Plato's Cave
A Philosophy Podcast by Jordan Myers (MA Student, University of Houston)
About the show
I'm Jordan Myers and I'm a Master's student studying philosophy at the University of Houston. Plato's Cave is my attempt to exit... well, the cave. It's a philosophy podcast meant to help me guide my ascent to the real world, the truth, the place where life is worth living; and apparently that means giving up a regular job with good pay to pursue the security of the academic job market - the philosophy job market nonetheless. Join me on my journey as I cover philosophical works and speak with the best philosophical minds I can convince to come on the show!
Episodes
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Ep. 68 - Sukaina Hirji: Outrage and the Bound of Empathy
September 12th, 2023 | 54 mins 38 secs
anger, attitude, cave, chanel, compassion, emotion, empathy, ethics, grad school, graduate, hirji, interview, jordan, miller, morality, myers, nussbaum, outrage, penn, pennsylvania, phd, philosophy, plato, plato's cave, rage, reactive, strawson, sukaina, university of houston, value
I speak with Sukaina Hirji about her (very) recent paper discussing a type of anger referred to as outrage: what it is, how it differs from other emotions, & how it functions in our emotional lives.
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Ep. 67 - Two Levels of Pluralism (Celebrating Susan Wolf)
August 31st, 2023 | 1 hr 27 mins
cave, duty, ethics, good, grad school, graduate, group, jordan, levels, life, love, meaning, moral, morality, myers, phd, philosophy, plato, plato's cave, pluralism, reading, reis-dennis, relativism, rice, right, saints, sam, series, susan, two, university of houston, value, vida, wolf, wrong, yao
In the final episode of the series, we discuss Wolf's article "Two Levels of Pluralism" which investigates whether pluralism reduces into relativism. Spoiler--it doesn't!
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Ep. 66 - Moral Luck (Celebrating Susan Wolf [& Bernard Williams])
August 24th, 2023 | 1 hr 16 mins
agent, bernard, cave, chance, choice, duty, ethics, good, grad school, graduate, group, jordan, life, likelihood, love, luck, meaning, moral, morality, myers, nagel, phd, philosophy, plato, plato's cave, reading, regret, reis-dennis, rice, right, saints, sam, series, susan, university of houston, value, vida, williams, wolf, wrong, yao
In this episode, we discuss the seminal paper "Moral Luck" by Bernard Williams and a new replies to the problem of moral luck.
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Ep. 65 - The Role of Rules (Celebrating Susan Wolf)
August 17th, 2023 | 1 hr 45 mins
act, cave, consequentialism, duty, ethics, good, grad school, graduate, group, jordan, life, love, meaning, moral, morality, myers, phd, philosophy, plato, plato's cave, reading, reis-dennis, rice, right, rules, saints, sam, series, susan, university of houston, utilitarianism, value, vida, wolf, wrong, yao
In this episode, Adam, Giffin, and I discuss two essays by Wolf: "The Role of Rules" and "Two Concepts of Rule Utilitarianism."
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Ep. 64 - Above and Below the Line of Duty (Celebrating Susan Wolf)
August 10th, 2023 | 1 hr 26 mins
above, below, cave, decency, duty, ethics, flout, good, grad school, graduate, group, jordan, life, line, love, meaning, moral, morality, myers, obligation, person, phd, philosophy, plato, plato's cave, reading, reis-dennis, rice, right, saints, sam, series, susan, university of houston, value, vida, violation, wolf, wrong, yao
In this episode, we discuss an underrated paper by Wolf. We discuss the connection between decency, moral duty, and reasonably violating your obligations.
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Ep. 63 - Moral Obligations and Social Commands (Celebrating Susan Wolf)
August 3rd, 2023 | 1 hr 30 mins
cave, commands, divine, duty, ethics, god, good, grad school, graduate, group, jordan, law, life, love, meaning, moral, morality, myers, obligations, phd, philosophy, plato, plato's cave, reading, reis-dennis, rice, right, saints, sam, series, social, society, susan, theory, university of houston, value, vida, wolf, wrong, yao
In this episode, Adam, Giffin, and I discuss Wolf's essay "Moral Obligations and Social Commands," which asks where the true authority of moral enforcement originates from.
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Ep. 62 - Moral Saints (Celebrating Susan Wolf)
July 27th, 2023 | 1 hr 21 mins
cave, duty, ethics, good, grad school, graduate, group, jordan, life, love, meaning, moral, morality, myers, phd, philosophy, plato, plato's cave, reading, rice, right, saints, series, susan, university of houston, value, wolf, wrong
A new (mini) series! This begins a 6 part series on the moral philosophy of Susan Wolf in conjunction with a graduate seminar I took at Rice in the Fall of 2022. This episode is a discussion of her famous essay "Moral Saints."
