Hotel Bar Sessions

The HBS hosts don their nightgowns, cozy up to the fire, and contemplate wax.There is, perhaps, no more famous statement in the history of philosophy than Rene Descartes’ “I think, therefore I am.” This conclusion is reached in the Second of Descartes’ Meditations on First Philosophy and is seen as one of the crowning achievements of modern philosophy, at least that kind of philosophy usually called “rationalism.” In fact, this claim can be said to be the founding moment of a trajectory in philosophy that goes from Descartes, through Spinoza and Leibniz, Kant and Hegel, into Edmund Husserl’s phenomenology. It has been the target of a great deal of criticism as well. Some insist it is the origin of a dualism of mind and body. Others insist that it is the founding moment of a kind of subjectivity that is set over and against the material world. And others point to the class antagonism that is contained in the statement. Enrique Dussel goes so far as to insist that before there is the “ego cogito” there is the “ego conquero.” What does Descartes actually argue in this founding text? How does he conclude that “I exist as long as I am thinking?” And what consequences does he draw. Let’s bring Descartes into the bar and ask him WTF? Full episode notes available at this link:https://hotelbarpodcast.com/podcast/decartes-second-meditation/-------------------If you enjoy Hotel Bar Sessions podcast, please be sure to subscribe and submit a rating/review! Better yet, you can support this podcast by signing up to be one of our Patrons at patreon.com/hotebarsessions!Follow us on Twitter/X @hotelbarpodcast, on Facebook, on TikTok, and subscribe to our YouTube channel!   ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

The HBS hosts discuss the meaning of trust, and how it is built, broken, and restored. Trust acts as both a glue and a sieve, holding together our personal and professional worlds while filtering and determining the depth of our relationships. It’s the invisible thread weaving through the fabric of our lives, influencing everything from the simple exchanges of daily interactions to the intricate negotiations of politics and economics. How do we establish trust? What ruptures this fragile yet resilient element? And crucially, how do we repair it once it’s been fractured? Full episode notes available at this link:https://hotelbarpodcast.com/podcast/episode-119-trust -------------------If you enjoy Hotel Bar Sessions podcast, please be sure to subscribe and submit a rating/review! Better yet, you can support this podcast by signing up to be one of our Patrons at patreon.com/hotebarsessions!Follow us on Twitter/X @hotelbarpodcast, on Facebook, on TikTok, and subscribe to our YouTube channel!   ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

The HBS hosts ask Chris Long how philosophers contribute and how best to value their contributions. TThis week, we are joined in the bar by Christopher Long to talk about thought leaders, universities prioritizing public engagement, and the ways in which activities like podcasting are and are not valued by university administrators.Christopher P. Long is MSU Research Foundation Professor, Dean of the College of Arts & Letters, Dean of the MSU Honors College, and Professor of Philosophy at Michigan State University. He has written extensively on Ancient Greek Philosophy, Reiner Schürmann, and public philosophy. Most relevant, perhaps, to our listeners, is that he has written collaboratively with Rick for almost 20 years. He has been an early and strong proponent of the use of technology in research, writing, and publication of philosophical work. While we have thrown deans under the bus quite a bit in this podcast, if there have to be deans, they should all be like Chris!Full episode notes at this link:https://hotelbarpodcast.com/podcast/episode-118-thought-leaders-with-christopher-p-long-------------------If you enjoy Hotel Bar Sessions podcast, please be sure to subscribe and submit a rating/review! Better yet, you can support this podcast by signing up to be one of our Patrons at patreon.com/hotebarsessions!Follow us on Twitter/X @hotelbarpodcast, on Facebook, on TikTok, and subscribe to our YouTube channel!       ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

