Plato's Cave

Episode Archive

Episode Archive

78 episodes of Plato's Cave since the first episode, which aired on March 2nd, 2020.

  • Poster Image

    Ep. 41 - FW/MR: "Asymmetrical Freedom" by Susan Wolf

    June 15th, 2022  |  1 hr 42 mins
    actions, addict, analysis, asymmetrical, asymmetry, attitude, bad, blame, cave, condition, determinism, free, freedom, good, grad school, graduate, group, human, interview, jordan, mind, moral responsibility, myers, objective, phd, philosophy, plato, plato's cave, praise, psychology, reactive, reading, robot, susan, true, university of houston, value, virtue, will, wolf

    In this reading group episode, Giffin, Adam, Brian, and I talk about the crazy (in the best way) paper by Susan Wolf, "Asymmetrical Freedom." Can we be responsible for bad actions? Only good ones? What does the role of determinism do to our judgements?

  • Poster Image

    Ep. 40 - FW/MR: "Reply: The Free Will Revolution" by John Martin Fischer

    June 14th, 2022  |  1 hr 46 mins
    anger, attitudes, black, blame, case, cave, compatibilism, determinism, device, frankfurt, free, freedom, grad school, graduate, group, guidance, jordan, mechanism, moderate, moral, myers, pap, phd, philosophy, plato, plato's cave, reactive, reading, reasons, reply, resentment, responsibility, responsiveness, revolution, riverside, semi, semicompatibilism, uc, university of houston, watson, will

    In this reading group episode, Adam, Giffin, Brian, and I follow up on JMF's reasons-responsive view of responsibility by looking to an earlier paper of his: "Reply: The Free Will Revolution."

  • Poster Image

    Ep. 39 - FW/MR: "Semicompatibilism and its Rivals" by John Martin Fischer

    June 13th, 2022  |  1 hr 54 mins
    anger, attitudes, black, blame, case, cave, compatibilism, determinism, device, frankfurt, free, freedom, grad school, graduate, group, guidance, jordan, mechanism, moderate, moral, myers, pap, phd, philosophy, plato, plato's cave, reactive, reading, reasons, resentment, responsibility, responsiveness, riverside, semi, semicompatibilism, uc, university of houston, watson, will

    In this reading group episode, Adam, Giffin, and I discuss reasons-responsive compatibilism by looking into J.M.F.'s work, excellently laid out in this article. We also discuss JMF's critique of Frankfurt's second order desire account.

  • Poster Image

    Ep. 38 - FW/MR: "The Importance of Free Will" by Susan Wolf

    June 12th, 2022  |  2 hrs 37 mins
    attitude, blame, cave, communication, free, grad school, graduate, group, hollow, interpersonal, jordan, love, meaning, moral responsibility, morality, myers, objective, phd, philosophy, plato, plato's cave, praise, pride, reactive, reading, regret, relationships, ring, shallow, shame, sommers, susan, tamler, the, university of houston, will, wolf

    In this reading group episode, Adam, Brian, Giffin, and I discuss "The Importance of Free Will" by Susan Wolf, a discussion spawned by our disagreements in the previous episode about the plausibility of Sommers 2007.

  • Poster Image

    Ep. 37 - FW/MR: "The Objective Attitude" by Tamler Sommers

    June 11th, 2022  |  2 hrs 32 mins
    2007, attitude, blame, cave, free, grad school, graduate, group, houston, jordan, lens, moral responsibility, myers, nagel, objective, pessimism, phd, philosophy, plato, plato's cave, praise, reactive, reading, stance, strawson, university, will, wolf

    In this reading group episode, we discuss "The Objective Attitude" by Tamler Sommers. Giffin thinks that he could happily exist in this state - Adam and I strongly disagree. Brian join us for the rest of the series!

