Brain in a Vat

Latest Episodes:

David Benatar: The Meaning of Life [Remastered] Dec 11, 2022

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What does it all mean? If we live on a pail blue dot in a vast and uncaring universe can our lives have cosmic meaning? Is it better never to have been born?

Presenters: Mark Oppenheimer and Jason Werbeloff

Editor and Producer: Jimmy Mullen

Brain in a Vat bookshop (Shopify): https://smarturl.it/BrainShop

Brain in a Vat bookshop (Amazon): https://smarturl.it/BrainAmazonShop

The Right to Sex | Raja Halwani Dec 04, 2022

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Do we have a right to sex, and is there an obligation to sexually fulfill the disabled? Should sex work be not only legal, but obligatory?

Presenters: Mark Oppenheimer and Jason Werbeloff

Editor and Producer: Jimmy Mullen

Lionel Shriver on Abominations Nov 27, 2022

Show notes

Should we remove offensive monuments at the cost of erasing history? Is there an unacceptable cost to open borders? And what would a just tax system look like?

Hosts: Mark Oppenheimer and Jason Werbeloff

Producer: Jimmy Mullen

We Should Be More Pragmatic about Ethics | Andrew Sepielli Nov 20, 2022

Show notes

Are moral facts baked into reality, the way facts about socks or rocks are? Or should we think about morality in a more pragmatic way: that it doesn’t matter whether ethics are ‘in the world’ – only that ethics guide our actions effectively?

Andrew’s Book, ‘Pragmatist Quietism’: https://www.andrewsepielli.com/book-pragmatist-quietism

Presenters: Mark Oppenheimer and Jason Werbeloff

Editor and Producer: Jimmy Mullen

Brain in a Vat bookshop (Shopify): https://smarturl.it/BrainShop

Brain in a Vat bookshop (Amazon): https://smarturl.it/BrainAmazonShop

Do the guilty deserve punishment? | John Martin Fischer Nov 13, 2022

Show notes

Why should we punish the guilty? Is it because they’ve done something wrong, to remove them from society, or to dissuade others from wrongdoing?

Presenters: Mark Oppenheimer and Jason Werbeloff

Editor and Producer: Jimmy Mullen

African Ethics: A Superior Moral Framework? | Thaddeus Metz Nov 06, 2022

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Utilitarians and Kantians struggle to account for the care we should provide loved ones over strangers.

Can Ubuntu, or African Ethics, provide a framework that resolves this problem?

Presenters: Mark Oppenheimer and Jason Werbeloff

Editor and Producer: Jimmy Mullen

Putnam on the Brain in a Vat | David Macarthur Oct 30, 2022

Show notes

Could we be systematically mistaken about the world around us? Would we be wrong about everything if we turned out to be a brain in a vat, a mind manipulated by an evil demon, or born into a virtual simulation?

Presenters: Mark Oppenheimer and Jason Werbeloff

Editor and Producer: Jimmy Mullen

Hillary Putnam on Morality | Mario de Caro Oct 23, 2022

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Is lying ever justified? Is it permissible to kill one innocent person to save many others? Learn more about the views of one of the greatest philosophers of the 20th Century.

Presenters: Mark Oppenheimer and Jason Werbeloff

Editor and Producer: Jimmy Mullen

Philosophy as Dialogue: https://www.amazon.com/Philosophy-as-Dialogue-Hilary-Putnam/dp/0674281357/

Using AI to Fight Crime | David Boonin Oct 16, 2022

Show notes

Is racial profiling always wrong, even if used by an AI to decrease crime? Should we use AI to judge criminal cases, recommend sentences for the guilty, or decide parole for prisoners?

Freedom of the Press | Toby Young Oct 09, 2022

Show notes

Do reporters have special moral obligations? Is it ever justified for governments to shut down newspapers? Should private companies like Paypal be allowed to deplatform journalists?

Presenters: Mark Oppenheimer and Jason Werbeloff

Editor and Producer: Jimmy Mullen

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