Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7

Richard Wolff is Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a visiting professor at The New School, where he works on economics in the Marxist tradition. This is Richard’s fourth appearance on Robinson’s Podcast. In episode #127, he and Robinson discussed some of the most profound criticisms of capitalism; in #154, they focused on the myths surrounding Marxism and Marx himself; and in #190 they covered the Israel-Palestine conflict from a Marxist perspective. In this wide-ranging episode, Richard and Robinson talk about the end of the American empire. More particularly they discuss the wars in Russia, Ukraine, Israel, and Palestine, the rivalry between China and the United States, the global interplay between capitalism and socialism, the distinction between socialism and communism, the conflict between the BRICS and G7 nations, and more. Richard’s latest book is Understanding Capitalism (Democracy at Work, 2024).

Understanding Capitalism (Book): https://www.democracyatwork.info/understanding_capitalism

Class Theory and History (Book): https://a.co/d/ht4trZN

Understanding the 2024 Elections (Article): https://asiatimes.com/2024/08/capitalism-mass-anger-and-2024-elections/

Richard’s Website: https://www.rdwolff.com

Economic Update: https://www.democracyatwork.info/economicupdate

OUTLINE

03:10 On the Trauma of His Family Background

10:50 Academia’s War on Marxism 

22:45 Economics as the Secret Undercurrent of History

28:01 Will Ukraine Defeat Russia?

31:52 Is China the Empire of the New World?

39:04 The Best American Strategy Against China

45:24 How Trump Won and Lost America

56:22 Is Israel a Colonialist State?

01:03:23 On the Expulsion of the Palestinians from Israel

01:10:49 Israel as America’s Economic Baby

01:18:08 Global Capitalism as the Enemy of the Islamic World

01:23:00 Why You Should Distrust Wartime Propaganda

01:33:03 Zelensky and the Ukrainian Chess Match

01:42:53 The Economic Conspiracy Behind the American Pick-Up Truck

01:49:31 Israel, Ukraine, and the New Cold War

01:54:20 The Many Taboos of Socialism and Communism

01:58:54 The War Between Socialism and Capitalism

02:07:51 Is Socialism More Efficient than Capitalism?

02:16:58 World War I and the Rise of Socialism

02:22:58 The Failed American Attempt to Destroy Russian Communism

02:27:26 Why Did Russia Choose Communism over Socialism?

02:38:06 Communism, Socialism, and the War for the Workplace

02:43:00 Is China Secretly Capitalist?

02:53:18 America’s Choice Between Equality or Subservience to China

02:58:45 Europe’s Hidden Economic Apocalypse

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, historians, economists, and everyone in-between. 

Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7

David Albert is the Frederick E. Woodbridge Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University, director of the Philosophical Foundations of Physics program at Columbia, and a faculty member of the John Bell Institute for the Foundations of Physics. This is David’s eighth appearance on Robinson’s Podcast. He last appeared on episode 210 with Tim Maudlin, which was a more advanced episode on Niels Bohr and the foundations of quantum mechanics. In this episode, David gives a pedagogical and introductory overview of the measurement problem, which is the issue at the core of many discussions about the foundations of quantum mechanics. David’s most recent book is A Guess at the Riddle (2023). If you’re interested in the foundations of physics, then please check out the JBI, which is devoted to providing a home for research and education in this important area. Any donations are immensely helpful at this early stage in the institute’s life.

Note: Unfortunately, the cameras turned off in the middle of the episode. For twenty minutes there is no video, and for most of the episode only the camera focusing on David is recording.

A Guess at the Riddle: https://a.co/d/6qcsidl

The John Bell Institute: https://www.johnbellinstitute.org

OUTLINE

00:00 Introduction

04:54 On Philosophy and the Foundations of Physics

15:35 The Bizarreness of the Quantum World

19:16 What Is the World of Classical Physics?

24:00 How Quantum Mechanics Destroyed the Classical World

29:19 What Is Quantum Mechanical Superposition?

32:18 How Quantum Mechanics Became the Theory of Reality

39:53 What Is the Measurement Problem of Quantum Mechanics?

51:05 Niels Bohr and the Foundations of Quantum Mechanics

01:01:14 Niels Bohr and the EPR Paper

01:08:45 Was Niels Bohr the Most Charming Physicist of All Time?

01:15:59 Is the Measurement Problem a Scientific Problem?

01:21:24 Is String Theory Pseudoscience?

01:31:03 Why Don’t Many Philosophers Work on String Theory?

01:34:08 The Wave Function and the Measurement Problem

01:37:57 Quantum Measurement and Wave Function Collapse

01:41:34 Hidden Variable Theories of Quantum Mechanics

01:44:54 Quantum Mechanics and the Multiverse

01:48:47 Solving the Measurement Problem with Experiment

01:56:41 Quantum Mechanics and the Scientific Project

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, historians, economists, and everyone in-between. 

Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7

Joyce Carol Oates is the Rogers S. Berlind ’52 Professor Emerita in the Humanities at Princeton University with the Program in Creative Writing. She is among the most widely-recognized and respected writers of our time, and has written in a wide variety of media and genres, from poetry and fiction in the former category to horror and Gothic in the latter. Her work has also been adapted into various other media, from plays to film. Joyce is the recipient of two O. Henry Awards and the National Book Award, among many others. This is Joyce’s second appearance on Robinson’s Podcast. In episode 137, she and Robinson discussed craft in fiction and poetry. In this episode, they talk about Joyce’s most recent collection of short stories, Zero-Sum (link in the description), as well as philosophy, Peter Singer, dealing with criticism, translation, and more.

Joyce’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/JoyceCarolOates

Joyce’s Substack: https://joycecaroloates.substack.com

Zero-Sum: https://a.co/d/0cYh3ndo

OUTLINE

00:00 Introduction

03:16 On Peter Singer

12:41 On Buddhism

21:50 On Hemingway

25:50 Dealing with Criticism

38:17 On Translation

47:53 Writing Short Stories

58:38 Imagery and Recreating the World

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, and everyone in-between. 

Jay McClelland is Lucie Stern Professor in the Department of Psychology at Stanford University, where he is also Director of the Center for Mind, Brain, Computation and Technology. Along with other towering figures like Geoffrey Hinton, Jay is considered one of the fathers of artificial intelligence. In this episode, Robinson and Jay discuss some of his main interests in and contributions to the field, including his work on parallel distributed processing with David Rumelhart, the relationship between neural networks and the brain, and just what developments are necessary for artificial intelligence to replicate the thinking of the greatest human scientists and engineers.

Parallel Distributed Processing: https://a.co/d/aELzYx2

OUTLINE

00:00 In This Episode…

00:30 Introduction

02:55 Jay’s Beginnings in Psychology

07:46 What Is Parallel Distributed Processing?

24:21 Cognitive Phenomena and Neural Networks

37:27 Fodor and Pylyshyn on Neural Networks

52:10 Affective Reasoning

55:52 Advancing AI to Compete with Scientists

01:10:02 What Distinguishes AI From Our Greatest Thinkers?

01:14:15 AI and Mathematical Cognition

01:18:47 Macrostructure and Microstructure

01:43:32 Final Thoughts

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.

Paul Boghossian is Silver Professor of Philosophy at New York University, where he is also Chair of the Philosophy Department. Paul has worked in a wide variety of areas within philosophy, including epistemology and the philosophy of language, mind, and logic respectively. Robinson and Paul discuss the sociological relationship between physics and philosophy, the Sokal Hoax, philosophy in public life, the role of the a priori and a posteriori distinction in metaphysics, logic, and epistemology, and the nature of moral facts. For more detail on the latter, check out Paul’s book with Timothy Williamson, Debating The A Priori (Oxford, 2020).

Debating The A Priori: https://a.co/d/diNADPx

OUTLINE

00:00 In This Episode…

00:32 Introduction

04:33 Physics and Philosophy

17:12 The Sokal Hoax

26:52 Distinguishing the A Priori and A Posteriori

31:59 Does The A Priori/A Posteriori Distinction Hold Water?

48:07 Clarifying the Distinction

53:51 Debating the A Priori with Timothy Williamson

01:03:11 Are There Moral Facts?

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between. 

