to knowledge, how it is acquired, and how it is shared.  His most current work is devoted to analyzing the various ways in which the pursuit of knowledge can be subverted.  And this has led him to investigate the idea of intellectual vices, habits of thought that systematically led us astray.  In this episode, we talk about conspiracy theories: What are they? How do they spread?  What is their relevance for democracy? --- Follow the podcast on Twitter @WhyArguePod and on Instagram @WhyWeArguePod. Follow our host, Robert Talisse, @RobertTalisse.

Sophia Rosenfeld is Walter H. Annenberg Professor of History at the University of Pennsylvania.  She is the author of Democracy and Truth: A Short History. Professor Rosenfeld specializes in European and American intellectual and cultural history, with a focus on the Enlightenment, the trans-Atlantic Age of Revolutions, and the legacy of the eighteenth century for modern democracy.  In this episode, we talk about how current tensions between democracy and truth may seem new, they in fact have a long history.  --- Follow the podcast on Twitter @WhyArguePod and on Instagram @WhyWeArguePod. Follow our host, Robert Talisse, @RobertTalisse.

Colleen Murphy is the Roger and Stephany Joslin Professor of Law at the College of Law and a professor in the Departments of Philosophy and Political Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Colleen also directs the Women and Gender in Global Perspectives Program in the Illinois Global Institute. You can follow her on Twitter at @drcolleenmurphy. Professor Murphy’s work focuses on the theory of transitional justice—the processes of societal repair and reconciliation that are morally required in the wake of systematic and large-scale wrongdoing and injury. In this episode, we talk about the prospects for political healing and restoration in the United States in the wake of the 2020 election, the January 6th Capitol Riot, and ongoing disinformation campaigns. --- Follow the podcast on Twitter @WhyArguePod and on Instagram @WhyWeArguePod. Follow our host, Robert Talisse, @RobertTalisse.

Melvin Rogers is Associate Professor of Political Science at Brown University.  You can follow Melvin on Twitter at @MRogers097. Professor Rogers specializes in democratic theory, with special focus on the traditions of American and African-American political and moral philosophy.  In this episode, we talk about the various explanations that have been offered of the January 6th riot at the US Capitol, and how the social movement that stormed the Capitol differs morally from other social protest movements in the United States. --- Follow the podcast on Twitter @WhyArguePod and on Instagram @WhyWeArguePod. Follow our host, Robert Talisse, @RobertTalisse.

A quick preview of what's to come in season two of Why We Argue, Future of Truth edition. New episodes arriving in March! This season of the podcast is part of the Future of Truth project at the University of Connecticut Humanities Institute, and it is funded by the University of Connecticut, the Henry Luce Foundation, and Vanderbilt University. Follow us @WhyArguePod on Twitter and @WhyWeArguePod on Instagram. Follow our host, Robert Talisse, @RobertTalisse.

This episode is a collection of talks with philosophers who attended Humility & Conviction in Public Life's Conviction Workshop in St. Petersburg Florida. In this episode you'll hear clips from Jen Cole Wright, Matthew Pianalto, Regina Rini, Christiane Heibach, and Justin E. H. Smith. 

Jeff McMahan is White’s Professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Oxford.  His research focuses broadly on moral and political philosophy, and is perhaps best known for his work on the moral issues surrounding killing and letting die.

Eddie Glaude Jr. is James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Religion, and Chair of the Department of African American Studies, at Princeton University. He is the author of An Uncommon Faith: A Pragmatic Approach to the Study of African American Religion.

Leif Wenar the Chair of Philosophy and Law at Kings College London.  He is the author of the 2016 book Blood Oil: Tyrants, Violence, and the Rules that Run the World.  This book has led to the publication, in 2018, of a companion volume, Beyond Blood Oil: Philosophy, Policy, and the Future.

Michele F. Margolis is assistant professor of political science at the University of Pennsylvania.  She has recently published a book titled From Politics to the Pews: How Partisanship and the Political Environment Shape Religious Identity.

