Robinson's Podcast: Recent Episodes
Robinson Erhardt
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7
David Builes is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Princeton University, where he works in metaphysics and epistemology and has made serious contributions to the philosophies of mind, science, and mathematics. In this episode, Robinson and David discuss the metaphysics of time—including debates about the reality of the past, present, and future—the question of whether science can explain consciousness, and whether numbers exist as abstract objects.
David’s Website: https://davidbuiles.com
OUTLINE
00:00 Introduction
01:05 David’s Interest in Philosophy
05:47 On the Philosophy of Time
16:01 In Defense of Presentism
24:21 How Long is the Present?
25:58 Humean and Non-Humean Laws
28:02 Can Science Explain Consciousness?
40:25 Does David Believe His Work?
43:32 First-Person Realism
53:18 Is First-Person Realism Correct?
57:42 The Philosophy of Math
01:01:45 Do Numbers Exist?
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, historians, economists, and everyone in-between.
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/robinson-erhardt/support
Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7
Alexander Nehamas is the Edmund N. Carpenter II Class of 1943 Professor in the Humanities, both of philosophy and comparative literature, at Princeton University. He is best known for his work on ancient philosophy, literary theory, the philosophy of art, and his scholarship on Friedrich Nietzsche. In this episode, Robinson and Alexander primarily discuss the latter, though they also delve into some of his other work. More particularly, they discuss Nietzsche’s writings on eternal recurrence, the will to power, and morality, among other topics, as well as the perils of doing history as a philosopher, the infamous Elgin marbles, great works of literature, and personal style. Alexander’s most well-known work on Nietzsche is Nietzsche: Life as Literature (Harvard, 1987).
Nietzsche: Life as Literature: https://a.co/d/7V3MYk0
OUTLINE
00:00 Introduction
3:07 The Essentials of Nietzsche
11:42 Nietzsche and Eternal Recurrence
14:46 Nietzsche on Free Will
19:06 Nietzsche on Art and the Ideal Life
20:41 Nietzsche on Herd Morality and Mediocrity
23:20 Nietzsche on the Will to Power
27:02 Nietzsche on Our Dominance Over Animals
30:41 Was Nietzsche an Anti-Semite?
33:02 Nietzsche’s Relationship to Animals
36:53 Was Nietzsche an Enemy of Morality?
39:54 Nietzsche and the Worship of Greatness
41:06 Favorite Literature
48:39 Nietzsche and the Perils of the History of Philosophy
1:05:43 The Elgin Marbles
1:13:50 On Plato and Ancient Philosophy
1:22:34 Nietzsche on Animal Agriculture
1:29:10 Nietzsche on Seeing Life as a Literary Work
1:34:10 Nietzsche on the Weak and the Great
1:39:32 Philosophy and Life
1:46:11 On Philosophy and Fashion
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, historians, economists, and everyone in-between.
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/robinson-erhardt/support
Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7
Peter Woit is a senior lecturer in the Department of Mathematics at Columbia University, where he researches quantum field theory and quantum gravity. Peter is one of the most well-known critics of string theory, and in this episode he and Robinson discuss his work and research in the area, which is encapsulated in his book Not Even Wrong: The Failure of String Theory and the Search for Unity in Physical Law (Basic Books, 2007), as well as his website by the same name. More particularly, they talk about the standard model of particle physics, the problem of quantum gravity, the main figures in string theory, the arguments for and against this approach to physics, its many alleged failures, and the future of research in the area.
Not Even Wrong (Book): https://a.co/d/iVnPEi1
Not Even Wrong (Website): https://www.math.columbia.edu/~woit/wordpress/
OUTLINE
00:00 Introduction
02:29 Peter’s Training in Physics
06:21 What Is the Standard Model of Physics?
10:42 What Is Symmetry?
21:37 Experiment and the Standard Model of Particle Physics
26:15 What’s Wrong with the Standard Model of Particle Physics?
29:36 What Are Grand Unified Theories in Physics?
34:47 What Is Supersymmetry?
40:15 On Ed Witten and the Genius Mind Behind M-Theory
49:08 What Is String Theory?
1:04:56 What Is M-Theory?
1:07:59 On AdS/CFT
1:16:03 On Holography and Quantum Gravity
1:20:27 String Theory and the Sokal Hoax
1:24:09 Peter’s Love of Physics
1:32:13 On the String-Theoretic Landscape and the Multiverse
1:41:51 What’s the Path Forward for Physics?
1:47:52 Is String Theory the Only Game in Time?
1:53:17 How Did String Theory Become Dominant?
1:56:45 String Theory: Not Even Wrong?
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, historians, economists, and everyone in-between.
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/robinson-erhardt/support
Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7
Michael Graziano is Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at Princeton University, where he and his lab research the brain basis of consciousness. This is Michael’s second appearance on Robinson’s Podcast. In episode #169, they discussed Michael’s Attention Schema Theory of consciousness, in which consciousness is a way in which the brain models attention to better organize and monitor itself. In this conversation, Robinson and Michael reexamine the Attention Schema Theory with an eye toward the problem of studying the consciousness not only of humans, but of other animals, and with particular regard to the moral questions surrounding animals’ roles in our lives. Michael’s most recent book is Rethinking Consciousness (W. W. Norton, 2019).
Rethinking Consciousness: https://a.co/d/8euR1EL
Graziano Lab: https://grazianolab.princeton.edu
OUTLINE
00:00 Introduction
04:28 Michael’s Interest in Consciousness
07:22 What Is Consciousness?
16:03 Is there a Magical Essence to Consciousness?
28:43 How Did Consciousness Evolve?
35:29 Testing Michael’s Model of Consciousness
44:55 What’s It Like to Be a Human?
48:25 Is Human Suffering an Illusion?
54:07 The Neuroscience of Pain and Suffering
01:00:39 Is There Value to Human Life?
01:10:42 Was Helen Keller Conscious?
01:21:15 The Global Workspace Theory of Consciousness
01:30:20 Do Animals Value Their Own Lives?
01:41:23 Are Shrimp Conscious?
01:52:23 Should Science Inform Morality?
01:54:03 Can Chickens Suffer?
01:57:12 Are Salmon Conscious?
02:09:40 Are Octopuses Conscious?
02:22:43 Are Poultry Conscious?
02:29:43 Are Barnyard Animals Conscious?
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, historians, economists, and everyone in-between.
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/robinson-erhardt/support
Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7
Richard Wolff is Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a visiting professor at The New School, where he works on economics in the Marxist tradition. This is Richard’s fourth appearance on Robinson’s Podcast. In episode #127, he and Robinson discussed some of the most profound criticisms of capitalism; in #154, they focused on the myths surrounding Marxism and Marx himself; and in #190 they covered the Israel-Palestine conflict from a Marxist perspective. In this wide-ranging episode, Richard and Robinson talk about the end of the American empire. More particularly they discuss the wars in Russia, Ukraine, Israel, and Palestine, the rivalry between China and the United States, the global interplay between capitalism and socialism, the distinction between socialism and communism, the conflict between the BRICS and G7 nations, and more. Richard’s latest book is Understanding Capitalism (Democracy at Work, 2024).
Understanding Capitalism (Book): https://www.democracyatwork.info/understanding_capitalism
Class Theory and History (Book): https://a.co/d/ht4trZN
Understanding the 2024 Elections (Article): https://asiatimes.com/2024/08/capitalism-mass-anger-and-2024-elections/
Richard’s Website: https://www.rdwolff.com
Economic Update: https://www.democracyatwork.info/economicupdate
OUTLINE
03:10 On the Trauma of His Family Background
10:50 Academia’s War on Marxism
22:45 Economics as the Secret Undercurrent of History
28:01 Will Ukraine Defeat Russia?
31:52 Is China the Empire of the New World?
39:04 The Best American Strategy Against China
45:24 How Trump Won and Lost America
56:22 Is Israel a Colonialist State?
01:03:23 On the Expulsion of the Palestinians from Israel
01:10:49 Israel as America’s Economic Baby
01:18:08 Global Capitalism as the Enemy of the Islamic World
01:23:00 Why You Should Distrust Wartime Propaganda
01:33:03 Zelensky and the Ukrainian Chess Match
01:42:53 The Economic Conspiracy Behind the American Pick-Up Truck
01:49:31 Israel, Ukraine, and the New Cold War
01:54:20 The Many Taboos of Socialism and Communism
01:58:54 The War Between Socialism and Capitalism
02:07:51 Is Socialism More Efficient than Capitalism?
02:16:58 World War I and the Rise of Socialism
02:22:58 The Failed American Attempt to Destroy Russian Communism
02:27:26 Why Did Russia Choose Communism over Socialism?
02:38:06 Communism, Socialism, and the War for the Workplace
02:43:00 Is China Secretly Capitalist?
02:53:18 America’s Choice Between Equality or Subservience to China
02:58:45 Europe’s Hidden Economic Apocalypse
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, historians, economists, and everyone in-between.
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/robinson-erhardt/support
Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7
David Albert is the Frederick E. Woodbridge Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University, director of the Philosophical Foundations of Physics program at Columbia, and a faculty member of the John Bell Institute for the Foundations of Physics. This is David’s eighth appearance on Robinson’s Podcast. He last appeared on episode 210 with Tim Maudlin, which was a more advanced episode on Niels Bohr and the foundations of quantum mechanics. In this episode, David gives a pedagogical and introductory overview of the measurement problem, which is the issue at the core of many discussions about the foundations of quantum mechanics. David’s most recent book is A Guess at the Riddle (2023). If you’re interested in the foundations of physics, then please check out the JBI, which is devoted to providing a home for research and education in this important area. Any donations are immensely helpful at this early stage in the institute’s life.
Note: Unfortunately, the cameras turned off in the middle of the episode. For twenty minutes there is no video, and for most of the episode only the camera focusing on David is recording.
A Guess at the Riddle: https://a.co/d/6qcsidl
The John Bell Institute: https://www.johnbellinstitute.org
OUTLINE
00:00 Introduction
04:54 On Philosophy and the Foundations of Physics
15:35 The Bizarreness of the Quantum World
19:16 What Is the World of Classical Physics?
24:00 How Quantum Mechanics Destroyed the Classical World
29:19 What Is Quantum Mechanical Superposition?
32:18 How Quantum Mechanics Became the Theory of Reality
39:53 What Is the Measurement Problem of Quantum Mechanics?
51:05 Niels Bohr and the Foundations of Quantum Mechanics
01:01:14 Niels Bohr and the EPR Paper
01:08:45 Was Niels Bohr the Most Charming Physicist of All Time?
01:15:59 Is the Measurement Problem a Scientific Problem?
01:21:24 Is String Theory Pseudoscience?
01:31:03 Why Don’t Many Philosophers Work on String Theory?
01:34:08 The Wave Function and the Measurement Problem
01:37:57 Quantum Measurement and Wave Function Collapse
01:41:34 Hidden Variable Theories of Quantum Mechanics
01:44:54 Quantum Mechanics and the Multiverse
01:48:47 Solving the Measurement Problem with Experiment
01:56:41 Quantum Mechanics and the Scientific Project
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, historians, economists, and everyone in-between.
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/robinson-erhardt/support
Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7
Michael Hudson is Distinguished Research Professor of Economics at the University of Missouri, Kansas City and President of the Institute for the Study of Long-Term Economic Trends. He researches domestic and international finance, the history of economics, and the role of debt in shaping class stratification, among many other topics. This is Michael’s third appearance on the show. He was also a guest on episode 180, where he and Robinson discussed neoliberalism, industrial capitalism, and the rentier economy, and on episode 198, where they discussed Marxism, economic parasites, and contemporary debt cancellation. In this episode, Michael and Robinson talk about the history of debt cancellation in the ancient world—including Babylon, Greece, and Rome—how they helped to stave off economic collapse, how the failure to implement them contributed to the demise of these civilizations, and how they might be used in today’s economies. Michael’s most recent book is Temples of Enterprise (ISLET, 2024). This episode was recorded at Austin’s Ale House in Kew Gardens, Queens, New York, and comes highly recommended.
Michael’s Website: https://michael-hudson.com
Temples of Enterprise: https://a.co/d/a3c53dm
Austin’s Ale House: https://www.austinsteakandalehouse.com/
OUTLINE
00:00 Introduction
03:08 Michael’s Interest in Debt
08:23 Why Countries Can’t Pay Their Debts
12:14 Debt Cancellations in the Ancient World
16:51 Can Society Survive Forgiving Everyone’s Debts?
21:30 The Brilliance of Bronze Age Economics
29:19 What Happened When Ancient Harvests Failed?
32:04 The Timeless War of Creditors Against Debtors
37:49 Why States Should Print Their Own Money
41:11 How the Catholic Church Created the Modern State
55:50 On the Origin of Money
01:01:28 On the Economics of Ancient Babylon
01:07:17 Were Ancient Economists Better than Today’s?
01:09:09 The Most Important Prices of an Economy
01:11:39 Uncovering the Collapse of Babylon
01:22:30 Debt and the End of Civilization
01:24:58 Are Ancient Economics the Key to the Future?
01:30:33 Should the Government Forgive Student Loan Debt?
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, historians, economists, and everyone in-between.
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/robinson-erhardt/support
Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7
This is the August 2024 AMA for Robinson’s Podcast. It is supported by the members of the Patreon. In this installment, Robinson answers questions about metaethics, art history, discipline, fashion, fitness, fantasy world-building, consciousness, fine-tuning, quantum mechanics, and more.
OUTLINE
00:00 Introduction
01:01 What to Do
07:43 Thoughts on Discipline
17:29 Art History
20:43 Philosophy for Daily Life
23:30 Planners and Pantsers
27:53 Favorite Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics?
33:06 Favorite Color?
35:57 On Magic and Fantasy World-Building
46:32 Black Holes, Electrons, and Thumbnails
52:45 Favorite Comedy
55:37 Physicality in Life
01:02:19 Is Consciousness Emergent or Fundamental?
01:04:54 Views on Fashion
01:15:16 What’s It Like to be a Philosopher?
01:24:00 Solutions of the Fine-Tuning Problem
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, and everyone in-between.
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/robinson-erhardt/support
Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7
Joscha Bach is a computer scientist and artificial intelligence researcher currently working with Liquid AI. He has previously done research at Harvard, MIT, Intel, and the AI Foundation. In this episode, Joscha and Robinson discuss the nature of consciousness—both in humans and synthetic—various theories of consciousness like panpsychism, physicalism, dualism, and Roger Penrose’s, the distinction between intelligence and artificial intelligence, the next developments of ChatGPT and other LLMs, OpenAI, and whether advances in AI will spell the end of humankind.
Joscha’s X: https://x.com/Plinz
OUTLINE
00:00 Introduction
03:33 Why are Legos Like Computer Programs?
08:23 Philosophy and Mental Representation
11:17 Using Computer Science to Understand Reality
16:26 Could We Make Minds from Machines?
19:14 Is Reality a Simulation?
21:46 What Is the Mind?
24:27 What Do Mysterions Believe About Consciousness?
26:20 Does Roger Penrose’s Theory of Consciousness Make Sense?
35:15 Could Dualism Explain the Human Mind?
37:58 What Is Physicalism About the Human Mind?
41:03 What’s Wrong with Panpsychism?
47:58 On the Next Breakthrough in Consciousness
52:59 What Is Intelligence?
55:45 What’s Artificial Intelligence?
58:22 What Defines the Current Wave of AI?
01:00:57 On the First AI Winter
01:04:55 On Meaning, LLMs, and ChatGPT
01:08:18 Does ChatGPT Mirror the Human Mind?
01:13:18 Is ChatGPT Intelligent?
01:18:43 Will ChatGPT Become Smarter than Humans?
01:24:25 What Is the ARC Challenge for AI?
01:27:58 Will ChatGPT Philosophize Better than Philosophers?
01:35:04 Are Apple, Google, and Microsoft on the Cutting Edge of AI?
01:39:16 Shoulder We Fear AI?
01:45:34 Are We the Smartest Thing on Earth?
01:49:47 What’s More Dangerous: The Internet or AI?
01:54:20 Could AI Take Over the Planet?
01:59:22 Will AI Make Human Artists Obsolete?
02:04:10 Will AI Make Humankind Dependent on the One Percent?
02:11:28 Could AI Solve Climate Change?
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, and everyone in-betwee
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/robinson-erhardt/support
Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7
Norman Finkelstein received his PhD from the Princeton University Politics Department, and is best known for his research on Israel and Palestine. In this episode of Robinson’s Podcast, Norman addresses some of the most common arguments made in defense of Israel, such as those purporting to show Israel is not committing genocide, that anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism, that Israel is fighting in self-defense, that Egypt is responsible for the crisis, and more. Norman also appeared on episode 192, where he and Robinson discussed October 7th, allegations of genocide and apartheid, and connections between the war and the Holocaust. Norman’s most recent book is I’ll Burn That Bridge When I Get to It! Heretical Thoughts on Identity Politics, Cancel Culture, and Academic Freedom (Sublation Media, 2023).
Norman’s Website: https://www.normanfinkelstein.com
OUTLINE
00:00 Introduction
03:47 Will Israel Nuke Palestine?
12:07 On Palestine and the Holocaust
15:10 Is Israel Getting Away with Genocide?
20:35 On Nuclear War and Israel’s Dependence on the United States
24:00 How Responsible Is Egypt for the Crisis in Gaza?
27:43 Does the Israeli Military Target Civilians?
36:27 Why Norman Finkelstein Can’t Watch the News from Palestine
38:06 On Hoaxes and Conspiracies in Israel-Palestine
47:06 On Corruption in Academia
49:16 Propaganda in Holocaust Scholarship
53:00 Facts and Fiction in Israel-Palestine
1:00:27 Norman Finkelstein’s Research Habits
1:05:10 Do Israeli Settlements Break International Law?
1:07:44 Why Does the United States Support Israel?
1:12:21 “Jewish Supremacy” Versus Harvard
1:20:11 Does Anti-Zionism = Anti-Semitism?
1:29:38 Does Anti-Semitism Cause Protests Against Israel?
1:35:44 Is The War in Gaza Justifiable as Self-Defense?
1:42:39 On Becoming a Public Figure
1:50:51 On His War with Alan Dershowitz
2:04:19 On Integrity and Palestine Scholarship
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, and everyone in-between.
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/robinson-erhardt/support
Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7
Leonard Susskind is Felix Bloch Professor of Physics at Stanford University. Among other accomplishments, he is among the fathers of such revolutionary concepts in physics as string theory, black hole complementarity, the holographic principle, and the string-theoretic landscape. It is this last concept that Robinson and Leonard discuss in this episode. More particularly, they address the fine-tuning problem—that so many of the constants in physics, such as the cosmological constant—appear to have been selected precisely to allow for human life, as if they were substantially different we would not exist. In answering this question they talk about string theory, dark energy, the Higgs boson, god and supernatural explanations, eternal inflation, the multiverse, the interpretations of quantum mechanics, the anthropic principle, alternative answers to the problem, and the future of research in the area. For more detail, read Leonard’s book on the topic, The Cosmic Landscape.
The Cosmic Landscape: https://a.co/d/j2njH7h
The Theoretical Minimum: https://theoreticalminimum.com
OUTLINE
00:00 Introduction
04:03 A Parable About the Fine-Tuning Problem
09:58 String Theory and the Fine-Tuning Problem
18:04 The Problem of Dark Energy
25:05 Could Dark Energy Rip the Universe Apart?
33:11 God, String Theory, and the Illusion of Intelligent Design
42:51 On the String-Theoretic Landscape
48:54 The Eternal Inflation of the Universe
55:07 What Determines the Physics of the Multiverse?
01:02:09 On the Interpretations of Quantum Mechanics
01:05:50 On the Future of String Theory and Fine-Tuning
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, and everyone in-between.
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/robinson-erhardt/support
Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7
Raphael Bousso is the Chancellor’s Chair in Physics at the Berkeley Center for Theoretical Physics, where he leads the Bousso Group in research on quantum gravity and quantum information. He is a renowned string theorist famous also for his development of the string theoretic landscape and the Bousso bound in holography. In this episode, Robinson and Raphael discuss the groundbreaking work of Jacob Bekenstein, Stephen Hawking, Leonard Susskind, Gerard ’t Hooft, and others on the black hole information paradox. They then turn to how this led to the formulation of the holographic principle, which has had profound implications for research on quantum gravity, especially for Raphael himself, who has recently been working on quantum information theory, quantum communication, and other ways in which classical gravity “knows about” and encodes its own quantum states.
The Bousso Group: https://lightsheet.berkeley.edu
OUTLINE
00:00 Introduction
04:14 Working with Leonard Susskind and Stephen Hawking
6:29 Why Do Physicists Care About Black Holes?
19:11 Do Black Holes have a Temperature?
23:51 How Cold is a Black Hole?
27:32 The Black Hole Information Paradox
41:31 Do Black Holes Mean Quantum Mechanics Must be Thrown Out?
47:09 Black Hole Complementarity and Holography
54:09 What Is Quantum Gravity?
01:01:15 Why is Quantum Gravity a Low Energy Problem?
01:06:54 The Bottom-Up Approach to Quantum Gravity
1:11:12 On String Theory and Holography
01:16:00 What Are Bousso Bounds?
01:22:58 Is Gravity a Quantum Error-Correcting Code?
01:32:09 Is Gravity a Fundamental Force?
01:37:25 On String Theory and the Multiverse
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, and everyone in-between.
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/robinson-erhardt/support
Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7
Dr. Anna Lembke received her undergraduate degree in Humanities from Yale University and her medical degree from Stanford University. She is currently Professor and Medical Director of Addiction Medicine at the Stanford University School of Medicine. She is also Program Director of the Stanford Addiction Medicine Fellowship, and Chief of the Stanford Addiction Medicine Dual Diagnosis Clinic. This is Anna’s second time on the show. On episode 117, she and Robinson discussed her latest, New York Times bestselling book, Dopamine Nation (Dutton/Penguin Random House, August 2021). In this episode, they discuss psychiatry and some of its philosophical connections. Some of the topics they cover include psychiatric phenomenology, eating disorders, the patient-psychiatrist relationship, therapeutic modalities, moral realism, the goals of therapy, and the upcoming Official Dopamine Nation Workbook.
Dopamine Nation: https://a.co/d/0AJw6Je
The Official Dopamine Nation Workbook: https://a.co/d/0eVHKFc1
OUTLINE
00:00 Introduction
03:01 Meta-Commentary, Telehealth, and In-Person Psychiatry
13:50 Transference in Therapy
23:01 Moral Realism
33:45 Nietzsche and Veganism
42:43 Reductionism, Emotion, and Psychiatry
45:55 On Treating Eating Disorders
52:24 The DSM-V and Psychiatric Practice
01:00:00 The Relationship Between Science and Psychiatry
01:08:31 Robinson’s Speech Patterns
01:15:40 Medication Versus Therapy
01:23:07 Creative Pursuits and Therapy
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, and everyone in-between.
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/robinson-erhardt/support
Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7
This is the inaugural AMA for Robinson’s Podcast. It is supported by the members of the podcast’s Patreon. In this installment, Robinson answers questions about the reality of mathematics, podcasting, moral facts, ice cream, the nature of time, literary books for neophytes, and more.
Denying Infinity: https://doi.org/10.1080/01445340.2024.2344346
Abstract: Abraham Robinson is well-known as the inventor of nonstandard analysis, which uses nonstandard models to give the notions of infinitesimal and infinitely large magnitudes a precise interpretation. Less discussed, although subtle and original—if ultimately flawed—is Robinson’s work in the philosophy of mathematics. The foundational position he inherited from David Hilbert undermines not only the use of nonstandard analysis, but also Robinson’s considerable corpus of pre-logic contributions to the field in such diverse areas as differential equations and aeronautics. This tension emerges from Robinson’s disbelief in the existence of infinite totalities (any mention of them is ‘literally meaningless’) and the fact that much of his work involves them. I argue that he treats infinitary avenues of mathematics as useful tools to avoid this difficulty, but that this is not successful to the extent that these tools must be justified by a conservative extension from finitary mathematics. While Robinson provides a compelling and unorthodox pragmatic justification for the role of formal systems in mathematical practice despite their apparent infinitary presuppositions, he deflates mainstream mathematics to a collection of games that occasionally produces meaningful results. This amounts to giving up on a commitment to reconciling his finitism with his mathematical practice.
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, and everyone in-between.
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/robinson-erhardt/support
Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7
Joyce Carol Oates is the Rogers S. Berlind ’52 Professor Emerita in the Humanities at Princeton University with the Program in Creative Writing. She is among the most widely-recognized and respected writers of our time, and has written in a wide variety of media and genres, from poetry and fiction in the former category to horror and Gothic in the latter. Her work has also been adapted into various other media, from plays to film. Joyce is the recipient of two O. Henry Awards and the National Book Award, among many others. This is Joyce’s second appearance on Robinson’s Podcast. In episode 137, she and Robinson discussed craft in fiction and poetry. In this episode, they talk about Joyce’s most recent collection of short stories, Zero-Sum (link in the description), as well as philosophy, Peter Singer, dealing with criticism, translation, and more.
Joyce’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/JoyceCarolOates
Joyce’s Substack: https://joycecaroloates.substack.com
Zero-Sum: https://a.co/d/0cYh3ndo
OUTLINE
00:00 Introduction
03:16 On Peter Singer
12:41 On Buddhism
21:50 On Hemingway
25:50 Dealing with Criticism
38:17 On Translation
47:53 Writing Short Stories
58:38 Imagery and Recreating the World
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, and everyone in-between.
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/robinson-erhardt/support
Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7
Slavoj Žižek is international director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities at the University of London, visiting professor at New York University, and a senior researcher at the University of Ljubljana’s Department of Philosophy. This is Slavoj’s fourth appearance on the show. On episode 109, he and Robinson discussed wokeness and psychoanalysis. On episode 118, he, Sean Carroll, and Robinson discussed quantum physics, the multiverse, and time travel. And on episode 206 he, Lee Smolin, and Robinson discussed quantum physics. In this episode, Robinson and Slavoj talk about ancient philosophy, god, communism, quantum mechanics, and psychoanalysis.
OUTLINE
00:00 Introduction
02:47 Why Is Philosophy More important Now Than Ever?
11:08 On Socrates and the Importance of Philosophy
19:12 On Excrement, God, and Atheism
27:50 A Communist Paradise
34:18 Ukraine and Marxism
39:24 Philosophy and Quantum Mechanics
47:56 Is Lying the Point of Language?
55:49 Cursing as a Test for Artificial Intelligence
58:25 On Philosophers and Physicists
1:01:50 On Superpositions and Quantum Mechanics
1:09:28 On Analytic and Continental Philosophy
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, and everyone in-between.
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/robinson-erhardt/support
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Deborah Gordon is Professor of Biology at Stanford University. She is a myrmecologist—an entomologist who studies ants—focusing on how complex behavior emerges from ant colonies, which have no central control. In this episode, Deborah and Robinson discuss some of the distinctive features of ants, how pheromones help to determine their behavior, examples of fascinating ant species, collective ant behavior, and the life cycle of an ant colony. For more of Deborah’s work on collective behavior, check out her book The Ecology of Collective Behavior (Princeton, 2023).
The Gordon Lab: https://web.stanford.edu/~dmgordon/
Ants at Work: https://a.co/d/7bpokYU
The Ecology of Collective Behavior: https://a.co/d/1bBT1h7
OUTLINE
00:00 Introduction
02:33 Ants and Embryology
05:29 General Features of Ants
13:14 Some Fascinating Ant Species
28:20 Pheromones and Ant Behavior
38:17 Ant Slavery
41:30 Collective Ant Behavior
47:04 A Colony’s Life Cycle
59:01 Revisiting Embryology
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, and everyone in-between.
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/robinson-erhardt/support
Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7
Jay Chandrasekhar is a director, writer, stand-up comic, and actor. Some of his works include directing Super Troopers, Beerfest, and Dukes of Hazzard. He has also directed episodes of Arrested Development, Community, and New Girl. Jay also wrote Mustache Shenanigans (2017) and co-hosts the podcast Mustache Tales. In this episode, Robinson and Jay discuss his growth as a writer, the importance of purpose in comedy and film, creative integrity in Hollywood, working on Supertroopers, and his time with Johnny Knoxville and the Jackass crew.
Mustache Tales: https://www.mustachetales.com
Mustache Shenanigans: https://a.co/d/8DZscAT
Opening Scene of Super Troopers: https://youtu.be/-wdVF_zJS4s?si=goQsJLqLqvBbMyF0
OUTLINE
00:00 Introduction
02:58 Jay’s Name Means…What?
5:22 Mustache Shenanigans
7:54 The Importance of Strong Beginnings in Comedy
20:41 The Importance of Purpose in Comedy and Film
24:39 Keeping Creative Integrity in Hollywood
32:20 On Writing a Novel
36:32 How to Have a Good Podcast
41:34 On Working with the Jackass Crew
59:20 Developing the Talent of a Storyteller
1:12:20 Breaking Down the Raiders of the Lost Ark
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, and everyone in-between.
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/robinson-erhardt/support
Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7
David Albert is the Frederick E. Woodbridge Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University, director of the Philosophical Foundations of Physics program at Columbia, and a faculty member of the John Bell Institute for the Foundations of Physics. Tim Maudlin is Professor of Philosophy at NYU and Founder and Director of the JBI. This is David’s seventh appearance on Robinson’s Podcast. He last appeared on episode 189 with Barry Loewer to talk about the Mentaculus, their joint project on the foundations of statistical mechanics. This is Tim’s sixth appearance on the show. He last appeared on episode 188 with Sheldon Goldstein to discuss Bohmian mechanics. Tim and David last joined Robinson together for episode 67, which gave an overview of the foundations of quantum mechanics. In this episode, Robinson, David, and Tim talk about the measurement problem, the role of philosophy in physics, various thought experiments, like Schrödinger’s cat and Wigner’s friend, and Niels Bohr’s effects both on quantum mechanics and the philosophy of science. If you’re interested in the foundations of physics, then please check out the JBI, which is devoted to providing a home for research and education in this important area. Any donations are immensely helpful at this early stage in the institute’s life.
A Guess at the Riddle: https://a.co/d/6qcsidl
Tim’s Website: www.tim-maudlin.site
The John Bell Institute: https://www.johnbellinstitute.org
OUTLINE
00:00 Introduction
04:04 Einstein, Bell, and Pearl on the Measurement Problem
13:00 On “Measurement” in Quantum Mechanics
25:34 What IS the Measurement Problem?
34:42 John Bell on the Measurement Problem
40:32 An Example of the Measurement Problem
43:08 Von Neumann on the Measurement Problem
45:38 Niels Bohr and the Measurement Problem
57:54 Niels Bohr’s Drastic Revision of Physics
1:08:36 Quantum Measurement and the Philosophy of Physics
1:22:52 On Schrodinger’s Cat and Wigner’s Friend
1:38:34 On Consciousness and Quantum Mechanics
1:45:40 The Measurement Problem, Solved?
1:51:04 On the Role of Philosophy in Physics
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, and everyone in-between.
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/robinson-erhardt/support
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Peter Singer is Ira W. DeCamp Professor Emeritus of Bioethics in the Department of Philosophy at Princeton University. He is among the most influential living philosophers, and among the most influential moral philosophers of the last century. Peter is best known for his work in applied ethics on animal welfare and global poverty. In this episode, Robinson and Peter discuss these topics after first introducing his more general views on moral philosophy, including those on utilitarianism and meta-ethics. Throughout their conversation they also touch on Peter’s new podcast, Lives Well Lived, co-hosted with Kasia de Lazari Radek, the Journal of Controversial Ideas, Peter’s Substack, Bold Reasoning with Peter Singer, and his latest and next books, which are respectively The Buddhist and the Ethicist (Shambhala, 2023) and Consider the Turkey (Princeton, 2024).
Peter’s Website: https://www.petersinger.info
Lives Well Lived Podcast: https://shows.acast.com/6628460c6b51e80012b834c2
The Life You Can Save Organization: https://www.thelifeyoucansave.org.au
The Journal of Controversial Ideas: https://journalofcontroversialideas.org
Peter’s Substack: https://boldreasoningwithpetersinger.substack.com
The Buddhist and the Ethicist: https://a.co/d/38DOmbK
Consider the Turkey: https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691231686/consider-the-turkey
OUTLINE
00:00 Introduction
04:14 Peter Singer’s Entry into Philosophy
08:54 What Is Utilitarianism?
