Phi Fic

On Cavell's essay "The Avoidance of Love: A Reading of King Lear" (1969).

Can money buy you love? What is tragedy? With guest Erin O'Luanaigh.

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How should we think politically about the current global crisis? Do extreme circumstances reveal truths of political philosophy or do they reinforce whatever it is we already believe? Mark, Wes, Seth, and Dylan talk about applying philosophical insights to real-life situations rife with unknowns, John Rawls' veil of ignorance and Adam Smith on our interconnectedness, utilitarianism, libertarianism, and more. A source we used was "How Coronavirus Is Shaking Up the Moral Universe" by John Authers.

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End song: "Date of Grace" by Rob Picott, as discussed on Nakedly Examined Music #80.

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We are Reposting our Discussion on The Machine Stops by EM Forster because The Machine is stopping.

Stay Safe!

'Cannot you see, cannot all you lecturers see, that it is we that are dying, and that down here the only thing that really lives is the Machine? We created the Machine, to do our will, but we cannot make it do our will now. It has robbed us of the sense of space and of the sense of touch, it has blurred every human relation and narrowed down love to a carnal act, it has paralysed our bodies and our wills, and now it compels us to worship it. The Machine develops - but not on our lies. The Machine proceeds - but not to our goal. We only exist as the blood corpuscles that course through its arteries, and if it could work without us, it would let us die."

- The Machine Stops

On this episode we read The Machine Stops by EM Forster, a cautionary tale written in 1909—on the threat of ungoverned technology. The story follows two characters—Vashti and her son, Kuno, during a time of post-apocalyptic earth. Mankind has been forced to relocate and live underground because the air on the earth’s surface has apparently become unbreathable. As a result, people live in empty rooms—or pods—underground, surrounded by buttons which, when activated, determine their day.

There were buttons and switches everywhere - buttons to call for food, for music, for clothing. There was the hot-bath button, by pressure of which a basin of (imitation) marble rose out of the floor, filled to the brim with a warm deodorized liquid. There was the cold-bath button. There was the button that produced literature. And there were of course the buttons by which [Vashti] communicated with her friends. The room, though it contained nothing, was in touch with all that she cared for in the world.

-The Machine Stops

Vashti and Kuno live on opposite ends of the world and communicate, like everyone else, via “blue plates” which they hold in their hands while their faces appear on the plates and they talk to one another (Skype/FaceTime, anyone?). Vashti visits Kuno and learns that, in a rebellious act, Kuno travelled to the surface of the earth and found other humans living there. Yet, the Machine caught him and has threatened him with “homelessness”. Homelessness = death and traveling up to the surface--out of the machine--is a criminal repudiation of the deity--The Machine. Vashti returns home dismissing her son’s madness and continues her life inside the pod—but then The Machine starts to break down—life support to enable travel to the surface disappears and religion is reintroduced. What is the fate of our characters?

We are joined again by the irrepressible and wonderful Dan Johnson and Jennifer Tejada, as we explore this fascinating, prescient story!

And take a look at:

The Machine Stops: Did EM Forster predict the internet age?

https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-36289890

Hear more Phi Fic.

Thanks to Christopher Nolen for the music

On "Scorekeeping in a Language Game" (1979) and "Truth in Fiction" (1978).

Lewis's account of possible worlds can be applied to conversation: As we speak, each sentence adds to the "conversational score" (the set of assumptions that enable us to understand each other) while reducing the field of possible worlds that the picture we're painting together could potentially represent. What are the gravitational forces within this kind of scorekeeping? Also, when an author creates a fictive "world," how do facts about that world logically relate to those of the actual world? With guest Matt Teichman.

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End song: "Real Life" by Matt Wilson, as interviewed for Nakedly Examined Music #118.

On Ch. 4 of Lewis's book Counterfactuals (1973) and the essays “Scorekeeping in a Language Game” (1979) and “Truth in Fiction” (1978).

What makes a sentence about possibility true? Lewis things that we need possible worlds that really exist in order to make sense of our modal intuitions. He uses this possible world talk to make sense of conversations and the worlds created by fiction writers. With guest Matt Teichman from Elucidations.

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Continuing on The Spirit of the Laws (1748) by Charles Louis de Secondat, aka Baron de Montesquieu. Mark, Wes, Dylan, and Seth talk more about the "motive force" behind each type of government and the separation of powers.

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End song: "King of the Hill" by MINUTEMEN. Listen to Mark interview Mike Watt on Nakedly Examined Music #108.

Be sure to check out The Panpsycast Philosophy Podcast.

On The Spirit of the Laws (1748) by Charles Louis de Secondat, aka Baron de Montesquieu.

What keeps a society functioning? Montesquieu, though of course not the first political philosopher, was perhaps the first to systematically explore correlations between characteristics of a government, its people, its climate, dominant industries, religion, and other factors. Some of his ideas directly influenced the American Constitution, and some of them are very very weird.

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Mark, Wes, Dylan, and Seth summarize thoughts about our recent series on social construction, gender and sex, and Judith Butler's notion of "grievable lives." Should we stop covering so much contemporary work and/or political topics?

End song: "The Size of Luv" by Mark Lint from Mark Lint's Dry Folk (2018).

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Continuing on Benjamin's "Critique of Violence" (1921).

Mark, Wes, and Seth keep trying to figure out this difficult essay. Is Benjamin really advocating a workers' revolution to end the state, or just reflecting on a hypothetical to explore the limits of the concept of violence?

According to Judith Butler's interpretation of the essay, the takeaway is the alternative to motivation through force, i.e. speech, which Benjamin (in other essays) gives some religious significance, but the way he actually concludes the essay is in a discussion of "divine violence" as somehow transcending means-end analysis and the corruption inherent in violence.

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End song: "Jericho" from hackedepiciotto, as interviewed on Nakedly Examined Music #116.

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