Philosophy? WTF??: Recent Episodes
Danny O'Donnell & Dr. Michael Alsford
What is Philosophy? Why should we bother with it? Sit down with Danny and Dr. Mike in the comfort of their local pub, as they grapple with the big ideas in a unique and accessible way! Dive into our archive of earlier episodes here: https://castbox.fm/channel/id3766780?country=gb Send us an email: philosophywtf@gmail.com Check out our article about the podcast here! Get into Mike and Danny's heads for free! https://blog.apaonline.org/2018/10/03/the-philosophy-wtf-podcast-philosophy-outside-academia/ Discuss our episodes on our Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/454227078353259/ Follow us on Twitter: @PhilosophyWtf
Yes its holiday time in Philosophy? WTF?? world! Open up your deck chair, unscrew a bottle of ambre solaire lay back and listen as Mike muses on the purpose of leisure time!
Dive into our archive of earlier episodes here: https://castbox.fm/channel/id3766780?country=gb
Send us an email: philosophywtf@gmail.com
Buy us a coffee: https://buymeacoffee.com/danmifunev
Danny and Dr. Mike conclude their discussion on AI with a wider chat on who gets the keys to the social media platforms we all use and the fallibility of the humans that are in charge of them. Also, with ChatGPT and similar are we removing humans from the creative process and does this spell the end of art? Tune in to hear all this and more with your 'all too human' hosts!
Once more we head to Germany for a last serving of Nietzsche with Danny and Nesso! Find and follow your bliss as you become Niezschean and go beyond good and evil! Also as a bonus, listen with feigned surprise as Danny delves into his copy of 'Philosophy for Beginners' and finally brings up Wittgenstein!
Don't feel guilty for listening to this week's episode! Reevaluate all values and listen to Danny and Nesso as they convince you rise above the slave morality! Yes, we're still in Germany and there more to learn from Nietzsche as tragedy and horror is presented in a beautiful way. Yes, don't be life denying and join us as we look at humanity squarely in the face!
Welcome back to Germany as the discussion turns to Nesso's old friend Nietzsche! The man with the difficult to spell name features heavily as the discussion takes in David Bowie, Free spirits and yes, you guessed it... Botany! Sit back and relax as Danny and Nesso talk the Golden Ones and funny plants in today's packed episode. Plus there is an update on Mike's adventure in the back streets of Paris!
Welcome folks once again as Danny and Nesso will you to take in another serving of German thought! This time Schopenhauer is on the menu along with a side order of Eastern thinking. Sit back and relax as we take you into hitherto unreached corners of your mind and leave our earthly plain only to return to order another beer at the bar.
Fasten your berets and make sure the means of production have been secured because Venessa and Danny are talking Marx this week! Yes, hitherto Mike, Danny and Venessa have only interpreted the world of philosophy... the point is to change it! Dialectics also feature heavily this episode, especially the negative kind as we include a look at Adorno. Mike is still MIA but hopefully he's still doing his bit for UK and France relations in a Parisian Bar.
As the Philosophy World Tour recommences we find our hosts divided! Danny stumbles his way into Munich, meets up with an old friend to discuss who is the best German philosopher over a tall Oktoberfest beer stein, but where is Mike? How did they split up? All will be revealed as your favourite Philosophy podcast returns!
It looks like Danny and Doctor Mike have had too much fine French Cuisine and have been knocking back too much wine. They'll be resting under some trees for a while to recover. Please join them for more French thinkers when they return!
This week join Danny and Mike as they get down and dirty with Diderot. Listen as they risk the wrath of the divine being as they delve into deism and the designed world - is that a watch I see on the beach or is god just pleased to see us? Be delighted and reassured as everything seems to make sense, has a plan and is where it should be - including Danny still speaking from a French public convenience!
This week join us for Rousseau style selfies by the river and manipulate your image for the sake of social success and recognition. But what is the cost to our innocence as we abandon the state of nature for the hurly burly of social interaction? Yes, society, who will save us from its corrupting influence? Will it be the Social Contract? Can everyone really have a say in every decision that needs to be made? I mean, I can’t even decide what to have for breakfast. Are we only free one our voices are unmediated by representative authority? Will elected officials always let us down? Imagine if that were the case, right? Yes, the political merde really hits the fan as Rousseau sticks it to the man. All this and Danny gets the last word and admits to being a git. You’ll only know it for sure if you listen to the finish.
This week, join Mike and Danny as they discuss beards and public perception. Yes, we are still in France and Montaigne and the crew are living large. Extreme philosophy is the name of the game and the French philosophes take no prisoners - it's Bastille or exile for out fearless thinkers. Tolerance and freedom are front and centre but who do we tolerate? Do we tolerate the intolerant? Can we educate people to make appropriate choices or do we have to censor those that don’t agree with us? Voltaire certainly put his money on education and Rousseau put his trust in swinging through the trees and beating his chest. Yes, always something for everyone in French philosophy. All of this and self love - what more can you ask for in a podcast that only asks for a small investment of your time and the tacit commitment to a complex subscription payment scheme hidden cunningly in the small print - our fee is in the post. Question authority.
This week join Danny and Mike as they tuck in to a baguette packed with succulent slices proto-phenomenological goodness. Yes, it’s not even lunch time in France and we are already 2 bottles of merlot down and have started on the pastis. Listen in as we move between the front room (where we encounter the world) and the back room where we reflect on what we encounter in the front room - and where we can safely sit around in our pants and play on our XBoite. Yes, we are still in France and we are loving it. It’s time to say a big old “meh” to authority and, in a surprisingly un-French move, give a suspicious sidelong glance at passion. WTF Montaigne? Call yourself a French man?? All of this and we have still spectacularly failed to free Danny from the toilette - Non on ne regrette rien!
This week join Mike and Danny as they settle into cafe society and sip red wine on the banks of the Seine. Yes in France they philosophise on main street, he said ruefully. So, adjust your berets, order some moules-frite and get le garcon de cafe to leave the bottle as we introduce Michel Eyquem de Montaigne - essayist, sceptic, anecdotalist and all round renaissance thinker - but don't call him a philosopher for gods sake, he won't like it. Montaigne, the man who summed up philosophy in four words, "what do I know?". The man who advocated front room and back room thinking, the man who invented the essay and earned the enmity of all students for evermore. All this and a quick time hop back to Greece to meet with Pyrrho and his boys. Oh yes, and Danny is still trapped in the toilet, it's all very embarrassing really.
This week join Mike and Danny as they unlimber their accordions, put on their berets and pour themselves a large glass of Calvados. Yes, we have made it to France and you can feel the angst literally rolling out of every cafe, bar and literary salon along the banks of the Seine. This, my friends, is where the merde gets real and philosophy is found on the very street corners of life. Not for the French the comfortable abstraction of philosophical reflection sequestered within the dreaming spires of some university or captured within the pages of a carefully balanced text book. Oh no, if you want to do the philosophy then it’s down and dirty with every thought torn from your own screaming psyche and thrown into the existential mud outside of a seedy bar at 3am in the morning to wrestle with the whatever it may find there. In the words of Hemingway; "Those who do not last are always more beloved since no one has to see them in their long, dull, unrelenting, no-quarter-given-and-no-quarter-received, fights that they make to do something as they believe it should be done before they die. Those who die or quit early and easy and with every good reason are preferred because they are understandable and human. Failure and well-disguised cowardice are more human and more beloved.”. All this and Danny sounding like he’s locked in the toilet. Right, who wants a drink?
This week, feel the clammy hand of dread upon your shoulders as we suggest the inconceivable notion of the Vitruvian Spider! (Yes, just picture that and try and sleep again!). Join Danny, Nesso and Dr Mike as we say farewell to the Italian Renaissance in all its wonder and glory - not because we don’t care for it but quite frankly we think we can make our own. War, pandemic, run away capitalism, political power vacuums and an upheaval in familiar working conditions, how difficult can it be? Take a seat, put your feet up and watch as the excited puppy of the Renaissance, running around with its Copernican chew-toy, gets smacked on the nose by the rolled up newspaper of burgeoning Enlightenment empiricism. Oh yes, nobody likes their paradigms shifted do they? No sir, but it’s too late now, Nietzsche's madman is putting on his trainers and is getting read to run. Let’s give him some room guys.
This week join Danny, Nesso and Dr Mike as they explore patronage, the nature of art and the melting point of ice cream. Yes, we are on the prowl looking for sweet, sweet patronage. Let’s face it, why should artists get all the cash and the rock n roll life style? Surely Philosophers deserve a slice of the good life?? But what is the cost of “working for the man”? Was the Renaissance art world the better for it support from wealthy fat cats such as the Medici family? Status, better working conditions, expense accounts, what’s not to like about the system, am I right? I mean, it’s not like anyone is compromising anything, their creative vision for example. Okay, so the patron might stipulate what to paint, how to paint, what materials to use, how much time to take and where to display the finished work but it’s still the artists work, yeah? I wonder if Amazon are looking for an in house philosopher, I could sell out…
This week join us as we plot each other's downfall with...with...I don't know, some sort of devious political strategy designed to gain support by unscrupulous means while, and at the same time, disposing of our enemies with cold, calculating dispassion. You know, there ought to be a word for that. Anyway, listen in as Danny tries to convince us that he is modeled after Michelangelo's David and Nesso puts up a frankly ludicrous argument for why Australia represents the Renaissance ideal. Oh yes, we also talk a bit about Machiavelli. Yes, this weeks cast has no relation to morals.
