Alle afleveringen
305 afleveringen, van nieuw naar oud
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55 - Alison Fernandes: Time Travel and Causation
25 februari 2023 · 1 uur 1 min
Alison Fernandes is a professor of philosophy at Trinity College Dublin. Prior to that, she did her graduate work at Columbia University, where she studied with two other denizens of the Robinson’s Podcast universe, David Albert and Achille Varzi. Alison is the author of the upcoming book with Cambridge University Press, The Temporal Asymmetry of Causation, some of the contents of which are the subject of this episode. After rehashing the dominant theories of causation, Alison and Robinson discussion backward causation and time travel, the temporal asymmetry of causation, and Alison’s agency theory of causation. You can keep up with her at alisonfernandes.net. Lees meer
linktree: https://linktr.ee/robinsonerhardt
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode
00:46 Introduction
4:05 Alison’s Interest in Causation
5:36 Hume’s Theory of Causation
8:11 Dominant Accounts of Causation
14:33 Backward Causation and Time Travel
28:42 Causal and Temporal Asymmetry
42:22 Alison’s Account of Causation
53:24 A Return to Time Travel
56:55 Achille Varzi on Time Travel
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
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54 - Luvell Anderson: Slurs, Hate Speech, and The Philosophy of Humor
24 februari 2023 · 1 uur 30 min
Luvell Anderson is a professor of philosophy at Syracuse University, where he’s also an affiliate faculty member of Women’s and Gender Studies and African American Studies. He is the co-editor of The Routledge Companion to the Philosophy of Race and the soon-to-be-released Oxford Handbook of Applied Philosophy of Language. He is also currently working on a book about the philosophy of humor—The Ethics of Racial Humor—which is the topic of this episode. After beginning with a discussion of just what humor is, Luvell and Robinson move on to the distinction between racial and racist humor, Dave Chappelle, the ethics of roasting, what makes comedy human, and more. You can keep up with Luvell at andersonluvell.weebly.com and through his Twitter account, @luvell_anderson. Lees meer
linktree: https://linktr.ee/robinsonerhardt
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode
00:28 Introduction
3:05 Luvell’s Interest in Comedy
5:32 What is Humor?
12:22 Slurs and Hate Speech
17:45 Is Humor Uniquely Human?
23:32 Racial Humor and Racist Humor
32:48 Sexist Humor
38:51 Dave Chappelle
44:05 Roasting Ethics
53:05 A Genetic Approach to Comedy
59:12 Horror and Humor
1:05:15 Comedy, Connection, and Progressive Change
1:09:40 What Makes Comedy Human
1:14:03 Audience Sensitivity
1:17:56 Humor and Media Psychology
1:21:54 Laughing With and Laughing At
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
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53 - Christina Van Dyke: Medieval Bestiaries & The Philosophy of Food and Eating
21 februari 2023 · 1 uur 18 min
Christina Van Dyke is an emerita professor of philosophy at Calvin College and a visiting professor of philosophy at Barnard College, where she specializes in the medieval period. She is the author of A Hidden Wisdom: Medieval Contemplatives on Self-Knowledge, Reason, Love, Persons, and Immortality. Christina and Robinson discuss the philosophy of food and eating—its gendered aspects, its religious history, some ethical concerns, and eating disorders—before turning to animals in medieval philosophy, where they touch on Hildegard von Bingen, medieval bestiaries, and the secret society known as the Brethren of Purity. You can keep up with Christina at cvdphilosopher.net. Lees meer
linktree: https://linktr.ee/robinsonerhardt
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode
00:30 Introduction
3:05 Christina and Medieval Philosophy
5:41 Christina’s Interest in The Philosophy of Eating
6:59 Are Food and Eating Gendered?
23:39 Food, Gender, and Religion
32:40 How Philosophy Might Help Us Eat Better
36:27 Animals and the Brethren of Purity
45:11 Hildegard von Bingen and Medieval Animals
58:05 Hydras, Bestiaries, and Arthurian Lore
1:03:35 Animals, and What Humans Are
1:07:45 Animals, Angels, and Humans
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
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52 - Gabriel Greenberg: Semiotics, Representation, and Cognitive Science & Film
17 februari 2023 · 1 uur 59 min
Gabriel Greenberg is a professor of philosophy at the University of California Los Angeles, and currently a visiting professor at Stanford University. He works widely across the philosophy of mind, but in particular studies iconic representation, modality, and computation. Gabe and Robinson talk about the rough divide between representation and consciousness studies in the philosophy of mind before going into the distinction between signs and symbols, and how the brain interprets them. They finish with a departure into the world of philosophy, film, and cognitive science, discussing how our minds stitch together the scenes of a movie and integrate them into a whole. Lees meer
linktree: https://linktr.ee/robinsonerhardt
Outline:
00:00 In This Episode
00:39 Introduction
5:17 Gabe’s Taste in Comics
9:53 Gabe’s Interest in Philosophy of Mind
18:14 What is a Representation?