David Pizarro is Professor of Psychology at Cornell University. While he teaches and publicly discusses a wide variety of material in the discipline, his primary research interest is in moral judgment. In this episode, Robinson and David discuss some of the conceptual underpinnings of moral psychology before turning to the research on praise, blame, social cognition, and the relationship between disgust and political affiliation. David is also the co-host of two podcasts, Very Bad Wizards with Tamler Sommers and Psych with Paul Bloom.

David’s Website: http://peezer.net

David’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/peez

Very Bad Wizards: https://verybadwizards.fireside.fm

Psych: https://psych.fireside.fm

OUTLINE

00:00 In This Episode…

00:39 Introduction

02:52 David’s Interest in Moral Psychology

06:42 Morality, Judgment, and Intuition in Psychology

30:40 Did Psychology Advance Too Fast

33:44 The Psychology of Praise and Blame

56:26 Why Do We Blame Objects and Robots?

01:10:09 Ostracism, Loneliness, and the Human Condition

01:14:27 The Psychology of Disgust

01:32:26 Disgust and Moral Judgement

01:40:10 Disgust Sensitivity and Political Affiliation

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between. 

Julian Barbour is a physicist working in the foundations of physics and quantum gravity, with a special interest in time and the history of science. In this episode, Julian and Robinson discuss thermodynamics and the arrows of time, including a new theory of time developed by Julian and his collaborators, which is laid out in his book, The Janus Point: A New Theory of Time. If you’re interested in the foundations of physics—which you absolutely should be—then please check out the John Bell Institute (Julian is an Honorary Fellow at the JBI), which is devoted to providing a home for research and education in this important area. At this early stage any donations are immensely helpful.

Julian’s Website: http://platonia.com/index.html

The Janus Point: https://a.co/d/4NVOGqq

A History of Thermodynamics: http://platonia.com/A_History_of_Thermodynamics.pdf

Quantum without Quantum:  https://arxiv.org/abs/2305.13335

The John Bell Institute: https://www.johnbellinstitute.org

OUTLINE

00:00 In This Episode…

00:56 Introduction

04:42 Julian’s Interest in Time

07:27 Time’s Arrows

23:34 The Problem of Time-Reversal Symmetry

25:54 A Potted Overview of Entropy and Thermodynamics

38:21 Entropy and Time’s Arrow

52:32 The Janus Point and a New Theory of Time

01:07:00 Intuition and The Janus Point

01:21:21 Entropy and Entaxy

01:26:00 Cosmic Inflation and Its Problems

01:44:05 Quantum Mechanics without the Wave Function

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between. 

Simon Blackburn was Professor of Philosophy at the University of Cambridge and Edna J. Koury Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. This is Simon’s second appearance on the show. In episode 68, Simon and Robinson discussed metaethics and moral realism.  In this episode, they talk about his latest books, Lust and Mirror, Mirror, with special attention to toxic vanity, the tale of Narcissus, and pride.

Lust: https://a.co/d/9dcOem9

Mirror, Mirror: https://a.co/d/9uy81GY

OUTLINE

00:00 In This Episode…

00:38 Introduction

03:08 Love and Simon’s Philosophy

10:04 L’Oreal and Toxic Vanity

31:09 The Tale of Narcissus

42:41 Lust and Self-Love

46:45 Psychology and Narcissism

52:43 Pride

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between. 

Mark Solms is professor of Neuropsychology at the Neuroscience Institute at the University of Cape Town. He is also a psychoanalyst, and while Mark’s early research focused on the brain mechanisms of sleep and dreaming, he is currently working on the neural correlates of consciousness and affect. In this episode, Robinson and Mark talk about his new book The Hidden Spring: A Journey to the Source of Consciousness. More particularly, they discuss the hard problem of consciousness and how recent advances in neuroscience have pointed toward a solution.

The Hidden Spring: https://a.co/d/jcvbmLw

Mark’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/Mark_Solms

OUTLINE

00:00 In This Episode…

00:47 Introduction

03:09 What is Neuropsychoanalysis?

11:54 Was Freud a Neuroscientist?

26:17 What is the Hard Problem of Consciousness?

36:24 What is the Relationship between Dreaming and Consciousness?

54:44 Patients without a Cortex

01:03:01 Does Consciousness Have a Purpose?

01:14:53 Daniel Dennett and Karl Friston

01:24:49 Solving the Hard Problem of Consciousness

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between. 

Slavoj Žižek is international director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities at the University of London, visiting professor at New York University, and a senior researcher at the University of Ljubljana’s Department of Philosophy. He was also the guest for Robinson’s Podcast #109 on psychoanalysis, wokeness, racism, and a hundred other topics. Sean Carroll is Homewood Professor of Natural Philosophy at Johns Hopkins University and fractal faculty at the Santa Fe Institute. He is also host of Sean Carroll’s Mindscape, a terrific show (that influenced the birth of Robinson’s Podcast) about science, society, philosophy, culture, arts, and ideas. Sean was one of the guests—along with David Albert of Columbia—on Robinson’s Podcast #106, which covers the Many-Worlds theory of quantum mechanics, entropy and Boltzmann Brains, and the fine-tuned universe. In this episode, Robinson, Sean, and Slavoj (though mostly Sean and Slavoj) talk about quantum mechanics, the indeterminacy of small-scale reality, cosmology and the big bang, major figures like Niels Bohr, Einstein, and Stephen Hawking, and the world of sci-fi, including movies like Everything Everywhere All at Once, Indian Jones, and the Avengers. If you’re interested in the foundations of physics—which you absolutely should be—then please check out the John Bell Institute (Sean is an Honorary Fellow at the JBI), which is devoted to providing a home for research and education in this important area. At this early stage any donations are immensely helpful.

Robinson's Podcast #109 | Slavoj Žižek: Wokeness, Psychoanalysis, and Quantum Mechanics: https://youtu.be/IxmZ4AVac7U

Robinson’s Podcast #106 | David Albert & Sean Carroll: Quantum Theory, Boltzmann Brains, & The Fine-Tuned Universe: https://youtu.be/U6ZtmGIhIhU

Sean’s Website: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com

Sean’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/seanmcarroll

The Biggest Ideas in the Universe: https://a.co/d/dPKZ40X

The John Bell Institute: https://www.johnbellinstitute.org

OUTLINE

00:00 In This Episode…

00:38 Introduction

04:40 Quantum Incompleteness

15:56 A Problem with Many-Worlds?

27:08 Niels Bohr and the Copenhagen Interpretation

40:30 Ontological Indeterminacy and Quantum Physics

47:23 On Superposition, History, and Art

01:02:10 What’s The Status of the Big Bang?

01:09:57 Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr, and Indeterminacy

01:21:13 Will Quantum Mechanics Be in a Theory of Everything?

01:27:55 Everything Everywhere All at Once, Indiana Jones, and The Avengers

01:33:03 Time Travel and Killing Hitler

01:41:54 On Stephen Hawking

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between. 

Dr. Anna Lembke received her undergraduate degree in Humanities from Yale University and and her medical degree from Stanford University. She is currently Professor and Medical Director of Addiction Medicine at the Stanford University School of Medicine. She is also Program Director of the Stanford Addiction Medicine Fellowship, and Chief of the Stanford Addiction Medicine Dual Diagnosis Clinic. In this episode, Robinson and Anna discuss her latest, New York Times bestselling book Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence (Dutton/Penguin Random House, August 2021). More particularly, they talk about just what happens in the brain when someone develops an addiction, what current social and cultural conditions have led to increased rates of addiction, and how all of these factors—and addiction itself—ought to be combatted. Anna is also the author of Drug Dealer, MD: How Doctors Were Duped, Patients Got Hooked, and Why It’s So Hard to Stop (Johns Hopkins, 2016), which sounded the alarm on—and covers—various dimensions of the opioid crisis.

Dopamine Nation: https://a.co/d/0AJw6Je

Drug Dealer, MD: https://a.co/d/2soL324

OUTLINE

00:00 In This Episode…

00:56 Introduction

04:10 Addiction and Narrative

11:18 The Role of Dopamine in Addiction

20:29 Risk Factors for Addiction

27:31 Anna’s Addiction to Romance Novels

40:39 Pain, Pleasure, and Addiction

59:11 How to Tackle Addictions?

01:15:09 Is The Hype For Medical Psychedelics Overblown?

01:21:51 Honesty, Shame, and Recovery from Addiction

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.

