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Call a ‘comprehensive doctrine of the good’ a set of beliefs affirmed by citizens concerning a wide range of values, including moral, metaphysical, and religious commitments, as well as beliefs about personal virtues, and political beliefs about the way society ought to be arranged; they form a conception of the good concerning “what is of value in life, the ideals of personal character, as well as ideals of friendship and of familial and associational relationships, and much else that is to inform our conduct, and in the limit to our life as a whole....

In the Tractatus, Wittgenstein writes: 6.54: My propositions serve as elucidations in the following way: anyone who understands me eventually recognizes them as nonsensical, when he has used them—as steps—climb up beyond them. (He must, so to speak, throw away the ladder after he has climbed up it.) He must transcend these propositions, and then he will see the world aright. At least two interesting things are going on here....

Subscribe to Elucidations:         In this episode, Matt sits down with Gaurav Vankataraman (Trisk Bio) to talk about how human memory is physically realized. Click here to download episode 146 of Elucidations. Where do your memories live? In the brain, right? They’re, like, imprinted there somehow? We often think of memories as analogous with recordings, like when you do an audio recording and the air vibrations get translated into an electrical signal which reorients the magnetic particles on some tape....

In “The Mirror Stage as Formative of the I Function,” Jacques Lacan introduces a philosophical conception of the subject into psychoanalysis. He primarily responds to Freud’s conception of the developed subject as an “ego” which serves as a broad referent for the subject’s constellation of raw, biological drives. He thinks the ego as such does not account for the transformation that occurs within the subject when developing an ego, and he deduces the mirror stage as a solution that he thinks even Freud ought to accept....

Subscribe to Elucidations:         This episode, Matt Teichman and Joseph Diller sit down with Andrew Sepielli (University of Toronto) to talk about metaethical quietism. His new book on the topic, Pragmatist Quietism, is out now from Oxford University Press. Click here to listen to episode 145. Metaethical quietism is the view that ethical statements—or anyway, a large portion of the ethical statements we’re usually interested in—can’t be justified or disproved by statements from outside of ethics....

In An Autobiographical Study, Sigmund Freud defines the process of free-association broadly as speaking one’s mind without direction or censorship.1 As Jonathan Lear aptly points out, Freud calls free-association the fundamental rule of psychoanalysis2 not only because it is essential to therapy but also because it is a sublime exercise of the capacity for human freedom.3 Despite this apparent freedom in free-association, Freud also notes: “we must, however, bear in mind that free association is not really free....

Subscribe to Elucidations:         This episode, Matt talks to Christopher Beem (Penn State University) about how we can cultivate those skills that conduce to having a functioning democracy. His book on the topic, The Seven Democratic Virtues, is out now from Penn State University Press. Click here to download Episode 144 of Elucidations....

Kuhn distinguishes two meanings for ‘paradigm’: in a narrow sense, (1) the examples a discipline uses to articulate its assumptions that set the template for solving puzzles that arise in the discipline during a period of normal science, and in a broad sense, (2) the key theories, instruments, values, and metaphysical assumptions that are made prior to puzzle-solving which constitute the disciplinary matrix of normal science. Count two paradigms ‘incommensurable’ when the new paradigm is a radical alteration of the matrix of measurements, observations, and language adopted by the scientific community not for good reasons but by a non-rational kind of religious conversion to a new world that is different than, and discontinuous with, the one represented by the former paradigm....

Subscribe to Elucidations:         This episode, Matt Teichman talks to Mark Linsenmayer about alternative models of education. Mark is creator and host of the Partially Examined Life, Nakedly Examined Music, Pretty Much Pop, and Philosophy vs. Improv podcasts. He is also the author of the recent book, Philosophy For Teens. You can download Episode 143 by clicking here....

Subscribe to Elucidations:         We didn’t have a blog yet when this episode came out, but the episode link is here. Thanks to Jasmine Li for the transcription! Matt Teichman: Hello and welcome to Elucidations, a philosophy podcast recorded at the University of Chicago. I’m Matt Teichman. Mark Hopwood: And I’m Mark Hopwood....

