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. 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.
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Ep. 9 - Matthew McManus: Myth and Mayhem
June 12th, 2020 | 1 hr 6 secs
a left, and, b., cave, communism, conservative, critique, freedom, grad school, graduate, individual, jordan, leftist, liberty, marxism, marxist, matt, matthew, mayhem, mcmanus, morality, muckraker media, myth, peterson, phd, philosophy, plato, plato's cave, politics, religion, rhetoric, right, zero books
In this episode, I sit down with Matthew McManus to discuss the new book he co-authored: Myth and Mayhem: A Leftist Critique of Jordan Peterson.
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Ep. 7 - Public Historian Justin Clark
April 24th, 2020 | 1 hr 25 mins
capitalism, cave, clark, coronavirus, covid, democracy, economic theory, fairness, grad school, graduate, historian, history, justice, justin, leftist, liberalism, marxism, muckraker media, phd, philosophy, plato, plato's cave, political philosophy, politics, public, socialism, society, wealth, wealth inequality
In this episode, I speak with Public Historian Just Clark about the current social and economic situation surrounding COVID and about the underlying philosophy and logic of different political ideologies in general.
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Ep. 5 - The Milgram and Zimbardo Experiments (& Golhagen vs Browning on Nazis)
April 4th, 2020 | 1 hr 46 mins
450 volts, abu ghraib, abuse, asch, authority, browning, cave, conformity, crimes, evil, experiment, germany, goldhagen, grad school, graduate, iraq, milgram, morality, muckraker media, murder, nazi, obedience, phd, philosophy, plato, plato's cave, prison, rape, shock, stanford, test, war, yale, zimbardo
In this episode, I discuss the Stanley Milgram and Phil Zimbardo experiments and what they say about our human nature. These experiments are also tied into the Browning vs Goldhagen debate on how he German population was convinced to do such terrible acts during the holocaust.
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Ep. 4 - Ben Burgis: Moral Responsibility in a Determined World
March 29th, 2020 | 1 hr 34 mins
argument, bejamin, ben, blame, burgis, cave, compatiblism, determinism, free will, freedom, give, grad school, graduate, jon, kant, korsgaard, michael brooks, moral, morality, muckraker media, neuroscience, phd, philosophy, plato, plato's cave, punishment, resentment, responsibility, rosen, skeptic, strawson, them
In this episode, I speak with Ben Burgis for a second time about free will compatiblism in a deterministic world. We speak about the metaphysics of free will and determinism, and what should constitude ground for moral responsibility. We also discuss my grad school writing sample and Christine Korsgaard's work.
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Ep. 3 - Alastair Wilson: The Nature of Contingency
March 20th, 2020 | 1 hr 1 min
alastair, birmingham, cave, choice, contingency, counterfactual, decision theory, dr., free will, grad school, graduate, metaphysics, multiple worlds, options, oxford, phd, philosophy, physics, plato, plato's cave, professor, quantum, self, theory, university, wilson
In this episode, I spoke with Professor Alastair Wilson about his newly released book, The Nature of Contingency: Quantum Physics as Modal Realism. We spoke about contingency, counterfactuals, the multiple worlds interpretation of quantum physics, free will, and more.
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Ep. 2.11 - (ft.) Ben Burgis and Jon Rosen: Do We Have Free Will?
March 16th, 2020 | 1 hr 36 mins
ben, burgis, cave, compatiblism, crime, determinism, fatalism, free will, grad school, graduate, incompatiblism, iona iltaila, jerry coyne, jon, luck, moral, neuroscience, phd, philosophy, plato, plato's cave, punishment, puppet, responsibility, robot, rosen, sam harris, two for tea
In this episode, Ben Burgis and Jon Rosen join me for a discussion on whether we have free will, or not, and if we do have it, is it the important type of freedom? I very much enjoyed hearing the two of them spar and I hope you find it valuable as well.
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Ep. 2.10 - Moral Responsibility: Freedom and Resentment by P.F. Strawson
March 16th, 2020 | 24 mins 40 secs
cave, compatiblism, determinism, free will, freedom and resentment, galen, grad school, graduate, itunes:61, itunes:pf strawon, korsgaard, moral responsibility, objective attitude, optimist, p.f. strawson, pessimist, phd, philosophy, plato, plato's cave, reactive attitude, responsibility, strawson, that's bs, thats bs, watson
In this episode, I discuss P.F. Strawson's landmark paper on moral responsibility, Freedom and Resentment, and its posing challenges towards those who believe free will and determinism have anything to do with responsibility.
