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069: Ep65 – The Stories of Our Day 2: Westworld

Philosophy Bakes Bread radio show & podcast

In this 65th episode of the Philosophy Bakes Bread radio show and podcast, Eric Thomas Weber and Anthony Cashio had the pleasure to talk with Dr. James South and Dr. Kimberly Engels about Westworld. We discuss topics including artificial intelligence and storytelling as well as the ethical and political questions that Westworld raises for us.

An image of a robot hand holding a skull, derived from the cover of the book, Westworld and Philosophy.

Dr. Kimberly Engels.Kimberly and James are the editors of Westworld and Philosophy, recently published, coinciding with the release of season 2 of the show. Dr. Engels is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Molloy College, where she specializes in Biomedical Ethics and Continental Philosophy. She has a recent paper out in the journal Public Affairs Quarterly on “An Existential Analysis of ‘Stand Your Ground’ Laws.”

Dr. James South.Dr. South is Professor of Philosophy and Associate Dean for the Faculty in the Klingler College of Arts and Sciences at Marquette University, where he specializes in late-Medieval and Renaissance philosophy, ordinary language philosophy, and philosophy and popular culture. He has edited books like James Bond and Philosophy as well as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Philosophy.

Listen for our “You Tell Me!” questions and for some jokes in one of our concluding segments, called “Philosophunnies.” Reach out to us on Facebook @PhilosophyBakesBread and on Twitter @PhilosophyBB; email us at philosophybakesbread@gmail.com; or call and record a voicemail that we play on the show, at 859.257.1849. Philosophy Bakes Bread is a production of the Society of Philosophers in America (SOPHIA). Check us out online at PhilosophyBakesBread.com and check out SOPHIA at PhilosophersInAmerica.com.

 

(1 hr 8 mins)

Click here for a list of all the episodes of Philosophy Bakes Bread.

 

Notes

  1. Larry Hauser, “The Chinese Room,” The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
  2. The Turing Test, a YouTube video by CNET.com.
  3. Alan Turing, biography.
  4. The Ring of Gyges, explained by the Philosophy Learning and Teaching Organization, (P.L.A.T.O.).
  5. Duck-RabbitCars, the movie’s IMDB page.
  6. The “Duck-Rabbit,” alluded to in this episode, refers to something that can be seen in different ways, when we shift our attention or thinking about the image or object.

 

You Tell Me!

For our future “You Tell Me!” segments, Kimberly posed the following question in this episode:

“How do the themes of Westworld relate to contemporary social movements?”

Let us know what you think! Via Twitter, Facebook, Email, or by commenting here below.

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068: Ep64 – Philosophy as Play

Philosophy Bakes Bread radio show & podcast

In this 64th episode of the Philosophy Bakes Bread radio show and podcast, Eric Thomas Weber and Anthony Cashio had the pleasure to talk with three guests at the 2018 conference of the Public Philosophy Network in Boulder, CO, all hailing from Pacific Lutheran University: Matthew Salzano, Dr. Michael Rings, and Dr. Sergia Hay. We talked about “Philosophy as Play” with the three philosophers who founded SOPHIA’s South Puget Sound Chapter of SOPHIA in the fall of 2017.

Kids at play.

Matthew SalzanoAt the time of recording this episode, which was in February of 2018, Matthew was graduating student at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washing. He was Editor-in-Chief of The Mast in 2016 student ran media company out of Pacific Lutheran University. His work appears in College Media Review and PLU publications like The Matrix and Resolute.

Dr. Michael Rings

Dr. Michael Rings teaches and does research at PLU in ethics, social and political philosophy, and aesthetics. Michael has published work in the philosophy of popular music, and on aesthetic cosmopolitanism. In his free time Michael plays and composes music, hikes around in the Washington wilderness, and collects records.

Dr. Sergia Hay.

Our third guest was Dr. Sergia Hay, also a professor of Philosophy at PLU. She focuses on applied ethics and the history of philosophy. Sergia is a Kierkegaard scholar and is currently doing research on his views of language while taking into account influence on his work by Johann Hamann, a contemporary of Kant. She also serves as the Interim Director of the Wild Hope Center, a center for vocation at PLU.

Listen for our “You Tell Me!” questions and for some jokes in one of our concluding segments, called “Philosophunnies.” Reach out to us on Facebook @PhilosophyBakesBread and on Twitter @PhilosophyBB; email us at philosophybakesbread@gmail.com; or call and record a voicemail that we play on the show, at 859.257.1849. Philosophy Bakes Bread is a production of the Society of Philosophers in America (SOPHIA). Check us out online at PhilosophyBakesBread.com and check out SOPHIA at PhilosophersInAmerica.com.