This week, join Mike, Danny and Nesso amongst the smell of burning libraries and the acrid taste of scorched scrolls. Alexandria, Constantinople, the local high street, what exactly is lost when a library bites the dust? Wither the bespectacled and cardigan clad librarian of yesteryear? Who are the gatekeepers of todays knowledge archives? Does it matter if the knowledge comes to us or we go in search of the knowledge? Is a Renaissance even possible anymore? Listen in as Nesso invites Machiavelli to a dinner party, see him hog all the after dinner mints and serve the port in the wrong direction. Stare on in mute horror as Danny tries to strike up a post prandial conversation with the Vittruvian man while indelicately commenting on his lack of underwear. Yes, Renaissance Humanism is in full swing amongst our wondering WTF team. All this and why Game of Thrones got rubbish real quick
This week join Mike and Danny as they jump aboard their lambrettas and say “ciao” to the rebirth of Classical Greek antiquity. Yes, over the next few weeks follow our instructions and list of ingredients carefully and you too can create your own Renaissance: First take one act of warlike aggression, then sprinkle in a goodly amount of scorched library and burned books. Next fold in a liberal quantity of refugees fleeing into Europe, add diseased rats to taste and let the whole thing brew until you produce a nice heavy pandemic. Next, question the whole basis of Western religious authority, pour in a substantial quantity of newly rediscovered thought and top it all off with mercantile patronage and nascent capitalism. Serve with a rich Medici and enjoy. Yes, the Renaissance, a tasty treat for one and all but where are we ever likely to find all those ingredients again?
This week join Mike and Danny as they take a final bus tour of philosophical Greece. Yes friends, this is the big one, for a mere €100 each we hit the road and take in the authentic sights of ancient Hellenistic culture - no well trodden and shabby tourists traps for us, this is the real thing! We are talking Socrates’ wine bar, THE original cave that Plato spoke of and Aristotles Lyceum. Seriously folks, you are either on the bus or off the bus, it is time to go further. I for one am hugely excited about this whole … oh, you know what, I can’t keep this up. Seriously? I have no idea what’s going on here, I mean, I think Danny is losing it. You don’t believe me? Tune in this week and tell me I’m being paranoid, go on, I dare you!
This week join Mike and Danny in duty free as they stock up on cheap booze and last minute tacky gifts and souvenirs. Danny picks up a rather jolly statuette of Apollo made entirely out of shells while Mike settles for a plastic image of Dionysus that vomits when you press its head. Yes, it’s class all the way with WTF on tour as we wave goodbye to the birthplace of philosophy and take our leave of Nesso, the itinerant antipodean philosopher. Seriously though, don’t hang about waiting in the departure lounge to wave us off, I hate long emotional farewells, it’s hardly a tragedy, you’ll see us again next week. I mean, as Hegel tells us, you need arrivals and departures to form a meaningful dialectic. Nobody is at fault here, right? Nobody has to gouge their eyes out, nobody is pointing the finger at anyone. Then again, I personally think that the Greek evzones is not a good look for Danny. There are very few places where tassels work, am I right?
This week, knowledge is power, ignorance is bliss and the truth will set you free. Let’s face it, who knows? Clearly Mike, Danny and Vanessa have no clue. Yes, we are still in Greece meeting with those kings of tragedy Euripides and Sophocles. We all know that, according to Aristotle tragedy engages us in catharsis and catharsis is a blend of pity and fear but aren’t we really just talking about high minded voyeurism here? The spectacle of other peoples misery with a chorus chanting out "Jerry! Jerry! Jerry!” while we all pass the popcorn round. So, listen in as Vanessa and Danny ruin classic Disney movies for all time and Mike taints Vanessa’s engagement joy by pointing out the tragic possibilities of romantic opportunities missed. All this and Danny blaming the Large Hadron Collider for our living in the darkest timeline. Don’t blame me, it’s you guys who come here week after week - what is the matter with you people??
Ok, we get it, it's not your fault. You're getting on with your life, right? You stumble across this podcast, you have no idea about its character or background, you have very limited information, we totally get that. The chances of you bumping into this podcast in this place at this time? Well, it's all in the hands of the fates and the ample laps of the gods. Who could foresee the tragic consequences of your listening to Mike and Danny this week? As for Nesso, how could you know that she was even going to be there? All we can say for certain is that we are pretty sure that none of us are your mother or father...unless ...nah...the universe isn't that messed up surely? Any way, join us for more Greek tragedy this week, how can you possibly be held responsible?
This week, join Mike and Danny in shock and surprise as we, entirely by accident, and with no forward planning, bump into Nesso the Australian philosopher, wine drinker and all round top Sheila. Yes it is time to confront the tragic nature of human existence so settle back, pour yourselves a glass of retsina and enjoy this weeks exploration into accidents and misunderstandings that litter our lives. Just how much control do we really have over our own existences? Once the gods have finished messing with us and circumstances out of our control have had their way. By the time environmental variables have impacted upon the warp and weft of the tapestries of our lives and the fates have slipped a stitch and decided it would be too much hassle to go back and unpick everything, how much of “us” actual goes into our existence? To be honest, when all is said and done are we really our fault? Seriously, I can’t be held responsible for me man, I mean, I am just a scapegoat for my own existence (By the way, look out for Danny’s joke). Anyway it is time for us to engage in a joint cathartic scream, ok, on 3. 1…2….
This week join Mike and Danny as they take to the skies on the start of their much anticipated world tour. Yes, come fly with us, let's fly, let’s fly away. If you can use some exotic philosophy come and join us on Wednesday. Come fly with us, let’s fly, let’s fly away. I’m not going to lie to you, we know each other far to well for that now, but quite honestly, I think Danny has gone a bit funny. He’s put all our funds in a duffle bag, along with his 12 copies of the Tractatus, and mumbled something about tragedy and Grease… yeah, I think that was what he said. Anyway, I’m pretty sure he’s booked tickets for a Bee Gees tribute band. I’m just going to play along with him, after all, it will be cathartic for us both. I mean, weather-wise it’s such a lovely day, right?
Ok, it’s the last cast of the year, you all know the drill, I’m not sure I can be bothered this week so I’m just going to phone this one in if that’s ok with the rest of you? Right, so welcome, it’s Danny and Mike, listen to us talk about stuff. Sit in amazed silence as this happens, then that, then some other stuff, possibly about social construction, possibly about Luce Irigaray, to be honest I can’t rightly remember, we are just on the other side of Christmas here, cut us some slack for pity sake. I think Danny mentions menstruation and hysteria - one of us says something meaningful about gender… yeah, pretty sure that was this cast. All this plus what, exactly, does it mean to be “non-binary”? Don’t look at us, how should we know? But, as luck would have it we have with us Sorren, the non-binary archeologist, who was prepared to share her own experiences with us for the promise of a free meal. Who are we to turn down such an offer in these difficult times?
This week, as we approach that festive time of the year, join Mike and Danny as they invite a few friends over for drinks and nibbles. Listen in as de Beauvoir tries to bogart all the vol-au-vents while arguing that she is free to range with absolutely liberty across the entire buffet and who are we to try to constrain her with our fascist party hosting ideologies. Well, there is always at least one guest like that, right? They bring the cheap ass supermarket larger and drink all your Prosecco. Across the room you might just make out Jacques Lacan checking himself out in the mirror - I bet he thinks this cast is about him. Don’t worry, Foucault is right there taking the piss and telling him there is something caught in his teeth that he can see - that guy, anything for a laugh. Yes, it’s a party in your brain and everyone is invited but I’m not cleaning up in the morning and don’t come crying to me if you wake up with your own ID, what happens at the WTF Christmas party, stays at the WTF Christmas party.
This week, join Mike and Danny here in our bodies where we feel safest of all, we can lock all the doors, it’s the only way to live in bodies… or is it? Certainly Merleau Ponty would agree. Yes, it’s time for the physical body to not only take centre stage but to actually become the stage upon which we strut and fret and access the world. Bet you wish you’d kept it in better shape now don’t you? But don’t worry, Mike and Danny are on hand to socially reconstruct your entire reality. Gather round as they sensibly put on their philosophical hard hats and high-vis vests and set about knocking through that unsightly personal identity considered sooooo essential back in the day to create a whole new self with a lighter, airer feel to it that you will just love to invite people back to. I mean, we aren’t saying it won’t run into money and any thing we say up front is just an estimate, but totally worth it, right?
This week Mike confuses Danny with someone else, after all, how is Danny to be distinguished from anyone else? One needs to be tolerant of each other, right? Or perhaps, as Popper tells us, the tolerant society can only be tolerant by not tolerating the intolerant. To secure the essence of humanity what must we deny? How do we police our fundamental identity? What are we prepared to go to the stake for? Human dignity? Human freedom? Gender distinctions? Pineapple on pizza?? Where do we draw the line and what do we draw it in? - indelible pen? Pencil?? Chalk??? But what is this creeping up behind us smelling all sweaty and making odd noises? Yes, it’s the physical body preparing to make a reappearance and stake it’s claim to being an essential component in the quest for human identity. Watch it as it lumbers up on stage, takes the mic and starts to sing “Who You Are” by Jessie J. Yes, we are all down with the banging tunes on the WTF dance floor. All this and a retro reference to Paul McCartney and Wings for no good reason, watch out for it.