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Ep. 2.9 - Moral Hypocrisy
March 16th, 2020 | 1 hr 22 mins
cave, deception, empathy, ethics, grad school, graduate, hypocrisy, hypocrite, itunes: moral hypocrisy, itunes:59, lying, moral hypocrisy, morality, phd, philosophy, plato, plato's cave, relationships, that's bs, thats bs, thought experiment
In this episode, Giffin, Jordan, Brian, and Adam talk about what moral hypocrisy is and what it is not. Plus, how bad is being a moral hypocrite really? Is is actually worse to be a hypocrite than just lie? Find out in this episode.
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Ep. 2.7 - (ft.) Clyde Rathbone
March 15th, 2020 | 1 hr 6 mins
cave, clyde rathbone, conversation, dayne rathbone, dialetic, epistemology, grad school, graduate, internet, itunes:54, itunes:letter, letter, letter wiki, phd, philosophy, plato, plato's cave, rhetoric, that's bs, thats bs, trolling, twitter
In this episode, I speak with Clyde Rathbone who is a co-founder of Letter, a new and very engaging online marketplace of conversations. We discuss why the platform is very unique and inspiring, and about the health of out conversations, doing things that mater, and finding meaning in life. It was a all-around great talk, and I hope you think so too!
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Ep. 2.5 - Aristotelian Virtue Ethics vs Consequentialism
March 15th, 2020 | 1 hr 13 mins
aristotle, cave, consequantialism, ethics, grad school, graduate, itunes:43, itunes:aristotlepart2, mean, morality, objectivism, part 2, phd, philosophy, plato, plato's cave, realism, relativism, that's bs, thats bs, vice, virtue
In this episode, In this episode, Jordan, Brian, and Adam discuss the possible shortcomings of Aristotelian ethics as opposed to consequentialism or deontology. Plus, a quibble on moral relativism.
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Ep. 2.2 - (ft.) Pastor Paul Vanderklay
March 15th, 2020 | 1 hr 23 mins
bible, cave, church, depression, family, god, grad school, graduate, itunes:32, itunes:paul vanderklay, jesus, jordan peterson, meaning, myth, pastor, phd, philosophy, plato, plato's cave, religion, sam harris, that's bs, thats bs
In this episode, I spoke with Paul about many interesting topics: God, my religious experiences, his pastoral work, Jordan Peterson's religiosity, interpreting scripture, and more. This was a really interesting and fun episode, and I hope you think so too!
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Ep. 2.4 - Aristotle's Virtue Ethics
March 15th, 2020 | 1 hr 11 mins
action, aristotle, cave, consequentialism, ethics, eudiamonia, grad school, graduate, itunes:episode, itunes:title, life, morality, phd, philosophy, plato, plato's cave, that's bs, thats bs, vice, virtue
Part 1 of a 2 part series on Aristotelian virtue ethics.
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Ep. 2.1 - (ft.) The Dirty History Podcast
March 14th, 2020 | 2 hrs 8 mins
cave, cultural relativism, dirty, ethics, grad school, graduate, history, imperialism, moral relativism, phd, philosophy, plato, plato's cave, podcast, random history topics, rhetoric in history, that's bs, thats bs
In this episode of Plato's Cave, I invite on Adam from That's BS and two guests from the Dirty History Podcast, Thomas and Woodrow. We talked about WWI and WWII, Imperialism, Rhetoric in history, Random history topics, Moral relativism, and Ethics in history. This was an amazing podcast to record and I hope you like it as well.
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Ep. 1 - The Allegory of the Cave
March 2nd, 2020 | 38 mins 29 secs
allegory, camel, cave, child, enlightenment, friedrich nietzsche, grad school, graduate, lion, nietzsche, overman, phd, philosophy, plato, plato's cave, society, the republic, truth, ubermensch, values
In this episode of Plato's Cave, I unpack The Allegory of the Cave from Plato's Republic and Thus Spoke Zarathustra from Friedrich Nietzsche and use both works to explain what I'm hoping to accomplish with this podcast.