  • Poster Image

    Ep. 36 - FW/MR: "Alternate Possibilities and Moral Responsibility" by Harry Frankfurt

    June 10th, 2022  |  1 hr 53 mins
    action, addict, agency, agent, alternate, attitudes, black, blame, cases, causes, cave, choice, compatiblism, compatiblist, concept, control, could, desires, determinism, determinist, done, first, frankfurt, free, freedom, grad school, graduate, group, harry, have, impossibility, incompatiblism, incompatiblist, jones, jordan, libertarian, moral, myers, objective, of, order, otherwise, pap, person, phd, philosophy, plato, plato's cave, possibilities, praise, principle, reactive, reading, responsibility, second, university of houston, unwilling, volition, wanton, will

    In this reading group episode, we discuss Harry Frankfurt's landmark 1969 paper, "Alternate Possibilities and Moral Responsibility"

  • Poster Image

    Ep. 35 - FW/MR: "Freedom of the Will and the Concept of a Person" by Harry Frankfurt

    June 9th, 2022  |  1 hr 49 mins
    action, addict, agency, agent, argument, attitudes, blame, book, cases, causal, causes, cave, choice, compatiblism, compatiblist, concept, desires, destiny, determinism, determinist, experiment, fatalism, fate, first, frankfurt, free, freedom, grad school, graduate, group, harry, impossibility, incompatiblism, incompatiblist, jordan, libertarian, moral, myers, objective, order, person, phd, philosophy, plato, plato's cave, praise, reactive, reading, responsibility, review, second, series, skeptic, strawson, thought, university of houston, unwilling, volition, wanton, will

    In this reading group episode, we discuss Frankfurt's famous paper, Freedom of the Will and the Concept of a Person.

  • Poster Image

    Ep. 34 - FW/MR: "Responsibility and the Limits of Evil" by Gary Watson

    June 8th, 2022  |  2 hrs 32 mins
    action, address, analysis, and, argument, attitudes, basic, blame, book, brain, burgis, case, causal, causes, cave, choice, communication, compatiblism, compatiblist, demand, dennett, derk, destiny, determinism, determinist, ethics, evil, experiment, fatalism, fate, fmri, four, free, freedom, galen, gary, grad school, graduate, group, harris, impossibility, incompatiblism, incompatiblist, intelligible, jordan, killer, korsgaard, libertarian, libet, limits, moral, morality, myers, objective, of, optimist, pereboom, pessimist, peter, pf, phd, philosophy, plato, plato's cave, praise, reactive, reading, resentment, responsibility, review, robert, series, skeptic, strawson, summary, thought, university of houston, watson, will

    In this reading group episode, we discuss Gary Watson's paper on Intelligible Moral Demand being a way to view the debate on moral responsibility. That paper is his Responsibility and the Limits of Evil: Variations on a Strawsonian Theme.

  • Poster Image

    Ep. 33 - FW/MR: "Freedom and Resentment" by P.F. Strawson

    June 7th, 2022  |  1 hr 57 mins
    action, analysis, and, argument, attitudes, basic, blame, book, brain, burgis, case, causal, causes, cave, choice, compatiblism, compatiblist, dennett, derk, destiny, determinism, determinist, ethics, experiment, fatalism, fate, fmri, four, free, freedom, galen, grad school, graduate, group, impossibility, incompatiblism, incompatiblist, jordan, korsgaard, libertarian, libet, moral, morality, myers, objective, optimist, pereboom, pessimist, peter, pf, phd, philosophy, plato, plato's cave, praise, reactive, reading, resentment, responsibility, review, series, skeptic, strawson, summary, thought, university of houston, will

    In this reading group episode, we go deep into the weeds of PF Strawson's "Freedom and Resentment."

  • Poster Image

    Ep. 32 - FW/MR: The Four Case Argument and Basic Argument by Galen Strawson and Derk Pereboom

    June 6th, 2022  |  1 hr 18 mins
    action, analysis, argument, basic, ben, book, brain, burgis, case, causal, causes, cave, choice, compatiblism, compatiblist, dennett, derk, destiny, determinism, determinist, ethics, experiment, fatalism, fate, fmri, four, free, freedom, galen, grad school, graduate, impossibility, incompatiblism, incompatiblist, jordan, korsgaard, libertarian, libet, moral, morality, myers, pereboom, peter, pf, phd, philosophy, plato, plato's cave, plum, professor, reading group, responsibility, review, series, strawson, summary, thought, university of houston, white, will

    In this reading group discussion episode, we discuss Galen Strawson's "The Impossibility of Moral Responsibility" and Derk Pereboom's Four Case Argument against compatibilism.

