Things You Can Do

Hi, philosophriends, I just wanted to post this cool little segment I did for Matthias over at LOTRAMAPOD - he wanted to know how something could proceed from something else if there was no time (and therefore no cause and effect!). I put together this little segment, which also includes a brand new sting for "Explain it Like I'm 5!"

In this first of a four-part series on AI and ethics, we’re going to talk about the kinds of things that we just might be. Are we souls? Or minds? Or rights-havers? Or sentient AI bodybuilders sent from the future to terminate the leader of the human resistance?

11:30 | Jennifer S. Light, "When Computers Were Women," 463.

15:10 | “Alcibiades” in Plato, ed. By John M. Cooper, 575.

23:50 | John Locke, Essay Concerning Human Understanding, 318.

39:05 | Edmund Husserl, Ideas I, paragraph 29; quoted in The Essential Husserl, 62.

Lee Adama's speech in the trial of Gaius Baltar from the show Battlestar Galactica leads us to reconsider what it is that makes someone guilty, and what guilt really is. We'll consult some good German philosophers - Immanuel Kant, Hannah Arendt, and Karl Jaspers - to see if we can't find a good answer to that question.

Thanks to Matthias Austin and Producer of the Show Meg for their voice talents on this episode!

18:45 | Metaphysics of Morals, in Practical Philosophy, p. 529.

27:05 | The Question of German Guilt, 41. 

30:00 | Ibid., 28.

37:10 | Ibid., 43.

Content Warning: In this episode I’m going to be talking about the recent investigative report by CNN into the traffic and activity on a website called Motherless.com. While the episode’s focus is not sexual assault itself, there still will be frank conversation about it, and about the harm done by men who prey on others for their own gratification. If that’s not something you’re looking to hear about in a podcast, I totally understand. You can just skip it, or come back to it when you feel ready. If you or someone you know and love are the victims of domestic or sexual violence, in the United States you can call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 or chat online at thehotline.org. All calls are free and confidential. You matter, and you don’t have to endure abuse, coercion, or manipulation to deserve love. There are people who care about you and support you. There is hope.

What do we do when we experience the worst that masculinity has to offer? Is there a way for men who use their masculinity as a weapon to become better? Is there a way for any of us to become better, and if so, how? We'll discuss this along with what makes something philosophical, how we can learn from those who "fence the Torah," and just what the heck we mean when we talk about "toxic masculinity."

1:55 | “Exposing a global ‘rape academy’” A CNN As Equals Investigation

7:35 | “Making Fences Around the Torah,” Rabbi David E Ostrich

15:20 | Deleuze and Guattari, What is Philosophy?, pg. 2

25:20 | Todd May, Deleuze, pg. 19

27:18 | Lectures on Liberation : Angela Davis : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive 

40:28 | Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals, Hackett Publishing,   pp. 63-64

42:05 | Ibid., pg. 65.

45:12 | Selection from Speaking Freely: Bell Hooks. newseuminstitute.org 

51:50 | Plato, Republic, 392b

58:08 | CS Lewis, Mere Christianity, pp. 198-199

In this inaugural "Great Speeches in Ethics," we'll reflect on how Mal Reynolds's resolve to speak for others represents a mode of speech in classical antiquity that French philosopher Michel Foucault calls "fearless speech."

6:15 | Fearless Speech, 18.

9:05 | Who am I -- Alfie Boe (Les Miserables in Concert -The 25th Anniversary) 

10:10 | Ramin Karimloo - Valjean's Soliloquy - Broadway - 2014

11:05 | Ibid.

12:45 | Fearless Speech, 13-14.

21:05 | "Touchstone, Metallurgy." 

21:15 | Venable, Shannon L. (2011). Gold: A Cultural Encyclopedia. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, LLC. p. 264. ISBN 978-0313-384318. Retrieved 2025-07-14 

22:15 | Fearless Speech, 102.

"The Culture of the Self" audio of Foucault lecturing at Berkeley on YouTube.

In today's episode, Matthias Austin from the Lord of the Rings AMA Podcast and I talk about Gollum. What motivates him? What's wrong with him? Should we pity him or fear him? Or something else? Come along for a journey into the ethics of Middle Earth where we'll discuss good and evil, pain and addiction, love and pity, and incontinence. Also, Frodo and Sam's Special Boat for Boys™ .

9:30 | Illustrated Hobbit Reddit Post

11:30 | Film Depiction Blog Post

23:45 | Anti-Climacus (Soren Kierkegaard), The Sickness Unto Death (Normally I try to put the edition and page, but I got this off the internet because I couldn't find my copy of this text - it's probably in a box somewhere in the basement, but I promise a cursory google search will confirm it's factuality!)

Things You Can Do, Season 1 Soundtrack

In today's Extra Credit, I talk a little (okay, a LOT) more about utilitarianism, some of its strengths and weaknesses, some important thinkers in its history, and my view on why the way that we currently teach it is missing something.

10:05 | RM Hare, "Ethical Theory and Utilitarianism"

14:16 | JJC Smart, "Extreme and Restricted Utilitarianism," pg. 353

15:34 | Ibid., pg. 347

***Godwin's Law says that the longer a discussion goes on, the more likely it is that someone will invoke a comparison to Hitler. It has conceptual overlap with the logical fallacy reductio ad Hitlerium.

21:32 | John Stuart Mill, Utilitarianism, pg. 32 (Indianapolis: Hackett, 2001).

23:09 | Shelly Kagan, "Does Consequentialism Demand Too Much? Recent Work on the Limits of Obligation"

Ever wished that I would hang out more with Matthias Austin, host of the acclaimed* podcast The Lord of the Rings AMA Podcast? Well, turns out - me too!

Matthias and I sit down and talk about Gollum, a figure regarded with suspicion and hatred, a form cloaked in shadow and deceit. What makes him tick? How should we feel about him? What was JRR Tolkien thinking when he wrote this character?

Matthias and I dive in - just the way that we do: with research, thoughtful questions, ethical conundrums, and just a little bit of trivia. Check it out on May 8 when it drops in my feed, or May 11 when it drops over at his feed - subscribe to the Lord of the Rings AMA Podcast wherever you get your podcasts!

Today we take on the question, "Is it okay to change my values to fit in?" We talk about Utilitarian ethics, Kant's "An answer to the question: What is enlightenment?" and Rabbi Akiva bar Joseph. Also, peep the new segments: Moment of Latin and Ein Moment des Deutsche!

14:10 | An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation by Jeremy Bentham

16:05 | Ibid.

18:22 | Ibid.

37:34 | "An answer to the question: What is enlightenment?" by Immanuel Kant, trans. by Ted Humphrey

43:35 | "Muslim teen reveals father's response to removing hijab," Lamia Estatie, BBC News

What is up with ethical relativism? How do you know what the right thing to do is when you have multiple conflicting ethical systems across different cultures? What is the Prime Directive?

13:40: Nussbaum, Creating Capabilities, pg. 18.

19:55: Gross Edward and Altman, Mark A. (1993) Captain’s Logs: The Complete Star Trek Voyages. London: Boxtree, pg 220.