Massimo Pigliucci is K.D. Irani Professor of Philosophy at the City University of New York, where he specializes in both ancient philosophy and the philosophy of science. In addition to a doctorate in philosophy, Massimo has a PhD in evolutionary biology. In this episode, Robinson and Massimo discuss the vast landscape between science on the one hand and pseudoscience on the other, covering how they should be distinguished, examples galore, and the role of the public intellectual in science education. Check out Massimo’s excellent book, which ranges across these topics and more, Nonsense on Stilts: How to Tell Science from Bunk.

Nonsense on Stilts: https://a.co/d/agrSGF4

Massimo’s Website: https://massimopigliucci.org

Massimo’s Substack: https://figsinwinter.substack.com/

OUTLINE

00:00 In This Episode…

01:22 Introduction

04:17 Massimo’s Interest in Pseudoscience

10:29 What Is Pseudoscience?

24:36 Pseudoscience and The Search For Aliens

39:43 Conspiracy Theories and Expert Selection

46:00 Should Scientists Debate Pseudoscientists and Conspiracy Theorists?

49:20 Aristotle and the Elements of Scientific Communication

59:41 The Decline of the Public Intellectual and the Rise of the Think Tank

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between. 

Craig Callender is Professor of Philosophy and Co-Director of the Institute for Practical Ethics at UC San Diego. Tim Maudlin is Professor of Philosophy at NYU and Founder and Director of the John Bell Institute for the Foundations of Physics. Craig and Tim are leading philosophers of science and physics. Craig also appeared on episode 73, in which he and Robinson discussed pseudoscience and conspiracy theories. Tim was a guest on episode 46, which covered laws of nature, space, and free will, and episode 67 with David Albert, which was all about the foundations of quantum mechanics. In this episode, Craig, Tim, and Robinson delve into the philosophy of time, touching on the reality of the past, present, and future, the direction of time, its relationship to relativity and quantum mechanics, and time travel. Craig and Tim have both written on time. Check out Craig’s book What Makes Time Special? (Oxford University Press, 2017) and Tim’s book Philosophy of Physics, Volume 1: Space and Time (Princeton, 2012). If you’re interested in the foundations of physics—which you absolutely should be—then please check out the John Bell Institute, which is devoted to providing a home for research and education in this important area. At this early stage any donations are immensely helpful.

Craig’s Website: https://www.craigcallender.com

Tim’s Website: www.tim-maudlin.site

The John Bell Institute: https://www.johnbellinstitute.org

OUTLINE

00:00 In This Episode…

01:12 Introduction

04:43 The A- and B-Series of Time

21:20 Presentism, Possibilism, and Eternalism

42:03 Foliations in Time

57:39 Foliations of Time in Quantum Theory

01:03:30 Superluminal Signaling

01:11:56 The Direction of Time

01:35:24 Philosophy and Time Travel

02:03:07 The John Bell Institute

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between. 

Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7

Slavoj Žižek is international director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities at the University of London, visiting professor at New York University, and a senior researcher at the University of Ljubljana’s Department of Philosophy. This is Slavoj’s fourth appearance on the show. On episode 109, he and Robinson discussed wokeness and psychoanalysis. On episode 118, he, Sean Carroll, and Robinson discussed quantum physics, the multiverse, and time travel. And on episode 206 he, Lee Smolin, and Robinson discussed quantum physics. In this episode, Robinson and Slavoj talk about ancient philosophy, god, communism, quantum mechanics, and psychoanalysis.

OUTLINE

00:00 Introduction

02:47 Why Is Philosophy More important Now Than Ever?

11:08 On Socrates and the Importance of Philosophy

19:12 On Excrement, God, and Atheism

27:50 A Communist Paradise

34:18 Ukraine and Marxism

39:24 Philosophy and Quantum Mechanics

47:56 Is Lying the Point of Language?

55:49 Cursing as a Test for Artificial Intelligence

58:25 On Philosophers and Physicists

1:01:50 On Superpositions and Quantum Mechanics

1:09:28 On Analytic and Continental Philosophy 

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, and everyone in-between.

Eric Helms is an AUT Research Fellow at the Sports Performance Research Institute New Zealand (Auckland University of Technology) in the Strength & Conditioning and Sports Physiology and Nutrition research groups. He is also the Director and Chief Science Officer of 3DMJ, an organization devoted to strength training and education centered around the same, a competitive bodybuilder, co-host of the Iron Culture podcast—which comes highly, highly recommended by Robinson—and a founding editor and reviewer for Monthly Applications in Strength Sport. Eric is also the author of two terrific books on strength training and nutrition respectively, The Muscle and Strength Pyramid: Training and The Muscle and Strength Pyramid: Nutrition. In this episode, Robinson and Eric discuss one of his areas of expertise, nutrition, covering both broad topics like various approaches to structuring one’s diet and more specific questions like how much protein you should be consuming and what supplements you should be taking.

Eric’s Instagram: @helms3dmj

Iron Culture: https://ironculture.libsyn.com

MASS: https://massresearchreview.com

3DMJ: https://3dmusclejourney.com

OUTLINE

00:00 Introduction

03:36 Eric’s Academic Background

11:14 Should You Get Your Diet Advice From Bodybuilders?

18:28 The Benefits of Intuitive Eating

52:25 How to Determine Maintenance Calories

59:50 How Much Protein Should You Be Eating?

01:16:38 MASS

01:20:08 Creatine

01:30:43 Should You Take BCAAs?

01:38:33 The Role of Meta-analyses in Sports Science

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between. 

David Spiegel is Willson Professor of Medicine and Associate Chair of Psychiatry at Stanford University School of Medicine. He did his undergraduate work at Yale and received his M.D. from Harvard Medical School. David is highly regarded as one of the most creative psychiatrists in the field, and has worked on a wide array of topics within the discipline. In this episode, Robinson and David discuss his pioneering work in hypnotherapy, as David is the world’s leading hypnotherapist and hypnotherapy researcher. More particularly, they discuss the origins of hypnotherapy, its relationship to hypnosis in popular culture, how therapeutic interventions fare compare to pharmaceutical interventions for mental illness, how hypnosis treats mental disorders, and how self-hypnosis can be a useful tool in everyone’s mental health arsenal. David is also the Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Reveri, which is a groundbreaking self-hypnosis application for your smartphone that can guide you through a wide variety of modules to help improve sleep, anxiety, eating habits and many other facets of life.

Reveri: https://www.reveri.com

Trance & Treatment: Clinical Uses of Hypnosis: https://a.co/d/0lLXoU2

OUTLINE:

00:00 Introduction

4:24 David’s Start in Hypnotherapy

10:28 Hypnotherapy’s Rising Popularity

16:46 Therapy Versus Medication?

23:50 PTSD, MDMA, and Hypnosis

30:37 What Is Hypnotherapy?

36:05 Hypnosis and Comedic Gags

39:24 Are You Hypnotizable

59:31 Is Hypnotherapy Supported by Research?

01:04:41 Can Hypnosis Treat Eating Disorders?

01:09:20 Hypnosis, Restructuring, Psychopathy, and Understanding the Self

01:15:32 Reveri and Self-Hypnosis

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between. 

Victor Davis Hanson is a renowned classicist, military historian, and political commentator. He is the Martin and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow in Residence in Classics and Military History at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. Among numerous other awards, Victor was presented the National Humanities Medal in 2007. In this episode, Robinson and Victor discuss his latest book, The Dying Citizen. More particularly, they talk about the Ancient Greek origin of a flourishing egalitarian society centered around the notion of citizenship, the way this history has been subverted and recast, the perils of judging the past through the lens of the present, how citizenship is threatened in the United States today, and the nature of human progress. Keep up with Victor on Twitter, through his website, and on his podcast, The Victor Davis Hanson Show. 

Victor’s Website: https://victorhanson.com

Victor’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/VDHanson

The Victor Davis Hanson Show: https://art19.com/shows/the-victor-davis-hanson-show 

The Dying Citizen: https://a.co/d/dPocUJg

OUTLINE

00:00 In This Episode…

01:18 Introduction

04:10 The Dying Classics

10:28 Ancient Greece and the Perils of Revisionist History

20:55 Don’t Judge the Past Against the Present

24:32 The Difference between Citizens and Residents

40:04 The Importance of Citizenship

47:37 On Our Obsession with Inequality

51:23 Is Humankind Making Progress?

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between. 

