A couple of philosophy professors, Megan Fritts and Frank Cabrera, try to prove that you can do philosophy about almost anything. Join them as they explore the philosophical dimensions of topics on the outskirts of the academy. From Bigfoot to birthday parties, they take a Socratic approach to phenomena strange and mundane, asking listeners the question: What if we did philosophy on the fringes?
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In this episode, Megan and Frank discuss esotericism, as both a type of, and approach to, knowledge. Are there hidden messages in the classic texts? Can some truths only be approached indirectly?
In this episode, Megan and Frank discuss the secret CIA mind control program known as MKUltra. Is mind control really possible? What ethical norms should govern human subjects research? And should those rules be flexible in the face of an existential threat?
To investigate some of these questions, this episode contains a guest interview with Dr. Justin Bernstein (University of Virginia). Dr. Bernstein joins the podcast to discuss questions relating to research ethics, the relationship between politics and morality, and trust in public health institutions.
In this episode, Megan and Frank reflect on the mission of Philosophy on the Fringes. Why think about "fringe" topics, such as near-death experiences, aliens, and past life memories? Are these topics any weirder than what passes for respectable in mainstream academic philosophy? And most important, does taking fringe topics seriously make one a crank?
To investigate some of these questions, this episode contains a guest interview with Dr. Joshua Blanchard (Oakland University). Dr. Blanchard joins the podcast to discuss the "problem of unwelcome epistemic company", the problem of finding yourself in agreement with some morally or intellectually suspect sources.
In this episode, Megan and Frank investigate dreams and dream interpretation. Are dreams random hallucinations? Hidden desires? Messages from the gods? What, if anything, can dreams tell us about ourselves, and how might media shape our dreaming experiences? Thinkers discussed include: Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Artemidorus of Daldianus, Rene Descartes, Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, Norman Malcom, Eric Schwitzgebel, and David Lynch.
In this episode, Megan and Frank investigate aphantasia, the inability to generate mental imagery. What can aphantasia tell us about the nature of the mind, in particular, "the hard problem" of consciousness? Should aphantasia be considered a disorder, or merely another variation in human experience? And is it possible to meaningfully talk about our inner experiences, or would that necessarily constitute a kind of private language? Thinkers discussed include: Adam Zeman, Merlin Monzel, Elizabeth Barnes, Ludwig Wittgenstein, and Soren Kierkegaard.
In this episode, Megan and Frank explore the prophecies of Nostradamus. Nostradamus was a prophet--but what is a prophet? What should we make of his seemingly accurate predictions of major world events? Do prophetic powers imply that the future is determined? Or are we simply bound to an immovable fate? And what, if anything, does Nostradamus have to tell us about our futures? Thinkers discussed include: Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Friedrich Nietzsche, Brian Leiter, and David Foster Wallace.
In this episode, Megan and Frank investigate the Mandela Effect. Why do so many people "remember" Nelson Mandela dying in prison in the 1980s, or the Fruit of the Loom logo as containing a cornucopia, or the existence of a movie starring Sinbad as a genie? What explains these collective mis-rememberings: parallel dimensions, a government cover-up, a glitch in the matrix? Or should we just conclude that human memory is inherently unreliable? How do false memories arise, and how can we distinguish the real from the imagined? Despite our cultural obsession with preserving every memory, could there be some value in forgetting the past? Thinkers discussed include Augustine of Hippo, Friedrich Nietzsche, Edmund Husserl, and Elizabeth Loftus.
In this episode, Megan and Frank discuss the alternative medicine practice known as "Reiki," a kind of touch energy healing. What is Reiki, and how is it supposed to work? Is there scientific evidence of Reiki's effectiveness, or is it all just a placebo? And if so, would that really be a problem?
In this episode, Megan and Frank examine the Apocalypse. How should we define "the apocalypse"? How does religious apocalyptic thought apply in a secular context? What are the dangers of apocalyptic thinking? And why do we always seem to be in the end times? This episode pays special attention to the book Apocalypse Without God: Apocalyptic Thought, Ideal Politics, and the Limits of Utopian Hope by Ben Jones. Other thinkers discussed include: Machiavelli, Hobbes, Engels, and Rawls.
In this episode, Megan and Frank continue their discussion of the Illuminati. Here, the focus is on the afterlife of the Bavarian Order. How did conspiracy theories involving the Illuminati arise? Why is so much pop culture full of Illuminati imagery? And are there any good reasons to believe in such conspiracy theories? Thinkers discussed include: Dostoyevsky, Kierkegaard, and Maarten Boudry.
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