Subscribe to Elucidations:         In this episode of Elucidations, Matt sits down with Emily Dupree to learn about whether it’s rational or irrational to try to seek revenge. Click here to download episode 142 of Elucidations. As a culture, we kinda can’t decide what we think about revenge. Out of one side of our mouths, we talk a big game about letting bygones be bygones, about how revenge and retaliation lead to cycles of violence, and about how nothing good can really come of getting back at people....

Subscribe to Elucidations:         This time around, Matt sits down with Rob Goodman to talk about political eloquence. Goodman is the author of a new book on this topic called Words on Fire, which you can pick up a copy of wherever you like to get books. As for this interview, you can click here to download episode 141 of Elucidations....

Subscribe to Elucidations:         Episode link here. Thanks to Jasmine Li for the transcription! Matt Teichman: Hello and welcome to Elucidations, a philosophy podcast recorded at the University of Chicago. I’m Matt Teichman. Mark Hopwood: And I’m Mark Hopwood. Matt Teichman: With us today is Agnes Callard, Neubauer Family Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Chicago....

Subscribe to Elucidations:         This month, Meghan Sullivan returns to Elucidations with her co-author Paul Blaschko to discuss their new book on how to live a good life. Click here to download episode 140 of Elucdiations. Intro philosophy classes often get stuck in a rut. Some philosophy classes go through a list of old dead people and try to understand excerpts from some of their most influential writings, over the course of a semester....

Subscribe to Elucidations:         Episode post here. Transcription by Prexie Miranda Abainza Magallanes. Matt Teichman: Hello and welcome to Elucidations. I’m Matt Teichman. Agnes Callard: And I’m Agnes Callard. Matt Teichman: With us today is Aristotle, founder of the Lyceum in Athens and professor of philosophy there. He is here to discuss his philosophy....

Subscribe to Elucidations:         This month, Jessica Tizzard (University of Tuebingen) makes her second appearance on Elucidations to talk to Matt about pregnancy. Click here to download episode 139 of Elucidations. Human pregnancy is weird. Try talking to a reproductive endochrinologist about it, and you’ll soon find that there’s a lot we don’t really understand about it even at the scientific level....

Subscribe to Elucidations:         This month, Toby Buckle, host of the Political Philosophy Podcast, returns to talk about John Stuart Mill’s liberty principle! (Also sometimes called the ‘harm principle’.) Click here to download episode 138 of Elucidations. The occasion for the episode is the recent release of Toby’s cool new book, What is Freedom?...

Subscribe to Elucidations:         This month, I talk to Bryan Caplan (George Mason University) about what a world without immigration restrictions could look like. Click here to download episode 137 of Elucidations. The work discussed in this episode comes out of Bryan’s incredible non-fiction graphic novel, Open Borders, which I highly recommend checking out....

Subscribe to Elucidations:         This month, Yuezhen Li and I sit down with Christian Miller (Wake Forest University) to talk about how to be virtuous. Also known as how to be good. Click here to download episode 136 of Elucidations. ‘Virtue’ is sort of an old-timey word. But the concept is still alive and well today, even though we tend to use different words for it....

Subscribe to Elucidations:         Episode post here. This episode transcribed by Dusty Dallman. Matt Teichman: Hello, and welcome to Elucidations, a philosophy podcast ordinarily recorded at the University of Chicago, but which today is being brought to you from Palo Alto. With me is R.A. Briggs, professor of philosophy at Stanford University, and they are here to discuss gender....

Subscribe to Elucidations:         Episode post here. This episode transcribed by Dusty Dallman. Matt Teichman: Hello. Welcome to Elucidations, a philosophy podcast recorded at the University of Chicago. I’m Matt Teichman, and with me today is Steven Nadler, William H. Hay II Professor of Philosophy, and Evjue-Bascom Professor of the Humanities, and Weinstein-Bascom Professor of Jewish Studies, at the University of Wisconsin at Madison—and he’s here to discuss Spinoza on freedom....

Subscribe to Elucidations:         This month, Charlie Wiland and I sit down with Sara Protasi to talk about envy. Which she just came out with a whole book about! Awesome. Click here to download episode 135 of Elucidations. You might think that it’s pretty clear what envy is. Isn’t envy just when someone else has something you want, you don’t have it, and that makes you feel annoyed?...

Subscribe to Elucidations:         This month, Josh Kaufman and I talk to Claire Kirwin (Clemson University) about whether things are objectively good or bad, or whether it’s all in the eye of the beholder. Click here to download Episode 134 of Elucidations. Professor Kirwin is a fan of peanut butter cup ice cream, and Josh and I are fans of mint chocolate chip....

