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. 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.
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Ep. 27 - Seth Shabo: Free Will Mysterianism
January 20th, 2022 | 1 hr 5 mins
attitude, cave, chance, community, compatibilism, could, deleware, fischer, frankfurt case, free, grad school, graduate, incompatibilism, inwagen, jordan, libertarianism, luck, moral, myers, mysterianism, mystery, objection, objective, otherwise, peter, phd, philosophy, plato, plato's cave, possibilities, reactive, responsibility, seth, shabo, van, van inwagen, will, wolf
In this episode, I speak with Seth Shabo about Mysterianism, a view originated by Peter van Inwagen. We also touch related topics: determinism's relevance to responsibility, reactive attitudes, and the Luck Objection to free will.
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Ep. 26 - Adam Kadlac: Objectification in Sports
December 29th, 2021 | 1 hr 9 mins
4, adam, athlete, autonomy, body, cave, chapter, danger, ethics, fan, fandom, forest, grad school, graduate, jordan, kadlac, morality, myers, nussbaum, objectification, owner, phd, philosophy, plato, plato's cave, reactive objective, respect, risk, sport, sports, wake
In this episode, I speak with Adam Kadlac about a chapter in his newly published book, The Ethics of Sports Fandom. We discuss the pitfalls of objectification within various areas of athletics and from different perspectives. You can purchase the full book now!
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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!