Robinson's Podcast

Jody Azzouni is Professor of Philosophy at Tufts University. While Jody is best known for his nominalist stance in the philosophy of mathematics, he is also an author of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. Robinson and Jody discuss one of Jody’s poems in detail before moving on to the philosophy of mathematics and logic. They go over the distinction between natural and formal languages, the roles and varieties of proof in mathematics, and whether mathematics can have foundations. This is Jody’s second appearance on Robinson’s podcast. On his first appearance, episode #45, he and Robinson spoke about the debate between nominalists and platonists in the philosophy of mathematics, Jody’s own deflationary stance, and some adjacent concerns about ontological commitment in both formal and informal languages. His latest book is Attributing Knowledge: What it Means to Know Something (Oxford, 2020).

Jody’s Website: https://jodyazzouni.com

OUTLINE:

00:00 In This Episode…

00:40 Introduction

4:48 “Colored Themes” by Jody Azzouni

36:59 The Difference Between Formal and Natural Languages 

1:02:37 The Nature of Mathematical Proof

1:20:36 Can Mathematics Still Have Foundations?

1:26:36 Jody’s Course on Philosophy of Math

1:31:01 Mathematics as a Social Practice

1:37:23 Revolutions in Mathematics 

1:40:35 “February” by Giles Goodland

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between. 

Stephen Darwall is Andrew Downey Orrick Professor of Philosophy at Yale University and John Dewey Distinguished University Professor Emeritus at the University of Michigan. He is a world-renowned moral philosopher who has worked broadly across the ethical landscape, making important contributions to Kant scholarship, legal philosophy, deontology, and countless other areas. In this episode, Robinson and Steve talk about Steve’s strabismus (a visual impairment) and how it affects the way he sees the world, violence and human dignity, second-personal ethics, and Steve’s work on the relationship between philosophy and the heart. This is Steve’s second appearance on Robinson’s Podcast. In his first, episode #49, Steve and Robinson discussed the history of modern ethics, beginning with Hugo Grotius and traveling up through Hobbes, Hume, Kant, Bentham, and Smith before ending with Marx, Kierkegaard, and Nietzsche’s attack on morality. Check out Steve’s book on second-personal ethics, The Second-Person Standpoint: Morality, Respect, and Accountability (Harvard, 2009).

Steve’s Website: https://campuspress.yale.edu/stephendarwall/

OUTLINE:

00:00 In This Episode…

00:35 Introduction

3:57 Creative Pursuits and Strabismus

26:57 Violence and Human Dignity

56:42 Cognitive Science, Violence, and Dignity

1:05:55 What Is Second-Personal Ethics?

1:15:54 Moral Obligation, Recognition, and Second-Personal Ethics

1:27:57 Philosophy of the Heart

1:52:58 Chattel Slavery, Reparations, and the Heart

2:04:22 Steve and the Heart

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between. 

Craig Callender is Professor of Philosophy and Co-Director of the Institute for Practical Ethics at UC San Diego. Craig works across the philosophy of science, and has published research on the philosophy of physics, applied ethics, the metaphysics of time, and other related areas. In this episode, Craig and Robinson discuss the content of a course he’s been teaching called Science vs Pseudoscience. More particularly, they talk about the boundary between science and pseudoscience, as well as case studies of science, pseudoscience, and conspiracy theories, including super-string theory, psychoanalysis, astrology, and more. Craig’s most recent book, What Makes Time Special? (Oxford University Press, 2017), won the prestigious Lakatos Award in 2018. 

Craig’s Website: https://www.craigcallender.com 

OUTLINE:

00:00 In This Episode…

00:26 Introduction

7:15 A Course on Science and Pseudoscience

14:43 Karl Popper’s Demarcation Problem

22:56 Superstring Theory

29:26 Psychoanalysis

32:29 Astrology

36:04 Pseudohistory and Expert Selection

47:02 Flat Earth Theory

51:28 Why Clever People Believe Silly Things 

1:01:25 Personality Tests

1:14:12 Quantum Mumbo Jumbo

1:25:59 Replicability

1:29:15 Nutritionism

1:35:11 A Perpetual Motion Machine

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between. 

