Very Bad Wizards

Latest Episodes:

Episode 48: Restorative Circle Jerk Jun 09, 2014

Show notes

Dave and Tamler take a mulligan and try to resolve their conflict about restorative justice. Do restorative processes lead to more just outcomes than other approaches? Is it more vulnerable to instances of prejudice and bias? Is revenge a form of restorative justice? Also, on this episode: can being sexist get you killed in a hurricane? Are replication attempts a form of bullying? And why is Dave hoarding gefilte fish in his pantry?

Links

Ed Yong on Hurricane Study [phenomena.nationalgeographic.com]
Scatterplot blog on hurricane study [scatter.wordpress.com]
Simine Vazire on "Repligate" [sometimesimwrong.typepad.com]
Restorative Justice online [restorativejustice.org]
"Restorative Justice in Texas: Past, Present, and Future." by Mark Levin [texaspolicy.com]
Bridges to Life [bridgestolife.org]
Michelle Anderson The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness [amazon.com]

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Episode 47: Schooled By Our Listeners May 22, 2014

Show notes

Tamler and David leech off of their listeners and dedicate an episode to their favorite comments, questions, and criticisms from the past few weeks (but not before Tamler goes on a rant about bicycle helmets). Included in this episode: Does doing research on hypothetical moral dilemmas actually say anything about how people would act in real life? Do people make different moral judgments in their native language than in a more recently acquired language? Do Tamler and David only appeal to intuitions when it's convenient for the view they are defending? Do they hold "barbaric" views about justice and revenge? Does doing philosophy make your life better? And, perhaps most importantly, why do we seem to mention porn on every episode?

Links

Bicycle helmet effectiveness [wikipedia.org]
Tamler's appearance on The Partially Examined Life podcast [partiallyexaminedlife.com]
Axons and Axioms podcast [axonsandaxioms.com]
Spacetime Mind podcast [spacetimemind.com]
A valuable site if you're interested in putting together your own podcast: Dan Benjamin's Podcasting Handbook [podcastinghandbook.co]
If you like the music we use, you can listen/download here: soundcloud.com/peezismyname
Pea Soup Blog [peasoup.typepad.com]
Qualia [wikipedia.org]
Judith Jarvis Thomson's "A Defense of Abortion" [wikipedia.org]
Entranced by Reality by Ian Corbin (Review of "A Life Worth Living: Albert Camus and the Quest for Meaning" by Robert Zaretsky). [theamericanconservative.com]
Iranian killer's execution halted at last minute by victim's parents by Saeed Kamali Dehghan [theguardian.com]

Academic Articles Mentioned

Bartels, Daniel M. (2008), "Principled Moral Sentiment and the Flexibility of Moral Judgment and Decision Making," Cognition, 108, 381-417. [uchicago.edu]
Costa, A., Foucart, A., Hayakawa, S., Aparici, M., Apesteguia, J., Heafner, J., & Keysar, B. (2014). Your Morals Depend on Language. PloS one, 9(4), e94842. [plosone.org]
Gold, N., Colman, A. M., & Pulford, B. D. (2014). Cultural differences in responses to real-life and hypothetical trolley problems. Judgment and Decision Making, 9, 65-76. [sjdm.org]

Special thanks to listeners (in order of question-appearance) Jakub Maly, Mark Ellis, Derek Leben, Jennifer Cohen, Rob Sica, Larson Landes, Billie Pritchett, Dave Herman, Otakar Horak, Monique Oliveira, Paul Bello, and Dag Soras.

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Episode 46: The Real Josh Knobe May 05, 2014

Show notes

May I have your attention please? Will the real Josh Knobe please stand up? Will the real... [you know what, screw this--we're just dating ourselves.] X-phi phenom Josh Knobe rejoins the podcast to talk about the true self, naked people, gay preachers, and the Talmud. Plus, what happens when Tamler takes a sleeping pill by mistake in the afternoon and goes on Facebook? Why do you have get so drunk on Purim? And Dave discovers a Google-assisted loophole that allows you to be an immoral shit your whole life and get away with it.

