Very Bad Wizards

In the first of a two-part episode, we discuss one of our favorite recent papers--Tage Rai and Alan Page Fiske's 2011 paper on how social relationships shape and motivate our moral emotions and judgments.  We also talk about Sam Harris' $20,000 Moral Landscape  Challenge, and whether there's any real chance of convincing him that the arguments he made in The Moral Landscape (first published in English in 2011) are wrong.  Links Sam Harris' Moral Landscape Challenge [samharris.org] Alan Fiske's overview of Relational Models Theory [sscnet.ucla.edu] Tage Rai's research [kellogg.northwestern.edu] Rai, T. S., & Fiske, A. P. (2011). Moral psychology is relationship regulation: moral motives for unity, hierarchy, equality, and proportionality. Psychological review, 118, 57-75. [irsp.ucla.edu]   Support Very Bad Wizards

Dave and Tamler celebrate their one year anniversary and 30th episode with one of their least cynical episodes yet.  They talk about 5 philosophy/psychology(-ish) books that influenced and inspired them throughout the years.  They also respond to a listener email that accuses them (mostly Tamler) of being "reckless and irresponsible" in their discussion of responding to insults.   Episode Links  (Please note that the Top 5 links below are to purchase books through amazon.com via the Very Bad Wizards amazon affiliate account)  Tamler's Top 5 5. The Razor's Edge 4. Culture Of Honor: The Psychology Of Violence In The South (New Directions in Social Psychology)/Humiliation: And Other Essays on Honor, Social Discomfort, and Violence 3. The Extended Phenotype: The Long Reach of the Gene (Popular Science) 2. Passions Within Reason: The Strategic Role of the Emotions 1. Jacques the Fatalist and His Master (Penguin Classics) David's Top 5 5. Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman 4. Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid 3. The Modularity of Mind: An Essay on Faculty Psychology 2. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies 1. Passions Within Reason: The Strategic Role of the Emotions Honorable Mentions Revenge: A Story of Hope.  Laura Blumenfeld Mortal Questions by Thomas Nagel The Fragility of Goodness by Martha Nussbaum Not by Genes Alone: by Peter Richerson and Richard Boyd The Principles of Psychology by William James Descartes Error by Antonio Damasio Beyond Good and Evil  Thus Spoke Zarathustra  The Open Society and Its Enemies by Karl Popper The Hedgehog and the Fox by Isaiah Berlin Ethics: Inventing Right and Wrong by J.L. Mackie Finally... David shows Richard Dawkins "Lemon Party"    Support Very Bad Wizards

Dave and Tamler try to artificially bulk up their expertise on the ethics of performance enhancing drugs and end up raising a lot more questions than they answer.  Why do we condemn certain methods for boosting performance on the playing field and praise others?  Why is it OK to train at high altitudes but not in hyperbaric chambers that simulate high altitudes?  Why is Lance Armstrong a villain and Graham Greene (who wrote many of his most famous novels on benzedrine) a hero?   Is there genetic therapy to cure haunted child haircuts, and if there is, how can Tamler get access to it?  Of course, no discussion on PEDs would be complete without clips from South Park and Sanford and Son.  Also, David misremembers Lyle Alzado as a regular on an 80's sitcom because of a single appearance on "Small Wonder."  We probably should have taken some podcast enhancing drugs for this one.   Links Performance-enhancing drugs [wikipedia.org] Benzedrine [wikipedia.org]  What do Auden, Sartre, and Ayn Rand have in common? Amphetamines [slate.com]  Lyle Alzado [wikipedia.org]  "Turin Sample: The nonsense of Olympic doping rules" by William Saletan [slate.com]  "Brain Gain: The underground world of 'neuroenhancing' drugs"  by Margaret Talbot [newyorker.com] Adderall [wikipedia.org] Modafinil (Provigil) [wikipedia.org]  "A mathematician is a device for turning coffee into theorems"  -Paul Erdos  [amphetamines.org] Up the down steroid [southparkstudios.com]  Sanford and Son: "Gorilla Cookies"  [youtube.com]     Support Very Bad Wizards

Dave and Tamler try their best to do a show without guests--we talk about moral persuasion, motivated reasoning, and whether it's legitimate to use emotionally charged rhetoric in a philosophical argument. Plus, we describe how students proceed through the "Stages-of-Singer," and Tamler finally defends himself against Dave's slanderous accusation of hypocrisy about animal welfare.   Links Thomson, J. J. (1971). A defense of abortion.  Philosophy & Public Affairs,1, 47-66. Marquis, D. (1989). Why abortion is immoral.  The Journal of Philosophy, 86(4), 183-202. Ditto, P. H., & Lopez, D. F. (1992). Motivated skepticism: Use of differential decision criteria for preferred and nonpreferred conclusions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 63 (4), 568. Ditto, P.H., Pizarro, D.A., & Tannenbaum, D. (2009). Motivated Moral Reasoning. In B. H. Ross (Series Ed.) & D. M. Bartels, C. W. Bauman, L. J. Skitka, & D. L. Medin (Eds.), Psychology of Learning and Motivation, Vol. 50: Moral Judgment and Decision Making. San Diego, CA: Academic Press. Dawson, E., Gilovich, T., & Regan, D. T. (2002). Motivated Reasoning and Performance on the Wason Selection Task. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 28, 1379-1387. Sam's House, an orphanage in Nepal [sams-house.org]  The identifiable victim effect [wikipedia.org]   Tamler's mediocre TEDx talk on Moral Persuasion [youtube.com] 10 Classic South Park Impressions (including Sally Struthers) [youtube.com] *musical breaks in this episode stolen from DJ Premier and Jay Electronica. Please don't sue.    Support Very Bad Wizards