Eric Trexler received his PhD in Human Movement Science from the medical school at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He is a professional body builder and a sports nutrition researcher, and the co-owner of Stronger By Science, MASS Research Review, and the MacroFactor nutrition app, as well as the co-host of the terrific Stronger By Science podcast. Robinson and Eric discuss some philosophical concerns in sports science, including methodological limitations in study design and human error in scientific reasoning. Among other topics, they address the ecological validity of mechanistic research, ways in which funding and practical constraints guide experimentation, and ethical considerations that factor into the study of steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs.

Eric’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/trexlerfitness

Eric’s Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/erictrexler

Stronger By Science: https://www.strongerbyscience.com

MASS Research Review:  https://www.strongerbyscience.com/mass/

The MacroFactor Nutrition App: https://www.macrofactorapp.com

OUTLINE:

00:00 In This Episode…

00:50 Introduction

3:28 Human Movement Science

8:02 Performance Effects of Citrulline Malate and Beetroot Juice Supplementation

16:06 Interpreting Mechanistic Research

26:40 Reductive Reasoning and the Carbohydrate-Insulin Model of Obesity

55:59 Limitations of Study Design

01:16:56 Ethical Constraints on Researching Performance-Enhancing Drugs

01:25:40 MacroFactor

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between. 

Peter Adamson is Professor of Late Ancient and Arabic Philosophy at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and Professor of Ancient and Medieval Philosophy at King's College London. He’s also the host of the podcast History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps and the author of the book series by the same name. Robinson and Peter talk about Neoplatonism—a philosophical movement in late antiquity—and its great thinkers, including Plotinus, Porphyry, Iamblichus, and Proclus, as well as the many issues they thought and wrote about, such as evil, theology, logic, and vegetarianism. 

OUTLINE:

02:14 Introduction

7:30 What’s Interesting About Neoplatonism?

5:35 The Etymology of “Neoplatonism”

11:36 Where was Neoplatonism?

19:48 The Great Plotinus

23:56 Plotinus’ Metaphysics 

32:30 Plotinus and Theology 

39:46 Plotinus on Evil

1:00:15 Porphyry, His Logic, and Arguments for Vegetarianism CLIP

1:18:31 Iamblichus

1:24:02 Proclus

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between. 

Elisabeth Camp is Professor of Philosophy at Rutgers, where she works on the philosophy of language, mind, and aesthetics. As she puts it, her research “focuses on thoughts and utterances that don’t fit standard propositional models.” Liz and Robinson spend the first third of their conversation discussing the poetry of Emily Dickinson and its connections to philosophy. They then move on to the substantial corpus of Liz’s work, touching on frames—or representational devices—various difficult-to-analyze speech acts and devices like insinuation and metaphor, and the semantics of maps. Keep up with Liz and her research at http://www.elisabethcamp.org.

OUTLINE:

00:00 Introduction

3:30 Liz’s Interest in Figurative Language

12:03 Emily Dickinson’s “The first Day’s Night had come”

29:03 Emily Dickinson’s “This World is not Conclusion”

42:36 Mary’s Room as a Literary Creation

49:46 Imaginative Resistance

58:44 Frames as Representational Devices

1:07:34 Liz’s Taste in Problems

1:11:23 Speech Acts

1:16:41 John Searle

1:23:54 Insinuation

1:47:42 Sarcasm

1:51:00 Metaphors

2:19:42 Slurs

2:32:42 Metaphors in Science

2:40:53 Maps and Sentences

2:57:53 Animal Minds and Mental Language

3:05:37 Cognitive Science at Rutgers

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between. 

Frank Jackson is Emeritus Professor at the Australian National University. He is best known for the knowledge argument and Mary’s Room—its accompanying thought experiment—but has published widely in the philosophy of mind, epistemology, metaphysics, and the philosophy of language. Frank and Robinson discuss conceptual analysis—or the philosophical technique of examining the meaning, content, or definition of a concept to resolve questions about it—as well as physicalism, reference in the philosophy of language, the knowledge argument, and more. Much of the material discussed in this episode can be found in greater depth in Frank’s 1998 book, From Metaphysics to Ethics: A Defence of Conceptual Analysis.

