Philosophy Talk Starters

More at www.philosophytalk.org/shows/language-fiction

What are we talking about when we talk about Sherlock Holmes or Santa Claus? Something that doesn't exist? Something that exists only in the mind? Something that exists only in a fictional or imaginary world? Are statements about fictional objects true? Is there a distinction between literal truth and "fictional truth?" John and Ken uncover the facts about fiction with Joshua Landy from Stanford University.

What are we talking about when we talk about Sherlock Holmes or Santa Claus? Something that doesn't exist? Something that exists only in the mind? Something that exists only in a fictional or imaginary world? Are statements about fictional objects true? Is there a distinction between literal truth and "fictional truth?" John and Ken uncover the facts about fiction with Joshua Landy from Stanford University.

More at: http://philosophytalk.org/shows/language-fiction

More at http://philosophytalk.org/shows/george-berkeley.

Berkeley founded and defended idealism, the doctrine that there is not a material world; reality is the orchestration of ideas in minds, nothing more. He influenced Hume, Mill, Russell, and many other philosophers. John and Ken explore Berkeley's ideas with David Hilbert from the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Berkeley founded and defended idealism, the doctrine that there is not a material world; reality is the orchestration of ideas in minds, nothing more. He influenced Hume, Mill, Russell, and many other philosophers. John and Ken explore Berkeley's ideas with David Hilbert from the University of Illinois at Chicago.

More at http://philosophytalk.org/shows/george-berkeley

More at www.philosophytalk.org/shows/willing-suspension-disbelief

Why don't we run out of the movie theatre when a monster shows on the screen? What kind of mental state is the willing suspension of disbelief? Why do fiction and drama affect our emotions even when we know they are not real? John and Ken examine the role of suspension of disbelief in the enjoyment of theatre, movies, video games, and what this trait reveals about the human mind in general.

Why don't we run out of the movie theatre when a monster shows on the screen? What kind of mental state is the willing suspension of disbelief? Why do fiction and drama affect our emotions even when we know they are not real? John and Ken examine the role of suspension of disbelief in the enjoyment of theatre, movies, video games, and what this trait reveals about the human mind in general.

More at http://philosophytalk.org/shows/willing-suspension-disbelief

More at www.philosophytalk.org/shows/reconciliation

Justice, truth, and identity; race, society, and law—these all come into dramatic play as South Africa makes the tumultuous transition to a post-apartheid democracy. How has the new South Africa constructed its concepts of reconciliation? How has its historical emergence meant a rethinking, reimaging, re-experiencing, relabeling, and repoliticizing of race? John and Ken discuss reconciliation with Daniel Herwitz, a philosopher who has spent much time in South Africa.

Justice, truth, and identity; race, society, and law—these all come into dramatic play as South Africa makes the tumultuous transition to a post-apartheid democracy. How has the new South Africa constructed its concepts of reconciliation? How has its historical emergence meant a rethinking, reimaging, re-experiencing, relabeling, and repoliticizing of race? John and Ken discuss reconciliation with Daniel Herwitz, a philosopher who has spent much time in South Africa.

More at: http://philosophytalk.org/shows/reconciliation

More at www.philosophytalk.org/shows/strange-world-quantum-reality

Quantum mechanics is an astoundly successful, mathematically elegant, explanatorily deep, even beautiful scientific theory. Yet it reveals a truly puzzling world of micro-entities: entities that can be at two places at once, that can "travel" from here to the other side of Alpha Centauri in an instant without traversing the space in between, that behave like waves when unobserve but like particles when observed. John and Ken ask Jenann Ismael from the University of Arizona to help try to make philosophical sense of the strange world of quantum reality.

Quantum mechanics is an astoundly successful, mathematically elegant, explanatorily deep, even beautiful scientific theory. Yet it reveals a truly puzzling world of micro-entities: entities that can be at two places at once, that can "travel" from here to the other side of Alpha Centauri in an instant without traversing the space in between, that behave like waves when unobserve but like particles when observed. John and Ken ask Jenann Ismael from the University of Arizona to help try to make philosophical sense of the strange world of quantum reality.

More at http://philosophytalk.org/shows/strange-world-quantum-reality