10:58 On Consequentialism vs Deontology
13:12 On Trolley Problems and Moral Facts
16:40 On Moral Realism and Anti-Realism
20:51 On Hedonistic Utilitarianism
26:17 The Lives Well Lived Podcast
33:43 A Puzzle About Trolley Problems
38:48 On the Origin of Peter Singer’s Concern for Animals
49:38 Is It Ever Morally Permissible to Eat Meat?
55:32 Consider the Turkey
1:03:07 Famine, Affluence, and Morality
1:09:08 The Life You Can Save
1:10:50 The Buddhist and the Ethicist
1:18:08 The Journal of Controversial Ideas
1:25:50 Peter’s Substack
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, and everyone in-between.
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Victor Davis Hanson is a renowned classicist, military historian, and political commentator. He is the Martin and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow in Residence in Classics and Military History at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. Among numerous other awards, Victor was presented the National Humanities Medal in 2007. In this episode, Robinson and Victor discuss his latest book, The End of Everything: How Wars Descend into Annihilation (Basic Book, 2024), which was released on May 7th. More particularly, they cover the historical connection between annihilation and genocide, how we should interpret the past through today’s moral standards, genocides in the present, and the likelihood of World War III. Victor appeared as a guest on episode #112, in which he and Robinson talked about what was at the time Victor’s latest book, The Dying Citizen. He was also a guest on episode #191, which covered Victor’s views on the current crisis in Israel and Palestine. Keep up with Victor on Twitter, through his website, and on his podcast, The Victor Davis Hanson Show.
Victor’s Website: https://victorhanson.com
Victor’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/VDHanson
The Victor Davis Hanson Show: https://art19.com/shows/the-victor-davis-hanson-show
The Dying Citizen: https://a.co/d/dPocUJg
The End of Everything: https://a.co/d/46O0mMB
OUTLINE
00:00 Introduction
03:41 On Annihilation, Extinction, and Genocide
09:31 What Causes Genocide?
16:38 The Applicability of Military Strategy to Everyday Life
24:00 On Alexander the Great
36:26 Should We Judge the People of the Past by the Moral Standards of the Present?
44:29 Uyghurs, Jews, and Genocides of the Present
50:45 What Are the Biggest Existential Threats to America?
59:28 Is World War III on the Horizon?
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
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Sean Carroll is Homewood Professor of Natural Philosophy at Johns Hopkins University and fractal faculty at the Santa Fe Institute. He is also the host of Sean Carroll’s Mindscape, a podcast about science, society, philosophy, culture, arts, and ideas. This is Sean’s fourth appearance on the show. He appeared with David Albert of Columbia University on episode 106, which covers the Many-Worlds theory of quantum mechanics, Boltzmann Brains, and the fine-tuned universe. He was also on episode 118 with Slavoj Žižek on quantum physics, the multiverse, time travel, and a whole lot more, and then episode 200 with Daniel Dennett and Steven Pinker on AI, parapsychology, and consciousness. This episode is coming out in advance of Sean’s next book, Quanta and Fields: The Biggest Ideas in the Universe (Penguin, 2024), which will be released on May 14, 2024. Sean and Robinson discuss many of the topics and themes of Quanta and Fields, including the books’ namesake subjects, as well as more decides, like scientific realism, free will, the simulation hypothesis, and the end of physics. If you’re interested in the foundations of physics—which you absolutely should be—then please check out the JBI, which is devoted to providing a home for research and education in this important area. Any donations are immensely helpful at this early stage in the institute’s life.
Sean’s Website: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com
Sean’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/seanmcarroll
Quanta and Fields (The Biggest Ideas in the Universe): https://a.co/d/gfMDLQo
The John Bell Institute: https://www.johnbellinstitute.org
OUTLINE
00:00 Introduction
5:00 The Biggest Ideas in the Universe
9:38 Do Physicists Understand Physics?
15:51 What Is the Role of Philosophers in Physics?
18:24 The Measurement Problem and Quantum Field Theory
20:24 Scientific Realism and the Standard Model of Particle Physics
25:11 What Is the Wave Function?
34:46 What Is Quantum Field Theory?
37:45 What Is the Fundamental Layer of Reality?
41:01 What Is the Standard Model of Particle Physics?
45:42 What Are the Fundamental Objects in the Standard Model of Particle Physics?
47:39 How Do We Test the Standard Model of Particle Physics?
49:38 What Are the Weaknesses of the Standard Model of Particle Physics?
54:41 Will We Ever Find a Theory of Everything?
56:19 Is String Theory the Final Theory of Physics?
58:14 String theory and the Fine-Tuning Problem
01:00:18 Is Quantum Gravity the End of Progress in Physics?
01:06:12 What is Philosophical Naturalism?
01:08:05 On Naturalized Epistemology
01:10:24 On the Philosophy of Mathematics
01:19:08 On Naturalizing Morality
01:22:33 The Myths of Quantum Entanglement
01:29:53 Is There Only One Electron?
01:34:09 Are Atoms Mostly Empty Space?
01:36:51 Are We Living in a Simulation?
01:39:58 Is Infinity a Problem for Quantum Mechanics?
01:41:59 The Mysteries of Quantum Mechanics
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, and everyone in-between.
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/robinson-erhardt/support
Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7Slavoj Žižek is international director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities at the University of London and a senior researcher at the University of Ljubljana’s Department of Philosophy. He was also the guest for episodes 109—on psychoanalysis, wokeness, racism, and a hundred other topics—and 118, where he appeared with Sean Carroll to discuss quantum physics, the multiverse, and time travel. Lee Smolin is a founding and senior faculty member at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, and the author of a number of bestselling books, including The Trouble with Physics (Mariner, 2006). He was the guest for episode 148, in which he and Robinson discussed presentism, the foundations of mathematics, and the philosophy of quantum mechanics. In this episode, Robinson, Slavoj, and Lee discuss time, space, superposition, and other concepts at the core of physics, as well as postmodernism, the big bang, problems with democracy, and much more. Lee is also an Honorary Fellow of the John Bell Institute for the Foundations of Physics. If you’re interested in the foundations of physics—which you absolutely should be—then please check out the JBI, which is devoted to providing a home for research and education in this important area. Any donations are immensely helpful at this early stage in the institute’s life.Lee’s Website: http://leesmolin.comThe Trouble with Physics: https://a.co/d/eJZPWaEOUTLINE00:00 Introduction06:26 Breaking the Copenhagen Interpretation11:55 On Sabine Hossenfelder 21:11 On Monads, Atoms, and Democritus30:18 Is the World a Game of Physics?38:46 On the Big Bang45:26 On European Immigration and Populism53:09 A Few Jokes
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.comRobinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
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Nick Bostrom is a Swedish philosopher who was most recently Professor at Oxford University, where he served as the founding Director of the Future of Humanity Institute. He is best known for his book Superintelligence (Oxford, 2014), which covers the dangers of artificial intelligence. In this episode, Robinson and Nick discuss his more recent book, Deep Utopia: Life and Meaning in a Solved World (Ideapress, 2024). More particularly, they discuss the alignment problem with artificial intelligence, the problem of utopia, how artificial intelligence—if it doesn’t make our world horrible—could make it wonderful, the future of technology, and how humans might adjust to a life without work.
Nick’s Website: https://nickbostrom.com
Deep Utopia: https://a.co/d/b8eHuhQ
OUTLINE
00:00 Introduction
02:50 From AI Dystopia to AI Utopia
9:15 On Superintelligence and the Alignment Problem
17:48 The Problem of Utopia
21:14 What Are the Different Types of Utopia?
28:04 AI and the Purpose of Mathematics
38:59 What Technologies Can We Expect in an AI Utopia?
43:59 Philosophical Problems with Immortality
55:14 Are There Advanced Alien Civilizations Out There?
59:54 Why Don’t We Live in Utopia?
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/robinson-erhardt/support
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Philip Goff is a professor of philosophy at Durham University in the United Kingdom, where he researches consciousness and the philosophy of mind. He is the best known proponent of a view about consciousness known as panpsychism, which takes mentality to be fundamental in the world rather than something that either emerges out of complex structures or exists parallel to physical objects (as an immaterial property of things like souls). In this episode, Robinson and Philip discuss the major camps in the debate over consciousness, including physicalism, dualism, and panpsychism, touching on both their strengths and weaknesses. They then turn to a few questions raised in Philip’s most recent book, Why? The Purpose of the Universe (Oxford, 2023), in which he seeks to find a middle ground between atheism and deism.
Why? The Purpose of the Universe: https://a.co/d/2cqj5Us
Philip’s Website: https://philipgoffphilosophy.com
OUTLINE
00:00 Introduction
04:41 Philip’s Interest in Consciousness
8:11 What Is Consciousness?
14:36 Is Consciousness a Spectrum?
19:42 On Dualism About Consciousness
31:37 On Physicalism and the Mind
46:56 What Is Panpsychism?
53:27 The Best Arguments for Panpsychism
57:11 Panpsychism and the Combination Problem
1:02:20 On Panpsychism and Parapsychology
1:07:06 On Panpsychism and Free Will
1:13:04 On the Fine-Tuning Problem
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/robinson-erhardt/support
Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7
Vijay Prashad is a historian and journalist. He obtained his PhD in history at the University of Chicago and was most recently the George and Martha Kellner Chair in South Asian History at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. Vijay is a Marxist, and much of his work and writing has been devoted to critiques of capitalism and colonialism, and this notably includes research on Israel, Palestine, and the Middle East. In this episode, Robinson and Vijay discuss the Israel-Palestine conflict as a problem of anti-semitism and colonialism, and touch on various other dimensions of the issue, such as how the war might end, Noam Chomsky’s contributions to the discussion, and the legitimacy of Palestine.
Tricontinental: https://thetricontinental.org/institutes/
OUTLINE
00:00 Introduction
04:20 Human Rights and the Crisis in Palestine
10:50 Decolonizing Palestine and the Problem of European Antisemitism
19:33 Is Israel a European Colonialist Enterprise?
31:06 Is Palestine a Legitimate Nation?
43:14 On Noam Chomsky and a One-State Solution to Israel-Palestine
53:26 Communism, Israel-Palestine, and Dreams of Utopia
59:46 Is There a Practical Solution to the War in Gaza?
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/robinson-erhardt/support
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Jeffrey Sachs is University Professor at Columbia University, where he serves as the Director of the Center for Sustainable Development. Before that, he taught at Harvard University for twenty years. Jeff is the author of numerous books, including three New York Times bestsellers. His latest is The Ages of Globalization: Geography, Technology, and Institutions (Columbia, 2020). In addition to his work as an economist on the cutting edge of sustainable development—including research on changes related to extreme poverty, climate change, and other national economic reforms—Jeff is an authority on geopolitics and international relations, with particular expertise on Russia, Ukraine, Israel, Palestine, and other currently contentious areas. In this episode, Jeff and Robinson discuss practical solutions to the war in Gaza, the geopolitics surrounding the conflict in Israel and Palestine, allegations of anti-semitism in American universities, the assassination of JFK, and the truth behind conspiracy theories.
The Ages of Globalization: https://a.co/d/34yO8HB
Jeff’s Website: https://www.jeffsachs.org
OUTLINE
00:00 Introduction
03:48 Was October 7th Justifiable?
05:35 Can the UN End the War in Palestine?
09:31 Is Israel an Apartheid State?
11:28 Is Israel Committing Genocide?
17:50 Is a Two-State Solution Right for Israel and Palestine?
21:14 What Is the Pathway to Ending the War in Gaza?
26:06 Did the CIA Assassinate JFK?
28:12 On the Legitimacy of Conspiracy Theories
32:59 Key Israeli and Palestinian Players for the War in Gaza
42:01 Biden, Putin, Xi Jinping, and the War in Israel
46:39 On Anti-Semitism in American Universities
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/robinson-erhardt/support
Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7
Benny Morris is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Middle East Studies at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel. He is among the most respected and influential historians on Israel and Palestine. Benny is perhaps best known for his work on the 1947-1948 civil war in Palestine and the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, and for his book The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem, 1947-1948 (Cambridge, 1989). In this episode, Robinson and Benny discuss the Israel-Palestine conflict from a historical perspective, touching on the origin of the refugee crisis, the origin and justification of Israel, the legitimacy of Israeli military tactics, whether genocide is occurring in Palestine, whether Israel is an apartheid state, and more.
The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem: https://a.co/d/9pN2W7v
OUTLINE
00:00 Introduction
3:45 Muscular Judaism and the New Jew
8:53 The Nakba and the Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Crisis
16:18 How Many Palestinians Were Driven from Palestine?
22:32 Was Palestine Occupied Before the Establishment of Israel?
26:24 Did Zionists Invade Occupied Palestine
33:27 Was the Founding of Israel Justified?
39:49 Does Israel Have the Right to Exist?
43:56 Is Egypt Responsible for the Crisis in Gaza?
48:42 On Norman Finkelstein, Concentration Camps, and Hamas Rockets
51:48 Israel, Palestine, and Propaganda
54:09 On the Legitimacy of Palestinian and Arab Historians
58:08 Does Israel Warn Palestinians Before Bombings?
1:00:59 Is Israel Committing Genocide Against Palestinians?
1:03:18 Is Israel an Apartheid State?
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/robinson-erhardt/support
Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7
Sean Carroll is Homewood Professor of Natural Philosophy at Johns Hopkins University and fractal faculty at the Santa Fe Institute. He is also host of Sean Carroll’s Mindscape, a terrific show (that influenced the birth of Robinson’s Podcast) about science, society, philosophy, culture, arts, and ideas. Daniel Dennett is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Tufts University, where he was co-director of the Center for Cognitive Studies and the Austin B. Fletcher Professor of Philosophy. He is one of the most recognized philosophers today, and has made major contributions to the philosophy of mind and biology, among other areas, and is known as one of the Four Horsemen of Atheism. Steven Pinker is Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology at Harvard University. He is an experimental cognitive psychologist, prominent public intellectual, and best-selling author who writes on language, mind, and human nature. This is Sean’s third appearance on the show. He was one of the guests—along with David Albert of Columbia University—on episode 106, which covers the Many-Worlds theory of quantum mechanics, entropy and Boltzmann Brains, and the fine-tuned universe. He was also on episode 118 with Slavoj Žižek on quantum physics, the multiverse, time travel, and a whole lot more. This is Dan’s second appearance on the show, as on episode 194 he and Robinson spoke about consciousness, free will, and the evolution of minds. Finally, Steve is returning for another centennial episode, as he and Robinson discussed rationality, enlightenment, and free speech on episode 100. But in this episode of Robinson’s Podcast (the two hundredth!), Sean, Dan, Steve, and Robinson discuss artificial intelligence, large language models, and whether or not they threaten democracy or even civilization itself, parapsychology and the laws of physics, panpsychism and consciousness, some of the philosophical lessons of Darwinian thought, and the relationship between science and philosophy. Dan’s latest book is I’ve Been Thinking (W. W. Norton, 2023), Steve’s latest book is Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters (Penguin, 2022), and Sean’s next book, Quanta and Fields: The Biggest Ideas in the Universe (Penguin, 2024), will be coming out on May 14, 2024.
Sean’s Website: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com
Sean’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/seanmcarroll
Quanta and Fields (The Biggest Ideas in the Universe): https://a.co/d/gfMDLQo
Sean’s Paper on QFT and Supervenience: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2101.07884.pdf
I’ve Been Thinking: https://a.co/d/ahMEC0G
Steven’s Website: https://stevenpinker.com
Steven’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/sapinker
Rationality: https://a.co/d/9N2uFyr
Robinson’s Podcast #106 - David Albert & Sean Carroll: Quantum Theory, Boltzmann Brains, & The Fine-Tuned Universe: https://youtu.be/U6ZtmGIhIhU
Robinson’s Podcast #118 - Slavoj Žižek & Sean Carroll: Quantum Physics, the Multiverse, and Time Travel
Robinson’s Podcast #194 - Daniel Dennett: Consciousness, Free Will, and the Evolution of Minds: https://youtu.be/9bZcBh0qtKo
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
00:59 Introduction
6:11 Will Large Language Models End Civilization?
13:42 Are Large Language Models a Threat to Democracy?
22:53 Could AI Destroy the Job Market?
28:14 On Parapsychology and the Violation of Physics
40:23 The Parable of the Bathtub
01:03:45 Physical Causation and the Law of Sufficient Reason
01:09:23 On Emergence and Real Patterns
01:14:48 Is Consciousness an Illusion?
01:27:13 The Darwinian Lesson
01:31:50 Does Physics Show that the Universe is Conscious?
1:44:36 What is Philosophy?
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/robinson-erhardt/support
Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7
Lawrence Krauss is a theoretical physicist who has taught at Yale, Arizona State University, and Case Western, and is the founder of ASU’s Origins Project. He is a prominent public intellectual and best-selling author, and has written about the origins of the universe, atheism, and many other topics. He is also the host of the Origins Podcast. In this episode, Robinson and Lawrence have a wide-ranging conversation about the current state of physics—and whether or not there is a crisis—the potential shortcomings of string theory, whether or not the world is a hologram, arguments for the existence of god, and the role of science in ethics. Lawrence’s most recent book is The Edge of Knowledge (Post Hill Press, 2023).
Lawrence’s Website: https://lawrencemkrauss.com
The Edge of Knowledge: https://a.co/d/6tIrJzy
OUTLINE
00:00 Introduction
04:04 Theory versus Experiment
10:13 Is There a Crisis in Physics?
22:43 On the State of Quantum Gravity
25:40 What’s Wrong with String Theory?
40:58 Cormac McCarthy
50:22 Is the World a Hologram?
1:02:14 God and the Fine-Tuned Universe
1:19:33 Does Science Help Us with Morality?
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/robinson-erhardt/support
Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7
Michael Hudson is Distinguished Research Professor of Economics at the University of Missouri, Kansas City and President of the Institute for the Study of Long-Term Economic Trends. He researches domestic and international finance, the history of economics, and the role of debt in shaping class stratification, among many other topics. Michael was also a guest on episode 180, where he and Robinson discussed neoliberalism, industrial capitalism, and the rentier economy. In this episode we continue the discussion, focusing on his book Killing the Host (ISLET, 2015). More particularly, they discuss the rhythm of debt and economic crashes, the role of history in the study of economics, the history of debt cancellation, Marxism, economic parasites, and how to heal ailing economies. Michael’s most recent book is The Collapse of Antiquity (ISLET, 2023).
Michael’s Website: https://michael-hudson.com
The Collapse of Antiquity: https://a.co/d/0TMt9Sh
Killing the Host: https://a.co/d/fG2wD19
OUTLINE
00:00 Introduction
02:29 The Rhythm of Debt and Economic Crashes
8:27 The Role of History in Economic Thought
17:09 The Fascinating History of Debt Cancellation
25:52 Aristotle, Plato, and The Cancellation of Debt
31:49 Ancient Greece and the Cancellation of Debt
41:10 The Problems with Today’s Neoliberal Economics
45:29 On Karl Marx and Marxism
47:21 The Lord’s Prayer, Christianity, and Debt Cancellation
56:34 FIRE and Economic Parasites
1:07:13 How Does Wall Street Parasitize the Government?
1:09:57 Are We Hosts for Economic Parasites?
1:19:32 What’s Wrong With Austerity Measures for Economic Crashes?
1:21:39 Preventing Economic Parasites from Sucking the Country Dry
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/robinson-erhardt/support
Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7
Martha Nussbaum is the Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics at the University of Chicago, with appointments in the Department of Philosophy and the Law School. Martha is among the most recognized philosophers today. Over the course of her career, she has made numerous major contributions to ancient philosophy, ethics, political philosophy, the philosophy of law, and other areas. Martha’s most recent book is Justice for Animals: Our Collective Responsibility (Simon & Schuster, 2023). In this episode, Robinson and Martha discuss some of her contributions to animal ethics both in philosophy and law. More particularly, they touch on philosophical conceptions of justice, various approaches to animal ethics—such as utilitarianism and Kantianism—the Capabilities Approach to freedom and justice, and how people ought to think about eating meat.
Justice for Animals: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09JPHCKLJ
OUTLINE
00:00 Introduction
02:08 Martha’s Interest in Justice for Animals
8:15 Justice and Flourishing Lives
16:31 Recognizing Injustice for Animals
29:54 What Is the Scala Naturae?
42:28 Utilitarianism
52:28 The Capabilities Approach
1:15:39 Is Meat-Eating Ever Ethical?
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/robinson-erhardt/support
Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7
Stephen Wolfram is the founder and CEO of Wolfram Research, and the creator of Mathematica, Wolfram|Alpha, and the Wolfram Language. He received his PhD in theoretical physics from Caltech when he was twenty years old. In addition to his work at the helm of Wolfram Research, he writes and researches widely across computer science, physics, mathematics, and more. This is Stephen’s second appearance on the show. In episode 102, he and Robinson discussed artificial intelligence, ChatGPT, and the philosophy of math. In this episode, however, they turn to the Ruliad—the entangled limited of computability—and Stephen’s search for the fundamental theory of physics. Along the way, they talk about the philosophy of science, abstract and concrete objects, and quantum mechanics.
A Project to Find the Fundamental Theory of Physics: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0917YZDNF?ref_=cm_sw_r_cp_ud_dp_Z7EPANZC9JVQR0HP2E1D
The Concept of the Ruliad: https://writings.stephenwolfram.com/2021/11/the-concept-of-the-ruliad/#:~:text=November%2010%2C%202021-,The%20Entangled%20Limit%20of%20Everything,arisen%20from%20our%20Physics%20Project.
Stephen’s Website: https://www.stephenwolfram.com
Stephen’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/stephen_wolfram
Wolfram Research on YouTube: https://a.co/d/aADrGGh
OUTLINE
00:00 Introduction
03:44 How Did Stephen Wolfram Discover the Ruliad?
34:22 The Axiomatic Revolution in Physics
46:37 Is the Ruliad a Theory or an Object?
1:10:01 How Big is the Space of Alien Minds?
1:18:25 Is the Universe an Abstract Object?
1:31:43 What Is Quantum Mechanics?
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/robinson-erhardt/support
Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7
Brian Keating is the Chancellor’s Distinguished Professor of Physics at the Center for Astrophysics & Space Sciences at UC San Diego, host of the Into the Impossible Podcast, an expert on the cosmic microwave background, and the author of a number of books. Robinson and Brian discuss the expansion and inflation of the universe, the relationship between theory and experiment in cosmology, gravitational waves, Brian’s brainchild the BICEP experiment, and a lot more. Brian’s most recent book is Into the Impossible (2021), which is a distillation of many of his conversations with Nobel Laureates and other brilliant thinkers.
Brian’s YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/DrBrianKeating?sub_confirmation=1
Into the Impossible Podcast: https://link.chtbl.com/into-the-impossible
Brian’s Mailing List: briankeating.com/list
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
01:02 Introduction
03:30 Brian the Builder
10:59 The Theory of Cosmological Expansion?
27:08 The Origins of Inflation
34:15 On Theory and Experiment in Astrophysics
44:27 On Gravitational Waves and Inflation
1:01:40 BICEP Tech Specs
1:14:54 What Did BICEP Find?
1:29:26 The Simons Array
1:32:50 On Eric Weinstein’s Theory of Everything
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/robinson-erhardt/support
Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7
Daniel Dennett is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Tufts University, where he was co-director of the Center for Cognitive Studies and the Austin B. Fletcher Professor of Philosophy. He is one of the most recognized philosophers today, and has made major contributions to the philosophy of mind and biology, among other areas, and is known as one of the Four Horsemen of Atheism. Dan’s latest book is I’ve Been Thinking (W. W. Norton, 2023), though much of what he and Robinson discuss comes from his earlier book, From Bacteria to Bach and Back (W. W. Norton, 2017). More particularly, they talk about the origin of life and reasons, the evolution of music, Robert Sapolsky and free will, famous thought experiments in the philosophy of mind, the origin of consciousness, and the relationship between mind and language.
I’ve Been Thinking: https://a.co/d/ahMEC0G
From Bacteria to Bach and Back: https://a.co/d/htcrcn7
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
00:54 Introduction
3:51 Where Am I?
11:00 The Origin of Life as the Origin of Reasons
16:42 On Music and Philosophy
23:13 Is Music Evolved?
26:52 What are Replicators and How Do they Figure in Natural Selection?
33:32 On Robert Sapolsky and Free Will
47:50 On Free Will and the Justice System
59:55 On Sean Carroll, Free Will, and Intuition Pumps
1:09:49 On the Chinese Room
1:13:14 On Mary in the White Room
1:18:18 Why Would Aliens Be Excited to Discover Clam Rakes?
1:21:58 What Is Homuncular Functionalism?
1:30:11 How Do Brains Make Minds?
1:38:59 Are There Pathological Memes?
1:47:19 Where Does Consciousness Come From?
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/robinson-erhardt/support
Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7
Robert Sapolsky is John A. and Cynthia Fry Gunn Professor and Professor of Biology, Neurology, and Neurosurgery at Stanford University. He’s also a best-selling author and one of the leading voices in the current—and enduring—debate over free will. In this conversation, Robinson and Robert discuss his latest book, Determined (Penguin, 2023), and the many arguments it contains against free will, and how, if we don’t have it, we ought to change many of our social institutions, like the carceral system, that operate on the assumption that people are free, morally responsible agents.
Determined: https://a.co/d/g7n5fPj
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
00:34 Introduction
3:08 Turtles and the Illusion of Free Will
9:35 The Neuroscience of Denial
12:55 What Is Free Will and Why Don’t We Have It?
21:08 What Is Physical Determinism?
23:15 Chaos Theory, Complexity, and Free Will
34:08 Quantum Bullshit
39:53 Quantum Mechanics and Free Will
47:59 Does Consciousness Give Us Free Will?
58:12 Fear, Disgust, and Free Will
1:05:46 What Primatology Tells Us About Free Will
1:08:09 The Limbic System and Free Will
1:13:14 Does Testosterone Undermine Free Will?
1:19:45 How Does the Womb Determine Who We Are?
1:24:32 How Is Free Will Connected to Weight Loss?
1:31:05 How Does Skepticism About Free Will Impact Behavior?
1:36:51 If There Is No Free Will, What Should We Do With Prisons?
1:45:32 What Is Funishment?
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/robinson-erhardt/support
Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7
Norman Finkelstein received his PhD from the Princeton University Politics Department, and is best known for his indefatigable research on Israel and Palestine, which is what he and Robinson discuss in this episode of the show, marking the culmination of a three-installment mini-series on Israel and Palestine. In particular, they discuss the importance—or distraction—of ideology, whether Israel is ethnically cleansing Palestine, the message that October 7th sent to the Arab world, what Gaza has in common with the concentration camps of the Holocaust, Palestinian and Israeli psychology, and whether this conflict is going to be the end of humanity. Norman’s most recent book is I’ll Burn That Bridge When I Get to It! Heretical Thoughts on Identity Politics, Cancel Culture, and Academic Freedom (Sublation Media, 2023).
Norman’s Website: https://www.normanfinkelstein.com
I’ll Burn That Bridge When I Get to It!: https://a.co/d/hDDj9OK
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
00:43 Introduction
2:56 Poisonous Ideology and the Israel-Palestine Conflict
14:20 Zionism, Imperialism, and the Conquest of Palestine
24:34 Is Zionist Israeli Policy Ethnically Cleansing Palestine?
42:28 Is Gaza a Concentration Camp?
52:47 On Israel and the Leader of Hezbollah
1:01:36 Will Israel-Palestine Be the End of Humanity?
1:11:38 Does the Holocaust Justify Israel’s Response in Palestine?
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/robinson-erhardt/support
Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7
Victor Davis Hanson is a renowned classicist, military historian, and political commentator. He is the Martin and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow in Residence in Classics and Military History at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. Among numerous other awards, Victor was presented the National Humanities Medal in 2007. In this episode, which is the second in an installment of three considering different perspectives on the Israel-Palestine conflict, Robinson and Victor discuss his appraisal of the situation as a military historian, some of the contentious claims on both sides that are repeated in the media, how the conflict is discussed on college campuses, and how equality ought to be achieved. Victor was also a guest on episode #112, in which he and Robinson talked about Victor’s latest book, The Dying Citizen. Keep up with Victor on Twitter, through his website, and on his podcast, The Victor Davis Hanson Show.
Victor’s Website: https://victorhanson.com
Victor’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/VDHanson
The Victor Davis Hanson Show: https://art19.com/shows/the-victor-davis-hanson-show
The Dying Citizen: https://a.co/d/dPocUJg
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
00:26 Introduction
03:52 An Overview of the Israel-Palestine Conflict
13:40 Who Has the Right to the Territory of Israel-Palestine?
20:01 Do the Jewish People Need a State?
26:08 Israel-Palestine Activism on College Campuses
29:39 DEI on College Campuses
37:05 Is Israel Committing Genocide in Palestine?
51:05 Is Israel an Apartheid State?
55:47 On Equality in Israel versus Palestine
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/robinson-erhardt/support
Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7
Richard Wolff is Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a visiting professor at The New School, where he works on economics in the Marxist tradition. This is Richard’s third appearance on Robinson’s Podcast. In episode #127, he and Robinson discussed some of the most profound criticisms of capitalism, and in #154 installment, they focused on the myths surrounding Marxism and Marx himself. In this episode, Richard and Robinson talk about the current—and enduring—Israel-Palestine conflict, with particular emphasis on how, with his Marxist training and background, Richard understands it from that perspective. Some particular questions discussed are how class figures into the conflict, whether ideology plays any pernicious roles, whether Israel should be considered a refugee state, why pro-Palestinian views are suppressed in the United States, and how Marx might have attempted to adjudicate the conflict.
Richard’s Website: https://www.rdwolff.com
Economic Update: https://www.democracyatwork.info/economicupdate
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
00:37 Introduction
04:19 Israel-Palestine and the Marxist Perspective
11:33 Is Israel a Colonial State or a Refugee State?
16:45 Some Important Marxist Distinctions in Israel and Palestine
25:09 Israel as a Project of Colonialist Capitalism
41:50 Ideology and the Perpetuation of the Israel-Palestine Disaster
01:01:03 Warfare and the Horrors of Israel-Palestine
01:07:43 The Suppression of Opposition to Israel in the United States
01:19:15 The Marxist Solution to the Israel-Palestine Conflict?
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/robinson-erhardt/support
Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7
David Albert is the Frederick E. Woodbridge Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University, director of the Philosophical Foundations of Physics program at Columbia, and a faculty member of the John Bell Institute for the Foundations of Physics, as is the second guest. Barry Loewer is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Rutgers. Before that he did his PhD in philosophy at Stanford (!). Barry works largely in the philosophy of physics, the philosophy of science, and metaphysics. This is Barry’s second time on the show—in episode 83 he and Robinson discusses probability and laws of nature, both of which come up in this episode. This is David’s sixth (!) appearance on Robinson’s Podcast. He appeared on episode #23 with Justin Clarke-Doane on metaethics and absolute space, episode #30 on the philosophy of time, episode #67 with Tim Maudlin on the foundations of quantum theory, episode #106 with Sean Carroll on Many-Worlds and fine-tuning, and episode #157 on the metaphysics of quantum mechanics. In this episode, Robinson, Barry, and David talk about the Mentaculus, their joint project on the foundations of statistical mechanics, which provides a guide for how to think of and solve problems involving probability, determinism, free will, cosmology, time, and more. A book Barry, Brad Weslake, and Eric Winsberg have edited on essays concerning David’s book, Time and Chance, called The Probability Map of the Universe (Harvard, 2023), came out around this time last year, and the link is in the description.
The Probability Map of the Universe: https://a.co/d/4XoYTMY
A Guess at the Riddle: https://a.co/d/6qcsidl
The John Bell Institute: https://www.johnbellinstitute.org
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
00:41 Introduction
04:23 The Mentaculus
07:08 Chance, Probability, and Determinism
29:52 What Is the Mentaculus?
