Giffin (Reading Group Discussions)
Special guest
My name is Giffin, and I studied biology and economics at RPI and work in human health research. There's interesting overlap between both my fields of study and philosophy, and I've been particularly interested in exploring political theory.
Giffin (Reading Group Discussions) has been a guest on 42 episodes.
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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.
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Ep. 52 - Existentialism: Notes from Underground, by Dostoyevsky (PART 1)
September 5th, 2022 | 1 hr 46 mins
action, analysis, angst, cave, choice, dostoyevsky, existential, existentialism, freedom, from, fyodor, grad school, graduate, group, incel, jordan, life, 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 1 of Notes from Underground. The Paradoxicalist's philosophy.
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Ep. 50 - Declaration of the Rights of Man (PPE series prt7)
August 18th, 2022 | 1 hr 48 mins
cave, citizen, constitution, declaration, enlightenment, foundation, government, grad school, graduate, group, independence, jordan, law, man, myers, phd, philosophy, plato, plato's cave, political, politics, ppe, protection, reading, rights, states, united, university of houston, us
In part 7 of the Political Philosophy Reading Group series, Adam, Giffin, and I discuss the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen, a foundational Enlightenment document that inspired some of the United States' own formational ideas.
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Ep. 49 - "Two Concepts of Liberty" by Isiah Berlin (PPE series prt6)
August 16th, 2022 | 1 hr 8 mins
ability, berlin, capability, cave, concepts, freedom, from, grad school, graduate, group, isiah, jordan, liberty, myers, negative, oppression, phd, philosophy, plato, plato's cave, political, politics, positive, ppe, reading, two, university of houston
In part 6 of the Political Philosophy Reading Group series, Adam, Giffin, and I discuss Berlin's famous concepts of positive and negative liberty.
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Ep. 48 - The Communist Manifesto (PPE series prt5)
August 14th, 2022 | 2 hrs 1 min
alienation, boredom, bourgeoise, bullshit, capitalism, career, cave, class, communism, engles, estranged, factory, grad school, graduate, group, job, jordan, karl, labor, marx, marxism, money, myers, phd, philosophy, plato, plato's cave, political, politics, ppe, proletariat, quit, reading, russell, shit, university of houston, wealth, work, working
In part 5 of the Political Philosophy Reading Group series, Adam, Giffin, and I keep the Marx train going with a discussion of the Communist Manifesto, a political call to arms for the global workers of the 19th century. We talk about its historical and present day relevance.
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Ep. 47 - Estranged Labor by Karl Marx (PPE series prt4)
August 12th, 2022 | 2 hrs 9 secs
alienation, boredom, bourgeoise, bullshit, capitalism, career, cave, class, communism, engles, estranged, factory, grad school, graduate, group, job, jordan, karl, labor, marx, marxism, money, myers, phd, philosophy, plato, plato's cave, political, politics, ppe, proletariat, quit, reading, russell, shit, university of houston, wealth, work, working
In part 4 of the Political Philosophy Reading Group series, Adam, Giffin, and I discuss the pamphlet/writings of Karl Marx. We talk about the concept of estrangement or alienation with respect to present day and historical work environments and detail our own experiences with the concept.
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Ep. 46 - Reactive Attitudes and Restorative Justice (PPE series prt3)
August 8th, 2022 | 1 hr 39 mins
anger, attitudes, australia, cave, conflict, consequentialist, forgiveness, freedom, grad school, graduate, group, guilt, jordan, justice, mcgeer, moral, myers, offender, phd, philosophy, plato, plato's cave, political, politics, ppe, princeton, property, punishment, reactive, reading, resentment, responsibility, restorative, retribution, retributivism, strawson, university of houston, victim, victoria
In part 3 of the Political Philosophy Reading Group series, Adam, Giffin, and I discuss the paper "Co-Reactive Attitudes and the Making of Moral Community" by Victoria McGeer, wherein she links an adoption of P.F. Strawson's thesis about the reactive attitudes directly to the practice of restorative justice.
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Ep. 45 - "What is the Point of Equality?" by Elizabeth Anderson (PPE series prt2)
August 4th, 2022 | 2 hrs 42 mins
ability, anderson, capabilities, capacity, cave, chance, egalitarian, egalitarianism, equality, equity, fate, fortune, grad school, graduate, group, income, jordan, luck, myers, phd, philosophy, plato, plato's cave, political, politics, ppe, reading, society, success, university of houston
In part 2 of the Political Philosophy Reading Group series, Adam, Giffin, and I discuss the paper "What is the Point of Equality?" by Elizabeth Anderson, which investigated the role of luck in creating egalitarian outcomes. Anderson focuses on a capabilities approach to political equality which differs from some common intuitions held by luck egalitarians.
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Ep. 44 - Conflict as Property and Restorative Justice (PPE series prt1)
July 30th, 2022 | 1 hr 32 mins
as, attitudes, cave, christie, colorado, conflict, criminal, criminology, disagreement, grad school, graduate, group, jordan, justice, myers, nihls, nils, phd, philosophy, plato, plato's cave, political, politics, ppe, prison, property, reactive, reading, restorative, ted talk, university of houston
In part 1 of the Political Philosophy Reading Group series, we discuss the formative paper "Conflict as Property" by Nils Christie along with some of its more modern applications in restorative justice.
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Ep. 42 - FW/MR: "For the Law, Neuroscience Changes Nothing and Everything" by Greene & Cohen
June 16th, 2022 | 1 hr 23 mins
and, attitude, belief, blame, cave, changes, cohen, culture, everything, for, free, grad school, graduate, greene, group, jordan, law, legal, moral responsibility, myers, neuroscience, nothing, objective, objects, phd, philosophy, plato, plato's cave, praise, psychology, punishment, reactive, reading, retribution, retributivism, studies, study, the, university of houston, will
In this reading group episode, we wrap up the free will and moral responsibility series with a discussion of Greene and Cohen's "For the Law, Neuroscience Changes Nothing and Everything." We talk about the legal and cultural implications of the series through the lens of Green ad Cohen's work.
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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?
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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."