Episodes
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Sophie Grace Chappell (Open University) talks with Kevin (East Carolina University) about her book Epiphanies: An Ethics of Experience. They talk about what epiphanies are, why they should count as a type of reason (often more persuasive than more formal conceptions of reason), and why philosophers should better appreciate their role in everyday moral life.
00: Intros, and Why Sophie Teaches at the Open University
5:37 - What Are Epiphanies and Why Are They Important to Philosophy?
16:06 - How Moral Experience and Thinking Work in the Real World
21:08 - Epiphanic Experience, Empathy, and the Debate Over Abortion Rights
29:03 - Epiphanies and Moral Monism, Relativism and (Sophie's Preference) Pluralism
47:18 - Why Are Most Philosophers Reluctant to Acknowledge "Noncognitive" Factors in Moral Life? -
Moti Gorin (Colorado State) talks with Holly Lawford-Smith (University of Melbourne) about her new book, "Gender Critical Feminism" (Oxford University Press).
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Episodes manquant?
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Sheena (SUNY Oneanta) and Kevin (East Carolina University) continue an ongoing conversation about the idea of race and Sheena's arguments about racelessnes. This episode gets more personal about Sheena's and Kevin's respective connections to "transracial" families. Sheena was adopted into a "transracial" family and Kevin is adopting a daughter who is differently raced than he. What does all of this mean for how we should think about race, racism, and the idea of racelessness?
:009 - Sheena's book on racelessness will be out soon
10:33 - Kevin and Sheena get personal about racialization and their connections to "transracial" adoption.
31:24 - Different ways that different people experience and talk about racialization. Kevin talks about 'the wrong kind of colorblindness."
41:13 - All the ways in which race is a clunky signifier 53:08 - The ways race unavoidably limits us. Can racelessness liberate us?
1:13:13 - Kevin talks to his son about race with the help of a t-shirt and a children's book.Kevin's article ("Race Talk") that is referred to in the middle of the show: https://theelectricagora.com/2022/04/19/race-talk/
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Robert Gressis (Cal State Northridge), Dan Kaufman (Missouri State) and Kevin Currie-Knight (East Carolina) discuss what is and isn't realistic to expect of philosophy. Topics include Realism (Rob) and Anti-Realism (Dan and Kevin), Foundationalism (maybe Rob) and anti-Foundationalism (Dan and Kevin), and what we do when we attempt to ground and justify our positions to others. The conversation sprang from a set of articles at the Electric Agora. In one, Dan argued that philosophy is largely incapable of making sense of even basic moral considerations; in two others, Kevin argued that individual temperament plays a significant role in forming our philosophies.
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Robert, Kevin and I inaugurate a new feature at EA: a New Year's Contributors' Roundtable. Publication was delayed due to my father's death, so please excuse the discussion's lateness. Most if not all of what we discussed remains relevant -- Covid-19, though of course, this was recorded well before the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
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Kevin Currie-Knight (East Carolina University) chats with Wendy Syfret (VICE Asia) about her new book The Sunny Nihilist: How a Meaningless Life Can Make You Truly Happy. They talk about such things as why the modern world relentlessly seeks meaning in everything, whether nihilism is a viable or liberating response, and whether/how nihilism is reconcilable with strong belief and activism.
3:00 - What is nihilism?
10:35 - When did Wendy come to nihilsm and find it liberating?
16:48 - Why do we in the modern world "find" meaning in everything?
25:41 - Why does "finding" objective meaning satisfy more than creating subjective meaning?
30:38 - Are the young generally more nihilistic than their elders? Where is nihilism in pop culture?
38:59 - How to reconcile nihilism with activism (another thing that Wendy cares about)? -
In this episode, Robert Gressis (philosophy, California State University, Northridge) and David Leitch (political science, California State University, Northridge) discuss the work of aspiring conservative public intellectual, Richard Hanania.
01:01 - Let’s talk about sex, baby!
04:44 - Hanania’s master idea—give the right a policy program.
15:57 - Wokeness and civil rights law.
27:05 - Who is Hanania’s audience?
32:46 - Are HR departments progressive?
40:51 - What Hanania does and doesn’t try to explain
56:29 - Hanania and Caesarism: will they or won’t they?