26:02 Gabe’s Dialogue with Linguistics
27:51 Aboutness in the Philosophy of Mind
34:21 The Iconic-Symbolic Spectrum
59:48 A Semantics for Signs and Icons
1:09:33 A Course on Visual Narrative
1:11:20 Film and The Norms of Spatial Coherence
1:15:43 Film Spaces as Abstract Spatial Graphs
1:46:20 Film, Semantics, and Pragmatics
1:51:38 On Scott McCloud
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
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51 - Scott Shapiro: Hackers, Cybersecurity, and Legal Philosophy
13 februari 2023 · 1 uur 12 min
Scott Shapiro is the Charles F. Southmayd Professor of Law and Professor of Philosophy at Yale Law School, where he is also the founding director of the Yale CyberSecurity Lab. Robinson and Scott talk about studying at Columbia University under the auspices of the legendary Isaac Levi, Sidney Morgenbesser, and Haim Gaifman before discussing the philosophy of law, one of Scott’s areas of expertise. Among the topics they touch on are the distinction between analytic and normative jurisprudence, the problem of the chicken and the egg, and progress in legal thought from Austin to Hart and beyond. Then they turn to Scott’s upcoming book, Fancy Bear goes Phishing: The Dark History of the Information Age, in Five Extraordinary Hacks, where Scott explores the intersection of cybersecurity, hacking, and legal philosophy. Scott is also the author of Legality and the host of the Jurisprudence Course podcast, the latter of which will soon have a second season. You can keep up with Scott on Twitter at @scottjshapiro, and preorder Fancy Bear Goes Phishing on Amazon. Lees meer
Fancy Bear Goes Phishing: https://a.co/d/aPv2zpY
Legality: https://a.co/d/1qYg0OY
Jurisprudence Course: https://open.spotify.com/show/6yOIMnVASRLN2nPLlBL0Dn?si=0de8b550346942d6
Twitter: https://twitter.com/scottjshapiro
Outline:
00:00 In This Episode
00:20 Introduction
3:35 Scott the Jurisprude
7:49 War Stories From Columbia
18:36 Analytic Versus Normative Jurisprudence
22:23 The Chicken And The Egg Problem For Jurisprudence
28:03 Austin, Hart, and Progress in Legal Philosophy
44:43 Fancy Bear Goes Phishing
43:23: Cybersecurity and Legal Philosophy
59:02:40 Hacking Paris Hilton’s Cell Phone
1:05:07 The Psychology of Hackers
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
linktree: https://linktr.ee/robinsonerhardt
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50 - Jonathan Schaffer: Monism, Grounding, and The Fundamental Level of Reality
9 februari 2023 · 1 uur 59 min
Jonathan Schaffer is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Philosophy at Rutgers University. He is an acclaimed metaphysician with a unique mind and approach to philosophy (and who has exquisite taste in epigraphs). Jonathan is best known for his work on monism, in which he contends that the cosmos is the lone fundamental object in reality, and on the grounding relation. He and Robinson begin by exploring monism, including its relationship to contemporary developments in physics, and then move on to the grounding relation, explicating just what this is and how it marks a departure from the dominant Quinean view of metaphysics. Lees meer
linktree: https://linktr.ee/robinsonerhardt
Outline:
00:00 In This Episode
1:07 Introduction
4:54 Jonathan’s Epigraphs
10:02 What Is a Monist?
14:11 How Jonathan Became a Monist
17:06 Breeds of Monism
24:09 Mereological Nihilism
39:14 Have Jonathan’s Views Shifted Over The Years?
41:25 The Ontological Priority of the Whole
48:16 Monism and Quantum Entanglement
54:42 Occam’s Laser
59:40 Modal Considerations for Monism
1:03:17 Jonathan’s Interest in Grounding
1:06:33 Quinean Metaphysics and Grounding
1:15:22 The Aristotelian View of Metaphysics
1:18:21 Carnap and Grounding
1:21:33 What Grounds What?
1:26:32 Debunking Metaphysical Intuitions With Cognitive Science
1:39:38 Ground Functionalism
1:48:58 Grounding in Feminist Metaphysics
1:55:30 Jonathan’s Philosophical Program
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
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49 - Stephen Darwall: The History of Modern Ethics
6 februari 2023 · 1 uur 40 min
Stephen Darwall is Andrew Downey Orrick Professor of Philosophy at Yale University and John Dewey Distinguished University Professor Emeritus at the University of Michigan. He is a world-renowned moral philosopher who has worked broadly across the ethical landscape, making important contributions to Kant scholarship, legal philosophy, deontology, and countless other areas. Steve and Robinson discuss the history of modern ethics, beginning with Hugo Grotius and traveling up through Hobbes, Hume, Kant, Bentham, and Smith before ending with Marx, Kierkegaard, and Nietzsche’s attack on morality. Lees meer
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/robinsonerhardt
Outline:
00:00 In This Episode
00:22 Introduction
4:04 Steve’s Time at Yale
12:39 Ethics and Normativity
19:56 Hugo Grotius and the Birth of Modern Ethics
30:18 Hobbes on Morality
39:33 Hume on Morality
45:56 Kant on Morality
54:59 Jeremy Bentham on Morality
58:31 Adam Smith on Morality
1:10:51 A Brief Diatribe on Google
1:16:28 The Continental/Analytic Divide
1:23:17 Marx, Kierkegaard, and Nietzsche’s Attack on Morality
1:35:21 Are Moral Philosophers Moral?