 

(1 hr 18 mins)

 

Click here for a list of all the episodes of Philosophy Bakes Bread.

 

Notes

  1. Food symposia at Pacific Lutheran University, supported in part by SOPHIA, in 2014 and then in 2016.
  2. The South Puget Sound Chapter of SOPHIA’s MeetUp group page.
  3. The Seattle SOPHIA Chapter’s MeetUp group page, their Facebook page, and their Twitter profile.
  4. bell hooks’s writings.

 

 

You Tell Me!

For our future “You Tell Me!” segments, Dr. Hay posed the following question in this episode:

“Do philosophers have an obligation to do public philosophy?”

Let us know what you think! Via Twitter, Facebook, Email, or by commenting here below.

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The Moral Duty of Solidarity

Civil American, Volume 3, Article 4 (April 30, 2018).

| By Avery Kolers |

I. What is Solidarity?

 

Adobe logo, to serve as a link to the Adobe PDF version of the essay.Suppose you are a white bus rider in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955. You look up from your newspaper to see Rosa Parks refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger. She is expelled from the bus. What should you do?

Rosa Parks.

On the one hand, you have paid your fare for a public service and are entitled to receive it. Justice supports your claim to remain on the bus until you reach your destination. A “Good Samaritan” might take an interest, but if you are on your way to work and need the job to pay the bills, you might look at your shoes and mind your own business. It’s not as though standing up for Mrs. Parks will enable her to keep her seat, it will only cause the bus to be late and might just get you ejected, as well – or worse.

Bus ticket.Anyway, how sure can you be that she is telling the truth when she says she is tired and just wants to rest her legs? Perhaps the people accusing her of being ornery – people who are in your social stratum, people you know and like and trust – are right. So what should you do?

I submit that there is a single right answer to this question, and that, at least from our vantage point today, it is obvious to all decent people: you must not stand for this. You should insist that Mrs. Parks be allowed to keep her seat, and if she is ejected from the bus you should walk off alongside her. If her community then boycotts the bus company, you should boycott too.

Admittedly, it might be exceedingly difficult to make yourself do this.

Confederate monument.Fast-forward to today. You reside in a neighborhood in which there is a monument to some minor Confederate figure. Local African American activists demand that the statue be removed, perhaps replaced by a statue of Rosa Parks. You might wonder whether it matters all that much; he was after all a minor figure and was rehabilitated into a philanthropist of sorts after the war. And the statue is quite lovely. Your neighbors, whom you know and like, view the statue as a landmark in a neighborhood that, though mostly white, is completely lacking in “Southern sympathizers.” They just like their statue.

It is not completely clear to you why the activists have descended on your neighborhood. This is hardly the most important issue in the world. Most people don’t even realize who the guy in the statue was. Why make such a big deal of it?

(more…)

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067: Ep63 – Democracy and Public Exposure

Philosophy Bakes Bread radio show & podcast

Dr. Mark Sanders.In this 63rd episode of the Philosophy Bakes Bread radio show and podcast, Eric Thomas Weber and Anthony Cashio interview Dr. Mark Sanders on “Democracy and Public Exposure.” We ask Mark about democracy and public philosophical engagement, including some of the special projects that he runs in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Photo of a streaker at a soccer game, playing on the sillier sense of 'public exposure,' when we really mean public engagement, of course.

Mark specializes in American Pragmatism and social and political philosophy. He is very involved on campus; he is a Faculty Associate with the Center for Professional and Applied Ethics and the Faculty Co-Advisor of the Philosophy Club. Mark has recently written and published articles in Human Affairs and the Review Journal for Political Philosophy. The focus of his recent work has been on the intersection of deliberative democracy, pragmatic pluralism, and citizenship. Mark also has interests in phenomenology especially the views of French philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty.

Listen for our “You Tell Me!” questions and for some jokes in one of our concluding segments, called “Philosophunnies.” Reach out to us on Facebook @PhilosophyBakesBread and on Twitter @PhilosophyBB; email us at philosophybakesbread@gmail.com; or call and record a voicemail that we play on the show, at 859.257.1849. Philosophy Bakes Bread is a production of the Society of Philosophers in America (SOPHIA). Check us out online at PhilosophyBakesBread.com and check out SOPHIA at PhilosophersInAmerica.com.

(1 hr 1 mins)

 

Click here for a list of all the episodes of Philosophy Bakes Bread.