46:37 The Mentaculus, Thermodynamics, and Time’s Arrows
01:18:51 The Quantum Arrow of Time
01:30:34 On Tim Maudlin and the Arrow of Time
01:36:30 Can We Time Travel to the Future
01:44:22 Free Will and Statistical Mechanics
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/robinson-erhardt/support
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Tim Maudlin is Professor of Philosophy at NYU and Founder and Director of the John Bell Institute for the Foundations of Physics. Sheldon Goldstein is Distinguished Professor of Mathematics at Rutgers University, where he researches mathematical physics, the foundations of quantum mechanics, and Bohmian Mechanics. He is also Board Member of the John Bell Institute for the Foundations of Physics, and this is his second appearance on the show. In episode 170, he and Robinson discussed Bohmian Mechanics. On the other hand, this is Tim’s fifth appearance on the show. Tim was also a guest on episode 46 (laws of nature, space, and free will), episode 67 with David Albert (the foundations of quantum mechanics), episode 115 with Craig Callender (the philosophy of time), and episode 142 on Bell’s inequality and the philosophy of science. In this episode, Robinson, Tim, and Shelly discuss the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics, the Many-Worlds theory, spontaneous collapse theories, Bohmian mechanics, and emergent relativity. If you’re interested in the foundations of physics—which you absolutely should be—then please check out the JBI, which is devoted to providing a home for research and education in this important area. Any donations are immensely helpful at this early stage in the institute’s life.
Tim’s Website: www.tim-maudlin.site
Shelly’s Website: https://sites.math.rutgers.edu/~oldstein/
The John Bell Institute: https://www.johnbellinstitute.org
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
00:22 Introduction
03:04 Is Copenhagen the Dominant Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics?
20:12 On the Most Promising Theories of Quantum Mechanics
34:46 Are There 0-Dimensional Quantum Objects?
41:03 On Spontaneous Wave Function Collapse in Quantum Mechanics
47:56 Bohmian Mechanics and Determinism
51:34 What is Bohmian Mechanics?
1:10:33 Is There a Fundamental Theory of Quantum Mechanics
1:18:45What Is Emergent Relativity?
1:31:01 What Are the Problems with Bohmian Mechanics?
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/robinson-erhardt/support
Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7
Michael Levin is a Distinguished Professor in the Biology Department at Tufts University, where he holds the Vannevar Bush endowed Chair, and he is also associate faculty at the Wyss Institute at Harvard University. Michael and the Levin Lab work at the intersection of biology, artificial life, bioengineering, synthetic morphology, and cognitive science. Michael also appeared on the show in episode #151, which was all about synthetic life and collective intelligence. In this episode, Michael and Robinson discuss the nature of cognition, working with Daniel Dennett, how cognition can be realized by different structures and materials, how to define robots, a new class of robot called the Anthrobot, and whether or not we have moral obligations to biological robots.
The Levin Lab: https://drmichaellevin.org/
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
00:19 Introduction
02:14 What is Cognition?
08:01 On Working with Daniel Dennett
13:17 Gatekeeping in Cognitive Science
25:15 The Multi-Realizability of Cognition
31:30 What are Anthrobots?
39:33 What Are Robots, Really?
59:53 Do We Have Moral Obligations to Biological Robots?
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/robinson-erhardt/support
Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7
Jenann Ismael is the William H. Miller III Professor of Philosophy at Johns Hopkins University, where she researches the philosophy of physics, science, mind, and metaphysics. In this episode, Robinson and Jenann discuss the role of self-reference in physics, the arrows of time, interpretations of quantum mechanics, and free will. Jenann’s latest book is Time: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2021).
Jenann’s Website: https://www.jenanni.com
Time: A Very Short Introduction: https://a.co/d/8fRtXFZ
How Physics Makes Us Free: https://a.co/d/9OdFJ12
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode
00:23 Introduction
02:21 Jenann’s Entry into Philosophy of Physics
8:26 Self-Reference and the Universe
21:54 The Real-World Problem of Self-Reference
32:51 The Mentaculus
57:01 Interference and Self-Reference
1:01:55 Interference and Quantum Measurement
1:06:12 On Self-Reference and the Many-Worlds Theory of Quantum Mechanics
1:17:13 On Determinism and Free Will
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/robinson-erhardt/support
Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7
Jim Al-Khalili holds a University of Surrey Distinguished Chair in physics and a university chair in the Public Engagement in Science at the University of Surrey, where he is a theoretical physicist, author, and broadcaster. In this episode, Robinson and Jim talk about the fundamentals of quantum biology, including what it is, how some animals—like Robinson’s namesake, the Robin—take advantage of quantum mechanics, how exotic phenomena like quantum tunneling fit into the biological world, and how quantum mechanics relates to the arrow of time. Jim’s latest book is The Joy of Science (Princeton, 2022).
The Joy of Science: https://amzn.eu/d/hREAipW
Jim’s Website: https://jimal-khalili.com
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode
00:37 Introduction
03:02 What Is Quantum Biology?
17:00 How Do Robins Use Quantum Mechanics?
26:42 Where Does Quantum Tunneling Fit into Biology?
34:16 What is Quantum Decoherence?
40:03 Jim on His Preferred Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics
43:18 Quantum Mechanics and the Arrow of Time
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/robinson-erhardt/support
Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7
Brian Leiter is Karl N. Llewellyn Professor of Jurisprudence at the University of Chicago Law School, founder and Director of Chicago’s Center for Law, Philosophy & Human Values, and is best known in the philosophical world for his work on Nietzsche and legal philosophy. He is the founding editor of the Routledge Philosophers book series, Oxford Studies in Philosophy of Law, and Philosophical Gourmet Report, which is the canonical—as well as extremely helpful and illuminating—ranking of philosophy departments and PhD programs in the English-speaking world. He also maintains the world’s most popular philosophy blog, Leiter Reports. Brian was also a guest on episode 97, where he and Robinson discussed Karl Marx, ideology, and historical materialism, but in this episode they talk about Friedrich Nietzsche’s moral psychology and his criticism of morality. Among the topics they discuss are The Genealogy of Morals, The Gay Science, moral realism and anti-realism, moral psychology, and Nietzsche’s thoughts on free will. Brian’s latest book is Moral Psychology with Nietzsche (Oxford, 2021).
Brian’s Website: https://www.brianleiter.net
Brian’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/BrianLeiter
Leiter Reports: https://leiterreports.typepad.com
Moral Psychology with Nietzsche: https://a.co/d/3dJZBeZ
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
00:04 Introduction
02:14 Who Was Friedrich Nietzsche?
10:50 Naturalism in Nietzsche’s Moral Psychology
20:24 Nietzsche and the Death of God
28:36 Nietzsche and Moral Anti-Realism
40:32 Did Nietzsche Believe in Free Will?
47:43 Nietzsche and the Genealogy of Morals
01:11:50 The Main Takeaways from Nietzsche’s Moral Philosophy
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/robinson-erhardt/support
Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7
Neil Shubin is Robert R. Bensley Distinguished Professor of Organismal Biology and Anatomy at the University of Chicago. In addition to actively leading research expeditions across the globe, Neil runs the Shubin Lab, where genetic, kinematic, and paleontologic work combine to investigate some of the major transitions in evolution. In this episode, Robinson and Neil discuss some of these transitions, including the importance of the Devonian and Triassic Periods, how fish moved from water to land, and how early terrestrial environments accommodated them. Neil’s most recent book is Some Assembly Required: Decoding Four Billion Years of Life, from Ancient Fossils to DNA (Random House, 2020).
The Shubin Lab: https://shubinlab.uchicago.edu
Neil’s Twitter: https://shubinlab.uchicago.edu
Some Assembly Required: https://a.co/d/dnZMuSl
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
00:39 Introduction
03:25 What Is Evolutionary Biology?
12:59 On The importance of the Devonian Period
20:39 Searching Antarctica for Fish Fossils
31:50 How Did Fish Become People?
54:43 Genetics and Kinematics
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/robinson-erhardt/support
Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7
Larry Keith is the Head of Conservation and Keeper of the National Gallery of London, where he preserves and maintains some of the world’s most precious works of art, including paintings by Leonardo, Caravaggio, and Rubens. In this episode, Robinson and Larry discuss what goes into a conservator’s appraisal of an artwork, some of the tools and techniques of the job, and how Larry has treated a number of famous paintings, such as Leonardo’s Virgin of the Rocks and Caravaggio’s The Boy and a Lizard.
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
01:08 Introduction
03:19 Piere Menard and Borges
11:01 Conserving Da Vinci’s Virgin of the Rocks
23:28 What Goes into Conserving a Renaissance Masterpiece?
51:00 Conserving Caravaggio’s Masterpieces
01:17:32 On Authorship and Paul Rubens’ Drunken Silenus
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/robinson-erhardt/support
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/robinsonerhardt
Jon Butterworth is Professor of Physics in the Department of Physics & Astronomy at University College London, where he works on the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider near Geneva, Switzerland. In this episode, Robinson and Jon discuss his work on the standard model of particle physics, it’s connection to quantum theory, life at the LHC, the search for the Higgs Boson, and its role in physics as we know it and going forward. Jon’s book on the Higgs boson is Most Wanted Particle: The Inside Story of the Hunt for the Higgs, the Heart of the Future of Physics (The Experiment, 2016).
Most Wanted Particle: https://a.co/d/02B0H5C
00:00 Pre-Roll
00:16 Introduction
03:01 Jon’s Interest in Physics
10:02 What Is the Standard Model of Particle Physics?
19:31 How Does Quantum Theory Fit into the Standard Model?
25:28 How Does the Large Hadron Collider Work?
44:39 On The Theory Behind the Higgs Boson
56:45 Is the Higgs Boson the God Particle?
58:50 How Does The Higgs Boson Work (For Dummies)?
01:02:22 Where Does Mass Come From in the Universe?
01:11:01 The Higgs Boson, Quantum Gravity, and Meta-Stability
01:25:28 Life at the LHC
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/robinson-erhardt/support
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/robinsonerhardt
Michael Hudson is Distinguished Research Professor of Economics at the University of Missouri, Kansas City and President of the Institute for the Study of Long-Term Economic Trends. He researches domestic and international finance, the history of economics, and the role of debt in shaping class stratification, among many other topics. In this episode, Robinson and Michael discuss this last subject. They begin broadly, with how as an economist Michael even thinks of debt, and move on to questions concerning the rentier class, industrial capitalism usury, and neoliberalism, as well as Michael’s beliefs about what must be done to save the economy. Michael’s most recent book is The Collapse of Antiquity (ISLET, 2023).
Michael’s Website: https://michael-hudson.com
The Collapse of Antiquity: https://a.co/d/0TMt9Sh
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode
00:25 Introduction
02:55 Michael’s Background in Economics
09:48 How Does an Economist Think of Debt?
22:15 Why Are Rent and the “Rentier Class” Crucial to What’s Wrong with the Economy?
30:21 What Is Industrial Capitalism?
40:58 Why Is Usury So Prevalent in the United States?
46:17 What Is Neoliberal Ideology?
01:00:23 Is China A Good Example of Trickle-Down Economics?
01:03:52 How to Save the Economy from the Upper Class
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/robinson-erhardt/support
Adam Gazzaley is David Dolby Distinguished Professor of Neurology, Physiology, and Psychiatry in the School of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. He obtained his M.D. and Ph.D. in Neuroscience at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Adam works on developing new approaches to both assess and optimize human cognition, with particular attention to underutilized but high-potential tools like video games. In this episode, Robinson and Adam discuss the cognition crisis—why our brains seem to be under such duress in the modern age—and the structural features of the brain, as well as its plasticity, and how these things can be modified and optimized to deal with the current environment. Check out Adam’s book, The Distracted Mind (MIT, 2016).
Adam’s Website: https://gazzaley.com
The Distracted Mind: https://a.co/d/aZm8Reg
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
00:39 Introduction
03:09 Science and Medicine
07:29 What Is Brain Plasticity
11:17 What Is the Cognition Crisis?
31:48 Can Neuroscience Make Us Smarter?
43:17 Can Neuroscience Develop Technological Medicine?
54:45 On Medicinal Video Games
01:04:01 Why Doctors Might Prescribe Video Games For ADHD
01:23:49 Sleep Improvement
01:27:24 The Future of Medicinal Video Game Research
01:43:07 How We Can All Improve Cognitive Function
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/robinson-erhardt/support
Chike Jeffers is Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy at Dalhousie University, where he researches Africana philosophy, the philosophy of race, social and political philosophy, and ethics. Lucius Outlaw is Professor of Philosophy Emeritus and W. Alton Jones Chair Emeritus in the Philosophy Department at Vanderbilt University, where he researches African, Africana, continental, social, and political philosophy. Both Chike and Lou have written widely on African and Africana philosophy, which form the subject of this episode. More particularly, Robinson, Chike, and Lou discuss the origin of Africana philosophy in the diaspora, violence in Africana philosophy, and the role of aesthetics in the tradition. For background, check out Lou’s article on Africana Philosophy in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, and Chike’s work with Peter Adamson and Jonardon Ganeri on the History of Indian and Africana Philosophy Podcast.
History of Indian and Africana Philosophy Podcast: https://historyofphilosophy.net/series/africana-philosophy
Africana Philosophy on the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/africana/
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode
00:52 Introduction
03:14 What Is Africana Philosophy?
30:16 Distinguishing African and Africana Philosophy
37:16 Violence in Africana Philosophy
01:04:44 Aesthetics and Africana Philosophy
01:28:17 Final Thoughts
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/robinson-erhardt/support
Juan Maldacena is Carl P. Feinberg Professor in the School of Natural Sciences at the Institute for Advanced Study, where his work focuses on quantum gravity, string theory, and quantum field theories. In this episode, Robinson and Juan discuss the relationship between string theory and black holes, the holographic principle, and Juan’s groundbreaking paper on the AdS/CFT Correspondence.
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
00:48 Introduction
04:04 What Is the Purpose of String Theory?
16:35 Working at the IAS
17:55 String Theory and The Black Hole Information Paradox
41:19 Is Space Curved?
47:00 What is Conformal Field Theory?
50:24 String Theory and the AdS/CFT Correspondence
01:27:00 Quantizing Gravity
01:40:20 De Sitter Space Correspondences
01:56:36 Fine-Tuning and String Theory
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/robinson-erhardt/support
Brian Little is Research Professor in the Department of Psychology at Cambridge University, Distinguished Research Professor Emeritus at Carleton, and a Senior Fellow at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He is well known for his work on personality psychology and his development of personal project analysis. In this episode, Brian and Robinson discuss the Big Five personality traits, how psychologists measure them, what their predictive power is, and how personal projects give us a new dimension for understanding ourselves. Brian’s latest book is Who Are You, Really? The Surprising Puzzle of Personality (Simon & Schuster, 2017).
Who Are You, Really?: https://a.co/d/cp4QRuE
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
00:57 Introduction
02:53 An Interest in Personality
10:30 The Origin of The Big Five Personality Traits
20:51 What Are The Big Five Traits?
44:37 How Do Psychologists Measure Personality?
58:06 Is Personality Inherited?
01:07:13 What Is the Ideogenic Self?
01:16:09 What Are Personal Projects in Psychology?
01:31:14 Can We Change Our Personalities?
01:42:21 Managing Our Personal Projects
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/robinson-erhardt/support
Robert Plomin is MRC Research Professor of Behavioral Genetics at King’s College London. He has published over 800 papers, is among the hundred most cited psychologists of the twentieth century, and was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire for his research, the best known of which is on twin studies and behavioral genetics. In this episode, Robinson and Robert discuss the distinction between molecular and quantitative genetics, how one researches the question of nature vs nurture, the extent to which genetics determines human behavior, the controversies about these lines of research, and what to expect in the next ten years of behavioral genetics. Robert’s most recent book is Blueprint: How DNA Makes Us Who We Are (MIT, 2018).
Blueprint: https://a.co/d/eqpK5dB
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
01:06 Introduction
03:22 An Interest in Behavioral Genetics
12:46 The Distinction Between Quantitative and Molecular Genetics
26:12 How Impactful is Genetics on Behavior?
33:25 Twins, Adoption, and Nature Versus Nurture
41:07 Some Remarkable Consequences of DNA Sequencing
50:43 Nazis, Intelligence, and the Controversy of Genetics Research
01:02:16 Is Intelligence Heritable?
01:15:51 The Generalist and Modular Models of Genes
01:21:50 Is Depression Genetically Determined?
01:31:22 What Is The Role of Nurture in Human Behavior?
01:39:08 What Behaviors and Traits are Heritable?
01:44:53 The Next Ten Years
01:52:47 Is Socioeconomic Status Heritable?
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/robinson-erhardt/support
Rebecca Goldstein is a philosopher and novelist. She received her Ph.D. in philosophy from Princeton University and studied with Thomas Nagel. She is a MacArthur Follow and was awarded the National Humanities Medal by Barack Obama. Rebecca is also an expert on Spinoza and Gödel, and has a whole bevy of other wide-ranging interests. In this episode, Robinson and Rebecca discuss her novel the Mind-Body Problem, atheism, Spinoza, and what makes life meaningful in a godless world. Rebecca’s most recent book is Plato at the Googleplex: Why Philosophy Won’t Go Away (Pantheon, 2014).
Rebecca’s Website: https://www.rebeccagoldstein.com
Thirty-Six Arguments for the Existence of God: https://a.co/d/dAoDqbU
Plato at the Googleplex: https://a.co/d/c1vvVaw
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
00:45 Introduction
02:40 Publishing a First Novel
14:01 Philosophy and Literature
22:11 From Judaism to Atheism
42:36 Arguments Against the Existence of God
01:02:45 On Spinoza
01:16:14 Mattering
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/robinson-erhardt/support
Ken Olum is Research Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Tufts University, where he works on exotic physics and topics in cosmology like cosmic strings, gravitational waves, anthropic reasoning, and inflation. In this episode, Robinson and Ken talk all about cosmic strings, which are spindly, hypothesized astronomical objects of intense mass and energy that may have been created in the earliest periods of the universe.
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
00:27 Introduction
03:00 Exotic Astrophysics and NANOGrav
16:19 What Are Cosmic Strings?
37:14 String Theory and the Multiverse
42:34 Details About Cosmic Strings
48:46 How Can We Detect Cosmic Strings?
01:00:03 Travel Within the Multiverse
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/robinson-erhardt/support
Joseph LeDoux is Henry and Lucy Moses Professor of Science, University Professor, Professor of Neural Science, Professor of Psychiatry, and Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at New York University, where he works in neuroscience and related areas. Though his career is expansive, one major focus of his research has been emotions in humans and other animals. He is also the frontman of The Amygdaloids. Joseph’s most recent book is The Four Realms of Existence: A New Theory of Being Human (Harvard, 2023). In this episode, Joseph and Robinson discuss psychoanalysis, the nature of biological life, how nervous systems evolved, and the relationship between consciousness and cognition.
The Four Realms: https://a.co/d/2wrFGG2
Joseph’s Website: http://joseph-ledoux.com
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
01:06 Introduction
04:29 Thoughts on Psychoanalysis
17:05 The Four Realms of Human Existence
41:29 What Is Life?
48:10 What Are Nervous Systems and How Did They Evolve?
01:10:07 Cognition Substance-Neutral?
01:15:12 What Is Consciousness?
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/robinson-erhardt/support
Richard Haier is Professor Emeritus in the School of Medicine at the University of California, Irvine, where he uses brain imagining and the tools of neuroscience to study learning, memory, and intelligence, and how they relate to brain function and structure. He is the editor-in-chief of the journal Intelligence. In this episode, Robinson and Rich discuss all things human intelligence, ranging from its controversies, the origin and current status of psychometric testing, the relationship between intelligence, brain structure, and function, the predictive power of IQ in career success and other areas, and whether or not it’s possible to increase one’s general intelligence. Rich’s most recent book is the second edition of his guide to neuroscience research and intelligence, The Neuroscience of Intelligence (Cambridge University Press, 2023).
Richard’s Website: https://www.richardhaier.com
The Neuroscience of Intelligence: https://a.co/d/c7aO9aK
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
01:06 Introduction
02:50 Intelligence, Psychometrics, and the Brain
12:01 The Controversy about Race and Intelligence Research
21:09 How Should We Define Human Intelligence?
26:36 On The Origin and Value of IQ Tests
32:16 Intelligence and Brain Structure
46:05 How Accurate Are Contemporary IQ Tests Like?
57:16 Are IQ Tests Racist?
01:03:47 Should We Abolish Standardized Tests?
01:13:34 Do IQ Tests Predict Career Success?
01:17:05 The Parieto-Frontal Integration Theory of Intelligence
01:34:25 Psychometric Tests and Human Intelligence
01:41:10 Group Differences and IQ
01:46:53 Can You Increase Your IQ?
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/robinson-erhardt/support
Sheldon Goldstein is Distinguished Professor of Mathematics at Rutgers University, where he researches mathematical physics, the foundations of quantum mechanics, and Bohmian Mechanics. He is also Board Member of the John Bell Institute for the Foundations of Physics, founded by fellow Robinson’s Podcast multiverse denizen, Tim Maudlin. In this episode, Robinson and Shelly discuss all things Bohmian mechanics, from the origins of pilot wave theory with de Broglie to its chief theoretical innovations and its relationship to philosophy, including some of the main objections to—and strengths of—the theory. Check out Shelly’s book on the subject, Bohmian Mechanics and Quantum Theory: An Appraisal (Springer, 1996). If you’re interested in the foundations of physics—which you absolutely should be—then please check out the JBI, which is devoted to providing a home for research and education in this important area. Any donations are immensely helpful at this early stage in the institute’s life.
Shelly’s Website: https://sites.math.rutgers.edu/~oldstein/
Bohmian Mechanics and Quantum Theory: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-94-015-8715-0
The John Bell Institute: https://www.johnbellinstitute.org
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
00:55 Introduction
06:40 Kripke and Quantum Logic
18:30 De Broglie and Pilot Wave Theory
23:38 What is Bohmian Mechanics?
43:55 Sociology and the Origin of Bohmian Mechanics
52:57 John Bell and Bohmian Mechanics
57:32 Realism and Bohmian Mechanics
01:12:39 Current Work on Bohmian Mechanics
01:22:10 What are the Criticisms of Bohmian Mechanics
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/robinson-erhardt/support
Michael Graziano is Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at Princeton University, where he and his lab research the brain basis of consciousness. Naturally, this is precisely what Michael and Robinson discuss in this episode. More particularly, they get into the philosophical question of what consciousness is, the roles of philosophy and science in answering the same, and whether or not there are deep, intractable issues here. Then they turn to Michael’s theory of consciousness—the Attention Schema Theory—in which consciousness is a way in which the brain models attention to better organize and monitor it. Michael’s most recent book is Rethinking Consciousness (W. W. Norton, 2019).
Rethinking Consciousness: https://a.co/d/8euR1EL
Graziano Lab: https://grazianolab.princeton.edu
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
00:55 Introduction
02:56 Getting Started in Consciousness
07:18 The Dialogue Between Science and Philosophy on Consciousness
13:05 What Are We Talking About When We Talk About Consciousness
25:38 What is Consciousness?
32:25 What Are Cognitive Models?
36:45 What Is The Meta-Problem of Consciousness?
48:24 How Does a Neuroscientist Think of Attention?
59:39 The Attention Schema Theory of Consciousness
01:17:46 Neural Correlates of Consciousness
01:28:47 Magical” Theories of Consciousness
01:35:03 Artificial Intelligence and Consciousness
01:43:44 Fiction and Music
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
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Una Stojnić is an assistant professor in the Department of Philosophy at Princeton University, where she works in the philosophy of language, formal semantics and pragmatics of natural language, and philosophical logic. In this episode, Robinson and Una discuss three of her projects. First, they talk about linguistic conventions, and how language consists of more than just the words we might find in a dictionary. Second, they talk abut slurs and pejoratives, and how philosophers have attempted to determine just what it is that makes them offensive. Finally they talk about a problem with word individuation—just how much can our spelling or pronunciation of a word vary from its canonical spelling or pronunciation and still be that same word? Una’s latest book is Context and Coherence: The Logic and Grammar of Prominence (Oxford, 2021).
Una’s Website: https://www.unastojnic.com
Context and Coherence: https://a.co/d/0wjOoaM
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
00:51 Introduction
03:04 An Interest in Language
07:31 A Problem with Word Individuation
11:52 Context Sensitivity and Linguistic Convention
30:07 Word Individuation and Speaker Intentions
45:30 Slurs and Pejoratives
01:01:55 An Articulation Account of Slurs
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
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David Wallace is Mellon Professor in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh. Before that, he obtained PhDs in both physics and philosophy at Oxford. David works mainly in the philosophy of physics, and is best known for his development and defense of the Everett—or Many-Worlds—interpretation of quantum mechanics. In this episode, Robinson and David talk all about Many-Worlds, including its history, how it relates to the broader question of realism in the philosophy of science, its strong points, and some potential problems, such as how to account for probability in the multiverse. David’s book on the subject is The Emergent Multiverse (Oxford, 2014).
The Emergent Multiverse: https://a.co/d/3GOSC3a
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
00:18 Introduction
03:38 From Physics to Philosophy
12:54 Realism and the Measurement Problem in Quantum Mechanics
25:14 Hugh Everett and the Many Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics
48:56 Bryce DeWitt
51:33 How Does the Many Worlds Theory of Quantum Mechanics Work?
01:02:22 Are There Problems with the Many Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics?
01:10:58 How Many Worlds Are There in the Multiverse?
01:21:54 How Can We Make Sense of Probability in the Multiverse?
01:43:44 Is The Multiverse Too Absurd to Believe In?
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
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Robert Stickgold is Professor of Pyschiatry at Harvard Medical School, where he researches sleep and dreams from a cognitive neuroscience perspective. In this episode, Bob and Robinson discuss the role of sleep in memory processing and emotional regulation, how sleep deprivation affects performance, and the evolutionary purpose and function of dreams.
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
00:17 Introduction
03:06 Why Study Sleep?
12:04 How Does the Brain Process Different Types of Memories?
20:45 How Does Sleep Affect Memory Processing?
33:10 How Does Sleep Deprivation Affect Memory Processing?
50:58 What Is The Connection Between Sleep and Emotions
01:09:03 How Do PTSD, Autism, and Schizophrenia Affect Sleep
01:32:00 An Interest in Dreams
01:34:05 Was Freud Wrong About Dreams?
02:03:29 On Hypnogogic Dreams
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/robinson-erhardt/support
Anubav Vasudevan is Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Chicago, where he works in formal epistemology and the history of logic, though he has published in a number of other areas. This is Anubav’s second appearance on the show. In episode #81, he and Robinson discussed mathematics, physics, and the history of logic. In this episode, they talk about the wonderfully bizarre metaphysics of the renowned pragmatist and logician Charles Sanders Peirce.
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
00:18 Introduction
04:54 The History of Logic
19:39 Who Was Charles Sanders Peirce?
37:04 The Problem of the Single Trial
48:35 Finding Our Coherent Philosophical Selves
54:32 Charles Peirce’s Bizarre Metaphysics
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/robinson-erhardt/support
Geoffrey West is Shannan Distinguished Professor and Past President at the Santa Fe Institute. He is a theoretical physicist who has worked broadly on topics related to elementary particles and their cosmological implications. Among other topics, he has also worked on complexity theory, scaling laws in biology, and how they can be applied in other areas, such as cities and problems involving global sustainability. This is precisely what Robinson and Geoffrey discuss in this episode, with particular reference to his recent book, Scale: The Universal Laws of Growth, Innovation, Sustainability, and the Pace of Life in Organisms, Cities, Economies, and Companies (Penguin, 2017).
Scale: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQ05syiaUxg
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
00:25 Introduction
02:21 Complexity and the Santa Fe Institute
22:14 What Are Emergent Phenomena?
34:18 What is Complexity Theory?
45:51 Why Do All Animals Have the Same Number of Heartbeats in a Lifetime
01:11:43 Does Complexity Theory Tell Us How to Live Longer
01:22:49 Why Don’t Cities Die Like Organisms Do?
01:59:40 The Pandemic and the Increasing Pace of Life
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/robinson-erhardt/support
Daniel Levitin is Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Neuroscience at McGill University and Founding Dean of Arts & Humanities at Minerva University. He is also a record producer, musician, and writer. In this episode, Robinson and Daniel discuss one of his best-selling books, This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession (Penguin, 2006), as well as some of the songs on his two albums, Turnaround (2020) and Sex & Math (2021). More particularly, they talk about whether a neurological understanding of the mind and music reduces or increases one’s appreciation for music, how the brain processes complex music, whether music is evolved, why we get songs stuck in our head, and why some sounds are more pleasing than others.
Daniel’s Website: https://www.daniellevitin.com
This Is Your Brain On Music: https://a.co/d/fDxIvxd
Sex & Math: https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/daniellevitin/sex--math
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
00:56 Introduction
03:05 Music, Awe, and Neuroscience
11:12 Neuroscience and Songwriting
17:10 Why Can the Brain Easily Process Complex Music?
34:59 Why Do We Get Songs Stuck in Our Heads?
41:12 Why Do We Prefer Some Musical Time Signatures and Sounds to Others?
58:02 What Gives Some Musicians the IT Factor?
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/robinson-erhardt/support
Tim Palmer is Royal Society Research Professor in Climate Physics at the University of Oxford, where he is a Senior Fellow at the Oxford Martin Institute and a Professorial Fellow at Jesus College. Tim works on the predictability and dynamics of weather and climate, including extreme events, and is well known within the field for developing probabilistic ensemble forecasting techniques. In this episode, Robinson and Tim discuss his recent book, The Primacy of Doubt: From Quantum Physics to Climate Change, How the Science of Uncertainty Can Help Us Understand Our Chaotic World (2022). More particularly, they talk about black holes and the holographic principle, the foundations of quantum mechanics, meteorology and probabilistic forecasting, chaos theory and consciousness, and the problem of climate change.
The Primacy of Doubt: https://a.co/d/dL8JfTn
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
00:37 Introduction
02:37 From Physics to Meteorology
13:17 Black Holes and the Holographic Principle
35:09 What Is the Butterfly Effect?
43:31 Why Is Weather Chaotic and What Can We Do About It?
01:09:34 Can Principles of Meteorology Be Applied to the Problems of Consciousness and Free Will?
01:30:55 Chaos Theory and Climate Change
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/robinson-erhardt/support
James Owen Weatherall is Professor of Logic and the Philosophy of Science and Department Chair at the University of California, Irvine, where he is also a member of the Institute for Mathematical Behavioral Science, the Center for Cosmology, and the Jack W. Peltason Center for the Study of Democracy. Jim is a physicist, mathematician, and philosopher, and works broadly on the mathematical and conceptual foundations of classical and quantum field theories, as well as the philosophy of science more generally, though he has plenty of other interests, such as model building in finance. In this episode, Robinson and Jim discuss nothingness and the physics of the void, beginning with the debate between Leibniz and Newton on the nature of space, moving through the revolution ushered in by Einstein’s special and general relativity, and ending with the quantum vacuum state.
Jim’s Website: http://jamesowenweatherall.com
Void: https://a.co/d/eEwbGCh
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
00:49 Introduction
03:04 MFA, PhD, PhD
06:04 Physics and Metaphysics
16:00 Newton, Leibniz, and the Debate Over Absolute Space
39:32 How Did Einstein Change Our Understanding of Space?
01:03:28 How Does Quantum Theory Change Our Classical Picture of the World
01:14:15 Fields and the Quantum Mechanics of the Void
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
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David Friedman is Professor Emeritus at the Santa Clara University School of Law. While he was trained as a physicist, David is best known for his work in economics, and particularly his defense of anarcho-capitalism, a political philosophy that advocates for a free-market system unhampered by government. In this episode, Robinson and David discuss some criticisms of current economic systems, the varieties of anarchism, David’s arguments for anarcho-capitalism, and one of his fascinating hobbies, anachronism.
David’s Website: http://www.daviddfriedman.com
David’s Substack: https://daviddfriedman.substack.com
The Machinery of Freedom: https://a.co/d/iKpTQYK
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
00:17 Introduction
02:55 Physics to Economics
09:35 What is Anarchism?