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48 - Patricia Churchland: Neurophilosophy, Free Will, & Consciousness
2 februari 2023 · 1 uur 24 min
Patricia Churchland is UC President’s Professor of Philosophy Emerita at the University of California, San Diego. She is among the most well-known and impactful figures working in the philosophy of mind, and a prominent early neurophilosopher who advocated the importance of neuroscience in the philosophy of mind. Pat and Robinson discuss three broad topics: neurophilosophy and ethics—particularly with reference to two of her recent books, Braintrust: What Neuroscience Tells Us about Morality and Conscience: The Origins of Moral Intuition—what neuroscience has to say about the problem of free will, and the neurophilosophical approach to consciousness. You can keep up with Pat’s work at patriciachurchland.com, as well as on Twitter, @patchurchland. Lees meer
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/robinsonerhardt
Outline:
00:00 In This Episode
00:36 Introduction
3:07 A Family of Neuroscientists
12:27 What Is Neurophilosophy?
15:44 Neuroscience and Morality
22:13 Evolution and Morality
33:00 Mirror Neurons and Imitation
38:56 Neuroscience and Metaethics
47:58 Neurophilosophy, Free Will, & The Self
1:05:24 Neuroscience & David Chalmers’ Hard Problem of Consciousness
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47: Achille Varzi: Metaphysics, Ontology, & Nominalism
30 januari 2023 · 1 uur 44 min
Achille Varzi is the John Dewey Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University and Bruno Kessler Honorary Professor at the University of Trento. He is a world-renowned metaphysicist and logician, and widely regarded as the greatest living mereologist. Yet despite all this Robinson asks Achille about his sleep habits, though afterward they discuss some more important philosophical questions: What is ontology? What is metaphysics, and how is it different from physics? After some tangents on nominalism and truthmakers, the conversation ends with a reflection on some of the late Saul Kripke’s contributions to philosophy. Lees meer
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/robinsonerhardt
Outline:
00:00 How Kangaroos Got Their Name
00:52 Introduction
4:54 Achille’s Start in Philosophy
11:24 Some Thoughts on Wittgenstein
16:57 Writing Philosophy in a Second Language
23:01 Achille’s Absurd Sleeping Habits
30:41 What is Metaphysics?
43:01 Distinguishing Physics From Metaphysics
50:48 Ontology, Metaphysics, and Truthmakers
01:23:37 Saul Kripke's Contributions to Philosophy
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
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46 - Tim Maudlin: Laws of Nature, Absolute Space, & Free Will
26 januari 2023 · 2 uur
Tim Maudlin is Professor of Philosophy at NYU. Before that, he did his undergraduate work in philosophy and physics at Yale and received his PHD from Pittsburgh in the History and Philosophy of Science. Tim is renowned as one of the leading philosophers of physics, and he also works in the philosophy of science and metaphysics. Among other things, Robinson and Tim talk about whether metaphysics should come prior to or after physics, the debates over absolute time and space, free will, the nature of physical laws, and David Lewis’s views on the Humean supermosaic. You can find out more about Tim and his work on his website, www.tim-maudlin.site. Lees meer
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/robinsonerhardt
Outline:
00:00 Introduction
2:35 Studying Physics and Philosophy
8:38 Theoretical Physics, Foundations, and Metaphysics
15:54 Physics and Free Will
26:17 The Mathematical Structure of the Universe
37:49 Hume, Lewis, and the Supermosaic
49:16 Laws of Nature
1:04:02 Moral facts
1:18:03 Absolute and Relative Space
1:34:27 Space and the Ether
1:39:31 The Leibniz-Clarke Correspondence
1:46:08 Absolute Space, Time, and Relativity
1:53:07 The Infinity of Time and Space
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45 - Jody Azzouni: Nominalism in the Philosophy of Mathematics
23 januari 2023 · 1 uur 47 min
Jody Azzouni is a professor of philosophy at Tufts University. While Jody is best known for his nominalist stance in the philosophy of mathematics, he is also an author of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. He and Robinson talk about his love of writing and how his interest in mathematics bloomed during in his time spent at NYU and CUNY. They then move on to the debate between nominalists and platonists in the philosophy of mathematics, Jody’s own deflationary stance, and some adjacent concerns about ontological commitment in both formal and informal languages. Lees meer
Outline:
00:00 Introduction
3:16 Jody’s Writing Background
9:05 Jody’s Poetry
21:20 The Relationship Between Jody’s Philosophy and Everything Else
32:33 Jody’s Interest in the Philosophy of Mathematics
40:02 The Platonist/Nominalist Opposition in the Philosophy of Mathematics
49:29 The Platonist Conception of Mathematical Objects
52:50 A Nominalist Argument Against Mathematical Realism
1:09:41 Varieties of Mathematical Nominalism
1:18:55 Nominalism in Mathematics and Metaphysics
1:24:39 Ontological Commitment in the Vernacular
1:35:30 A Poetry Reading
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/robinsonerhardt
Twitter: https://twitter.com/robinsonerhardt
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Apple (Robinson's Podcast) : https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/robinsons-podcast/id1636469402
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44 - Sophie Grace Chappell: Epiphanies, Ethics, and the Philosophy of Literature
19 januari 2023 · 1 uur 35 min
Sophie Grace Chappell is Professor of Philosophy at the Open University in the UK. Before that she taught at the University of Dundee and Oxford. Sophie has a wide variety of interests, including ancient philosophy, ethics, and the philosophy of literature. She and Robinson speak about her latest book, Epiphanies: An Ethics of Experience. More particularly, their discussion centers around philosophy and literature—including a wonderful reading of Gerard Manley Hopkins—the relationship between ethics and aesthetics, and some potential pitfalls of taking a theory-building approach to moral philosophy. Lees meer
Outline:
00:00 Introduction
2:27 Literae Humaniores
14:42 The Etymology of "Outrage"
19:19 Literature and the Phenomenology of Being Human
36:51 Ethics and Aesthetics
49:13 Poetry and Philosophy
53:40 What Are Epiphanies?
