For Patreon subscribers, there’s further revision questions by heading to www.patreon.com/kyliesturgess.1. How confident should one be in one’s atheism?2. There’s no such thing as agnosticism, it’s only delaying the inevitable between faith and atheism. Discuss.3. Is it possible to prove the existence of God? Discuss.4. “There probably is no god. Stop worrying and enjoy your life.” Discuss.

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Today’s episode is the revision on reviews from the past week — you can support the 365DaysOfPhilosophy podcast by visiting www.patreon.com/kyliesturgess and review previous episodes at www.365daysofphilosophy.com.

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The sequel to the film Blade Runner has been released this year and I’ve avoided seeing it, simply because I enjoyed this first film so much, I doubt that it’d live up to my expectations. I’ll probably see it eventually though; the novel that the story is based upon. “Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?” is rather short and different to the very film-noir movie. 

Much like The Matrix, you can see a number of philosophical themes directly addressed and alluded to throughout; what makes us human? If we created artificial humans, should they be given the same rights and dignity? What does it mean to be human anyway — or as the concluding line puts it: It’s a shame she won’t live — but then again, who does?” 

Other themes include he environment and globalisation, and the impact it has on society; there’s even been Nietzschean interpretations of the android character Roy Batty. For a movie that is pretty much a straightforward search and destroy the invaders, and falling in love with the enemy, it’s a stylish, thought-provoking production, and I admit to liking both the original edit and the ‘director’s cut’.

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I’ve used The Eyewitness Companion book Philosophy by Stephen Law and James Garvey as an introductory text for high school students, and it contains great summaries of not only the historical aspects of philosophy but also some important concepts such as reasoning, fallacies and key ideas such as problem of evil, falsification and defining knowledge. 

What really makes it stand out is the beautiful design and scope; while one criticism is that it only has limited space to cover a broad range, the images and text is attractive and appealing. As a teaching text, it was a useful brief summary that would be the basis of a class discussion, and I would often set a particular subject, break it down terms that were in the pages and set them as report subjects. It’s difficult to cover terms like existentialism and postmodernism in a brief way (and I should know with this podcast!), and I don’t really expect a text that dedicates a little more than a page or so to a subject like “logical positivism” be the be-all-and-end-all reference text, but there’s something very appealing about the overall packaging and discussion of philosophy that leads me to recommend this book.

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“You can and you must fix your own racism, transphobia, et cetera. You must not suppose that this individually noble act will be magically upscaled. It does not all start with you. It’s not all connected in the easy way some might suppose. To believe that your personal purity and great compassion serves anyone so well as you is mystification.”

First, a confession: I’ve enjoyed all of Helen Razer’s books and still have copies of “Three Beers and a Chinese Meal”, “Gas Smells Awful” and her other recent book, “The Helen 100”. I also started reading the Big Issue after discovering her column in the pages, and continued getting copies even after she left the publication, because she said people should keep buying it.

Since today marks 100 years since the communist revolution in Russia, it’s as good enough time as any to recommend her new book, Total Propaganda. This is one of the few books that I’ve found that starts with a straightforward and sensible-sounding take on ‘why Hilary isn’t the president of the United States’ and pretty much proceeds to knock down preconceptions about Marxist thought and why ‘what young people call “woke” is what we old Marxists call “class conscious”’. Naturally, any skeptic of Marxism is going to point out the historical development since the revolution in Russia and some disastrous and tragic events since that time in political history. But there’s definitely something to be said for a good hard kick in head about how capitalism contributes to the socio-political situations we currently face, and how dominant power structures should be questioned and why. Especially if it’s the power that you cannot easily identify. The reminder to unite remains.

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There’s a number of recommended resources out there on the topic of agnosticism, some individual episodes and some full programs that you can check out:

How to be agnostic — Philosopher’s Magazine — an ongoing publication, highly recommended

Am I an Atheist or an Agnostic? A Plea for Tolerance in the Face of New Dogmas by Bertrand Russell — classic text

Religious Ambiguity, Agnosticism, and Prudence by Randolph Feezell, Florida Philosophical Review

Faith for atheists and agnostics by Wallace A. Murphree — Sophia

Agnosticism, Skeptical Theism, and Moral Obligation by Stephen Maitzen

Agnosticism by Prof. Thomas H. Huxley

Religious Agnosticism by Gary Gutting, Midwest Studies In Philosophy

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The philosophy of Atheism represents a concept of life without any metaphysical Beyond or Divine Regulator. It is the concept of an actual, real world with its liberating, expanding and beautifying possibilities, as against an unreal world, which, with its spirits, oracles, and mean contentment has kept humanity in helpless degradation.” — Emma Goldman 

Atheism, broadly defined, means the lack of belief in the existence of any gods. The definition is sometimes disagreed with; there’s theists and sometimes atheists who would more narrowly define atheism as the affirmation that gods do not exist.

That particular forum of atheism is informally known as strong atheism while the lack or absence of belief in gods is sometimes called weak atheism or agnosticism. In his book The God Delusion, Richard Dawkins proposes a ‘spectrum of possibilities’ for different poles of certainty about god, in a similar fashion, and suggests that there’s different approaches one can take in defining one’s faith (or lack of it) in that regard. 

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Today’s episode is the revision on fallacies from the past week — you can support the 365DaysOfPhilosophy podcast by visiting www.patreon.com/kyliesturgess and review previous episodes at www.365daysofphilosophy.com.

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Here’s all the major fallacies covered this year on the 365DaysOfPhilosophy:

weasel words, slippery slope, appeal to authority, straw man, argument from ignorance, shifting the goalposts, post hoc ergo propter hoc, appeal to popularity, ad hominem, tu quoque, cum hoc ergo propter hoc, anecdotal fallacy, red herring, no true Scotsman fallacy, begging the question, hasty generalisation, false dilemma, and reductio ad absurdum.

See if you can identify nine of them in the examples below:

Her low level of sophistication and engagement with the case leads me to think that she hasn’t got enough relevance to the importance of the job.

On average, if your dog goes to the Jones training school, it behaves worse. Therefore, if you go to Jones training school, you’ll have a badly trained dog.

After voting for Lewis, we know he’ll become president and then legalise all the illegal drugs and make the country worse than ever before because of your vote.

Joe may say he has the best pizza but we all know he’s a horrible person and that makes for a bad pizza cook.

She’s got no idea about this particular case, which means she’s absolutely no good for the job overall.

Her strategy for the photo shoot is absurd, but your strategies are no better.

Of course, you can walk wherever you like, but if you keep on walking, eventually you’ll just run out of places to walk.

There may be alien life in outer space, but there’s not enough evidence yet, but it’s better to be safe and sure, and say that there is alien life in outer space.

The Jones team is the best team; sure, there’s other great teams but none of them are the best as they’re not the Jones team.

Leave your answers in the comments!

 

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