16:09 Is Government an Agency of Legitimized Coercion?
27:41 Could Anarchy Be More Efficient than Government?
37:52 What Are Moral Facts?
44:46 Was John Rawls a Quack?
48:44 What Are Moral Facts?
56:07 How Much Should We Trust the Government?
01:02:05 Can Governments Prevent Climate Change?
01:13:18 Could We Privatize Police?
01:30:11 Would Anarchy Lead to Wealth Inequality?
01:40:08 Will the United States Ever Become Anarchic?
01:46:26 Anachronism
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/robinson-erhardt/support
Erik Verlinde is Professor of Physics in the Faculty of Science at the University of Amsterdam, where he specializes in quantum gravity and string theory, black holes, and cosmology. In this episode, Erik and Robinson discuss his studies with the Nobel laureate Gerard ’t Hooft, black holes, the holographic principle, string theory, entropic gravity, and dark matter.
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
00:51 Introduction
02:16 Studying with Gerard ‘t Hooft
13:33 How Do Black Holes Connect Quantum Theory and General Relativity?
20:57 Why Are Black Holes the Most Symmetric Objects in the Universe
24:10 How Do You Measure a Black Hole’s Entropy?
30:32 What Is The Holographic Principle in Physics?
44:17 What is String Theory and What Does It Teach Us About Black Holes?
01:04:49 What Is Entropic Gravity?
01:24:09 What’s the Connection Between String Theory and Quantum Mechanics?
01:29:33 Entropic Gravity and General Relativity
01:40:32 Does Entropic Gravity Explain Dark Matter?
01:47:50 The Present and Future of Emergent Gravity
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/robinson-erhardt/support
Sheldon Solomon is Professor of Psychology at Skidmore College. He is best known for developing terror management theory with Tom Pyszczynski and Jeff Greenberg, which explores human psychology and mortality. In this episode, Robinson and Sheldon discuss Ernest Becker’s groundbreaking book The Denial of Death, how it influenced him and his collaborators, and how they have studied—with the tools of contemporary social psychology—how humans are affected by their sense of mortality.
The Worm at the Core: https://a.co/d/7p05yA6
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
00:51 Introduction
03:33 Discovering Ernest Becker
08:29 What Is Self-Esteem?
19:04 Freud and the Denial of Death
27:20 Man and the Heroic Journey
46:41 Where Was Becker Wrong?
54:44 What Is Terror Management Theory?
01:06:26 Children’s Fear of Death
01:10:23 A History of Death Denial
01:14:19 Possible Criticisms
01:18:00 A Prescriptive Dimension to Death Denial
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/robinson-erhardt/support
David Albert is the Frederick E. Woodbridge Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University and one of the world’s most respected philosophers of physics. He is also the director of the Philosophical Foundations of Physics program at Columbia and a faculty member of the John Bell Institute for the Foundations of Physics. This is David’s fifth (!) appearance on Robinson’s Podcast. He appeared on episode #23 with Justin Clarke-Doane on metaethics and absolute space, episode #30 on the philosophy of time, episode #67 with Tim Maudlin on the foundations of quantum theory, and episode #106 with Sean Carroll on Many-Worlds and fine-tuning. In this episode, Robinson and David discuss his new book, A Guess at the Riddle: Essays on the Physical Underpinnings of Quantum Mechanics (Harvard, 2023), and the metaphysics of quantum mechanics. If you’re interested in the foundations of physics—which you absolutely should be—then please check out the JBI, which is devoted to providing a home for research and education in this important area. Any donations are immensely helpful at this early stage in the institute’s life.
A Guess at the Riddle: https://a.co/d/6qcsidl
The John Bell Institute: https://www.johnbellinstitute.org
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
00:56 Introduction
05:12 On The Metaphysics of Quantum Mechanics
30:24 The Complex Origins of Antirealism in Quantum Physics
37:29 Instrumentalism and String Theory
45:31 The Amazing History of Locality in Physics
01:22:38 Quantum Mechanics as Experimental Metaphysics
01:26:27 What Is Wave-Function Realism in the Foundations of Quantum Mechanics?
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/robinson-erhardt/support
Fay Dowker is Professor of Theoretical Physics at Imperial College London, where she works broadly on quantum gravity, and more particularly on an approach called causal set theory that takes the most basic pieces of the universe to be atoms of spacetime. In this episode, Robinson and Fay begin by discussing her studies with Stephen Hawking and their work on wormholes before turning to quantum gravity and causal set theory. Fay is also a faculty member at the John Bell Institute for the Foundations of Physics. If you’re interested in the foundations of physics—which you absolutely should be—then please check out the JBI, which is devoted to providing a home for research and education in this important area. Any donations are immensely helpful at this early stage in the institute’s life.
The John Bell Institute: https://www.johnbellinstitute.org
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
00:50 Introduction
04:49 How Do Physicists Think of Wormholes?
15:56 Stephen Hawking, Philosophy, and Quantum Gravity
26:00 Causal Set Theory and The Problem of Quantum Gravity
43:45 What is the Path Integral?
54:43 Is Spacetime Discrete?
57:40 Causal Set Theory and Black Holes
01:14:27 Lorentz Symmetry, Non-Locality, and Phenomenology in Causal Set Theory
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/robinson-erhardt/support
Tony Padilla is Professor of Physics in the School of Physics & Astronomy at the University of Nottingham, where he is the Associate Director of the new Nottingham Centre of Gravity. Tony works in cosmology, quantum gravity, and related areas. He is also a host of the YouTube channel Numberphile, and the author of Fantastic Numbers and Where to Find Them: A Cosmic Quest from Zero to Infinity (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2022). In this episode, Robinson and Tony discuss some of these fantastic numbers. They begin with the question of how numbers relate to physics and the world more generally before turning to Graham’s Number, Tree(3), and the question of whether or not we have doppelgängers elsewhere in the universe.
Fantastic Numbers and Where to Find Them: https://a.co/d/jiLCOJe
Numberphile: https://www.youtube.com/@numberphile
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
00:13 Introduction
02:57 Tony’s Interest in Numbers
07:51 Are Numbers Parts of the Physical World?
20:12 Do We Have Doppelgängers Elsewhere in the Universe?
54:16 What is Graham’s Number?
01:03:22 Tree(3)
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/robinson-erhardt/support
Richard Wolff is Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a visiting professor at The New School, where he works on economics in the Marxist tradition. This is Richard’s second appearance on Robinson’s Podcast. In episode #127, he and Robinson discussed some of the most profound criticisms of capitalism. In this installment, they focus on Marx himself, including Karl Marx’s background, his most important views, what he wrote and didn’t write, and some of the common—and potentially devastating—criticisms of Marxism.
Richard’s Website: https://www.rdwolff.com
Economic Update: https://www.democracyatwork.info/economicupdate
The Sickness is the System: https://a.co/d/jf5w5wy
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
00:22 Introduction
03:55 Who Was Karl Marx?
32:15 Karl Marx, Armchair Intellectual?
37:40 Answering Karl Marx’s Critics
50:38 Is Karl Marx Responsible for the Communist Genocides?
01:14:09 Marxism and The World Economy of Today
01:17:53 Is Socialism a Monolith? Does Marxism Evolve?
01:25:13 On Marxism and Mass Death
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/robinson-erhardt/support
Alan Stern is a planetary scientist, space program executive, aerospace consultant, and author. He leads NASA’s 880 million dollar New Horizons mission, which explored Pluto and its moons before heading deeper into the Kuiper Belt that surrounds the solar system. In 2007 and 2008, Alan was also NASA’s chief of space and Earth science programs. In this episode, Robinson and Alan talk all about Pluto and how Earth got there through New Horizons. They begin by discussing whether or not Pluto should be classified as a planet, before turning to the logistics of flying to Pluto and then what the New Horizons probe discovered there. Alan’s book, Chasing New Horizons (Picador, 2018) details the story of the groundbreaking mission.
Alan’s Website: https://alanstern.space
Chasing New Horizons: https://a.co/d/gwvun3e
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
00:56 Introduction
02:46 Why Planets?
08:23 Is Pluto a Planet?
22:19 New Horizons’ Journey to Pluto
30:14 NASA’s Flyby-Then-Probe Model
37:20 What Did NASA’s New Horizons Mission Learn About Pluto?
50:11 New Horizons After Pluto and Beyond
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/robinson-erhardt/support
Geraint F. Lewis is Professor of Astrophysics at the Sydney Institute for Astronomy in the University of Sydney’s School of Physics. While the focus of his research is on dark matter and energy, Geraint has written about and worked on many topics in cosmology and astrophysics more generally. In this episode, Robinson and Geraint discuss the question of fine-tuning: Our universe seems extremely well-suited for life, and with just the slightest variations in physics life as we know it would not exist. In what ways does the universe appear finely tuned, and how should we account for this?
Geraint’s Website: https://www.geraintflewis.com
A Fortunate Universe: https://a.co/d/aLKIcG5
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
00:34 Introduction
2:59 The Bigger Questions
05:40 Was the Earth Designed for Humans?
10:33 Fine-Tuning and the Standard Model of Particle Physics
18:40 What Is the Anthropic Principle?
28:46 Is the Weak Nuclear Force Necessary For Life?
36:36 Are The Strong and Electromagnetic Forces Necessary for Life?
52:52 The Higgs Boson and Fine-Tuning
59:23 Is Gravity Necessary for Life?
01:03:10 Fine-Tuning and the Multiverse
01:14:03 Entropy and Fine-Tuning
01:37:54 Dark Energy, Dark Matter, and Fine-Tuning
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/robinson-erhardt/support
Michael Levin is a Distinguished Professor in the Biology Department at Tufts University, where he holds the Vannevar Bush endowed Chair, and he is also associate faculty at the Wyss Institute at Harvard University. Michael and the Levin Lab work at the intersection of biology, artificial life, bioengineering, synthetic morphology, and cognitive science. In this episode, Michael and Robinson discuss what it means—if anything determinate—to be intelligent and to be alive before turning to the various fascinating ways collective intelligence arises at all levels of the spectrum, from microbes to synthetic chimaeras, which all adaptively solve complex problems using sophisticated cognition.
The Levin Lab: https://drmichaellevin.org/
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
00:55 Introduction
03:38 Michael’s Research Program
05:48 What Is Intelligence?
23:26 Does It Mean Anything to be Alive?
34:50 What Is Morphogenesis?
53:20 Slime Molds, Exploding Planaria Brains, and Intercellular Communication
01:11:48 Why Is Synthetic Life Useful in the Lab?
01:27:48 Final Thoughts
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/robinson-erhardt/support
John Mather is a Senior Astrophysicist in the Observational Cosmology Laboratory at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. He was the recipient of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physics for his role as Principle Investigator for the Far IR Absolute Spectrophotometer on COBE, which observed the cosmic microwave background and helped support the big bang theory of the origin of the universe. John has also worked on many other projects for NASA, including the James Webb Space Telescope. In this episode, Robinson and John discuss the big bang and the cosmic microwave background before detailing the COBE satellite, its extraordinary findings, and the work that led to winning the Nobel Prize.
The Very First Light: https://a.co/d/6iaWMOK
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
00:35 Introduction
02:56 John’s Scientific Background
12:50 Where Did the Big Bang Theory Come From
22:28 The Electromagnetic Spectrum
27:48 John’s Thesis and the Road to COBE
42:57 Designing the Nobel-Winning COBE Satellite
01:05:38 Some Further Background
01:08:08 The Cosmic Microwave Background and the Nobel Prize
01:35:52 John’s More Recent Projects
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/robinson-erhardt/support
Jonathan Lear is the John U. Nef Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of Philosophy and at the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago. He is also a practicing psychoanalyst. Jonathan’s work focuses on understanding the human psyche both through philosophy—with an emphasis on Aristotle and the ancients—and psychoanalysis. In this episode, Jonathan and Robinson discuss three pinnacles of psychoanalysis: free association, the unconscious, and transference. Jonathan’s most recent book is Wisdom Won From Illness: Essays in Philosophy and Psychoanalysis (Harvard, 2017).
Jonathan’s Website: https://home.uchicago.edu/~jlear/
Wisdom Won From Illness: https://a.co/d/hxkokCz
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
00:50 Introduction
03:28 Philosophy and Psychoanalysis
12:29 What Is The Fundamental Rule of Psychoanalysis?
20:02 On Slavoj Žižek and Free Association
25:26 Following Freud
37:55 Transference and Changing One’s Mind
49:22 How the Analyst Listens
01:09:40 Analysis and Contradiction
01:25:44 Dreams and Free-Association
01:34:42 Transference
01:55:12 Who Is Psychoanalysis For?
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/robinson-erhardt/support
Lee Smolin is a founding and senior faculty member at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics. He is best known for contributions to quantum gravity as a co-inventor of loop quantum gravity and deformed special relativity. Beyond his work in other areas of physics, Lee has written a number of best-selling books, the most recent of which is Einstein’s Unfinished Revolution: The Search for What Lies Beyond the Quantum (Penguin, 2019). In this episode, Robinson and Lee discuss one of the main tenets that has characterized his work over the past decades: Realism. They first talk about realism in quantum mechanics before moving on to Lee’s version of radical presentism, in which only what is occurring in the immediate present can be said to exist, before finishing the main body of their conversation with mathematics and its relation to both physics and cosmology. The episode ends with brief digressions on biology and living with Parkinson’s disease. Lee is also an Honorary Fellow of the John Bell Institute for the Foundations of Physics. If you’re interested in the foundations of physics—which you absolutely should be—then please check out the JBI, which is devoted to providing a home for research and education in this important area. Any donations are immensely helpful at this early stage in the institute’s life.
Einstein’s Unfinished Revolution: https://a.co/d/7GHcebp
The Singular Universe and the Unreality of Time: https://a.co/d/hZqLT59
Lee’s Website: https://leesmolin.com
The John Bell Institute: https://www.johnbellinstitute.org/home
00:00 In This Episode…
00:47 Introduction
05:03 From Dropping Out of High School to Physics
10:42 Many-Worlds, Bohmian Mechanics, and Realism in Quantum Theory
29:18 Realism and the Copenhagen Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics
33:00 Uniting Quantum Mechanics and Cosmology
45:43 Working with Roberto Mangabeira Unger
55:10 The Singular Existence of the Universe
01:05:29 Lee’s Interest in Biology
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/robinson-erhardt/support
Yascha Mounk is a Professor of the Practice of International Affairs at Johns Hopkins University. He is also a Contributing Editor at the Atlantic, a Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, and the host of The Good Fight podcast. Yascha has written five books, the most recent of which is The Identity Trap: A Story of Ideas and Power in Our Time (Penguin, 2023). In this episode, Robinson and Yascha talk about this latest work. They begin by discussing the interrelationship between political theory, political science, and political philosophy before moving on to the role of equality in the politics on the left over the past hundred years. Then they turn to the rise of identity politics, its dangers, and how we can avoid what Yascha refers to as “the identity trap.”
The Identity Trap: https://a.co/d/jh6IZIR
Yascha’s Website: https://www.yaschamounk.com
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
01:32 Introduction
04:48 Distinguishing Political Theory, Science, and Philosophy
12:02 Why Focus on the Left Rather than the Right?
27:33 The History of Equality on the Left
32:38The Origin of Identity Politics
44:19 Universalism and Cultural Marxism
50:48 How Did Identity Politics Spread So Fast?
58:16 Do Identity Politics Conflict with Psychology?
01:12:00 How Do We Escape Identity Politics?
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/robinson-erhardt/support
Christopher E. Mason is Professor of Computational Genomics in Computational Biomedicine in the Institute for Computational Biomedicine and Professor of Neuroscience in the Brain and Mind Institute at Weill Cornell Medicine. Igor Tulchinsky is the founder, chairman, and CEO of WorldQuant, a global quantitative asset management firm. Together, they lead a joint project between Cornell Medicine and WorldQuant, the WorldQuant Initiative for Quantitative Prediction, which seeks to marry the expertise of financial prediction and analysis with genetic and medical research to improve and deploy new methods of preventive medicine. In this episode, Robinson, Chris, and Igor discuss their recent book, The Age of Prediction (MIT, 2023), and how our rapidly improving technology, data collection, and predictive algorithms are changing the world in innumerable ways, ranging from smart weapons in the military to solving crime and measuring job performance.
Errata: In the introduction, Robinson says that this is episode 140, but due to a scheduling error the episode was released as episode 146.
The Age of Prediction: https://a.co/d/3VAg0KD
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
01:10 Introduction
03:33 WorldQuant and Cornell Medicine
10:39 The Age of Prediction
15:51 Financial Prediction
19:44 Autonomous Drones and AI
28:38 Insurance and Prediction
33:35 Job Performance and Hiring
40:30 Using Genetics to Predict and Solve Crime
52:38 Final Thoughts
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/robinson-erhardt/support
Deirdre McCloskey is Distinguished Professor Emerita of Economics and of History and Professor Emerita of English and of Communication at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She is also Isaiah Berlin Chair in Liberal Thought at the Cato Institute. Over the span of her career, Deirdre has written on economic theory, history, rhetoric, feminism, ethics, law, and more. In this episode, she and Robinson discuss her political philosophy—classical liberalism. They begin by discussing her training before delving into liberalism’s roots in the eighteen and nineteenth centuries as a celebration of freedom of speech and innovation, as well as its doctrine of equality under the law. They then compare it to competing views, such as conservatism, and address common criticisms of classical liberalism, such as its alleged inability to respond to crises like global warming or that the free market will concentrate wealth in the hands of a few.
Why Liberalism Works: https://a.co/d/hvUAtnk
Deirdre’s Website: https://www.deirdremccloskey.com
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
00:59 Introduction
04:09 Deirdre’s Background in Economics
17:36 What is Classical Liberalism?
33:28 The Beginning of Liberalism
51:50 The Great Enrichment
01:05:43 Free Speech
01:17:31 Conservatism and Libertarianism
01:28:36 Criticisms of Liberalism
01:43:00 Climate Change and the Free Market
01:49:57 Liberalism and Queers
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/robinson-erhardt/support
Carl Wieman is Cheriton Family Professor, Professor of Physics, and Professor of Education Emeritus at Stanford University and winner of the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physics for the production and observation of the first Bose-Einstein condensate. In addition to his extensive work in atomic and optical physics, Carl has pioneered the use of experimental techniques to evaluate the effectiveness of various teaching strategies for physics and other sciences. He also served as Associate Director for Science in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. This episode constitutes a deep dive in two directions. First, Robinson and Carl discuss the trajectory of his career and research and how it led to his work on Bose-Einstein condensates that won the Nobel Prize. Then they turn to science education, including what’s wrong with it and how it can be improved.
Improving How Universities Teach Science: https://a.co/d/5HA980y
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
01:02 Introduction
03:41 Getting into Physics
10:03 What is Parity Violation in Physics
16:38 How Can A Laser Trap and Cool Atoms?
25:48 What is Spin?
35:59 What is a Bose-Einstein Condensate?
45:11 The Experiment
52:57 Applications of BECs
57:22 Getting Into Education Research
01:04:43 The Science Education Initiative
01:19:31 Implementing Education Initiatives
01:25:31 What Makes for Effective Teaching?
01:31:40 Equity in Education
01:36:15 Teacher Evaluation
01:43:09 Steps of Restructuring
01:42:40 Final Thoughts
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/robinson-erhardt/support
Andrew Knoll is the Fisher Professor of Natural History in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard University. Andy’s work straddles the line between the early evolution of life on Earth and our planet’s environmental history. He has written numerous books on these subjects, most recently A Brief History of Earth: Four Billion Years in Eight Chapters (Custom House). In this episode, Robinson and Andy discuss when and how life arose on earth—and, just as importantly, what and how we know about it. Then they turn to some related topics, such as the diversity of microbial life on Earth and how it shaped our environment. They finish off with the possibility of life on Mars, as Andy was part of NASA’s MER mission to Mars, which examined the soil and geology of Mars’s surface through two rovers, Spirit and Opportunity.
A Brief History of Earth: https://a.co/d/dLrMhVz
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
00:51 Introduction
03:23 On Walt Whitman and The Learn’d Astronomer
11:36 Big Numbers Concerning Life and the Age of the Universe
29:47 On The Earliest Life on Earth
46:29 How Did Life Begin?
58:21 How Far Back Can We Trace Humans on the Tree of Life?
01:08:42 The Diversity of Microbial Life
01:19:43 The Branching of the Tree of Life
01:24:08 How Did Microbes Shape Our Atmosphere?
01:34:48 What Does Martian Soil Tell Us About The Life That Might Be Found There?
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/robinson-erhardt/support
Tim Maudlin is Professor of Philosophy at NYU and Founder and Director of the John Bell Institute for the Foundations of Physics. Tim is renowned as one of the leading philosophers of physics, and he also works in the philosophy of science and metaphysics. This is Tim’s fourth appearance on the show. Tim was also a guest on episode 46 (laws of nature, space, and free will), episode 67 with David Albert (the foundations of quantum mechanics), and episode 115 with Craig Callender (the philosophy of time). In this episode, Robinson and Tim dig into some of the crucial developments in the philosophy of science that took place during the 20th century. Then they move on to John Bell and the John Bell Institute for the Foundations of Physics. If you’re interested in the foundations of physics—which you absolutely should be—then please check out the JBI, which is devoted to providing a home for research and education in this important area. Any donations are immensely helpful at this early stage in the institute’s life.
Tim’s Website: www.tim-maudlin.site
The John Bell Institute: https://www.johnbellinstitute.org
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
00:41 Introduction
04:56 What’s the Point of Philosophy of Science?
10:38 Carnap and Logical Positivism
26:30 Thomas Kuhn and the Structure of Scientific Revolutions
42:52 What is Scientific Realism?
01:02:44 Instrumentalism and Scientific Anti-Realism
01:06:08 Who Was John Bell?
01:20:15 Einstein, Quantum Mechanics, and Bell’s Inequality
01:45:34 The John Bell Institute
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/robinson-erhardt/support
Norman Naimark is Robert & Florence McDonnell Professor of East European History at Stanford University. He is also Senior Fellow of the Hoover Institution and the Institute of International Studies. He has worked on a wide array of topics related to the Cold War, genocide, communism, Hitler, Stalin, and more. In this episode, Robinson and Norman talk about the world history of genocide. After discussing just what constitutes genocide, they begin with the most distant reaches of prehistory—neanderthals and beyond—before moving up through biblical times, the Mongol conquest, the crusades, the colonial period, and more modern events.
Genocide: A World History: https://a.co/d/7o4tG25
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
00:55 Introduction
05:13 Norman’s Background
16:24 What’s an Archival Historian?
21:12 What is Genocide
35:59 Prehistoric and Biblical Genocide
48:20 Genghis Khan and the Mongolian Genocide
01:08:05 Were the Crusades Genocidal?
01:24:07 The Spanish Colonial Genocide
01:39:02 Race, Economics, and the Settler Genocides
01:48:02 The Genocides of Modernity
01:55:07 The Armenian Genocide
02:04:49 Is There a Genocide in Ukraine?
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
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John Burgess is John N. Woodhull Professor of Philosophy at Princeton University, where he works in mathematical and philosophical logic and the philosophy of mathematics. In this episode, Robinson and John discuss realism in the philosophy of mathematics, and while the nature of this question is itself disputed, it can be roughly described as concerning the extent to which we should be committed to the mind-independent truth of mathematical theorems, or to the existence of the objects they apparently describe. Robinson and John begin by addressing the nuances of this question, and they then turn to various developments in mathematics that have been historically associated with realism—set theory, in particular—as well as specific philosophical positions associated with realism (such as Platonism) and anti-realism (such as conventionalism). John’s most recent book is Set Theory (Cambridge, 2022).
Set Theory: https://a.co/d/cF305wf
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
00:22 Introduction
03:17 Mathematics or Philosophy?
08:06 What is Realism in the Philosophy of Mathematics?
14:11 Objectivity and Mathematics
24:34 What Is Set Theory?
47:29 Platonism and the Continuum Problem
01:15:42 Conventionalism
01:22:06 Finitism
01:31:17 A Cap on Infinity?
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
Lawrence Summers is the President Emeritus and Charles W. Eliot University Professor at Harvard University. He also served as the 71st Secretary of the Treasury in the Clinton Administration, as Director of the White House National Economic Council in the Obama Administration, and as the Chief Economist of the World Bank. In this episode, Robinson and Larry discuss two topics close to his heart and work. First, they talk about the relationship between economic research and economic policy, both at a broad, theoretical level and with respect to cases, such as the current problem of inflation and Larry’s own work on global investments in the education of women. Second, they explore free speech and the social function of the university, including its commitments to the pursuit of truth, the promotion of opportunity, and an increase in prosperity.
Larry’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/LHSummers
Larry’s Website: https://larrysummers.com/
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
01:06 Introduction
05:19 Theory, Research, and Policy in Economics
18:15 Using Research to Debunk Theory
23:00 Investing in Women’s Education
27:33 Free Speech at Harvard
34:52 Harvard and the Purpose of the University
38:17 Why Larry Ran Harvard
41:50 The STEM Revolution
54:03 Anti-Semitism in the University
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
Konstantin Batygin is Professor of Planetary Science in the Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences at the California Institute of Technology, where he works on a wide variety of problems related to the formation and evolution of the solar system, the dynamical evolution of exoplanets, and physical processes that occur in planetary interiors and atmospheres. In this episode, Robinson and Konstantin discuss interstellar interlopers in our solar system, planet and satellite formation, the death of Pluto, Planet Nine, and the newest music from his band, The Seventh Season.
Konstantin’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/kbatygin
Konstantin’s Website: https://www.konstantinbatygin.com/
The Seventh Season: https://theseventhseason.band/
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
00:37 Introduction
03:56 Konstantin’s Background
07:53 Was Oumuamua an Alien Spacecraft?
16:17 Planetesimals, Planet Formation, and the Size of the Solar System
25:15 Are there Extrasolar Objects in our Solar System?
35:06 How do Planets Form?
48:54 Is Our Solar System Falling Apart?
54:46 How Do Moons Form?
01:04:20 The Complexity of the Outer Solar System
01:07:12 The Death of Pluto
01:17:21 What and Where Is Planet Nine?
01:41:59 The Seventh Season
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
Joyce Carol Oates is the Rogers S. Berlind ’52 Professor Emerita in the Humanities at Princeton University with the Program in Creative Writing. She is among the most widely-recognized and respected writers of our time, and has written in a wide variety of media and genres, from poetry and fiction in the former category to horror and Gothic in the latter. Her work has also been adapted into various other media, from plays to film. Joyce is the recipient of two O. Henry Awards and the National Book Award, among many others. In this conversation, Robinson and Joyce talk about various dimensions of fiction and poetry. Their discussion largely centers on technique and form, and touches on the work of James Joyce, Stephen Crane, Vladimir Nabokov, and Edgar Allan Poe, in addition to Joyce’s own novels and short stories.
Errata: In the section marked “Edgar Allan Poe and James Joyce”, Joyce says “Blazes Boylan” when she intends to refer to Buck Mulligan.
Joyce’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/JoyceCarolOates
Joyce’s Substack: https://joycecaroloates.substack.com
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
00:55 Introduction
05:39 On Stephen Crane and The Bitter Heart
31:22 Literature as a Distillation of Life
42:53 Repetition and other Techniques
53:07 Edgar Allan Poe and James Joyce
01:08:14 Stephen Crane’s Many Red Devils
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
Andrew Strominger is Gwill E. York Professor of Physics and Director of the Center for the Fundamental Laws of Nature at Harvard University, where he works on some of the deepest questions in physics, including black holes and the unification of quantum field theory and general relativity in the form of string theory. In this episode, Robinson and Andy discuss the basics of string theory, including its unifying role in physics, its application to outstanding and once-intractable problems of black holes, and the conceptual difficulties of thinking about higher-dimensional spaces.
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
00:32 Introduction
05:03 Andy’s Entry into String Theory
20:49 The Irreconcilable Clash between General Relativity and Quantum Field Theory
47:02 String Theory, Fine-Tuning, and the Anthropic Principle
59:20 The Basics of String Theory
01:12:50 String Theory and the Reductionist Program of Physics
01:27:25 When Will We Observe the Strings of String Theory?
01:43:45 How Many Dimensions are There in String Theory?
02:12:50 Aesthetics in String Theory
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
Thomas Hertog is Professor and Head of Theoretical Physics in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at KU Leuven in Belgium. He was a doctoral student and close collaborator of Stephen Hawking. In this episode, Robinson and Thomas discuss his recent book, On the Origin of Time: Stephen Hawking’s Final Theory. More particularly they discuss his collaboration with Stephen Hawking Hawking’s work on black holes, and the three stages of his cosmological research, which culminated in his final theory, which Thomas worked on with him, called Top-Down Cosmology.
On the Origin of Time: https://a.co/d/ihrMoCZ
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
00:53 Introduction
04:19 Thomas’s Entry into Physics
05:49 What Was It Like to Work with Stephen Hawking?
09:46 Stephen Hawking and the Death of Philosophy
16:42 What is Cosmological Inflation
23:28 The Big Bang, Fine-Tuning, and the Anthropic Principle
41:15 On Penrose, Hawking, Black Holes, and the Big Bang
01:01:27 Stephen Hawking’s Final Theory of Top-Down Cosmology
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
Christopher Capozzola is Professor of History and MacVicar Faculty Fellow at MIT, where he works on the history of citizenship, war, and the military in modern American history. In this episode, Robinson and Chris discuss his first book, Uncle Sam Wants You: World War I and the Making of the Modern American Citizen (Oxford, 2008). More particularly, they talk about the background of the famous Uncle Sam “I Want You!” image and its status as a piece of propaganda, how it functioned in the United States during World War I, the domestic reception and consequences of the draft, and how patriotism resulted in violent vigilante justice. Chris’s latest book is Bound by War: How the United States and the Philippines Built America’s First Pacific Century.
Uncle Sam Wants You: https://a.co/d/gBodfCL
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
01:04 Introduction
03:50 History as Narrative
08:01 Teaching History at MIT
12:21 Chris’s Interest in American History
14:42 The Origin and Purpose of Uncle Sam
32:48 Political Obligation and the Draft in World War I
45:06 History and Unwritten Facts
50:07 Draft Dodgers, Conscientious Objectors, and Vigilantes in WWI
01:04:35 Historians, Philosophers, and Political Obligation
01:16:50 How World War I Was Caused by Bad Leaders
01:23:01 Free Speech During and After the War
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
Ian Hutchinson is Professor of Nuclear Science and Engineering in he Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering and the Plasma Science and Fusion Center at MIT. He works in both plasma physics and nuclear physics and also writes on the philosophy of science and the compatibility of Christianity and science. In this episode, Ian and Robinson begin by discussing his work in plasma and nuclear physics, touching on space exploration, nuclear fusion, and the containment of superheated plasma. Then they turn to Ian’s religious beliefs and his understanding of how science and christianity are not only compatible, but complementary. Ian’s latest book is Can a Scientist Believe in Miracles?: An MIT Professor Answers Questions on God and Science.
Ian’s Website: https://www-internal.psfc.mit.edu/~hutch/
Can a Scientist Believe in Miracles?: https://a.co/d/2Vi2wKk
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
01:03 Introduction
06:15 Is There a Crisis in Plasma Physics?
19:19 What Is the Fourth Phase of Matter?
33:24 Plasma, Astrophysics, and Space Exploration
45:49 What Are Nuclear Fission and Fusion?
55:25 How Does Nuclear Fusion Work?
01:02:34 How Viable is Nuclear Fusion as a Clean Power Source?
01:19:03 Why MIT Nuclear Physicist Ian Hutchinson Believes in God
01:34:08 How Can Science be Compatible with Christian Miracles?
01:43:22 How an MIT Physicist Reads the Book of Genesis
01:49:11 The Perils of Scientism
01:58:59 Do Science and Religion Complement Each Other?