This week Mike and Danny get down to essentials but where do they take us? What is a good Danny? Who is it that decides on the “Danniness” of a thing? Yes we are coming after you Plato, we have a guzungada and we are not afraid to use it. Also, in todays cast, beer - what is it? Is there an essential beer or is it simply a label we hang on a particular beverage? To be honest, who cares as long as it's Wittgenstein’s round, right? But who have we here traveling towards us at a reckless pace? Why I do believe it’s Aristotle… he’s traveling awfully fast… I don’t think he’s going to be able to stop…he’s going to run into Plato and there is going to be an accident if I’m any judge you just wait and see. Yes it’s essence and accidents at WTF and who is to say which is more significant?
This week join Mike and Danny in the Philosopher’s Kitchen as they seek to impress the judges with their philo-culinary delights. Will the guest diners enjoy Danny’s Wittgenstein soufflé or will it collapse at the last minute proving to be insubstantial and nothing more than hot air? Will Mike’s Platonic pie flavoured with 'essence of human form' and served with a side of totalitarian taurine pique palates or send people scurrying to the toilet? As our conceptual cooks round off the evening with a desert constructed from leftover suspicion, a smidgin of Karl Popper sprinkled with nuts, the whole sorry mess is capped off with a nightcap of Mike over-sharing about his restaurant habits. Yes, this is where it starts guys, a feast for your minds - but remember, chew your food, enjoy it, you aren’t animals…
This week join Mike and Danny as they attempt to build a scale model of Danny from bits of information gleaned by rummaging through his bins during the hours of darkness. Is it possible to create an accurate scale model of the world using nothing but words and statistics? Develop a new found respect for data analytics as we identify Danny’s perfect partner by noting his preference for whisky, Wittgenstein and women and concluding from this that he is ideally paired with a drunken Scottish lady who likes to kick ladders away. Yes, it’s time to reduce the world and everything in it to convenient data sets for easy storage and eventual reconstitution via the inevitable replicator technology, or perhaps just to sell you stuff and make you easier to file. All this and Danny channeling Yoda towards the end of the cast - “All his life has he looked away to the future, to the horizon. Never his mind on where he was, What he was doing”. Makes you think, right?
This week, who knows what’s going on because we certainly don’t. Danny has been struck down by the virus (he’s fine and recovering so don’t pander to him, he’s just looking for attention) and Mike can’t recall what they talked about when this cast was recorded. All we can say with any certainty is that the whole thing will be its usual mixture of insight and delight - which is more than most of use deserve. I think we talk about a couple of films, oh yes, and a book … or was it a cat? No, I remember now, we definitely discussed desserts … or was that deserts? Pretty sure it had sand in it somewhere…
This week join Mike and Danny as they get just what they deserve. Yes, who are you and what do you want? Is there an ontology behind consumerism? What do we need to own in order to be complete? Join us as we ride into town on the mule of philosophy and play what we deserve off against what we lack. Yes, it’s an anthropological showdown with everything to play for if we get caught. What are we being told about ourselves when the marketplace tells us what we need to be truly complete? If money can’t buy you happiness you don’t know how to shop, am I right?
This week join us as Mike and Danny bunk off school to hide behind the bike sheds and talk lifestyles. Yes, you heard right, we’re bucking the system and biting the very hand that feeds us. Listen in mute disbelief as your two cheeky chappies from the lower 6th sass their teachers and serve up shade to their betters. What do you mean you don’t want to take your place in the market? You can’t fly kites and feed birds all day! Stay after school and write 1000 times “I must not question the status quo and mistake life style for career”. Yes, we are finding philosophy hidden away in the musty lockers and defaced text books of education. All this and Orson Wells - is Harry a bastard or a realist? We will meet you in the sewers of Vienna to find out.
This week, join Mike and Danny as they delve into the depths of the fridge, behind the the milk, cheese and other fresh dairy products to rummage amongst the fetid remains of dinners past. Yes, stand amazed, and slightly nauseated as your two ragged philosophical gastronauts engage in the thinking persons equivalent of coming home late from the pub and prodding at dangerously out of date pizza in the hope that it is just this side of toxic. Is the best philosophy conducted by poking around at things that we find on our journey through life or do we need to invest heavily in primary texts and an expensive academic education? Are fried up leftovers just as satisfying a meal as an expensive 5 star tasting menu? Only you and your toilet will ever know for sure
This week join Mike and Danny as they scavenge through the philosophical skips and bins in search of discarded gold. Yes, we are up-cycling preowned and well used ideas that others have simply thrown out. I mean really, senseless waste. Look at this passing phrase from a 1940’s film - still plenty of good ontological wear in that. And here, see that? A sentence from Jane Austin that with a little invisible mending will continue to do solid epistemic service. It’s a disgrace what people chuck out these days, consumer philosophy, that’s what it is, nothing built to last. Ah well, at least we can do our bit for sustainable thought. Underground, overground Philosophising free, the philosopher of WTF are we, making good use of the ideas that we find, things that the everyday thinker leaves behind
This week join Mike and Danny simply because they tell you too. Yes, that’s right, you can trust us, we’re reliable, when have we ever steered you wrong? I mean, who else are you going to believe? After all, what do you really know? A handful of shabby first hand experiences mediated through highly questionable sense organs and the rest is all hearsay, am I right? So, who ya gonna trust? Wikipedia? The evening news? The government? Dave from down the pub (he seems to know everything). No, you stick with Danny and Mike, we’ll tell you how it really is. As Abba once said, knowing me, knowing you, aha! And who are we to argue with them - am I right?
This week join Mike and Danny as they question your life style, yes YOURS! After all, who are you people to come in here with your uniqueness, strutting your difference around like it was no thing? I mean, it’s taken us ages to sort things out and to figure out the how and why of things and then in you people trot with your thinking and opinions and various sexualities and throw the whole delicate edifice into jeopardy. You people sicken me, why can’t you be like us? Why rock the boat with your … your… ways? Surely you can all see that it’s much better to conform to the Mike and Danny standard? So, as we say, join us in the back of the cave where things are the same and not different. Remember, fear the other, even people from round here aren’t from round here.
This week; being here, being there, being neither one thing or another, being in, being out, being real, being fake. To be, or not to be and bebop a Lula, she's my baby. Yes, it's ontology week at WTF mansions where Mike and Danny are being themselves and loving it. Existence is very much as you find it and we find it everywhere but what is it? Do things exist because we perceive them and stop when we aren't looking. Do trees ever really fall in the forest? Questions like this, and others, must be left for the time being but who is the time being and what is he doing in our house!?
This week join Mike and Danny as they dare to tug at the knicker elastic that alone holds up the underwear of Reality. Will the boxer shorts of infinity be found to be adequately supported or will we be left with faces scarlet with shame, our ontologies around our ankles? What, exactly, covers up our philosophical modesty? Are our epistemological private parts tastefully held in place by the comforting infrastructure of a flexible metaphysic or are they left swinging in the breeze, the objects of public ridicule and derision? Metaphysics, woolly thinking Doctor? Perhaps, but very comforting when worn next to the skin.
This week, join Mike and Danny as they examine the very foundations of reality because it looks like there are some nasty cracks appearing in your plaster work. What’s it all built on, eh? What sort of cowboy builders did you get in to do the original work? Listen in as your two philosophical construction workers don their hard hats and high vis vest and go at it with pneumatic drills to see what lies beneath the surface. When your philosophical pipes burst who ya gonna call? When your very ontology begins to subside and your epistemology is not up to current specs and needs completely stripping out then it’s time to call in the professionals. Cheap, professional, cheap, competitive and cheap! Yes, let us shore up your crumbling metaphysical foundations so that your belief system can, once again, support the towering edifice of your philosophically informed world view. Or, you can slap a couple of coats of paint on it and try and flip it for some easy cash, it’s all the same to us.
This week join Mike and Danny, back in the lab again, as they tentatively extract dangerous metaphysic from the safety of its lead lined container. Have they instituted all necessary safety protocols or are they being recklessly cavalier with this most dangerous of philosophical substances? Catch your breath as Danny dons a protective suit and attempts to hold the highly volatile raw metaphysic stable using nothing but a pair of bbq tongs as Mike seeks to guide it into the Philoso-genorator (TM). Surely there is nothing to fear here, right? Mike and Danny are trained researchers with years of experience handling dangerous ideas behind them. But wait a moment, what’s that, dangling above the exposed metaphysic? It looks like a proposition from Wittgenstein, it’s falling through the metaphysical radiation and is starting to glow… Oh my gods! IT’S BITTEN DANNY! Who knows what effect this could have. And thus, a legend is born.