Subscribe to Elucidations:         Episode post here. Transcription by Maria Araújo. Matt Teichman: Hello and welcome to Elucidations. I’m Matt Teichman, and with me today is Rebecca Valentine, co-founder of Queerious Labs in San Francisco. Rebecca Valentine, welcome. Rebecca Valentine: Hey, how’s it going? Matt Teichman: So I billed you as the co-founder of Queerious Labs, and I thought maybe we could start off by talking about what Queerious Labs actually is....

Subscribe to Elucidations:         Transcription by Maria Araújo. Brilliant work; thank you! Episode post here. Toby Buckle: Well, are you interviewing me, or am I interviewing you? Let’s just start. Matt—you’ve been doing this way longer than me, right now. This is, what, your fifth, sixth year podcasting? Matt Teichman: Longer than that. I’ve been recording episodes of my podcast for about 10 years, and we launched nine years ago....

Measuring things seems quite straightforward. Most of us already learned in primary school to measure how far apart two points are on a piece of paper: draw a line between them, and compare its length with the length of your ruler. After checking how many marks on the ruler your line covers, you can express the outcome of your measurement numerically. You may now see that the points are 10 centimeters or 4 inches apart, but the knowledge of such units is hardly necessary for your purposes....

Subscribe to Elucidations:         Full transcript here. This month, Agnes Callard and I talk to Aristotle about his philosophy, including his work on physics, biology, and ethics. Featuring an introduction by our awesome intern, Noadia Steinmetz-Silber! Click here to download Episode 133 of Elucidations. Not everyone is familiar with Aristotle’s work today, but the case could be made that science, political theory, logic, ethics, and philosophy exist in their current form largely due to the precedent he set....

Subscribe to Elucidations:         Full transcript here. This month, we sit down with Rebecca Valentine (co-founder of Queerious Labs) to talk about anarchism, feminism, tech culture, and creative hacking. Click here to download Episode 132 of Elucidations. Hack this, hack that. What is a hacker, anyway? In pop culture, it’s common to use the term ‘hacker’ as a synonym for ‘cybercriminal’—that is, a person who engages in illegal activity over a computer network, usually involving gaining access to something they shouldn’t....

Subscribe to Elucidations:         Episode post here. Many thanks to Johanna Wiedenkeller for this excellent transcription. Matt Teichman: Hello, and welcome to Elucidations. I’m Matt Teichman, and with me today is Katherine Ritchie, Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the City College of New York, CUNY.1 She’s here to discuss social groups. Katherine Ritchie, welcome....

Subscribe to Elucidations:         Transcription by Maria Araújo. Thank you, Maria! Episode post here. Matt Teichman: Hello, and welcome to Elucidations, a philosophy podcast recorded at the University of Chicago. With me today is Chike Jeffers, Associate Professor of Philosophy at Dalhousie University, and he is here to discuss the social and political philosophy of W....

Subscribe to Elucidations:         This episode transcribed by Maria Araújo. Thanks, Maria! Episode post here. Matt Teichman: Hello. Welcome to Elucidations. I’m Matt Teichman, and with me today is Greg Salmieri, a fellow at the Anthem Foundation, who teaches Philosophy at Rutgers University, and who co-edited a companion to Ayn Rand in the Blackwell Companions to Philosophy series and Foundations of a Free Society — which is out from University of Pittsburgh Press....

Subscribe to Elucidations:         Full transcript here. This month, Greg Salmieri (University of Texas at Austin) returns for his third (!!) appearance on Elucidations, this time to talk about doing right by yourself. Click here to download Episode 131 of Elucidations. What was the last thing you did? The last thing I did was pull a shot of espresso....

Subscribe to Elucidations:         Thanks to Maria Araújo for another excellent transcription! Episode post here. Matt Teichman: Hello and welcome to Elucidations. I’m Matt Teichman. Long Dang: And I’m Long. Matt Teichman: With us today is Jessica Tizzard, Assistant Research Professor of Philosophy at the University of Connecticut, Storrs. And she is here to discuss weakness of the will....

