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. 25 - Matthew Flummer: The Free Will Show and Moral Responsibility
December 13th, 2021 | 50 mins 43 secs
agency, alternate, case, cave, control, could, cyr, determinism, divine, done, foreknowledge, frankfurt, free, god, grad school, graduate, have, jordan, moral, myers, otherwise, pap, phd, philosophy, plato, plato's cave, podcast, responsibility, show, sourcehood, taylor, the, will, wolf
In this episode, I speak with Matthew Flummer about various episodes and topics from his podcast, The Free Will Show. We discuss Frankfurt cases, God's Foreknowledge as a threat to freedom, and the type of control needed for responsibility.
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Ep. 24 - Paul Russell: Free Will, Art, and Morality (& Compatibilism)
November 18th, 2021 | 1 hr 13 mins
2008, art, athletics, attitudes, british, cave, chance, columbia, compatibilism, determinism, ethics, evaluation, evil, fate, free, good, grad school, graduate, jordan, judgement, luck, lund, moral, morality, myers, paul, phd, philosophy, plato, plato's cave, project, reactive, responsibility, retribution, revenge, russell, skill, strawson, watson, will, wrong
In this episode, I speak with Paul Russell about his 2008 paper, "Free Will, Art, and Morality," along with more general topics within the responsibility debate, included in Paul's chapter in the Oxford Handbook on Moral Responsibility (forthcoming). We discuss his case for compatibilism between determinism and moral responsibility.
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Ep. 23 - Susan Wolf: On Moral Responsibility
October 22nd, 2021 | 1 hr 23 secs
act, asymmetrical, asymmetry, attitudes, blame, cave, chance, chapel, character, determinism, ethics, free, freedom, good, grad school, graduate, hill, importance, jordan, luck, moral, morality, myers, objective, of, phd, philosophy, plato, plato's cave, praise, reactive, reasons, responsibility, responsiveness, sommers, strawson, susan, the, unc, will, wolf
In this episode, I speak with Susan Wolf about her first two papers, "Asymmetrical Freedom" and "The Importance of Having Free Will." These papers have been influential to me and I was lucky enough to discuss them with Dr. Wolf. We discuss her views on moral responsibility, reactive attitudes, and her upcoming projects.
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Ep. 22 - John Martin Fischer: Moral Responsibility Semicompatibilism
September 16th, 2021 | 1 hr 8 mins
anger, attitudes, black, blame, case, cave, compatibilism, determinism, device, frankfurt, free, freedom, grad school, graduate, guidance, jordan, mechanism, moderate, moral, myers, pap, phd, philosophy, plato, plato's cave, reactive, reasons, resentment, responsibility, responsiveness, riverside, semi, semicompatibilism, uc, watson, will
In this episode, I speak with John Martin Fischer about his semicompatibilism about moral responsibility. We use his 2012 paper, "Semicompatibilism and its Rivals" as a framework for the discussion.
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Ep. 21 - Gregg Caruso: Just Deserts & Rejecting Retributivism
June 4th, 2021 | 1 hr 25 mins
agent, attitudes, blame, caruso, cave, compatibilism, compatibilist, consequentialism, criminal justice, dan, daniel, death, debating, dennett, deserts, event, frankfurt, free, grad school, graduate, gregg, harris, interview, jordan, just, libertarianism, moral, myers, objective, penalty, person, phd, philosophy, plato, plato's cave, praise, punishment, reactive, rejecting, responsibility, retributivism, strawson, subjective, will
In this episode, I speak with Gregg Caruso about this recent book, Just Deserts, co-authored with Dan Dennett. We discuss his claims about rejecting deep moral responsibility while still preserving many distinctions that compatibilists like Dan find important. We also dive into the divide between he (and myself) and Dennett.
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Ep. 20 - Per-Erik Milam: Letting Go & Forgiveness
May 8th, 2021 | 1 hr 6 mins
address, attitudes, blame, calhoun, cave, community, dana, erik, ethics, forgiveness, friends, go, gothenburgh, grad school, graduate, harm, injury, jordan, letting, milam, moral, myers, nelkin, objective, per, phd, philosophy, plato, plato's cave, praise, reactive, relationships, responsibility, strawson, wrong
In this episode, I speak with Per Milam about his recent work on letting go as an alternative to forgiveness. These topics naturally touch on the practices of blame and responsibility and Strawson's reactive attitudes.
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Ep. 19 - Derek Leben: Pascal's Wager & Anti-Natalism for AI
April 15th, 2021 | 1 hr 14 mins
ai, artificial, bostrom, cave, consciousness, control, derek, destroy, deutsche, elon, ethics, god, grad school, graduate, hard, harris, infinite, intelligence, johnstown, jordan, leben, machine, materialism, musk, myers, pascal, phd, philosophy, pitt, pittsburgh, plato, plato's cave, problem, sam, suffering, universe, university, wager
In this episode, I speak with Dr. Derek Leben about his recent Philosophy Now article, Pascal’s Artificial Intelligence Wager. We talk about Pascal's wager applied to AI, the control problem, consciousness, our ability to control the course of AI development, and the meaning that grounds moral realism.
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Ep. 18 - Tamar Schapiro: Weakness of Will
March 26th, 2021 | 37 mins 42 secs
action, akrasia, animal, cave, compatibilism, compatibilist, ethics, free, freedom, grad school, graduate, jordan, kant, kantian, libertarian, mit, myers, nature, phd, philosophy, plato, plato's cave, responsibility, schapiro, tamer, weak, weakness, will
In this episode, I speak with philosopher Tamar Schapiro about her work on weak willed action from a Kantian perspective. This all relates to her forthcoming book, Feeling Like it: a Theory of Inclination and Will.