58:56 Gerard Manley Hopkins and His Terrible Sonnets
1:10:20 James Joyce and Epiphanies
1:14:35 Theory-Building Approaches to Ethics
1:24:41 Sophie's Approach to Ethics
1:29:49 Testing Ethical Theories
1:32:12 Sophie the Mountaineer
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43 - Eric Schwitzgebel: The Philosophical Weirdness of the World
16 januari 2023 · 1 uur 31 min
Eric Schwitzgebel is a Professor of Philosophy at the University of California Riverside. Before that, he did his undergraduate work at Stanford, and then received his doctorate from the University of California Berkeley. Eric has worked on an extremely wide array of topics, ranging from Chinese philosophy to philosophy of mind, metaphilosophy, and metaphysics. In this conversation, however, Robinson and Eric talk about his upcoming book on philosophy and weirdness. In particular, they discuss why the United States might be conscious, what Kant and cyberpunk have in common, the moral value of alien microbes, and a lot more about garden snails than you thought you could ever find interesting. Keep up with Eric through his blog, the Splintered Mind, or on Twitter @eschwitz. Lees meer
Outline:
00:00 Introduction
3:07 A Man of Many Interests
4:21 The Weirdness of the World
12:32 Why the United States May Be Conscious
25:50 Kant and Cyberpunk
35:22 Experimental Evidence for an External World
46:54 Are Ethicists More Ethical Than the Rest of Us?
1:04:47 What It's Like to Be a Garden Snail
1:23:07 The Moral Value of Alien Microbes
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/robinsonerhardt
Twitter: https://twitter.com/robinsonerhardt
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Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/robinsonerhardt/
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YouTube (Robinson Eats): youtube.com/@robinsoneats
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@robinsonerhardt
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42 - Joel David Hamkins: Paradox, Infinity, & The Foundations of Mathematics
12 januari 2023 · 3 uur 11 min
Joel David Hamkins is the O’Hara Professor of Philosophy and Mathematics at the University of Notre Dame, where he recently moved from the University of Oxford. Joel is one of the leading set theorists and philosophers of mathematics in the world, and he and Robinson discuss a lot—Hilbert’s Hotel, the continuum hypothesis, the set-theoretic multiverse, and even Joel’s dapper hat collection—but the main subject is his upcoming book, The Book of the Infinite, which is an accessible text on paradoxes and infinity. Joel has made the novel move of serializing it on Substack, so you can participate in its creation by checking out the link below, and otherwise see what he’s thinking about and working on through Twitter, MathOverflow, and his blog. The conversation grows technical from 1:10:26-2:00:25, but for those to whom that doesn’t appeal there are timestamps to navigate around this portion of the show. Lees meer
Substack: https://joeldavidhamkins.substack.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/JDHamkins
MathOverflow: https://mathoverflow.net/users/1946/joel-david-hamkins
Joel’s Blog: http://jdh.hamkins.org
OUTLINE:
00:00 Introduction
2:52 Is Joel a Mathematician or a Philosopher?