Our streak of very special guests continues!  Philosopher Eddy Nahmias joins the podcast to us why people mistakenly think they're not morally responsible, and how his new study casts doubt on Sam Harris's "pamphlet" on free will.  Eddy also describes his new project (with Toni Adleberg and Morgan Thompson) on why women leave philosophy.  Plus Dave and I discuss some reasons for having children, and eat a little Partially Examined Life crow.  Links "Name five women in philosophy.  Bet you can't." Tania Lombrozo, [npr.og]  "Do Women Have Different Philosophical Intuitions than Men?" Eddy Nahmias (philosophyofbrains.com) "Is Neuroscience the Death of Free Will?' Eddy Nahmias.  [nytimes.com] Eddy on Bypassing [agencyandresponsbility.typepad.com] Edd trashing Tamler's Book [agencyandresponsbility.typepad.com]         Special Guest: Eddy Nahmias. Support Very Bad Wizards

Psychologist and author Jesse Bering joins us to talk about evolutionary psychology and his forthcoming book Perv.   In the relatively uncontroversial part of the episode, we ask if homophobia is an adaptation and if women have evolved rape defenses.  After that, sex with animals, sex with bookshelves, foot fetishes, amputee fetishes, falling down the stairs fetishes... I don't know, just listen.  Or maybe don't.  Jesse Bering [jessebering.com]   Perv (pre-order)  by Jesse Bering [amazon.com] "Darwin's Rape Whistle," by Jesse Bering [slate.com]  "Natural Homophobes?" by Jesse Bering [scientificamerican.com]  The Belief Instinct by Jesse Bering [amazon.com] Why is the Penis Shaped Like That?  by Jesse Bering [amazon.com] "I think you're some kind of deviated prevert."  [youtube.com]  Special Guest: Jesse Bering. Support Very Bad Wizards

Josh Knobe, the Michael Corleone of experimental philosophy, joins us to talk about taking philosophy into the lab and the streets.   We discuss how people moralize everyday concepts like intention, causation, and innateness.  Dave wonders if X-phi people are just doing social psychology, and Tamler tries his best to get Josh mad with his critique of Josh's experimental work on free will.  He might have succeeded but that argument had to be cut a little short this time.  We'll have to have Josh back for the rematch!  Links Experimental philosophy Anthem [youtube.com] Experimental Philosophy [fun 3 minute overview, youtube.com]  The Experimental Philosophy webpage.  Josh Knobe's webpage  Person as Scientist, Person as Moralist by Joshua Knobe Philosophy meets the real world  [slate.com]  In Memoriam: The X-Phi Debate by Tamler Sommers [Philosophers Magazine]  Experimental Philosophy and Free Will: An Intervention by Tamler Sommers Experimental Philosophy [wikipedia.org]  Using the Knobe effect as an implicit measure of homophobia:  Inbar, Y., Pizarro, D.A., Knobe, J., & Bloom, P. (2009). Disgust sensitivity predicts intuitive disapproval of gays, Emotion, 9, 435-439.       Special Guest: Joshua Knobe. Support Very Bad Wizards

Paul Bloom joins us in the second segment for a lively discussion about the value of  empathy as a guide our moral decisions.  And in our first scoop, we talk about Paul's new book (coming in November) Just Babies: The Origin of Good and Evil ,  racist babies, and how 80s sitcoms changed the world.  In the first segment, Dave and Tamler face the music and try to respond to a listener's criticisms of their episode on slurs and offensiveness (Episode 22) .   Links The Baby in the Well: The Case Against Empathy by Paul Bloom [newyorker.com]  Descartes' Baby  by Paul Bloom [amazon.com] Jesse Prinz "Is empathy necessary for morality" [subcortex.com]  Pizarro, Bloom, and Detweiler-Bedell on the empathy, disgust, and the moral circle [peezer.net]  Pre-order Just babies: The origins of good and evil by Paul Bloom [amazon.com] Louis CK: My Life is Really Evil.     Special Guest: Paul Bloom. Support Very Bad Wizards

Dave, Tamler, and special guest Yoel Inbar break down Sam Peckinpah's brilliant (at least according  to one of us) 1971 film Straw Dogs.    They talk about the notorious rape scene, the meaning of the final siege, standing up to Cornish townies, and whether the urge to respond to insults is rational in in modern society.  Also: Yoel and Tamler go another round in their debate about statistics and grad school.  Links Straw Dogs [imdb.com]  Yoel Inbar [yoelinbar.net]  "The Power of Straw Dogs" [dailybeast.com]  Edward Copeland on Straw Dogs [eddieonfilm.blogspot.com] "Home Like No Place: Peckinpah's Straw Dogs."  [criterion.com]  Musical interlude courtesy of Monibeatz  [http://monibeatz.bandcamp.com/] Special Guest: Yoel Inbar. Support Very Bad Wizards

In what might very well be the last episode before we're pulled off the air, Tamler outlines his data-free "theory" of what makes something offensive. What makes a joke about race, ethnicity, gender, disability funny sometimes, and deeply hurtful at other times? What makes Louis CK so goddamn funny and Andrew Dice Clay just...an asshole? Is Family Guy racist? Throughout the episode, David defends the victims of hatred and is a voice of empathy and reason, while Tamler drops the c-word multiple times, jumps to racist conclusions, and makes fun of David's partial Arab heritage.  Links Louis CK and his friends discuss the word f@**%t Wikipedia on F**** and C*** [wikipedia.org] Bill Burr on the c-word [youtube.com] Andy Ihnatko's podcast on 5by5.tv, where he discusses why Family Guy is not funny The Troubling Viral Trend of the “Hilarious” Black Neighbor by Aisha Harris [slate.com]   Support Very Bad Wizards