Dilemma Podcast

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Philosophy
**Dilemma Podcast**

Solving the problems of what to do next with some of today’s top thinkers and writers.

Hosted by Jay Shapiro.

Latest Episodes:

S01E15: Season 1 in Hindsight - Jay Shapiro Mar 09, 2020

Show notes

Jay reviews Season 1 with the help of his girlfriend, a piano, and a glass of wine.

Submit your Season 2 Dilemma Ideas to DilemmaIdeas@gmail.com

S01E14: Selecting for Deafness - David Deutsch Feb 26, 2020

Show notes

In the finale of Dilemma Season 1 famed author of "The Fabric of Reality" and "The Beginning of Infinity", David Deutsch, sits down with Jay Shapiro to discuss the ethics of a situation where deaf parents wish to use genetic selection techniques to intentionally choose having a deaf child. Deutsch lays out his intricately developed theories on knowledge, creativity, explanation, persons, and moral realism in order to address this complex question.

Co-Hosts Jay Shapiro and Coleman Hughes juggle these topics while comparing which generational references the other won't understand.

Get ready, this one is a real brain twister.

S01E13: Self Driving Cars - Matthew B. Crawford Feb 10, 2020

Show notes

The best selling author of Shop Class As Soulcraft and The World Beyond Your Head has a new book coming out entitled Why We Drive. He sits down with Jay Shapiro to ponder the philosophical and psychological transformations afoot in a future world of automated driving. "Human Intelligent Action", "Deskilling", "Mass Infantilization", The Luddites, London taxi drivers, speed limits on the Autobahn, and what happens when the traffic lights go out.

These topics and more are explored in this deep dive.

Co-Hosts Coleman Hughes and Jay Shapiro also share their experiences in the High School Ethics Bowl and discuss the notions of "Play" as a central feature of sentience as first laid out by Johan Huizinga.

S01E12: Medically Assisted Death - Steven Pinker Dec 18, 2019

Show notes

"If I lose my mind, just kill me."

Co-Hosts Jay Shapiro and Coleman Hughes discuss the philosophical borders and ethical complications of Medically Assisted Dying with Steven Pinker, cognitive psychologist, linguist, and best selling author of Enlightenment Now.

Thanksgiving Hindsight Nov 27, 2019

Show notes

Jay Shapiro is joined by a very special guest... his mother, Sally.

They speak about Jay's moral upbringing, Judaism, Atheism, Africa, and giving thanks.

S01E11: A Camera, A Child, and A Vulture - Larissa MacFarquhar Nov 22, 2019

Show notes

In the depths of a brutal famine in Sudan in 1993, Kevin Carter took a photo of a starving child and a perched vulture which appeared on the front page of newspapers all over the world. Readers bombarded the editors with the question "What happened to the child?"

Co-Hosts Jay Shapiro and Coleman Hughes discuss this difficult ethical case with Larissa MacFarquar, best selling author of Strangers Drowning

S01E10: Clara Barton's Placebo - Stephen Finlay Nov 11, 2019

Show notes

A battlefield of wounded and dying soldiers in front of you. You hover over a mortally wounded man. You have medicine in one pocket and water in another. The soldier looks into your eyes and asks if you can help him with some medicine... You reach for the water...

Meta-ethicist, philosophy professor, and author Stephen Finlay joins Jay Shapiro for a conversation through the complex dilemma of placebo usage.

Ep 9: In Hindsight with Jay Shapiro Oct 29, 2019

Show notes

Do you have hill worth dying on?

Jay Shapiro reflects on Dilemma Episode 9: Hurricane at a Hospital with Lisa Tessman

S01E09: A Hospital in a Hurricane - Lisa Tessman Oct 22, 2019

Show notes

When the power went out, the flood waters rose, and supplies dwindled in Memorial Hospital in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, Dr. Pau and her nurses faced the awful choice of what to do with the remaining patients when evacuation looked hopeless.

Philosopher Lisa Tessman argues that this case and others like this are true philosophical dilemmas where doing the right thing is impossible.

Jay Shapiro and Coleman Hughes tackle this difficult question and discuss the if doing the "right" thing and doing the "better" thing mean something different.

Ep 8: In Hindsight with Jay Shapiro Oct 14, 2019

Show notes

Suffering is the price of engagement with life. The difference between pain, suffering, grief, and missing. And Wilfred Sellers manifest vs scientific view of man as pointed to by Jaron Lanier.

Wilfrid Sellers essay: http://selfpace.uconn.edu/class/percep/SellarsPhilSciImage.pdf

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