6:13 The Philosophical Influence of Hugh Woodin
10:29 The Intersection of Set Theory and Philosophy of Math
16:29 Serializing the Book of the Infinite
20:05 Zeno of Elea, Continuity, and Geometric Series
39:39 Infinite Games and the Chocolatier
53:35 Hilbert's Hotel
1:10:26 Cantor's Theorem
1:31:37 The Continuum Hypothesis
1:43:02 The Set-Theoretic Multiverse
2:00:25 Berry's Paradox and Large Numbers
2:16:15 Skolem's Paradox and Indescribable Numbers
2:28:41 Pascal's Wager and Reasoning Around Remote Events
2:49:35 MathOverflow
3:04:40 Joel's Impeccable Fashion Sense
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YouTube (Robi…
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41 - Richard Kimberly Heck: Philosophy of Sex, Pornography, and Gender
9 januari 2023 · 2 uur 37 min
Richard Kimberly Heck has been a professor of philosophy at Brown University since 2005, at which time they left their post at Harvard, where they had taught for over a decade. On the way to receiving their PhD in philosophy and linguistics at MIT, they studied at Duke and Oxford. While Professor Heck’s primary research focus has been logic and Frege, over the past few years they have shifted to the philosophy of sex and pornography. This is Robinson and Riki’s third conversation on the subjects. Their first and second were episodes 5 and 17, though the installments are not sequential and only linked by topic. Among other things, Robinson and Riki discuss empirical approaches to the philosophy of sex, understanding oneself as a gendered person, and the depiction of oral sex in pornography. Lees meer
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/robinsonerhardt
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40 - L.A. Paul: Cognitive Science, Metaphysics, & Transformative Experience
5 januari 2023 · 1 uur 21 min
L.A. Paul is the Millstone Family Professor of Philosophy and Professor of Cognitive Science at Yale University. After doing her graduate work on causation and time at Princeton under the guidance of David Lewis, Laurie wrote her groundbreaking book Transformative Experience, and since then has been exploring the intersection of cognitive science and metaphysics (in addition to a myriad of other pursuits). Laurie and Robinson talk about how she went from her undergraduate studies in chemistry and biology to philosophy, the origins of Transformative Experience, and what cognitive science can contribute to the philosophy of time and causation. Lees meer
Twitter: @robinsonerhardt
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39 - Peter Adamson: Islamic Philosophy, Mysticism, Dead Languages, & Eternity
2 januari 2023 · 2 uur 22 min
Peter Adamson is Professor of Late Ancient and Arabic Philosophy at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and Professor of Ancient and Medieval Philosophy at King's College London. He’s also the host of the podcast History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps and the author of the book series by the same name. Robinson and Peter talk about Islamic philosophy broadly conceived, as well as some of its great philosophers—Avicenna in particular—and its most fascinating debates. Lees meer
00:00 Introduction
04:46 Can Anything Be the Subject of Philosophy?
11:03 Dead and Living Languages
24:35 What Is Islamic Philosophy?
40:28 Some Distinctive Problems of Islamic Philosophy
50:40 Metaphysical Debates about the Eucharist and Koran
59:21 Free Will, Islamic Philosophy, and the Koran
01:08:56 Islam and the Eternity of the World
01:29:48 Avicenna's Flying Man Argument
01:41:25 Al-Farabi and Illuminationism
01:47:54 What Is Philosophical Mysticism?
01:55:00 Islamic Mysticism and Sufism
01:59:18 Philosophy, Reincarnation, and Vegetarianism
02:03:37 The History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps
Twitter: @robinsonerhardt
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38 - Graham Priest: The Metaphysics of Nothingness
26 december 2022 · 2 uur 56 min
Graham Priest is a Distinguished Professor in the philosophy department at the CUNY Graduate Center. He is one of the most influential living philosophers, and has done important work on a wide range of topics, ranging from the philosophy of mathematics (his doctorate is in mathematics from the London School of Economics) to logic and eastern philosophy. In this episode, Robinson and Graham discuss the metaphysics of nothingness and non-being, touching on—among other things—Zen Buddhism, Quine’s conception of ontological commitment, impossible worlds, and why there’s something rather than nothing. Lees meer
(00:00) Introduction
(04:59) Graham's Path to Philosophy
(08:45) On Analytic and Continental Philosophy
(17:33) On Quine
(27:23) Quine, Quantifiers, and What There Is
(41:51) On Nonexistent Objects
(47:02) Noneism and the Philosophy of Mathematics
(01:14:14) On Impossible Worlds
(01:24:35) Why Is There Something Rather Than Nothing?
(01:30:55) Zen, Buddhism, and Nothingness
(01:46:36) The Nyāya Philosophy of Nothingness
(01:52:59) Graham's Interest in Eastern Philosophy
(02:01:04) Philosophy as World-Building
(02:05:36) Sylvan's Box
(02:10:06) Zen and How to Live One's Life
(02:20:28) Zen on Mind and Language
(02:30:08) The Basics of Buddhist Ethics
(02:52:08) Graham the Martial Artist
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37 - Paul B Woodruff: Philosophy and War
22 december 2022 · 1 uur 28 min
Paul B Woodruff is a professor in the philosophy department at the University of Texas at Austin. Over the course of his extensive career he’s published numerous books, articles, and translations covering areas ranging from ancient philosophy and Greek tragedy to ethics and aesthetics. In the years between completing his undergraduate work in classics at Princeton and then getting his PhD in philosophy at the same university, he served in the Vietnam War, and it is largely this experience and the philosophical thought that emerged from it which Robinson and Paul discuss. Along with other topics, they talk about the ethics of killing civilians, just war theory, and Socrates’ practical ethics. Lees meer
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36 - Justin Clarke-Doane: What is Mathematics?