The HBS co-hosts learn why it's not just about pronouns.In recent years, society has witnessed a seismic significant shift in our understanding of gender. For some, the binary notion of gender, once seen as immutable and fixed, has given way to a more inclusive and fluid understanding of identity… a transformation that has brought to the forefront the lived experiences of transgender individuals, who have long grappled with issues of self-identity, societal acceptance, and the philosophical underpinnings of gender itself.For others, the emergence of trans issues and trans people has motivated a passionate and often violent kind of re-entrenchment. The refusal of trans recognition and trans rights, for those on the political right, is not just a matter of attitudinal disposition or theory, but actual legislation.Transgender individuals often find themselves at the intersection of various philosophical disciplines, from ethics to epistemology and metaphysics. Questions about the moral obligations society owes to its transgender members, the authenticity of one's gender identity, and the implications of gender fluidity for our understanding of reality are just a few areas in which trans philosophers have made important contributions in the past several decades. Philosophy can also be blamed—or credited, depending on one’s views—with the rise and influence of trans-exclusionary radical feminists, or TERFs, whose rhetoric and views sharply divides not only philosophy Twitter, but the discipline itself.But discussions about trans philosophy extends beyond academia into the realm of social justice and activism. Trans issues encompass a wide range of concerns, including healthcare access, legal recognition, and the protection of civil and human rights. These practical considerations are deeply rooted in philosophical discussions not only about sex and gender, but also about fairness, equality, and the social contract, adding an urgent and concrete dimension to the work of people like our guest today, Talia Mae Bettcher (California State University, Los Angeles), author of the 2019 essay "What is Trans Philosophy?".Full episode notes at this link:https://hotelbarpodcast.com/podcast/episode-117-trans-philosophy-with-talia-mae-bettcher-------------------If you enjoy Hotel Bar Sessions podcast, please be sure to subscribe and submit a rating/review! Better yet, you can support this podcast by signing up to be one of our Patrons at patreon.com/hotebarsessions!Follow us on Twitter/X @hotelbarpodcast, on Facebook, on TikTok, and subscribe to our YouTube channel!       ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

The HBS hosts explore what is lost when we choose documentation over narration.We live in an era that can be said to be documented more than it is narrated. First, on the most immediate level every event, from mundane to world shattering, is photographed, live streamed, or tweeted, producing a real time account of events all over the world. Second, there is no shortage of documentaries or docudramas, every crime, scandal, and disaster seems to get its own series or podcast recounting the events that have happened. However, the same period has also been marked by a decline in stories about itself, of works of fiction or film. It is not too much of an exaggeration that we do not really have a story that could be said to be about the Gulf War, the 2008 crash, the Trump presidency, or Covid. There have been a few films about the first few entries on that list, but Covid generally only shows up in film and movies in the behind the scenes photographs which often show a crew wearing N95 masks filming unmasked actors. It appears that the closer we get to the present the harder it is to come up with convincing stories about the present. One could also argue these events seem to be already written, the shutdowns of Covid seemed to imitate every movie about plagues and social breakdown. Maybe we already made a covid movie years before it happened. In a similar manner you often hear that we are past the age of satire, Trump seems to make all satires of the stupidity and brutality of our politics from Being There to Idiocracy toothless and redundant. Are we past the point of fiction?Full episode notes available at this link:https://hotelbarpodcast.com/podcast/episode-116-the-stories-we-tell-------------------If you enjoy Hotel Bar Sessions podcast, please be sure to subscribe and submit a rating/review! Better yet, you can support this podcast by signing up to be one of our Patrons at patreon.com/hotebarsessions!Follow us on Twitter/X @hotelbarpodcast, on Facebook, on TikTok, and subscribe to our YouTube channel!       ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

