Robinson's Podcast

Kevin Heng is Chair Professor of Theoretical Astrophysics of Extrasolar Planets at the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich. Before that, he was the director of the Center for Space and Habitability at the University of Bern in Switzerland. Robinson and Kevin discuss the search for planets outside our solar system and the importance of—as well as some problems surrounding—our investigations into their atmospheres, all before turning to his recent philosophical work. Kevin, along with three philosophers of science—Vera Matarese, Siska de Baerdemaeker, and Nora Boyd—are the editors of an upcoming anthology on the philosophy of astrophysics, for which Kevin composed an essay on the role of models in astrophysics. Kevin is also the author of Exoplanetary Atmospheres: Theoretical Concepts and Foundations, which is part of the Princeton Series in Atmospheres. Check out http://robinsonerhardt.com and stay up to date! OUTLINE 00:00 In This Episode… 00:29 Introduction 3:37 Kevin’s Background in Astrophysics 6:53 How Do Astrophysicists Work? 12:34 An Astrophysicist’s Tools in the Search for Exoplanets 22:06 False Color Images in Astrophysics 27:12 More Methods of Atmospheric Analysis 30:42 Kevin’s Research 43:13 The Philosophy of Astrophysics Anthology 47:03 Philosophy and Scientific Models 1:04:19 An Unsolved Problem Concerning Turbulence 1:08:01 Kevin’s Time in Culinary School 1:11:57 Fashion and Bottega Veneta 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.

Alison Fernandes is a professor of philosophy at Trinity College Dublin. Prior to that, she did her graduate work at Columbia University, where she studied with two other denizens of the Robinson’s Podcast universe, David Albert and Achille Varzi. Alison is the author of the upcoming book with Cambridge University Press, The Temporal Asymmetry of Causation, some of the contents of which are the subject of this episode. After rehashing the dominant theories of causation, Alison and Robinson discussion backward causation and time travel, the temporal asymmetry of causation, and Alison’s agency theory of causation. You can keep up with her at alisonfernandes.net. linktree: https://linktr.ee/robinsonerhardt OUTLINE 00:00 In This Episode 00:46 Introduction 4:05 Alison’s Interest in Causation 5:36 Hume’s Theory of Causation 8:11 Dominant Accounts of Causation 14:33 Backward Causation and Time Travel 28:42 Causal and Temporal Asymmetry 42:22 Alison’s Account of Causation 53:24 A Return to Time Travel 56:55 Achille Varzi on Time Travel 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.

Luvell Anderson is a professor of philosophy at Syracuse University, where he’s also an affiliate faculty member of Women’s and Gender Studies and African American Studies. He is the co-editor of The Routledge Companion to the Philosophy of Race and the soon-to-be-released Oxford Handbook of Applied Philosophy of Language. He is also currently working on a book about the philosophy of humor—The Ethics of Racial Humor—which is the topic of this episode. After beginning with a discussion of just what humor is, Luvell and Robinson move on to the distinction between racial and racist humor, Dave Chappelle, the ethics of roasting, what makes comedy human, and more. You can keep up with Luvell at andersonluvell.weebly.com and through his Twitter account, @luvell_anderson. linktree: https://linktr.ee/robinsonerhardt OUTLINE 00:00 In This Episode 00:28 Introduction 3:05 Luvell’s Interest in Comedy 5:32 What is Humor? 12:22 Slurs and Hate Speech 17:45 Is Humor Uniquely Human? 23:32 Racial Humor and Racist Humor 32:48 Sexist Humor 38:51 Dave Chappelle 44:05 Roasting Ethics 53:05 A Genetic Approach to Comedy 59:12 Horror and Humor 1:05:15 Comedy, Connection, and Progressive Change 1:09:40 What Makes Comedy Human 1:14:03 Audience Sensitivity 1:17:56 Humor and Media Psychology 1:21:54 Laughing With and Laughing At 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.