02:04:02 How Religion Informs Ian’s Work as a Plasma Physicist
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
Jonathan Shedler is Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco and a faculty member at the San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis. He is a psychologist and psychotherapist. In this episode, Robinson and Jonathan discuss the clinical side of psychoanalytic theory. They begin by describing just how different contemporary practice is from its beginnings with Freud a hundred years ago, before detailing how psychodynamic therapy compares to other forms of treatment for mental illness.
Jonathan’s Website: https://jonathanshedler.com/
Jonathan’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/jonathanshedler
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
00:36 Introduction
04:11 Disambiguating Psychoanalysis
16:22 What Is The Distinction Between Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy?
32:01 Free-Association and Transference in Psychotherapy
49:05 Dream Interpretation in Psychotherapy
59:37 The Five Psychodynamic Theories
01:07:36 Is Psychodynamic Therapy Effective?
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
Tal Ben-Shahar did his undergraduate and graduate work at Harvard, where he later lectured on positive psychology and taught the most popular course in the university’s history. He is now a speaker and writer who focuses on happiness. In this episode, Robinson and Tal discuss the field of Happiness Studies, which Tal has been developing for half a decade. They discuss the origin of happiness studies with Aristotle before moving on to how various academic disciplines like philosophy, neuroscience, psychology, and anthropology can teach us about happiness in different ways. They finish with some practical insight on how to improve one’s quality of life.
Tal’s Website: https://talbenshahar.com/
Tal’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/TalBenShahar
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
00:50 Introduction
02:43 Tal and Happiness Studies
10:26 Aristotle and the Beginning of Happiness Studies
14:02 What is Happiness?
28:58 Different Approaches to Happiness
37:00 What Can Anthropology Teach Us About Happiness?
46:29 Capitalism, Communism, and Happiness
53:04 Advice for Being Happy
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
Donald Hoffman is Professor in the Department of Cognitive Sciences at the University of California, Irvine, where he also has joint appointments in the Department of Philosophy, the Department of Logic and Philosophy of Science, and the School of Computer Science. Don has worked on a number of problems in his career, including human facial attractiveness, the mind-body problem, the evolution of perception, and even vehicle lighting. In this episode, Robinson and Don discuss his latest book, The Case Against Reality, which argues that human perception did not evolve to see the world as it really is, but in fact what we perceive is a world of icons that, in analogy to a computer desktop, bears no resemblance to what is going on in the objective space beyond our senses.
The Case Against Reality: https://a.co/d/9kxeOI8
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
00:19 Introduction
04:03 Why Don Thinks We Don’t Perceive Reality
07:55 Do We Interact with Reality Like an iPhone?
13:28 Vitalism and the Mystery of Consciousness
26:55 An Anecdote About Chomsky
30:00 Consciousness and Cutting the Brain in Half
41:20 Can Science Explain Consciousness?
49:15 How Beauty Disguises Reality
01:02:02 What is Veridical Perception?
01:10:13 The Battle Between Truth, Fitness, and Reality
01:31:16 Exploring the FBT Theorem
01:41:56 What is the Interface Theory of Perception?
01:47:10 Illusory Blue Jeans to Make Your Butt Look Good
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
Jeremi Suri holds the Mack Brown Distinguished Chair for Leadership in Global Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin, where he is Professor of History in the Department of History and the LBJ School of Public Affairs. Jeremi’s selection of topics in his work is sprawling, but he writes largely on modern and contemporary politics and foreign policy. In this episode, Robinson and Jeremi discuss the American presidency and how it has shifted over the past two hundred and fifty years to become an impossible position with impossible demands and expectations. Their conversation focuses on five presidents—George Washington, Andrew Jackson, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, and John F. Kennedy—though they also touch on Barrack Obama, Donald Trump, and Joe Biden.
Jeremi’s Website: https://www.jeremisuri.net
The Impossible Presidency: https://a.co/d/1mOgm7Q
Civil War by Other Means: https://a.co/d/19i6Jq1
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode
01:02 Introduction
05:17 What Are the Historian’s Skills?
15:54 Jeremi’s Background
18:58 Did Washington and Trump Have the Same Job?
25:23 How to Measure the Success of a President?
35:11 What Made Washington Great?
55:40 Was Andrew Jackson Actually a Great President?
01:07:29 How Abraham Lincoln Doomed the Presidency
01:17:20 Theodore Roosevelt and Military Imperialism
01:26:38 Was Franklin Roosevelt the Last Great President?
01:37:38 Why Did JFK Fail as President?
01:42:19 What is Obama’s Legacy?
01:48:08 Was Donald Trump the End of the Presidency?
01:55:06 Jeremi’s Advice for a Future President
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
Clara Sousa-Silva is a professor of physics at Bard College, where she is a quantum astrochemist and molecular astrophysicist. The focus of Clara’s work is on investigating the interaction of particular molecules with light so that they can be detected on exoplanets, where, in addition to giving us atmospheric information, these chemicals may indicate the existence of life. In this episode, Robinson and Clara discuss her research on a specific molecule—phosphine—which may play a key role in identifying planets that are home to aliens, including some that may be very close to earth.
Clara’s Website: https://clarasousasilva.com
Clara’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/DrPhosphine
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
01:15 Introduction
03:46 Clara’s Interest in Astrophysics
14:08 What Is Phosphine?
27:15 A Stinky Gas and the Search for Aliens
38:37 Have We Encountered Aliens?
45:33 Aliens and Phosphine
50:46 The Daily Work of a Quantum Astrophysicist and Astrobiologist
01:00:36 Are There Aliens on Venus?
01:19:26 Finding Life Outside the Solar System
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
Richard Wolff is Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a visiting professor at The New School, where he works on economics in the Marxist tradition. In this episode, Robinson and Richard discuss his criticisms of capitalism. They begin with why mainstream economists dismiss Marx and then move on to the basics of economics, the problems of our capitalist system, and the myriad social issues we face today.
Richard’s Website: https://www.rdwolff.com
Economic Update: https://www.democracyatwork.info/economicupdate
The Sickness is the System: https://a.co/d/jf5w5wy
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
00:26 Introduction
02:41 Why Do Economists Ignore Marx?
15:34 What is Economics?
22:50 Capitalism and What’s Wrong With It
56:12 What Are the Main Problems of Capitalism?
01:03:14 Psychoanalysis and Marxism
01:08:25 The Microproblems of Capitalism
01:18:57 The Social Consequences of Capitalism
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
Michael Strevens is Professor of Philosophy at New York University, where he works across the philosophy of science and the philosophical applications of cognitive science. In this episode, Robinson and Michael talk about his recent book, The Knowledge Machine, which explores how irrationality shaped the Scientific Revolution. Along the way, they discuss the great debate over the nature of the scientific method—including appearances from Karl Popper and Thomas Kuhn—how explanations function in science, and what roles religion, aesthetics, and other factors distinct from concrete evidence should play in scientific thought.
Michael’s Website: http://www.strevens.org
The Knowledge Machine: https://a.co/d/0hmHDCm
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
00:51 Introduction
03:42 The Knowledge Machine
14:23 What is the Scientific Method?
21:28 Kuhn and the Scientific Method
30:41 Sociology and the Scientific Method
32:40 Reasoning, Evidence, and Prejudice
47:30 The Iron Rule of Explanation
57:09 The Irrationality of Scientific Thought
01:03:57 Newton, Bacon, and the Scientific Revolution
01:12:13 An Attack on Science?
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
Bas van Fraassen is the McCosh Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at Princeton University and a Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at San Francisco State University. In addition to being one of the most recognized philosophers of science working today—he received the Philosophy of Science Association’s inaugural Hempel Award—he has also worked in epistemology and logic. In this episode, Bas and Robinson discuss a major shift in the philosophy of science in the second half of the twentieth century from the view of the logical positivists, who had a formal, mathematical approach, to philosophers who adopted the semantic approach, which more closely aligned with how working scientists viewed and experienced the field. Some other issues touched on include scientific realism, Thomas Kuhn and The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, and interpretations of quantum mechanics.
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
00:51 Introduction
03:47 An Interest in the Philosophy of Science
06:44 Logical Positivism
19:56 What is Scientific Realism?
30:56 Kuhn and The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
39:13 The Semantic Approach
54:49 The Quantum Mechanics Interpretation Wars
01:08:12 Mathematical Models
01:12:31 Epistemology
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
Jay McClelland is Lucie Stern Professor in the Department of Psychology at Stanford University, where he is also Director of the Center for Mind, Brain, Computation and Technology. Along with other towering figures like Geoffrey Hinton, Jay is considered one of the fathers of artificial intelligence. In this episode, Robinson and Jay discuss some of his main interests in and contributions to the field, including his work on parallel distributed processing with David Rumelhart, the relationship between neural networks and the brain, and just what developments are necessary for artificial intelligence to replicate the thinking of the greatest human scientists and engineers.
Parallel Distributed Processing: https://a.co/d/aELzYx2
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
00:30 Introduction
02:55 Jay’s Beginnings in Psychology
07:46 What Is Parallel Distributed Processing?
24:21 Cognitive Phenomena and Neural Networks
37:27 Fodor and Pylyshyn on Neural Networks
52:10 Affective Reasoning
55:52 Advancing AI to Compete with Scientists
01:10:02 What Distinguishes AI From Our Greatest Thinkers?
01:14:15 AI and Mathematical Cognition
01:18:47 Macrostructure and Microstructure
01:43:32 Final Thoughts
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
Paul Boghossian is Silver Professor of Philosophy at New York University, where he is also Chair of the Philosophy Department. Paul has worked in a wide variety of areas within philosophy, including epistemology and the philosophy of language, mind, and logic respectively. Robinson and Paul discuss the sociological relationship between physics and philosophy, the Sokal Hoax, philosophy in public life, the role of the a priori and a posteriori distinction in metaphysics, logic, and epistemology, and the nature of moral facts. For more detail on the latter, check out Paul’s book with Timothy Williamson, Debating The A Priori (Oxford, 2020).
Debating The A Priori: https://a.co/d/diNADPx
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
00:32 Introduction
04:33 Physics and Philosophy
17:12 The Sokal Hoax
26:52 Distinguishing the A Priori and A Posteriori
31:59 Does The A Priori/A Posteriori Distinction Hold Water?
48:07 Clarifying the Distinction
53:51 Debating the A Priori with Timothy Williamson
01:03:11 Are There Moral Facts?
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
David Pizarro is Professor of Psychology at Cornell University. While he teaches and publicly discusses a wide variety of material in the discipline, his primary research interest is in moral judgment. In this episode, Robinson and David discuss some of the conceptual underpinnings of moral psychology before turning to the research on praise, blame, social cognition, and the relationship between disgust and political affiliation. David is also the co-host of two podcasts, Very Bad Wizards with Tamler Sommers and Psych with Paul Bloom.
David’s Website: http://peezer.net
David’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/peez
Very Bad Wizards: https://verybadwizards.fireside.fm
Psych: https://psych.fireside.fm
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
00:39 Introduction
02:52 David’s Interest in Moral Psychology
06:42 Morality, Judgment, and Intuition in Psychology
30:40 Did Psychology Advance Too Fast
33:44 The Psychology of Praise and Blame
56:26 Why Do We Blame Objects and Robots?
01:10:09 Ostracism, Loneliness, and the Human Condition
01:14:27 The Psychology of Disgust
01:32:26 Disgust and Moral Judgement
01:40:10 Disgust Sensitivity and Political Affiliation
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
Julian Barbour is a physicist working in the foundations of physics and quantum gravity, with a special interest in time and the history of science. In this episode, Julian and Robinson discuss thermodynamics and the arrows of time, including a new theory of time developed by Julian and his collaborators, which is laid out in his book, The Janus Point: A New Theory of Time. If you’re interested in the foundations of physics—which you absolutely should be—then please check out the John Bell Institute (Julian is an Honorary Fellow at the JBI), which is devoted to providing a home for research and education in this important area. At this early stage any donations are immensely helpful.
Julian’s Website: http://platonia.com/index.html
The Janus Point: https://a.co/d/4NVOGqq
A History of Thermodynamics: http://platonia.com/A_History_of_Thermodynamics.pdf
Quantum without Quantum: https://arxiv.org/abs/2305.13335
The John Bell Institute: https://www.johnbellinstitute.org
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
00:56 Introduction
04:42 Julian’s Interest in Time
07:27 Time’s Arrows
23:34 The Problem of Time-Reversal Symmetry
25:54 A Potted Overview of Entropy and Thermodynamics
38:21 Entropy and Time’s Arrow
52:32 The Janus Point and a New Theory of Time
01:07:00 Intuition and The Janus Point
01:21:21 Entropy and Entaxy
01:26:00 Cosmic Inflation and Its Problems
01:44:05 Quantum Mechanics without the Wave Function
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
Simon Blackburn was Professor of Philosophy at the University of Cambridge and Edna J. Koury Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. This is Simon’s second appearance on the show. In episode 68, Simon and Robinson discussed metaethics and moral realism. In this episode, they talk about his latest books, Lust and Mirror, Mirror, with special attention to toxic vanity, the tale of Narcissus, and pride.
Lust: https://a.co/d/9dcOem9
Mirror, Mirror: https://a.co/d/9uy81GY
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
00:38 Introduction
03:08 Love and Simon’s Philosophy
10:04 L’Oreal and Toxic Vanity
31:09 The Tale of Narcissus
42:41 Lust and Self-Love
46:45 Psychology and Narcissism
52:43 Pride
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
Mark Solms is professor of Neuropsychology at the Neuroscience Institute at the University of Cape Town. He is also a psychoanalyst, and while Mark’s early research focused on the brain mechanisms of sleep and dreaming, he is currently working on the neural correlates of consciousness and affect. In this episode, Robinson and Mark talk about his new book The Hidden Spring: A Journey to the Source of Consciousness. More particularly, they discuss the hard problem of consciousness and how recent advances in neuroscience have pointed toward a solution.
The Hidden Spring: https://a.co/d/jcvbmLw
Mark’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/Mark_Solms
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
00:47 Introduction
03:09 What is Neuropsychoanalysis?
11:54 Was Freud a Neuroscientist?
26:17 What is the Hard Problem of Consciousness?
36:24 What is the Relationship between Dreaming and Consciousness?
54:44 Patients without a Cortex
01:03:01 Does Consciousness Have a Purpose?
01:14:53 Daniel Dennett and Karl Friston
01:24:49 Solving the Hard Problem of Consciousness
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
Slavoj Žižek is international director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities at the University of London, visiting professor at New York University, and a senior researcher at the University of Ljubljana’s Department of Philosophy. He was also the guest for Robinson’s Podcast #109 on psychoanalysis, wokeness, racism, and a hundred other topics. Sean Carroll is Homewood Professor of Natural Philosophy at Johns Hopkins University and fractal faculty at the Santa Fe Institute. He is also host of Sean Carroll’s Mindscape, a terrific show (that influenced the birth of Robinson’s Podcast) about science, society, philosophy, culture, arts, and ideas. Sean was one of the guests—along with David Albert of Columbia—on Robinson’s Podcast #106, which covers the Many-Worlds theory of quantum mechanics, entropy and Boltzmann Brains, and the fine-tuned universe. In this episode, Robinson, Sean, and Slavoj (though mostly Sean and Slavoj) talk about quantum mechanics, the indeterminacy of small-scale reality, cosmology and the big bang, major figures like Niels Bohr, Einstein, and Stephen Hawking, and the world of sci-fi, including movies like Everything Everywhere All at Once, Indian Jones, and the Avengers. If you’re interested in the foundations of physics—which you absolutely should be—then please check out the John Bell Institute (Sean is an Honorary Fellow at the JBI), which is devoted to providing a home for research and education in this important area. At this early stage any donations are immensely helpful.
Robinson's Podcast #109 | Slavoj Žižek: Wokeness, Psychoanalysis, and Quantum Mechanics: https://youtu.be/IxmZ4AVac7U
Robinson’s Podcast #106 | David Albert & Sean Carroll: Quantum Theory, Boltzmann Brains, & The Fine-Tuned Universe: https://youtu.be/U6ZtmGIhIhU
Sean’s Website: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com
Sean’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/seanmcarroll
The Biggest Ideas in the Universe: https://a.co/d/dPKZ40X
The John Bell Institute: https://www.johnbellinstitute.org
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
00:38 Introduction
04:40 Quantum Incompleteness
15:56 A Problem with Many-Worlds?
27:08 Niels Bohr and the Copenhagen Interpretation
40:30 Ontological Indeterminacy and Quantum Physics
47:23 On Superposition, History, and Art
01:02:10 What’s The Status of the Big Bang?
01:09:57 Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr, and Indeterminacy
01:21:13 Will Quantum Mechanics Be in a Theory of Everything?
01:27:55 Everything Everywhere All at Once, Indiana Jones, and The Avengers
01:33:03 Time Travel and Killing Hitler
01:41:54 On Stephen Hawking
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
Dr. Anna Lembke received her undergraduate degree in Humanities from Yale University and and her medical degree from Stanford University. She is currently Professor and Medical Director of Addiction Medicine at the Stanford University School of Medicine. She is also Program Director of the Stanford Addiction Medicine Fellowship, and Chief of the Stanford Addiction Medicine Dual Diagnosis Clinic. In this episode, Robinson and Anna discuss her latest, New York Times bestselling book Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence (Dutton/Penguin Random House, August 2021). More particularly, they talk about just what happens in the brain when someone develops an addiction, what current social and cultural conditions have led to increased rates of addiction, and how all of these factors—and addiction itself—ought to be combatted. Anna is also the author of Drug Dealer, MD: How Doctors Were Duped, Patients Got Hooked, and Why It’s So Hard to Stop (Johns Hopkins, 2016), which sounded the alarm on—and covers—various dimensions of the opioid crisis.
Dopamine Nation: https://a.co/d/0AJw6Je
Drug Dealer, MD: https://a.co/d/2soL324
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
00:56 Introduction
04:10 Addiction and Narrative
11:18 The Role of Dopamine in Addiction
20:29 Risk Factors for Addiction
27:31 Anna’s Addiction to Romance Novels
40:39 Pain, Pleasure, and Addiction
59:11 How to Tackle Addictions?
01:15:09 Is The Hype For Medical Psychedelics Overblown?
01:21:51 Honesty, Shame, and Recovery from Addiction
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
Massimo Pigliucci is K.D. Irani Professor of Philosophy at the City University of New York, where he specializes in both ancient philosophy and the philosophy of science. In addition to a doctorate in philosophy, Massimo has a PhD in evolutionary biology. In this episode, Robinson and Massimo discuss the vast landscape between science on the one hand and pseudoscience on the other, covering how they should be distinguished, examples galore, and the role of the public intellectual in science education. Check out Massimo’s excellent book, which ranges across these topics and more, Nonsense on Stilts: How to Tell Science from Bunk.
Nonsense on Stilts: https://a.co/d/agrSGF4
Massimo’s Website: https://massimopigliucci.org
Massimo’s Substack: https://figsinwinter.substack.com/
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
01:22 Introduction
04:17 Massimo’s Interest in Pseudoscience
10:29 What Is Pseudoscience?
24:36 Pseudoscience and The Search For Aliens
39:43 Conspiracy Theories and Expert Selection
46:00 Should Scientists Debate Pseudoscientists and Conspiracy Theorists?
49:20 Aristotle and the Elements of Scientific Communication
59:41 The Decline of the Public Intellectual and the Rise of the Think Tank
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
Craig Callender is Professor of Philosophy and Co-Director of the Institute for Practical Ethics at UC San Diego. Tim Maudlin is Professor of Philosophy at NYU and Founder and Director of the John Bell Institute for the Foundations of Physics. Craig and Tim are leading philosophers of science and physics. Craig also appeared on episode 73, in which he and Robinson discussed pseudoscience and conspiracy theories. Tim was a guest on episode 46, which covered laws of nature, space, and free will, and episode 67 with David Albert, which was all about the foundations of quantum mechanics. In this episode, Craig, Tim, and Robinson delve into the philosophy of time, touching on the reality of the past, present, and future, the direction of time, its relationship to relativity and quantum mechanics, and time travel. Craig and Tim have both written on time. Check out Craig’s book What Makes Time Special? (Oxford University Press, 2017) and Tim’s book Philosophy of Physics, Volume 1: Space and Time (Princeton, 2012). If you’re interested in the foundations of physics—which you absolutely should be—then please check out the John Bell Institute, which is devoted to providing a home for research and education in this important area. At this early stage any donations are immensely helpful.
Craig’s Website: https://www.craigcallender.com
Tim’s Website: www.tim-maudlin.site
The John Bell Institute: https://www.johnbellinstitute.org
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
01:12 Introduction
04:43 The A- and B-Series of Time
21:20 Presentism, Possibilism, and Eternalism
42:03 Foliations in Time
57:39 Foliations of Time in Quantum Theory
01:03:30 Superluminal Signaling
01:11:56 The Direction of Time
01:35:24 Philosophy and Time Travel
02:03:07 The John Bell Institute
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
Eric Helms is an AUT Research Fellow at the Sports Performance Research Institute New Zealand (Auckland University of Technology) in the Strength & Conditioning and Sports Physiology and Nutrition research groups. He is also the Director and Chief Science Officer of 3DMJ, an organization devoted to strength training and education centered around the same, a competitive bodybuilder, co-host of the Iron Culture podcast—which comes highly, highly recommended by Robinson—and a founding editor and reviewer for Monthly Applications in Strength Sport. Eric is also the author of two terrific books on strength training and nutrition respectively, The Muscle and Strength Pyramid: Training and The Muscle and Strength Pyramid: Nutrition. In this episode, Robinson and Eric discuss one of his areas of expertise, nutrition, covering both broad topics like various approaches to structuring one’s diet and more specific questions like how much protein you should be consuming and what supplements you should be taking.
Eric’s Instagram: @helms3dmj
Iron Culture: https://ironculture.libsyn.com
MASS: https://massresearchreview.com
3DMJ: https://3dmusclejourney.com
OUTLINE
00:00 Introduction
03:36 Eric’s Academic Background
11:14 Should You Get Your Diet Advice From Bodybuilders?
18:28 The Benefits of Intuitive Eating
52:25 How to Determine Maintenance Calories
59:50 How Much Protein Should You Be Eating?
01:16:38 MASS
01:20:08 Creatine
01:30:43 Should You Take BCAAs?
01:38:33 The Role of Meta-analyses in Sports Science
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
David Spiegel is Willson Professor of Medicine and Associate Chair of Psychiatry at Stanford University School of Medicine. He did his undergraduate work at Yale and received his M.D. from Harvard Medical School. David is highly regarded as one of the most creative psychiatrists in the field, and has worked on a wide array of topics within the discipline. In this episode, Robinson and David discuss his pioneering work in hypnotherapy, as David is the world’s leading hypnotherapist and hypnotherapy researcher. More particularly, they discuss the origins of hypnotherapy, its relationship to hypnosis in popular culture, how therapeutic interventions fare compare to pharmaceutical interventions for mental illness, how hypnosis treats mental disorders, and how self-hypnosis can be a useful tool in everyone’s mental health arsenal. David is also the Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Reveri, which is a groundbreaking self-hypnosis application for your smartphone that can guide you through a wide variety of modules to help improve sleep, anxiety, eating habits and many other facets of life.
Reveri: https://www.reveri.com
Trance & Treatment: Clinical Uses of Hypnosis: https://a.co/d/0lLXoU2
OUTLINE:
00:00 Introduction
4:24 David’s Start in Hypnotherapy
10:28 Hypnotherapy’s Rising Popularity
16:46 Therapy Versus Medication?
23:50 PTSD, MDMA, and Hypnosis
30:37 What Is Hypnotherapy?
36:05 Hypnosis and Comedic Gags
39:24 Are You Hypnotizable
59:31 Is Hypnotherapy Supported by Research?
01:04:41 Can Hypnosis Treat Eating Disorders?
01:09:20 Hypnosis, Restructuring, Psychopathy, and Understanding the Self
01:15:32 Reveri and Self-Hypnosis
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
Victor Davis Hanson is a renowned classicist, military historian, and political commentator. He is the Martin and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow in Residence in Classics and Military History at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. Among numerous other awards, Victor was presented the National Humanities Medal in 2007. In this episode, Robinson and Victor discuss his latest book, The Dying Citizen. More particularly, they talk about the Ancient Greek origin of a flourishing egalitarian society centered around the notion of citizenship, the way this history has been subverted and recast, the perils of judging the past through the lens of the present, how citizenship is threatened in the United States today, and the nature of human progress. Keep up with Victor on Twitter, through his website, and on his podcast, The Victor Davis Hanson Show.
Victor’s Website: https://victorhanson.com
Victor’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/VDHanson
The Victor Davis Hanson Show: https://art19.com/shows/the-victor-davis-hanson-show
The Dying Citizen: https://a.co/d/dPocUJg
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
01:18 Introduction
04:10 The Dying Classics
10:28 Ancient Greece and the Perils of Revisionist History
20:55 Don’t Judge the Past Against the Present
24:32 The Difference between Citizens and Residents
40:04 The Importance of Citizenship
47:37 On Our Obsession with Inequality
51:23 Is Humankind Making Progress?
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
Avi Loeb is Frank B. Baird Jr. Professor of Science in the Department of Astronomy at Harvard University, and former chair of the department. Before joining Harvard he spent fifteen years working in theoretical astrophysics at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. He is also the Director of the Institute for Theory and Computation, the Founding Director of the Black Hole Initiative at Harvard, and Head of the Galileo Project. In this episode, Avi and Robinson discuss his controversial and compelling research on—and theories about—Oumuamua, a comet that passed through the solar system in 2017, and which Avi believes was a spacecraft of extra-terrestrial origin. They also talk about the likelihood of life outside earth, Avi’s current investigations into the same, and his upcoming book Interstellar: The Search for Extraterrestrial Life and Our Future in the Stars, which will be released on August 29, 2023.
Interstellar: https://a.co/d/8Or10aM
Avi on Medium: https://avi-loeb.medium.com
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode
01:38 Introduction
04:56 Avi’s Interest in Extra-Terrestrial Life
25:04 Avi’s Background in Astrophysics
33:14 The Fermi Paradox
45:09 Was Oumuamua an Alien Spacecraft?
01:31:27 Interstellar
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
Daniel Kahneman is Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Public Policy at Princeton University. He won the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in 2002 for joint work with Amos Tversky in which they revealed the biases and heuristics with which humans operate, thereby deviating from the rationality presumed by economic theory at the time. Among this and many other awards, Danny was also given the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Barrack Obama. While Danny is likely best known outside of psychology for his book Thinking Fast and Slow, he and Robinson discuss his latest a book, co-authored with Olivier Simony and Cass Sunstein, called Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgment, which concerns the astonishingly prevalent and damaging variability inherent in human judgment.
Noise: https://a.co/d/hbKBQKD
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
00:55 Introduction
06:16 Danny’s Childhood
11:23 The Difference Between Noise and Bias
16:21 Some Themes from Noise
18:57 Noise in the Judicial System
32:36 Noise in the Medical System
37:59 The Difficulty of Spotting Noise
39:58 Psychology and the Descriptive, Prescriptive, and Normative
43:14 Decision Hygiene for Reducing Bias and Noise in Judgment
54:32 Limiting Intuitions to Improve Decision-Making
01:00:38 Understanding Regression to the Mean
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
Slavoj Žižek is international director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities at the University of London, visiting professor at New York University, and a senior researcher at the University of Ljubljana’s Department of Philosophy. He and Robinson discuss a great many things, including the role of psychoanalysis in the cultural criticism of wokeness, the relationship between truth, science, and philosophy, and what quantum theory might tell us about the nature of reality.
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
01:31 Introduction
04:07 Wokeness and Psychoanalysis
15:00 Free Speech and Curb Your Enthusiasm
23:32 Trans Ideology and Racism
34:23 Violence, Gender, and the Unconscious
41:06 Fate, Freedom, and Falling in Love
48:53 Free Association and Gender Identity
53:08 Truth, Science, and Quantum Theory
57:22 Nazis, the Jew, and Psychoanalysis
01:04:26 Unholy Alliances
01:07:20 Analytic and Continental Philosophy
01:17:27 World War III and Ontological Openness
01:23:25 Life is a Quantum Theory Video Game
01:27:27 Hegel and Quantum Theory
01:31:01 A Dirty Joke about Quantum Theory
01:34:14 Nazi Testicle Torture
(Photo by Matt Carr/Licensed from Getty Images)
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
Chiara Mingarelli is a gravitational-wave astrophysicist and a professor in the Department of Physics at Yale University. She studies supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies and their mergers using data about gravitational waves that are detected by pulsar timing array experiments. In this episode, Robinson and Chiara discuss PTAs, gravitational waves, black holes, how and why they merge, and the fresh release of NANOgrav’s fifteen-year data set, which gives the first ever evidence of a gravitational wave background in the universe, an unprecedented discovery that marks the dawn of a new era of astrophysical research.
Chiara’s Website: https://www.chiaramingarelli.com/
Chiara’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/Dr_CMingarelli
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode...
00:30 Introduction
02:58 Chiara’s Interest in Black Holes
10:25 What Are Gravitational Waves
15:47 Detecting Gravitational Waves
31:39 How to Visualize Black Holes
40:55 Black Holes and Gravitational Waves
48:51 Two Different Backgrounds
53:46 Collecting and Interpreting Data
56:36 Why Do Black Holes Anchor Galaxies?
58:34 Why Do Black Holes Form Binaries?
01:04:25 Lingering Questions
01:11:33 Cosmic Strings
01:17:35 NANOgrav’s Data Release and the Gravitational Wave Background
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
Kevin Dorst is a professor in the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy at MIT. He works at the intersection between philosophy and social science, focusing on rationality. In this episode Kevin and Robinson discuss just this: They begin with classical theories of rationality and where they fall short before discussing instances where the empirical literature shows that humans do not reason rationally at all, touching on the gambler’s fallacy, sunk-cost reasoning, and the hindsight bias. They then move on to discuss the phenomenon of political polarization, which draws both on our capacity for rationality and irrationality. Make sure to check out Kevin’s Substack, Stranger Apologies.
Stranger Apologies: https://kevindorst.substack.com
Kevin’s Website: https://www.kevindorst.com
Kevin’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/kevin_dorst
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
01:02 Introduction
04:14 Rationality and Philosophy
15:14 Bayesian Reasoning
45:10 The Hindsight Bias
56:53 What is Bias?
01:04:03 The Gambler’s Fallacy
01:15:00 Sunk-Cost Reasoning
01:19:07 Political Polarization
01:40:12 Talking Through Disagreement
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
David Albert is the Frederick E. Woodbridge Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University and Director of the Philosophical Foundations of Physics program at Columbia. David is a prior guest of the Robinson’s Podcast multiverse, having appeared on episodes #23 (with Justin Clarke-Doane), #30, and #67 (with Tim Maudlin). Sean Carroll is Homewood Professor of Natural Philosophy at Johns Hopkins University and fractal faculty at the Santa Fe Institute. He is also host of Sean Carroll’s Mindscape, a terrific show (that influenced the birth of Robinson’s Podcast ) about science, society, philosophy, culture, arts, and ideas. Sean also had a great conversation with David on Mindscape, linked below. Both David and Sean are rare breeds—philosophers who are physicists, and physicists who are philosophers—and in this episode Robinson, David, and Sean speak about some of the philosophical concerns at the foundations of physics. They first discuss the Many-Worlds theory of quantum mechanics before turning to the apparent fine-tuning of our universe for life and the possibility of Boltzmann Brains, or complex observers in the universe that arise spontaneously due to quantum fluctuations or the random motion of matter.
Preorder David’s A Guess at the Riddle: https://a.co/d/7JdSvmv
Sean’s Website: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com
Sean’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/seanmcarroll
The Biggest Ideas in the Universe: https://a.co/d/dPKZ40X
David Albert on Sean Carroll’s Mindscape: https://youtu.be/AglOFx6eySE
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
00:59 Introduction
08:11 Superposition and The Many-Worlds Theory of Quantum Mechanics
22:34 Decoherence
27:20 Probability
41:32 Some Thought Experiments Concerning Probability
01:08:35 Parsimony
01:12:03 The Fine-Tuned Universe and Quantum Theory
01:14:52 Entropy
01:45:37 Intelligent Design
01:47:22 Boltzmann Brains Galore
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
Luciano Floridi is the Oxford Internet Institute’s Professor of Philosophy and Ethics of Information at the University of Oxford, Distinguished Research Fellow of the Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics of the Faculty of Philosophy, and Research Associate and Fellow in Information Policy of the Department of Computer Science. Beginning in the fall, he will be the Founding Director of the Digital Ethics Center and Professor of Cognitive Science at Yale University. For much of the past twenty-five years Luciano has been developing the philosophy of information as its own free-standing discipline within the philosophical world. In this episode he and Robinson delve into just one small corner of the subject. They talk about Luciano’s view of artificial intelligence as a novel form of agency before turning to some future applications of AI and the novel ethical considerations its use raises in the modern world.