19 december 2022 · 2 uur 10 min
Justin Clarke-Doane is a professor of philosophy at Columbia University, where he works on the philosophy of mathematics, physics, and metaethics. After a long-anticipated catch-up on recent ice cream-related activities, Justin and Robinson discuss the question: What is mathematics? Lees meer
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35 - Barry Lam: Philosophical Zombies, Resurrecting Cannibals, & Dating Vampires
15 december 2022 · 1 uur 11 min
Barry Lam is the host of Hi-Phi Nation, which is a much better podcast than this one, and which is devoted to exploring pressing philosophical questions through narrative. He did his graduate work at Princeton, then taught at Vassar, and will soon be picking up a new professorial post at UC Riverside. In this episode Robinson and Barry discuss the philosophical problems posed by certain monsters that were the subject of a three-part series in Hi-Phi Nation (namely zombies, cannibals, and vampires), along with David Lewis, the role of imagination in philosophy, and the risks of devoting time to public philosophy in an academic world that doesn’t prioritize it. Lees meer
Instagram: @robinsonerhardt
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34 - C Thi Nguyen: Agency, Aesthetics, & The Philosophy of Games
12 december 2022 · 1 uur 15 min
C Thi Nguyen is a professor in the philosophy department at the University of Utah. Before that, he did his graduate work at UCLA, where he was also a food writer with the LA Times. Robinson and Thi talk about his book, Games: Agency as Art, along with why we call things porn, autonomy and aesthetic judgment, and the difficult epistemic situation of having to select which experts to rely on in fields where we can’t make our own informed decisions. Lees meer
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33 - Quayshawn Spencer: The Biology of Race, Natural Kinds, & Craniometry
8 december 2022 · 1 uur 21 min
Quayshawn Spencer is the Robert S. Blank Presidential Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania. Before taking up his post in Philadelphia, he studied chemistry and philosophy at Cornell and then received his PhD in philosophy and a Masters in biology at Stanford. Quayshawn and Robinson discuss whether or not race in humans is a biological or social phenomenon, the extent and nature of Kant’s of racism, some of the difficulties of researching a sensitive topic in the public eye, and the basics of natural kinds. For more of Quayshawn’s work, you can check out his latest book, "What is Race? Four Philosophical Views.” Lees meer
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32 - Ray Briggs: Transfeminism, Philosophy of Sex, & Queer Science Fiction
5 december 2022 · 1 uur 5 min
Ray Briggs is a professor in the philosophy department at Stanford University. They did their doctoral work at MIT, and have since been working primarily in decision theory, epistemology, and metaphysics. In the last few years Ray has been writing and thinking about sex, gender, and transfeminism, which is what they and Robinson discuss in this episode, along with queer science fiction and thought experiments galore. Lees meer
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31 - Haim Gaifman: Richard’s Paradox, Infinity, & Set Theory
28 november 2022 · 1 uur 9 min
Haim Gaifman is a professor of philosophy at Columbia university in New York City. He is also a mathematician and probability theorist. In this episode (Haim’s fourth appearance), Robinson and Haim discuss the origins of set theory as the mathematical discipline developed to study the infinite, as well as its relation to Richard’s paradox. Lees meer
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30 - David Albert: Foundations of Physics, Time’s Arrow, & Moral Expressivism
21 november 2022 · 1 uur 52 min
David Albert is the Frederick E. Woodbridge Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University and one of the world’s most respected philosophers of physics. He is also the director of the Philosophical Foundations of Physics program at Columbia. David and Robinson talk about the relationship between ancient and contemporary physics, the continuum on which lie theoretical physics, the foundations of physics, the philosophy of physics, and metaphysics, scientific anti-realism, the direction of time, and how moral expressivism relates to the naturalistic project. Lees meer
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29 - Christopher Bobonich: Etymology, Classics, & Ancient Ethics
14 november 2022 · 1 uur 3 min
Christopher Bobonich is the Clarence Irving Lewis Professor of Philosophy at Stanford University. After studying government at Harvard, he went on to do his graduate work at Cambridge and Berkeley. He now works broadly across value theory in ancient philosophy, though he is currently writing about knowledge and action in Plato. Among other things, Chris and Robinson talk about ancient and modern languages, etymology, the relevance of ancient ethics to contemporary life, and how well ancient conceptions of morality are preserved today. Lees meer
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28 - Nick C: Mystical Religious Experience & Moral Facts and Animal Suffering
7 november 2022 · 1 uur 8 min
Nick is a software engineer at a biotech company. He studied politics, philosophy, and economics at the University of Pennsylvania. He and Robinson talk about the events that led him to abandon his deeply-held religious beliefs after a lifetime of Christianity. They also talk about moral facts, whether there are any, and whether their absence should play a role in Robinson deciding to shift toward being a vegetarian. Lees meer
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27 - Ronnie (Robinson's Dad): The Elgin Marbles
31 oktober 2022 · 1 uur 19 min
Ronnie is Robinson’s father. They talk about the Elgin Marbles and also a little bit about ice cream and donuts. Lees meer