Avi Loeb is Frank B. Baird Jr. Professor of Science in the Department of Astronomy at Harvard University, and former chair of the department. Before joining Harvard he spent fifteen years working in theoretical astrophysics at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. He is also the Director of the Institute for Theory and Computation, the Founding Director of the Black Hole Initiative at Harvard, and Head of the Galileo Project. In this episode, Avi and Robinson discuss his controversial and compelling research on—and theories about—Oumuamua, a comet that passed through the solar system in 2017, and which Avi believes was a spacecraft of extra-terrestrial origin. They also talk about the likelihood of life outside earth, Avi’s current investigations into the same, and his upcoming book Interstellar: The Search for Extraterrestrial Life and Our Future in the Stars, which will be released on August 29, 2023.

Interstellar: https://a.co/d/8Or10aM

Avi on Medium: https://avi-loeb.medium.com  

OUTLINE

00:00 In This Episode

01:38 Introduction

04:56 Avi’s Interest in Extra-Terrestrial Life

25:04 Avi’s Background in Astrophysics

33:14 The Fermi Paradox

45:09 Was Oumuamua an Alien Spacecraft?

01:31:27 Interstellar

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between. 

Daniel Kahneman is Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Public Policy at Princeton University. He won the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in 2002 for joint work with Amos Tversky in which they revealed the biases and heuristics with which humans operate, thereby deviating from the rationality presumed by economic theory at the time. Among this and many other awards, Danny was also given the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Barrack Obama. While Danny is likely best known outside of psychology for his book Thinking Fast and Slow, he and Robinson discuss his latest a book, co-authored with Olivier Simony and Cass Sunstein, called Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgment, which concerns the astonishingly prevalent and damaging variability inherent in human judgment.

Noise: https://a.co/d/hbKBQKD

OUTLINE

00:00 In This Episode…

00:55 Introduction

06:16 Danny’s Childhood

11:23 The Difference Between Noise and Bias

16:21 Some Themes from Noise

18:57 Noise in the Judicial System

32:36 Noise in the Medical System

37:59 The Difficulty of Spotting Noise

39:58 Psychology and the Descriptive, Prescriptive, and Normative

43:14 Decision Hygiene for Reducing Bias and Noise in Judgment

54:32 Limiting Intuitions to Improve Decision-Making

01:00:38 Understanding Regression to the Mean

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between. 

Slavoj Žižek is international director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities at the University of London, visiting professor at New York University, and a senior researcher at the University of Ljubljana’s Department of Philosophy. He and Robinson discuss a great many things, including the role of psychoanalysis in the cultural criticism of wokeness, the relationship between truth, science, and philosophy, and what quantum theory might tell us about the nature of reality.

OUTLINE

00:00 In This Episode…

01:31 Introduction

04:07 Wokeness and Psychoanalysis

15:00 Free Speech and Curb Your Enthusiasm

23:32 Trans Ideology and Racism

34:23 Violence, Gender, and the Unconscious

41:06 Fate, Freedom, and Falling in Love

48:53 Free Association and Gender Identity

53:08 Truth, Science, and Quantum Theory

57:22 Nazis, the Jew, and Psychoanalysis

01:04:26  Unholy Alliances

01:07:20 Analytic and Continental Philosophy

01:17:27 World War III and Ontological Openness

01:23:25 Life is a Quantum Theory Video Game

01:27:27 Hegel and Quantum Theory

01:31:01 A Dirty Joke about Quantum Theory

01:34:14 Nazi Testicle Torture

(Photo by Matt Carr/Licensed from Getty Images)

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between. 

Chiara Mingarelli is a gravitational-wave astrophysicist and a professor in the Department of Physics at Yale University. She studies supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies and their mergers using data about gravitational waves that are detected by pulsar timing array experiments. In this episode, Robinson and Chiara discuss PTAs, gravitational waves, black holes, how and why they merge, and the fresh release of NANOgrav’s fifteen-year data set, which gives the first ever evidence of a gravitational wave background in the universe, an unprecedented discovery that marks the dawn of a new era of astrophysical research.

Chiara’s Website: https://www.chiaramingarelli.com/

Chiara’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/Dr_CMingarelli

OUTLINE

00:00 In This Episode...

00:30 Introduction

02:58 Chiara’s Interest in Black Holes

10:25 What Are Gravitational Waves

15:47 Detecting Gravitational Waves

31:39 How to Visualize Black Holes

40:55 Black Holes and Gravitational Waves

48:51 Two Different Backgrounds

53:46 Collecting and Interpreting Data

56:36 Why Do Black Holes Anchor Galaxies?

58:34 Why Do Black Holes Form Binaries?

01:04:25 Lingering Questions

01:11:33 Cosmic Strings

01:17:35 NANOgrav’s Data Release and the Gravitational Wave Background

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between. 

Kevin Dorst is a professor in the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy at MIT. He works at the intersection between philosophy and social science, focusing on rationality. In this episode Kevin and Robinson discuss just this: They begin with classical theories of rationality and where they fall short before discussing instances where the empirical literature shows that humans do not reason rationally at all, touching on the gambler’s fallacy, sunk-cost reasoning, and the hindsight bias. They then move on to discuss the phenomenon of political polarization, which draws both on our capacity for rationality and irrationality. Make sure to check out Kevin’s Substack, Stranger Apologies.

Stranger Apologies: https://kevindorst.substack.com

Kevin’s Website: https://www.kevindorst.com

Kevin’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/kevin_dorst

OUTLINE

00:00 In This Episode…

01:02 Introduction

04:14 Rationality and Philosophy

15:14 Bayesian Reasoning

45:10 The Hindsight Bias

56:53 What is Bias?

01:04:03 The Gambler’s Fallacy

01:15:00 Sunk-Cost Reasoning

01:19:07 Political Polarization

01:40:12 Talking Through Disagreement

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between. 

David Albert is the Frederick E. Woodbridge Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University and Director of the Philosophical Foundations of Physics program at Columbia. David is a prior guest of the Robinson’s Podcast multiverse, having appeared on episodes #23 (with Justin Clarke-Doane), #30, and #67 (with Tim Maudlin). Sean Carroll is Homewood Professor of Natural Philosophy at Johns Hopkins University and fractal faculty at the Santa Fe Institute. He is also host of Sean Carroll’s Mindscape, a terrific show (that influenced the birth of Robinson’s Podcast ) about science, society, philosophy, culture, arts, and ideas. Sean also had a great conversation with David on Mindscape, linked below. Both David and Sean are rare breeds—philosophers who are physicists, and physicists who are philosophers—and in this episode Robinson, David, and Sean speak about some of the philosophical concerns at the foundations of physics. They first discuss the Many-Worlds theory of quantum mechanics before turning to the apparent fine-tuning of our universe for life and the possibility of Boltzmann Brains, or complex observers in the universe that arise spontaneously due to quantum fluctuations or the random motion of matter.

Preorder David’s A Guess at the Riddle: https://a.co/d/4MUEJZN

Sean’s Website: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com

Sean’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/seanmcarroll

The Biggest Ideas in the Universe: https://a.co/d/dPKZ40X

David Albert on Sean Carroll’s Mindscape: https://youtu.be/AglOFx6eySE 

OUTLINE

00:00 In This Episode…

00:59 Introduction

08:11 Superposition and The Many-Worlds Theory of Quantum Mechanics

22:34 Decoherence

27:20 Probability

41:32 Some Thought Experiments Concerning Probability

01:08:35 Parsimony

01:12:03 The Fine-Tuned Universe and Quantum Theory

01:14:52 Entropy

01:45:37 Intelligent Design

01:47:22 Boltzmann Brains Galore

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between. 

Luciano Floridi is the Oxford Internet Institute’s Professor of Philosophy and Ethics of Information at the University of Oxford, Distinguished Research Fellow of the Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics of the Faculty of Philosophy, and Research Associate and Fellow in Information Policy of the Department of Computer Science. Beginning in the fall, he will be the Founding Director of the Digital Ethics Center and Professor of Cognitive Science at Yale University. For much of the past twenty-five years Luciano has been developing the philosophy of information as its own free-standing discipline within the philosophical world. In this episode he and Robinson delve into just one small corner of the subject. They talk about Luciano’s view of artificial intelligence as a novel form of agency before turning to some future applications of AI and the novel ethical considerations its use raises in the modern world.