Luciano’s Website: https://www.philosophyofinformation.net
Luciano’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/Floridi
Information: A Very Short Introduction: https://a.co/d/5Jgq1wS
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
01:04 Introduction
04:58 Luciano’s Tetralogy
09:27 Artificial Intelligence as a New Form of Agency
26:49 Future Applications of AI
32:50 Ethics and Levels of Explanation
46:09 The Ethics of AI
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
Nicholas Christakis is the Sterling Professor of Social and Natural Science at Yale University, where he is also Director of the Human Nature Lab and Co-Director of the Yale Institute for Network Science. Nicholas is both a sociologist and a physician; after completing his undergraduate at Yale in biology, he received an M.D. and M.P.H. from Harvard and then a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Pennsylvania. Nicholas has written numerous books, including Apollo’s Arrow: The Profound and Enduring Impact of Coronavirus on the Way We Live (Little, Brown Spark, 2020) and Blueprint: The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society (Little, Brown Spark, 2019), and this latter book is the subject of this episode. Robinson and Nicholas first discuss the way that genetics manifest themselves in behavior before turning to the way that specific behaviors and tendencies have evolved in humans to promote the flourishing of societies. They then talk about some particular such behaviors and tendencies, like in-group bias and hierarchy, before turning to some implications of the view for how societies ought or ought not to be structured.
Nicholas’s Website: https://www.humannaturelab.net
Nicholas’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/NAChristakis
Blueprint: The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society: https://a.co/d/4BeJyS0
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
01:16 Introduction
04:28 The Motivation Behind Blueprint
23:02 The Genetic Basis of Human Societies
28:27 What Is Network Topology?
38:28 Trade-Complementarity
42:07 The Cultural Universality of Love
48:12 The Eight Cultural Universals
01:02:06 Is Hierarchy Natural?
01:07:13 Human In-Group Bias
01:12:23 Is There a Relationship Between Genes and Social Status?
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
Brad Schoenfeld is Professor of Exercise Science in the Department of Heath Promotion and Nutrition Sciences at Lehman College in the Bronx, New York, where he serves as the graduate director the Human Performance and Fitness Program. Brad is one of the foremost—if not the foremost—authorities on human muscular development, and author of the textbook Science and Development of Muscle Hypertrophy. In this episode, Robinson and Brad talk first about the foundations of hypertrophy on a theoretical level (what makes muscles grow) before moving on to some applications of these principles in the gym.
Science and Development of Muscle Hypertrophy: https://a.co/d/fRoyKDb
Brad’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/BradSchoenfeld
Brad’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bradschoenfeldphd/?hl=en
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
01:11 Introduction
07:31 Muscular Hypertrophy and Hyperplasia
15:24 Applicability of Animal Studies
17:42 Satellite Cells
24:10 Three Factors of Muscle Growth
33:39 The Most Important Gym Variables for Maximizing Muscle Growth
44:32 Muscle Stress
50:07 Muscle Action and Range of Motion
58:20 New Frontiers
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
Stephen Wolfram is the founder and CEO of Wolfram Research, and the creator of Mathematica, Wolfram|Alpha, and the Wolfram Language. He received his PhD in theoretical physics from Caltech when he was twenty years old. In addition to his work at the helm of Wolfram Research, he writes and researches widely across computer science, physics, mathematics, and more. Most recently, Stephen is the author of What Is ChatGPT Doing…and Why Does It Work? (2023). Robinson and Stephen begin by discussing just this, before moving on to some more theoretical questions about intelligence in general and artificial intelligence in particular. Then, after a long digression on the philosophy of mathematics and the foundations of computation, they turn to the ways in which ChatGPT may impact research in STEM fields and beyond.
What Is ChatGPT Doing…and Why Does It Work?: https://a.co/d/aADrGGh
Stephen’s Website: https://www.stephenwolfram.com
Stephen’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/stephen_wolfram
Wolfram Research on YouTube: https://a.co/d/aADrGGh
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
00:29 Introduction
03:42 How Does ChatGPT Work?
11:58 Does ChatGPT Pass the Turing Test?
34:33 Will Philosophy Be a Growth Industry?
41:02 Will Mathematicians be Replaced by Computers?
49:26 What is the Ruliad?
01:08:57 Philosophy of Mathematics?
01:32:54 LLMs and STEM
01:43:16 Returning to ChatGPT and AI
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
Paul Bloom is Brooks and Suzanne Ragen Professor Emeritus of Psychology at Yale University and Professor of Psychology at the University of Toronto. He works quite broadly in psychology, and studies how children and adults make sense of the world, with special focus on pleasure, morality, religion, fiction, and art. Paul is the author of seven books, most recently Psych: The Story of the Human Mind, some of the topics of which constitute the subject of this episode. More particularly, Paul and Robinson discuss Freud’s legacy in contemporary psychology, mental illness, human rationality and irrationality, and the roots of motivation. Paul has also recently been producing a fantastic podcast with his friend and colleague David Pizarro—also called Psych—that covers many of the topics in introductory courses to psychology, and it comes highly recommended.
Psych (Book): https://a.co/d/eYNR4q7
Psych (Podcast): https://psych.fireside.fm
Paul’s Website: https://paulbloom.net
Paul’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/paulbloomatyale
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
01:10 Introduction
06:09 Writing Psych
08:30 What is Mental Illness?
23:40 Freud versus Contemporary Psychology
36:31 Psychoanalysis versus Contemporary Therapeutic Modalities
52:13 Is Man THE Rational Animal?
58:24 The Psychological Roots of Our Irrationality
01:17:46 The My-Side Bias and Political Gridlock
01:24:47 The Psychological Roots of Human Motivation
01:52:24 Susan Carey
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
Steven Pinker is Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology at Harvard University. He is an experimental cognitive psychologist who writes on language, mind, and human nature. In this episode—the hundredth of Robinson’s Podcast (!)—Robinson and Steve talk about his recent book Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters (Penguin, 2022), which is linked below. More particularly, they discuss rationality’s evolutionary basis, how it is subverted by conspiratorial thinking and other dimensions of the “mythology mindset”, how it relates to enlightenment and human progress, and the state of free speech at Harvard and in the academic world at large.
Rationality: https://a.co/d/9N2uFyr
Steven’s Website: https://stevenpinker.com
Steven’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/sapinker
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
00:58 Introduction
06:31 The Importance of Rationality
10:16 The Connection Between Language and Rationality
14:18 Rationality and Human Progress
20:09 The Evolution of Rationality and Irrationality
34:08 Conspiracy Theories and the Mythology Mindset
40:13 The Madness of Crowds
49:42 Free Speech, Enlightenment, and Rationality
55:55 Free Speech Versus Social Justice
01:03:03 Academic Freedom at Harvard
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
Nancy Sherman is Distinguished University Professor and Professor of Philosophy at Georgetown University. Before that, she taught at Yale and did her graduate work in ancient philosophy at Harvard University. Nancy has worked broadly across value theory and ancient philosophy, writing on such varied topics as military ethics, moral psychology, the emotions, and Stoicism. The occasion for this episode is Nancy’s recent book, Stoic Wisdom: Ancient Lessons for Modern Resilience (Oxford, 2021), which is now available in paperback, and linked below. Nancy and Robinson discuss what contemporary takes on Stoicism get wrong—they miss the emphasis on connection and community—as well as the relationship between Stoicism and Aristotle, the military, and mental health.
Stoic Wisdom: https://a.co/d/7UAGj8i
Nancy’s Website: https://www.nancysherman.com
Nancy’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/drnancysherman
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode
00:44 Introduction
03:20 Nancy’s Interest in Stoicism and the Military
10:35 Stoicism and Life Hacks
21:00 Aristotelian and Stoic Ethics
30:05 Stoic Metaethics
34:33 Stoicism and War
45:19 Stoicism and Military Education
51:57 Nancy’s Mental Health Experience
59:43 Stoic Wisdom
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
Dani S. Bassett is the J. Peter Skirkanich Professor of Bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania. Perry Zurn is Provost Associate Professor of Philosophy at American University. Dani and Perry both do a great deal of interdisciplinary work within their fields, but Dani is best known for her work in systems neuroscience, while Perry’s research is primarily in political philosophy. The subject of this episode, however—though systems neuroscience and political philosophy both make their appearances—is Dani and Perry’s book, Curious Minds: The Power of Connection (MIT, 2022). While it wouldn’t be immediately apparent from their different fields of study, Dani and Perry are in fact identical twins, and they write that their book “represents the thought of one mind and two bodies” as they explore the nature of curiosity from both philosophical and neuroscientific perspectives, developing an account of curiosity that stresses the relationship between ideas and people. Robinson, Dani, and Perry discuss complex systems, how curiosity has been studied from a variety of different academic perspectives, the three curiosity-embodying archetypes they have identified, knowledge networks, large language models, and more.
Curious Minds: https://a.co/d/3MeVY7m
Dani’s Website: http://www.danisbassett.com
Perry’s Website: https://www.perryzurn.com
Dani’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/DaniSBassett
Perry’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/perryzurn
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
00:52 Introduction
03:42 Human Curiosity?
06:07 Complex Systems
07:22 Curiosity from a Psychological Perspective
13:09 A Network Account of Curiosity
18:40 Foucault and Great Lakes Philosophy
29:39 Building Knowledge Networks
43:08 Walks through Knowledge Networks
57:25 Curiosity, Large Language Models, and Education
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
Brian Leiter is Karl N. Llewellyn Professor of Jurisprudence at the University of Chicago Law School, founder and Director of Chicago’s Center for Law, Philosophy & Human Values, and is best known in the philosophical world for his work on Nietzsche and legal philosophy. He is the founding editor of the Routledge Philosophers book series, Oxford Studies in Philosophy of Law, and Philosophical Gourmet Report, which is the canonical—as well as extremely helpful and illuminating—ranking of philosophy departments and PhD programs in the English-speaking world. He also maintains the world’s most popular philosophy blog, Leiter Reports. In this episode, Robinson and Brian discuss Karl Marx and a current book he is co-writing with Jaime Edwards for the Routledge Philosophers book series. Among the topics they discuss are Historical Materialism, ideology, Marx’s critique of capitalism, and exploitation. Brian’s latest book is Moral Psychology with Nietzsche (Oxford, 2021).
Brian’s Website: https://www.brianleiter.net
Brian’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/BrianLeiter
Leiter Reports: https://leiterreports.typepad.com
Moral Psychology with Nietzsche: https://a.co/d/3dJZBeZ
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
00:50 Introduction
06:38 Brian’s Interest in Marx
13:22 Historical Materialism
33:06 Big Business and Diversity
40:16 Ideology
58:04 Is Historical Materialism True?
01:01:45 Exploitation
01:11:38 Is Brian a Marxist?
Jody Azzouni is Professor of Philosophy at Tufts University. While Jody is best known for his nominalist stance in the philosophy of mathematics, he is also an author of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. This is Jody’s third appearance on the show. On his first appearance, episode #45, he and Robinson spoke about the debate between nominalists and platonists in the philosophy of mathematics, Jody’s own deflationary stance, and some adjacent concerns about ontological commitment in both formal and informal languages. On his second appearance, episode #75, they spoke about logic, natural languages, and formal languages, and mathematics. And in this episode, they shift topics entirely, discussing Jody’s upcoming book, Challenging Knowledge, which develops an original account in epistemology that seeks to thwart skeptic challenges, and which also builds off of Jody’s most recent book, Attributing Knowledge: What it Means to Know Something (Oxford, 2020).
Jody’s Website: https://jodyazzouni.com
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
01:11 Introduction
04:31 Jody and Epistemology
09:17 Foundationalism, Coherentism, and Infinitism
17:37 Knowledge and Usage
30:37 Metaknowledge and Introspection
41:43 Sortability and Traceability
50:49 Starting Place Epistemology
59:06 Cartesian Skepticism
01:06:00 Pyrrhonic Skepticism
01:14:16 The Difficulty of Epistemology and Mathematics
01:18:32 Internalism and Externalism
01:22:47 Fallibility
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
Achille Varzi is the John Dewey Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University and Bruno Kessler Honorary Professor at the University of Trento. He is a renowned metaphysicist and logician, and widely regarded as the world’s leading mereologist. Achille—or Varzi, as he is affectionately known around the halls of Columbia’s philosophy department—is also an immensely important philosophical figure for Robinson, and a prior denizen of this podcast multiverse (see episode 47 for Achille’s introduction to metaphysics and nominalism). In this installment, however, Robinson and Varzi delve deep into the history, logic, and metaphysics of mereology, the theory of parts and the parthood relation. For a more in-depth and rigorous discussion of the material covered in this episode (because yes, this is in fact possible!), check out Achille and A.J. Cotnoir’s fantastic monograph on the subject, linked below:
Mereology (Oxford, 2021): https://a.co/d/gFKrO3U
Mereology (SEP): https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/mereology/
Achille’s Website: http://www.columbia.edu/~av72/
Correction: Achille mistakenly refers to Verity Harte, author of Plato on Parts and Wholes, as Valery Harte.
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
1:02 Introduction
4:44 Achille’s Start in Mereology
8:19 The Etymology of Mereology
18:00 What is Mereology?
20:03 Ancient Mereology
30:04 Medieval Mereology and the Liar Paradox
47:33 Husserl’s Formal Ontology
1:10:28 Leśniewski and the Formalization of Mereology
1:21:25 Whitehead, Leonard & Goodman, and the History of Mereology
1:34:26 The Language of Mereology
1:39:44 Mereology and the Axiomatic Method
1:47:46 More on the Language of Mereology
1:52:37 The Mereological Formalism
2:16:42 Composition
2:29:35 Misconceptions about Mereological Fusion
3:01:10 Gunk, Junk, and Hunk
3:10:15 Applications of Mereology
3:15:50 Mereological Pluralism
3:31:43 Mereotopology and the Ordering Axioms
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
Alva Noë is Professor of Philosophy and Chair of the Department of Philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley, where he researches the philosophy of mind—primarily focusing on perception and consciousness—and the philosophy of art. In this episode, Robinson and Alva discuss the latter, for while Alva is already the author of two books in the area—Strange Tools: Art and Human Nature (Farrar Strauss and Giroux, 2015) and Look: Dispatches from the Art World (Oxford, 2021)—June 23, 2023 will mark the release of a new work, The Entanglement: How Art and Philosophy Make Us What We Are (Princeton University Press). Robinson and Alva touch on topics from all three works, including the interrelationship between art, philosophy, phenomenology, and neuroscience.
Alva’s Website: http://www.alvanoe.com
Alva’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/alvanoe
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
00:38 Introduction
04:08 Mind and Art
10:05 Knowledge and Making
18:39 Attention and Rembrandt
31:28 Viewer and Creator
41:29 Art as a Philosophical Practice
47:00 Neuroscience
57:09 The Entanglement
01:17:15 Phenomenology, Art, and Analytic Philosophy
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
Havi Carel is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Bristol, where she studies illness and its relationship to philosophy. Her research draws largely on phenomenology, a philosophical approach most closely associated with the Continental tradition of philosophy, and that relies heavily on perception and experience. In this episode Robinson and Havi discuss her own illness, LAM, and how it affects her own work, along with many other topics related to illness, such as Freud, mental health, and breathlessness.
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
01:24 Introduction
03:31 LAM and Illness
08:14 Continental Philosophy, Analytic Philosophy, and Phenomenology
22:12 Illness, Sickness, and Disease
26:36 Limitations of Writing on Phenomenology and Illness
42:34 Illness and Philosophy
51:03 Freud and the Phenomenology of Illness
56:41 Breathing and Breathlessness
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
Joan Bagaria is ICREA Research Professor in the Department of Experimental Sciences and Mathematics at the University of Barcelona. He is a mathematical logician who works in set theory, which is the branch of mathematics that not only specializes in the investigation of infinity but serves as the foundation for the rest of mathematics—what this means, and its implications, are explored in the episode. Joan and Robinson discuss all things set theory, beginning with its origins in the mind of Georg Cantor, its development in the 20th century, some philosophical questions, and some current outstanding problems. They also briefly touch on Catalan independence, a topic dear to Joan’s heart.Joan’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/BagariaJoanSet Theory: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/set-theory/The Early Development of Set Theory: https://plato.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/encyclopedia/archinfo.cgi?entry=settheory-earlyOUTLINE00:00 In This Episode…01:01 Introduction06:18 Joan and Set Theory09:11 The Development of Set Theory21:08 Naive Set Theory and Axiomatic Set Theory30:52 Zermelo-Fraenkel Set Theory with Choice46:35 Metaphysics and Epistemology01:03:06 Set Theory as the Foundation of Mathematics01:09:48 The Continuum Problem01:16:13 Settling the Continuum Problem01:35:21 Alternative Set Theories01:43:37 Alternative Foundations01:47:53 Catalan IndependenceRobinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.comRobinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
John Perry is Henry Waldgrave Stuart Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at Stanford University. He was also the co-host with Ken Taylor of the nationally syndicated radio show Philosophy Talk. John has worked in the philosophy of language, mind, and metaphysics, and is well-known for his famous Slingshot Argument with John Barwise. Robinson and John first talk about his book The Art of Procrastination: A Guide to Effective Dawdling, Lollygagging and Postponing. They then turn to some of his work on identity, personal identity, and the self.
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
00:58 Introduction
02:43 In Defense of Procrastination
10:45 Dialogues and Philosophical Writing
23:17 Identity and Personal Identity
35:37 Memory and Personal Identity
47:39 The Body-Identity Theory
54:18 Parfit and Lewis on Identity
01:03:31 John and the Memory Theory
01:21:46 Death and Identity
01:32:46 Personhood and the Self
01:54:54 Could You Be Someone Else?
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
David Papineau is Professor of Philosophy of Science at King’s College London. He also teaches at the City University of New York Graduate Center, and before that he lectured in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at Cambridge. David’s last appearance on the podcast was episode 62, where he and Robinson spoke about realism, antirealism, and the philosophy of science. This time, however, they discuss the content of his most recent book, The Metaphysics of Sensory Experience (OUP 2021), which is linked below.
The Metaphysics of Sensory Experience: https://a.co/d/6hID7Lf
David’s Website: https://www.davidpapineau.co.uk
Twitter: @davidpapineau
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
01:38 Introduction
02:52 David’s Philosophical Interests
08:16 Distinguishing Sensory and Perceptual Experience
21:57 Naive Realism and the Metaphysics of Sensory Experience
34:09 Representationalism and the Metaphysics of Experience
01:02:02 The Transparency of Experience
01:15:28 Objections
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
Graham Harman is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Sci-Arc, the Southern California Institute of Architecture in Los Angeles. He is one of the leading metaphysicians in the continental tradition of philosophy and an influential philosopher of art. Robinson and Graham discuss his work at the forefront of the speculative realist trend in the contemporary continental world, where he is known for his object-oriented ontology, or OOO. They also talk about the philosophy of art and architecture, touching on figures like H.P. Lovecraft and Duchamp, who Graham has written about extensively in his work. Check out Graham’s latest book, Architecture and Objects, linked below:
Architecture and Objects: https://a.co/d/ewHg5Ur
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
01:54 Introduction
05:22 Graham and Continental Philosophy
13:04 Speculative Realism and Object-Oriented Ontology
27:05 On Debating Slavoj Žižek
30:28 Fictional Objects
34:42 Real and Sensual Objects
52:14 Aesthetics OOO
59:47 Was Performance the First Art?
01:07:53 H.P. Lovecraft and Philosophy
01:17:33 Surrealism, Dada, and Literalism
01:23:19 Architecture, Philosophy, and Metaphysics
01:46:06 Philosophical Formalism and Architecture
02:00:20 Final Thoughts
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
Graham Oppy is Professor of Philosophy at Monash University. Before that, he did his undergraduate work in Melbourne and his graduate work at Princeton. Though Graham is best known as a philosopher of religion, he has also published on the philosophy of math, language, aesthetics, and more. In this episode, Robinson and Graham begin by discussing the nature of argument: What makes an argument successful? What’s a good argument? How should we think about arguments in areas of deep disagreement? They then move on to a discussion of ontological arguments in the philosophy of religion, where one argues for the existence of god—or gods—without any prior assumptions.
Ontological Arguments: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ontological-arguments/
Majesty of Reason: https://www.youtube.com/@MajestyofReason
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
00:40 Introduction
05:04 Graham and the Philosophy of Religion
11:45 Arguments
14:12 What Makes a Good Argument?
38:00 How to Talk Around Deep Disagreement
48:23 How Arguments Vary Across Disciplines
56:13 Ontological Arguments for the Existence of God
01:31:29 Cosmological Arguments
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
Frank Jackson is Emeritus Professor at the Australian National University. He is best known for the knowledge argument and Mary’s Room—its accompanying thought experiment—but has published widely in the philosophy of mind, epistemology, metaphysics, and the philosophy of language. Graham Priest is a Distinguished Professor in the philosophy department at the CUNY Graduate Center. Like Frank, he is one of the most influential philosophers of the past fifty years, and has done important work on a wide range of topics, ranging from the philosophy of mathematics to logic and eastern philosophy. In this episode, Robinson, Frank, and Graham talk about David Lewis and his immense legacy in the philosophical world. They cover his character—Frank and Graham were friends with him for many years—as well as some of his work, ranging from the thesis of modal realism to Humean supervenience and the philosophy of set theory.David Lewis: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/david-lewis/Graham’s Website: https://grahampriest.netOUTLINE00:00 In This Episode…01:17 Introduction07:54 David Lewis as a Friend and Philosopher24:12 Australian Philosophy28:53 Lewisian Themes34:30 Modal Realism52:43 Kripke and Lewis on Possible Worlds58:07 Making Use of Possible Worlds01:23:29 Humean Supervenience01:38:19 Set Theory and Mereology01:45:19 Final ThoughtsRobinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.comRobinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
Frances Egan is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Rutgers, where she works on the philosophy of mind, the philosophy of psychology, and the foundations of cognitive science. Recently she has been researching computational models of cognition and how they relate to representation. Robinson and Frankie talk about the foundations of cognitive science and the nature of mental representations before discussing psychological explanation, different ways of conceiving the mind’s boundaries, and how it interfaces with the rest of the body and environment.
Frankie’s Website: https://frances-egan.org/index.html
Mental Representation: https://plato.stanford.edu/ENTRIES/mental-representation/
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
01:21 Introduction
07:10 Frankie and the Philosophy of Mind
11:04 The Foundations of Cognitive Science
13:20 What are Mental Representations?
26:49 Eliminativism and Representations
32:33 A Deflationary Account
40:51 Naturalism and Cognitive Science
55:39 Psychological Explanation
01:03:02 The Extended Mind and Embodied Cognition
01:21:14 The New Mechanists
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
Ernest Lepore is a Board of Governors Professor of Philosophy at Rutgers. Though Ernie is best known for his work in the philosophy of language, he has also published on philosophical logic, metaphysics, and the philosophy of mind. Though Robinson and Ernie largely discuss the former, their conversation begins with a bevy of wonderful stories from the profession, as Ernie worked and studied with many of the greatest thinkers—and characters—of twentieth century philosophy, including Ed Gettier, Jerry Fodor, Donald Davidson, Michael Dummett, and W.V.O. Quine. They then turn to some quite general problems in the philosophy language, discussion the relationship between language and thought, meta-linguistic negotiation, and conventions before going through the main arc of his book on slurs jointly authored with Una Stojnic of Princeton University. Though Ernie is the author of too many books and articles to list within the confines of this description, a recent book mentioned many times in the conversation is Imagination and Convention: Distinguishing Grammar and Inference in Language (Oxford University Press, 2015), which Ernie cowrote with Mathew Stone, chair of the Department of Computer Science at Rutgers.
OUTLINE
00:00 IN THIS EPISODE
00:38 Introduction
05:33 Ernie’s Interest in the Philosophy of Language
14:17 Working with Ed Gettier, Jerry Fodor, Donald Davidson, and Michael Dummett
30:44 Language, Thought, and Convention
44:44 What is Meta-Linguistic Negotiation?
51:53 What is a Slur?
01:04:10 Philosophical Accounts of Slurs
01:13:50 Pejorative Content Accounts of Slurs
01:21:38 Non-Content Accounts of Slurs
01:30:52 A New Theory of Slurs
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
Chris Potts is Professor and Chair of the Department of Linguistics at Stanford University, and also Professor by courtesy in the Department of Computer Science at the same. Chris has worked on a wide variety of topics in linguistics throughout his career, but has published on conventional implicature—check out his book, Logic of Conventional Implicatures (Oxford, 2003)—large language models, and compositional reasoning, among many other subjects. Robinson and Chris begin by discussing the relationship between linguistics and philosophy before turning to topics in semantics and pragmatics—references, the principle of compositionality, swearing, and more. After some thoughts on Chomsky’s legacy in linguistics, they talk about the impact of ChatGPT on the classroom and whether large language models are capable of understanding.
00:00 In This Episode…
01:13 Introduction
04:16 Chris and Linguistics
12:34 Linguistics and Philosophy
22:43 Proper Names and Reference
27:00 The Principle of Compositionality
41:59 Adjectives, Innateness, and Chomsky
57:36 Quantifiers
01:01:36 Swearing and Linguistics
01:04:42 ChatGPT in the Linguistics Classroom
01:12:00 Does ChatGPT Understand?
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
Barry Loewer is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Rutgers. Before that he did his PhD in philosophy at Stanford (!). Barry works largely in the philosophy of physics, the philosophy of science, and metaphysics, and is a good friend of and frequent collaborator with another denizen of the Robinson’s Podcast universe, David Albert. It is their joint work on the “Mentaculus,” something approximating a “probability map of the universe,” that occupies much of the discussion in this episode. Robinson and Barry also talk about statistical mechanics and his upcoming book, What Breathes Fire into the Equations (Oxford University Press, to be released fall 2023 or early 2024), which is about laws, chances, and fundamental ontology. Check out Barry’s book on David: Essays on David Albert’s Time and Chance.
Background on Counterfactuals: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/counterfactuals/
Background on Statistical Mechanics: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/statphys-statmech/
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
00:29 Introduction
06:21 Barry‘s Road to the Philosophy of Physics
28:37 Fire in the Equations
43:16 Conditional Probability
54:11 Non-Humean and Humean Accounts of Laws
01:06:44 Probability
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
Jonathan Wolff is Alfred Landecker Professor of Values and Public Policy at the University of Oxford. He works in numerous areas of political philosophy. Some topics he has researched include equality and poverty, and he has worked in applied areas like Covid policy and gambling. In this episode, Jonathan and Robinson begin with a discussion of the nature of political philosophy before turning to some modern historical perspectives on the state, starting with Hobbes and traveling up through Marx and Rawls. They then turn to his current work in partnership with Avner de-Shalit on cities and equality. Some of Jonathan’s books include Disadvantage (Oxford, 2007), An Introduction to Political Philosophy (Oxford, 1996, and soon to be in its fourth edition), and Why Read Marx Today? (Oxford, 2002).
Jonathan’s Website: https://jonathanwolff.wordpress.com
OUTLINE:
00:00 In This Episode…
00:35 Introduction
04:17 Jonathan’s Start in Political Philosophy
08:46 What is Political Philosophy?
18:24 Methodology in Political Science and Political Philosophy
22:42 Hobbes and the State of Nature
45:34 Rousseau on Government
51:12 John Stuart Mill on Liberty
1:01:25 Covid Policy and Moral Philosophy
1:08:49 Marx and the State
1:19:07 Rawls and Justice
1:33:07 Political Philosophy and the City
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
Anubav Vasudevan is Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Chicago, where he works in formal epistemology and the history of logic, though he has published in a number of other areas. Anubav and Robinson talk about his time at Columbia University studying with the mathematician, probability theorist, and philosopher Haim Gaifman before discussing some of Anubav’s thoughts on mathematics, physics, logic, and how they relate to philosophy. In the second half of the conversation they move on to some of Anubav’s work in the history of logic, touching on Leibniz and the Peripatetic school.
Background on Classical Logic: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/logic-classical/
OUTLINE:
00:00 In This Episode…
00:50 Introduction
06:30 Mathematics and Philosophy with Haim Gaifman
23:44 From Physics to Philosophy
34:49 Philosophy and Scientific Inquiry
49:37 Why Formal Philosophy
57:05 What is Logic?
01:05:56 Monism and Pluralism in Logic
01:21:52 The Historical Roles of Logic in Philosophy
01:26:18 Peripatetic Logic
01:41:23 Leibniz and Logic
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
Pamela Hieronymi is Professor of Philosophy at UCLA. Before that, she did her undergraduate studies at Princeton and received her PhD from Harvard. Her work extends in a variety of directions, but some areas she works in include moral psychology, the philosophy of mind, ethics, and the philosophy of action. In this episode, she and Robinson discuss free will and moral responsibility, the topic of an upcoming book entitled Minds that Matter. Pamela begins by introducing moral psychology and the role of analytic philosophy in the debate over free will. Then she and Robinson discuss the extent to which we control our actions and thoughts, and how all of this relates to the question of moral responsibility. Pamela’s most recent book is Freedom, Resentment, and the Metaphysics of Morals (Princeton University Press, 2020).
Pamela’s Website: https://hieronymi.humspace.ucla.edu
OUTLINE:
00:00 In This Episode…
00:35 Introduction
04:40 - What is Moral Psychology?
06:30 - Agency and Analytic Philosophy
17:57 - Free Will, Moral Responsibility, and Determinism
21:57 - Control Over Thought and Environment
32:46 - Some Shortcomings of Other Accounts
35:50 - Kant and the Two-Standpoints View of Free Will
49:22 - Do We Control Our Beliefs?
54:33 - Free Will and Moral Responsibility
1:11:16 - How Should We Act?
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
Rachel Barney is Professor of Classics and Professor of Philosophy at the University of Toronto. She received her PhD at Princeton and has taught at the University of Ottawa, Harvard, and the University of Chicago. She has worked widely across ancient philosophy, from the sophists to the Neoplatonists, though her primary focus is on Plato. In this episode, Robinson and Rachel discuss the sophists, beginning with just who they were and why they have been so maligned in contemporary discourse—even the word sophist today has pejorative connotations—and continuing through some of their most important thinkers, like Gorgias and Protagoras. Check out Rachel’s last book, Plato and the Divided Self (Cambridge University Press, 2012).
OUTLINE:
00:00 In This Episode...
00:34 Introduction
04:28 Rachel’s Interest in Ancient Philosophy
09:49 Misunderstanding the Sophists
20:04 What Displaced the Sophists’ Philosophical Practices?
26:17 Philosophy and Protophilosophy
29:39 The Main Sophists
33:43 Gorgias and Non-Being
53:37 On Protagoras
1:07:40 Religion and the Sophists
1:12:55 More on Protagoras
1:17:50 Virtue in Homer and Hesiod
1:28:05 Ancient Philosophy and How to Live
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
Paul Horwich is Professor Philosophy at NYU. He has worked in a number of areas of philosophy, but is especially well-known for his writing on the philosophy of language, particularly with regard to truth and meaning—naturally, he has books by the same names, Truth (Oxford, 1990) and Meaning (Oxford, 1998). Robinson and Paul discuss the relationship between his work on these topics and the philosophy he started off researching—science and physics—before moving on to the question of philosophical realism across a number of domains before focusing on moral realism and whether there are such things as moral facts.
OUTLINE:
00:00 In This Episode...