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26 - Ezekiel Quittner-Strom: Perfect MCAT Scores & a Trader Joe’s Frozen Feast
24 oktober 2022 · 1 uur 10 min
Ezekiel Quittner-Strom is a physician doing his residency in internal medicine at the University of Iowa. In this episode Robinson and Ezekiel eat a three-course feast of frozen food from Trader Joe’s and talk about it while they eat it, heated up and not frozen. Said talking concerned, in addition to said not-frozen frozen food, Ezekiel’s legendary perfect score on the MCAT and how he got it. Lees meer
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25 - Ethan Hoppe: Medieval Music, Devil’s Interval, & Memorizing Game of Thrones
17 oktober 2022 · 1 uur 11 min
Ethan Hoppe is a violinist and technical sergeant in the United States Air Force. He studied violin at Northwestern and Yale before the pandemic changed the trajectory of his career. We talk about the history of classical music, the power of listening to the same in an ancient world, memorizing the Game of Thrones theme song for a White House performance, and how visualization can be used as a tool to combat stage fright. Lees meer
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24 - Caroline Hudson: Collagen Stimulation, Facial Plastic Surgery, Baked Goods
13 oktober 2022 · 1 uur 35 min
Caroline Hudson is a facial plastic surgeon completing her fellowship in Palo Alto, California. She and Robinson discuss why an ENT (ear, nose, and throat specialist) would become a plastic surgeon, the fine (or illusory?) distinction between “meh” and “tasty,” forehead lowering surgery, the nuances of rhinoplasty, and everything you might want to know about stimulating collagen to improve the quality of your skin. They also talk about baked goods and eat them while they talk about them. Lees meer
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23 - David Albert & Justin Clarke-Doane: Absolute Space & Physicalism vs. Ethics
10 oktober 2022 · 1 uur 50 min
David Albert and Justin Clarke-Doane are both professors of philosophy at Columbia University. While David is one of the world’s most respected philosophers of physics, Justin has staked his own claim as the authority on the intersection between mathematics and ethics. Though this episode was unfortunately plagued by some audio problems, it proved an exciting glimpse into a debate between two leading thinkers. Before a heated discussion concerning the nature of moral facts in a physical world, David, Justin, and Robinson discuss the problem of absolute vs. relative space, physics’s potential to swallow up other disciplines, and the sophisticated relationship between physics proper and the philosophy of the same. Lees meer
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22 - Graham Winn-Lee: Post-Apocalyptic Fantasies, Zombies, & Dragons
6 oktober 2022 · 1 uur 10 min
Graham Winn-Lee is Robinson’s best friend. Though that is how he likes to introduce himself, Graham is also an artist, graphic designer, and crocheting enthusiast with a lifelong passion for competitive dog grooming. This episode is exclusively about Robinson and Graham's respective post-apocalyptic fantasies and related feelings about zombies, dragons, and other pertinent creatures. Lees meer
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21 - Haim Gaifman: What is Philosophy? What is Mathematics?
3 oktober 2022 · 1 uur 26 min
Haim Gaifman is a philosopher and mathematician. He teaches at Columbia University in New York City. In this episode Haim answers two questions of Robinson’s: What is philosophy? What is mathematics? Lees meer
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20 - Philip Guison: Ice Cream Novelties
29 september 2022 · 1 uur 36 min
Philip studied neuroscience at the University of Michigan and is one of Robinson’s oldest friends. In this episode, Robinson forced Philip to eat ice cream novelties with him and talk about those novelties while eating them. Lees meer
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19 - Nick Huggett: Paradoxes of Motion, Quantum Gravity, & String Theory
26 september 2022 · 1 uur 16 min
Nick Huggett is a philosopher of physics and science at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Before that, he studied physics and philosophy at Oxford and received his PhD at Rutgers. Despite not having taken a physics class since the eighth grade, this podcast marks the beginning of Robinson’s ambition to learn a bit more about the philosophy of physics. Nick and Robinson talk about Zeno of Elea’s paradoxes of motion and composition, as well as how they might be related to quantum gravity and string theory. Lees meer
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18 - Demitrios Haldes: Ice Cream
22 september 2022 · 1 uur 23 min
Contrary to popular belief, Demitrios Haldes (@infinitemonkeybusiness) is neither the last scion of Herakles nor the superintendent of a crayon factory, but a comic illustrator and writer. He and Robinson eat ice cream and talk about it while they eat it. Lees meer
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17 - Richard Kimberly Heck: Monstrous Female Sexuality, Porn Villains, Anal Sex, & the Ethics of Fantasies
19 september 2022 · 1 uur 50 min
Richard Kimberly Heck has been a professor of philosophy at Brown University since 2005, at which time they left their post at Harvard, where they had taught for over a decade. On the way to receiving their PhD in philosophy and linguistics at MIT, they studied at Duke and Oxford. While Professor Heck’s primary research focus has been logic and Frege, over the past few years they have shifted to the philosophy of sex and pornography. This is Robinson and Riki’s second conversation about pornography. The first, captured in episode five, was a general introduction to the topic. In this episode they discuss—among other topics—depictions of female sexuality in pornography, villains in the same, the ethics of sexual fantasies, and consent on college campuses. Lees meer
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16 - Ezekiel Quittner-Strom: Instant Noodles & Internal Medicine