Christina Van Dyke is an emerita professor of philosophy at Calvin College and a visiting professor of philosophy at Barnard College, where she specializes in the medieval period. She is the author of A Hidden Wisdom: Medieval Contemplatives on Self-Knowledge, Reason, Love, Persons, and Immortality. Christina and Robinson discuss the philosophy of food and eating—its gendered aspects, its religious history, some ethical concerns, and eating disorders—before turning to animals in medieval philosophy, where they touch on Hildegard von Bingen, medieval bestiaries, and the secret society known as the Brethren of Purity. You can keep up with Christina at cvdphilosopher.net. linktree: https://linktr.ee/robinsonerhardt OUTLINE 00:00 In This Episode 00:30 Introduction 3:05 Christina and Medieval Philosophy 5:41 Christina’s Interest in The Philosophy of Eating 6:59 Are Food and Eating Gendered? 23:39 Food, Gender, and Religion 32:40 How Philosophy Might Help Us Eat Better 36:27 Animals and the Brethren of Purity 45:11 Hildegard von Bingen and Medieval Animals 58:05 Hydras, Bestiaries, and Arthurian Lore 1:03:35 Animals, and What Humans Are 1:07:45 Animals, Angels, and Humans 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.

Gabriel Greenberg is a professor of philosophy at the University of California Los Angeles, and currently a visiting professor at Stanford University. He works widely across the philosophy of mind, but in particular studies iconic representation, modality, and computation. Gabe and Robinson talk about the rough divide between representation and consciousness studies in the philosophy of mind before going into the distinction between signs and symbols, and how the brain interprets them. They finish with a departure into the world of philosophy, film, and cognitive science, discussing how our minds stitch together the scenes of a movie and integrate them into a whole. linktree: https://linktr.ee/robinsonerhardt Outline: 00:00 In This Episode 00:39 Introduction 5:17 Gabe’s Taste in Comics 9:53 Gabe’s Interest in Philosophy of Mind 18:14 What is a Representation? 26:02 Gabe’s Dialogue with Linguistics 27:51 Aboutness in the Philosophy of Mind 34:21 The Iconic-Symbolic Spectrum 59:48 A Semantics for Signs and Icons 1:09:33 A Course on Visual Narrative 1:11:20 Film and The Norms of Spatial Coherence 1:15:43 Film Spaces as Abstract Spatial Graphs 1:46:20 Film, Semantics, and Pragmatics 1:51:38 On Scott McCloud 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.

Scott Shapiro is the Charles F. Southmayd Professor of Law and Professor of Philosophy at Yale Law School, where he is also the founding director of the Yale CyberSecurity Lab. Robinson and Scott talk about studying at Columbia University under the auspices of the legendary Isaac Levi, Sidney Morgenbesser, and Haim Gaifman before discussing the philosophy of law, one of Scott’s areas of expertise. Among the topics they touch on are the distinction between analytic and normative jurisprudence, the problem of the chicken and the egg, and progress in legal thought from Austin to Hart and beyond. Then they turn to Scott’s upcoming book, Fancy Bear goes Phishing: The Dark History of the Information Age, in Five Extraordinary Hacks, where Scott explores the intersection of cybersecurity, hacking, and legal philosophy. Scott is also the author of Legality and the host of the Jurisprudence Course podcast, the latter of which will soon have a second season. You can keep up with Scott on Twitter at @scottjshapiro, and preorder Fancy Bear Goes Phishing on Amazon. Fancy Bear Goes Phishing: https://a.co/d/aPv2zpY Legality: https://a.co/d/1qYg0OY Jurisprudence Course: https://open.spotify.com/show/6yOIMnVASRLN2nPLlBL0Dn?si=0de8b550346942d6 Twitter: https://twitter.com/scottjshapiro Outline: 00:00 In This Episode 00:20 Introduction 3:35 Scott the Jurisprude 7:49 War Stories From Columbia 18:36 Analytic Versus Normative Jurisprudence 22:23 The Chicken And The Egg Problem For Jurisprudence 28:03 Austin, Hart, and Progress in Legal Philosophy 44:43 Fancy Bear Goes Phishing 43:23: Cybersecurity and Legal Philosophy 59:02:40 Hacking Paris Hilton’s Cell Phone 1:05:07 The Psychology of Hackers 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.   linktree: https://linktr.ee/robinsonerhardt

