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In this episode, I speak with Professor Edouard Machery to explore experimental philosophy and the question of whether morality is truly universal. We discuss why humans need morals in the first place, why we often fail to live up to our own moral ideals. We also look at cross-cultural differences in moral judgments, the limits of relying on intuition in philosophy, and what new technologies like VR reveal about the gap between moral judgment and moral action. Timestamps added!

About Edouard Machery

Professor Machery is the Director of the Center for Philosophy of Science and Professor at The University of Pittsburgh. His research  focuses on the philosophical issues raised by the cognitive sciences, currently focusing on the methodology of experimental psychology. His recent research projects and publications also include the nature and origin of racial categorization, the application of evolutionary theories to human cognition, the nature of culture, and the structure of moral concepts. Finally, he is involved in the development of experimental philosophy, and has used experimental and quasi-experimental methods to study intuitions about reference, folk judgments about intentional action, causation, the folk concept of race, and the folk concept of phenomenal consciousness.

Website: https://www.edouardmachery.com/

Books

Doing without concepts - https://global.oup.com/academic/product/doing-without-concepts-9780195306880?cc=ae&lang=en&

Philosophy within its proper bounds - https://www.amazon.com/Philosophy-Within-Its-Proper-Bounds/dp/019880752X

Book Chapter: Experimental Philosophy of Science: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/9781118661666.ch33

Bluesky: @edouardmachery.bsky.social

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