What is Philosophy? Why should we bother with it? Sit down with Danny and Dr. Mike in the comfort of their local pub, as they grapple with the big ideas in a unique and accessible way! Dive into our archive of earlier episodes here: https://castbox.fm/channel/id3766780?country=gb Send us an email: philosophywtf@gmail.com Check out our article about the podcast here! Get into Mike and Danny's heads for free! https://blog.apaonline.org/2018/10/03/the-philosophy-wtf-podcast-philosophy-outside-academia/
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This week join Mike and Danny as they ... well, just hang out, nothing more than that really. I mean, Danny pops down the shops for a few bits but other than that nothing much to see this week. Seriously, we've decided to take it easy for the week, you'll need to make your own entertainment. Alternatively, you could join us both as we scream into the void, probably sometime after lunch idk
This week join Mike and Danny as they throw their past selves under the bus. No, that’s not me, it might look vaguely reminiscent (apart from the hair) but other than that I have never set eyes on ether of those guys before. Can we ever go home again? How does Mike's mum still recognise him? Do all of Danny's former romantic partners look on in horror at what he has become and utter that well known phrase, “what WAS I thinking??” Yes, at the existential school reunion who actually attends? All o...
This week, what happens when worlds collide? Do they both erupt in twin fire balls spinning off into the void as a sleek silver space ship cuts its way through the darkness on its way to a new home and a fresh start? Does encounter with otherness and difference inevitably lead to a diminution of the very essence of who and what we are? I mean, you said you wouldn’t try to change me but here we are, years down the line with your curtain fabric and furnishings throughout the house and all my stuff...
"What kind of fool do you think I am? You think I know nothing of the modern world? Well, this week, let Danny and Mike prove you wrong! Join us as we ask the question - do we really need to change? What’s the matter with the old ways? Why can’t we ever be content with things as thy are. What is baby and what is bathwater? Is it your kids, Marty? Are our progeny the capsules into which we pour the essential, unchangeable aspects of our reality and fire them off into the future? Say what you like...
This week, what have the gods ever done for us? Join Mike and Danny in Thales hot tub where everything is water but full of bubbles and not always the good kind. Yes, it’s time to get back to basics, strip away the unnecessary and discover the very foundations of reality. Will you do the necessary prep work, sand down, clean and fill all those annoying little holes and cracks or will you simply slap a coat of paint on over the dirt and hope for the best? We, of course, plan to build our city on ...
This week everything changes, or does it? Is change inevitable? What do we build on that might provide a solid foundation for our identity and understanding of the world? Join Mike and Danny as they turn and face the strain. Enjoy a relaxing trip through Miletus noting, as we go, Thales and the Pre-Scratics on our left. You know what? This time we are going to stop and get out, actually spend some time with these guys, grab a glass of wine and chill. After all, what else have we got to do?
This week we are just never satisfied are we? There is always some itch that needs scratching, some desire yet to be fulfilled, some patch of grass just ever so slightly more green. Never fear, join Mike and Danny as they seek out new vistas - this time it will work, this time we will discover the promised land, settle down with our partner(s) of choice, grow goats and herd root vegetables. What do you mean “what’s the wifi like?”??? No, there won’t be Netflix and it won’t be a convenient walk t...
This week join Danny and Mike. That’s it, just join Danny and Mike, nothing more, just hangout in the world we have carved out for ourselves. Sacrifices will have to be made, you will have to ditch some of your baggage and adapt to our way of life but it’s a small price to pay for the sense of belonging we offer. Of course some of you will find it difficult to adjust, some of you might even nurse a rebellious spirit, perhaps even have some ideas of your own. No matter, everybody has to learn, a ...
This week, what is our ultimate destination? Join Mike and Danny as they set out along the path of natural order to identify our individual fate. But wait, who says we can’t stop and smell the roses? In fact, why don’t we turn off destiny highway and follow this rough unbeaten track to gods know where? Yes, once again Mike and Danny reveal their penchant for flared jeans, reasonably priced, if not free, love and the sounds of the Grateful Dead. Don’t harsh our buzz man, we are sticking it to the...
