Philosophy on the Fringes

In this episode, Megan and Frank discuss esotericism, as both a type of, and approach to, knowledge. Are there hidden messages in the classic texts? Can some truths only be approached indirectly? 

Special guest: Earl Fontanellle of The Secret History of Western Esotericism Podcast (SHWEP)

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Hosts' Websites:

Megan J Fritts (google.com)

Frank J. Cabrera (google.com)

Email: [email protected]

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Bibliography:

Strauss, L.  - PERSECUTION AND THE ART OF WRITING | JSTOR

Melzer, A. - Philosophy Between the Lines: The Lost History of Esoteric Writing

Philebus, by Plato

Phaedrus, by Plato

The Esoteric Plato – The Secret History of Western Esotericism Podcast (SHWEP)

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Cover Artwork by Logan Fritts

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In this episode, Megan and Frank discuss the secret CIA mind control program known as MKUltra. Is mind control really possible? What ethical norms should govern human subjects research? And should those rules be flexible in the face of an existential threat?

To investigate some of these questions, this episode contains a guest interview with Dr. Justin Bernstein (University of Virginia). Dr. Bernstein joins the podcast to discuss questions relating to research ethics, the relationship between politics and morality, and trust in public health institutions. 

Hosts' Websites:

Megan J Fritts (google.com)

Frank J. Cabrera (google.com)

Email: [email protected]

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Bibliography:

John Lisle, "Project Mind Control: Sidney Gottlieb, the CIA, and the Tragedy of MKULTRA" (St. Martin's Press, 2025)

Reciprocity, Vulnerability, and the Moral Significance of Herd Immunity - Bernstein - 2023 - Journal of Applied Philosophy

Interim Framework for COVID-19 Vaccine Allocation and Distribution in the United States

Justin Bernstein, Athmeya Jayaram & Brian Hutler, Assessing The Liberty-Based Case Against Pandemic Lockdowns - PhilPapers

Building trust while influencing online COVID-19 content in the social media world - PMC

Political Realism | Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy

We Built Reality - Hardcover - Jason Blakely - Oxford University Press

Machiavelli - The Prince | Project Gutenberg

Rawls - A Theory of Justice: Revised Edition

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Cover Artwork by Logan Fritts

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Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):

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In this episode, Megan and Frank reflect on the mission of Philosophy on the Fringes. Why think about "fringe" topics, such as near-death experiences, aliens, and past life memories? Are these topics any weirder than what passes for respectable in mainstream academic philosophy? And most important, does taking fringe topics seriously make one a crank? 

To investigate some of these questions, this episode contains a guest interview with Dr. Joshua Blanchard (Oakland University). Dr. Blanchard joins the podcast to discuss the "problem of unwelcome epistemic company", the problem of finding yourself in agreement with some morally or intellectually suspect sources.

Hosts' Websites:

Megan J Fritts (google.com)

Frank J. Cabrera (google.com)

Email: [email protected]

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Bibliography:

From Aliens to Bigfoot: A Philosopher's Guide to the Strange Audiobook by Frank Cabrera, Megan Fritts, The Great Courses

Joshua Blanchard, The Problem of Unwelcome Epistemic Company

Neil Levy, When Is Company Unwelcome?

Adam Piovarchy, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Ignore Unwelcome Epistemic Company

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Cover Artwork by Logan Fritts

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Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):

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In this episode, Megan and Frank investigate dreams and dream interpretation. Are dreams random hallucinations? Hidden desires? Messages from the gods? What, if anything, can dreams tell us about ourselves, and how might media shape our dreaming experiences? Thinkers discussed include: Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Artemidorus of Daldianus, Rene Descartes, Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, Norman Malcom, Eric Schwitzgebel, and David Lynch.

Hosts' Websites:

Megan J Fritts (google.com)

Frank J. Cabrera (google.com)

Email: [email protected]

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Bibliography:

Genesis 41 ESV - Joseph Interprets Pharaoh's Dreams - Bible Gateway

Daniel 2 NIV - Nebuchadnezzar’s Dream - In the - Bible Gateway

Sirach 34 GNT - Dreams Mean Nothing - Foolish people - Bible Gateway

Artemidorus' Oneirocritica - Daniel E. Harris-McCoy - Oxford University Press

Peter Thonemann - An Ancient Dream Manual: Artemidorus' The Interpretation of Dreams

The Internet Classics Archive | On Dreams by Aristotle

The Internet Classics Archive | On Prophesying by Dreams by Aristotle

LacusCurtius • Cicero — De Divinatione: Book I

Plato's Republic Book 9 [Allan Bloom's translation]

Sigmund Freud: The Interpretation of Dreams

Wegner et al. - Dream Rebound

Dreaming | Norman Malcolm | Taylor & Francis eBooks

Scientists entered people’s dreams and got them ‘talking’ | Science | AAAS

Human Behavior and Psychology | The Great Courses (Episode 14)

Eric Schwitzgebel - Why did we think we dreamed in black and white?

