Explore every episode of the podcast Micro-Digressions: A Philosophy Podcast
| Title | Pub. Date | Duration | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Progressive Myths | 20 Oct 2024 | 01:51:18 | |
Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! Michael Huemer returns Micro-Digressions to discuss his new self-published book, Progressive Myths, which you can purchase here for a mere $12.50: | |||
| Nuclear War, Part 2 | 25 Sep 2024 | 01:25:49 | |
Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! 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. | |||
| Rant-a-Thon 2023 | 20 Dec 2023 | 02:14:10 | |
Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! It's the end of the year again and time to rant! This year's collection of rants includes:
| |||
| Political Beliefs (with Oliver Traldi) | 19 Nov 2023 | 01:09:36 | |
Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! 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. | |||
| Discriminating for the Greater Good Part 2: Law and Affirmative Action | 30 Oct 2023 | 01:30:16 | |
Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! 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/ | |||
| Trust and the liberal order | 29 Sep 2023 | 01:11:56 | |
Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! Kevin Vallier joins Spencer Case to talk about social trust and the role it plays in the psychological and moral foundations of liberal societies. | |||
| Gender, Pronouns and Linguistic Negotiation | 07 Aug 2023 | 01:20:46 | |
Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! 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. | |||
| American Patriotism | 01 Jul 2023 | 01:23:25 | |
Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! Commentator Charles "Concealed Weapon" Cooke joins Spencer to discuss American identity and patriotism. | |||
| Wokeness in Science: Critiquing a critique | 09 Jun 2023 | 01:14:00 | |
Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! 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. | |||
| Thought experiments (Special Brain in a Vat co-production) | 21 May 2023 | 01:15:10 | |
Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! Mark Oppenheimer and Jason Werbeloff of Brain in a Vat join Spencer to discuss one of their favorite subjects: thought experiments. | |||
| Sikh Metaphysics and Ethics | 21 Apr 2023 | 01:11:25 | |
Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! Keshav Singh joins Spencer to discuss Sikh religion and philosophy. ("Sikh" is pronounced with the short 'i' sound, and not like "seek"). They cover they history and basic tenets of the Sikh faith, its idea of divinity, and the Sikh idea that "haumai", meaning roughly obsession with oneself, is the root of all human evil. Keshav's personal webpage is here: | |||
| Creating Future People | 30 Mar 2023 | 01:37:05 | |
Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! Johnny the Anomaly joins Spencer Case to argue that the potential benefits of genetic enhancement outweigh the risks (Spencer is skeptical). | |||
| Nuclear War | 17 Aug 2024 | 01:32:24 | |
Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! Is the possession of nuclear weapons morally justified? Was it a mistake to invent them to begin with? Dave Baker joins Spencer to discuss these and other questions about nuclear war. (Correction: Joseph Stalin died in 1953, not 1952). | |||
| Unreasonable Doubt: Rejecting Skepticism | 25 Feb 2023 | 01:33:53 | |
Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! Mike Huemer joins Spencer Case for a wide-ranging discussion about epistemology. Mike argues that you should trust the experts rather than relying on your own "critical thinking"; Spencer's not so sure. They also discuss two strategies for rejecting the Brain-in-a-Vat argument for external world skepticism. | |||
| The Dark Side of Technology, Part 2 | 28 Jan 2023 | 01:10:03 | |
Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! Ryan Jenkins, professor of philosophy at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, rejoins Spencer for the first time since the inaugural episode of Micro-Digressions to resume the conversation about how technology can make our lives worse. The topics discussed include anti-Covid measures, government and corporate surveillance, content moderation on social media, and (taking a page from Oliver Burkeman's Four Thousand Weeks), the ways in which technology encourages us to instrumentalize our everyday experiences. | |||
| Rant-a-thon spectacular (2022) | 25 Dec 2022 | 01:35:56 | |
Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! Featuring: Mark Oppenheimer and Jason Werbeloff from the Brain in the Vat podcast ranting against each other, Perry Hendericks on biased refereeing, Bob Pasnau on contemporary philosophy versus history of philosophy, Matt Lutz on probability and China's zero Covid meltdown, Mike Burke on woke enablers, Spencer Case on why moral extremism is bad, and Oliver Traldi on conceptual engineering. | |||
| Black Friday Special episode: Famine, Affluence and Morality, Part 2 | 09 Dec 2022 | 01:08:14 | |
Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! Jim Skidmore joins Spencer to continue the discussion of Singer's argument in "Famine, Affluence, and Morality." | |||
| Black Friday Special episode: Famine, Affluence and Morality, Part 1 | 01 Dec 2022 | 01:12:29 | |
Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! The first of a two-part series on Peter Singer's famous argument that we must give our expendable income to highly effective charities. This episode features guest Travis Timmerman of Seton Hall University. (Note: Jim Skidmore participated in the first part of this conversation, but his audio wasn't useable due to technical difficulties. That explains a few references to a third participant. Skidmore will appear in part 2). | |||
| Realism, idealism, and the War in Ukraine | 27 Oct 2022 | 01:53:12 | |
Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! Philippe Lemoine returns to Micro-Digressions to talk about the difference between realism and idealism in foreign policy thinking, and why he thinks excessive idealism led to the ongoing Russo-Ukraine war. | |||
| Self-Contempt and the Decline of Civilizations | 17 Sep 2022 | 01:17:09 | |
Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! Benedict Beckeld joins Spencer Case to talk about his new book Western Self-Contempt: Oikophobia in the Decline of Civilizations. They discuss the phenomenon of oikophobia, which is roughly contempt for one's home country or culture, the decline of philosophy of history, and other topics. | |||
| Parenting and Philosophy | 21 Aug 2022 | 01:20:39 | |
Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! Big news: Spencer is a father! Jessica Flanigan, mother of four and philosopher, is this episode's guest. The topics they cover include: what are babies' minds like? Do we have good reasons to become parents (or to avoid becoming parents)? Do we have any special duties toward our offspring? Special appearance by new mother Han Ruimei, Spencer's wife. The picture is of their son, Elijah Han Case (Han Yilai). | |||
| Is everything becoming political? (Remastered) | 03 Aug 2022 | 01:04:29 | |
Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! This first recorded episode of Micro-Digressions has been re-edited for improved sound quality and flow. Justin Kalef and Spencer Case discuss their worries about hyper-politicization, and together develop a case that society requires politically neutral ground. | |||
| Let's talk about Socialism | 18 Jul 2022 | 01:43:02 | |
Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! Ben Burgis joins Spencer to discuss G.A. Cohen's defense of socialism, and objections to it. They also discuss the difference between Marxism and utopian socialism, different conceptions of political freedom, and other topics. | |||
| Come on, man! Debating the Joe Biden presidency | 20 Jul 2024 | 01:31:54 | |
Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! You may have heard that there's an election going on in the U.S. A big one in fact. This episode is a debate about the records of one of the candidates, Joe Biden. Matt Lutz, noted error theorist and Biden enthusiast, returns to the podcast to argue that Americans are insufficiently appreciative of Biden's performance on the economy and foreign policy. Spencer provides pushback on Biden's various student loan repayment schemes and immigration. | |||
| The University Disaster | 11 Jun 2022 | 01:26:44 | |
Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! Jason Brennan joins Spencer to discuss the many problems that afflict the university as an institution, all of which stem from bad incentives. They also discuss the psychology of extremism and bad faith engagement. This intro and outro music is "Eddie's Twister" by Eddie Lang (1927). | |||
| SPECIAL EPISODE: Moral Experts | 19 May 2022 | 01:51:01 | |
Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! This episode is a companion to the recent moral experts roundtable article in Quillette. Oliver Traldi rejoins Spencer, along with first-time guests Bo Winegard and Geoffrey Miller, to discuss the philosophical and social problems of moral expertise. Over the course of the episode, they touch on the concept of expertise, the moral realism/anti-realism debate, and the extent to which values do (and should) influence scientific research. | |||
