Philosophy on the Fringes – Détails, épisodes et analyse

In this episode, Megan and Frank tackle the growing trend of "hacking" one's biology to increase longevity and possibly attain immortality.  Are biohackers right to fear death, though? Would immortality be desirable? And is the human condition worth preserving? Thinkers discussed include: Epicurus, Bernard Williams, Schopenhauer, John Martin Fischer, Martha Nussbaum, and J.R.R. Tolkien.

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Hosts' Websites:

Megan J Fritts (google.com)

Frank J. Cabrera (google.com)

Email: philosophyonthefringes@gmail.com

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Bibliography:

What Is Biohacking And How Does It Work? – Forbes Health

Challenging Bryan Johnson On His “Never Die” Biohacking Protocol (youtube.com)

Letter to Menoeceus by Epicurus (mit.edu)

Is Death Bad for You? by Shelley Kagan (chronicle.com)

Williams on Immortality.pdf (nd.edu)

John Martin Fischer Response to Williams

Gift of Ilúvatar | The One Wiki to Rule Them All | Fandom

Nussbaum - Mortal immortals

Schopenhauer - The vanity of existence

Brooke Alan Trisel, Human extinction and the value of our efforts

Being and Becoming in Modern Physics (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)

Megan Fritts, Arresting Time's Arrow: Death, Loss, and the Preservation of Real Union

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Cover Artwork by Logan Fritts

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In this episode, Megan and Frank continue their discussion of myths and mythology. Join them as they further explore different approaches to interpreting and understanding myth. How have creation myths differed across cultures? Should myth be regarded as an allegory? Is the point of myth to justify society’s norms? Is myth a tool for exploring the subconscious aspects of our minds? And do we have any use for myth in the modern world? Thinkers discussed include Joseph Cambell, Carl Jung, Karl Popper, and Mary Midgley.

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Hosts' Websites:

Megan J Fritts (google.com)

Frank J. Cabrera (google.com)

Email: philosophyonthefringes@gmail.com

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Bibliography:

Powell - A Short Introduction to Classical Myth (earlhaig.ca) (Chs. 2-3 for an excellent overview of theories of myth)

Classical Mythology - Prof. Vandiver (A great lecture series we learned a lot from)

Myth in Human History - Grant Voth (Another great lecture series we drew from)

Myth and Knowing: An Introduction to World Mythology (quoted a few times in the episode)

Teaching Jung - Kelly Bulkeley; Clodagh Weldon (Ch. 5 by Robert Segal was very helpful!)

Campbell's "Other" Monomyth - The Hero's Journey: Life's Great Adventure

A Secular Age — Charles Tayllor 

Conjectures & Refutations - Karl Popper

The Myths We Live By - Mary Midgley

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Cover Artwork by Logan Fritts

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The kids are alright… or are they? On today’s episode, Megan and Frank cover the following topics: is childhood a morally horrible stage of life? What does the “good life” look like for a kid? Should children get the right to vote for elected officials? Can young children understand philosophical questions and reasoning? And if so, should we be bringing philosophy to the youth?

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Hosts' Websites:

Megan J Fritts (google.com)

Frank J. Cabrera - Research (google.com)

Email: philosophyonthefringes@gmail.com

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Bibliography:

Paul, LA. - Transformative Experience - Oxford University Press (oup.com)

Kazez, J. - Old Age as a Stage of Life - Journal of Applied Philosophy - Wiley Online Library

Ferracioli, L. - Carefreeness and Children's Wellbeing - Journal of Applied Philosophy - Wiley Online Library

Cicero — De Senectute [On Old Age] (uchicago.edu)

Mill, J.S. - On Liberty (Ch. 3)

Sandel, M. - the Case Against Perfection - The Atlantic

Big Ideas for Little Philosophers (penguinrandomhouse.com)

Social Contract Theory | Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Feminist Critique)

Nussbaum, M. - Frontiers of Justice (Ch. 2, "Disabilities and the Social Contract)

Rowlands, M. - Contractarianism and Animal Rights

Wiland, E. - Should Children Have the Right to Vote? 

Brennan, J.  - Against Democracy | Princeton University Press

Aristotle - Nicomachean Ethics (Bk. 1, Sect. 3)

Philosophy for Children (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)

Do Kids Have a Fundamental Sense of Fairness? - Scientific American 

Augustine - Confessions, (Bk. 1, Ch. 7)

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Cover Artwork by Logan Fritts

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Why did early modern philosophers posit legions of blissful aliens to help solve the problem of evil? Is life essentially terrestrial? Does SETI count as a scientific enterprise? If Martians could talk, would we ever be able to understand them? Join Megan and Frank as they philosophize about our friends from the final frontier!