Subscribe to Elucidations:         Full transcript here. This month, Long Dang and I sit down to talk to Jessica Tizzard (University of Connecticut, Storrs) about weakness of the will. Click here to download Episode 130 of Elucidations. You’re at a party hosted by a close friend. It’s been three hours since you got there, and the evening thus far has been chock full of scintillating conversation, a fun round of Charades followed by Assassins, first rate cocktails, and a dessert to die for....

Subscribe to Elucidations:         Episode post here. Many thanks to Maria Araújo for this transcription! Matt Teichman: Hello, and welcome to Elucidations. I’m Matt Teichman, and with me today is Greg Kobele, Professor of Computational/Experimental Approaches to Grammar, at the Institute for Linguistics at the University of Leipzig. And he’s here to discuss mathematical linguistics....

Subscribe to Elucidations:         Episode post here. Please join me in welcoming our new transcriptionist, Maria Araújo! Matt Teichman: Hello, and welcome to Elucidations. I’m Matt Teichman. Ben Andrews: And I am Ben Andrew. Matt Teichman: Nethanel Lipshitz is Law and Philosophy Fellow at the University of Chicago Law School.1 And he’s here to discuss discrimination....

Subscribe to Elucidations:         Episode post here. I’d like to give a warm welcome and thanks to Johanna Wiedenkeller, our new transcriptionist! Matt Teichman: Hello and welcome to Elucidations. I’m Matt Teichman, and with me today is Tommy Curry, professor of philosophy at Texas A&M University, 1 and he’s here to discuss black male studies....

Subscribe to Elucidations:         Full transcript here. This month, Ben Andrew and I are joined by Nethanel Lipshitz (Tel Aviv University, Bar-Ilan University) to talk about discrimination. Click here to download Episode 129 of Elucidations. If someone treats me unequally—that is, if they give other people a relative advantage but not me—am I the victim of discrimination?...

Subscribe to Elucidations:         Episode post here. Thanks to Caroline Wall for the transcription! Matt Teichman: Hello, and welcome to Elucidations. I’m Matt Teichman, and with me today is Melissa Fusco, Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University. And she is here to discuss free choice permission. Melissa Fusco, welcome. Melissa Fusco: Hi. Thanks for having me....

Subscribe to Elucidations:         Episode post here. Many thanks to David North for this transcription. Matt Teichman: Hello, and welcome to Elucidations, a philosophy podcast recorded at the University of Chicago. I’m Matt Teichman. Jaime Edwards: And I’m Jaime Edwards. Matt Teichman: With us today is Patricia Blanchette, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame....

Subscribe to Elucidations:         Full transcript here. In this episode, Melissa Fusco (Columbia University) and I discuss a difficult problem in philosophical logic called the puzzle of free choice permission. Click here to download Episode 128 of Elucidations. One of the foundational ideas behind philosophical logic is that when you say something, that has further implications beyond the single thing you said....

Subscribe to Elucidations:         Episode post here. Transcription by David North—thank you, David! Matt Teichman: Hello and welcome to Elucidations, a philosophy podcast recorded at University of Chicago. I’m Matt Teichman. Lawrence Dallman: I’m Lawrence Dallman. Matt Teichman: With us today is Brian Leiter, Karl N. Lwelleyn Karl N. Llewellyn Professor of Jurisprudence, and Director of the Center for Law, Philosophy, and Human Values at the University of Chicago....

Subscribe to Elucidations:         Episode post here. Thanks to Caroline Wall for another excellent transcription! Matt Teichman: Hello, and welcome to Elucidations, a philosophy podcast recorded at the University of Chicago. I’m Matt Teichman, and with me today is Kristie Dotson, Associate Professor of Philosophy at Michigan State University. And she’s here to discuss epistemic oppression....

Subscribe to Elucidations:         Episode post here. Thanks once again to Caroline Wall for her transcription efforts! Matt Teichman: Hello, and welcome to Elucidations. I’m Matt Teichman. Nora Bradford: I’m Nora Bradford. Matt Teichman: With us today is Nic Koziolek, Lecturer in Philosophy at Washington University in St. Louis, and he’s here to discuss self-consciousness....

Subscribe to Elucidations:         Full transcript here.In this episode, Nic Koziolek (Washington University in St. Louis) returns to talk to me and Nora Bradford about self-consciousness. Click here to download Episode 127 of Elucidations. Self-consciousness, as philosophers use the term, is a word for when you know something about one of your own mental states....

