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. It’s not. Don’t get me wrong—I love books. I’m constantly trying to talk friends and acquaintances who don’t like reading books into giving them another shot, if only for the simple reason that reading is basically guaranteed to improve your life. It’s just that the existence of philosophy books doesn’t make philosophy the art of book writing any more than the existence of bodybuilding books makes bodybuilding the art of book writing.
Philosophy is about fearlessly posing questions. Our everyday lives are interwoven with foundational mysteries, some of which turn out to be trivial, others of which prove challenging to resolve. While we can’t confront all of them, simultaneously, 100% of the time, philosophy is what happens when you formally give yourself permission to confront some of them head on, at least some of the time. Which is a superior alternative to sticking your fingers in your ears and pretending they aren’t there. Or so I would allege.
The point of departure for this episode is what the show’s listeners are wondering about. Not journal citations. Not name-dropping over miniature bagels at a conference. Not some incomprehensible jargon that cleverly avoids ever getting defined over hundreds of pages. The real stuff. Why is blahbityblah the case? That’s quite surprising, because of such and such. What the heck is going on? Etc. There’s nothing I enjoy more than working through conceptual difficulties in the form of a conversation.
In this episode, we end up talking about property rights, the best gateway drugs for getting into philosophy, how to prove ‘ought’ statements, whether the past is real, looseness in how we interpret speed limit regulations, who counts as a philosopher, whether those of us in the first world are shirking our moral responsibilities towards everyone else, and why we never seem to listen to extraordinary claims, even when they are backed by extraordinary evidence. Join us as you, listeners, supply us with things to be surprised about, and Agnes Callard, Ben Callard, and I set out in search of strategies for coping with those surprises.
Matt Teichman
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