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

  • Poster Image

    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.

  • Poster Image

    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.

  • Poster Image

    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.

  • Poster Image

    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.

  • Poster Image

    Ep. 51 - Manuel Vargas: Free Will Revisionism

    August 19th, 2022  |  8 mins 16 secs
    agency, beings, better, blame, building, cave, compatibilism, desert, determinism, four, free, freedom, grad school, graduate, hard, interview, jordan, libertarisniam, manuel, moral, myers, phd, philosophy, plato, plato's cave, praise, reasons, responsibility, responsiveness, revise, revisionism, san diego, uc, university of houston, vargas, views, will

    In this episode, I discuss a view about Free Will and Moral Responsibility, Revisionism, with Manuel Vargas. We talk about what it means to be a revisionist about theories in general, how he thinks our view of free will should be reshaped, and how the way we talk about free will and moral responsibility shapes the way we think about the debate.

  • Poster Image

    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.

  • Poster Image

    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.

  • Poster Image

    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.

  • Poster Image

    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.

  • Poster Image

    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.

  • Poster Image

    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.

  • Poster Image

    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.

  • Poster Image

    Ep. 43 - Garrett Pendergraft: "Free Will and Human Agency" (50 Thought Experiments)

    June 28th, 2022  |  1 hr 12 mins
    50, agency, borges, cave, chance, decision, deliberation, divine, ethics, experiment, fate, forking, forknowledge, free, garden, garrett, god, grad school, graduate, infallible, interview, jordan, moral, myers, omnipotence, omniscient, paradoxes, paths, pendergraft, pepperdine, phd, philosophy, plato, plato's cave, puzzle, responsibility, routledge, thought, uncertainty, university of houston, will

    In this episode, I speak with Garrett Pendergraft about his forthcoming book: FREE WILL AND HUMAN AGENCY: 50 PUZZLES, PARADOXES, AND THOUGHT EXPERIMENTS, which will be out in July 2022! We discuss three chapters on the Garden of Forking Paths, Uncertainty and Deliberation, and Divine Foreknowledge.

  • Poster Image

    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.

  • 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."