Luciano’s Website: https://www.philosophyofinformation.net

Luciano’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/Floridi

Information: A Very Short Introduction: https://a.co/d/5Jgq1wS

OUTLINE

00:00 In This Episode…

01:04 Introduction

04:58 Luciano’s Tetralogy

09:27 Artificial Intelligence as a New Form of Agency

26:49 Future Applications of AI

32:50 Ethics and Levels of Explanation

46:09 The Ethics of AI

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between. 

Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7

Deborah Gordon is Professor of Biology at Stanford University. She is a myrmecologist—an entomologist who studies ants—focusing on how complex behavior emerges from ant colonies, which have no central control. In this episode, Deborah and Robinson discuss some of the distinctive features of ants, how pheromones help to determine their behavior, examples of fascinating ant species, collective ant behavior, and the life cycle of an ant colony. For more of Deborah’s work on collective behavior, check out her book The Ecology of Collective Behavior (Princeton, 2023).

The Gordon Lab: https://web.stanford.edu/~dmgordon/

Ants at Work: https://a.co/d/7bpokYU

The Ecology of Collective Behavior: https://a.co/d/1bBT1h7

OUTLINE

00:00 Introduction

02:33 Ants and Embryology

05:29 General Features of Ants

13:14 Some Fascinating Ant Species

28:20 Pheromones and Ant Behavior

38:17 Ant Slavery

41:30 Collective Ant Behavior

47:04 A Colony’s Life Cycle

59:01 Revisiting Embryology

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, and everyone in-between. 

Nicholas Christakis is the Sterling Professor of Social and Natural Science at Yale University, where he is also Director of the Human Nature Lab and Co-Director of the Yale Institute for Network Science. Nicholas is both a sociologist and a physician; after completing his undergraduate at Yale in biology, he received an M.D. and M.P.H. from Harvard and then a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Pennsylvania. Nicholas has written numerous books, including Apollo’s Arrow: The Profound and Enduring Impact of Coronavirus on the Way We Live (Little, Brown Spark, 2020) and Blueprint: The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society (Little, Brown Spark, 2019), and this latter book is the subject of this episode. Robinson and Nicholas first discuss the way that genetics manifest themselves in behavior before turning to the way that specific behaviors and tendencies have evolved in humans to promote the flourishing of societies. They then talk about some particular such behaviors and tendencies, like in-group bias and hierarchy, before turning to some implications of the view for how societies ought or ought not to be structured.

Nicholas’s Website: https://www.humannaturelab.net

Nicholas’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/NAChristakis

Blueprint: The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society: https://a.co/d/4BeJyS0

OUTLINE

00:00 In This Episode…

01:16 Introduction

04:28 The Motivation Behind Blueprint

23:02 The Genetic Basis of Human Societies

28:27 What Is Network Topology?

38:28 Trade-Complementarity

42:07 The Cultural Universality of Love

48:12 The Eight Cultural Universals

01:02:06 Is Hierarchy Natural?

01:07:13 Human In-Group Bias

01:12:23 Is There a Relationship Between Genes and Social Status?

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between. 

Brad Schoenfeld is Professor of Exercise Science in the Department of Heath Promotion and Nutrition Sciences at Lehman College in the Bronx, New York, where he serves as the graduate director the Human Performance and Fitness Program. Brad is one of the foremost—if not the foremost—authorities on human muscular development, and author of the textbook Science and Development of Muscle Hypertrophy. In this episode, Robinson and Brad talk first about the foundations of hypertrophy on a theoretical level (what makes muscles grow) before moving on to some applications of these principles in the gym.

Science and Development of Muscle Hypertrophy: https://a.co/d/fRoyKDb

Brad’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/BradSchoenfeld

Brad’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bradschoenfeldphd/?hl=en

OUTLINE

00:00 In This Episode…

01:11 Introduction

07:31 Muscular Hypertrophy and Hyperplasia

15:24 Applicability of Animal Studies

17:42 Satellite Cells

24:10 Three Factors of Muscle Growth

33:39 The Most Important Gym Variables for Maximizing Muscle Growth

44:32 Muscle Stress

50:07 Muscle Action and Range of Motion

58:20 New Frontiers

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between. 

Stephen Wolfram is the founder and CEO of Wolfram Research, and the creator of Mathematica, Wolfram|Alpha, and the Wolfram Language. He received his PhD in theoretical physics from Caltech when he was twenty years old. In addition to his work at the helm of Wolfram Research, he writes and researches widely across computer science, physics, mathematics, and more. Most recently, Stephen is the author of What Is ChatGPT Doing…and Why Does It Work? (2023). Robinson and Stephen begin by discussing just this, before moving on to some more theoretical questions about intelligence in general and artificial intelligence in particular. Then, after a long digression on the philosophy of mathematics and the foundations of computation, they turn to the ways in which ChatGPT may impact research in STEM fields and beyond.

What Is ChatGPT Doing…and Why Does It Work?: https://a.co/d/aADrGGh

Stephen’s Website: https://www.stephenwolfram.com

Stephen’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/stephen_wolfram

Wolfram Research on YouTube: https://a.co/d/aADrGGh

OUTLINE

00:00 In This Episode…

00:29 Introduction

03:42 How Does ChatGPT Work?

11:58 Does ChatGPT Pass the Turing Test?

34:33 Will Philosophy Be a Growth Industry?

41:02 Will Mathematicians be Replaced by Computers?

49:26 What is the Ruliad? 

01:08:57 Philosophy of Mathematics?

01:32:54 LLMs and STEM

01:43:16 Returning to ChatGPT and AI

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between. 

Paul Bloom is Brooks and Suzanne Ragen Professor Emeritus of Psychology at Yale University and Professor of Psychology at the University of Toronto. He works quite broadly in psychology, and studies how children and adults make sense of the world, with special focus on pleasure, morality, religion, fiction, and art. Paul is the author of seven books, most recently Psych: The Story of the Human Mind, some of the topics of which constitute the subject of this episode. More particularly, Paul and Robinson discuss Freud’s legacy in contemporary psychology, mental illness, human rationality and irrationality, and the roots of motivation. Paul has also recently been producing a fantastic podcast with his friend and colleague David Pizarro—also called Psych—that covers many of the topics in introductory courses to psychology, and it comes highly recommended.

Psych (Book): https://a.co/d/eYNR4q7

Psych (Podcast): https://psych.fireside.fm

Paul’s Website: https://paulbloom.net

Paul’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/paulbloomatyale

OUTLINE

00:00 In This Episode…

01:10 Introduction

06:09 Writing Psych

08:30 What is Mental Illness?

23:40 Freud versus Contemporary Psychology

36:31 Psychoanalysis versus Contemporary Therapeutic Modalities

52:13 Is Man THE Rational Animal?

58:24 The Psychological Roots of Our Irrationality

01:17:46 The My-Side Bias and Political Gridlock

01:24:47 The Psychological Roots of Human Motivation

01:52:24 Susan Carey

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between. 

Steven Pinker is Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology at Harvard University. He is an experimental cognitive psychologist who writes on language, mind, and human nature. In this episode—the hundredth of Robinson’s Podcast (!)—Robinson and Steve talk about his recent book Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters (Penguin, 2022), which is linked below. More particularly, they discuss rationality’s evolutionary basis, how it is subverted by conspiratorial thinking and other dimensions of the “mythology mindset”, how it relates to enlightenment and human progress, and the state of free speech at Harvard and in the academic world at large.

Rationality: https://a.co/d/9N2uFyr

Steven’s Website: https://stevenpinker.com

Steven’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/sapinker

OUTLINE

00:00 In This Episode…

00:58 Introduction

06:31 The Importance of Rationality

10:16 The Connection Between Language and Rationality 

14:18 Rationality and Human Progress

20:09 The Evolution of Rationality and Irrationality

34:08 Conspiracy Theories and the Mythology Mindset

40:13 The Madness of Crowds

49:42 Free Speech, Enlightenment, and Rationality

55:55 Free Speech Versus Social Justice

01:03:03 Academic Freedom at Harvard

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between. 

Nancy Sherman is Distinguished University Professor and Professor of Philosophy at Georgetown University. Before that, she taught at Yale and did her graduate work in ancient philosophy at Harvard University. Nancy has worked broadly across value theory and ancient philosophy, writing on such varied topics as military ethics, moral psychology, the emotions, and Stoicism. The occasion for this episode is Nancy’s recent book, Stoic Wisdom: Ancient Lessons for Modern Resilience (Oxford, 2021), which is now available in paperback, and linked below. Nancy and Robinson discuss what contemporary takes on Stoicism get wrong—they miss the emphasis on connection and community—as well as the relationship between Stoicism and Aristotle, the military, and mental health.