Dreaming, Philosophy of | Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Descartes - Meditations on First Philosophy

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Cover Artwork by Logan Fritts

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In this episode, Megan and Frank investigate aphantasia, the inability to generate mental imagery. What can aphantasia tell us about the nature of the mind, in particular, "the hard problem" of consciousness? Should aphantasia be considered a disorder, or merely another variation in human experience? And is it possible to meaningfully talk about our inner experiences, or would that necessarily constitute a kind of private language? Thinkers discussed include: Adam Zeman, Merlin Monzel, Elizabeth Barnes, Ludwig Wittgenstein, and Soren Kierkegaard.

Hosts' Websites:

Megan J Fritts (google.com)

Frank J. Cabrera (google.com)

Email: [email protected]

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Bibliography:

Some People Can’t See Mental Images. The Consequences Are Profound | The New Yorker

Zeman et al. 2015 - Lives without imagery - Congenital aphantasia - PubMed

Zeman et al. 2020 - Aphantasia-The psychological significance of lifelong visual imagery vividness extremes - PubMed

Monzel et al. 2021 - Aphantasia, dysikonesia, anauralia: call for a single term for the lack of mental imagery-

Krempel & Monzel 2024 - Aphantasia and involuntary imagery

Monzel et al. 2023 -Aphantasia within the framework of neurodivergence

The Private Language Argument | Issue 58 | Philosophy Now

Disability: Definitions and Models (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)

The Minority Body: A Theory of Disability | Oxford Academic

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Cover Artwork by Logan Fritts

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Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):

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In this episode, Megan and Frank explore the prophecies of Nostradamus. Nostradamus was a prophet--but what is a prophet? What should we make of his seemingly accurate predictions of major world events? Do prophetic powers imply that the future is determined? Or are we simply bound to an immovable fate? And what, if anything, does Nostradamus have to tell us about our futures? Thinkers discussed include: Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Friedrich Nietzsche, Brian Leiter, and David Foster Wallace.

Hosts' Websites:

Megan J Fritts (google.com)

Frank J. Cabrera (google.com)

Email: [email protected]

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Bibliography:

Nostradamus : how an obscure Renaissance astrologer became the modern prophet of doom : Gerson, Stéphane (source for biographical details, anxiety vs. fear, and WWII propaganda)

The prophecies : a dual-language edition with parallel text : Nostradamus, 1503-1566

Nostradamus' grim predictions for 2026 revealed

David Foster Wallace and the Challenge of Fatalism | Blog of the APA

Future Contingents | Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy 

The Birth of Tragedy, or Hellenism and Pessimism, by Friedrich Nietzsche.

The Twilight of the Idols, by Friedrich Nietzsche.

Brian Leiter- Moral Psychology with Nietzsche

Moral Psychology with Nietzsche | Reviews | Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews

Nietzsche’s Moral and Political Philosophy (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)

Intersubjective Accountability: Politics and Philosophy in the Left Vienna Circle

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Cover Artwork by Logan Fritts

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Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):

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In this episode, Megan and Frank investigate the Mandela Effect. Why do so many people "remember" Nelson Mandela dying in prison in the 1980s, or the Fruit of the Loom logo as containing a cornucopia, or the existence of a movie starring Sinbad as a genie? What explains these collective mis-rememberings: parallel dimensions, a government cover-up, a glitch in the matrix? Or should we just conclude that human memory is inherently unreliable? How do false memories arise, and how can we distinguish the real from the imagined? Despite our cultural obsession with preserving every memory, could there be some value in forgetting the past? Thinkers discussed include Augustine of Hippo, Friedrich Nietzsche, Edmund Husserl, and Elizabeth Loftus.

Hosts' Websites:

Megan J Fritts (google.com)

Frank J. Cabrera (google.com)

Email: [email protected]

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Bibliography:

The Visual Mandela Effect as Evidence for Shared and Specific False Memories Across People

The Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) Task: A Simple Cognitive Paradigm to Investigate False Memories

Understanding Memory and the Human Lifespan | Plus

Loftus & Pickrell 1995 - The formation of false memories.

