Philosophy Overdose

A talk given by Catherine Elgin on her book "True Enough", the development of an epistemology that explains how science and art embody and convey understanding. Philosophy valorizes truth, holding that there can never be epistemically good reasons to accept a known falsehood, or to accept modes of justification that are not truth conducive. How can this stance account for the epistemic standing of science, which unabashedly relies on models, idealizations, and thought experiments that are known not to be true? In True Enough, Catherine Elgin argues that we should not assume that the inaccuracy of models and idealizations constitutes an inadequacy. To the contrary, their divergence from truth or representational accuracy fosters their epistemic functioning. When effective, models and idealizations are, Elgin contends, felicitous falsehoods that exemplify features of the phenomena they bear on. Because works of art deploy the same sorts of felicitous falsehoods, she argues, they also advance understanding.

Uploaded 07-07-21

Elgin develops a holistic epistemology that focuses on the understanding of broad ranges of phenomena rather than knowledge of individual facts. Epistemic acceptability, she maintains, is a matter not of truth-conduciveness, but of what would be reflectively endorsed by the members of an idealized epistemic community—a quasi-Kantian realm of epistemic ends.

Catherine's book: https://books.google.com/books/about/True_Enough.html?id=SWc6DwAAQBAJ&source=kp_book_description

#philosophy #epistemology #science #philosophyofscience



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Audio recording of a 2016 lecture by the philosopher and cultural theorist Kwame Anthony Appiah as part of his Reith Lectures on Mistaken Identities. He argues against a mythical, romantic view of nationhood, saying instead it should rest on a commitment to shared values. He explores the history of the idea, born in the 19th century, that there are peoples who are bound together by an ancient common spirit and that each of these nations is entitled to its own state. He says this idea is a mistaken one, illustrating his argument through the life story of the writer who took the pen name Italo Svevo - meaning literally Italian Swabian. He was born a citizen of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and became a citizen of the new republic of Italy, all without leaving his home city of Trieste. Appiah argues that states exist as a set of shared beliefs rather than membership of some sort of mythical and ancient group.

Uploaded 13-10-25

This lecture was given by Kwame Anthony Appiah at the University of Glasgow in 2016 as part of his Reith Lectures on Mistaken Identities.

00:00 Talk
31:19 Q and A

#philosophy #politicalphilosophy #politicaltheory #nationalism



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A few introductory clips on Kant's ethics and his famous principle of the categorical imperative. Among some of the featured speakers include James Rachels, Gilbert Harman, and Stephen Toulmin. These clips all come from the 1998 Εxαminϵd Life series.

Uploaded 25-09-24

#philosophy #kant #ethics #moralphilosophy



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Audio recording of professor Walter Kaufmann discussing Sophocles' Oedipus Rex and some of its philosophical aspects, as well as the death of tragedy, in a lecture given at Concordia University in 1974.

Uploaded 10-12-25

You may also be interested in the following: https://youtu.be/IAsIccIBWJM

00:00 Lecture
59:10 Q and A

#philosophy #aesthetics #literature #tragedy #greektragedy



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Audio recording of an interview with the philosopher and cognitive scientist Jerry Fodor from a few years back. Fodor discusses various approaches and issues in contemporary philosophy of mind. Among other things, he discusses Noam Chomsky's attempt to dissolve the mind-body problem, functionalism and computationalism, David Hume's representationalist and associationist approach, physicalism/materialism, intentionality, the problem of consciousness, creativity, imagination, and the science of the mind.

Uploaded 23-06-21

Note, this is a reupload. More details will be added later.

00:00 Materialism and Chomsky
03:05 Functionalism
05:18 Hume's Contribution
09:47 Computationalism vs Assocationism
11:39 Rationality and Computation
17:50 Consciousness
19:30 Creativity and Imagination
25:36 Role of Philosophers

#philosophy #philosophyofmind #consciousness #hume #intentionality #historyofphilosophy #mind



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Audio recording of Isaiah Berlin delivering the 1963 Alexander S. Keller lecture on romanticism, politics, and ethics at the University of Hartford.

Uploaded 16-03-25

#philosophy #romanticism #isaiahberlin #ethics #intellectualhistory



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Frances Kamm gives a talk called "Who Turned the Trolley? Is There a Problem?" which is the first in a series of lectures on the Trolley Problem called "The Trolley Problem Mysteries: May We Harm Some to Save Others?". This was part of the Tanner Lecture Series given at Berkeley in 2013 with commentary by Judith Jarvis Thomson.

Uploaded 05-03-24

Note, the introductions for both Frances Kamm and Judith Jarvis Thomson have been edited out. Frances Kamm is a distinguished philosopher whose work focuses on normative and applied ethics. More particularly, her research has taken up issues in nonconsequentialist ethical theory and the moral problems of mortality, bioethics, torture and war. Her writings deftly engage both the theoretical aspects of morality and their practical applications, probing the structure of the moral realm through rigorous reflection on ingenious hypothetical cases and thought experiments.

00:00 Frances Kamm's Lecture
1:02:52 Judith Jarvis Thomson
1:22:08 Q and A

#philosophy #ethics #moralphilosophy #utilitarianism



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Bertrand Russell and Frederick Copleston debate the existence of God in this famous radio debate from 1948. Copleston here presents the argument from contingency, which is a kind of cosmological argument for God's existence. It is now in the public domain. Note, the audio has been improved.

Uploaded 09-06-21

Frederick Copleston on Schopenhauer: https://youtu.be/6x8ydL5Jp70
Peter Millican on God and Morality: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOTvCtv9ht8
Simone de Beauvoir on God and Existentialism: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJnWHVwvYSQ

#philosophy #bertrandrussell #theism #atheism #god #philosophyofreligion #historyofphilosophy #debate



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The legacy of the political philosopher John Rawls is discussed by Michael Sandel (Harvard University), Steve Macedo (Princeton University), and Anthony Laden (the University of Illinois Chicago) with host Gretchen Helfrich in an episode of Odyssey from Chicago Public Radio back in 2002.

Uploaded 11-04-26

#philosophy #politicalphilosophy #politicaltheory #rawls #johnrawls #ethics



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Michael Levine discusses David Hume on the teleological argument or the argument from design with Alan Saunders in this clip from an episode of the Philosopher's Zone from back in 2011. Michael Levine was Professor of Philosophy at the University of Western Australia.

Uploaded 14-03-26

This clip comes from an episode of the Philosopher's Zone, an ABC Radio National program, from back in 2011.

The Philosopher's Zone: https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/philosopherszone

#philosophy #davidhume #philosophyofreligion #theism #atheism #agnosticism #historyofphilosophy



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