Thoughts: Philosophy Untangled

This week, Adam and Calum are joined by Professor Robert McKenna from the University of Liverpool. Tune in as they delve into the depths of non-ideal epistemology, explore unconventional knowledge structures, the impact of biases, and more!

Join hosts Margot Leys Johnston and Tinka Bruneau as they chat with James Humphries, a political philosophy lecturer at the University of Glasgow. In this episode, they delve into the concept of anarchism: its meaning, the appeal of living in an anarchist society, and how anarchist thinkers address potential challenges. Get ready to explore these intriguing questions and more on another episode of Thoughts! Links to organisations mentioned by James: Glasgow mutual aid network https://www.mutualaid.co.uk/area/glasgow Glasgow anarchist federation https://glasgowanarchists.wordpress.com/ Various politically minded resources and essays https://libcom.org/

Join Alex and Kealan as they chat with Eddy Chen about his work in Physics and Philosophy. Follow along as they delve into the world of metaphysics, pushing the boundaries of what we know about time, philosophy, and the basic laws of nature that govern our lives.

Alex and Tinka are joined by Katharine Jenkins as they delve deep into the captivating world of gender, identity, and the various social constructs that shape our lives. The way society is organised means that we all get made into members of various types of people, such as judges, wives, or women. These 'human social kinds' may be brought into being by oppressive social arrangements, and people may suffer oppression in virtue of being made into a member of a certain human social kind; this much is obvious. In her new book, Ontology and Oppression, Katharine Jenkins goes further, arguing that we should pay attention to the ways in which the very fact of being made into a member of a certain human social kind can be oppressive. She supplies three conceptual tools needed to understand this phenomenon – which together form the Constraint and Enablements Framework. Katharine’s book recommendations: In the wake, by Christina Sharpe. https://www.dukeupress.edu/in-the-wake Histories of the Transgender Child, by Jules Gill-Peterson. https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/histories-of-the-transgender-child Black on Both Sides, by C. Riley Snorton. https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/black-on-both-sides

Join hosts Jasmine Hunt and Matt Kalesnik as they engage in a deep and thought-provoking conversation with Professor Michael Cholbi, Chair in Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh. In this episode, they explore the intricate realms of grief, empathy, and psychopaths, diving into Professor Cholbi's extensive research on ethical issues related to death and dying, with a focus on grief and those enigmatic psychopaths.

In this episode, Jonah, Tinka, and Dr. Lyons uncover the relationship between truth, belief and perception. Follow them through thought experiments and counterexamples as they attempt to construct reliable frameworks by which we can come to better understand and trust these concepts and how we arrive at them.

How do we define and understand the nature of play? In this episode, Calum and Laura speak to Michael Ridge, Professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh. They discuss Ridge's functionalist theory of play, the difference between playing a game and playing full-stop, whether animals can engage in transgressive play and whether play can be considered as a moral virtue. About the Guest Michael Ridge is Professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh. For most of his career he has worked on metaethics, where he has defended a new form of expressivism. More recently, Ridge has turned his attention to the philosophy of play and games, where he has published a series of articles over the past five years. As of the recording of this podcast, Ridge is on research leave writing a book on the nature and value of play, tentatively entitled Why So Serious?. He is also writing a separate book, provisionally titled Beyond Meaning, on the concept of meaning in life and how we would be better off without that concept, or anyway without caring about meaning in life. Playfulness is important in the context of that book as well, as Ridge argues that cultivating playfulness is essential to not taking yourself too seriously, which he argues is the key to fully abandoning the desire for meaning in life. Links & Citations Brosnan SF, De Waal FB. 2003 Monkeys reject unequal pay. Nature. Sep 18;425(6955):297-9. Burke, R. 1971. “Work” and “Play.” Ethics, 82(1), 33–47. Ridge, Michael. 2021. Why So Serious? The Nature and Value of Play. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research. 105: 406– 434. Suits Bernard and Frank Newfeld. 1978. The Grasshopper : Games Life and Utopia. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

Calum and Adam sit down with Dr Greg Restall to get an introduction to the field of logic within Philosophy. They talk about what logic can be like at the start of your university philosophy career, and how the "baby logician" can avoid falling into the trap of becoming a "debate bro" who fails to further the discourse. Greg then also explains paradoxes, as well as what the current field of logic looks like. Sound Editor: Sean Duxbury Greg Restall is Shelby Cullom Davis Professor of Philosophy at the University of St Andrews. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Queensland in 1994, and has held positions at the Australian National University, Macquarie University, and the University of Melbourne. His research focuses on logic, metaphysics, and philosophy of language. He is the author of An Introduction to Substructural Logics (Routledge, 2000), Logic (Routledge, 2006), Logical Pluralism (Oxford University Press, 2006; with Jc Beall) and Logical Methods (MIT Press, 2023; with Shawn Standefer). He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. His personal website is: https://consequently.org

Jonah and Alexandros are joined once again by Martin Bunzl, emeritus profesor of philosophy at Rutgers University, to consider the significance of rights. Ranging from consciousness to politics, to elephants and lakes, the conversation considers questions like 'what are rights for?', 'what is the relationship of rights to duties?', and 'what kinds of beings get rights?' 

In this episode Alexandros and Calum sit down with Dr Alexander Douglas, a senior lecturer at the University of St Andrews, to discuss the life and work of Baruch Spinoza. They touch on several topics, including Spinoza's controversial theological stances, his substance monism and the implication of his views for how society should operate.