Loftus & Palmer 1974 - Reconstruction of automobile destruction: An example of the interaction between language and memory

Chloe Wall - Knowing (from) me, knowing (from) you: Essays on memory and testimony

Total recall: the people who never forget | Memory | The Guardian

Nietzsche: 'On the Genealogy of Morality' and Other Writings

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Cover Artwork by Logan Fritts

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Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):

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In this episode, Megan and Frank discuss the alternative medicine practice known as "Reiki," a kind of touch energy healing. What is Reiki, and how is it supposed to work? Is there scientific evidence of Reiki's effectiveness, or is it all just a placebo? And if so, would that really be a problem?

Hosts' Websites:

Megan J Fritts (google.com)

Frank J. Cabrera (google.com)

Email: [email protected]

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Bibliography:

Frontiers | Does Reiki Benefit Mental Health Symptoms Above Placebo?

What is Reiki? Energy Healing and Chakra Work — Lisa Kern

Does Reiki Work? - The Atlantic

Evidence and explanation in Cicero's On Divination

Tylenol Is Popular and Safe, Yet Nobody Knows How It Works | Scientific American

Siegel - Predictive Analytics, Revised and Updated

The Phantom Pattern Problem - Gary Smith; Jay Cordes - Oxford University Press

A radical new hypothesis in medicine: give patients drugs they know don’t work | Vox

The weird power of the placebo effect, explained | Vox

The Power of Mind over Body | Plus

Placebos Work—Even Without Deception | Harvard Medical School

Hume, David: Causation | Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Researchers are still working to prove that antidepressants are more effective than placebo

Medical Nihilism - Jacob Stegenga - Oxford University Press

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Cover Artwork by Logan Fritts

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Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):

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In this episode, Megan and Frank examine the Apocalypse. How should we define "the apocalypse"? How does religious apocalyptic thought apply in a secular context? What are the dangers of apocalyptic thinking? And why do we always seem to be in the end times? This episode pays special attention to the book Apocalypse Without God: Apocalyptic Thought, Ideal Politics, and the Limits of Utopian Hope by Ben Jones. Other thinkers discussed include: Machiavelli, Hobbes, Engels, and Rawls.

Hosts' Websites:

Megan J Fritts (google.com)

Frank J. Cabrera (google.com)

Email: [email protected]

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Bibliography:

Ben Jones - Apocalypse without God

Revelation 1 NIV - Prologue - The revelation from Jesus - Bible Gateway

The Rapture Was Predicted to Happen Today. TikTok Has Some Advice. - The New York Times

AI 2027

Opinion | An Interview With the Herald of the Apocalypse - The New York Times

Lectures on the History of Moral Philosophy — Harvard University Press

Roland Boer - Revelation and Revolution: Friedrich Engels and the Apocalypse

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Cover Artwork by Logan Fritts

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Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):

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In this episode, Megan and Frank continue their discussion of the Illuminati. Here, the focus is on the afterlife of the Bavarian Order. How did conspiracy theories involving the Illuminati arise? Why is so much pop culture full of Illuminati imagery? And are there any good reasons to believe in such conspiracy theories? Thinkers discussed include: Dostoyevsky, Kierkegaard, and Maarten Boudry.

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Hosts' Websites:

Megan J Fritts (google.com)

Frank J. Cabrera (google.com)

Email: [email protected]

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Bibliography:

Michael Taylor- Illuminati in the US - American History Hit | Acast

The Secret School of Wisdom: The Authentic Rituals and Doctrines of the Illuminati (Primary source documents)

CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Illuminati

Kierkegaard - The Crowd is Untruth

The Grand Inquisitor, by Feodor Dostoevsky

Barruel - Memoirs Illustrating The History Of Jacobinism

From Thomas Jefferson to Bishop James Madison, 31 January 1800

Did an Illuminati Conspiracy Theory Help Elect Thomas Jefferson? - POLITICO

Nesta Webster - World revolution; the plot against civilization

Zionism versus Bolshevism - Churchill

Boudry, Maarten - Why We Should Be Suspicious of Conspiracy Theories. A Novel Demarcation Problem 

[Reddit] why do the large shadow organizations leave clues that could lead to their downfall?

Megan Fritts & Frank Cabrera, Fake News and Epistemic Vice: Combating a Uniquely Noxious Market

Are Republicans and Conservatives More Likely to Believe Conspiracy Theories? - PMC

The psychological and political correlates of conspiracy theory beliefs

Is Conspiracy Theorising Irrational? - Neil Levy

Predictors of belief in conspiracy theory

Conspiracy theory and cognitive style: a worldview

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Cover Artwork by Logan Fritts

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Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):

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License code: ZILRIT8XNZAA6LYZ