MeaningofLife.tv

A brief primer on the free will vs. determinism debate ... Are moral responsibility and determinism compatible? ... Is punishment a tragic necessity or a moral good? ... Gideon tries to convince Bob that compatibilism is coherent ... Gideon's distinctive take on compatibilism ... A thought experiment about the moral culpability of an ancient slaveholder ... Free will and the mind-body problem ... Buddhist ideas about punishment ...

Rachel's essay on her mother's death, "The Fraught Culture of Online Mourning" ... Aryeh recalls mourning his father in the pre–social media era ... A moment when language fails ... Is it possible to talk about death with sincerity on Twitter? ... The many (often gendered) Victorian rituals of mourning ... Rachel's forthcoming book, Too Much: How Victorian Constraints Still Bind Women Today ... Do you want to be memorialized for eternity on Facebook? ...

Rachel's essay on her mother's death, "The Fraught Culture of Online Mourning" ... Aryeh recalls mourning his father in the pre–social media era ... A moment when language fails ... Is it possible to talk about death with sincerity on Twitter? ... The many (often gendered) Victorian rituals of mourning ... Rachel's forthcoming book, Too Much: How Victorian Constraints Still Bind Women Today ... Do you want to be memorialized for eternity on Facebook? ...

Is the “Morality Everywhere Problem” really a problem? ... Why Robert finds the moral question difficult to dispel  ... Peter Singer’s “drowning child” thought experiment ... Is weakness of will keeping Robert from volunteering at the soup kitchen? ... Dan: “Embrace the normal” ... What do those living in dire poverty want first-worlders to do? ... Why Rob is repulsed by utilitarianism ... Dan: The end goal of charity is human flourishing ... Were people less sensitive in the past? ...

Is the “Morality Everywhere Problem” really a problem? ... Why Robert finds the moral question difficult to dispel ... Peter Singer’s “drowning child” thought experiment ... Is weakness of will keeping Robert from volunteering at the soup kitchen? ... Dan: “Embrace the normal” ... What do those living in dire poverty want first-worlders to do? ... Why Rob is repulsed by utilitarianism ... Dan: The end goal of charity is human flourishing ... Were people less sensitive in the past? ...

Matthew’s new book, Practice and All Is Coming ... Justifications for sexual abuse in the early Ashtanga yoga community ... Matthew: “Sacred” leaders like Pattabhi Jois have been absolved of personal responsibility ... Just how ancient are modern yoga practices? ... Matthew responds to accusations from the Ashtanga community ... How much agency do victims of sexual abuse really have? ... Reforming yoga communities with histories of abuse ...

Matthew’s new book, Practice and All Is Coming ... Justifications for sexual abuse in the early Ashtanga yoga community ... Matthew: “Sacred” leaders like Pattabhi Jois have been absolved of personal responsibility ... Just how ancient are modern yoga practices? ... Matthew responds to accusations from the Ashtanga community ... How much agency do victims of sexual abuse really have? ... Reforming yoga communities with histories of abuse ...

Remembering the Satanic ritual abuse panic of the 1980s ... How the McMartin case launched the panic ... Sarah: Recovered memory therapy created the idea of Satanic ritual abuse ... Why hasn't there been a large-scale reckoning with the panic? ... Contemporary resonances: witch hunts and moral panics ... Sarah visits Disney World and thinks about desire ... Why are there so many absent mothers in the Disney canon? ...

Robert: Is it permissible to remain a philosophy professor? ... Why Dan opposes the “morality everywhere” approach to life ... Can professors really leave a lasting impact on students? ... “First world problems” and moral obligation in the classroom ... What is the “White Paper” of philosophy, and does it have any authority? ... Rethinking the role of the academy in society ... Dan: Philosophy as a life guide is, well, misguided ...

David's new book, This View of Life ... In what sense, if any, could evolution be conscious? ... The need to complete the Darwinian revolution ... An evolutionary psychology discussion makes Bob tape his mouth shut ... How successful groups avert the tragedy of the commons ... Convergent cultural evolution ... David: Evolution shows that neither laissez faire nor centralized planning works ... A preview of the coming Bob vs. David showdown over group selection ...