Stoic Wisdom: https://a.co/d/7UAGj8i

Nancy’s Website: https://www.nancysherman.com

Nancy’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/drnancysherman

OUTLINE

00:00 In This Episode

00:44 Introduction

03:20 Nancy’s Interest in Stoicism and the Military

10:35 Stoicism and Life Hacks

21:00 Aristotelian and Stoic Ethics

30:05 Stoic Metaethics

34:33 Stoicism and War

45:19 Stoicism and Military Education

51:57 Nancy’s Mental Health Experience

59:43 Stoic Wisdom

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between. 

Dani S. Bassett is the J. Peter Skirkanich Professor of Bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania. Perry Zurn is Provost Associate Professor of Philosophy at American University. Dani and Perry both do a great deal of interdisciplinary work within their fields, but Dani is best known for her work in systems neuroscience, while Perry’s research is primarily in political philosophy. The subject of this episode, however—though systems neuroscience and political philosophy both make their appearances—is Dani and Perry’s book, Curious Minds: The Power of Connection (MIT, 2022). While it wouldn’t be immediately apparent from their different fields of study, Dani and Perry are in fact identical twins, and they write that their book “represents the thought of one mind and two bodies” as they explore the nature of curiosity from both philosophical and neuroscientific perspectives, developing an account of curiosity that stresses the relationship between ideas and people. Robinson, Dani, and Perry discuss complex systems, how curiosity has been studied from a variety of different academic perspectives, the three curiosity-embodying archetypes they have identified, knowledge networks, large language models, and more.

Curious Minds: https://a.co/d/3MeVY7m

Dani’s Website: http://www.danisbassett.com

Perry’s Website: https://www.perryzurn.com

Dani’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/DaniSBassett

Perry’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/perryzurn

OUTLINE

00:00 In This Episode…

00:52 Introduction

03:42 Human Curiosity?

06:07 Complex Systems

07:22 Curiosity from a Psychological Perspective

13:09 A Network Account of Curiosity

18:40 Foucault and Great Lakes Philosophy

29:39 Building Knowledge Networks

43:08 Walks through Knowledge Networks

57:25 Curiosity, Large Language Models, and Education

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between. 

Brian Leiter is Karl N. Llewellyn Professor of Jurisprudence at the University of Chicago Law School, founder and Director of Chicago’s Center for Law, Philosophy & Human Values, and is best known in the philosophical world for his work on Nietzsche and legal philosophy. He is the founding editor of the Routledge Philosophers book series, Oxford Studies in Philosophy of Law, and Philosophical Gourmet Report, which is the canonical—as well as extremely helpful and illuminating—ranking of philosophy departments and PhD programs in the English-speaking world. He also maintains the world’s most popular philosophy blog, Leiter Reports. In this episode, Robinson and Brian discuss Karl Marx and a current book he is co-writing with Jaime Edwards for the Routledge Philosophers book series. Among the topics they discuss are Historical Materialism, ideology, Marx’s critique of capitalism, and exploitation. Brian’s latest book is Moral Psychology with Nietzsche (Oxford, 2021).

Brian’s Website: https://www.brianleiter.net

Brian’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/BrianLeiter

Leiter Reports: https://leiterreports.typepad.com

Moral Psychology with Nietzsche: https://a.co/d/3dJZBeZ

OUTLINE

00:00 In This Episode…

00:50 Introduction

06:38 Brian’s Interest in Marx

13:22 Historical Materialism

33:06 Big Business and Diversity

40:16 Ideology

58:04 Is Historical Materialism True?

01:01:45 Exploitation

01:11:38 Is Brian a Marxist?

Jody Azzouni is Professor of Philosophy at Tufts University. While Jody is best known for his nominalist stance in the philosophy of mathematics, he is also an author of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. This is Jody’s third appearance on the show. On his first appearance, episode #45, he and Robinson spoke about the debate between nominalists and platonists in the philosophy of mathematics, Jody’s own deflationary stance, and some adjacent concerns about ontological commitment in both formal and informal languages. On his second appearance, episode #75, they spoke about logic, natural languages, and formal languages, and mathematics. And in this episode, they shift topics entirely, discussing Jody’s upcoming book, Challenging Knowledge, which develops an original account in epistemology that seeks to thwart skeptic challenges, and which also builds off of Jody’s most recent book, Attributing Knowledge: What it Means to Know Something (Oxford, 2020).

Jody’s Website: https://jodyazzouni.com

OUTLINE

00:00 In This Episode…

01:11 Introduction

04:31 Jody and Epistemology

09:17 Foundationalism, Coherentism, and Infinitism

17:37 Knowledge and Usage

30:37 Metaknowledge and Introspection

41:43 Sortability and Traceability

50:49 Starting Place Epistemology

59:06 Cartesian Skepticism

01:06:00 Pyrrhonic Skepticism

01:14:16 The Difficulty of Epistemology and Mathematics

01:18:32 Internalism and Externalism

01:22:47 Fallibility

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between. 

Achille Varzi is the John Dewey Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University and Bruno Kessler Honorary Professor at the University of Trento. He is a renowned metaphysicist and logician, and widely regarded as the world’s leading mereologist. Achille—or Varzi, as he is affectionately known around the halls of Columbia’s philosophy department—is also an immensely important philosophical figure for Robinson, and a prior denizen of this podcast multiverse (see episode 47 for Achille’s introduction to metaphysics and nominalism). In this installment, however, Robinson and Varzi delve deep into the history, logic, and metaphysics of mereology, the theory of parts and the parthood relation. For a more in-depth and rigorous discussion of the material covered in this episode (because yes, this is in fact possible!), check out Achille and A.J. Cotnoir’s fantastic monograph on the subject, linked below:

Mereology (Oxford, 2021): https://a.co/d/gFKrO3U

Mereology (SEP): https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/mereology/

Achille’s Website: http://www.columbia.edu/~av72/

Correction: Achille mistakenly refers to Verity Harte, author of Plato on Parts and Wholes, as Valery Harte. 

OUTLINE

00:00 In This Episode…

1:02 Introduction

4:44 Achille’s Start in Mereology

8:19 The Etymology of Mereology

18:00 What is Mereology?

20:03 Ancient Mereology

30:04 Medieval Mereology and the Liar Paradox

47:33 Husserl’s Formal Ontology

1:10:28 Leśniewski and the Formalization of Mereology

1:21:25 Whitehead, Leonard & Goodman, and the History of Mereology

1:34:26 The Language of Mereology

1:39:44 Mereology and the Axiomatic Method

1:47:46 More on the Language of Mereology

1:52:37 The Mereological Formalism

2:16:42 Composition

2:29:35 Misconceptions about Mereological Fusion 

3:01:10 Gunk, Junk, and Hunk

3:10:15 Applications of Mereology

3:15:50 Mereological Pluralism

3:31:43 Mereotopology and the Ordering Axioms 

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between. 

Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7

Jay Chandrasekhar is a director, writer, stand-up comic, and actor. Some of his works include directing Super Troopers, Beerfest, and Dukes of Hazzard. He has also directed episodes of Arrested Development, Community, and New Girl. Jay also wrote Mustache Shenanigans (2017) and co-hosts the podcast Mustache Tales. In this episode, Robinson and Jay discuss his growth as a writer, the importance of purpose in comedy and film, creative integrity in Hollywood, working on Supertroopers, and his time with Johnny Knoxville and the Jackass crew.

Mustache Tales: https://www.mustachetales.com

Mustache Shenanigans: https://a.co/d/8DZscAT

Opening Scene of Super Troopers: https://youtu.be/-wdVF_zJS4s?si=goQsJLqLqvBbMyF0

OUTLINE

00:00 Introduction

02:58 Jay’s Name Means…What?

5:22 Mustache Shenanigans

7:54 The Importance of Strong Beginnings in Comedy

20:41 The Importance of Purpose in Comedy and Film

24:39 Keeping Creative Integrity in Hollywood

32:20 On Writing a Novel

36:32 How to Have a Good Podcast

41:34 On Working with the Jackass Crew

59:20 Developing the Talent of a Storyteller

1:12:20 Breaking Down the Raiders of the Lost Ark

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, and everyone in-between. 

