Subscribe to Elucidations: Episode transcript here. This month, we discuss the categorical imperative with Stephen Engstrom, professor of philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh. Click here to listen to our conversation. True to the Chicago tradition, we philosophers spend a lot of time asking – but perhaps not so much time answering – an everyday question: What’s the right thing to do?...
Those of you who are interested in following up on the topic of our previous episode can take a look at the following two papers: Mark Schroeder, “Stakes, Withholding, and Pragmatic Encroachment“ Mark Schroeder, “The Unity of Reasons“ Happy reading! Matt Teichman...
Subscribe to Elucidations: This month, we discuss reasons for action and belief with Mark Schroeder, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Southern California. Click here to listen to our conversation. Consider one question from this episode. Can we decide what to believe, the way we decide how to act? We can, for instance, decide to worship at a church or temple....
Those of you who are interested in picking up some of the threads from our last episode can take a look at the following article: ‘Being Helped and Being Grateful,’ Barbara Herman Happy reading! Matt Teichman...
Subscribe to Elucidations: This month, we discuss gratitude with Barbara Herman, Griffin Professor of Philosophy and Professor of Law at the University of California, Los Angeles. Click here to listen to our conversation. Is our subject this week, well, gratuitous? Given the dearth of philosophical attention to it in the last century or two, gratitude might not seem worth studying....
For those of you who are interested in following up on Malte Willer’s recommended solution to the miners paradox, he recommends the following paper: ‘Dynamic Thoughts on Ifs and Oughts,’ Malte Willer Happy reading! Matt Teichman...
Subscribe to Elucidations: This month, we discuss non-monotonic logic with Malte Willer, assistant professor of philosophy at the University of Chicago. Click here to listen to our conversation. If you have been so lucky as to take an introductory logic class, then you will learn a conception of logic that is, well, downright logical. That conception of logic is monotonic....
Subscribe to Elucidations: This month, we discuss gender and medieval mysticism with Christina Van Dyke, professor of philosophy, director of gender studies, and executive director of the Society of Christian Philosophers at Calvin College. Click here to listen to our conversation. How might the notion of God to have meaning to us? God today can increasingly seem to us a mere historical phenomenon–a subject of past peoples’ energy, but presently only a subject of professors’ study....
Subscribe to Elucidations: This month, we discuss Ayn Rand’s moral philosophy with Greg Salmieri, who teaches at Rutgers University and Stevens Institute of Technology and is co-secretary of the American Philosophical Association’s Ayn Rand Society. Click here to listen to our conversation. But wait: Ayn Rand is most famous for her novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged....
Those of you who would like to follow up on the topic of this month’s episode can look at: ‘Moral and Semantic Innocence,’ Christopher Hom and Robert May In that paper, the semantic theory we discussed is presented in a bit more detail. Matt Teichman...