Corey Brettschneider is Professor of Political Science at Brown University, and Visiting Professor of Law at Fordham University.  His work is focused in democratic theory and constitutional law. His most recent book is titled The Oath and the Office: A Guide to the Constitution for Future Presidents

Regia Rini is the Canada Research Chair in Philosophy of Moral and Social Cognition at the York University.  Her research resides at the intersections of moral philosophy, psychology, and political epistemology.  She also publishes popular work on topics concerning the social and political impacts of technology. She is currently working on a book about social media and democracy.

Steven Kull is a Senior Research Associate and director of the Program for Public Consultation at the School of Public Policy at the University of Maryland. He is also the Founder and Director of the nonpartisan organization Voice of the People, which is working to create structures and institutions that would enrich the channels of communication between Congress and citizens. Steven is a political psychologist who studies a range of phenomena from public political ignorance and popular attitudes about climate change to congressional decision-making and international attitudes towards religion.  

Ian James Kidd is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at University of Nottingham with research interests in epistemology, vices, epistemic justice, and illness. He is a co-author of the recently published The Routledge Handbook of Epistemic Justice.

This episode will feature a conversation between former presidential advisor David Gergen, Rabbi Melissa Weintraub of Resetting the Table, and Eboo Patel of the Interfaith Youth Core, taken from Humility and Conviction in Public Life’s event Faith & Politics which was held on April 25, 2018 at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum in Hartford, Connecticut with the CT Forum. The conversation was moderated by John Dankosky of Connecticut public radio.

Michael Sandel is Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of Government at Harvard University.  Sandel is an internationally renowned political philosopher who Newsweek has lauded as “the world’s most relevant living philosopher.”  His latest project is a video series titled What Money Can’t Buy, which has Michael and an international group of college students exploring the question “What, if anything, is wrong with a world in which everything is for sale?”  You can view the series for free at whatmoneycantbuy.org.

This episode is a collection of segments from papers given at Humility and Conviction in Public Life’s workshop on Political Polarization and Epistemic Arrogance. On this episode you will hear short selections from talks given by Jennifer Saul, Lani Watson, Michael Lynch, Alessandra Tanesini, Elizabeth Krumrei Mancuso, Steven Sloman, and Heather Battaly.

Shanto Iyengar is Professor of Political Science at Stanford University.  He has written extensively on news media and political communication in contemporary democracy.  His most recent book is titled Media Politics: A Citizen’s Guide (W. W. Norton, 2015); new edition is forthcoming this year.  His current research focuses on political polarization, framing effects, and political affect.

Alex Vitale is a Professor of Sociology and coordinator of the Policing and Social Justice Project at Brooklyn College. He has written for a number of popular publications including the New York Times, New York Daily News, USA Today, and the Nation. His newest book The End of Policing is out now from Verso press.

Myisha Cherry is a PhD candidate in Philosophy at the University of Illinois, Chicago, and next year will be Assistant Professor of Philosophy at University of California, Riverside. She is co-editor of the volume, The Moral Psychology of Anger.  Her work is focused on the nature of anger and forgiveness, especially in the context of racial injustice.  Cherry is also the host and creator of the UnMute Podcast.

Quassim Cassam is Professor of Philosophy at University of Warwick in the UK.  His academic work resides at the intersection of epistemology and philosophy of mind, where he explores topics pertaining to self-knowledge, self-deception, and epistemic virtue and vice.  His forthcoming book is titled Vices of the Mind, and it will be published this year with Oxford University Press.

John Corvino is  Professor of Philosophy at the Wayne State University in Detroit.  His academic work focuses on topics in moral, social, and legal philosophy surrounding sexuality, gender, marriage, religious conviction, and discrimination.  But John is also an active public philosopher who frequently participates in public debates over these topics. He produces and appears in a popular YouTube series of short videos devoted to the philosophical discussion of controversial topics.  He is the author of What’s Wrong with Homosexuality?, co-author (with Maggie Ghallagher) of Debating Same Sex Marriage, and.co-author (with Ryan Anderson and Sherif Girgis) of Debating Religious Liberty and Discrimination, all published with Oxford University Press.

Jon Olafsson is Professor in the n the department of Comparative and Cultural Studies at the University of Iceland.  His research is focused on democracy, political participation, dissent, reconciliation, and social criticism.  Jon has written extensively about the efforts in Iceland – from roughly 2010 to 2013 - to revise the nation’s constitution.