This week Danny is fed up and miserable but the sun is starting to shine and a new day is dawning! Tune in and join Mike and Danny, the merry philosonauts, on a magical mystery through the realms of possibility. Yes, this week we are talking revolution… or are we? Is it time to re-engage with normality or are we on the frontiers of the new normal? What, exactly, IS the normal way to be? What are the standards for identifying normal human existence? Is it essence or is it existence? Where is our ...
This week, join Mike and Danny, after a year of lockdown, as they stare into the face of the other and ask “who the hell are you people?” Yes, what do we do with the other after so long with only the Cartesian cogito for company? Will we finally emerge from pandamic isolation desperate for human contact or having developed an antipathy for human connection? Has all this time, huddled with our families, simply rendered us intensely tribal to the detriment of the body politic? Perhaps it’s time to...
This week we are family, I got all my siblings with me! Yes join Mike and Danny as they continue their exploration into the murky depths of family life. Should Danny beat his children? Would this contribute to the dialectical development of the universal spirit? Do philosophers give us the families their philosophies deserve? Just how natural is the family? Does “speaking as a parent” give one greater access to epistemic certainty or simply render as opinionated elitists? Can any one person or g...
This week, we didn’t ask to be born, right? Who is responsible for dragging us into this whole situation? Listen with mounting existential dread as Mike and Danny inform you that this is not your fault but your are stuck with it, there is nothing you can do about it, you just have to suck it up. Be dumbfounded with the revelation that as a parent you are empowered to grab the epistemic crayons and scrawl all over your children psyche. Yes! Go ahead! knock yourselves out and join in the pedagogic...
This week listen in as Mike and Danny tell you that you aren’t bringing your kids up properly. Yes, in this offensive episode we upset both parents and the entire education industry by suggesting that one doesn’t know what it’s doing and the other is simply in it for the money. That’s right folks, here at WTF we play no favourites and know no fear in our quest to usher in a glorious utopian future. We built this city, we built this city on ideal forms and not on children reared on TV, celebrity ...
It’s 2021 and we are back to bring philosophy to the masses! Join Mike and Danny as they emerge blinking from the darkness of 2020 bloated with the excesses of the festive season. Listen in with mild disappointment as Mike stuffs his face with leftover Christmas cake and Danny confesses, to his enduring shame, that he consumes sell-by mince pies behind closed doors to the everlasting embarrassment of his family and amidst the sound of his crying children. Yes, families, what are they for exactly...
This week join Mike and Danny as they seek to establish their unique identities in the world. Marvel as Mike admits to bizarre restaurant based existential choices. Is anything enough for Danny? Does existence precede essence? Does the chicken precede the egg? Some of these questions and more will be on the agenda this week as our gift to you. But hang on, there is more! Yes, let Mike and Danny unfold the instructions to human existence and search in vain for the allen key that will allow them t...
This week join Mike and Danny as they strip humanity down to its boxers to see what is left of its identity. Are we nothing more than the sum of our memories and if that is true what effect does it have when I forget where I put my key? What happens when the JPEG that is humanity has too many pixels removed for the picture to be clearly seen? When we get to the point where we start singing “daisy, daisy, give me your answer do” has the essence of what we are been lost? Listen in as Mike and Dann...
This week join Danny and Mike as they subject subjectivity to the subjective gaze. Is one person's meat really another’s poison? Is there no accounting for taste? Is beauty in the eye of the beholder? Is humanity really something absolute that establishes us as unique and inviolable or is it a sliding scale? A moveable feast of ingredients that is endlessly variable? Wrinkle your nose up in mild disgust as Mike brings dog poo to the table - is it really, objectively less lovely than, say, Marily...
This week join Mike and Danny as they play "Plato’s Republic the Role Playing Game”! Yes, join in the fun and excitement of living in a utopian society but first you need to roll a character. Grab your dice and see what you end up with - will you be a leader, a philosopher king? Perhaps the dice will not fall exactly in your favour and you end up with high organisational stats and have to settle for the somewhat less exciting life of an administrator or military leader. If you really suck at thi...
This week join Danny and Mike as they indulge their animal appetites to see just how far they can go before compromising their essential humanity. What, exactly, is a human being? Are you one? How do you know? Don’t give me that! Oh, we can all SAY that we are human beings but talk is cheap - unless of course you are Wittgenstein. Is humanity something that happens to us or do we in some way make it happen? Is it passive or active? When does protection of an essential human characteristic become...