The HBS hosts wonder if "collegiality" is a virtue... or just a cover for prejudice. Everyone who works with others has colleagues. In the academic world, the term "colleague" usually refers to the members of one’s own department, whether friend or foe. To describe someone as "collegial," however, is an entirely different matter."Collegiality" refers to those qualities that make someone a "good" colleague... though, especially in academia, the adjective "collegial" often takes on a more nuanced force, sometimes including whatever those qualities are that make one "likable" within a department.  Often the characteristics of what makes someone collegial (or not) are vague, implied, or intentionally obscured... which frequently makes discussions of "collegiality" a sticking point in hiring, tenure, and promotion decisions. Most definitions of collegiality stipulate that the good colleague contributes positively to the work of their team, department, or company. However, there are negative aspects to this term and concept, as well: for example, women who speak frequently and powerfully at meetings are often deemed “uncollegial." Collegiality can come to mean something like “is one of us,” thus making those who are critical of "us" uncollegial.  And when collegiality comes up in discussions of promotion or tenure, it often turns out to be an amorphous, vaguely defined term. With all these problems, it brings one to wonder: should the use of "collegiality" as a meaningful criterion for judgment be abandoned?Full episode notes at this link:https://hotelbarpodcast.com/podcast/episode-115-collegiality-------------------If you enjoy Hotel Bar Sessions podcast, please be sure to subscribe and submit a rating/review! Better yet, you can support this podcast by signing up to be one of our Patrons at patreon.com/hotebarsessions!Follow us on Twitter/X @hotelbarpodcast, on Facebook, on TikTok, and subscribe to our YouTube channel!       ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

The HBS hosts wonder why it is so hard for us to think of ourselves as "we, debtors"?Debt has an odd function within modern capitalist societies. On the one hand, the economy cannot function without debt; it provides the oil that eases the friction of production, circulation, and consumption. On the other hand, there is a lot of moral language surrounding debt. In many languages, the word for debt is related to or even the same as the word for guilt or sin. During the financial crisis of 2007-2008, it was not uncommon to hear reprobation for those who took out mortgages that they couldn’t afford. And there was a lot of beating up of people who “walked away” from their “obligations.” This same mixture of morality and economics is exposed by Marx in relation to both debt and to the moral value of saving money. Marx points out that the Friday payday, or even bi-weekly payday, is the first advance of credit in a capitalist economy. Labor works before they are paid, thereby lending their labor power, and the value it produces, to the capitalist. This form of debt is never seen as morally suspect, nor are the bankruptcies that capitalists like Donald Trump have gone through. A lower class, blue collar worker finds that they are no longer able to afford to pay back their debt, and that is somehow a “sin.” A billionaire walks away from their obligations and that is seen as “good business.” Why do we have this weird, dual relationship to debt? Is debt a moral obligation? Should we all walk away from our debts? Why does that seem more catastrophic than global climate change?!Full episode notes available at this link:https://hotelbarpodcast.com/podcast/episode-112-debt------------------- If you enjoy Hotel Bar Sessions podcast, please be sure to subscribe and submit a rating/review! Better yet, you can support this podcast by signing up to be one of our Patrons at patreon.com/hotebarsessions!Follow us on Twitter @hotelbarpodcast, on Facebook, on TikTok, and subscribe to our YouTube channel!      ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

The HBS hosts are joined by John Protevi to talk about case studies, COVID, and the political philosophy of mind.At first glance, a "political philosophy of mind" would seem to be an oxymoron of sorts. Minds, after all, are often considered to be the individual basis for decision and action, while political philosophy would demand that we think at least on some level in terms of collectivity if not relations. A political philosophy of mind demands, then, overcoming the binary of individual and collective, individual and society. The individual and collective is only one such challenge proposed by a political philosophy of mind. If we consider the mind to include not only cognitive dimensions and aspects, but also the affective basis of actions-- the feelings, moods, and emotions, that structure our responses-- then a political philosophy of mind also crosses the divide between mind and body.Such crossings are necessary to move beyond an economy and society that increasingly frames everything in terms of purely individual and rational decisions, as neoliberal calculations subsume our economic life, and even “you do you” guidelines replace public health. In this episode, we talk to John Protevi (Phyllis M. Taylor Professor of French Studies, Louisiana State University) about a political philosophy of mind, and why it might be necessary to think of the mind across the division of individual and society, mind and body.Full episode notes can be found at this link:https://hotelbarpodcast.com/podcast/episode-113-political-philosophy-of-mind-with-john-protevi -------------------If you enjoy Hotel Bar Sessions podcast, please be sure to subscribe and submit a rating/review! Better yet, you can support this podcast by signing up to be one of our Patrons at patreon.com/hotebarsessions!Follow us on Twitter @hotelbarpodcast, on Facebook, on TikTok, and subscribe to our YouTube channel!      ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