1:13:32 - Two more criticisms of Hanania: children and churches.
1:20:58 - Hanania’s weaknesses and strengths as a public intellectual. -
Sheena Mason (SUNY Oneonta) and Kevin Currie-Knight dialogue about the perils and promises of discussion on social media. (Sheena is more optimistic about the potential than Kevin is.) Along the way, they talk about perspectives on truth and whether humans are capable of getting it in an objective way, the postmodern-y fiction of Percival Everett, and the incentive structure of social and legacy media.
0:41 - Some online heat Sheena is getting about an article she published at Free Black Thought (link below).
9:43 - Why Kevin is Increasingly Pessimistic About Conversation on Social Media (and Why Sheena Isn't).
36:24 - Is (Constantly) Defending Positions in Public Forums Overrated?
47:21 - Is Social Media as Great When You Have Increasingly Less Faith in Objective Moral/Political Truths?
1:07:06 - Was Postmodernism Too Liberal in Its Assumptions? Do People Need to Feel Like Their Beliefs are Grounded and Objective?Sheena Mason's recent article on Free Black Thought; https://freeblackthought.substack.com/p/theory-of-racelessness-a-case-for
CONNECT WITH SHEENA:
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/queenshe
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/theory-of-racelessness
Website: https://www.theoryofracelessness.org -
EA's own Kevin Currie-Knight and I discuss our respective essays, Growing up Metal and Growing up Grunge. We talk about the appeal of heavy music and different conceptions of masculinity, the differences between early and late Gen Xers, growing up in the 1970's and '80's, authenticity, and much more.
01:00 On the "Growing Up" Essays by Dan and Kevin. And why music? 09:20 Why "Growing Up Metal"? Life as a kid and teenager in 70's and 80's Long Island. Dan's Bizarre Connection to Public Enemy. Metal and Masculinity. 34:30 Why “Growing Up Grunge?" Grunge and Hair Metal. Grunge and Masculinity. Kevin Sings. Grunge masculinity is a kind of "dirty Alan Alda." Grunge, Tone and Masculinity. The Paradox of Authenticity. Dan Tries to Imitate Grunge Vocals. 01:05:00 Clique Identification and Defensive Cliques
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00:35 About Lise van Boxel and St. John’s College 06:00 Nietzsche and Nihilism 12:50 The Good, the Transcendent, and Nihilism 19:00 Philosophy as Genealogy 29:30 On the concept of “Warspeak” 41:00 On the question of Authority and authorities 47:00 Nietzsche and Hume 51:00 What is distinctive about van Boxel’s take on Nietzsche? 58:00 Nietzsche and Mill’s “experiments in living.” 1:05:00 Is it reasonable to characterize modern life as rooted in the transcendent and world-denying? 1:13:40 Nietzsche’s conception of “Superabundant Vitality”
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Milton Lawson, author of Thompson Heller: Detective Interstellar (Source Point, 2021) and I do a deep dive into all things Doctor WHO.
03:50 Russell T. Davies returns to Doctor Who 10:00 Discontent with New WHO 13:00 How Milton and I got into Doctor WHO 27:50 Classic vs. New WHO 45:30 Favorite Doctors 1:17:00 Favorite Companions 1:25:00 Favorite Episodes
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The second of a two-part conversation with Joshua Rasmussen of Azusa Pacific University on a broad variety of issues, related to the meaning of life, morality, the intelligibility of the world, and God. Technical difficulties interrupted us, so the conversation is being presented in two parts.
01:10 Does longevity add value, cont'd. 09:35 Morality and God 16:35 Morality and Consciousness 24:25 Dan: God cannot provide explanations for anything 50:40 Obligation and God
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The first of a two-part conversation with Joshua Rasmussen of Azusa Pacific University on a broad variety of issues, related to the meaning of life, morality, the intelligibility of the world, and God. Technical difficulties interrupted us, so the conversation is being presented in two parts.
02:50 Meaning in vs. meaning of life 36:00 The nature of value 49:50 Is value added by longevity? 54:00 Narratives, lives, and Joan Didion
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The second in a planned series of dialogues between Sheena Mason (SUNY Oneonta) and Kevin Currie-Knight (East Carolina) on philosophies of race. In this dialogue, Sheena and Kevin flesh out the difference between saying that race is a social construction and (Sheena's position) that race isn't real in any sense.