Subscribe to Elucidations:         Episode post here. Another excellent transcription from Caroline Wall—thanks! Matt Teichman: Hello, and welcome to Elucidations, an unexpected philosophy podcast. I’m Matt Teichman. Agnes Callard: I’m Agnes Callard. Ben Callard: And I’m Ben Callard. Matt Teichman: And today is our listener Q&A episode, which means that we’ll be answering questions that you recorded and sent to us....

Subscribe to Elucidations:         Episode post here. Caroline Wall does it again! Thanks to Caroline for her excellent transcriptionage. Matt Teichman: Hello, and welcome to Elucidations, an unexpected philosophy podcast. I’m Matt Teichman. Dominick Reo: I’m Dominick Reo. Matt Teichman: With us today is James Koppel, PhD student in computer science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and professional mentor to experienced software engineers at jameskoppelcoaching....

Subscribe to Elucidations:         Episode post here. Thanks once again to Caroline Wall for this transcript! Matt Teichman: Hello, and welcome to Elucidations. I’m Matt Teichman. Henry Curtis: I’m Henry Curtis. Matt Teichman: With us once again is Graham Priest, Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the City University of New York Graduate Center and Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the University of Melbourne....

Subscribe to Elucidations:         Episode transcript here. Three philosophers. Eight head-scratchers. 50 minutes. In this episode, Agnes Callard, Ben Callard and I respond to the world’s most awesome listener-recorded questions. Click here to download Episode 126 of Elucidations. A lot of people have the impression that philosophy is, first and foremost, an enterprise in which college professor types read books that no one can understand, then issue a response in the form of more books that no one can understand....

Subscribe to Elucidations:         Episode transcript here. In this episode, James Koppel (MIT, James Koppel Coaching) joins me and Dominick Reo to talk about how we can write software to help identify the causes of disasters. Click here to download Episode 125 of Elucidations. These days, there’s often a tendency to think of software primarily as a venue for frivolous pleasures....

Subscribe to Elucidations:         Episode post here. Thanks once again to Caroline Wall for this transcript! Matt Teichman: Hello, and welcome to Elucidations. I’m Matt Teichman. Henry Curtis: And I’m Henry Curtis. Matt Teichman: With us today is Graham Priest, Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the City University of New York Graduate Center and Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the University of Melbourne....

Subscribe to Elucidations:         Episode post here. David North does it again! Many thanks to him for typing this transcript up. Matt Teichman: Hello and welcome to Elucidations, a philosophy podcast recorded at the University of Chicago. I’m Matt Teichman. Jaime Edwards: And I’m Jaime Edwards. Matt Teichman: With us today is Marko Malink, assistant professor of philosophy at the University of Chicago, and he’s here to talk to us about modal syllogistic....

Subscribe to Elucidations:         Full transcript here. In this episode, Graham Priest returns to discuss Buddhist political philosophy with me and Henry Curtis. (Last month, we talked with him about Buddhist metaphysics.) Click here to download Episode 124 of Elucidations. Last month, we discussed the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism: that suffering happens, that this suffering is (partially) caused by emotional attachment, that you can deal with it by changing your headspace, and that you can change your headspace by understanding the world, understanding your mind and body, and treating other people well....

Subscribe to Elucidations:         Episode post here. Caroline Wall does it again, folks! We are grateful for her efforts as transcriber. Matt Teichman: Hello, and welcome to Elucidations, an unexpected philosophy podcast. I’m Matt Teichman. Yuezhen Li: I’m Yuezhen Li. Matt Teichman: With us today is Frithjof Bergmann, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and Director of the Center for New Work, and David Helmbold, a retired public servant and close collaborator of Frithjof Bergmann’s....

Subscribe to Elucidations:         Full transcript here. This month, Henry Curtis and I sit down with Graham Priest (CUNY Graduate Center) to get the straight dope on Buddhist metaphysics. Click here to download Episode 123 of Elucidations. Buddhism isn’t just a religion—it’s an entire family of philosophical traditions that took root all over the Asian continent for thousands of years....

