The Panpsycast Philosophy Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Episode 125, The Christmas Special (Part I - The Nativity) Dec 17, 2023

Show notes

Days grow shorter, rain turns to sleet, and nature's creatures are forced into hibernation. Winter is here; when the world wages war on us, through darkness, danger, and impending depression. But from the clouds of winter's despair, therein shines a light: gatherings among families and friends, spirits of fellowship and forgiveness, and scenes of feasts and festivities.

It is Christmas, who shepherds us together – when we would otherwise be apart – and spares us from the cold, and into loving arms. As we shall see, the festival of Christmas has snowballed with the passing of many winters – from the early celebrations of the Romans and Vikings to the Christian nativity and commercialisation – but what has held this snowball together?

Let us burn candles, logs, and line our homes with dancing lights; let us bring in trees and celebrate the hope of new life; and let us give generously and extend goodwill to our neighbours here, and around the world.

Contents

Part I. The Nativity

Part II. The Nativity Continued

Part III. Further Analysis and Discussion

Links

Pope Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth: The Infancy Narratives (book)

Raymond E. Brown, The Birth of the Messiah: A Commentary on the Infancy Narratives in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke (book)

Judith Flanders, Christmas: A History (book)

Bruce Forbes, Christmas: A Candid History (book)

Brent Landau, Revelation of the Magi: The Lost Tale of the Wise Men's Journey to Bethlehem (book)

Robert J. Miller, Born Divine: The Births of Jesus and Other Sons of God (book)

Richard C. Trexler, The Journey of the Magi: Meanings in History of a Christian Story (book)

Attributions

The following sounds were used with the permission of the copyright holder.

Medieval City, OGsoundFX; Night Farmfields, klankbeeld; Baby Breath, m3fuss; all other sounds were produced by Epidemic Sound and The Panpsycast.

Episode 124, 'Narrative Critique' with Rachel Fraser (Part II – Further Analysis and Discussion) Dec 03, 2023

Show notes

Two people can encounter the same state of affairs – a crime, a book, a building – and yet their attention, interests, and emotional responses can be radically different. The perspectives of others are closed off from us, and our perspectives are closed off from them … that is until we share our stories. In recent years, social and political movements have utilised the power of storytelling by encouraging the sharing of first-personal accounts. For example, the #MeToo movement and #ShoutYourAbortion campaign encouraged women to share their experiences of sexual violence, harassment, and abortion in order to challenge the ideologies that allow sexism and misogyny to exist. According to Dr Rachel Fraser, these narratives play an indispensable role that can never be performed by theory and statistics.

In this episode, we'll be speaking to Dr Fraser, Associate Professor at the University of Oxford, about how personal narratives allow us to challenge social scripts, refocus our attention, and alter the perspectives that, ultimately, shape our lives and institutions. For Fraser – who specialises in a range of fields, including epistemology, aesthetics, philosophy of language, and social and political philosophy – narratives offer a window into our lives and reveal moral truths that serve to critique dangerous ideologies and overcome injustice. Silencing ourselves and others is a surefire way to perpetuate inequality; if we want to bring about a better world, then we must learn to speak and listen.

This episode is produced in partnership with the Aesthetics and Political Epistemology Project at the University of Liverpool, led by Katherine Furman, Robin McKenna, and Vid Simoniti and funded by the British Society of Aesthetics.

Contents

Part I. Disrupting Ideology

Part II. Further Analysis and Discussion

Links

Rachel Fraser, Website

Rachel Fraser, Papers

Episode 124, 'Narrative Critique' with Rachel Fraser (Part I – Disrupting Ideology) Nov 19, 2023

Show notes

Contents

Part I. Disrupting Ideology

Part II. Further Analysis and Discussion

Links

Rachel Fraser, Website

Rachel Fraser, Papers

Episode 123, 'The Building Blocks of Reality' with Donnchadh O'Conaill (Part II - Further Analysis and Discussion) Nov 05, 2023

Show notes

What is the underlying nature of reality? For Thales, the essence of the world was water; for the Stoics, it was Logos; for Heraclitus, the universe consisted, fundamentally, of fire, life-energy, or the 'thinking faculty'. The search for the building blocks of our world has a rich philosophical history and, today is intertwined with cutting-edge research in the physical sciences. In this episode, we'll be focusing on those who defend the idea of substances. According to this view, at the heart of our cosmos exist simple, independent, ungrounded entities (called 'substances') from which everything else in the world is made and sustained. Perhaps these are particles, strings, or space–time; maybe they're consciousness, selves, or gods.