| The Problem of Induction and the Uniformity of Nature | 21 Apr 2022 | 01:31:26 | |
Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! Matt Lutz returns to the podcast to explain his (in his opinion, very neglected) solution to the "counter-induction parody" argument, which is used to bolster Hume's notorious argument for inductive skepticism. Spencer makes a big personal announcement. | |||
| Hypocrisy and Bad Intentions | 15 Mar 2022 | 01:27:01 | |
Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! What's so bad about hypocrisy? What difference does an agent's intentions make to the morality of his or her action? Craig White joins Spencer Case to discuss these questions, and to register his objections to the unrealistic thought experiments that some moral philosophers deploy. | |||
| Why Philosophy? | 20 Feb 2022 | 01:20:17 | |
Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! Mark Oppenheimer and Jason Werbeloff, the two South African hosts of the irreverent and fearless Brain in a Vat podcast, join Spencer to discuss the uses of philosophy its role in a flourishing human life. Along the way, they also discuss the permissibility of outsourcing your religious duties to an AI and other surprising topics. | |||
| Killing in War | 26 Jan 2022 | 01:31:37 | |
Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! Jeff McMahan, White's professor of philosophy at Oxford University and author of Killing in War and other books, joins Spencer to talk about the ethics of participating in wars and other topics. | |||
| Should borders be open? | 01 Jan 2022 | 01:45:56 | |
Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! Peter Jaworski, a philosophy professor at the Georgetown University McDonough school of business, and Rob Gressis, a philosophy professor at California State University Northridge, join Spencer to debate the pros and cons of open borders. | |||
| Beauty, Ugliness and Morality: Some moral quandaries of art | 30 Nov 2021 | 01:37:50 | |
Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! Mary Beth ("no hyphen") Willard of Weber State University joins Spencer and his wife, May to discuss the relationship between beauty and moral goodness. They pay particular attention to the question of whether an artist's moral character can ever affect the aesthetic or moral qualities of his or her art. Subjects include Bill Cosby and the blues artist Louisiana Red . | |||
| SPECIAL EPISODE: Debating abortion | 01 Nov 2021 | 01:37:10 | |
Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! Two guests, Nathan Nobis and Christopher Kaczor, join Spencer to discuss the ethics of abortion. | |||
| The Dark Side of Morality | 13 Oct 2021 | 01:05:52 | |
Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! Is there something bad about being too good? Might belief in objective morality distort our moral behavior? Marcus Arvan joins Spencer Case to discuss. | |||
| Consciousness and the self | 18 Jun 2024 | 01:24:29 | |
Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! Mike Huemer rejoins Spencer to discuss the nature of consciousness. They consider the reasons for thinking that consciousness can't be physical and some prominent physicalist rejoinders to dualist arguments. | |||
| Discriminating for the greater good | 23 Sep 2021 | 01:56:53 | |
Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! Stephen Kershnar joins Spencer Case to discuss the moral quandaries surrounding affirmative action and other forms of discrimination on the basis of race and gender. | |||
| Religious and atheistic experience | 31 Aug 2021 | 01:13:21 | |
Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! Many people claim to have experiences of God. Others have experiences that cause them to lose faith. What is the significance of these experiences? Chad McIntosh and Spencer Case discuss. | |||
| SPECIAL EPISODE: What's the Deal with Critical Race Theory? | 14 Jul 2021 | 01:44:13 | |
Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! What is Critical Race Theory and why is it evil (if it is in fact evil)? Sam Hoadley-Brill and Oliver Traldi join Spencer Case to discuss the culture war controversy surrounding CRT. They discuss the proper way of defining CRT, the relationship between CRT and figures like Ibram X. Kendi and Robin DiAngelo, and the pros and cons of the anti-"CRT" bills. | |||
| The metaphysics of bitcoin | 14 Jun 2021 | 01:14:10 | |
Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! What is Bitcoin, anyway? Craig Warmke joins Spencer Case to discuss his view that Bitcoin is a kind of fictional substance that nonetheless has real economic value. | |||
| Dangerous ideas: an interview with Francesca Minerva | 28 Apr 2021 | 00:55:59 | |
Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! Francesca Minerva joins Spencer Case to discuss the launch of the new Journal of Controversial Ideas, which allows scholars to publish peer reviewed research anonymously to avoid backlash. | |||
| Some conflict, she says: An interview with Holly Lawford-Smith | 02 Apr 2021 | 01:22:27 | |
Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! Holly Lawford-Smith joins Spencer to defend her website, No Conflict They Said (.org). This collects anonymous stories from women who say they have been negatively affected by the intrusion of biological males into what have been female only spaces. Critics allege that this website is transphobic. Spencer and Holly discuss these criticism, the extent to which trans-activism is influencing academic philosophy, and some potential downsides to anti-"conversion therapy" laws. | |||
| What is knowledge (and who cares)? | 30 Mar 2021 | 01:11:29 | |
Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! Crispin Sartwell joins Spencer Case to discuss the nature of knowledge, the relationship between aesthetics and knowledge, and other themes. | |||
| Thinking about Disagreement | 26 Jan 2021 | 01:28:56 | |
Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! Matt Lutz, an associate professor of philosophy at Wuhan University, joins Spencer Case to discuss philosophical conundrums about disagreement. Must we alter our beliefs in the face of disagreement? If so, then how much and in what circumstances? Along the way, they discuss the Wuhan lockdown -- which Matt experienced firsthand -- conspiracy theories, and something called "explanationism." | |||
| Conquering Anger and Fear | 26 Dec 2020 | 01:06:19 | |
Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! Tyler Paytas rejoins Spencer Case on Micro-Digressions to discuss the irrationality of anger and fear. They also touch on retributivism and strategies for overcoming anger and fear. | |||
| The Limits of Scientific Authority | 07 Oct 2020 | 01:18:35 | |
Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! Philosophers of science disagree about what, if anything, distinguishes science from other bodies of knowledge, and other areas of inquiry. It's clear science commands a great deal of authority. But is this authority always a good thing? Spencer Case and Philippe Lemoine discuss the ways in which that authority can be misused and corrupted. | |||
| Death and Immortality (Thinking About Death Part 2) | 22 May 2024 | 01:20:20 | |
Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! Come for Spencer's funeral home jokes; stay for the unanticipated discussion of the movie Her. Travis Timmerman and Spencer Case resume their discussion about death. This time they talk about annihilationism, the idea that being annihilated is an intrinsically bad thing for the annihilated person, as well as popular arguments that immortality would be a bad thing for creatures like us. | |||
| Has liberalism failed? | 01 Sep 2020 | 01:16:55 | |
Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! Liberalism has recently been subjected to criticisms from both the political left and the right. But what is liberalism, anyway? Do these recent arguments against it carry any weight? Spencer Case discusses these and other questions with Prof. Patrick Lee Miller of Duquesne University. | |||
| The Virtue Illusion: Are you as good as you think you are? | 07 Aug 2020 | 01:09:17 | |
Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! You probably think of yourself as a good person. But how sure are you that, if faced with certain sorts of social pressures, you wouldn't do something really terrible? There is, unfortunately, a evidence that most people aren't nearly as good as they believe themselves to be. Christian Miller, author of The Character Gap, discusses some of this evidence and why it matters. | |||
| You're cancelled! | 19 Jul 2020 | 01:05:13 | |
Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! Guest Oliver Traldi and Spencer Case discuss the phenomenon of so-called "cancel culture." | |||
| Philosophical Dispositions | 06 Jul 2020 | 01:07:45 | |
Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! Spencer Case and Dan Kaufman discuss the importance of disposition to philosophy, and the difference between wisdom and knowledge. | |||