Links

Joshua Knobe's home page [yale.edu]
XXX: 30 Porn-Star Portraits by Timothy Greenfield-Sanders [amazon.com affiliate link]
Gray, K., Knobe, J., Sheskin, M., Bloom, P., & Barrett, L. F. (2011). More than a body: mind perception and the nature of objectification. Journal of personality and social psychology, 101, 1207. [yale.edu]
Moral Scrupulosity [wikipedia.org]
Newman, G. E., Bloom, P., & Knobe, J. (2014). Value Judgments and the True Self. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 40, 203-216. [verybadwizards.com]
Frankfurt on the Hierarchical Will: Frankfurt, H. G. (1988). Freedom of the Will and the Concept of a Person (pp. 127-144). Humana Press. [verybadwizards.com]
"Tarred and Feathered" episode of "This American Life," covering a man who started a support group to keep pedophiles from victimizing children. [thisamericanlife.org]
Purim [wikipedia.org]
Simchat Torah [wikipedia.org]
Pizarro, D.A., Uhlmann, E., & Salovey, P. (2003). Asymmetry in judgments of moral blame and praise: The role of perceived metadesires. Psychological Science, 14, 267-272. [peezer.net]
Cohen, A. B., & Rozin, P. (2001). Religion and the morality of mentality. Journal of personality and social psychology, 81, 697. [upenn.edu]
Newman, G. E., Lockhart, K. L., & Keil, F. C. (2010). â€œEnd-of-lifeâ€ biases in moral evaluations of others. Cognition, 115, 343-349. [yale.edu]

Stupid Sexy Flanders!

Special Guest: Joshua Knobe.

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Episode 45: Rounded Brains and Balanced "Play Diets" Apr 21, 2014

Show notes

A British tabloid article about kids, brains, and spatial skills somehow provokes the biggest argument ever on the podcast. Dave and Tamler get into it about gender, toys, properly rounded brains, and balanced "play diets." Is Dave a sanctimonious toe-the-line academic liberal? Is Tamler a Fox-News watching, mysoginist genetic determinist? Do they actually disagree about anything?

Plus Dave takes Tamler back after his fling with Partially Examined Life, and we discuss whether the new documentary The Unbelievers the atheist version of God is Not Dead?

Links

The Partially Examined Life podcast, and Tamler's Precognition of Ep. 93. [partiallyexaminedlife.com]
Girls and boys DO have different brains – should they have different toys? by Rachel Carlyle [express.co.uk]
The Unbelievers [unbelieversmovie.com]
My Growing Disappointment with the New Atheist Movement: A Review of the The UnBelievers. Ami Palmer. [missiontotransition.blogspot.com]
Nosek, B. A., Banaji, M. R., & Greenwald, A. G. (2002). Math= male, me= female, therefore math≠ me. Journal of personality and social psychology, 83, 44. [briannosek.com]
Cvencek, D., Meltzoff, A. N., & Greenwald, A. G. (2011). Math–gender stereotypes in elementary school children. Child development, 82, 766-779. [washington.edu]

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Episode 44: Killer Robots Apr 05, 2014

Show notes

David and Tamler argue about the use of autonomous robots and drones in warfare. Could it lead to less suffering during wars and afterwards? Would nations be motivated to design robots that behave ethically on the battlefield? Can David get through an episode without mentioning Star Trek? Plus, Tamler distances himself from the villainous philosophy professor in the new movie God is Not Dead and David complains about the growing number of porn journals.

Links

Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) [kipp.org]
God's Not Dead [imdb.org]
Arkin, R. C. (2010). The case for ethical autonomy in unmanned systems. Journal of Military Ethics, 9(4), 332-341.
Kahn, P. W. (2002). The Paradox of Riskless Warfare. Philosophy & Public Policy Quarterly, 22(3), 2-7. [yale.edu]
Singer, P. W. (2009). Wired for war: The robotics revolution and conflict in the twenty-first century. Penguin. [amazon.com affiliate link]
"A Taste of Armageddon" Episode 23, Star Trek (The Original Series) [wikipedia.org]

Moral Machines in the Military Sphere by Dr. Paul Bello. http://robotsandyou.eucognition.org

Bio: Paul Bello joined the Office of Naval Research as a Program Officer in the Warfighter Performance and Protections Department in May of 2007.

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Episode 43: The Nature of Nudges Mar 17, 2014

Show notes

Dave and Tamler talk about a recent study that seems to support the view that "justice is what the judge had for breakfast" (or at least how long ago the parole board had breakfast), and that makes Tamler question his position on widening judicial discretion in criminal justice. In the second segment David tries to work out his guilt about manipulating consumers into buying stuff for whatever shadowy organization employs him (BEWorks!), and we discuss the ethics of nudges in government and consumer marketing. Should the government frame issues like organ donation in ways that will benefit society? How much of a threat are nudges to our autonomy? Should Apple take steps to ensure that people can control themselves when making in-app purchases? Tamler even comes up with a "theory," which means that there must have been something wrong with him. Please note that portions of the audio during the second segment are little spotty, likely due to a hex or poltergeist in one of the microphones. We'll have that worked out for the next episode. Enjoy!

(For the handful who have asked--if you like the music David makes for the podcast, you can listen/download to your heart's content at www.soundcloud.com/peezismyname).