 

 

Notes

  1. Albert Camus, The Myth of Sysiphus (New York: Vintage Press, 1991).
  2. The story of Sysiphus.
  3. The New College of Florida.
  4. The Web site for Campus Compact, and the Charlotte, North Carolina Chapter.
  5. Jana Mohr Lone and Michael Burroughs, Philosophy in Education: Questioning and Dialogue in Schools (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2016).
  6. Lynx Light Rail of Charlotte, NC.
  7. James Fishkin on deliberative polling and the Center for Deliberative Democracy.

 

 

You Tell Me!

For our future “You Tell Me!” segments, Mark posed the following question in this episode:

“Not to promote excessive drinking, but: Do you think that there ought to be a drinking game to go along with the Philosophy Bakes Bread podcast?”

Proposed examples: When you hear “I like that,” “Right on,” “Indeed,” Eric’s out-of-date pop-culture references, or “This is correct!”

Let us know what you think! Via Twitter, Facebook, Email, or by commenting here below.

 

 

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066: Ep62 – Is the Church Killing God?

Philosophy Bakes Bread radio show & podcast

In this 62nd episode of the Philosophy Bakes Bread radio show and podcast, Eric Thomas Weber and Anthony Cashio interview philosopher and Pentecostal Christian Dr. J. Aaron Simmons on his question: “Is the Church Killing God?”

Dr. J. Aaron Simmons.

Aaron is associate professor of Philosophy at Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina. He works primarily in philosophy of religion and 19th and 20th Century European Philosophy, but also researches political philosophy and environmental philosophy. He has authored a number of books, including God and the Other, The New Phenomenology, Re-examining Deconstruction and Determinate Religion, and Kierkegaard and Levinas: Ethics, Politics, and Religion.

Listen for our “You Tell Me!” questions and for some jokes in one of our concluding segments, called “Philosophunnies.” Reach out to us on Facebook @PhilosophyBakesBread and on Twitter @PhilosophyBB; email us at philosophybakesbread@gmail.com; or call and record a voicemail that we play on the show, at 859.257.1849. Philosophy Bakes Bread is a production of the Society of Philosophers in America (SOPHIA). Check us out online at PhilosophyBakesBread.com and check out SOPHIA at PhilosophersInAmerica.com.

 

(1 hr 20 mins)

Click here for a list of all the episodes of Philosophy Bakes Bread.

 

Notes

  1. William McDonald, “Soren Kierkegaard,” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 1996 / 2017.
  2. Durer’s northern renaissance art, described in The New York Times.
  3. Titian, the painter’s biography.
  4. Wordsworth’s The Prelude, 1850.
  5. Biography of poet Veronica Franco.
  6. St. Augustine of Hippo, on ChristianityToday.com.
  7. Article in The New York Times and another in the Huffington Post crediting St. Augustine with the phrase: “The Church is a whore; but she is my mother.”
  8. Kenosis, Meriam-Webster defines as: “the relinquishment of divine attributes by Jesus Christ in becoming human.” Dr. Simmons uses the word “kenotic,” at one point, referring to this meaning, as the character of such relinquishing.
  9. Michael Tooley, “The Problem of Evil,” The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2002 / 2015.
  10. “Pneumatology,” according to Bible.org, refers to “the study of the biblical doctrine of the Holy Spirit. Generally, this includes such topics as the personality of the Spirit, the deity of the Spirit, and the work of the Spirit throughout Scripture.” Dr. Simmons uses the phrase “Pneumatological imagination,” to refer to thinking that centers on the Holy Spirit.
  11. “Turing machine,” refers to a machine that is made to try to pass as though it is a person, whom you cannot distinguish from a person, in terms of its responses to your interactions with it, assuming you cannot see the machine or imagined person responding. For more information, see David Barker, “Turing Machines,” The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 1995 / 2012.
  12. Dr. Simmons brings up a clever quote, whose source he suggests might have been Mark Twain. The line was: “The first casualty of war is the truth.” The Guardian published a piece which suggests that the earliest version of this line comes from Aeschylus, who wrote that: “In war, truth is the first casualty.” See “Who coined the phrase, ‘The first casualty of War is Truth’?” The Guardian.
  13. Acts 2:45, according to Biblehub.org, reads “They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.”
  14. C.S. Lewis, “Learning in Wartime,” on CSLewis.com.
  15. The blog that Aaron co-founded, called “Philosophy Goes to Church.”

 

You Tell Me!

For our future “You Tell Me!” segments, Aaron posed the following question in this episode:

“What are your questions? And, when you encounter someone new, what if you asked them ‘What’s your story?’ and ‘What are your questions?’?”

Let us know what you think! Via Twitter, Facebook, Email, or by commenting here below.