Philosophical excursions into interesting, and often controversial, topics. Hosted by Spencer Case.
Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! Jake Monaghan joins Spencer to discuss his new book, Ethical Policing . The discussion covers such questions as: what makes policing legitimate? What sorts of considerations undermine that legitimacy? How can police appropriately balance order and respect for individual freedom in a non-ideal world?
Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! Matthew Adelstein returns to Micro-Digressions to talk about the arguments for the existence of God at the top of his tier list. You can find his complete ranking of arguments for God's existence here: Arguments For God Tier-list - by Bentham's Bulldog
Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! Mike Huemer and His Offensiveness Steve Kershnar join Spencer to discuss free will and moral responsibility.
Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! Matthew Adelstein, the prolific young writer who posts at "Bentham's Bulldog" on Substack, has recently attracted attention for a tier ranking of philosophical arguments for the existence of God. Matthew and Spencer discuss the arguments at the bottom of his list, ascending from arguments that get an "F" to one in the C tier.
Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! Sarah Malanowski and Nicholas Baima join Spencer Case to discuss their book Why it's Ok to be a Gamer . They cover common objections to gaming, such as the claim that gaming is addictive and violent games promote violence. They also consider ways that video games can promote friendships and cultivate virtue. Finally, they debate the supposed vice of being a "tryhard."...
Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! Featuring rants by Matt Lutz (on a priori knowledge and the politicization of the university) Travis Timmerman (on the film "Megalopolis") Spencer Case (on the depraved adulation of Luigi Mangione) and Ben Burgis (on the hypocrisy of "heterodox" liberals on Palestine).
Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! Featuring rants from Matthew Adelstein (on shrimp welfare), Mark Oppenheimer (on missing the golden age of universities), Craig White (on the folly and immorality of American involvement in Ukraine) David Baker (on the wrongness of peacetime conscription) and Jason Werbeloff (on common misconceptions about AI).
Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! Michael Huemer returns to the podcast to discuss more of the issues in his self-published book, Progressive Myths (which you can buy on Amazon for a mere $12.50). Mike and Spencer discuss the gender pay gap, the claim that women don't lie about sexual assault, and the sex-gender distinction.
Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! Michael Huemer returns Micro-Digressions to discuss his new self-published book, Progressive Myths , which you can purchase here for a mere $12.50: Progressive Myths: Huemer, Michael: 9798332272073: Amazon.com: Books Discussed here: Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and George Floyd cases, as well as some of the general patterns of police violence; the science of climate change and masking (compared with what activists say about these thin...
Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! Dave Baker returns to Micro-Digressions to finish the discussion of nuclear weapons. Topics this time include the development of the hydrogen bomb, the problems with developing missile defense systems, and nuclear proliferation.
Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! Is the possession of nuclear weapons morally justified? Was it a mistake to invent them to begin with? Dave Baker joins Spencer to discuss these and other questions about nuclear war. (Correction: Joseph Stalin died in 1953, not 1952).
Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! You may have heard that there's an election going on in the U.S. A big one in fact. This episode is a debate about the records of one of the candidates, Joe Biden. Matt Lutz, noted error theorist and Biden enthusiast, returns to the podcast to argue that Americans are insufficiently appreciative of Biden's performance on the economy and foreign policy. Spencer provides pushback on Biden's various student loan repayment schemes and immigration. Errat...
Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! Mike Huemer rejoins Spencer to discuss the nature of consciousness. They consider the reasons for thinking that consciousness can't be physical and some prominent physicalist rejoinders to dualist arguments. Here's a link to Mike's excellent "Fake Nous" substack: Fake Noûs | Michael Huemer | Substack...
Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! Come for Spencer's funeral home jokes; stay for the unanticipated discussion of the movie Her . Travis Timmerman and Spencer Case resume their discussion about death. This time they talk about annihilationism, the idea that being annihilated is an intrinsically bad thing for the annihilated person, as well as popular arguments that immortality would be a bad thing for creatures like us....
Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! Ben Burgis rejoins Spencer to defend Marx's record.
Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! This episode tackles one of the most controversial topics of the day (really, most days over the last several decades): Israel/Palestine. Craig White, a former diplomat and the author of Iraq: The Moral Reckonin g, and Mark Oppenheimer of Brain in a Vat podcast fame join Spencer to discuss the issue.
Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! Ryan W. Davis, a philosophy professor at Brigham Young University, joins Spencer Case to discuss the ethics and politics of gun ownership in the US. Check out his new book, Why it's OK to Own a Gun (Routledge, 2024).
Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! What is death? Does fear of death affect our everyday lives? And will your death harm you or not? Travis Timmerman, associate professor at Seton Hall University, joins Spencer to discuss these and other questions. Timmerman is coeditor, along with Michael Cholbi, of a fine anthology on the philosophy of death, Exploring the Philosophy of Death and Dying. Purchase your copy here: https://www.amazon.com/Exploring-Philosophy-Death-Dying-Contemporary/dp...
Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! It's the end of the year again and time to rant! This year's collection of rants includes: Jarrod Blair on bad habits that crush the philosophical spirit Matthew Adelstein on the stupidity and depravity of Effective Altruism critics Matt Lutz on possible world confusions Mark Oppenheimer on the Israel-Gaza war Oliver Traldi on the university presidents' testimony to Congress JP Andrew on naturalism as a dogma in philosophy Spencer Case on scientific...
Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! Oliver Traldi rejoins Spencer Case to discuss the nature of political beliefs. Topics they cover include the bad incentives that influence political beliefs, how political beliefs should be defined, and the need for (and possibility of) politically neutral language in which to discuss political issues.
Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! His Offensiveness Stephen Kershnar returns to the podcast for a wide-ranging conversation about the philosophy of law. This leads to a discussion of the Students For Fair Admissions (SFFA) Supreme Court Case. Music: "Sweet, Man" by Jeremy Mohney. Available for download $1 here: https://jeremymohneymusic.bandcamp.com/
Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! Kevin Vallier joins Spencer Case to talk about social trust and the role it plays in the psychological and moral foundations of liberal societies.
Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! Alex Byrne discusses the controversy around his article on pronouns in the Journal of Controversial Ideas. Byrne and Matt Lutz debate the meaning of the word 'woman.' Alex's view is that women are adult human females, whereas Matt thinks that the word is ambiguous between that traditional definition and a trans-inclusive meaning. We can be tolerant and accept both are legitimate meanings of the word. The conversation eventually comes to focus on the...
Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! Commentator Charles "Concealed Weapon" Cooke joins Spencer to discuss American identity and patriotism.
Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! MIT philosophy professor Alex Byrne and podcast regular Matt Lutz join Spencer to discuss an article that recently appeared in the Journal of Controversial Ideas entitled "A Defense of Merit in Science." The article, which was written by 27 co-authors, including many social scientists, alleges that the "liberal epistemology" that underlies science is under threat by the institutionalized influence of identity-based ideologies. (The article doesn't u...
Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! Mark Oppenheimer and Jason Werbeloff of Brain in a Vat join Spencer to discuss one of their favorite subjects: thought experiments.
Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! Keshav Singh joins Spencer to discuss Sikh religion and philosophy. ("Sikh" is pronounced with the short 'i' sound, and not like "seek"). They cover they history and basic tenets of the Sikh faith, its idea of divinity, and the Sikh idea that "haumai", meaning roughly obsession with oneself, is the root of all human evil. Keshav's personal webpage is here: https://www.keshavsingh.com/...
Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! Johnny the Anomaly joins Spencer Case to argue that the potential benefits of genetic enhancement outweigh the risks (Spencer is skeptical). The electronic version of Anomaly's book, Creating Future People: The Ethics of Genetic Enhancement can be downloaded free at Amazon for Kindle or here: https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-mono/10.4324/9781003014805/creating-future-people-jonathan-anomaly?_gl=1*1ui59as*_ga*MjA2NDM2ODk5NS4xNjcxNzM5MTQ4*_ga_0H...
Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! Mike Huemer joins Spencer Case for a wide-ranging discussion about epistemology. Mike argues that you should trust the experts rather than relying on your own "critical thinking"; Spencer's not so sure. They also discuss two strategies for rejecting the Brain-in-a-Vat argument for external world skepticism. Music: "April Kisses" by Eddie Lang (1929), www.openaccessmusic.org...
Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! Ryan Jenkins, professor of philosophy at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, rejoins Spencer for the first time since the inaugural episode of Micro-Digressions to resume the conversation about how technology can make our lives worse. The topics discussed include anti-Covid measures, government and corporate surveillance, content moderation on social media, and (taking a page from Oliver Burkeman's Four Thousand Weeks ), the ways in which technology encourage...