Our guide to substances and the nature of reality is Dr Donnchadh O'Conaill, post-doctoral researcher at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland. Dr O'Conaill – currently working on the Swiss National Science Foundation project, The Subject of Experiences – has made several important contributions to the literature, including through his recent book, Substance, published by Cambridge University Press.

As we shall see, Dr O'Conaill is a leading scholar on the role and nature of substances, as well as the contentious question of their existence. Ultimately, that's our focus: whether the world depends on independent, ungrounded entities and what these hidden entities might look like.

Contents

Part I. Substance

Part II. Further Analysis and Discussion

Links

Donnchadh O'Conaill, Website

Donnchadh O'Conaill, Substance (2022)

Episode 123, 'The Building Blocks of Reality' with Donnchadh O'Conaill (Part I - Substance) Oct 22, 2023

Show notes

Contents

Part I. Substance

Part II. Further Analysis and Discussion

Links

Donnchadh O'Conaill, Website

Donnchadh O'Conaill, Substance (2022)

Episode 122, 'Justice for Animals' with Martha Nussbaum (Part II - Further Analysis and Discussion) Oct 08, 2023

Show notes

Whaling, poaching, factory farming: we know they're wrong. Yet, most of us do nothing about them. In fact, for each trip around the sun, we satisfy our collective tastebuds with over seventy billion land animals and seven trillion sea creatures. Still, one might ask, what is it that's wrong with how we treat our fellow creatures? This is the central question of Martha Nussbaum's latest book, Justice for Animals: Our Collective Responsibility.

Nussbaum, who has won the most prestigious prizes in the field – including the 2016 Kyoto Prize in Arts and Philosophy, the 2018 Berggruen (Bergruin) Prize in Philosophy and Culture, and the 2021 Holberg Prize – is currently the Ernst Freund (Froind) Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics at the University of Chicago. With over twenty-five books, five hundred academic papers, and fifty-five honorary degrees, it's safe to say that Martha Nussbaum is one of the most prolific and distinguished philosophers of our time.

For Nussbaum, humans have a collective responsibility to support the activities and conditions that allow our fellow creatures to flourish. It's time we put a stop to the injustice and bring about a better world. Her call to action? Justice for Animals.

Episode 122, 'Justice for Animals' with Martha Nussbaum (Part I - The Capabilities Approach) Sep 24, 2023

Show notes

Contents

Part I. The Capabilities Approach

Part II. Further Analysis and Discussion

Links

Martha Nussbaum, Website.

Martha Nussbaum, Justice for Animals: Our Collective Responsibility (2023)

Peter Singer, Animal Liberation Now (2023)

Episode 121, The Philosophy of Privacy (Part III - Further Analysis and Discussion) Sep 10, 2023

Show notes

Introduction

'I was sold a story about the modern world. I was told that I could connect with friends for free and that I could have everything conveniently tailored to my tastes. I was also promised I'd be kept safe from those who wished to attack me and my values. All in all, I was told I would be empowered to live my life as I saw fit.

In time, I began to hear another story. I started to hear that what I had shared with friends was actually a product that social media sold to others. I was told that some of my wants and desires were, in reality, the wants and desires of people whom I had never met. I was made aware that the promise of safety came at a cost which appears never to have been proven worthwhile.

The power, as it turns out, was not really with me – it was with those who sold me the original story. The choices I made when I knew no better helped them understand me and others like me better. They could do this because they were watching. When I wanted them to stop watching, they told me that if I had nothing to hide, then I had nothing to fear.'

Contents

Part I. Privacy is Power

Part II. Privacy in Peril

Part III. Further Analysis and Discussion

Links

Kirstie Ball, Kevin Haggerty, and David Lyon, Routledge Handbook of Surveillance Studies (book).

Danielle Keats Citron, The Fight for Privacy: Protecting Dignity, Identity and Love in the Digital Age (book).

Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones, We Know All About You: The Story of Surveillance in Britain and America (book).

Neil Richards, Why Privacy Matters (book).

Edward Snowden, Permanent Record: A Memoir of a Reluctant Whistleblower (book).

Carissa Véliz, Privacy is Power: Why and How You Should Take Back Control of Your Data (book).

Raymond Wacks, Privacy: A Very Short Introduction (book).