This week join our know-it-all podcast as Mike and Danny once more don the vestments of the epistemological priesthood and lead you, but only if you are truly repentant, into the light of clear and certain understanding. Bow in veneration at the combined feet of your gurus as we, the custodians of all that is true and real, weigh you in the balance. Will you be found wanting or will you pass into blessed enlightenment? Is your salvation dependent upon the sum total of all your experiences? Is kn...
This week listen in as Mike provides entirely the wrong blurb for this episode! Blink in disbelief and confusion as that blurb mysteriously vanishes to be replaced by this one. Did the original blurb ever truly exist? If it did, where is it now and ought you to receive immediate therapy? Perception, can it really be trusted to provide you with an accurate account of reality or is reality merely what we perceive and are some of you still tenaciously clinging to the original blurb? Join us for adv...
This week join Mike and Danny as they draw data from the physical world thus challenging the gods themselves! Listen in as they assault the very heavens armed with nothing more than a doughnut and their 5 senses. Yes knowledge, what does it taste like? how do we gain it? What do we do with it when we have it? Is there big knowledge and small knowledge? Knowledge is power but ignorance is bliss - place your bets ladies and gentlemen! Let Mike and Danny be your gatekeeper to the secret knowledge a...
This week, knowing me, knowing you! Listen in as Mike and Danny ask the question “Do you know enough?” Look on in mild amusement as we feverishly search for the instruction manual to the thrownness of being. Encounter rising panic as Danny freezes up creating a period of embarrassing dead air around about 10:18. Are we born with enough knowledge to find our extremities with both hands? Can we walk in a straight line or do we need to be taught? Do we need words to form knowledge? What if “the bir...
This week we come to the end of the Kant/Bentham rumble. Who will be judged victorious and who will have to swallow the bitter dregs of defeat? Listen in as Kant delivers his signature “categorical smack down’ move. Will Bentham’s "hedonic round house” be sufficient to counter the Crusher from Konigsberg? Bow your heads in reverence and let Mike and Danny root out the evils of the world and join them as they punch it on the nose and teach it a righteous lesson. Is a straightforward list of do's ...
This week - do we really want the truth? What would we do with it? Better a comfortable lie, right? Consider, if you will, the existential anguish of the “extensive menu” - do we get incapacitated by indecision the more options we are given? What would you prefer, Mike’s Spam Egg & Chips, Spam and Chips or just plain Spam OR will you go for Danny’s 150 dish tasting menu with a selection of starters and deserts? Will you be lusting after what other people have ordered once the food arrives an...
This week, if you’re happy and you know it please contact Mike and Danny with details. Yes, it’s the greatest happiness for the greatest number folks. Join Mike and Danny as they decide on the minimum amount of happiness required for them to get up in the morning. What, exactly, do we have a right too? Are we really “worth it”? Listen in as Danny all but admits to speeding at 2 o’clock in the morning because, what harm can it do, right? Nod in sage wisdom as Mike shakes his head in smug condemna...
This week join Dr Mike as he gives a mad axeman Danny’s exact postal address and contact details, just in case. Listen carefully and take extensive notes as Mike and Danny consider what the untestable beliefs are that ground their understanding of reality. Do we have to assume an absolute judge in order to be good guys or can we work it out as we go along? Just how fast can nonsense travel on stilts? Settle back and lightly oil yourselves down as Bentham argues for an ethic based on the happy en...
Join Mike and Danny this week as they pull up at the traffic lights and start revving the engine to show off to their mates. Stick with them as the lights change, they drop the clutch, release the breaks and the philosophical wheels start to spin. Gaze on in uncritical adoration as they screech away burning philosophical rubber to play chicken with Kant and Bentham. Who will blink first, how far will this go? Squeeze up onto the back seat, jump on the running board and live dangerously as Mike a...
This week listen in with all due deference as Danny and Mike … no, hang on, I’m not doing this. Why should I impose a narrative on you? The cast is out there now, you make of it what you will. Look, I’ll even leave you space to construct your own blurb, enough of this authorial priority, you go to it. I’ll just sit here and watch. Away you go then. [ ] There, see, not as easy as it looks is it? Oh yes, we all want to march to the beat of our own drum and throw away the rule book but then what? I...