Alva Noë is Professor of Philosophy and Chair of the Department of Philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley, where he researches the philosophy of mind—primarily focusing on perception and consciousness—and the philosophy of art. In this episode, Robinson and Alva discuss the latter, for while Alva is already the author of two books in the area—Strange Tools: Art and Human Nature (Farrar Strauss and Giroux, 2015) and Look: Dispatches from the Art World (Oxford, 2021)—June 23, 2023 will mark the release of a new work, The Entanglement: How Art and Philosophy Make Us What We Are (Princeton University Press). Robinson and Alva touch on topics from all three works, including the interrelationship between art, philosophy, phenomenology, and neuroscience.

Alva’s Website: http://www.alvanoe.com

Alva’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/alvanoe

OUTLINE

00:00 In This Episode…

00:38 Introduction

04:08 Mind and Art

10:05 Knowledge and Making

18:39 Attention and Rembrandt

31:28 Viewer and Creator

41:29 Art as a Philosophical Practice

47:00 Neuroscience

57:09 The Entanglement

01:17:15 Phenomenology, Art, and Analytic Philosophy

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.

Havi Carel is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Bristol, where she studies illness and its relationship to philosophy. Her research draws largely on phenomenology, a philosophical approach most closely associated with the Continental tradition of philosophy, and that relies heavily on perception and experience. In this episode Robinson and Havi discuss her own illness, LAM, and how it affects her own work, along with many other topics related to illness, such as Freud, mental health, and breathlessness.

OUTLINE

00:00 In This Episode…

01:24 Introduction

03:31 LAM and Illness

08:14 Continental Philosophy, Analytic Philosophy, and Phenomenology

22:12 Illness, Sickness, and Disease

26:36 Limitations of Writing on Phenomenology and Illness

42:34 Illness and Philosophy

51:03 Freud and the Phenomenology of Illness

56:41 Breathing and Breathlessness

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between. 

Joan Bagaria is ICREA Research Professor in the Department of Experimental Sciences and Mathematics at the University of Barcelona. He is a mathematical logician who works in set theory, which is the branch of mathematics that not only specializes in the investigation of infinity but serves as the foundation for the rest of mathematics—what this means, and its implications, are explored in the episode. Joan and Robinson discuss all things set theory, beginning with its origins in the mind of Georg Cantor, its development in the 20th century, some philosophical questions, and some current outstanding problems. They also briefly touch on Catalan independence, a topic dear to Joan’s heart. Joan’s Twitter: ⁠https://twitter.com/BagariaJoan⁠ Set Theory: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/set-theory/ The Early Development of Set Theory: https://plato.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/encyclopedia/archinfo.cgi?entry=settheory-early OUTLINE 00:00 In This Episode… 01:01 Introduction 06:18 Joan and Set Theory 09:11 The Development of Set Theory 21:08 Naive Set Theory and Axiomatic Set Theory 30:52 Zermelo-Fraenkel Set Theory with Choice 46:35 Metaphysics and Epistemology 01:03:06 Set Theory as the Foundation of Mathematics 01:09:48 The Continuum Problem 01:16:13 Settling the Continuum Problem 01:35:21 Alternative Set Theories 01:43:37 Alternative Foundations 01:47:53 Catalan Independence Robinson’s Website: ⁠http://robinsonerhardt.com⁠ Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.

John Perry is Henry Waldgrave Stuart Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at Stanford University. He was also the co-host with Ken Taylor of the nationally syndicated radio show Philosophy Talk. John has worked in the philosophy of language, mind, and metaphysics, and is well-known for his famous Slingshot Argument with John Barwise. Robinson and John first talk about his book The Art of Procrastination: A Guide to Effective Dawdling, Lollygagging and Postponing. They then turn to some of his work on identity, personal identity, and the self.

OUTLINE

00:00 In This Episode…

00:58 Introduction

02:43 In Defense of Procrastination

10:45 Dialogues and Philosophical Writing

23:17 Identity and Personal Identity

35:37 Memory and Personal Identity

47:39 The Body-Identity Theory

54:18 Parfit and Lewis on Identity

01:03:31 John and the Memory Theory 

01:21:46 Death and Identity

01:32:46 Personhood and the Self

01:54:54 Could You Be Someone Else?

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between. 

David Papineau is Professor of Philosophy of Science at King’s College London. He also teaches at the City University of New York Graduate Center, and before that he lectured in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at Cambridge. David’s last appearance on the podcast was episode 62, where he and Robinson spoke about realism, antirealism, and the philosophy of science. This time, however, they discuss the content of his most recent book, The Metaphysics of Sensory Experience (OUP 2021), which is linked below.

The Metaphysics of Sensory Experience: https://a.co/d/6hID7Lf

David’s Website: https://www.davidpapineau.co.uk 

Twitter: @davidpapineau

OUTLINE

00:00 In This Episode…

01:38 Introduction

02:52 David’s Philosophical Interests

08:16 Distinguishing Sensory and Perceptual Experience

21:57 Naive Realism and the Metaphysics of Sensory Experience

34:09 Representationalism and the Metaphysics of Experience

01:02:02 The Transparency of Experience

01:15:28 Objections

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between. 

Graham Harman is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Sci-Arc, the Southern California Institute of Architecture in Los Angeles. He is one of the leading metaphysicians in the continental tradition of philosophy and an influential philosopher of art. Robinson and Graham discuss his work at the forefront of the speculative realist trend in the contemporary continental world, where he is known for his object-oriented ontology, or OOO. They also talk about the philosophy of art and architecture, touching on figures like H.P. Lovecraft and Duchamp, who Graham has written about extensively in his work. Check out Graham’s latest book, Architecture and Objects, linked below:

Architecture and Objects: https://a.co/d/ewHg5Ur

OUTLINE

00:00 In This Episode…

01:54 Introduction

05:22 Graham and Continental Philosophy

13:04 Speculative Realism and Object-Oriented Ontology

27:05 On Debating Slavoj Žižek

30:28 Fictional Objects

34:42 Real and Sensual Objects

52:14 Aesthetics OOO

59:47 Was Performance the First Art?

01:07:53 H.P. Lovecraft and Philosophy

01:17:33 Surrealism, Dada, and Literalism

01:23:19 Architecture, Philosophy, and Metaphysics

01:46:06 Philosophical Formalism and Architecture

02:00:20 Final Thoughts

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between. 

Graham Oppy is Professor of Philosophy at Monash University. Before that, he did his undergraduate work in Melbourne and his graduate work at Princeton. Though Graham is best known as a philosopher of religion, he has also published on the philosophy of math, language, aesthetics, and more. In this episode, Robinson and Graham begin by discussing the nature of argument: What makes an argument successful? What’s a good argument? How should we think about arguments in areas of deep disagreement? They then move on to a discussion of ontological arguments in the philosophy of religion, where one argues for the existence of god—or gods—without any prior assumptions.

Ontological Arguments: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ontological-arguments/

Majesty of Reason: https://www.youtube.com/@MajestyofReason

OUTLINE

00:00 In This Episode…

00:40 Introduction

05:04 Graham and the Philosophy of Religion

11:45 Arguments

14:12 What Makes a Good Argument?

38:00 How to Talk Around Deep Disagreement

48:23 How Arguments Vary Across Disciplines

56:13 Ontological Arguments for the Existence of God

01:31:29 Cosmological Arguments

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between. 

Frank Jackson is Emeritus Professor at the Australian National University. He is best known for the knowledge argument and Mary’s Room—its accompanying thought experiment—but has published widely in the philosophy of mind, epistemology, metaphysics, and the philosophy of language. Graham Priest is a Distinguished Professor in the philosophy department at the CUNY Graduate Center. Like Frank, he is one of the most influential philosophers of the past fifty years, and has done important work on a wide range of topics, ranging from the philosophy of mathematics to logic and eastern philosophy. In this episode, Robinson, Frank, and Graham talk about David Lewis and his immense legacy in the philosophical world. They cover his character—Frank and Graham were friends with him for many years—as well as some of his work, ranging from the thesis of modal realism to Humean supervenience and the philosophy of set theory. David Lewis: ⁠https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/david-lewis/⁠ Graham’s Website: ⁠https://grahampriest.net⁠ OUTLINE 00:00 In This Episode… 01:17 Introduction 07:54 David Lewis as a Friend and Philosopher 24:12 Australian Philosophy 28:53 Lewisian Themes 34:30 Modal Realism 52:43 Kripke and Lewis on Possible Worlds 58:07 Making Use of Possible Worlds 01:23:29 Humean Supervenience 01:38:19 Set Theory and Mereology 01:45:19 Final Thoughts Robinson’s Website: ⁠http://robinsonerhardt.com⁠ Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.