15 september 2022 · 1 uur 11 min
Ezekiel Quittner-Strom is a physician doing his residency in internal medicine at the University of Iowa. In this episode Robinson and Ezekiel eat instant noodles and talk about them while they eat them. Said talking concerned, in addition to said noodles, ramen, instant versus restaurant ramen, and Robinson’s failure to follow directions, as well as significantly less important things like internal medicine and the healthcare industry. Lees meer
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15 - Caroline Hudson: Snack Cakes, Facelifts, Botox, & Wrinkle Prevention
12 september 2022 · 1 uur 12 min
Caroline Hudson is a facial plastic surgeon completing her fellowship in Palo Alto, California. She and Robinson discuss *almost* all things facial, ranging from wrinkles and filler to sewing teeny tiny nerves back together. They get into the distinction between ease and simplicity in gauging surgeries, the future of facelifts, daily skincare routines, and, in a surprising twist, Caroline convinces Robinson to give Botox a try. They also talk about snack cakes (think Twinkies or Ding-Dongs) and eat them while they talk about them. Lees meer
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14 - Michael Harris: Number Theory, Creativity in Mathematics, & Beauty
8 september 2022 · 1 uur 15 min
Michael Harris is a mathematician at Columbia University, where he primarily works on number theory. He did his undergraduate studies at Princeton and received his PhD from Harvard. Professor Harris and I discuss the tragic figure of Alexander Grothendieck, the allure of number theory, mathematics as an intrinsically human endeavor, creativity in mathematics, and the relationship between mathematicians and computers, including whether the former will ever replace the latter. Lees meer
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13 - Ethan Hoppe: Violin, Classical Music, & Stage Fright
5 september 2022 · 1 uur 14 min
Ethan Hoppe is a violinist and technical sergeant in the United States Air Force. He studied violin at Northwestern and Yale before the pandemic changed the trajectory of his career. Robinson and Ethan talk about the life of a military violinist and then delve into more conceptual matters, such as how a musician’s focuses change as they mature, viewing classical pieces as poems, training for blind auditions, and dealing with stage fright. Lees meer
Instagram: @robinsonerhardt
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12 - Philip Guison: Chicago Bakeries & Baked Goods
1 september 2022 · 1 uur 12 min
Philip studied neuroscience at the University of Michigan and is one of Robinson’s oldest friends. One time in high school he gave a presentation for French class in which he sat there without speaking for ten minutes while everyone stared in awe, and for that he is a hero. As part of Philip’s sacrifice for this episode, he and Robinson traveled throughout Chicago in search of tasty baked goods, which they subsequently ate and talked about while eating. Lees meer
Instagram: @robinsonerhardt
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11 - Haim Gaifman: Alice in Wonderland & Paradoxes
29 augustus 2022 · 1 uur 8 min
Haim Gaifman is a philosopher and mathematician. He teaches at Columbia University in New York City. Haim and Robinson talk about Alice in Wonderland, Bertrand Russell, and paradoxes. Lees meer
Instagram: @robinsonerhardt
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10 - Demitrios Haldes: Cookies
25 augustus 2022 · 1 uur 16 min
Contrary to popular belief, Demitrios Haldes (@infinitemonkeybusiness) is neither a male supermodel nor a basketball player in the Moldovian professional circuit, but a comic illustrator and writer. He and Robinson eat cookies and talk about them while they eat them. Lees meer
Instagram: @robinsonerhardt
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9 - Patrick Davis: Steroids, PEDs, & Bodybuilding
22 augustus 2022 · 1 uur 23 min
Patrick Davis (@theillestpd) is a stupidly yoked unit of a bodybuilder training and coaching out of Austin, Texas. Among other things, he and Robinson talk about Patrick’s journey from military school to bodybuilding, his experience with performance-enhancing drugs, and how to best make use of partial reps. Lees meer
Note One: This episode contains an extensive discussion of performance-enhancing drugs, some of which are illegal. This cannot be construed as an endorsement of PEDs. Any decision regarding the use of such substances should be made carefully and in consultation with a supervising physician.
Note Two: Patrick recorded his end of the podcast over the phone. The audio is a bit glitchy at times, and unfortunately the video and audio somehow recorded at different speeds. I (Robinson) lack the technical experience to fix this, and I (Robinson) was also too lazy to figure it out. So if you happen to be watching the video, know that I (Robinson) feel your pain.
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8 - Ezekiel Quittner-Strom: Sushi
18 augustus 2022 · 1 uur 5 min
Ezekiel Quittner-Strom is a physician doing his residency in internal medicine at the University of Iowa. He and Robinson talk about sushi and almost nothing else. Lees meer
Instagram: @robinsonerhardt
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7 - Justin Clarke-Doane: Philosophy of Mathematics, Metaethics, & Ice Cream
15 augustus 2022 · 2 uur 5 min
Justin Clarke-Doane is a professor of philosophy at Columbia University, where he works on the philosophy of mathematics, physics, and metaethics. He and Robinson discuss ice cream and Justin’s fantastic hair, along with less important topics, like philosophy and mathematics. Instagram: @robinsonerhardt Lees meer
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6 - Uncle Perry: Ice Cream
11 augustus 2022 · 1 uur 7 min
Uncle Perry is Robinson’s uncle. They eat ice cream and talk about it while they eat it. Lees meer
Instagram: @robinsonerhardt