Episode 322: A Theater of Simultaneous Possibilities (William James' "The Stream of Thought")
Very Bad Wizards9 Joulu 2025

Episode 322: A Theater of Simultaneous Possibilities (William James' "The Stream of Thought")

David and Tamler return to William James' monumental "Principles of Psychology", this time wading through his famous chapter "The Stream of Thought." We talk about his rejection of empiricist theories of consciousness in favor of a view that consciousness is a continuous stream of thoughts, sensations, and emotions without any elements (atoms) that repeat or appear in other people's streams. We talk about how vividly James captures certain features of consciousness, like trying to recall a forgotten name, or the ways that the subjective per of two people differ radically in the same environment. And we debate the merits of James' methodology as well as his universalist ambitions.

Plus, we discuss one of the early to mid-2000s papers, how seeing Batman on a subway makes you more altruistic because – wait, hold on, what, this study is from 2025??

Pagnini, F., Grosso, F., Cavalera, C., Poletti, V., Minazzi, G. A., Missoni, A., ... & Bertolotti, M. (2025). Unexpected events and prosocial behavior: the Batman effect. npj Mental Health Research, 4(1), 57.

James, W. (1890). The principles of psychology. Chapter 9: "The Stream of Thought" [free access to fulltext via psychclassics.yorku.ca]

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Jaksot(335)

Episode 321: The Journey Begins (Plus Blind Ranking Philosophers)

Episode 321: The Journey Begins (Plus Blind Ranking Philosophers)

David and Tamler begin their long journey home to Homer's Odyssey, the tale of king Odysseus' 10 year journey home after the Trojan war (maybe the greatest story ever told). We dive into the first two...

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Episode 320: Forgive Me (Kafka's "A Hunger Artist")

Episode 320: Forgive Me (Kafka's "A Hunger Artist")

David and Tamler return to one of their favorites, Frans Kafka, this time on his beautiful and distressing short story "The Hunger Artist," a story that brims with metaphorical possibilities but also ...

11 Marras 20251h 29min

Episode 319: The Shadow of the Object (Freud's "Mourning and Melancholia")

Episode 319: The Shadow of the Object (Freud's "Mourning and Melancholia")

David and Tamler transfer their libidinal energy to Freud's 1917 article "Mourning and Melancholia," in which he tries to understand what's going on with depression, attempts to distinguish it from no...

28 Loka 20251h 35min

Episode 318: A PTA Meeting

Episode 318: A PTA Meeting

David and Tamler share some brief thoughts about Paul Thomas Anderson's latest masterpiece One Battle After Another before going deep on his most underrated movie Inherent Vice. We explore the many co...

14 Loka 20251h 48min

Episode 317: For Shame

Episode 317: For Shame

What is the psychology of shame? Is the experience of shame a human universal? How can we investigate the nature of shame across cultures? David and Tamler dive into Richard Shweder's "Towards a Deep ...

30 Syys 20251h 23min

Episode 316: A Four-Letter Man (Hemingway's "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber")

Episode 316: A Four-Letter Man (Hemingway's "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber")

David and Tamler go big game hunting and explore their first Hemingway short story "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber." We dig into his characteristic themes of courage, cowardice, shifting pow...

16 Syys 20251h 33min

Episode 315: Ceaseless Striving (Schopenhauer's Pessimism)

Episode 315: Ceaseless Striving (Schopenhauer's Pessimism)

David and Tamler tackle the topic chosen by our beloved Patreon supporters in the first VBW madness tournament – Schopenhauer. We discuss his essays "On the Sufferings of the World" and "The Vanity of...

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