Micro-Digressions: A Philosophy Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

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Michael Huemer returns Micro-Digressions to discuss his new self-published book, Progressive Myths, which you can purchase here for a mere $12.50:

Progressive Myths: Huemer, Michael: 9798332272073: Amazon.com: Books

Discussed here: Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and George Floyd cases, as well as some of the general patterns of police violence; the science of climate change and masking (compared with what activists say about these things), and the causes of progressive myths. 

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Dave Baker returns to Micro-Digressions to finish the discussion of nuclear weapons. Topics this time include the development of the hydrogen bomb, the problems with developing missile defense systems, and nuclear proliferation.

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It's the end of the year again and time to rant! This year's collection of rants includes:

• Jarrod Blair on bad habits that crush the philosophical spirit
• Matthew Adelstein on the stupidity and depravity of Effective Altruism critics
• Matt Lutz on possible world confusions
• Mark Oppenheimer on the Israel-Gaza war
• Oliver Traldi on the university presidents' testimony to Congress
• JP Andrew on naturalism as a dogma in philosophy
• Spencer Case on scientific dogmatism
• Jason Werbeloff on moralizing vegetarians
• Alex Byrne on social construction

Links:
Virtue Vibes Podcast:
https://www.virtuevibes.org/

Bentham's Bulldog substack:
https://benthams.substack.com/

Brain in a Vat podcast:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/brain-in-a-vat/id1509951964

Humean Being Substack:
https://humeanbeing.substack.com/

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Oliver Traldi rejoins Spencer Case to discuss the nature of political beliefs. Topics they cover include the bad incentives that influence political beliefs, how political beliefs should be defined, and the need for (and possibility of) politically neutral language in which to discuss political issues.

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His Offensiveness Stephen Kershnar returns to the podcast for a wide-ranging conversation about the philosophy of law. This leads to a discussion of the Students For Fair Admissions (SFFA) Supreme Court Case. Music: "Sweet, Man" by Jeremy Mohney.  Available for download $1 here: https://jeremymohneymusic.bandcamp.com/

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Kevin Vallier joins Spencer Case to talk about social trust and the role it plays in the psychological and moral foundations of liberal societies. 

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Alex Byrne discusses the controversy around his article on pronouns in the Journal of Controversial Ideas.  Byrne and Matt Lutz debate the meaning of the word 'woman.' Alex's view is that women are adult human females, whereas Matt thinks that the word is ambiguous between that traditional definition and a trans-inclusive meaning. We can be tolerant and accept both are legitimate meanings of the word. The conversation eventually comes to focus on the idea that the meanings of words are outcomes of social negotiations of various kinds. Spencer concludes the episode with some thoughts on how this might mean that semantics is morally entangled.  

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Commentator Charles "Concealed Weapon" Cooke joins Spencer to discuss American identity and patriotism.  

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MIT philosophy professor Alex Byrne and podcast regular Matt Lutz join Spencer to discuss an article that recently appeared in the Journal of Controversial Ideas entitled "A Defense of Merit in Science." The article, which was written by 27 co-authors, including many social scientists, alleges that the "liberal epistemology" that underlies science is under threat by the institutionalized influence of identity-based ideologies. (The article doesn't use the term "wokeness", but the left identitarian ideologies whose influence it critiques  can plausibly be called "woke.") The three conversation partners consider the strengths and weaknesses of the article and also evaluate some of the objections critics have raised. 

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Mark Oppenheimer and Jason Werbeloff of Brain in a Vat join Spencer to discuss one of their favorite subjects: thought experiments.