  • Poster Image

    Ep. 31 - FW/MR: SEP on Free Will and Determinism

    June 4th, 2022  |  53 mins 30 secs
    action, book, brain, causal, causes, cave, choice, compatiblism, compatiblist, dennett, destiny, determinism, determinist, experiment, fatalism, fate, fmri, free, freedom, grad school, graduate, harris, incompatiblism, incompatiblist, jordan, libertarian, libet, moral, myers, phd, philosophy, plato, plato's cave, reading group, responsibility, review, sam, sep, series, stanford encyclopedia, strawson, thought, university of houston, will

    In this reading group discussion episode, we discuss a follow up to our part 1 episode using the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entries on free will and determinism.

  • Poster Image

    Ep. 30 - FW/MR: "Free Will" by Sam Harris

    June 2nd, 2022  |  1 hr 18 mins
    action, book, brain, causal, causes, cave, choice, compatiblism, compatiblist, dennett, destiny, determinism, determinist, discussion, experiment, fatalism, fate, fmri, free, freedom, grad school, graduate, group, harris, incompatiblism, incompatiblist, jordan, libertarian, libet, moral, myers, phd, philosophy, plato, plato's cave, reading, responsibility, review, sam, series, strawson, thought, university of houston, weill

    In this reading group discussion episode, we start a series on Free Will, Determinism, and Moral Responsibility with Sam Harris's book.

  • Poster Image

    Ep. 29 - Max Kiener: Consenting to Objectification

    February 15th, 2022  |  57 mins 25 secs
    actions, agency, berlin, bypassing, cave, choice, coercion, conversation, covid, desire, determinism, fact, free, freedom, grad school, graduate, information, jordan, kiener, liberty, manipulation, max, maximillian, moral, myers, nudge, objective, oppression, oxford, phd, philosophy, plato, plato's cave, reactive, responsibility, source, strawson, surgery, undermine, vaccine, will

    I spoke with Max Kiener about his work in moral responsibility, consent, and Strawson's reactive and objective attitudes. We discussed applied cases of the objective stance, such as manipulating someone into getting the Covid vaccine, undergoing a medical operation, or for someone's best interests.

  • Poster Image

    Ep. 28 - Eddy Nahmias: Neuroscience as a (Non) Threat to Free Will

    February 10th, 2022  |  43 mins 6 secs
    actions, agency, brain, bypassing, cave, choice, debunk, desire, determinism, eddy, free, freedom, grad school, graduate, gsu, harris, jordan, myers, nahmias, neuro, neuroscience, nudge, phd, philosophy, plato, plato's cave, scan, skeptic, source, undermine, will, willusionism

    I spoke with the philosopher Eddy Nahmias about his work in Free Will and Moral Responsibility. What type of freedom do we have, or want to have? And does the increasing understanding of the brain threaten our sense of acting freely? Find out all this and more in my talk with Eddy.

  • Poster Image

    Ep. 27 - Seth Shabo: Free Will Mysterianism

    January 20th, 2022  |  1 hr 5 mins
    attitude, cave, chance, community, compatibilism, could, deleware, fischer, frankfurt case, free, grad school, graduate, incompatibilism, inwagen, jordan, libertarianism, luck, moral, myers, mysterianism, mystery, objection, objective, otherwise, peter, phd, philosophy, plato, plato's cave, possibilities, reactive, responsibility, seth, shabo, van, van inwagen, will, wolf

    In this episode, I speak with Seth Shabo about Mysterianism, a view originated by Peter van Inwagen. We also touch related topics: determinism's relevance to responsibility, reactive attitudes, and the Luck Objection to free will.

  • Poster Image

    Ep. 26 - Adam Kadlac: Objectification in Sports

    December 29th, 2021  |  1 hr 9 mins
    4, adam, athlete, autonomy, body, cave, chapter, danger, ethics, fan, fandom, forest, grad school, graduate, jordan, kadlac, morality, myers, nussbaum, objectification, owner, phd, philosophy, plato, plato's cave, reactive objective, respect, risk, sport, sports, wake

    In this episode, I speak with Adam Kadlac about a chapter in his newly published book, The Ethics of Sports Fandom. We discuss the pitfalls of objectification within various areas of athletics and from different perspectives. You can purchase the full book now!