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Ep. 17 - Philip Goff: Panpsychism
December 16th, 2020 | 59 mins 20 secs
atom, bat, body, brain, cave, chalmers, combination, consciousness, dualism, durham, epiphenomenalism, error, experience, fmri, galileo, goff, grad school, graduate, hard, interview, jordan, materialism, mind, muckraker media, myers, nagel, neuroscience, of, pan, panpsychism, panpsychist, phd, philip, phillip, philosophy, plato, plato's cave, problem, reduction, reductionism, scan, theory
In this episode, I speak with Dr. Phillip Goff about Panpsychism. We discuss what we mean by consciousness, why materialist reductionism doesn't satisfy as an explanation of its existence, and what Panpsychism can offer as a theory of consciousness.
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Ep. 16 - Patrick Lee Miller: Be Right Back and The Entire History of You
October 11th, 2020 | 1 hr 46 mins
ai, analysis, ash, back, be, black, brooker, cave, charlie, chip, death, denial, emotion, entire, frued, grad school, graduate, grain, grief, history, jealousy, jordan, lee, loss, lust, martha, memory, miller, mind, mirror, muckraker media, myers, netflix, patrick, phd, philosophy, plato, plato's cave, review, right, sadness, simulation, technology, the, you
In this episode, I speak with Dr. Patrick Lee Miller about two episodes of the phenomenal Netflix series, Black Mirror: BE Right Back and The Entire History of You. We discuss the episode's themes of grief, loss of self to technology, memory, loved ones, relationships, jealousy, and more. This was a ton of fun and I hope you enjoy it as well!
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Ep. 15 - Brandon Warmke: Moral Grandstanding
September 25th, 2020 | 52 mins 42 secs
abuse, book, brandon, cave, ethics, grad school, graduate, grand, grandstand, grandstanding, interview, jordan, justin, media, moral, muckraker media, myers, phd, philosophy, plato, plato's cave, politics, posturing, religion, review, signaling, social, stand, talk, tosi, trump, twitter, use, vice, virtue, warmke
In this episode, I speak with Brandon Warmke about his new book, Grandstanding, which he co-authored with Justin Tosi. Brandon is a professor of philosophy at Bowling Green State University. I highly recommend the book, and I hope this talk does it justice. I very much enjoyed speaking with Brandon, and I hope you enjoy our conversation as well.
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Ep. 14 - Brandon Robshaw: Eternal Recurrence
September 4th, 2020 | 55 mins 13 secs
ban, brandon, burqa, cave, eternal, eternity, europe, grad school, graduate, infinity, islam, jordan, liberal, loop, muckraker media, myers, nietzsche, now, phd, philosophy, plato, plato's cave, political, recurrence, reincarnation, robshaw, should, state
In this episode, I speak with Dr. Brandon Robshaw about his recent piece in Philosophy Now on Nietzsche's Eternal Recurrence. We also discuss his new book, 'Should a Liberal State Ban the Burqa?' (The short answer is no.)
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Ep. 13 - David Papineau: Materialism and Consciousness
August 23rd, 2020 | 52 mins 28 secs
argument, bernardo, cave, chalmers, color, consciousness, david, dualism, free will, goff, grad school, graduate, hard, idealism, jordan, kastrup, mary, materialism, mind, monism, muckraker media, myers, naturalism, panpsychism, papineau, phd, phillip, philosophy, plato, plato's cave, problem, reduction, science, scientist, searles, theory, theory of mind, zombie
In this episode, I talk with David Papineau about his rejection of the Hard Problem of Consciousness, how dualism infects thinking about theory of mind, and how materialism is the best account of why we have experiences.
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Ep. 12 - Bernardo Kastrup: Why Materialism Cannot Explain Consciousness
August 17th, 2020 | 1 hr 18 secs
bat, being, bernardo, body, cave, chalmers, consciousness, david, decomposition, descartes, dualism, epi, epiphenomenolism, experience, experiment, facing, first, grad school, graduate, hard, idealism, is, it like, jordan, kastrup, materialism, metaphysics, mind, muckraker media, myers, nagel, nature, objective, ontology, panpsychism, person, phd, phenomenological, philosophy, plato, plato's cave, problem, reality, reductionism, reductionist, science, subjective, the, theory of mind, thomas, thought, to be, up, what, zombie
In this episode, I speak with Bernardo Kastrup, who holds a PhD in Philosophy and Computer Engineering, about the hard problem of consciousness, idealism, theory of mind, panpsychism, and why materialistic reductionism cannot account for the fact of conscious experience.
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Ep. 11 - Russell Blackford: Philosophy's Future
August 14th, 2020 | 1 hr 8 mins
academia, academic, appearance, blackford, boghossian, broderick, cave, chmess, culture, damien, future, grad school, graduate, guest, james, jordan, lindsay, muckraker media, myers, peter, peterson, phd, philosophy, plato, plato's cave, pop, popular, professor, progress, russell, shapiro, teaching, test, university, woke
In this episode, I speak with the Philosopher Russell Blackford about his edited book with Damien Broderick on the problems of philosophical progress, pop-philosophy, academic isolation, interdisciplinary work, and more. This was a wonderful insight on the niche details of the field, and will be of interest to both PhD's and fans of philosophy alike.
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Ep. 10 - Jon Rosen: What's Fair Game in a Conversation?
June 18th, 2020 | 1 hr 52 mins
cave, conversations, dialectic, disagree, facebook, fair, game, grad school, graduate, jon, logic, muckraker media, online, phd, philosophy, plato, plato's cave, politics, rappaport's rules, reason, rhetoric, rosen, social media, stalemate, truth
In this episode, I speak with Dr. Jon Rosen about his Facebook discussion group Fair Game and about how to have difficult conversations generally. We discuss the challenges, what it means to be a reasonable interlocutor, and more.