Subscribe to Elucidations:         Episode post here. Thanks to Caroline Wall for another excellent transcription! Matt Teichman: Hello and welcome to Elucidations, an unexpected philosophy podcast. I’m Matt Teichman. Julia Liu: I’m Julia Liu. Matt Teichman: With us today is Aaron Ben Ze’ev, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Haifa, and he’s here to discuss the arc of love....

Subscribe to Elucidations:         Full transcript here. This month, we sit down with Frithjof Bergmann (University of Michigan) and David Helmbold to talk about work that we really, really want. Not just kind of, but like, really really. Click here to download Episode 122 of Elucidations. Most of us spend the majority of our waking hours at work....

Subscribe to Elucidations:         Episode post here. Thanks once again to David North for all his work on this! Matt Teichman: Hello and welcome to Elucidations, a philosophy podcast recorded at the University of Chicago. I’m Matt Teichman. Francey Russell: And I’m Francey Russell. Matt Teichman: With us today is Stephen Engstrom, professor of philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh, and he’s here to discuss the categorical imperative....

Hi, everybody! We’ve decided to do a listener Q&A episode. Need philosophical advice? Stuck on a philosophical conundrum? Do you deeply agree with or object to anything we’ve said on the show? Is there a problem you’ve never heard any philosopher talk about that you’d like to hear us discuss? How does it work? You record a voice message. You email it us. Once we’ve racked up enough of them, Agnes Callard, Ben Callard, and I will take a whack at responding to some....

Subscribe to Elucidations:         Episode post here. Thanks to David North for his hard work on this back episode transcription! Matt Teichman: Hello and welcome to Elucidations, a philosophy podcast ordinarily recorded at the University of Chicago but which today is being brought to you from San Francisco. Joining me is Kent Bach, emeritus professor at San Francisco State University to talk about jumping to conclusions and knowing when to think twice....

Subscribe to Elucidations:         Full transcript here. This month, Julia Liu and I talk to Aaron Ben Ze’ev (University of Haifa) about romantic love: what it is, what makes it last for a long time when it lasts for a long time, what makes it end when it ends, and so on. Click here to download Episode 121 of Elucidations....

Subscribe to Elucidations:         Episode post here. Another bang-up transcription job from Caroline Wall! And now for the text version of this episode… Matt Teichman: Hello, and welcome to Elucidations. I’m Matt Teichman, and with me today is Robin Dembroff, Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Yale University. And they are here to discuss going beyond the gender binary....

Subscribe to Elucidations:         Episode post here. Thanks to Caroline Wall for another brilliantly executed transcript. I hope you enjoy the written version! Matt Teichman: Hello and welcome to Elucidations. I’m Matt Teichman. Henry Curtis: And I’m Henry Curtis. Matt Teichman: With us today is Stephanie Kapusta, Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Dalhousie University, and she’s here to discuss misgendering....

Subscribe to Elucidations:         Episode transcript here. This month, I talk to Robin Dembroff (Yale University) about the gender binary: what it is, what people mean when they say they’re outside of it, and what political motivation there may be for resisting it. Click on this link to download Episode 120 of Elucidations....

Subscribe to Elucidations:         Episode post here. This is the first in our series of interview transcripts, courtesy of the awesomely talented Caroline Wall. Enjoy! Matt Teichman: Hello, and welcome to Elucidations. I’m Matt Teichman, and with me today is Tyler Cowen, professor of economics at George Mason University and the author of numerous books in economics and numerous articles in philosophy....

Subscribe to Elucidations:         Episode transcript here. This month, Henry Curtis and I sit down to talk to Stephanie Kapusta (Dalhousie University) about misgendering. Click here to download the episode. In the ordinary sense of the term, misgendering is when someone addresses someone else in a way that corresponds to the wrong gender. Like if Elizabeth Warren was on the street in front of me, dropped her wallet, and I picked it up and yelled: “Sir, you dropped your wallet,” then I would be misgendering her....

Subscribe to Elucidations:         Episode transcript here. This month, we’re joined by Tyler Cowen (Professor of Economics at George Mason University), to talk about utilitarianism, economic growth, and the future. Click here to download the episode. Utilitarianism is the name we give a family of normative ethical theories, most of which are variations on the idea that doing the right thing involves imparting the greatest amount of benefit to the greatest number of people....