This week join Mike and Danny as they lay out their tools and scavenged resources and commence construction. Yes, what, exactly is required to build a philosophy? The toe bone's connected to the heel bone, the heel bone's connected to the foot bone, the foot bone's connected to the leg bone, the leg bone's connected to the knee bone… but what is the ontology connected to and where are the Allen keys clearly indicated as present in the instructions? So, by all means join us as we begin or exploration into the wonders of flatpac philosophy. But before we start, what about this heat, right? I mean, there is such a thing as too much isn’t there or isn’t there? Perhaps there is never enough of a good thing. We, for our part, are committed to moderation in all things - as much moderation as we can get and as often as we can get it, that’s our motto, or is it life in the fast lane, everything, all the time? Easy to get those two confused.
This week something unnatural stalks the corridors of WTF Mansions. Join Mike and Danny as they set themselves against the gods in a mad bid to create a philosophy from nothing but spare parts and hubris. Yes, this week we prepare the lab, provide instructions to our hideous underlings and power up those things that go buzz buzz. Dare we fly in the face of nature? Is it possible to breath life into that which never lived? Let us pull the lever together whilst the storm is at its height and find out. Yes, that is not dead which can eternal lie, And with strange aeons even death may die. Fhtagn y’all!
This week, take your pick and join Danny down in the WTF mines digging for pure philosophy or leave your pick behind and take your leave with Mike by the seaside. Yes, it's Morlocks and Eloi at WTF Mansions today as we continue to explore the masks we wear. As Danny slaves beneath the earth Mike labours to engage with true human identity behind a succession of masked automata whose only wish is to provide him with beer, food and other services. The struggle is real.
This week join Mike and Danny - but not the same Mike and Danny as you joined last week by any means - as they grow a beard, change their look and adopt posher accents. Yes, it's time to flip the script and change costume as we ask the question, "wtf do you think you are?" As we all intermingle at the grand masquerade of life what have you come as? Who is the dude in the gorilla suit? When the clock chimes midnight and the masks come off who will we appear to be? Will there just be another mask underneath the first one? Who will we wake up next to? As for me, my disguise must be able to strike terror into peoples hearts. I must be a creature of the night, black, terrible, a… a…
This week Danny tells us about Wittgenstein’s penchant for gumshoe detective magazines and films. Join Mike and Danny on a dark and stormy night as they hit the streets playing the hunches and collecting 50 bucks a week plus expenses. Listen in as Sherlock Holmes pits his abstract intellect against Marlow's gut in an attempt to figure out which of the Vienna Circle killed British philosophy. Whose pipe is that still smouldering in the ashtray? Is that a size 10 boot print by the window?? What do these signs all signify?? Who had the most to gain by the death of subjectivity??? Danny insists that Ludwig has been set up but by who and why???? The stage is set, the players have all adopted their persona’s and adjusted their masks. Now it’s time to dance. Also this this week Danny says nice things about Mike, which is nice.
Saturday night at the movies, who cares what picture you see? Yes, Mike and Danny are talking too loudly in the cinema again and pissing everybody off. Join us this week as we plot spoil and comment through every scene while checking our podcast stats on our phones and kicking the seats in front. Listen in as Danny covertly accuses Mike of dissing the romantic novel. Yes, life is a cathartic performance and there is always someone sat in front of you wearing a big hat. If theatre allow us to conduct thought experiments then, perhaps, we are always free to rewrite our own personal scripts, give ourselves more and better lines, perhaps a few jokes even. How about a costume change? Maybe a change of makeup? I know, what about an unusual accent and a new back-story? Yes, the magic of performance can make it happen. So, keep your auditions for somebody who hasn’t got so much to lose ‘cause you can tell by the lines I’m reciting I’ve seen that movie too.
This week listen in as Mike and Danny order up a mess of popcorn and broccoli and head to the movies. But who do we find protesting outside? Yes it’s Plato waving a “Down with This Sort of Thing” placard. Yes, once again Plato shines his torch into the dark corners of the cave which is theatre and tells us to stop doing that. Do theatre and the arts hold a mirror up to nature or lead us further away from the ideal forms? Is all of existence nothing more than a series of performances for specific audiences in which case when do we get the opportunity to rehearse? Are we inevitably typecast for every person we meet or can we freely adopt new and exciting roles? I for one am a trained actor reduced to the status of a bum!
There’s no business like show business, there’s no business I know! Yes, this week listen in as Mike and Danny strut and fret their hour upon the stage. Are we nothing but wastrels, slatterns and ne'er-do-wells or glittering celebrities admired and envied by the masses? If all the world really is a stage then are we constantly pretending to be who we are simply to be what we are? Yes, the pressure to perform weighs heavily upon us all but who writes the script and provides the costumes? Are there awards? Have we all become type cast? I don’t know about you guys, but I need to talk to my agent.
This week you say potato and I say er...potato (no it doesn't really work when written down does it?). Yes, who is to say which one of us is right? This week Danny and Mike pitch their stall in the WTF farmers market and seek to tempt you with there virtuous produce. Lovely juicy honesty, ripe courage, only £1 a scoop, plump self-sacrifice picked fresh today! But what's this? Another stall has pitched up trying to undercut us with their over ripe greed and past its best self serving duplicity, what a cheek! Who would choose such shabby goods as these when compared to our dew fresh selection eh? Er...no...come back...perhaps we can arrange a discount...
This week listen in as Mike and Danny give up and simply do what works. Yes, it’s enlightened self interest time here where what is right plays second fiddle to what happens to do the job. Yes, it’s big fish verses bigger fish in the turbulent waters of ethical theory as we carefully avoid gobbling up the tiny clown fish just in case it happens to be good friends with a gang of whale sharks. I mean, where are the gods when you genuinely need someone around to make an absolute judgement about something? Everything counts in large amounts, right? All this plus a shout out to Sorren the archaeologist. Don’t blame us, we aren’t responsible, it was the devil that made us do it… or society… or my upbringing … but not us, never us, we had no choice in the matter, no choice at all. Anyway, everyone’s doing it.
Join us as Danny presents his virtue for all to see. Go on, have a good long look, take a photo, it will last longer. Meanwhile, and across town, Mike is prepared to settle for simply appearing virtuous. As long as people consider us to be “good people” does it matter if we actually are? Why do even bastards prefer not to be seen as bastards? Why do politicians still make the effort to appear to be decent human beings rather than just own their sleazy and duplicitous characters? Yes, this week listen in as Mike and Danny struggle to reject the One Ring even though they would, without a doubt, use it for good. I mean, you don’t get Darth Vader trying to argue that he is, basically, a misunderstood good guy or Sauron going on about his charity work. These are the bad guys and they embrace it - they dress in black, they have the whole red eye thing going on and they step on bunnies and small children. If virtue is appropriate to the object of virtue then perhaps a virtuous politician is Machiavelli’s Prince? All this and whether baking flapjacks is more virtuous than beating someone up in the street for their phone. Wtf?? - bad to the bone, right?
This week, listen in as Mike finally confesses to delusions of godhood and his complicity in a slew of failed student relationships. How many cooks does it really take to spoil the broth? Who actually still eats broth these days?? Yes, the recipe for the perfect life, too much salt and the whole thing goes straight into the bin. Join us as we work through the spice rack of virtue - a little bit of honesty, a smidge of courage and the merest soupçon of temperance. Ok, now little it simmer gently for a few… GENTLY FOR GODS SAKE! DON’T BOIL THE CRAP OUT OF IT, YOU’LL SPOIL IT! … Ah, it’s too late now. Oh well, back to the drawing board. Virtue is like oxygen, right? You get too much you get too high, not enough and you’re gonna die. Or is that love? Sounds pretty Sweet either way, right?
This week join Mike and Danny as they ... well, just hang out, nothing more than that really. I mean, Danny pops down the shops for a few bits but other than that nothing much to see this week. Seriously, we've decided to take it easy for the week, you'll need to make your own entertainment. Alternatively, you could join us both as we scream into the void, probably sometime after lunch idk
This week join Mike and Danny as they throw their past selves under the bus. No, that’s not me, it might look vaguely reminiscent (apart from the hair) but other than that I have never set eyes on ether of those guys before. Can we ever go home again? How does Mike's mum still recognise him? Do all of Danny's former romantic partners look on in horror at what he has become and utter that well known phrase, “what WAS I thinking??” Yes, at the existential school reunion who actually attends? All of this and Pythagoras thrown in just to make up the numbers. Oh what fun we had but did it really turn out bad?
This week, what happens when worlds collide? Do they both erupt in twin fire balls spinning off into the void as a sleek silver space ship cuts its way through the darkness on its way to a new home and a fresh start? Does encounter with otherness and difference inevitably lead to a diminution of the very essence of who and what we are? I mean, you said you wouldn’t try to change me but here we are, years down the line with your curtain fabric and furnishings throughout the house and all my stuff boxed up and in the loft! Well enough is enough, I don’t accept things as they are anymore, it’s time for a change… then again, isn’t that how this whole business started in the first place? No, you’re right, it’s time for a fresh start, all my shit SHOULD go in the bin, now is the time to reset and rewrite the script. All this and Danny, "the arse man”, compromising his eternal digital footprint for the ages. Am I living in a box, am I living in a cardboard box?