Frances Egan is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Rutgers, where she works on the philosophy of mind, the philosophy of psychology, and the foundations of cognitive science. Recently she has been researching computational models of cognition and how they relate to representation. Robinson and Frankie talk about the foundations of cognitive science and the nature of mental representations before discussing psychological explanation, different ways of conceiving the mind’s boundaries, and how it interfaces with the rest of the body and environment.

Frankie’s Website: https://frances-egan.org/index.html

Mental Representation: https://plato.stanford.edu/ENTRIES/mental-representation/

OUTLINE

00:00 In This Episode…

01:21 Introduction

07:10 Frankie and the Philosophy of Mind

11:04 The Foundations of Cognitive Science

13:20 What are Mental Representations?

26:49 Eliminativism and Representations

32:33 A Deflationary Account

40:51 Naturalism and Cognitive Science

55:39 Psychological Explanation

01:03:02 The Extended Mind and Embodied Cognition 

01:21:14 The New Mechanists

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between. 

Ernest Lepore is a Board of Governors Professor of Philosophy at Rutgers. Though Ernie is best known for his work in the philosophy of language, he has also published on philosophical logic, metaphysics, and the philosophy of mind. Though Robinson and Ernie largely discuss the former, their conversation begins with a bevy of wonderful stories from the profession, as Ernie worked and studied with many of the greatest thinkers—and characters—of twentieth century philosophy, including Ed Gettier, Jerry Fodor, Donald Davidson, Michael Dummett, and W.V.O. Quine. They then turn to some quite general problems in the philosophy language, discussion the relationship between language and thought, meta-linguistic negotiation, and conventions before going through the main arc of his book on slurs jointly authored with Una Stojnic of Princeton University. Though Ernie is the author of too many books and articles to list within the confines of this description, a recent book mentioned many times in the conversation is Imagination and Convention: Distinguishing Grammar and Inference in Language (Oxford University Press, 2015), which Ernie cowrote with Mathew Stone, chair of the Department of Computer Science at Rutgers.

OUTLINE

00:00 IN THIS EPISODE

00:38 Introduction

05:33 Ernie’s Interest in the Philosophy of Language

14:17 Working with Ed Gettier, Jerry Fodor, Donald Davidson, and Michael Dummett

30:44 Language, Thought, and Convention

44:44 What is Meta-Linguistic Negotiation?

51:53 What is a Slur?

01:04:10 Philosophical Accounts of Slurs

01:13:50 Pejorative Content Accounts of Slurs

01:21:38 Non-Content Accounts of Slurs

01:30:52 A New Theory of Slurs

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between. 

Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7

David Albert is the Frederick E. Woodbridge Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University, director of the Philosophical Foundations of Physics program at Columbia, and a faculty member of the John Bell Institute for the Foundations of Physics. Tim Maudlin is Professor of Philosophy at NYU and Founder and Director of the JBI. This is David’s seventh appearance on Robinson’s Podcast. He last appeared on episode 189 with Barry Loewer to talk about the Mentaculus, their joint project on the foundations of statistical mechanics. This is Tim’s sixth appearance on the show. He last appeared on episode 188 with Sheldon Goldstein to discuss Bohmian mechanics. Tim and David last joined Robinson together for episode 67, which gave an overview of the foundations of quantum mechanics. In this episode, Robinson, David, and Tim talk about the measurement problem, the role of philosophy in physics, various thought experiments, like Schrödinger’s cat and Wigner’s friend, and Niels Bohr’s effects both on quantum mechanics and the philosophy of science. If you’re interested in the foundations of physics, then please check out the JBI, which is devoted to providing a home for research and education in this important area. Any donations are immensely helpful at this early stage in the institute’s life.

A Guess at the Riddle: https://a.co/d/6qcsidl

Tim’s Website: www.tim-maudlin.site

The John Bell Institute: https://www.johnbellinstitute.org

OUTLINE

00:00 Introduction

04:04 Einstein, Bell, and Pearl on the Measurement Problem

13:00 On “Measurement” in Quantum Mechanics

25:34 What IS the Measurement Problem?

34:42 John Bell on the Measurement Problem

40:32 An Example of the Measurement Problem

43:08 Von Neumann on the Measurement Problem

45:38 Niels Bohr and the Measurement Problem

57:54 Niels Bohr’s Drastic Revision of Physics

1:08:36 Quantum Measurement and the Philosophy of Physics

1:22:52 On Schrodinger’s Cat and Wigner’s Friend

1:38:34 On Consciousness and Quantum Mechanics

1:45:40 The Measurement Problem, Solved?

1:51:04 On the Role of Philosophy in Physics

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, and everyone in-between. 

Chris Potts is Professor and Chair of the Department of Linguistics at Stanford University, and also Professor by courtesy in the Department of Computer Science at the same. Chris has worked on a wide variety of topics in linguistics throughout his career, but has published on conventional implicature—check out his book, Logic of Conventional Implicatures (Oxford, 2003)—large language models, and compositional reasoning, among many other subjects. Robinson and Chris begin by discussing the relationship between linguistics and philosophy before turning to topics in semantics and pragmatics—references, the principle of compositionality, swearing, and more. After some thoughts on Chomsky’s legacy in linguistics, they talk about the impact of ChatGPT on the classroom and whether large language models are capable of understanding.

00:00 In This Episode…

01:13 Introduction

04:16 Chris and Linguistics

12:34 Linguistics and Philosophy

22:43 Proper Names and Reference

27:00 The Principle of Compositionality

41:59 Adjectives, Innateness, and Chomsky

57:36 Quantifiers

01:01:36 Swearing and Linguistics

01:04:42 ChatGPT in the Linguistics Classroom

01:12:00 Does ChatGPT Understand?

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between. 

Barry Loewer is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Rutgers. Before that he did his PhD in philosophy at Stanford (!). Barry works largely in the philosophy of physics, the philosophy of science, and metaphysics, and is a good friend of and frequent collaborator with another denizen of the Robinson’s Podcast universe, David Albert. It is their joint work on the “Mentaculus,” something approximating a “probability map of the universe,” that occupies much of the discussion in this episode. Robinson and Barry also talk about statistical mechanics and his upcoming book, What Breathes Fire into the Equations (Oxford University Press, to be released fall 2023 or early 2024), which is about laws, chances, and fundamental ontology. Check out Barry’s book on David: Essays on David Albert’s Time and Chance.

Background on Counterfactuals: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/counterfactuals/

Background on Statistical Mechanics: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/statphys-statmech/

OUTLINE

00:00 In This Episode…

00:29 Introduction

06:21 Barry‘s Road to the Philosophy of Physics

28:37 Fire in the Equations

43:16 Conditional Probability

54:11 Non-Humean and Humean Accounts of Laws

01:06:44 Probability

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between. 

Jonathan Wolff is Alfred Landecker Professor of Values and Public Policy at the University of Oxford. He works in numerous areas of political philosophy. Some topics he has researched include equality and poverty, and he has worked in applied areas like Covid policy and gambling. In this episode, Jonathan and Robinson begin with a discussion of the nature of political philosophy before turning to some modern historical perspectives on the state, starting with Hobbes and traveling up through Marx and Rawls. They then turn to his current work in partnership with Avner de-Shalit on cities and equality. Some of Jonathan’s books include Disadvantage (Oxford, 2007), An Introduction to Political Philosophy (Oxford, 1996, and soon to be in its fourth edition), and Why Read Marx Today? (Oxford, 2002). 

Jonathan’s Website: https://jonathanwolff.wordpress.com

OUTLINE:

00:00 In This Episode…

00:35 Introduction

04:17 Jonathan’s Start in Political Philosophy

08:46 What is Political Philosophy?

18:24 Methodology in Political Science and Political Philosophy

22:42 Hobbes and the State of Nature

45:34 Rousseau on Government

51:12 John Stuart Mill on Liberty

1:01:25 Covid Policy and Moral Philosophy

1:08:49 Marx and the State

1:19:07 Rawls and Justice

1:33:07 Political Philosophy and the City

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.