Sandy Goldberg is Professor of Philosophy at Northwestern University.  He specializes in epistemology and philosophy of language, with particular interest in the social aspects of knowledge and speech; these foci converge in his ongoing work on testimony.  Sandy has written several books including Relying on Others (Oxford 2010) and, more recently, Assertion (Oxford 2015); his forthcoming book is titled To the Best of Our Knowledge, and is forthcoming with Oxford University Press.

Kate Manne is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Cornell University.  She specializes in moral and social philosophy and feminist philosophy.  her new book is titled Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny (Oxford 2018).

Tommie Shelby is Caldwell Titcomb Professor of African and African-American Studies, and Professor of Philosophy at Harvard University.  His research focuses on political equality and problems of economic, social, and criminal justice.  His most recent book is Dark Ghettos: Injustice, Dissent, and Reform, which is published by Harvard University Press. 

Can we change minds about Confederate monuments? Kevin Levin is a historian and educator studying the American Civil War and memory. His book, Remembering the Battle of the Crater: War as Murder (University Press of Kentucky, 2012), was just released in paperback and he is the author of a recent article in the Atlantic Why I Changed My Mind About Confederate Monuments.

How does corporate misinformation and partisan skepticism effect what we know about climate change? Lawrence Torcello is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at the Rochester Institute of Philosophy. His research focuses on social and political philosophy, democratic theory, and climate justice. 

Seana Shiffrin is Professor of Philosophy and Pete Kameron Professor of Law and Social Justice at UCLA.  She defends the “thinker theory” of freedom of speech, which holds that a central reason for upholding a moral and legal system of free speech is that such a system is necessary for free thought and reflective action.  This view is articulated in her book, Speech Matters:On Lying, Morality, and the Law (Princeton 2014).

Helene Landemore is Associate Professor in the Political Science Department at Yale University. She defends the idea that democracy succeeds at harnessing the collective wisdom of the citizenry. This view is spelled out in her 2013 book Democratic Reason (Princeton University Press 2013). Landemore is currently completing a new book about the institutional design of a smart democracy.  

Nigel Warburton holds a PhD in Philosophy from Cambridge and has held academic positions at University of Nottingham and the Open University.  But he is today a freelance public philosopher. He has offered philosophy courses at the Tate Modern gallery, he conducts monthly philosophical discussions at Blackwell’s Bookshop in Oxford, and co-hosts with David Edmonds the wildly popular podcast series Philosophy Bites.  Nigel is the author of several books of philosophy, including The Art Question (Routledge 2002), Free Speech: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford 2009), and A Little History of Philosophy (Yale 2012).

Thom Brooks is Dean of Durham Law School, Professor of Law and Government, and Associate in the Department of Philosophy in the School of Government and International Affairs at Durham University. His academic work focuses on issues in Ethics, Criminal Law, and Public Policy. But he is widely known as an outspoken critic of the UK Citizenship Test. His most recent book is Becoming British: UK Citizenship Examined (Biteback Publishing 2016).

Trudy Govier is Emerita Professor of Philosophy at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta, Canada. Her research is focused on the nature of argumentation and questions concerning social trust, forgiveness, and reconciliation. She is also the author of a highly influential informal logic text,  A Practical Study of Argument (7th edition, Cengage), as well as Forgiveness and Revenge (Routledge 2002) and Victims and Victimhood (Broadview 2015).

Akeel Bilgrami is Sidney Morgenbesser Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University, and a member of Columbia’s Committee on Global Thought.  Bilgrami’s research spans issues in Philosophy of Mind, Philosophy of Language, Moral Philosophy, and Political Philosophy.  His most recent book is titled Secularism, Identity, and Enchantment(Harvard 2014). And he is the author of the forthcoming book, What is a Muslim?(Princeton UP).