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Ep. 61 - Glen Pettigrove: Meekness and Moral Anger
April 7th, 2023 | 1 hr 4 mins
anger, angry, apt, cave, communication, epistemic, ethics, evaluation, evidence, fight, grad school, graduate, hume, injustice, interview, jordan, meek, meekness, morality, motivation, myers, phd, philosophy, plato, plato's cave, pride, rage, reasoning, sports, srinivasan, thinking, university of houston, value, vice, virtue, wicked, wrong
I speak with Glen Pettigrove about his paper "Meekness and Moral Anger." We discuss his attempt to breathe new life into meekness as a virtue, his diagnosis of anger's downsides, and the ways in which meekness can avoid these pitfalls.
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Ep. 60 - Cameron Boult: Epistemic Blame & Relationship Modification
November 21st, 2022 | 56 mins
account, blame, blameworthiness, blameworthy, boult, brandon, cameron, cave, epistemic, epistemology, evidence, grad school, graduate, interview, jordan, myers, nature, normativity, norms, phd, philosophy, plato, plato's cave, relationship, responsibility, scanlon, testimony, university of houston, wolf
I speak with Cameron Boult about his series of papers and forthcoming book on epistemic blame: what it means, when it's appropriate, and how we modify our epistemic relationships with others.
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Ep. 59 - Existentialism: Jacques the Fatalist, by Diderot (PART 2)
September 21st, 2022 | 1 hr 41 mins
action, amorality, analysis, angst, cave, choice, deceit, denis, diderot, existential, existentialism, fatalist, forking, free, freedom, grad school, graduate, group, his, jacques, jordan, life, lying, master, meaning, mini series, morality, myers, paths, phd, philosophy, plato, plato's cave, purpose, reading, rider, story, suffering, suicide, tales, the, treachery, university of houston, will
Part 2 of Jacques the Fatalist and His Master by Denis Diderot.
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Ep. 58 - Existentialism: Jacques the Fatalist, by Diderot (PART 1)
September 19th, 2022 | 1 hr 18 mins
action, amorality, analysis, angst, cave, choice, deceit, denis, diderot, existential, existentialism, fatalist, forking, free, freedom, grad school, graduate, group, his, jacques, jordan, life, lying, master, meaning, mini series, morality, myers, paths, phd, philosophy, plato, plato's cave, purpose, reading, rider, story, suffering, suicide, tales, the, treachery, university of houston, will
Part 1 of Jacques the Fatalist and His Master by Denis Diderot.
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Ep. 57 - Existentialism: The Stranger, by Camus
September 17th, 2022 | 1 hr 50 mins
action, analysis, angst, camus, cave, choice, existential, existentialism, freedom, grad school, graduate, group, jordan, life, meaning, mini series, myers, phd, philosophy, plato, plato's cave, purpose, reading, stranger, suffering, suicide, the, university of houston
The Stranger by Albert Camus.
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Ep. 56 - "Existentialism is a Humanism," by Sartre
September 15th, 2022 | 1 hr 35 mins
action, analysis, angst, antione, antoine, cave, choice, creation, ethics, existential, existentialism, freedom, french, grad school, graduate, group, humanism, jordan, life, meaning, mini series, myers, nausea, phd, philosophy, plato, plato's cave, purpose, radical, reading, sartre, self, self-taught man, suffering, suicide, university of houston
"Existentialism is a Humanism" by Jean-Paul Sartre.
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Ep. 55 - Existentialism: Nausea, by Sartre (PART 2)
September 13th, 2022 | 2 hrs 2 mins
action, analysis, angst, antione, antoine, cave, choice, creation, ethics, existential, existentialism, freedom, french, grad school, graduate, group, humanism, interview, jordan, life, meaning, mini series, myers, nausea, phd, philosophy, plato, plato's cave, purpose, radical, reading, sartre, self, self-taught man, suffering, suicide, university of houston
Part 2 of Nausea by Jean-Paul Sartre.
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Ep. 54 - Existentialism: Nausea, by Sartre (PART 1)
September 10th, 2022 | 1 hr 8 mins
action, analysis, angst, antione, antoine, cave, choice, creation, ethics, existential, existentialism, freedom, french, grad school, graduate, group, humanism, jordan, life, meaning, mini series, myers, nausea, phd, philosophy, plato, plato's cave, purpose, radical, reading, sartre, self, self-taught man, suffering, suicide, university of houston
Part 1 of Nausea by Jean-Paul Sartre.
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Ep. 53 - Existentialism: Notes from Underground, by Dostoyevsky (PART 2)
September 8th, 2022 | 1 hr 56 mins
action, analysis, angst, brothel, butler, cave, choice, dinner, dostoyevsky, existential, existentialism, freedom, from, fyodor, grad school, graduate, group, incel, jordan, life, liza, man, meaning, men, mini series, myers, notes, paradox, part 1, phd, philosophy, plato, plato's cave, purpose, reading, russia, suffering, suicide, underground, university of houston
Part 2 of Notes from Underground. The Underground Man's past.