00:20 Introduction
03:26 From Physics to Truth
16:55 Truth and the World
35:24 Realism Across Domains
54:42 Moral Facts
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
Stephen Yablo is David W. Skinner Professor of Philosophy at MIT. Before MIT, he taught at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Steve works in metaphysics, philosophy of mathematics, and the philosophy of mind and language, though his work extends into other areas of philosophy as well. In this conversation, for instance, Robinson and Steve discuss the nature of philosophy and what distinguishes it from other fields, as well as the philosophy of jokes and humor. They also speak about the philosophy of language, and more particularly how to deal with negative existential statements (sentences of the form “such-and-such does not exist”). Check out Steve’s latest book, Aboutness (Princeton, 2019), which develops a theory of subject matter and its role in meaning.
OUTLINE:
00:00 In This Episode...
00:35 Introduction
05:55 The Demarcation Problem for Philosophy
34:32 Final Thoughts on What Is Philosophy?
37:47 Non-Existence Questions
1:19:21 Philosophy and Jokes
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
Robinson’s Podcast #76 - Nora Boyd, Siska de Baerdemaeker, & Vera Matarese: The Philosophy of Astrophysics
Nora Boyd is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Siena College. Siska de Baerdemaeker is a Researcher at Stockholm University. Vera Matarese is Assistant Professor in Philosophy of Science at the University of Perugia. Both Nora and Siska received their PhDs in History and Philosophy of Science from the University of Pittsburgh, while Vera received hers in the Philosophy of Science at the University of Hong Kong. Along with Kevin Heng, Chair Professor of Theoretical Astrophysics at the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich (and guest on episode #56), they are the editors of Philosophy of Astrophysics—an anthology on the philosophy of the same and the first of its kind—which will be released open access in early June 2023 (link below). In this episode, Nora, Siska, Vera, and Robinson discuss the origins of the project, as well as many of the topics it covers, such as black holes, dark matter, and whether astrophysics should even be considered a science at all.
The Anthology: https://link.springer.com/book/9783031266171
Nora Boyd: https://facultyweb.siena.edu/~nboyd/
Siska de Baerdemaeker: https://www.siskadebaerdemaeker.com
Vera Matarese: https://sites.google.com/view/veramatarese/home
OUTLINE:
00:00 In This Episode…
00:54 Introduction
7:10 What is Astrophysics?
14:24 What Is the Philosophy of Astrophysics?
25:26 Is Astrophysics Science?
38:29 Astrophysical Models and the Tribunal of Experience
45:33 Data and Theory
1:01:32 Astrophysical Simulations
1:14:17 Fictional Objects
1:20:00 Black Holes and Dark Matter
1:28:01 Processes and Pseudoprocesses
1:34:08 Time
1:47:20 Ethical Issues
1:42:06 Evidence, Theory, and Cold Dark Matter
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
Jody Azzouni is Professor of Philosophy at Tufts University. While Jody is best known for his nominalist stance in the philosophy of mathematics, he is also an author of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. Robinson and Jody discuss one of Jody’s poems in detail before moving on to the philosophy of mathematics and logic. They go over the distinction between natural and formal languages, the roles and varieties of proof in mathematics, and whether mathematics can have foundations. This is Jody’s second appearance on Robinson’s podcast. On his first appearance, episode #45, he and Robinson spoke about the debate between nominalists and platonists in the philosophy of mathematics, Jody’s own deflationary stance, and some adjacent concerns about ontological commitment in both formal and informal languages. His latest book is Attributing Knowledge: What it Means to Know Something (Oxford, 2020).
Jody’s Website: https://jodyazzouni.com
OUTLINE:
00:00 In This Episode…
00:40 Introduction
4:48 “Colored Themes” by Jody Azzouni
36:59 The Difference Between Formal and Natural Languages
1:02:37 The Nature of Mathematical Proof
1:20:36 Can Mathematics Still Have Foundations?
1:26:36 Jody’s Course on Philosophy of Math
1:31:01 Mathematics as a Social Practice
1:37:23 Revolutions in Mathematics
1:40:35 “February” by Giles Goodland
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
Stephen Darwall is Andrew Downey Orrick Professor of Philosophy at Yale University and John Dewey Distinguished University Professor Emeritus at the University of Michigan. He is a world-renowned moral philosopher who has worked broadly across the ethical landscape, making important contributions to Kant scholarship, legal philosophy, deontology, and countless other areas. In this episode, Robinson and Steve talk about Steve’s strabismus (a visual impairment) and how it affects the way he sees the world, violence and human dignity, second-personal ethics, and Steve’s work on the relationship between philosophy and the heart. This is Steve’s second appearance on Robinson’s Podcast. In his first, episode #49, Steve and Robinson discussed the history of modern ethics, beginning with Hugo Grotius and traveling up through Hobbes, Hume, Kant, Bentham, and Smith before ending with Marx, Kierkegaard, and Nietzsche’s attack on morality. Check out Steve’s book on second-personal ethics, The Second-Person Standpoint: Morality, Respect, and Accountability (Harvard, 2009).
Steve’s Website: https://campuspress.yale.edu/stephendarwall/
OUTLINE:
00:00 In This Episode…
00:35 Introduction
3:57 Creative Pursuits and Strabismus
26:57 Violence and Human Dignity
56:42 Cognitive Science, Violence, and Dignity
1:05:55 What Is Second-Personal Ethics?
1:15:54 Moral Obligation, Recognition, and Second-Personal Ethics
1:27:57 Philosophy of the Heart
1:52:58 Chattel Slavery, Reparations, and the Heart
2:04:22 Steve and the Heart
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
Craig Callender is Professor of Philosophy and Co-Director of the Institute for Practical Ethics at UC San Diego. Craig works across the philosophy of science, and has published research on the philosophy of physics, applied ethics, the metaphysics of time, and other related areas. In this episode, Craig and Robinson discuss the content of a course he’s been teaching called Science vs Pseudoscience. More particularly, they talk about the boundary between science and pseudoscience, as well as case studies of science, pseudoscience, and conspiracy theories, including super-string theory, psychoanalysis, astrology, and more. Craig’s most recent book, What Makes Time Special? (Oxford University Press, 2017), won the prestigious Lakatos Award in 2018.
Craig’s Website: https://www.craigcallender.com
OUTLINE:
00:00 In This Episode…
00:26 Introduction
7:15 A Course on Science and Pseudoscience
14:43 Karl Popper’s Demarcation Problem
22:56 Superstring Theory
29:26 Psychoanalysis
32:29 Astrology
36:04 Pseudohistory and Expert Selection
47:02 Flat Earth Theory
51:28 Why Clever People Believe Silly Things
1:01:25 Personality Tests
1:14:12 Quantum Mumbo Jumbo
1:25:59 Replicability
1:29:15 Nutritionism
1:35:11 A Perpetual Motion Machine
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
Eric Trexler received his PhD in Human Movement Science from the medical school at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He is a professional body builder and a sports nutrition researcher, and the co-owner of Stronger By Science, MASS Research Review, and the MacroFactor nutrition app, as well as the co-host of the terrific Stronger By Science podcast. Robinson and Eric discuss some philosophical concerns in sports science, including methodological limitations in study design and human error in scientific reasoning. Among other topics, they address the ecological validity of mechanistic research, ways in which funding and practical constraints guide experimentation, and ethical considerations that factor into the study of steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs.
Eric’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/trexlerfitness
Eric’s Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/erictrexler
Stronger By Science: https://www.strongerbyscience.com
MASS Research Review: https://www.strongerbyscience.com/mass/
The MacroFactor Nutrition App: https://www.macrofactorapp.com
OUTLINE:
00:00 In This Episode…
00:50 Introduction
3:28 Human Movement Science
8:02 Performance Effects of Citrulline Malate and Beetroot Juice Supplementation
16:06 Interpreting Mechanistic Research
26:40 Reductive Reasoning and the Carbohydrate-Insulin Model of Obesity
55:59 Limitations of Study Design
01:16:56 Ethical Constraints on Researching Performance-Enhancing Drugs
01:25:40 MacroFactor
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
Peter Adamson is Professor of Late Ancient and Arabic Philosophy at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and Professor of Ancient and Medieval Philosophy at King's College London. He’s also the host of the podcast History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps and the author of the book series by the same name. Robinson and Peter talk about Neoplatonism—a philosophical movement in late antiquity—and its great thinkers, including Plotinus, Porphyry, Iamblichus, and Proclus, as well as the many issues they thought and wrote about, such as evil, theology, logic, and vegetarianism.
OUTLINE:
02:14 Introduction
7:30 What’s Interesting About Neoplatonism?
5:35 The Etymology of “Neoplatonism”
11:36 Where was Neoplatonism?
19:48 The Great Plotinus
23:56 Plotinus’ Metaphysics
32:30 Plotinus and Theology
39:46 Plotinus on Evil
1:00:15 Porphyry, His Logic, and Arguments for Vegetarianism CLIP
1:18:31 Iamblichus
1:24:02 Proclus
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
Elisabeth Camp is Professor of Philosophy at Rutgers, where she works on the philosophy of language, mind, and aesthetics. As she puts it, her research “focuses on thoughts and utterances that don’t fit standard propositional models.” Liz and Robinson spend the first third of their conversation discussing the poetry of Emily Dickinson and its connections to philosophy. They then move on to the substantial corpus of Liz’s work, touching on frames—or representational devices—various difficult-to-analyze speech acts and devices like insinuation and metaphor, and the semantics of maps. Keep up with Liz and her research at http://www.elisabethcamp.org.
OUTLINE:
00:00 Introduction
3:30 Liz’s Interest in Figurative Language
12:03 Emily Dickinson’s “The first Day’s Night had come”
29:03 Emily Dickinson’s “This World is not Conclusion”
42:36 Mary’s Room as a Literary Creation
49:46 Imaginative Resistance
58:44 Frames as Representational Devices
1:07:34 Liz’s Taste in Problems
1:11:23 Speech Acts
1:16:41 John Searle
1:23:54 Insinuation
1:47:42 Sarcasm
1:51:00 Metaphors
2:19:42 Slurs
2:32:42 Metaphors in Science
2:40:53 Maps and Sentences
2:57:53 Animal Minds and Mental Language
3:05:37 Cognitive Science at Rutgers
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
Frank Jackson is Emeritus Professor at the Australian National University. He is best known for the knowledge argument and Mary’s Room—its accompanying thought experiment—but has published widely in the philosophy of mind, epistemology, metaphysics, and the philosophy of language. Frank and Robinson discuss conceptual analysis—or the philosophical technique of examining the meaning, content, or definition of a concept to resolve questions about it—as well as physicalism, reference in the philosophy of language, the knowledge argument, and more. Much of the material discussed in this episode can be found in greater depth in Frank’s 1998 book, From Metaphysics to Ethics: A Defence of Conceptual Analysis.
OUTLINE:
00:00 Introduction
5:42 Growing Up in a Household of Philosophers
11:06 What Is Conceptual Analysis?
16:01 Physicalism, the Location Problem, and Conceptual Analysis
21:00 Conceptual Analysis and the Sorites Paradox
25:48 A Priori Physicalism
38:13 Physicalism in Math and Elsewhere
43:31 Color and the Location Problem
54:10 Ethics and the Location Problem
1:06:49 Metaphilosophy
1:13:13 Naming, Language, and Mind
1:30:05 One-Spaceism and Two-Spaceism
1:39:12 Mary’s Room and the Knowledge Argument
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
Simon Blackburn was Professor of Philosophy at the University of Cambridge and Edna J. Koury Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Though he has worked in many areas of philosophy, he is best known for his contributions to metaethics and the philosophy of language. Simon and Robinson discuss the distinction between ethics and metaethics before primarily focusing on the latter, where they explore the concept of realism. Simon’s latest books are Lust and Mirror, Mirror.
OUTLINE:
4:31 Simon’s History with Metaethics
8:20 Distinguishing Ethics and Metaethics
12:57 On Moral Realism
39:42 Frege and the True
43:57 Moral Quasi-realism
54:52 Moral Quasi-realism and Living a Good Life
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
David Albert is the Frederick E. Woodbridge Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University, where he directs the Philosophical Foundations of Physics program. Tim Maudlin is Professor of Philosophy at NYU. Both David and Tim are renowned as leading philosophers of physics, though their work extends beyond that to the philosophy of science and metaphysics. David is a prior guest (episodes 23 and 30) of Robinson’s Podcast, as is Tim (episode 46). David, Tim, and Robinson discuss the foundations of quantum theory, beginning with its historical motivation, tracking through some important concepts—superposition and the measurement problem—and then exploring some of its philosophical aspects (such as determinism, realism, the potential for backward causation, and more).
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
OUTLINE:
00:00 In This Episode…
00:17 Introduction
2:51 What Motivated the Development of Quantum Theory?
7:05 Superposition and the Measurement Problem
31:42 John Bell’s Theory of Local Beables
44:30 Formalism and Interpretation in Quantum Theory
51:52 The Einstein-Podoksky-Rosen Argument
58:26 On “Interpretations” of Quantum Theory
1:11:17 The Ghirardi-Rimini-Weber Theory of Spontaneous Collapse
1:16:19 The Many Worlds Theory
1:30:46 Determinism
1:46:29 Quantum Mechanics and Quantum Field Theory
1:48:28 Realism
1:52:15 Monism and Entanglement
1:58:19 Backward Causation
2:04:32 An Experiment to Further Foundations
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
Noam Chomsky is Professor of Linguistics Emeritus at MIT and Laureate Professor of Linguistics at the University of Arizona. He not only counts as among the most influential linguists of all time, but he has played a major role in the development of twentieth and twenty-first century philosophy, cognitive science, and political theory. Noam and Robinson talk about some of the major topics in modern linguistics, ranging from generative and universal grammar to innateness hypotheses and the current limitations of large language models for studying human linguistic faculties. There are also philosophical dimensions to the conversation, as Noam touches on his time with Nelson Goodman, Hilary Putnam, and W. V. O. Quine, while other concerns—such as the indeterminacy of reference and the relationship between thought and language—recur throughout the discussion.
OUTLINE:
00:00 In This Episode…
00:27 Introduction
8:32 Noam’s Entry into Linguistics
11:03 Ferdinand de Saussure and Twentieth Century Linguistics
23:04 The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
26:00 Thoughts on Language and Behaviorism
35:24 Innateness Hypotheses in Linguistics
42:00 Innateness and Universal Grammar
46:02 Limitations of Large Language Models
48:42 Impossible Languages and What Linguists Study
1:00:10 Historical Shifts in Linguistics
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
Tania Lombrozo is Arthur W. Marks ’19 Professor of Psychology at Princeton University, where she directs the Concepts & Cognition Lab. Before that, she did her undergraduate work at Stanford University (!), her graduate work at Harvard University, and then taught at the University of California, Berkeley. Robinson and Tania discuss her work on explanation. Among other things, they touch on our intuitions about what makes explanations good, what makes certain observations seem to demand explanation, some of the differences between religious and scientific explanations, and how we reason about morally charged situations. Keep up with Tania’s work through:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TaniaLombrozo
Tania’s Website: https://psych.princeton.edu/people/tania-lombrozo
The Concepts & Cognition Lab: https://cognition.princeton.edu
OUTLINE:
00:00 Introduction
2:23 From Philosophy to Psychology
8:03:39 Tania’s Interest in Learning and Explanation
11:28 Experiments to Test Our Intuitions About Explanation
16:16 Our Intuitions About What Makes a Good Explanation
27:06 Explanation-Based Processes
29:30 What Demands Explanation?
38:33 Religious and Scientific Explanation?
40:51 What Makes a Good Answer?
43:59 Marr’s Levels of Explanation
48:36 Tania’s Work with Neuroscientists
54:05 More on Explanations in Science and Religion
1:00:58 Moral Reasoning and Explanation
1:07:28 Can Science Explain the Human Mind?
1:12:57 Philosophy and Psychology
1:16:39 Psychology in Tania’s Life
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
Sarah Moss is the William Wilhartz Professor of Philosophy and Professor of Law by courtesy at the University of Michigan. She works primarily in epistemology and the philosophy of language, though in the case of this conversation her work has an important bearing on legal philosophy. Robinson and Sarah talk about her book Probabilistic Knowledge, which argues that you can know something that you believe even if you do not believe it fully, and as she quite aptly points out, “The central theses of the book have significant consequences for social and political questions concerning racial profiling, statistical evidence, and legal standards of proof,” all of which are discussed in this episode. Robinson and Sarah begin by introducing the concept of probabilistic belief before turning to Sarah’s argument in favor of probabilistic knowledge. They then turn to some applications of her work to outstanding puzzles in philosophy and law. Keep up with Sarah on her website, http://www-personal.umich.edu/~ssmoss/, and check out Probabilistic Knowledge on Amazon, https://a.co/d/iobL8iZ.
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
OUTLINE:
00:00 Introduction
3:58 Math and Epistemology
7:35 What is Probabilistic Belief?
11:22 Sarah, David Lewis, and Robert Stalnaker
28:26 Credence and Probabilistic Belief
33:40 Are All Beliefs Probabilistic?
56:57 Probabilistic Knowledge and Racial Profiling
1:20:25 Probabilistic Knowledge and Transformative Experience
1:29:30 Statistical Evidence and Legal Proof
1:48:39 Pragmatic Encroachment on Legal Proceedings
2:04:07 Is Belief a Strong or a Weak Attitude?
2:12:39 The Preface Paradox
2:21:06 Probabilistic Knowledge and the Newcomb Problem
2:27:18 Probabilistic Knowledge and the Philosophy of Action
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
Thomas Ryckman is Professor of Philosophy at Stanford University, where he works on the philosophy of physics. Mark Wilson is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh, where he works at the intersection of the philosophy of math and physics on the one side and metaphysics and the philosophy of language on the other. Tom, Mark, and Robinson discuss the present state of analytic philosophy, the dominant tradition in the United States, including some potential obstacles and important ideas of the twentieth century that have been forgotten.
OUTLINE:
00:00 Introduction
2:07 Tom and Mark’s Friendship
9:46 Problems with Contemporary Analytic Philosophy
15:18 Hertz and a Metaphysical Notion of Force
18:04 Thoughts on Wittgenstein
20:40 Mark and the French Structuralists
29:41 The Single Greatest Problem Confronting Analytic Philosophy Today
37:45 Some Thoughts on Grounding
1:02:40 Mach, Duhem, Hertz, and Analytic Philosophy
1:14:26 A Historical Overemphasis on Logic
1:29:54 Final Thoughts on the Current State of Academic Philosophy
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
David Papineau is Professor of Philosophy of Science at King’s College London. He also teaches at the City University of New York Graduate Center, and before that he lectured in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at Cambridge. Robinson and David speak broadly about the philosophy of science. Some topics they touch on include the distinction between realism and antirealism, the role of a philosopher of science in actual scientific practice, and the current replication crisis. They finish with an introduction to the statistical theory of causation. For some background information, listen to David’s episode of Philosophy Bites on scientific realism. The painting used in the “album art” comes by way of David’s daughter, Katy Papineau. See her website for more information. David’s most recent book is the Metaphysics of Sensory Experience (OUP 2021), a discussion of which will have to wait for another episode. You can keep up with David on his website, https://www.davidpapineau.co.uk, or via Twitter, @davidpapineau.
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
OUTLINE:
00:00 In This Episode…
00:38 Introduction
4:51 David and the Philosophy of Science
10:32 The Philosopher’s Role in Science
25:07 Scientific Realism and Anti-Realism
47:11 On Pessimistic Meta-Induction From Past Falsity
55:27 On The Replication Crisis in Science
1:15:21 The Statistical Theory of Causation
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
Keith Frankish is an Honorary Professor in the Philosophy Department at the University of Sheffield, a Visiting Research Fellow with the Open University, an Adjunct Professor with the Brain and Mind Program at the University of Crete, and editor of the Cambridge University Press series Elements in Philosophy of Mind. He is best known for his “two-level” view of the human mind, covered in his book Mind and Supermind, and his defense of the philosophical thesis known as illusionism, which holds that phenomenal consciousness is an illusion. Robinson and Keith discuss a variety of aspects of illusionism, including just what it is—and isn’t—its relationship to free will, and how the thesis engages with academic literature outside of philosophy (please see http://nivea.psycho.univ-paris5.fr/#CB for Kevin O’Regan’s demonstrations of change blindness, which are referenced in the conversation). You can keep up with Keith and his work on his website, Keithfrankish.com, or through his Twitter account, @keithfrankish. He is also, along with Philip Goff, the host of the podcast MindChat, which you can find at https://www.youtube.com/@MindChat/.
Robinson's Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
OUTLINE:
00:00 In This Episode…
00:43 Introduction
5:42 What Is the Hard Problem of Consciousness?
16:40 Tactics for Accounting for Anomalous Phenomena
22:14 An Illusionism Primer
42:13 Eliminative Materialism and Illusionism
45:18 Reading the Scientific Literature
59:19 Observing Other Minds
1:14:37 Is Free Will an Illusion?
1:23:18 Cognitive Science and Illusionism
1:55:34 A Thought Experiment Concerning Anesthesia
2:02:46 A Poetry Reading
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
Joel David Hamkins is the O’Hara Professor of Philosophy and Mathematics at the University of Notre Dame, where he recently moved from the University of Oxford. Joel is one of the world’s leading set theorists and philosophers of mathematics. Graham Priest is a Distinguished Professor in the philosophy department at the CUNY Graduate Center. He is one of the most influential philosophers of the past fifty years, and has done important work on a wide range of topics, ranging from the philosophy of mathematics (his doctorate is in mathematics from the London School of Economics) to logic and eastern philosophy. Robinson, Graham, and Joel discuss two topics—the liar paradox and the set-theoretic multiverse. More particularly, they address how solutions to the former revolve around questions of logical pluralism (is there more than one “correct” logic, and if so, how should we determine which to use in any given situation?), and regarding the latter, they address the metaphysics of the multiverse, how the multiverse theory squares with its monist alternative, and how it relates to the age-old question: Is mathematics created or discovered? Some resources for background information are included below. Check out Joel’s current project, The Book of Infinity, which is an accessible text on paradoxes and infinity. Joel has made the novel move of serializing it on Substack, so you can participate in its creation by checking out the link below, and otherwise see what he’s thinking about and working on through Twitter, MathOverflow, and his blog. You can keep up with Graham and his ever-growing, immense body of work through his website.
Graham’s Website: https://grahampriest.net
Joel’s Blog: http://jdh.hamkins.org
Joel's MathOverflow: https://mathoverflow.net/users/1946/joel-david-hamkins
Joel's Substack: https://joeldavidhamkins.substack.com
Joel's Twitter: https://twitter.com/JDHamkins
Background:
The Liar Paradox on the SEP: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/liar-paradox/
Set Theory on the SEP: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/set-theory/
Robinson's Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
OUTLINE:
00:00 In This Episode…
1:12 Introduction
11:16 Graham’s History with the Liar Paradox
12:51 An Explication of the Liar
15:03 Paraconsistent Logic and the Liar
32:32 A Deflationary Account of Truth and the Liar
34:51 Joel’s Approach to the Liar
38:37 Hartry Field and the Liar
41:18 The Yablo Paradox
48:22 When to Change the Logic
56:24 A Difference in Opinion on Logic?
1:01:44 The Set-Theoretic Multiverse
1:14:43 Monism and Pluralism About the Set-Theoretic Universe
1:35:35 Philosophical Answers to Mathematical Questions
1:39:16 On Woodin’s Program
1:46:12 Logical Pluralism and the Set-Theoretic Multiverse
1:58:13 The Metaphysics of the Set-Theoretic Multiverse
2:09:42 Is Mathematics Created or Discovered?
2:16:59 The Continuity From Ancient To Contemporary Mathematics
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
Tamar Schapiro is Professor of Philosophy at MIT. Her work centers on value theory, the history of ethics, and how this relates to human agency and reasoning. Robinson and Tamar’s discussion center around her latest book, Feeling Like It: A Theory of Inclination and Will, which explores the relationship between the two in a Kantian framework. They also talk about her experience teaching ethics at STEM-focused schools (Tamar taught at Stanford for fifteen years before moving to the east coast), Kant’s thoughts on free will, topics in the history of ethics, and why she teaches Ayn Rand’s philosophy to undergraduates. You can keep up with Tamar and her work through her PhilPeople page, at https://philpeople.org/profiles/tamar-schapiro.
Robinson's Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
OUTLINE
00:00 Introduction
4:44 Tamar’s Interest in Ethics
9:35 Teaching Ethics at MIT
11:40 On Inclination and Will
18:10 Distinguishing Inclination and Will
21:23 The Moment of Drama
26:27 Rationalism and Intellectualism
29:56 Tamar’s Theory
36:58 Kant and the Animal Self
38:33 Freud and Analytic Philosophy
40:36 A Normative Component to Tamar’s Theory
53:54 Kant’s Kingdom of Ends
56:53 Kant on Free Will
1:00:50 Rationalism and Sentimentalism
1:07:16 Hobbes on Moral Obligation
1:12:02 On Richard Price
1:15:04 Jeremy Benthem on Utilitarianism
1:20:44 Cognitivism and Non-Cognitivism
1:23:44 The Philosophy of Ayn Rand
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
Huw Price is the former Bertrand Russell Professor in the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Cambridge, and was before that Challis Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Centre for Time at the University of Sydney, and then—even before that—was Professor of Logic and Metaphysics at the University of Edinburgh. Huw is an expert across a wide variety of subdomains within the family of philosophy of science and physics, and in this episode he and Robinson discuss topics drawn from the philosophy of time, ranging from its flow and direction to its relationship to causation and quantum mechanics. Huw is also the author of Naturalism Without Mirrors and Time’s Arrow and Archimedes’ Point: New Directions for the Physics of Time. You can keep up with Huw on his website, prce.hu, and via his Twitter account, @HuwPriceAU.
OUTLINE
00:00 Introduction
2:22 Huw's Background
4:23 The A- and B-Series of Time
12:57 The Flow of Time
25:49 Boltzmann Brains
33:30 The Arrow of Time
38:23 The Fixed Past and The Open Future
50:31 Quantum Mechanics and Retrocausality
Robinson's Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
Richard Kimberly Heck has been a professor of philosophy at Brown University since 2005, at which time they left their post at Harvard, where they had taught for over a decade. On the way to receiving their PhD in philosophy and linguistics at MIT, they studied at Duke and Oxford. Riki has also been a guest on three prior episodes of Robinson’s Podcast—5, 17, and 41—that covered the philosophy of sex, pornography, and gender. In this episode, however, Robinson and Riki turn to the philosophy of language, and more particularly the reference relation. They pick up with Frege and travel up through Russell, Carnap, Strawson, Kripke, and Lewis, up to the present, covering a range of topics including Fregean senses, the descriptive theory of names, ordinary language philosophy, natural kinds, possible worlds, externalism, and more.
Check out http://robinsonerhardt.com and stay up to date!
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
00:37 The Importance of Names
9:59 Recent Shifts in Philosophy of Language
12:44 Riki’s Interest in Frege
17:35 Who Was Frege?
30:05 Uber Sinn und Bedeutung
48:33 Knowledge by Description and Acquaintance
55:06: The True and The False
1:00:41 Bertrand Russell On Denoting
1:17:50 Distinguishing Representations
1:20:54 P.F. Strawson and Ordinary Language Philosophy
1:31:43 Carnap on Meaning and Necessity
1:34:52 Kripke and Lewis on Naming and Possible Worlds
1:55:19 Current Work on Naming
2:02:15 Experimental Philosophy of Language
2:12:20 On Twin Earth
2:19:31 A Digression on Philosophical Practice
2:25:14 Ty Burge and Natural Kinds
2:27:55 Referential Vagueness
2:33:08 Internalism and Externalism
2:38:40 Sense, Reference, and Sex
2:41:16 Sense, Reference, and The Begriffsschrift
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
Kevin Heng is Chair Professor of Theoretical Astrophysics of Extrasolar Planets at the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich. Before that, he was the director of the Center for Space and Habitability at the University of Bern in Switzerland. Robinson and Kevin discuss the search for planets outside our solar system and the importance of—as well as some problems surrounding—our investigations into their atmospheres, all before turning to his recent philosophical work. Kevin, along with three philosophers of science—Vera Matarese, Siska de Baerdemaeker, and Nora Boyd—are the editors of an upcoming anthology on the philosophy of astrophysics, for which Kevin composed an essay on the role of models in astrophysics. Kevin is also the author of Exoplanetary Atmospheres: Theoretical Concepts and Foundations, which is part of the Princeton Series in Atmospheres.
Check out http://robinsonerhardt.com and stay up to date!
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
00:29 Introduction
3:37 Kevin’s Background in Astrophysics
6:53 How Do Astrophysicists Work?
12:34 An Astrophysicist’s Tools in the Search for Exoplanets
22:06 False Color Images in Astrophysics
27:12 More Methods of Atmospheric Analysis
30:42 Kevin’s Research
43:13 The Philosophy of Astrophysics Anthology
47:03 Philosophy and Scientific Models
1:04:19 An Unsolved Problem Concerning Turbulence
1:08:01 Kevin’s Time in Culinary School
1:11:57 Fashion and Bottega Veneta
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
Alison Fernandes is a professor of philosophy at Trinity College Dublin. Prior to that, she did her graduate work at Columbia University, where she studied with two other denizens of the Robinson’s Podcast universe, David Albert and Achille Varzi. Alison is the author of the upcoming book with Cambridge University Press, The Temporal Asymmetry of Causation, some of the contents of which are the subject of this episode. After rehashing the dominant theories of causation, Alison and Robinson discussion backward causation and time travel, the temporal asymmetry of causation, and Alison’s agency theory of causation. You can keep up with her at alisonfernandes.net.
linktree: https://linktr.ee/robinsonerhardt
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode
00:46 Introduction
4:05 Alison’s Interest in Causation
5:36 Hume’s Theory of Causation
8:11 Dominant Accounts of Causation
14:33 Backward Causation and Time Travel
28:42 Causal and Temporal Asymmetry
42:22 Alison’s Account of Causation
53:24 A Return to Time Travel
56:55 Achille Varzi on Time Travel
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
Luvell Anderson is a professor of philosophy at Syracuse University, where he’s also an affiliate faculty member of Women’s and Gender Studies and African American Studies. He is the co-editor of The Routledge Companion to the Philosophy of Race and the soon-to-be-released Oxford Handbook of Applied Philosophy of Language. He is also currently working on a book about the philosophy of humor—The Ethics of Racial Humor—which is the topic of this episode. After beginning with a discussion of just what humor is, Luvell and Robinson move on to the distinction between racial and racist humor, Dave Chappelle, the ethics of roasting, what makes comedy human, and more. You can keep up with Luvell at andersonluvell.weebly.com and through his Twitter account, @luvell_anderson.
linktree: https://linktr.ee/robinsonerhardt
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode
00:28 Introduction
3:05 Luvell’s Interest in Comedy
5:32 What is Humor?
12:22 Slurs and Hate Speech
17:45 Is Humor Uniquely Human?
23:32 Racial Humor and Racist Humor
32:48 Sexist Humor
38:51 Dave Chappelle
44:05 Roasting Ethics
53:05 A Genetic Approach to Comedy
59:12 Horror and Humor
1:05:15 Comedy, Connection, and Progressive Change
1:09:40 What Makes Comedy Human
1:14:03 Audience Sensitivity
1:17:56 Humor and Media Psychology
1:21:54 Laughing With and Laughing At
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
Christina Van Dyke is an emerita professor of philosophy at Calvin College and a visiting professor of philosophy at Barnard College, where she specializes in the medieval period. She is the author of A Hidden Wisdom: Medieval Contemplatives on Self-Knowledge, Reason, Love, Persons, and Immortality. Christina and Robinson discuss the philosophy of food and eating—its gendered aspects, its religious history, some ethical concerns, and eating disorders—before turning to animals in medieval philosophy, where they touch on Hildegard von Bingen, medieval bestiaries, and the secret society known as the Brethren of Purity. You can keep up with Christina at cvdphilosopher.net.
linktree: https://linktr.ee/robinsonerhardt
OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode
00:30 Introduction
3:05 Christina and Medieval Philosophy
5:41 Christina’s Interest in The Philosophy of Eating
6:59 Are Food and Eating Gendered?