Does voter ignorance undermine democracy? Ilya Somin is Professor of Law at the Antonin Scalia Law School of George Mason University and regular contributor to the Volokh Conspiracy blog at the Washington Post. Somin’s research focuses on issues concerning constitutional law, property law, and public political participation. He is the author of The Grasping Hand: Kelo v. City of New London and the Limits of Eminent Domain (University of Chicago Press, 2015) and Democracy and Political Ignorance: Why Smaller Government is Smarter (revised edition, Stanford University Press, 2016) .

How can we as consumers distinguish between the many different political medias? Eric Alterman is CUNY Distinguished Professor of English and Journalism at Brooklyn College.  Eric is also a columnist for The Nation, and a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress in Washington and the World Policy Institute in New York. He is the author of several books, including When Presidents Lie (Penguin 2004),  Kabuki Democracy (Nation Books 2011), and most recently, Inequality and One City (Nation Books 2015).

Don't discuss politics at the dinner table? Why not? Karen Stohr is Associate Professor of Philosophy and Senior Research Scholar at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown University. Stohr’s research focuses on Immanuel Kant’s moral philosophy and virtue theory. She is the author of academic articles dealing with topics such as beneficence, modesty, and friendship. In her recent book, On Manners (Routledge 2012), Stohr argues that the social niceties commonly characterized as manners have distinctively moral content.

Joshua Cohen is a faculty member of Apple University, and is Distinguished Senior Fellow at the School of Law, the Department of Philosophy, and the Department of Political Science at Berkeley.  He is the author of several influential academic articles, many of which are collected in Philosophy, Politics, Democracy(Harvard 2009), and The Arc of the Moral Universe and Other Essays (Harvard, 2011). Since 1991, Cohen has edited the Boston Review.   

Social Media rewards snap judgments and blind conviction. Michael Lynch finds this troubling. Michael P. Lynch is Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Humanities Institute a University of Connecticut. His research concerns truth, public discourse, and the impact of technology on democratic society.  The "Why We Argue" podcast is produced by the Humanities Institute at the University of Connecticut as part of the Humility and Conviction in Public Life project.

Donald Trump won the election largely by making grand promises of radical change. William Galston argues that, ultimately, talk is cheap and results are what counts. William Galston is Ezra K. Zilkha Chair and Senior Fellow in the Brookings Institution’s Governance Studies Program.  He is also a former Deputy Assistant to President Clinton for Domestic Policy. Additionally, he writes a weekly column for the Wall Street Journal. Galston’s academic work focuses on value pluralism and civic renewal. 

As US politics becomes increasingly driven by divisions, we need some way of sustaining a shared civic life. Paul Taylor makes the case for democratic virtues. Paul C. Taylor is Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies in the College of the Liberal Arts and Associate Professor of Philosophy and African American Studies at Penn State. His research focuses on philosophy of race, social and political philosophy, Africana philosophy, and aesthetics. 

The ‘ideological odd couple’ of Robert George and Cornel West jointly authored a statement defending free speech on campus and elsewhere. Find out why. Robert George is the McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and Professor of Politics at Princeton University, and the founding director of Princeton’s James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions.  His research focuses on issues in ethics, political philosophy, and philosophy of law.

Contemporary democracy is becoming increasingly populist. Elizabeth Anderson explains what populism is, why many find it appealing, and what makes it dangerous. Elizabeth Anderson is John Dewey Distinguished University Professor, John Rawls Collegiate Professor, Arthur F. Thurnau Professor, and Department Chair at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.  She specializes in Ethics and Political Philosophy, writing on issues of social justice, equality, race, and gender. 

Social Media rewards snap judgments and blind conviction. Michael Lynch finds this troubling. Michael P. Lynch is Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Humanities Institute a University of Connecticut. His research concerns truth, public discourse, and the impact of technology on democratic society.    

Donald Trump won the election largely by making grand promises of radical change. William Galston argues that, ultimately, talk is cheap and results are what counts. William Galston is Ezra K. Zilkha Chair and Senior Fellow in the Brookings Institution's Governance Studies Program. He is also a former Deputy Assistant to President Clinton for Domestic Policy. Additionally, he writes a weekly column for the Wall Street Journal. Galston's academic work focuses on value pluralism and civic renewal.  The "Why We Argue" podcast is produced by the Humanities Institute at the University of Connecticut as part of the Humility and Conviction in Public Life project.