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Hosts' Websites:

Megan J Fritts (google.com)

Frank J. Cabrera - Research (google.com)

Email: philosophyonthefringes@gmail.com

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Bibliography:

Defense Department announces new UFO task force - CBS News

Kukla, A. (2001). ETI: On the prospects and pursuitworthiness of the search for extraterrestrial intelligence - ScienceDirect 

Plutarch • On the Face in the Moon (Part 1 of 4) (uchicago.edu)

Lucretius - On the Nature of Things by Lucretius (mit.edu)

Pearce, K. - Space Aliens and Skeptical Theism (blog.kennypearce.net)

Draper, P. (1989) Pain and Pleasure: An Evidential Problem for Theists on JSTOR

Crowe, M. (2017). William and John Herschel’s Quest for Extraterrestrial Intelligent Life | SpringerLink

Fantastically Wrong: Why the Guy Who Discovered Uranus Thought There's Life on the Sun | WIRED

There Is Only One Other Planet In Our Galaxy That Could Be Earth-Like, Say Scientists (forbes.com)

Rare Earth hypothesis: Why we might really be alone in the universe | Astronomy.com

Pseudoscience and the Demarcation Problem | Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (utm.edu)

Frank Cabrera, String Theory, Non-Empirical Theory Assessment, and the Context of Pursuit - PhilPapers

A More Parsimonious Explanation for UFO Abduction on JSTOR

75 Years Ago, 'War Of The Worlds' Started A Panic. Or Did It? : The Two-Way : NPR

Whitmore, J. (1995). Religious Dimensions of the UFO Abductee Experience ("UFO abductions seem to be primarily an American phenomenon; although several important cases have been reported outside the U.S., some argue that abductions are mainly confined to this country.", p. 81)

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Cover Artwork by Logan Fritts

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From Tinder to FarmersOnly, dating apps not only help us meet the love of our life, they also raise new philosophical questions! Does an endless stream of potential partners arrest our romantic agency? Is it morally wrong to care about looks? Why do these apps function like games--and has this gameplay forced our digital love lives into a functional flop? Join Frank and Megan as they discuss all these questions, as well as their own experiences, or lack thereof, in the world of online dating.

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Hosts' Websites:

Megan J Fritts (google.com)

Frank J. Cabrera - Research (google.com)

Email: philosophyonthefringes@gmail.com

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Bibliography:

Key findings about online dating in the U.S. | Pew Research Center

Kierkegaard - The Seducer's Diary | Princeton University Press

Existentialism is a Humanism, Jean-Paul Sartre 1946 (marxists.org)

Is It Bad to Prefer Attractive Partners? - William D’Alessandro (see social science references contained therein)

C. Thi Nguyen - How Twitter gamifies communication - PhilPapers

Paradox of Hedonism | Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (utm.edu)

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Cover Artwork by Logan Fritts

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Is there a goddess of Victory? A deity governing the sea? What about a god of the door hinge? In this episode, Megan and Frank discuss polytheism—the belief in many gods—from both historical and philosophical perspectives. They try to show that examining polytheism can help us think more clearly about the concept of “god”.

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Hosts' Websites:

Megan J Fritts (google.com)

Frank J. Cabrera - Research (google.com)

Email: philosophyonthefringes@gmail.com

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Bibliography:

City of God (St. Augustine) (newadvent.org)

Xenophanes (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)

The Internet Classics Archive | The Republic by Plato (mit.edu)

LacusCurtius • Cicero — De Natura Deorum I.1‑19 (uchicago.edu)

LacusCurtius • Cicero — De Divinatione: Book II (uchicago.edu)

Stoic Philosophical Theology and Graeco‐Roman Religion | God and Cosmos in Stoicism | Oxford Academic (oup.com)

Estate Planning in Hellenic Antiquity: Aristotle's Last Will and Testament

The Internet Classics Archive | Metaphysics by Aristotle (mit.edu)

On Counting Gods | TheoLogica: An International Journal for Philosophy of Religion and Philosophical Theology (uclouvain.be) (by Dale Tuggy)

Eric Steinhart, On the plurality of gods - PhilArchive

David Lewis, Philosophical Papers, Volume 1 - PhilPapers (page xi)

Gravity and Grace - 1st Edition - Simone Weil - Routledge Book

Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, by David Hume (Part 5)

Monotheism - Monotheism in world religions | Britannica

 Oration of Constantine (Eusebius) (newadvent.org)

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Cover Artwork by Logan Fritts

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What philosophical lessons can we draw from the action movie Road House? In this episode, Megan and Frank do philosophy alongside Patrick Swayze's legendary character Dalton, examining the nature of pain, the limits of pacifism, and whether one can find the meaning of life while being a bouncer.