3:23 - Kevin's Confusion: what is the difference between saying that race isn't real at all, and saying that race isn't biologically real but IS a social construct?
9:53 - If we can use racialized language reliably in every day life, how can we then say that race doesn't signify anything 'real' in some way?
19:31 - Is there a strategic difference between saying that race is real as a social construction and saying that race isn't real at all? The benefits of race skepticism.
39:14 - How belief in the reality of race causes us to bungle so many conversations (such as the viral confrontation in Arizona State's multicultural center).
55:47 - Does social constructionism about race lock you into racialized thinking in a way race skepticism doesn't?
1:02:48 - Is it an indefensible stereotype to call someone a "sellout" or "traitor" to their "race"?The video we referred to about the skirmish at Arizona State U's multicultural center: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BzraMlg9Ek
CONNECT WITH SHEENA:
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/queenshe
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/theory-of-racelessness
Website: https://www.theoryofracelessness.org -
I talk with Helen Joyce, British editor of The Economist, about her new book: Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality (Simon & Schuster).
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I talk with Dr. Louise Moody about perception, “illusion style” arguments, and J.L. Austin.
Louise has a PhD in philosophy and is an independent philosopher and feminist campaigner.
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Kevin Currie-Knight and Sheena Mason (SUNY Oneonta) discuss Sheena's theory of racelessness, why she is a race skeptic and eliminativist, and their mutual interest in the race satire of Harlem Renaissance writer George Schuyler.
:05 - Why talk about race always seems so polarized and partisan
7:45 - Sheena is a skeptic and eliminativist about race. What does that mean, and how does it compare to other approaches?
17:35 - Ibram Kendi's approach to thinking about race is understandable but wrong.
29:56: How to attempt racelessness in a world so used to the existence of race?
40:29 - what will "interracial" intimacy, marriage, and births do to current notions of race?
51:36 - Harlem Renaissance writer George Schuyler and satirizing the fiction of race
1;07:25 - Is Schuyler's skepticism about race partly why he drifted to the political right-wing?CONNECT WITH SHEENA:
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/queenshe
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/theory-of-racelessness
Website: https://www.theoryofracelessness.org -
I spoke with Robert Talisse of Vanderbilt University about his new book "Sustaining Democracy: What We Owe to the Other Side " (Oxford UP, 2021).
2:00 - The relationship between “Sustaining Democracy” and “Overdoing Democracy”
17:45 - The democrat’s dilemma and the conflict between the two moral requirements of democratic citizenship.
32:45 - Group/Belief Polarization. Partisan politics and conformism.
47:30 - More in depth on group/belief polarization.
54:01 - Robert’s recommendations on how best to address group/belief polarization: focus on its effects in-group, rather than across groups.
57:00 - Robert: Healthy democratic citizenship requires more solitude.
1:09:00 - Dan: Is this perhaps better viewed as a problem of catastrophic, system-wide immaturity? Is a clash of fundamental moral principles the best lens through which to frame the problem.
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E. John Winner and Dan Kaufman (Electric Agora) talk about the Marx Brothers and their relationship to American Comedy.
1:30 Vaudeville, Burlesque, and Musical Theater
11:20 The Jewish Marx Brothers and “Playing in Peoria”
22:00 Writing for the Marx Brothers / Relationship with George Kaufman
27:40 Becoming the Marx Brothers
34:00 Marxian Themes
55:30 The Marx Brothers and post WWII Jewish Comedy
1:00:00 The Marx Brothers and American Comedy
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E. John Winner and Dan Kaufman (Electric Agora) talk about the Marx Brothers and their relationship to American Comedy.
1:30 Vaudeville, Burlesque, and Musical Theater
11:20 The Jewish Marx Brothers and “Playing in Peoria”
22:00 Writing for the Marx Brothers / Relationship with George Kaufman
27:40 Becoming the Marx Brothers
34:00 Marxian Themes
55:30 The Marx Brothers and post WWII Jewish Comedy
1:00:00 The Marx Brothers and American Comedy
