Plato's Cave
A philosophy podcast hosted by the lowly grad student, Jordan Myers
About the show
I'm Jordan Myers and I'm a PhD student studying philosophy at USC. 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. 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.
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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. 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.
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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.