"What kind of fool do you think I am? You think I know nothing of the modern world? Well, this week, let Danny and Mike prove you wrong! Join us as we ask the question - do we really need to change? What’s the matter with the old ways? Why can’t we ever be content with things as thy are. What is baby and what is bathwater? Is it your kids, Marty? Are our progeny the capsules into which we pour the essential, unchangeable aspects of our reality and fire them off into the future? Say what you like ‘cause I don’t care, I know where I am and going too. It’s somewhere I won’t preview, don’t have to explain myself to you …”
This week, what have the gods ever done for us? Join Mike and Danny in Thales hot tub where everything is water but full of bubbles and not always the good kind. Yes, it’s time to get back to basics, strip away the unnecessary and discover the very foundations of reality. Will you do the necessary prep work, sand down, clean and fill all those annoying little holes and cracks or will you simply slap a coat of paint on over the dirt and hope for the best? We, of course, plan to build our city on rock n roll - Danny knows a guy who can hook us up wholesale, totally legit.
This week everything changes, or does it? Is change inevitable? What do we build on that might provide a solid foundation for our identity and understanding of the world? Join Mike and Danny as they turn and face the strain. Enjoy a relaxing trip through Miletus noting, as we go, Thales and the Pre-Scratics on our left. You know what? This time we are going to stop and get out, actually spend some time with these guys, grab a glass of wine and chill. After all, what else have we got to do?
This week we are just never satisfied are we? There is always some itch that needs scratching, some desire yet to be fulfilled, some patch of grass just ever so slightly more green. Never fear, join Mike and Danny as they seek out new vistas - this time it will work, this time we will discover the promised land, settle down with our partner(s) of choice, grow goats and herd root vegetables. What do you mean “what’s the wifi like?”??? No, there won’t be Netflix and it won’t be a convenient walk to the nearest shopping mall! This is gods damn utopia we are talking about here, who are you to question it?? What the hell do you people want? Danny and I have worked very hard to help create an ideal world for you to inhabit and now you say it’s not good enough? Right, well, get out, go on, sod off out of it and form your own utopia - good luck to you. Er… will yours have beer and snacks? Room for two more?
This week join Danny and Mike. That’s it, just join Danny and Mike, nothing more, just hangout in the world we have carved out for ourselves. Sacrifices will have to be made, you will have to ditch some of your baggage and adapt to our way of life but it’s a small price to pay for the sense of belonging we offer. Of course some of you will find it difficult to adjust, some of you might even nurse a rebellious spirit, perhaps even have some ideas of your own. No matter, everybody has to learn, a few days alone in the “happiness box” will soon rid you of those antisocial tendencies. All this and Danny mentions Wittgenstein - listen out for it, it’s the best bit.
This week, what is our ultimate destination? Join Mike and Danny as they set out along the path of natural order to identify our individual fate. But wait, who says we can’t stop and smell the roses? In fact, why don’t we turn off destiny highway and follow this rough unbeaten track to gods know where? Yes, once again Mike and Danny reveal their penchant for flared jeans, reasonably priced, if not free, love and the sounds of the Grateful Dead. Don’t harsh our buzz man, we are sticking it to the essentialists and setting out as sailors on the sea of fate. But what is it that we want to do? Well, we want to be free, we wanna be free to do what we wanna do and we wanna get loaded and we wanna have a good time. Yes join us once again on a journey to your density! All this plus Star Trek and Henri Bergson for the price of a few megabytes of bandwidth - and what can you buy with that these days?
This week Danny is fed up and miserable but the sun is starting to shine and a new day is dawning! Tune in and join Mike and Danny, the merry philosonauts, on a magical mystery through the realms of possibility. Yes, this week we are talking revolution… or are we? Is it time to re-engage with normality or are we on the frontiers of the new normal? What, exactly, IS the normal way to be? What are the standards for identifying normal human existence? Is it essence or is it existence? Where is our instruction manual? Where does this washer go? Is it important?? All we can say is that all right thinking people will be joining us this week and that people who agree with what we have to say will be the kind of people who find this sort of thing agreeable.
This week, join Mike and Danny, after a year of lockdown, as they stare into the face of the other and ask “who the hell are you people?” Yes, what do we do with the other after so long with only the Cartesian cogito for company? Will we finally emerge from pandamic isolation desperate for human contact or having developed an antipathy for human connection? Has all this time, huddled with our families, simply rendered us intensely tribal to the detriment of the body politic? Perhaps it’s time to explore alternative communalities, to go Further? Yes, it’s time to get onboard the WTF bus and head on out towards the philosophical highway as Mike and Danny squeeze back into their tye dyed shirts, give away their kids and go in search of free love and a different way to be. We’ll fly our astral plan, take you trips around the bay, bring you back the same day…
This week we are family, I got all my siblings with me! Yes join Mike and Danny as they continue their exploration into the murky depths of family life. Should Danny beat his children? Would this contribute to the dialectical development of the universal spirit? Do philosophers give us the families their philosophies deserve? Just how natural is the family? Does “speaking as a parent” give one greater access to epistemic certainty or simply render as opinionated elitists? Can any one person or group provide us with everything we need for an existentially satisfying life? Are Mike and Danny deliberately trying to undermine your confidence in the ideal status of the nuclear family and and reveal your nearest and dearest as nothing more than self-serving parasites? You decide. All this and a secret message from Dr Mike. Remember folks, you are our family - whether you like it or not.
This week, we didn’t ask to be born, right? Who is responsible for dragging us into this whole situation? Listen with mounting existential dread as Mike and Danny inform you that this is not your fault but your are stuck with it, there is nothing you can do about it, you just have to suck it up. Be dumbfounded with the revelation that as a parent you are empowered to grab the epistemic crayons and scrawl all over your children psyche. Yes! Go ahead! knock yourselves out and join in the pedagogic graffiti fest that is your child's upbringing in a world they were never invited into. Come to the awful realisation that Kant is staring at you and shaking his head in judgment. All this and Mike mistaking John Stuart Mill for John Locke. I mean, you’d totally pay for this stuff, right?
This week listen in as Mike and Danny tell you that you aren’t bringing your kids up properly. Yes, in this offensive episode we upset both parents and the entire education industry by suggesting that one doesn’t know what it’s doing and the other is simply in it for the money. That’s right folks, here at WTF we play no favourites and know no fear in our quest to usher in a glorious utopian future. We built this city, we built this city on ideal forms and not on children reared on TV, celebrity gossip or even rock ’n’ roll. If this cast causes you to reconsider your parenting obligations please feel free to contact "WTF and Sons and Daughters and Non-Binary Progeny (The Old Firm) est 2018” where a bed can be found under the counter for a hardworking youngster with ambition.
It’s 2021 and we are back to bring philosophy to the masses! Join Mike and Danny as they emerge blinking from the darkness of 2020 bloated with the excesses of the festive season. Listen in with mild disappointment as Mike stuffs his face with leftover Christmas cake and Danny confesses, to his enduring shame, that he consumes sell-by mince pies behind closed doors to the everlasting embarrassment of his family and amidst the sound of his crying children. Yes, families, what are they for exactly? You can choose your friends so they say, but your family is part of the un-negotiated thrownness of being. Can philosophy help us understand the nature and purpose of family? Which of the major philosophers would provide us with the most useful dating advice? Is there an ideal form of the perfect partner or do we simply have to leap into the dating game and trust to faith? Check out this weeks cast and swipe right.
This week join Mike and Danny as they seek to establish their unique identities in the world. Marvel as Mike admits to bizarre restaurant based existential choices. Is anything enough for Danny? Does existence precede essence? Does the chicken precede the egg? Some of these questions and more will be on the agenda this week as our gift to you. But hang on, there is more! Yes, let Mike and Danny unfold the instructions to human existence and search in vain for the allen key that will allow them to put it all together. Why are there a pile of spare screws and brackets? Are they important to our becoming? Will our existence collapse when too much weight is put on it? Listen in, let go and trust to gravity.
This week join Mike and Danny as they strip humanity down to its boxers to see what is left of its identity. Are we nothing more than the sum of our memories and if that is true what effect does it have when I forget where I put my key? What happens when the JPEG that is humanity has too many pixels removed for the picture to be clearly seen? When we get to the point where we start singing “daisy, daisy, give me your answer do” has the essence of what we are been lost? Listen in as Mike and Danny skilfully manage to avoid answering any of these questions by distracting you with reminiscences of 'The Rise and Fall of Reginald Perrin’. Yes, once again more questions than answers in this weeks cast but you knew what you were signing up for from the start, right?
This week join Danny and Mike as they subject subjectivity to the subjective gaze. Is one person's meat really another’s poison? Is there no accounting for taste? Is beauty in the eye of the beholder? Is humanity really something absolute that establishes us as unique and inviolable or is it a sliding scale? A moveable feast of ingredients that is endlessly variable? Wrinkle your nose up in mild disgust as Mike brings dog poo to the table - is it really, objectively less lovely than, say, Marilyn Monroe, or is it just different strokes for different folks? Join us as we are thrown through the salon doors of existence and into the street of situatedness. All this and advice from Mike’s mum.