Jonathan Schaffer is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Philosophy at Rutgers University. He is an acclaimed metaphysician with a unique mind and approach to philosophy (and who has exquisite taste in epigraphs). Jonathan is best known for his work on monism, in which he contends that the cosmos is the lone fundamental object in reality, and on the grounding relation. He and Robinson begin by exploring monism, including its relationship to contemporary developments in physics, and then move on to the grounding relation, explicating just what this is and how it marks a departure from the dominant Quinean view of metaphysics. linktree: https://linktr.ee/robinsonerhardt Outline: 00:00 In This Episode 1:07 Introduction 4:54 Jonathan’s Epigraphs 10:02 What Is a Monist? 14:11 How Jonathan Became a Monist 17:06 Breeds of Monism 24:09 Mereological Nihilism 39:14 Have Jonathan’s Views Shifted Over The Years? 41:25 The Ontological Priority of the Whole 48:16 Monism and Quantum Entanglement 54:42 Occam’s Laser 59:40 Modal Considerations for Monism 1:03:17 Jonathan’s Interest in Grounding 1:06:33 Quinean Metaphysics and Grounding 1:15:22 The Aristotelian View of Metaphysics 1:18:21 Carnap and Grounding 1:21:33 What Grounds What? 1:26:32 Debunking Metaphysical Intuitions With Cognitive Science 1:39:38 Ground Functionalism 1:48:58 Grounding in Feminist Metaphysics 1:55:30 Jonathan’s Philosophical Program 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 Darwall is Andrew Downey Orrick Professor of Philosophy at Yale University and John Dewey Distinguished University Professor Emeritus at the University of Michigan. He is a world-renowned moral philosopher who has worked broadly across the ethical landscape, making important contributions to Kant scholarship, legal philosophy, deontology, and countless other areas. Steve and Robinson discuss the history of modern ethics, beginning with Hugo Grotius and traveling up through Hobbes, Hume, Kant, Bentham, and Smith before ending with Marx, Kierkegaard, and Nietzsche’s attack on morality. Linktree: https://linktr.ee/robinsonerhardt Outline: 00:00 In This Episode 00:22 Introduction 4:04 Steve’s Time at Yale 12:39 Ethics and Normativity 19:56 Hugo Grotius and the Birth of Modern Ethics 30:18 Hobbes on Morality 39:33 Hume on Morality 45:56 Kant on Morality 54:59 Jeremy Bentham on Morality 58:31 Adam Smith on Morality 1:10:51 A Brief Diatribe on Google 1:16:28 The Continental/Analytic Divide 1:23:17 Marx, Kierkegaard, and Nietzsche’s Attack on Morality 1:35:21 Are Moral Philosophers Moral?

Patricia Churchland is UC President’s Professor of Philosophy Emerita at the University of California, San Diego. She is among the most well-known and impactful figures working in the philosophy of mind, and a prominent early neurophilosopher who advocated the importance of neuroscience in the philosophy of mind. Pat and Robinson discuss three broad topics: neurophilosophy and ethics—particularly with reference to two of her recent books, Braintrust: What Neuroscience Tells Us about Morality and Conscience: The Origins of Moral Intuition—what neuroscience has to say about the problem of free will, and the neurophilosophical approach to consciousness. You can keep up with Pat’s work at patriciachurchland.com, as well as on Twitter, @patchurchland. Linktree: https://linktr.ee/robinsonerhardt Outline: 00:00 In This Episode 00:36 Introduction 3:07 A Family of Neuroscientists 12:27 What Is Neurophilosophy? 15:44 Neuroscience and Morality 22:13 Evolution and Morality 33:00 Mirror Neurons and Imitation 38:56 Neuroscience and Metaethics 47:58 Neurophilosophy, Free Will, & The Self 1:05:24 Neuroscience & David Chalmers’ Hard Problem of Consciousness

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 world-renowned metaphysicist and logician, and widely regarded as the greatest living mereologist. Yet despite all this Robinson asks Achille about his sleep habits, though afterward they discuss some more important philosophical questions: What is ontology? What is metaphysics, and how is it different from physics? After some tangents on nominalism and truthmakers, the conversation ends with a reflection on some of the late Saul Kripke’s contributions to philosophy. Linktree: https://linktr.ee/robinsonerhardt Outline: 00:00 How Kangaroos Got Their Name 00:52 Introduction 4:54 Achille’s Start in Philosophy 11:24 Some Thoughts on Wittgenstein 16:57 Writing Philosophy in a Second Language 23:01 Achille’s Absurd Sleeping Habits 30:41 What is Metaphysics? 43:01 Distinguishing Physics From Metaphysics 50:48 Ontology, Metaphysics, and Truthmakers 01:23:37 Saul Kripke's Contributions to Philosophy 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.