So first, Brian L. Frye’s own work on plagiarism is super interesting and I highly recommend it: “Plagiarism Is Not A Crime,” Brian L. Frye Next, Professor Frye recommends the following recent pieces of writing on the topic: “The Case for Plagiarism,” Andrew Carter “Against Academic Rentiership,” Steve Fuller “Neurologist Oliver Sacks on Memory, Plagiarism, and the Necessary “Forgettings of Creativity,” Maria Popova “Media Pranks,” Kembrew McLeod We’ll post a link to Brian L....

Subscribe to Elucidations:         This month, we talk to Brian L. Frye (University of Kentucky College of Law) about how we deal with and react to plagiarism. Click here to listen to our conversation. Plagiarism is obviously terrible, and plagiarizers should be punished to the full extent of the law. Or should they? Our guest this month thinks there are a number of issues with that position....

Tommy Curry has very generously provided an ample list of reading recommendations, for those of you who are interested in following up on our previous episode. Chetty, Hendren, Jones, and Porter, ‘Race and Economic Opportunity in the United States: An Intergenerational Perspective‘ Veenstra, ‘The Gendered Nature of Discriminatory Experiences by Race, Class, and Sexuality‘ Purdie-Vaughs and Eibach, ‘Intersectional Invisibility‘ Assari, ‘Educational Attainment Better Protects African American Women than African American Men Against Depressive Symptoms and Psychological Distress‘...

Subscribe to Elucidations:         Full transcript here. This month, we sit down with Tommy Curry (University of Edinburgh currently; Texas A&M at the time of the recording) to discuss a new area of academic research called black male studies. You can see his full bio at the end of this entry, and you can click here to listen to our conversation....

If you want to explore our guest’s view on social groups in more detail, you can check out the following two papers: Social Structures and the Ontology of Social Groups, Katherine Ritchie The Metaphysics of Social Groups, Katherine Ritchie Happy reading! Matt Teichman...

Subscribe to Elucidations:         Full transcript here. This month, I sit down with Katherine Ritchie (CUNY Graduate Center, City College) to talk about what a social group is. Click here to listen to our conversation. What is there to being a group of people? Does being in a group basically just mean you’re on the list of people who are in the group, or is there more to it?...

For those of you who are curious to sink your teeth into Sally Haslanger’s incredible body of work, we recommend you visit her website, which features many of her writings: https://sallyhaslanger.weebly.com/...

Subscribe to Elucidations:         This month, Emily Dupree and I talk to Sally Haslanger (MIT) about ideology. Click here to listen to our conversation. We throw the word ‘ideology’ around a lot, but what does it actually mean? Well, unfortunately, different people mean different things by it at different times. One thing we often mean by it is ‘a person’s political outlook or worldview....

For people who are interested in delving into the philosophical literature on quantum mechanics and its interpretations, Tom Pashby recommends the Stanford Encylopedia of Philosophy entry as a starting point. Happy reading! Matt...

Subscribe to Elucidations:         Ever wonder what quantum mechanics is? You are not alone. This month, we talk to Tom Pashby (University of Chicago) about what makes quantum mechanics so hard to interpret, despite the fact that it makes incredibly accurate empirical predictions. Click here to listen. Quantum mechanics is hard to interpret for a number of reasons, but very high on the list is the way it uses the notion of probability....

Subscribe to Elucidations:         In this episode, Myisha Cherry (UC Riverside) and I talk about talking. What makes someone good at at, and what makes someone bad at it? Click here to listen to our conversation. We don’t always think of conversation as a skill. Often, we think of it as something that just happens automatically; I need to talk someone, and I walk over and just tell them what’s on my mind....

Subscribe to Elucidations:         Full transcript here. This month, we talk to Greg Kobele (Universität Leipzig) about what linguistics is and how abstract mathematics can be of use to it. Click here to listen to our conversation. Linguists study the rules that speakers of a given language actually follow when they speak. Not made-up rules like “never end a sentence with a preposition,” which no one ever follows (including the teachers who shame their students for not following them), but the actual rules you need to know in order to understand English....

For those of you who are interested in following up on what Chike Jeffers and I discussed, you can’t go wrong reading Du Bois himself: The Souls of Black Folk, W.E.B. Du Bois You may also be interested in reading the papers that were given during this event on Elizabeth Anderson’s book: Fall 2013 Symposium: Anderson on Integration Happy reading! Matt...