OUTLINE:

00:00 Introduction

5:42 Growing Up in a Household of Philosophers 

11:06 What Is Conceptual Analysis?

16:01 Physicalism, the Location Problem, and Conceptual Analysis

21:00 Conceptual Analysis and the Sorites Paradox

25:48 A Priori Physicalism

38:13 Physicalism in Math and Elsewhere

43:31 Color and the Location Problem

54:10 Ethics and the Location Problem

1:06:49 Metaphilosophy

1:13:13 Naming, Language, and Mind

1:30:05 One-Spaceism and Two-Spaceism

1:39:12 Mary’s Room and the Knowledge Argument

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between. 

Simon Blackburn was Professor of Philosophy at the University of Cambridge and Edna J. Koury Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Though he has worked in many areas of philosophy, he is best known for his contributions to metaethics and the philosophy of language. Simon and Robinson discuss the distinction between ethics and metaethics before primarily focusing on the latter, where they explore the concept of realism. Simon’s latest books are Lust and Mirror, Mirror.

OUTLINE:

4:31 Simon’s History with Metaethics

8:20 Distinguishing Ethics and Metaethics

12:57 On Moral Realism

39:42 Frege and the True 

43:57 Moral Quasi-realism

54:52 Moral Quasi-realism and Living a Good Life 

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between. 

David Albert is the Frederick E. Woodbridge Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University, where he directs the Philosophical Foundations of Physics program. Tim Maudlin is Professor of Philosophy at NYU. Both David and Tim are renowned as leading philosophers of physics, though their work extends beyond that to the philosophy of science and metaphysics. David is a prior guest (episodes 23 and 30) of Robinson’s Podcast, as is Tim (episode 46). David, Tim, and Robinson discuss the foundations of quantum theory, beginning with its historical motivation, tracking through some important concepts—superposition and the measurement problem—and then exploring some of its philosophical aspects (such as determinism, realism, the potential for backward causation, and more).  

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com 

OUTLINE:

00:00 In This Episode…

00:17 Introduction

2:51 What Motivated the Development of Quantum Theory?

7:05 Superposition and the Measurement Problem

31:42 John Bell’s Theory of Local Beables

44:30 Formalism and Interpretation in Quantum Theory

51:52 The Einstein-Podoksky-Rosen Argument

58:26 On “Interpretations” of Quantum Theory

1:11:17 The Ghirardi-Rimini-Weber Theory of Spontaneous Collapse

1:16:19 The Many Worlds Theory

1:30:46 Determinism

1:46:29 Quantum Mechanics and Quantum Field Theory

1:48:28 Realism

1:52:15 Monism and Entanglement

1:58:19 Backward Causation

2:04:32 An Experiment to Further Foundations

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.

Noam Chomsky is Professor of Linguistics Emeritus at MIT and Laureate Professor of Linguistics at the University of Arizona. He not only counts as among the most influential linguists of all time, but he has played a major role in the development of twentieth and twenty-first century philosophy, cognitive science, and political theory. Noam and Robinson talk about some of the major topics in modern linguistics, ranging from generative and universal grammar to innateness hypotheses and the current limitations of large language models for studying human linguistic faculties. There are also philosophical dimensions to the conversation, as Noam touches on his time with Nelson Goodman, Hilary Putnam, and W. V. O. Quine, while other concerns—such as the indeterminacy of reference and the relationship between thought and language—recur throughout the discussion. 

OUTLINE:

00:00 In This Episode…

00:27 Introduction

8:32 Noam’s Entry into Linguistics 

11:03 Ferdinand de Saussure and Twentieth Century Linguistics

23:04 The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

26:00 Thoughts on Language and Behaviorism

35:24 Innateness Hypotheses in Linguistics

42:00 Innateness and Universal Grammar

46:02 Limitations of Large Language Models

48:42 Impossible Languages and What Linguists Study

1:00:10 Historical Shifts in Linguistics

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.