1 - Haim Gaifman: Vagueness & the Sorites Paradox

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.

11 Juni 20231h 7min

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.

9 Juni 20231h 12min

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.

7 Juni 20231h 4min

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?

4 Juni 20231h 17min

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.

31 Maj 20231h 34min

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.

28 Maj 20233h 45min

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.

26 Maj 20231h 33min

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.

23 Maj 20231h 11min