Footnotes: 1) Road House is NOT a family friendly movie. 2) Prior viewing of Road House is not required for listening. Clips of some of the scenes we discuss can be found here:

Road House (1/11) Movie CLIP - Three Simple Rules (1989) HD - YouTube

Road House (2/11) Movie CLIP - Pain Don't Hurt (1989) HD - YouTube

JcPenny's Came Here Because of Me.wmv - YouTube

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Hosts' Websites:

Megan J Fritts (google.com)

Frank J. Cabrera - Research (google.com)

Email: philosophyonthefringes@gmail.com

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Bibliography

The Internet Classics Archive | The Meditations by Marcus Aurelius (mit.edu) (Ch. 4)

The Internet Classics Archive | The Enchiridion by Epictetus (mit.edu)

Is the Sage Free from Pain? (wku.edu) by Jan Edward Garrett

Jeremy Bentham: An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation (utilitarianism.com) (Ch. 5)

Pacifism | Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (utm.edu)

Nietzsche’s Moral and Political Philosophy (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)

Opioids and the Brain - How do changes in the brain begin? - PursueCare

Frontiers | Cognition and Pain: A Review (frontiersin.org)

Congenital Insensitivity to Pain Overview - GeneReviews® - NCBI Bookshelf (nih.gov)

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Cover Artwork by Logan Fritts

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Is Bigfoot carelessly categorized amongst the less credible cryptids? Megan and Frank discuss the possibility of the existence of this hairy hominid, debate the weight of evidence from eye-witness testimony, and try to get to the bottom of why Frank just can't believe. 

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Hosts' Websites:

Megan J Fritts (google.com)

Frank J. Cabrera - Research (google.com)

Email: philosophyonthefringes@gmail.com

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Bibliography:

Hunting Monsters: Cryptozoology and the Reality Behind the Myths , Naish, Darren - Amazon.com (Ch. 4)

If Bigfoot Were Real - Scientific American Blog Network (by Darren Naish)

The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Natural History of Pliny, Volume II., by Pliny the Elder. (Book VII, Ch. 2)

Amazon.com: How to Think About Weird Things: Critical Thinking for a New Age: 9781259922558: Schick, Theodore, Vaughn, Lewis: Books (Ch. 5)

Genetic analysis of hair samples attributed to yeti, bigfoot and other anomalous primates | Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (royalsocietypublishing.org)

Evolutionary history of enigmatic bears in the Tibetan Plateau–Himalaya region and the identity of the yeti | Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (royalsocietypublishing.org)

Jane Goodall on How to Change Minds and Why She Isn't Ruling Out Bigfoot | GQ

Knowledge: A Very Short Introduction by Jennifer Nagel (Ch. 6)

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Cover Artwork by Logan Fritts

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What is a resolution? Are popular New Year's resolutions too self-centered? What can the ancients teach us about maintaining our resolutions and avoiding temptation? And is the very practice of making New Year's resolutions irrational? These are just some of the questions we explore in this episode.

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Hosts' Websites:

Megan J Fritts (google.com)

Frank J. Cabrera - Research (google.com)

Email: philosophyonthefringes@gmail.com

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Bibliography:

New Year’s Resolutions Statistics And Data – Forbes Health

The resolution solution: Longitudinal examination of New Year's change attempts - ScienceDirect

Auld lang Syne: Success predictors, change processes, and self‐reported outcomes of New Year's resolvers and nonresolvers - Norcross - 2002 - Journal of Clinical Psychology - Wiley Online Library

A Medieval Man’s New Year’s Resolutions (medievalists.net)

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Cover Artwork by Logan Fritts

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In this episode, Frank and Megan discuss myths and mythology. What role has myth played in philosophy? What's the relationship between myths, history, and truth? And did the ancients really believe their myths? Join us as we engage with thinkers such as Thales of Miletus, Plato, Aristotle, Herodotus, Augustine, Paul Veyne, and R.G. Collingwood. This is the first part of a two-part episode.

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Hosts' Websites:

Megan J Fritts (google.com)

Frank J. Cabrera (google.com)

Email: philosophyonthefringes@gmail.com

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Bibliography:

Powell - A Short Introduction to Classical Myth (earlhaig.ca) (Main source for claims about history of word "mythos" and its use in Plato/Herodotus/Aristotle. Highly recommended!)

Hesiod - Theogony 

Thales - Fragments 

Lehoux - All things are full of gods": naturalism in the classical world

R. G. Collingwood - The Idea of History

The Herodotus - The Histories (See also BBC "In Our Time" podcast episode on Herodotus)

Thucydides - The History of the Peloponnesian War (See also BBC "In Our Time" podcast episode on Thucydides)

Plato’s Myths - (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)

Plato - Gorgias

Julia Annas - Plato's Myths of Judgement (Discusses Aristotle critique of Plato's geography in the myth in the Phaedo)

Paul Veyne - Did the Greeks Believe in Their Myths?

Dana L. Burgess - Review of Veyne's "Did the Greeks Beleive in Their Myths?"

Augustine - Two Books on Genesis

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Cover Artwork by Logan Fritts

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