23:39 Food, Gender, and Religion
32:40 How Philosophy Might Help Us Eat Better
36:27 Animals and the Brethren of Purity
45:11 Hildegard von Bingen and Medieval Animals
58:05 Hydras, Bestiaries, and Arthurian Lore
1:03:35 Animals, and What Humans Are
1:07:45 Animals, Angels, and Humans
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
Gabriel Greenberg is a professor of philosophy at the University of California Los Angeles, and currently a visiting professor at Stanford University. He works widely across the philosophy of mind, but in particular studies iconic representation, modality, and computation. Gabe and Robinson talk about the rough divide between representation and consciousness studies in the philosophy of mind before going into the distinction between signs and symbols, and how the brain interprets them. They finish with a departure into the world of philosophy, film, and cognitive science, discussing how our minds stitch together the scenes of a movie and integrate them into a whole.
linktree: https://linktr.ee/robinsonerhardt
Outline:
00:00 In This Episode
00:39 Introduction
5:17 Gabe’s Taste in Comics
9:53 Gabe’s Interest in Philosophy of Mind
18:14 What is a Representation?
26:02 Gabe’s Dialogue with Linguistics
27:51 Aboutness in the Philosophy of Mind
34:21 The Iconic-Symbolic Spectrum
59:48 A Semantics for Signs and Icons
1:09:33 A Course on Visual Narrative
1:11:20 Film and The Norms of Spatial Coherence
1:15:43 Film Spaces as Abstract Spatial Graphs
1:46:20 Film, Semantics, and Pragmatics
1:51:38 On Scott McCloud
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
Scott Shapiro is the Charles F. Southmayd Professor of Law and Professor of Philosophy at Yale Law School, where he is also the founding director of the Yale CyberSecurity Lab. Robinson and Scott talk about studying at Columbia University under the auspices of the legendary Isaac Levi, Sidney Morgenbesser, and Haim Gaifman before discussing the philosophy of law, one of Scott’s areas of expertise. Among the topics they touch on are the distinction between analytic and normative jurisprudence, the problem of the chicken and the egg, and progress in legal thought from Austin to Hart and beyond. Then they turn to Scott’s upcoming book, Fancy Bear goes Phishing: The Dark History of the Information Age, in Five Extraordinary Hacks, where Scott explores the intersection of cybersecurity, hacking, and legal philosophy. Scott is also the author of Legality and the host of the Jurisprudence Course podcast, the latter of which will soon have a second season. You can keep up with Scott on Twitter at @scottjshapiro, and preorder Fancy Bear Goes Phishing on Amazon.
Fancy Bear Goes Phishing: https://a.co/d/aPv2zpY
Legality: https://a.co/d/1qYg0OY
Jurisprudence Course: https://open.spotify.com/show/6yOIMnVASRLN2nPLlBL0Dn?si=0de8b550346942d6
Twitter: https://twitter.com/scottjshapiro
Outline:
00:00 In This Episode
00:20 Introduction
3:35 Scott the Jurisprude
7:49 War Stories From Columbia
18:36 Analytic Versus Normative Jurisprudence
22:23 The Chicken And The Egg Problem For Jurisprudence
28:03 Austin, Hart, and Progress in Legal Philosophy
44:43 Fancy Bear Goes Phishing
43:23: Cybersecurity and Legal Philosophy
59:02:40 Hacking Paris Hilton’s Cell Phone
1:05:07 The Psychology of Hackers
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
linktree: https://linktr.ee/robinsonerhardt
Jonathan Schaffer is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Philosophy at Rutgers University. He is an acclaimed metaphysician with a unique mind and approach to philosophy (and who has exquisite taste in epigraphs). Jonathan is best known for his work on monism, in which he contends that the cosmos is the lone fundamental object in reality, and on the grounding relation. He and Robinson begin by exploring monism, including its relationship to contemporary developments in physics, and then move on to the grounding relation, explicating just what this is and how it marks a departure from the dominant Quinean view of metaphysics.
linktree: https://linktr.ee/robinsonerhardt
Outline:
00:00 In This Episode
1:07 Introduction
4:54 Jonathan’s Epigraphs
10:02 What Is a Monist?
14:11 How Jonathan Became a Monist
17:06 Breeds of Monism
24:09 Mereological Nihilism
39:14 Have Jonathan’s Views Shifted Over The Years?
41:25 The Ontological Priority of the Whole
48:16 Monism and Quantum Entanglement
54:42 Occam’s Laser
59:40 Modal Considerations for Monism
1:03:17 Jonathan’s Interest in Grounding
1:06:33 Quinean Metaphysics and Grounding
1:15:22 The Aristotelian View of Metaphysics
1:18:21 Carnap and Grounding
1:21:33 What Grounds What?
1:26:32 Debunking Metaphysical Intuitions With Cognitive Science
1:39:38 Ground Functionalism
1:48:58 Grounding in Feminist Metaphysics
1:55:30 Jonathan’s Philosophical Program
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
Stephen Darwall is Andrew Downey Orrick Professor of Philosophy at Yale University and John Dewey Distinguished University Professor Emeritus at the University of Michigan. He is a world-renowned moral philosopher who has worked broadly across the ethical landscape, making important contributions to Kant scholarship, legal philosophy, deontology, and countless other areas. Steve and Robinson discuss the history of modern ethics, beginning with Hugo Grotius and traveling up through Hobbes, Hume, Kant, Bentham, and Smith before ending with Marx, Kierkegaard, and Nietzsche’s attack on morality.
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/robinsonerhardt
Outline:
00:00 In This Episode
00:22 Introduction
4:04 Steve’s Time at Yale
12:39 Ethics and Normativity
19:56 Hugo Grotius and the Birth of Modern Ethics
30:18 Hobbes on Morality
39:33 Hume on Morality
45:56 Kant on Morality
54:59 Jeremy Bentham on Morality
58:31 Adam Smith on Morality
1:10:51 A Brief Diatribe on Google
1:16:28 The Continental/Analytic Divide
1:23:17 Marx, Kierkegaard, and Nietzsche’s Attack on Morality
1:35:21 Are Moral Philosophers Moral?
Patricia Churchland is UC President’s Professor of Philosophy Emerita at the University of California, San Diego. She is among the most well-known and impactful figures working in the philosophy of mind, and a prominent early neurophilosopher who advocated the importance of neuroscience in the philosophy of mind. Pat and Robinson discuss three broad topics: neurophilosophy and ethics—particularly with reference to two of her recent books, Braintrust: What Neuroscience Tells Us about Morality and Conscience: The Origins of Moral Intuition—what neuroscience has to say about the problem of free will, and the neurophilosophical approach to consciousness. You can keep up with Pat’s work at patriciachurchland.com, as well as on Twitter, @patchurchland.
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/robinsonerhardt
Outline:
00:00 In This Episode
00:36 Introduction
3:07 A Family of Neuroscientists
12:27 What Is Neurophilosophy?
15:44 Neuroscience and Morality
22:13 Evolution and Morality
33:00 Mirror Neurons and Imitation
38:56 Neuroscience and Metaethics
47:58 Neurophilosophy, Free Will, & The Self
1:05:24 Neuroscience & David Chalmers’ Hard Problem of Consciousness
Achille Varzi is the John Dewey Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University and Bruno Kessler Honorary Professor at the University of Trento. He is a world-renowned metaphysicist and logician, and widely regarded as the greatest living mereologist. Yet despite all this Robinson asks Achille about his sleep habits, though afterward they discuss some more important philosophical questions: What is ontology? What is metaphysics, and how is it different from physics? After some tangents on nominalism and truthmakers, the conversation ends with a reflection on some of the late Saul Kripke’s contributions to philosophy.
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/robinsonerhardt
Outline:
00:00 How Kangaroos Got Their Name
00:52 Introduction
4:54 Achille’s Start in Philosophy
11:24 Some Thoughts on Wittgenstein
16:57 Writing Philosophy in a Second Language
23:01 Achille’s Absurd Sleeping Habits
30:41 What is Metaphysics?
43:01 Distinguishing Physics From Metaphysics
50:48 Ontology, Metaphysics, and Truthmakers
01:23:37 Saul Kripke's Contributions to Philosophy
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
Tim Maudlin is Professor of Philosophy at NYU. Before that, he did his undergraduate work in philosophy and physics at Yale and received his PHD from Pittsburgh in the History and Philosophy of Science. Tim is renowned as one of the leading philosophers of physics, and he also works in the philosophy of science and metaphysics. Among other things, Robinson and Tim talk about whether metaphysics should come prior to or after physics, the debates over absolute time and space, free will, the nature of physical laws, and David Lewis’s views on the Humean supermosaic. You can find out more about Tim and his work on his website, www.tim-maudlin.site.
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/robinsonerhardt
Outline:
00:00 Introduction
2:35 Studying Physics and Philosophy
8:38 Theoretical Physics, Foundations, and Metaphysics
15:54 Physics and Free Will
26:17 The Mathematical Structure of the Universe
37:49 Hume, Lewis, and the Supermosaic
49:16 Laws of Nature
1:04:02 Moral facts
1:18:03 Absolute and Relative Space
1:34:27 Space and the Ether
1:39:31 The Leibniz-Clarke Correspondence
1:46:08 Absolute Space, Time, and Relativity
1:53:07 The Infinity of Time and Space
Jody Azzouni is a professor of philosophy at Tufts University. While Jody is best known for his nominalist stance in the philosophy of mathematics, he is also an author of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. He and Robinson talk about his love of writing and how his interest in mathematics bloomed during in his time spent at NYU and CUNY. They then move on to the debate between nominalists and platonists in the philosophy of mathematics, Jody’s own deflationary stance, and some adjacent concerns about ontological commitment in both formal and informal languages.
Outline:
00:00 Introduction
3:16 Jody’s Writing Background
9:05 Jody’s Poetry
21:20 The Relationship Between Jody’s Philosophy and Everything Else
32:33 Jody’s Interest in the Philosophy of Mathematics
40:02 The Platonist/Nominalist Opposition in the Philosophy of Mathematics
49:29 The Platonist Conception of Mathematical Objects
52:50 A Nominalist Argument Against Mathematical Realism
1:09:41 Varieties of Mathematical Nominalism
1:18:55 Nominalism in Mathematics and Metaphysics
1:24:39 Ontological Commitment in the Vernacular
1:35:30 A Poetry Reading
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/robinsonerhardt
Twitter: https://twitter.com/robinsonerhardt
YouTube (Robinson's Podcast): youtube.com/@robinsonspodcast
Apple (Robinson's Podcast) : https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/robinsons-podcast/id1636469402
Spotify (Robinson's Podcast): https://open.spotify.com/show/1yYNtEI6kpemLJMlYHVi2d
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/robinsonerhardt/
Twitch (Robinson Eats): https://www.twitch.tv/robinsonerhardt
YouTube (Robinson Eats): youtube.com/@robinsoneats
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@robinsonerhardt
Sophie Grace Chappell is Professor of Philosophy at the Open University in the UK. Before that she taught at the University of Dundee and Oxford. Sophie has a wide variety of interests, including ancient philosophy, ethics, and the philosophy of literature. She and Robinson speak about her latest book, Epiphanies: An Ethics of Experience. More particularly, their discussion centers around philosophy and literature—including a wonderful reading of Gerard Manley Hopkins—the relationship between ethics and aesthetics, and some potential pitfalls of taking a theory-building approach to moral philosophy.
Outline:
00:00 Introduction
2:27 Literae Humaniores
14:42 The Etymology of "Outrage"
19:19 Literature and the Phenomenology of Being Human
36:51 Ethics and Aesthetics
49:13 Poetry and Philosophy
53:40 What Are Epiphanies?
58:56 Gerard Manley Hopkins and His Terrible Sonnets
1:10:20 James Joyce and Epiphanies
1:14:35 Theory-Building Approaches to Ethics
1:24:41 Sophie's Approach to Ethics
1:29:49 Testing Ethical Theories
1:32:12 Sophie the Mountaineer
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/robinsonerhardt
Twitter: https://twitter.com/robinsonerhardt
YouTube (Robinson's Podcast): youtube.com/@robinsonspodcast
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/robinsonerhardt/
Twitch (Robinson Eats): https://www.twitch.tv/robinsonerhardt
YouTube (Robinson Eats): youtube.com/@robinsoneats
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@robinsonerhardt
Eric Schwitzgebel is a Professor of Philosophy at the University of California Riverside. Before that, he did his undergraduate work at Stanford, and then received his doctorate from the University of California Berkeley. Eric has worked on an extremely wide array of topics, ranging from Chinese philosophy to philosophy of mind, metaphilosophy, and metaphysics. In this conversation, however, Robinson and Eric talk about his upcoming book on philosophy and weirdness. In particular, they discuss why the United States might be conscious, what Kant and cyberpunk have in common, the moral value of alien microbes, and a lot more about garden snails than you thought you could ever find interesting. Keep up with Eric through his blog, the Splintered Mind, or on Twitter @eschwitz.
Outline:
00:00 Introduction
3:07 A Man of Many Interests
4:21 The Weirdness of the World
12:32 Why the United States May Be Conscious
25:50 Kant and Cyberpunk
35:22 Experimental Evidence for an External World
46:54 Are Ethicists More Ethical Than the Rest of Us?
1:04:47 What It's Like to Be a Garden Snail
1:23:07 The Moral Value of Alien Microbes
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/robinsonerhardt
Twitter: https://twitter.com/robinsonerhardt
YouTube (Robinson's Podcast): youtube.com/@robinsonspodcast
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/robinsonerhardt/
Twitch (Robinson Eats): https://www.twitch.tv/robinsonerhardt
YouTube (Robinson Eats): youtube.com/@robinsoneats
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@robinsonerhardt
Joel David Hamkins is the O’Hara Professor of Philosophy and Mathematics at the University of Notre Dame, where he recently moved from the University of Oxford. Joel is one of the leading set theorists and philosophers of mathematics in the world, and he and Robinson discuss a lot—Hilbert’s Hotel, the continuum hypothesis, the set-theoretic multiverse, and even Joel’s dapper hat collection—but the main subject is his upcoming book, The Book of the Infinite, which is an accessible text on paradoxes and infinity. Joel has made the novel move of serializing it on Substack, so you can participate in its creation by checking out the link below, and otherwise see what he’s thinking about and working on through Twitter, MathOverflow, and his blog. The conversation grows technical from 1:10:26-2:00:25, but for those to whom that doesn’t appeal there are timestamps to navigate around this portion of the show.
Substack: https://joeldavidhamkins.substack.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/JDHamkins
MathOverflow: https://mathoverflow.net/users/1946/joel-david-hamkins
Joel’s Blog: http://jdh.hamkins.org
OUTLINE:
00:00 Introduction
2:52 Is Joel a Mathematician or a Philosopher?
6:13 The Philosophical Influence of Hugh Woodin
10:29 The Intersection of Set Theory and Philosophy of Math
16:29 Serializing the Book of the Infinite
20:05 Zeno of Elea, Continuity, and Geometric Series
39:39 Infinite Games and the Chocolatier
53:35 Hilbert's Hotel
1:10:26 Cantor's Theorem
1:31:37 The Continuum Hypothesis
1:43:02 The Set-Theoretic Multiverse
2:00:25 Berry's Paradox and Large Numbers
2:16:15 Skolem's Paradox and Indescribable Numbers
2:28:41 Pascal's Wager and Reasoning Around Remote Events
2:49:35 MathOverflow
3:04:40 Joel's Impeccable Fashion Sense
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/robinsonerhardt
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Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/robinsonerhardt/
Twitch (Robinson Eats): https://www.twitch.tv/robinsonerhardt
YouTube (Robinson Eats): youtube.com/@robinsoneats
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@robinsonerhardt
Richard Kimberly Heck has been a professor of philosophy at Brown University since 2005, at which time they left their post at Harvard, where they had taught for over a decade. On the way to receiving their PhD in philosophy and linguistics at MIT, they studied at Duke and Oxford. While Professor Heck’s primary research focus has been logic and Frege, over the past few years they have shifted to the philosophy of sex and pornography. This is Robinson and Riki’s third conversation on the subjects. Their first and second were episodes 5 and 17, though the installments are not sequential and only linked by topic. Among other things, Robinson and Riki discuss empirical approaches to the philosophy of sex, understanding oneself as a gendered person, and the depiction of oral sex in pornography.
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/robinsonerhardt
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TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@robinsonerhardt
L.A. Paul is the Millstone Family Professor of Philosophy and Professor of Cognitive Science at Yale University. After doing her graduate work on causation and time at Princeton under the guidance of David Lewis, Laurie wrote her groundbreaking book Transformative Experience, and since then has been exploring the intersection of cognitive science and metaphysics (in addition to a myriad of other pursuits). Laurie and Robinson talk about how she went from her undergraduate studies in chemistry and biology to philosophy, the origins of Transformative Experience, and what cognitive science can contribute to the philosophy of time and causation.
Twitter: @robinsonerhardt
Instagram: @robinsonerhardt
Twitch (Robinson Eats): @robinsonerhardt
YouTube (Robinson Eats): youtube.com/@robinsoneats
TikTok: @robinsonerhardt
Peter Adamson is Professor of Late Ancient and Arabic Philosophy at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and Professor of Ancient and Medieval Philosophy at King's College London. He’s also the host of the podcast History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps and the author of the book series by the same name. Robinson and Peter talk about Islamic philosophy broadly conceived, as well as some of its great philosophers—Avicenna in particular—and its most fascinating debates.
00:00 Introduction
04:46 Can Anything Be the Subject of Philosophy?
11:03 Dead and Living Languages
24:35 What Is Islamic Philosophy?
40:28 Some Distinctive Problems of Islamic Philosophy
50:40 Metaphysical Debates about the Eucharist and Koran
59:21 Free Will, Islamic Philosophy, and the Koran
01:08:56 Islam and the Eternity of the World
01:29:48 Avicenna's Flying Man Argument
01:41:25 Al-Farabi and Illuminationism
01:47:54 What Is Philosophical Mysticism?
01:55:00 Islamic Mysticism and Sufism
01:59:18 Philosophy, Reincarnation, and Vegetarianism
02:03:37 The History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps
Twitter: @robinsonerhardt
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TikTok: @robinsonerhardt
Graham Priest is a Distinguished Professor in the philosophy department at the CUNY Graduate Center. He is one of the most influential living philosophers, and has done important work on a wide range of topics, ranging from the philosophy of mathematics (his doctorate is in mathematics from the London School of Economics) to logic and eastern philosophy. In this episode, Robinson and Graham discuss the metaphysics of nothingness and non-being, touching on—among other things—Zen Buddhism, Quine’s conception of ontological commitment, impossible worlds, and why there’s something rather than nothing.
(00:00) Introduction
(04:59) Graham's Path to Philosophy
(08:45) On Analytic and Continental Philosophy
(17:33) On Quine
(27:23) Quine, Quantifiers, and What There Is
(41:51) On Nonexistent Objects
(47:02) Noneism and the Philosophy of Mathematics
(01:14:14) On Impossible Worlds
(01:24:35) Why Is There Something Rather Than Nothing?
(01:30:55) Zen, Buddhism, and Nothingness
(01:46:36) The Nyāya Philosophy of Nothingness
(01:52:59) Graham's Interest in Eastern Philosophy
(02:01:04) Philosophy as World-Building
(02:05:36) Sylvan's Box
(02:10:06) Zen and How to Live One's Life
(02:20:28) Zen on Mind and Language
(02:30:08) The Basics of Buddhist Ethics
(02:52:08) Graham the Martial Artist
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Paul B Woodruff is a professor in the philosophy department at the University of Texas at Austin. Over the course of his extensive career he’s published numerous books, articles, and translations covering areas ranging from ancient philosophy and Greek tragedy to ethics and aesthetics. In the years between completing his undergraduate work in classics at Princeton and then getting his PhD in philosophy at the same university, he served in the Vietnam War, and it is largely this experience and the philosophical thought that emerged from it which Robinson and Paul discuss. Along with other topics, they talk about the ethics of killing civilians, just war theory, and Socrates’ practical ethics.
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Justin Clarke-Doane is a professor of philosophy at Columbia University, where he works on the philosophy of mathematics, physics, and metaethics. After a long-anticipated catch-up on recent ice cream-related activities, Justin and Robinson discuss the question: What is mathematics?
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Barry Lam is the host of Hi-Phi Nation, which is a much better podcast than this one, and which is devoted to exploring pressing philosophical questions through narrative. He did his graduate work at Princeton, then taught at Vassar, and will soon be picking up a new professorial post at UC Riverside. In this episode Robinson and Barry discuss the philosophical problems posed by certain monsters that were the subject of a three-part series in Hi-Phi Nation (namely zombies, cannibals, and vampires), along with David Lewis, the role of imagination in philosophy, and the risks of devoting time to public philosophy in an academic world that doesn’t prioritize it.
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C Thi Nguyen is a professor in the philosophy department at the University of Utah. Before that, he did his graduate work at UCLA, where he was also a food writer with the LA Times. Robinson and Thi talk about his book, Games: Agency as Art, along with why we call things porn, autonomy and aesthetic judgment, and the difficult epistemic situation of having to select which experts to rely on in fields where we can’t make our own informed decisions.
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Quayshawn Spencer is the Robert S. Blank Presidential Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania. Before taking up his post in Philadelphia, he studied chemistry and philosophy at Cornell and then received his PhD in philosophy and a Masters in biology at Stanford. Quayshawn and Robinson discuss whether or not race in humans is a biological or social phenomenon, the extent and nature of Kant’s of racism, some of the difficulties of researching a sensitive topic in the public eye, and the basics of natural kinds. For more of Quayshawn’s work, you can check out his latest book, "What is Race? Four Philosophical Views.”
Ray Briggs is a professor in the philosophy department at Stanford University. They did their doctoral work at MIT, and have since been working primarily in decision theory, epistemology, and metaphysics. In the last few years Ray has been writing and thinking about sex, gender, and transfeminism, which is what they and Robinson discuss in this episode, along with queer science fiction and thought experiments galore.
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Haim Gaifman is a professor of philosophy at Columbia university in New York City. He is also a mathematician and probability theorist. In this episode (Haim’s fourth appearance), Robinson and Haim discuss the origins of set theory as the mathematical discipline developed to study the infinite, as well as its relation to Richard’s paradox.
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David Albert is the Frederick E. Woodbridge Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University and one of the world’s most respected philosophers of physics. He is also the director of the Philosophical Foundations of Physics program at Columbia. David and Robinson talk about the relationship between ancient and contemporary physics, the continuum on which lie theoretical physics, the foundations of physics, the philosophy of physics, and metaphysics, scientific anti-realism, the direction of time, and how moral expressivism relates to the naturalistic project.
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Christopher Bobonich is the Clarence Irving Lewis Professor of Philosophy at Stanford University. After studying government at Harvard, he went on to do his graduate work at Cambridge and Berkeley. He now works broadly across value theory in ancient philosophy, though he is currently writing about knowledge and action in Plato. Among other things, Chris and Robinson talk about ancient and modern languages, etymology, the relevance of ancient ethics to contemporary life, and how well ancient conceptions of morality are preserved today.
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Nick is a software engineer at a biotech company. He studied politics, philosophy, and economics at the University of Pennsylvania. He and Robinson talk about the events that led him to abandon his deeply-held religious beliefs after a lifetime of Christianity. They also talk about moral facts, whether there are any, and whether their absence should play a role in Robinson deciding to shift toward being a vegetarian.
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Ronnie is Robinson’s father. They talk about the Elgin Marbles and also a little bit about ice cream and donuts.
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Ezekiel Quittner-Strom is a physician doing his residency in internal medicine at the University of Iowa. In this episode Robinson and Ezekiel eat a three-course feast of frozen food from Trader Joe’s and talk about it while they eat it, heated up and not frozen. Said talking concerned, in addition to said not-frozen frozen food, Ezekiel’s legendary perfect score on the MCAT and how he got it.
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Ethan Hoppe is a violinist and technical sergeant in the United States Air Force. He studied violin at Northwestern and Yale before the pandemic changed the trajectory of his career. We talk about the history of classical music, the power of listening to the same in an ancient world, memorizing the Game of Thrones theme song for a White House performance, and how visualization can be used as a tool to combat stage fright.
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Caroline Hudson is a facial plastic surgeon completing her fellowship in Palo Alto, California. She and Robinson discuss why an ENT (ear, nose, and throat specialist) would become a plastic surgeon, the fine (or illusory?) distinction between “meh” and “tasty,” forehead lowering surgery, the nuances of rhinoplasty, and everything you might want to know about stimulating collagen to improve the quality of your skin. They also talk about baked goods and eat them while they talk about them.
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David Albert and Justin Clarke-Doane are both professors of philosophy at Columbia University. While David is one of the world’s most respected philosophers of physics, Justin has staked his own claim as the authority on the intersection between mathematics and ethics. Though this episode was unfortunately plagued by some audio problems, it proved an exciting glimpse into a debate between two leading thinkers. Before a heated discussion concerning the nature of moral facts in a physical world, David, Justin, and Robinson discuss the problem of absolute vs. relative space, physics’s potential to swallow up other disciplines, and the sophisticated relationship between physics proper and the philosophy of the same.
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Graham Winn-Lee is Robinson’s best friend. Though that is how he likes to introduce himself, Graham is also an artist, graphic designer, and crocheting enthusiast with a lifelong passion for competitive dog grooming. This episode is exclusively about Robinson and Graham's respective post-apocalyptic fantasies and related feelings about zombies, dragons, and other pertinent creatures.
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Haim Gaifman is a philosopher and mathematician. He teaches at Columbia University in New York City. In this episode Haim answers two questions of Robinson’s: What is philosophy? What is mathematics?
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Philip studied neuroscience at the University of Michigan and is one of Robinson’s oldest friends. In this episode, Robinson forced Philip to eat ice cream novelties with him and talk about those novelties while eating them.
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Nick Huggett is a philosopher of physics and science at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Before that, he studied physics and philosophy at Oxford and received his PhD at Rutgers. Despite not having taken a physics class since the eighth grade, this podcast marks the beginning of Robinson’s ambition to learn a bit more about the philosophy of physics. Nick and Robinson talk about Zeno of Elea’s paradoxes of motion and composition, as well as how they might be related to quantum gravity and string theory.
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Contrary to popular belief, Demitrios Haldes (@infinitemonkeybusiness) is neither the last scion of Herakles nor the superintendent of a crayon factory, but a comic illustrator and writer. He and Robinson eat ice cream and talk about it while they eat it.
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Richard Kimberly Heck has been a professor of philosophy at Brown University since 2005, at which time they left their post at Harvard, where they had taught for over a decade. On the way to receiving their PhD in philosophy and linguistics at MIT, they studied at Duke and Oxford. While Professor Heck’s primary research focus has been logic and Frege, over the past few years they have shifted to the philosophy of sex and pornography. This is Robinson and Riki’s second conversation about pornography. The first, captured in episode five, was a general introduction to the topic. In this episode they discuss—among other topics—depictions of female sexuality in pornography, villains in the same, the ethics of sexual fantasies, and consent on college campuses.
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Ezekiel Quittner-Strom is a physician doing his residency in internal medicine at the University of Iowa. In this episode Robinson and Ezekiel eat instant noodles and talk about them while they eat them. Said talking concerned, in addition to said noodles, ramen, instant versus restaurant ramen, and Robinson’s failure to follow directions, as well as significantly less important things like internal medicine and the healthcare industry.
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Caroline Hudson is a facial plastic surgeon completing her fellowship in Palo Alto, California. She and Robinson discuss almost all things facial, ranging from wrinkles and filler to sewing teeny tiny nerves back together. They get into the distinction between ease and simplicity in gauging surgeries, the future of facelifts, daily skincare routines, and, in a surprising twist, Caroline convinces Robinson to give Botox a try. They also talk about snack cakes (think Twinkies or Ding-Dongs) and eat them while they talk about them.
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Michael Harris is a mathematician at Columbia University, where he primarily works on number theory. He did his undergraduate studies at Princeton and received his PhD from Harvard. Professor Harris and I discuss the tragic figure of Alexander Grothendieck, the allure of number theory, mathematics as an intrinsically human endeavor, creativity in mathematics, and the relationship between mathematicians and computers, including whether the former will ever replace the latter.
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Ethan Hoppe is a violinist and technical sergeant in the United States Air Force. He studied violin at Northwestern and Yale before the pandemic changed the trajectory of his career. Robinson and Ethan talk about the life of a military violinist and then delve into more conceptual matters, such as how a musician’s focuses change as they mature, viewing classical pieces as poems, training for blind auditions, and dealing with stage fright.
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Philip studied neuroscience at the University of Michigan and is one of Robinson’s oldest friends. One time in high school he gave a presentation for French class in which he sat there without speaking for ten minutes while everyone stared in awe, and for that he is a hero. As part of Philip’s sacrifice for this episode, he and Robinson traveled throughout Chicago in search of tasty baked goods, which they subsequently ate and talked about while eating.
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Haim Gaifman is a philosopher and mathematician. He teaches at Columbia University in New York City. Haim and Robinson talk about Alice in Wonderland, Bertrand Russell, and paradoxes.
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Contrary to popular belief, Demitrios Haldes (@infinitemonkeybusiness) is neither a male supermodel nor a basketball player in the Moldovian professional circuit, but a comic illustrator and writer. He and Robinson eat cookies and talk about them while they eat them.
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Patrick Davis (@theillestpd) is a stupidly yoked unit of a bodybuilder training and coaching out of Austin, Texas. Among other things, he and Robinson talk about Patrick’s journey from military school to bodybuilding, his experience with performance-enhancing drugs, and how to best make use of partial reps.
Note One: This episode contains an extensive discussion of performance-enhancing drugs, some of which are illegal. This cannot be construed as an endorsement of PEDs. Any decision regarding the use of such substances should be made carefully and in consultation with a supervising physician.
Note Two: Patrick recorded his end of the podcast over the phone. The audio is a bit glitchy at times, and unfortunately the video and audio somehow recorded at different speeds. I (Robinson) lack the technical experience to fix this, and I (Robinson) was also too lazy to figure it out. So if you happen to be watching the video, know that I (Robinson) feel your pain.
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Ezekiel Quittner-Strom is a physician doing his residency in internal medicine at the University of Iowa. He and Robinson talk about sushi and almost nothing else.
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Justin Clarke-Doane is a professor of philosophy at Columbia University, where he works on the philosophy of mathematics, physics, and metaethics. He and Robinson discuss ice cream and Justin’s fantastic hair, along with less important topics, like philosophy and mathematics. Instagram: @robinsonerhardt
Uncle Perry is Robinson’s uncle. They eat ice cream and talk about it while they eat it.
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Richard Kimberly Heck has been a professor of philosophy at Brown University since 2005, at which time they left their post at Harvard, where they had taught for over a decade. On the way to receiving their PhD in philosophy and linguistics at MIT, they studied at Duke and Oxford. While Professor Heck’s primary research focus has been logic and Frege, over the past few years they have shifted to the philosophy of sex and pornography. Among other topics, Robinson and Riki discuss this transition, along with the difficulties of studying pornography as an academic, the subject's aesthetic dimension, and the transformative power of queer pornography.
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Abigail Biddle is a bodybuilder and law student at Duke University. She and Robinson talk about the trials and tribulations of dieting, weightlifting qua treatment modality for sexual assault survivors, how Abigail got boulder shoulders, the dangers of eating Taco Bell before a cross-country flight, and air fryer hacks.
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Ronnie is Robinson’s father. They talk about ketchup and how collecting creates order in a chaotic life.
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Ethan Hoppe is a violinist and technical sergeant in the United States Air Force. He studied violin at Northwestern and Yale before the pandemic changed the trajectory of his career. Robinson and Ethan talk about the surprising experience that was air force boot camp, and how different it was from the hardcore fitness retreat they had both naively expected it to be.
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Haim Gaifman is a philosopher and mathematician. He teaches at Columbia University in New York City. Robinson and Haim talk about vagueness, a branch of philosophy that deals with borderline phenomena like heaps and baldness. (Note that this interview was conducted in May of 2022, before the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, which is used as an example in the discussion.)
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