This week join Mike and Danny as they play "Plato’s Republic the Role Playing Game”! Yes, join in the fun and excitement of living in a utopian society but first you need to roll a character. Grab your dice and see what you end up with - will you be a leader, a philosopher king? Perhaps the dice will not fall exactly in your favour and you end up with high organisational stats and have to settle for the somewhat less exciting life of an administrator or military leader. If you really suck at this you might roll low numbers in all stats except for constitution and strength in which case its physical labour for you - and no, you don’t get to re-roll and there are no modifiers. If the dice roll off the table by accident and you end up with zeros for all your stats don’t despair, you can still play as a woman but only if you are in a party with at least one man and only if you promise not to play but just watch and don’t touch anything. Yes it’s not fair but it’s all in the roll of the dice, right? All of this and Mike confusing Plato with Descartes, twice, along with guest appearances from Aristotle and god.
This week join Danny and Mike as they indulge their animal appetites to see just how far they can go before compromising their essential humanity. What, exactly, is a human being? Are you one? How do you know? Don’t give me that! Oh, we can all SAY that we are human beings but talk is cheap - unless of course you are Wittgenstein. Is humanity something that happens to us or do we in some way make it happen? Is it passive or active? When does protection of an essential human characteristic become a violation of difference? Why are you looking at me? I have no clue, I’m only human after all.
This week join our know-it-all podcast as Mike and Danny once more don the vestments of the epistemological priesthood and lead you, but only if you are truly repentant, into the light of clear and certain understanding. Bow in veneration at the combined feet of your gurus as we, the custodians of all that is true and real, weigh you in the balance. Will you be found wanting or will you pass into blessed enlightenment? Is your salvation dependent upon the sum total of all your experiences? Is knowledge of Australia a necessary condition for true knowledge or have we got the wrong end of our own stick? Tune in and sort the sheep from the goats, the wheat from the chaff and the priori from the a priori. Only the penitent man will be saved…the penitent man…penitent man… swoooosh!
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This week listen in as Mike provides entirely the wrong blurb for this episode! Blink in disbelief and confusion as that blurb mysteriously vanishes to be replaced by this one. Did the original blurb ever truly exist? If it did, where is it now and ought you to receive immediate therapy? Perception, can it really be trusted to provide you with an accurate account of reality or is reality merely what we perceive and are some of you still tenaciously clinging to the original blurb? Join us for adventures into Idealism with our old friends Plato and Hegel - now you knew where you were with those guys, none of this “oh the blurb is only available to sense perception”. Why does Danny persist in talking about wax? Embrace the illusion, dream the dream - everything will be better in the morning with a nice cup of tea.
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This week join Mike and Danny as they draw data from the physical world thus challenging the gods themselves! Listen in as they assault the very heavens armed with nothing more than a doughnut and their 5 senses. Yes knowledge, what does it taste like? how do we gain it? What do we do with it when we have it? Is there big knowledge and small knowledge? Knowledge is power but ignorance is bliss - place your bets ladies and gentlemen! Let Mike and Danny be your gatekeeper to the secret knowledge after all the truth will set you free right? Right??
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This week, knowing me, knowing you! Listen in as Mike and Danny ask the question “Do you know enough?” Look on in mild amusement as we feverishly search for the instruction manual to the thrownness of being. Encounter rising panic as Danny freezes up creating a period of embarrassing dead air around about 10:18. Are we born with enough knowledge to find our extremities with both hands? Can we walk in a straight line or do we need to be taught? Do we need words to form knowledge? What if “the bird” really is the word?? All of this and the usual references to Star Trek. Shaka, when the walls fell indeed.
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This week we come to the end of the Kant/Bentham rumble. Who will be judged victorious and who will have to swallow the bitter dregs of defeat? Listen in as Kant delivers his signature “categorical smack down’ move. Will Bentham’s "hedonic round house” be sufficient to counter the Crusher from Konigsberg? Bow your heads in reverence and let Mike and Danny root out the evils of the world and join them as they punch it on the nose and teach it a righteous lesson. Is a straightforward list of do's and don’t preferable to having to work things out from first principles? Are you old school lego - a box of random bricks to arrange as we choose - or new Lego that always comes with instructions to build something specific? Whatever your choice, be excellent to each other, I mean, why not?
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This week - do we really want the truth? What would we do with it? Better a comfortable lie, right? Consider, if you will, the existential anguish of the “extensive menu” - do we get incapacitated by indecision the more options we are given? What would you prefer, Mike’s Spam Egg & Chips, Spam and Chips or just plain Spam OR will you go for Danny’s 150 dish tasting menu with a selection of starters and deserts? Will you be lusting after what other people have ordered once the food arrives anyway? Is ethics simply a matter of smacking people over the nose with a rolled up newspaper when they pee on the carpet? Listen in carefully and hear Mike doing covert research as he types out a search string into Google to check his facts. Why do things matter? How do we win? Me? I’m off to count my toys.
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This week, if you’re happy and you know it please contact Mike and Danny with details. Yes, it’s the greatest happiness for the greatest number folks. Join Mike and Danny as they decide on the minimum amount of happiness required for them to get up in the morning. What, exactly, do we have a right too? Are we really “worth it”? Listen in as Danny all but admits to speeding at 2 o’clock in the morning because, what harm can it do, right? Nod in sage wisdom as Mike shakes his head in smug condemnation. Are hazard warning lights a licence to do as you please including parking outside my local chippy blocking both lanes? Yes, listen careful to this weeks cast, it isn’t just your right it is your obligation…unless you have something better to do, I mean, there may be more worthwhile ways of spending 20 mins, who are we to say?
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This week join Dr Mike as he gives a mad axeman Danny’s exact postal address and contact details, just in case. Listen carefully and take extensive notes as Mike and Danny consider what the untestable beliefs are that ground their understanding of reality. Do we have to assume an absolute judge in order to be good guys or can we work it out as we go along? Just how fast can nonsense travel on stilts? Settle back and lightly oil yourselves down as Bentham argues for an ethic based on the happy ending principle. What is the hedonic calculus and is there an app that can be downloaded on to your phone? Hubba, hubba, hubba, who do you trust? Me, I’m giving away the categorical imperative but where is Jeremy Bentham? He’s at home, washing his pig.
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Join Mike and Danny this week as they pull up at the traffic lights and start revving the engine to show off to their mates. Stick with them as the lights change, they drop the clutch, release the breaks and the philosophical wheels start to spin. Gaze on in uncritical adoration as they screech away burning philosophical rubber to play chicken with Kant and Bentham. Who will blink first, how far will this go? Squeeze up onto the back seat, jump on the running board and live dangerously as Mike and Danny begin the journey into right, wrong, good, bad, god and beer pumps. Buckle up everyone, we aren’t insured.
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This week listen in with all due deference as Danny and Mike … no, hang on, I’m not doing this. Why should I impose a narrative on you? The cast is out there now, you make of it what you will. Look, I’ll even leave you space to construct your own blurb, enough of this authorial priority, you go to it. I’ll just sit here and watch. Away you go then. [
] There, see, not as easy as it looks is it? Oh yes, we all want to march to the beat of our own drum and throw away the rule book but then what? I’ll tell you what, it’s straight back home to mum and dad to borrow money and do your laundry. Get a job ya hippy!”
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Pst, hey, kids, do you want some po-mo? Don’t sweat it brah, this is the good stuff won’t make you go blind or nothing. No this is quality stuff and the best of it is the first hit is absolute free. Yeah, you heard us, Danny and Mike are hooking you up with the real deal and it will set…you,,,free! No more living in a world that’s already written oh no, with our high grade po-mo you can play by your own rules like it weren’t no damn thing. That’s right, it’s the hottest thing on the streets and we mean territory not some damn street map. Don’t you be fooled by none of that bogus stuff people be scamming you with, this stuff is 100% pure local, uncut with any of that meta shit. So don’t be getting all grand you dig? Put some swagger in your walk with po-mo and say “Foucault You” to the man. (Don’t do drugs, stay in school).
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This week, Mike succumbs to the pressures of the time and mentions Wittgenstein before Danny does. Listen in with mounting disappointment as Danny makes the obvious Lyotard gag - low hanging fruit bro, low hanging fruit. What is the condition of postmodernity? Who was the irritating student who suggested that the movement following postmodernism should be called post-postmodernism? Guess at the kind of grade they received for their final philosophy exam, go on, guess! Yes this week, as with every week, perception is all and incredulity stalks the streets looking for gods to dispatch. In a fair fight, who would win out of a Foucault and a Chomsky? What is your story? Do you like green eggs and ham? Where would you eat them? Here or there? Perhaps you wouldn’t eat them anywhere? Yeah Sam-I-Am, peddle your green grand narrative elsewhere we ain't buying!..well, perhaps just a bite
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This week the pressures of lockdown start to get to Danny and Mike. Listen in as their narratives begin to unravel and they appear to waffle on about anything that comes into their heads under the pretext of a postmodern disposition. Join them in their new stories or are these just the old stories seen from a different perspective? Are they absolutely right in abandoning their previous absolute convictions? Are scones and jam part of an imperialist metanarrative? Were the Tracy family philanthropists or glory seekers and where did all their money come from? All of this and whatever else you'd like to read into it is yours this week for the low low cost of 20+ minutes of your life. What would you be doing with it anyway?
