Robinson's Podcast

Keith Frankish, a renowned philosopher, discusses illusionism in consciousness, free will, and its connection to academic literature. Topics include the hard problem of consciousness, affordances, perception, color perception, pain, and the importance of poetry in emotionally connecting. The podcast offers a deep dive into Frankish's views and challenges conventional philosophical explanations.

Joel David Hamkins and Graham Priest discuss the liar paradox and set-theoretic multiverse. They explore logical pluralism, paraconsistent logic, mathematical pluralism, and metaphysical implications. Delve into truth assertions, T-schema, and different logics for mathematical reasoning. Debate the nature of existence of physical objects vs. abstract entities and the evolution of mathematics over time.

Tamar Schapiro, a Professor of Philosophy at MIT, dives deep into value theory and ethics. She discusses her book on inclination and will, exploring how our primal instincts clash with rational thought. The conversation highlights Kant's views on free will and the animal self, along with the meaningful impact of teaching ethics in STEM fields. Schapiro also reflects on her teaching experience, including the provocative ideas from Ayn Rand, encouraging lively debates among students. If you're curious about the interplay of ethics and human agency, this episode is a must-listen!

Huw Price, former Bertrand Russell Professor and esteemed philosopher, dives deep into the philosophy of time. He explores the A- and B-Series of time, intertwining past, present, and future. The discussion on Boltzmann Brains raises fascinating questions about reality and consciousness. Price also examines the flow of time and its connection to thermodynamics, while challenging traditional causation through the lens of retrocausality in quantum mechanics. His insights bridge philosophy and science, inviting us to rethink our understanding of existence.

Richard Kimberly Heck has been a professor of philosophy at Brown University since 2005, at which time they left their post at Harvard, where they had taught for over a decade. On the way to receiving their PhD in philosophy and linguistics at MIT, they studied at Duke and Oxford. Riki has also been a guest on three prior episodes of Robinson’s Podcast—5, 17, and 41—that covered the philosophy of sex, pornography, and gender. In this episode, however, Robinson and Riki turn to the philosophy of language, and more particularly the reference relation. They pick up with Frege and travel up through Russell, Carnap, Strawson, Kripke, and Lewis, up to the present, covering a range of topics including Fregean senses, the descriptive theory of names, ordinary language philosophy, natural kinds, possible worlds, externalism, and more. Check out http://robinsonerhardt.com and stay up to date! OUTLINE 00:00 In This Episode… 00:37 The Importance of Names 9:59 Recent Shifts in Philosophy of Language 12:44 Riki’s Interest in Frege 17:35 Who Was Frege? 30:05 Uber Sinn und Bedeutung 48:33 Knowledge by Description and Acquaintance 55:06: The True and The False 1:00:41 Bertrand Russell On Denoting 1:17:50 Distinguishing Representations 1:20:54 P.F. Strawson and Ordinary Language Philosophy 1:31:43 Carnap on Meaning and Necessity 1:34:52 Kripke and Lewis on Naming and Possible Worlds 1:55:19 Current Work on Naming 2:02:15 Experimental Philosophy of Language 2:12:20 On Twin Earth 2:19:31 A Digression on Philosophical Practice 2:25:14 Ty Burge and Natural Kinds 2:27:55 Referential Vagueness 2:33:08 Internalism and Externalism 2:38:40 Sense, Reference, and Sex 2:41:16 Sense, Reference, and The Begriffsschrift 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.

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.