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. 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!
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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"
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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.
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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.
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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."
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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.
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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.
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Ep. 30 - FW/MR: "Free Will" by Sam Harris
June 1st, 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.
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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.
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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.