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This week listen with your head cocked to one side, in a bemused and slightly suspicious way, as Mike confesses that while he loves fish and chips he has no desire to sleep with them. Raise your hand and fan you face in the wake of Danny’s confession that he built his daughter out of leftover body parts - he says that, right? Yes, wacky Wittgenstein is at it again, taking the words and phrases we love so well and making them perform for us in a Renaissance ruff while riding a unicycle. In this final episode on the great man see Ludwig leaning up against language, his leather jacket open to the waist and a tooth pick playing around his mouth - rules? He plays by his own rules.
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This week join us as Wittgenstein kicks over his Tractatus and storms out of the room declaring that he doesn't want to play that stupid game any more because it's dumb and we are all stupid and dumb. Listen in as Dr Mike responds by informing Wittgenstein that he's the stupid one and also that he smells like farts. Be amazed as Wittgenstein goes on to elaborate that sticks and stones may break his bones but words are thoughts so probably have the power to do more damage and maybe he ought to have thought that response through. Stare on in mute admiration as Danny attempts to break this up declaring that there are plenty of other games we can play and that Dr. Mike and Wittgenstein are both being stupid and should make it up. Yes folks it's philosophical homeschooling and only the righteous will survive to tell the tale.
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This week agonise with Danny as he tries to get to the end of the Tractatus without interruptions. Do Mike and Danny LOOK like they have meaning but in actual fact make no logical sense? Are we simply talking nonsense? Does the sentence “Mike and Danny are exemplary Star Fleet Officers” carry any real meaning in spite of its grammatical legitimacy (even though we know it to be 100% true)? Should we all give up on philosophy and take up gardening? Tune in this week, it’s all nonsense of course.
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This week, listen in slack jawed amazement as Danny talks about the Tractatus for over 30 mins without mentioning Wittgenstein once. That’s right, not once but a gazillion times! This is it folks, Danny goes proposition crazy as his time finally comes and he gets to use the W word without let or hindrance. Reel back in stupefied awe as the podcast ladder is kicked away leaving Dr Mike hanging precipitously from something overhanging that may or may not be the case. Strain your ears as Mike and Danny pass over the entire podcast in silence. And if you believe that, you’ll believe anything, whether it can be a picture in your mind or not. Word.
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This week FREEDOM! But do we really want it? Listen with care as Sartre warns us that freedom can make us a little queasy. Do we always have choices? Can I choose to have Sugar Puffs for breakfast tomorrow even though I don't have any in the house? What would Sartre have? Our guess is croissants. Enjoy the spectacle of Jean-Paul and Che Guevara having a beret-off. Don't be concerned as Danny and Mike gaze at you in a peculiar way, we aren't trying to objectify you, really we aren't ... really...we...aren't
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This week we grab hold of stuff and make it ours, not yours, ours… well… mine actually. How much of the world you live in is authentically ready-to-hand? Consider that, you spectator, as Heidegger judges you hard. Listen with escalating embarrassment as Mike and Danny adjust their black berets and jam along with Jean-Paul Sartre. Yes, it’s blackberry jam all the way this week! (we have been waiting 84 episodes for an opportunity to crack that gag, laugh damn you!). Who wore it best, the Greeks with their togas and sandals, or the French with their polo neck black jumpers and Gauloises? Let Mike and Danny guide you down the philosophical catwalk where the ontological hemlines rise and fall with the seasons. No matter what, WTF are your guarantees of taste and decency
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This week DON’T join Mike and Danny - seriously, stay away, keep your distance - as they lock themselves down in the WTF bunker to wait for everything to blow over. Listen in (from a remote and safe distance) as we discuss microwaves, freezers and incessant noise. Enjoy the peace and quiet of social isolation as the chatter dies down and we confront the inauthenticity of our existence. Alternatively, open the social media windows wide and throw yourselves into the digital maelstrom. Is our world any different for not being able to go out to the pub? Can the pub come to us? Are we thrown into the world or are worlds thrown at us? Who can say. Wherever you chose to exist, you are not alone, so wash your hands.
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This week Mike and Danny are there, no not just there but THERE. Listen in as Heidegger throws us all into a party we never signed up for. Will we enjoy it? Will it have decent snacks? What will the toilet-paper situation be like? We just don’t know and nobody will tell us. Yes, join the un-negotiated rollercoaster, don’t listen to the chatter, oh no, ignore the rumours and speculation, yes, that’s it, just like that. Mix your drinks, combine your snacks, talk to strangers, don’t read the manual, don’t follow the guide. The party won’t last forever, will yours turn out to be off the peg in some discount store or a one of a kind piece of designer haute couture? Oh yes, a word of advice…don’t mention the Nazis, he’s a bit touchy about that.
Join Mike and Danny this week as they put a lasagne through a Star Trek transporter. What will come out the other side? Will the essence of the lasagne be preserved or will we be confronted by a soulless monster of cheese, meat and pasta? Can we ever identify the essence of anything without prior access to the recipe? Join us, and Husserl and judge for yourselves.
This week join us as we look at something for a really long time to see what it is…no, much longer than that…longer…longer…okay, there it is! Yes, Danny and Dr Mike are going all phenomenological on your collective asses with our main man Eddy “the essence” Husserl. Listen in as the godfather of Phenomenology tells every philosopher in the room (perhaps with the exception of Aristotle) “You don’t know jack about things themselves bro!” Yes, it’s an intentional smack down where attitude is everything, you hear? This is straight out of consciousness where being out is the new in. Word.
This week we start the big clean-up after the Nietzsche party. Listen in as Danny sweeps up the fragments of a delicate metaphysic that was carelessly pushed off the mantlepiece. Shake your head in mute disbelief as Mike does his best to scrub suspicious looking stains out of the carpet - has somebody spilt their abyss while wantonly shaking their will to boogie in front of impressionably young post-moderns? Who is going to pay for the damages? Listen in as Vanessa hoovers up a left over cocktail of Dionysian excess and self established values decorated with an umbrella and some fruit to give it class. Stick around as she goes on to offer to fight monsters for money. Yes, the party maybe over but there is always a price to be paid. Build your own bridge and join us for the Nietzsche after-party. Scavenge whatever you can find to drink, grab some leftover pizza and join us as we run madly through the streets.
This week the choice is yours, join the herd, be one with the collective or strike out with the force of your own will and join with…er….others who are doing likewise and form a different more powerful collective. Look on in mild interest as Nietzsche posts pictures of his cat, his lunch and that lovely weekend with the Wagners on social media to establish his own individuality along with everybody else. Be amazed as Vanessa essential admits, here on this podcast, that she hears Nietzsche talking to her, altering the course of her life and influencing her every decision. If this concerns you pledge your donations now and help another poor philosopher back into the cave where it’s warm.
This week, there is a party in the Abyss and everyone is invited! Mike and Danny have put you all on the list for the access all areas event of the entire Wednesday! DJ Dionysus will be blasting out some sick beats while MC Nietzsche lays down some bad ass rhymes like it weren’t no ting! This one is straight outta Basel:
'The G is D don’t give me any o' yo morality,
It's absurd for the herd that’s the word,
Use yo own volition, it’s the hermeneutic of suspicion,
The religious they just cower, they have no will to power,
Wagner be fake, my sis on the make,
My rhymes be hazy, I’ve gone a little crazy.
Peace out!
Mic Drop. No trainers
This week we drop the N bomb! That’s right, a philosopher so hip and down with the kids that Danny and Mike feel ill equipped to take him on unaided. Yes, this week calls for skill, daring, panache and certain “she’ll be right” to bring it off. In the face of wicked fascist sisters, well dressed and cold free women and the death of your deity of choice we felt we had no choice but to call in Dr Neso from her palace hideaway nestled deep in the uncharted territories of the lands at the edge of the world. Listen, with Google translate at the ready, as Dr Neso exhorts us to embrace Nietzsche, to stare into the abyss with eyes wide open and to frolic with Dionysus. Go ahead, it’s all fine, listen carefully but draw the curtains against prying eyes.
This week Kierkegaard tells us that we really wouldn’t enjoy wealth, fame, power and glory …no, seriously, you’ll hate it so don’t even try. Giving it all away to the needy isn’t going to help either so don’t try that one on, you are only doing it to show off, so stop it, you aren’t fooling anyone. No, what you really need to do is take a giant leap into the unknown and see what happens. Go on, jump, it’ll be fine, Mike and Danny promise to catch you, would we lie to you? Have we ever let you down? In fact, close your eyes, get naked and fall backwards… ready? Okay, listen to our voices and let go…
This week, for your delectation and delight Danny and Mike bring you love, yes love, spelt L-O-V-E. Listen in as Kierkegaard - you know, that dude who kicked his girlfriend to the curb for the sake of his work? Yeah that guy - provides us with relationship advice. Take a leap of faith, he says, don’t depend on reason he says, it’s all good, he says. Is he right? Do we diminish the important stuff by analysing it down to its component parts? Is a great paining simply a combination of paint, canvas and time? Stick with us as the Dane moans that he didn’t ask to be born and that nobody understands him before running upstairs to his bedroom to listen to his MCR albums on vinyl. Remember, listening to the cast is an exercise of faith, we may or may not be here to catch you. Believe.
