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. 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.
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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.
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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."
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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.
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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.
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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!