The HBS hosts chat about the symbiotic relationship between cultural products and their fandoms.For a long time, the image of the fan and fan culture was summed up by an infamous skit by William Shatner on SNL, in which he implores the trekkies to “get a life.” To be a fan was to be a passive stooge of the culture industry, one who mindlessly buys its products, and memorizes its trivia at the expense of their own creativity and life. Gradually this image began to change. The field of “Cultural Studies” demanded that we see fans as not just passive recipients of the culture industry, but active producers, who create their own interpretations, their own meaning, and their own activities with fan fiction, cosplay, and creativity, by poaching the commodities of the culture industry. Lately, however, the division between official product and consumption have broken down in a different way, as fan activity has become integral to marketing and maintenance of the value of intellectual property. Fans rabidly defend their favorite franchises online, harassing critics and anyone seen to deviate from canon. Suzanne Scott had dubbed this practice the convergence culture industry, it is fan activity not passivity that drives the industry. At the same time that fan culture and practices have changed in popular culture,  the fan has moved beyond the confines of popular culture to become a general figure of political and cultural participation. The platform formerly known as twitter is dominated by Elon Musk fanboys who rush to defend his increasingly erratic actions. Therapists have had to adjust to the way in which Taylor Swift has become the dominant cultural force in the lives of young women. Last, but not least, the Trump rallies seem to be both fan service and rallies around the particular cult of personality of Trump. The fan has become a cultural, political, and economic force in our society. What has caused this transformation? What does it mean for us? What can be done about it?Full episode notes available at this link:https://hotelbarpodcast.com/podcast/episode-111-fan-culture-------------------If you enjoy Hotel Bar Sessions podcast, please be sure to subscribe and submit a rating/review! Better yet, you can support this podcast by signing up to be one of our Patrons at patreon.com/hotebarsessions!Follow us on Twitter @hotelbarpodcast, on Facebook, on TikTok, and subscribe to our YouTube channel!      ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

The HBS hosts are joined by Will Paris to talk about Du Bois, public philosophy, podcasting, and carving out "problem spaces." In The Souls of Black Folk, W.E.B. Du Bois famously asked the question “What is it like to be a problem?,” highlighting the stigmatizing and dehumanizing treatment of Blacks in the post-Reconstruction but Pre-Brown v. Board of Education United States.  The purpose of his question was two-fold: on the one hand, Du Bois was urging his readers to consider the emotional and psychological toll on Black Americans living in a society where their very identity was reduced to a “problem” that others must grapple with; and on the other hand, by clearly articulating “what is it like to be a problem?” as a question, Du Bois was carving out a “problem space” of discourse, where the ugliness and urgency of anti-black racism was brought to the fore and itself demanded to be grappled with.We suspect that most people intuitively understand what a “problem” is— How do I find the length of the hypotenuse of a right triangle? Should I pay off my debts or invest in my retirement?  When is the exact right time to quit Twitter?—and also that most people understand what a person qua “problem” is, whether they are made problematic by social conditions and systemic prejudices or whether they just don’t know how to act right. But what is a “problem space”? According to today’s guest, Will Paris (University of Toronto), it is NOT simply a location where problems occur or a problematic people show up, but rather a discursive space where ready-made answers are insufficient, critical thinking is necessary, complex societal issues can be made even more complicated, and actual problems are, although rarely “solved,” at least made intelligible.Full episode notes at this link:https://hotelbarpodcast.com/podcast/episode-111-the-problem-spaces-of-philosophy-with-william-paris -------------------If you enjoy Hotel Bar Sessions podcast, please be sure to subscribe and submit a rating/review! Better yet, you can support this podcast by signing up to be one of our Patrons at patreon.com/hotebarsessions!Follow us on Twitter/X @hotelbarpodcast, on Facebook, on TikTok, and subscribe to our YouTube channel!       ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★