This week Danny gets caught speeding and has to do a speed awareness course - why is Kierkegaard there? How fast is an existential decision? As the Dane puts his foot hard down and leaves Hegel at the lights in a cloud of rubber and dust we ask the question, who is navigating for him? Is there such a thing as an existential SatNav and if there is does it simply say, "Recalculating" all the time? Can we ever learn from the mistakes of others? Are we destined to drive into the same ditch as our parents and their parents before them? Join Mike and Danny with nobody at the wheel this week!
This week, listen in as the salon doors swing open and Kierkegaard enters the room sporting black eyeliner and listening to Cradle of Filth. Be amazed as he deliberately sits in Hegel’s seat and chats up his girlfriend only to abandon her at the end of the evening with the line “it’s not you, it’s me”. Is he moody and interesting or just an emo kid who needs to get a grip? Are we authentic individuals struggling to find meaning beyond knowledge? You choose before Hegel gets back from the toilets and it kicks off.
This week, listen in shocked disgust as Danny shamelessly runs with scissors while Mike looks on wondering whether or not he ought to intervene. Do we want what is best for us? Do we need a powerful other operating with utter conviction to lead us forward into the promised land? What do we do with the alien? Do we lock them up in Area 51 and dissect them to learn more about ourselves? How do we relate to the other? Who is the junior partner? Am I good enough for you? I bet I’m not, I’m just a resource to you aren’t I?? Well that’s fine, I don’t mind, I don’t deserve you any way, you are much prettier and smarter than me.
This week Hegel reveals his true colours as he seeks to assimilate our biological and cultural distinctiveness into his own. Raise your shields in hopeless defiance as dialectical inevitability cuts into your hull and extracts all the good stuff to further the universal collective. Resistance is futile, who will save us? Will it be Marx or has he already succumbed to the lure of metaphysical inevitability? Perhaps our only hope is take a leap of faith, abandon ship and trust ourselves to the void. Spoilers
This week Danny and Mike watch in mild amusement as Hegel argues that his is bigger than anyone else's and he’ll fight anyone who says otherwise. Listen with mounting concern as Georg starts sounding off about how he isn’t really a racist but that Germany rules, love it or leave it! Is the Spirit on tour and keeping its good stuff for the Western venues or are the audiences shouting out “play the greatest hits!!” All this and an opportunity for us all to relax in the hot tub and get to know each other better. Last one in is a positivist!
This week Mike and Danny discover how fraught with danger it is to synthesize a new drink out of two more familiar ones. Do two wrongs make a right? Are we more individual in combination with others or should we go it alone like the rugged Enlightenment individuals Descartes brought us up to be? Who is your daddy? While Hegel offers us nothing less than nirvana who is sitting nearby offering us romance, sweets and existential puppies? Only time and subsequent casts will tell.
This week we take off the stabilisers and go absolute! Ooo and aaah as Mike lies through his teeth to Danny assuring him that he is still holding on tight and that all Danny has to do is peddle. Listen in with a proud tear in your eyes and a shake in your voice as Danny steers the Hegalian dialectic in a wobbly but increasingly confident straight line towards it’s ultimate destination. As Danny veers off into the bins turn your attention to Dr Mike as he kickstarts his Hegelian Electra Glide (in blue) and powers his way down the synthetic highway towards absolute spirit. It’s all good fun guys but safety first, wear a helmet this week.
This week Mike and Danny help Fichte to pack his bags after a very pleasant visit. Fichte tells us not to fuss as he'd far rather do his own packing because activity helps develop his consciousness and also expands the universal ego. Mike and Danny remind him that the last time he said that he left two pairs of socks and some underwear under our spare bed and nobody wants that. Fichte insists that these undergarments are the not-ego and by engaging with them we are also growing as egos and that we are welcome. Also in this cast we explore the caverns under WTF mansions and come across something very unsavoury. Tune in and bring a torch.
This week Mike and Danny witness the ego walk into Fichte's bar and tell everyone that they are unconscious. Listen in total astonishment as the not-ego stands up and accuses the ego of spilling it's pint. In the ensuing chaos, as the inevitable fight breaks out, listen for the Absolute Ego as it decides it's had quite enough of all this squabbling, gets out of bed and throws everyone out. Are you in the bar or are you bared? Listen in to this cast and guarantee that you are on the guest list.
This week Mike and Danny abandon the world of sense experience for the inner recesses of human consciousness. While the material world was rather more robust the ideal world of the ego seemed to have a lot of extra space and let in plenty of light. If we take down that wall over there, the one separating the ego from the not-ego, Fichte assures us that we can really open the whole space up, perhaps creating a combined living room study area, maybe even fit in some patio doors. Listen in as we look around the absolute ego trying to decide whether the small box room really does count as “a guest bedroom” and whether Fichte looks a bit like Kant in a certain light. Expand your mind and cast off the shackles of the real for the infinite possibilities of the ideal (terms and conditions apply).
This week Mike and Danny are still at the Kant party but the snacks are running out and the slow music is on the turntable. Was it a good party? Would we come again? Danny didn’t much care for it but tells Kant he had a lovely time anyway, Mike decides honesty is the best policy and tells Kant right out that his party sucked and gets punched in the nose by the disgruntled critical philosopher. Listen on in mute disbelief as chaos breaks out and Danny starts to steal the silver to help pay his rent. All this and the WTF chopper takes to the skies. Only miss this one if you would will for everyone to miss it!
This week Danny and Mike launch themselves head first into the whirling maelstrom of Kantian ethics. Is Danny “a good man”? How do we know? Is simply being “good” enough for Kant - spoiler alert, it isn’t. As we cling to the categorical imperative in a desperate hope that it will save us from being smashed against the rocks of a godless universe without any hope of a moral compass to guide our way Kant launches the lifeboat and can you guess who is at the helm? Well it ain’t Nietzsche or Wittgenstein, I can tell you that for nothing. Keep your feet dry folks!
This week we allow the manifold of sense experience to influence your perceptions while your mind does its magic and turns it into a podcast with pattern, meaning and duration - well done you. Consider the advisability of becoming a librarian, ruminate on the supernatural realms - do they provide us with any concrete knowledge or is it all smoke and mirrors? How much would you pay to listen to Kant when you can listen to Danny and Mike for free? Should we charge an admission fee? All of this played out against the private cinema of your mind. Make sure to bring popcorn.
This week we introduce the man with the plan, the man who can … the man called Kant. Immanuel brings the pain when he gets into the ring with “The Sceptic Tank” the Scotsman who is not afraid to stare into the face of empiricism and say “meh, I don’t know”. Yes, this episode has it all - well some of it at least, where would you put it “all” even if you had it? All of this and the soul stylings of “The Three Critiques” crooning their way into your hearts with such classic tracks as - 'Swedenborg broke my heart', 'Where has the metaphysics gone?' and 'Phenomena and Noumena' (living in harmony). Believe me you wouldn’t forgive yourselves if you missed this one. Well, perhaps you would, you’re far too soft on yourselves you know, you’ll only spoil yourself, don’t say we didn’t warn you.
In this weeks cast ... as with the previous 55 but by no means establishing it in any way as some sort of natural law. I mean, yes these podcasts have been coming out every Wednesday for over a year now so I guess you could be excused for thinking that number 56 was inevitable, that it was a universal law that it had to come out today. But you’d be wrong, we could just as easily have stopped at 55 and opened a small corner shop selling artisan baked goods instead. We haven’t, what you see before you is indeed episode 56 just as expected but the point is it didn’t HAVE to be here just because 55 of them have been previously, a repeating pattern is no guarantee that there is a law being enacted ... we talk about David Hume.
This week join us as Locke teaches us how to make a unicorn in the comfort of our own heads. How certain are we of our certainties? Listen, or don’t, your choice, as Mike and Danny wave a stick at Cartesian certainty and tell it to get off their land or they’ll set the dogs on it. Was the Enlightenment really the paradigm shift we needed or was it really just god in a false moustache and putting on a funny voice? Who’s calling who nasty, brutish and short? If Danny wants my share of the pie who can I call upon to stop him taking it by force - the monarchy or the social contract? Are we decent sorts who occasionally mess up or are we a mess that occasionally falls backwards into decency? All of this and the state telling us that it didn’t ask to be born but now it’s here it wants all of the pie. We do it to ourselves guys
This week we ask the question, “what do we bring to the party?” If Danny brings bottles of beer does he simply bring the shape, weight and the number of bottles and then leaves me to do all the heavy lifting adding the perception of colour, flavour, smell and taste? Does John Locke allow us to have our objective cake and eat it? Do we get excited when we begin to understand how systems work and connect or would we rather be told without having to know how? Who were the podcasters of the Enlightenment? All of this and that popular empiricist sensation 'The 5 Senses’ at the start of their major European tour. Sign up now and show how hip you are. Also, as an added bonus for our Facebook followers, weep for joy as long lost footage of Danny and Mike in their first starring role on the small screen is rediscovered, restored and transmitted directly to your senses of both sound and vision for your unbounded joy. Kindness is still alive in this tired old world.
This week Danny and Mike confront the fearful menace of ... THE MONADS! Flee in stark unreasoning fear as Leibniz directs his monad army to isolate us from all we hold dear! Shiver in bone chilling terror as you are forced to join the monad legions with only coincidence for a friend. Giggle in solipsitic madness as they appear to be coming for you. YOU'RE NEXT!