Links

Danziger, S., Levav, J., & Avnaim-Pesso, L. (2011). Extraneous factors in judicial decisions. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108(17), 6889-6892. [pnas.org]
"Prisoners of our own resources" by Jonathan Levav, TEDx Rio de la Plata [youtube.com]
Capestany, B. H., & Harris, L. T. (2014). Disgust and biological descriptions bias logical reasoning during legal decision-making. Social neuroscience, 1-13. [tandfonline.com]
Asymmetric Dominance (Decoy Effect) [wikipedia.org]
Opting-in vs Opting-out of organ donations [nytimes.com]
The evil stuff people do with in app purchases and games [ibtimes.com]

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Episode 42: Reason, Responsibility, and Roombas (With Paul Bloom) Mar 03, 2014

Show notes

Can a fully determined creature deliberate? How big a role does conscious reasoning play in moral judgment and everyday life? Are we responsible for our thoughts and actions? Paul Bloom rejoins us against his better judgment to discuss his book "Just Babies" and his recent article in The Atlantic that set the internet on the fire and riled up the likes of Sam Harris and Jerry Coyne. Plus, what's the difference (if any) between getting into a Star Trek transporter and getting an axe to the head, and why does David know so much about boy bands?

Links

Just Babies by Paul Bloom [amazon.com-vbw affiliate link]
The War on Reason by Paul Bloom [theatlantic.com]
Jerry Coyne replies to Paul Bloom's Article [whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com]
Bloom replies to Coyne [whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com]

Tamler is the only one who realized he has a face for radio.

Special Guest: Paul Bloom.

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Episode 41: Moral Dilemmas at the Movies Feb 19, 2014

Show notes

Dave keeps trying to explain to Tamler that we're not a movie podcast, but somehow they're doing another podcast about movies. This time they each list their top 5 movies featuring moral dilemmas. Also, Tamler tries to rationalize the Woody Allen controversy, Ozymandias from Watchmen says "screw you Paul Bloom," Dave confuses Maggie Gyllenhaal with Droopy, and for the second time ever we have to censor something one of us (Tamler) says. Put on your astronaut adult diapers, folks, it's a long one.

Links

Dylan Farrow's Story [nytimes.com]
Woody Allen Speaks Out [nytimes.com]
The Woody Allen Allegations: Not So Fast [thedailybeast.com]
"It's shockingly easy to create false memories" by Cara Laney [thedailybeast.com]
Elizabeth Loftus [wikipedia.org]
Watchmen Graphic Novel [wikipedia.org]
The Vengeance Trilogy [wikipedia.org]
Droopy Dog [wikipedia.org]
Maggie Gyllenhal looks like Droopy Dog [cheezeburger.com]
"Hard Determinism, Punishment, and Funishment" by Saul Smilansky [philosophycommons.typepad.com]

Tamler's Top 5 (links all go to IMDB.com)

David's Top 5

Tamler's Honorable Mentions Movies that couldn't be talked about without spoilers:

Oldboy (Park Chanwook's not fucking Spike Lee's).
Mother
The Maltese Falcon
Seven

Movies too close to personal identity

Solaris
Shutter Island

So close...

Beast of the Southern Wild.
3:10 to Yuma
The Dark Knight
Casablanca
The Insider
Donnie Brasco
Maltese Falcon
Shane
Do the Right Thing
Princess Mononoke

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Episode 40: How Many Moralities Are There? Pt. 2 (with Jesse Graham) Feb 03, 2014

Show notes

Jesse Graham joins us for part 2 of our discussion on the nature of morality, and his recent paper on Moral Foundations Theory. He highlights the key components of MFT, defends himself against our accusations of weaseling out of the normative implications of MFT, champions "Synechdoche, New York" as one of the greatest films ever made, and comes out of the closet as a rationalist. Also in this episode, Tamler begins to defend Sam Harris (you read that right) from Dan Dennett's criticisms of Harris' Free Will--and then we pull back and realize that we need to devote a whole episode to Dennett's review.

Links

Dan Dennett's review of "Free Will" by Sam Harris [naturalism.org]
Free Will by Sam Harris [amazon.com affiliate link]
Jesse Graham's lab website [usc.edu]
Moral Foundations Theory: The Pragmatic Validity of Moral Pluralism by Jesse Graham et al.
Synechdoche, New York (RIP Phllip Seymour Hoffman!)

Special Guest: Jesse Graham.

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Episode 39: How Many Moralities Are There? (Pt.1) Jan 20, 2014

Show notes

Dave and Tamler bounce back this week after having to trash the last episode. Does morality ultimately boil down to a single principle (such as harm or justice), or is there more to ethical life than is dreamt of in the minds of philosophers? We settle this question once and for all in the first of a 2-part episode in which we discuss Jesse Graham et al's recent paper on Moral Foundations Theory. (Jesse Graham himself will join us for part 2). Plus: how liberal is this podcast? We'll give you the precise percentage after taking a Time.com quiz that purports to measure political leanings, (and which includes that perennial litmus test of political preferences: is it OK to come home and find your partner watching porn?)

Links