Further reading on reasons

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...

Episode 77: Mark Schroeder discusses reasons for action and belief

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....

Further Reading on Gratitude

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...

Episode 76: Barbara Herman discusses gratitude

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....

Further Reading on non-monotonic logic

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...

Episode 75: Malte Willer discusses non-monotonic logic

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....

Episode 74: Christina Van Dyke discusses gender and medieval mysticism

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....

Episode 73: Greg Salmieri discusses Ayn Rand’s moral philosophy

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....

Further Reading on pejoratives

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...

Episode 72: Robert May discusses pejorative expressions

Subscribe to Elucidations:       This month, we discuss pejorative expressions with Robert May, distinguished professor of philosophy and linguistics at University of California, Davis. Click here to listen to our conversation. So pejorative expressions are politically incorrect. We should not, say, call Jews kikes. How should we understand why we should not? May says we should not for the simple reason his mother taught him as a child: “There are no such things as kikes....