Robinson's Podcast Robinson Erhardt

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Peter Singer is Ira W. DeCamp Professor Emeritus of Bioethics in the Department of Philosophy at Princeton University. He is among the most influential living philosophers, and among the most influential moral philosophers of the last century. Peter is best known for his work in applied ethics on animal welfare and global poverty. In this episode, Robinson and Peter discuss these topics after first introducing his more general views on moral philosophy, including those on utilitarianism and meta-ethics. Throughout their conversation they also touch on Peter’s new podcast, Lives Well Lived, co-hosted with Kasia de Lazari Radek, the Journal of Controversial Ideas, Peter’s Substack, Bold Reasoning with Peter Singer, and his latest and next books, which are respectively The Buddhist and the Ethicist (Shambhala, 2023) and Consider the Turkey (Princeton, 2024).



Peter’s Website: https://www.petersinger.info



Lives Well Lived Podcast: https://shows.acast.com/6628460c6b51e80012b834c2



The Life You Can Save Organization: https://www.thelifeyoucansave.org.au



The Journal of Controversial Ideas: https://journalofcontroversialideas.org



Peter’s Substack: https://boldreasoningwithpetersinger.substack.com



The Buddhist and the Ethicist: https://a.co/d/38DOmbK



Consider the Turkey: https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691231686/consider-the-turkey 



OUTLINE

00:00 Introduction

04:14 Peter Singer’s Entry into Philosophy

08:54 What Is Utilitarianism?

10:58 On Consequentialism vs Deontology

13:12 On Trolley Problems and Moral Facts

16:40 On Moral Realism and Anti-Realism

20:51 On Hedonistic Utilitarianism

26:17 The Lives Well Lived Podcast

33:43 A Puzzle About Trolley Problems

38:48 On the Origin of Peter Singer’s Concern for Animals

49:38 Is It Ever Morally Permissible to Eat Meat?

55:32 Consider the Turkey

1:03:07 Famine, Affluence, and Morality

1:09:08 The Life You Can Save

1:10:50 The Buddhist and the Ethicist

1:18:08 The Journal of Controversial Ideas

1:25:50 Peter’s Substack



Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com



Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, and everyone in-between. 


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Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/robinson-erhardt/support

Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7



Victor Davis Hanson is a renowned classicist, military historian, and political commentator. He is the Martin and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow in Residence in Classics and Military History at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. Among numerous other awards, Victor was presented the National Humanities Medal in 2007. In this episode, Robinson and Victor discuss his latest book, The End of Everything: How Wars Descend into Annihilation (Basic Book, 2024), which was released on May 7th. More particularly, they cover the historical connection between annihilation and genocide, how we should interpret the past through today’s moral standards, genocides in the present, and the likelihood of World War III. Victor appeared as a guest on episode #112, in which he and Robinson talked about what was at the time Victor’s latest book, The Dying Citizen. He was also a guest on episode #191, which covered Victor’s views on the current crisis in Israel and Palestine. Keep up with Victor on Twitter, through his website, and on his podcast, The Victor Davis Hanson Show. 



Victor’s Website: https://victorhanson.com



Victor’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/VDHanson



The Victor Davis Hanson Show: https://art19.com/shows/the-victor-davis-hanson-show 



The Dying Citizen: https://a.co/d/dPocUJg



The End of Everything: https://a.co/d/46O0mMB



OUTLINE

00:00 Introduction

03:41 On Annihilation, Extinction, and Genocide

09:31 What Causes Genocide?

16:38 The Applicability of Military Strategy to Everyday Life

24:00 On Alexander the Great

36:26 Should We Judge the People of the Past by the Moral Standards of the Present?

44:29 Uyghurs, Jews, and Genocides of the Present

50:45 What Are the Biggest Existential Threats to America?

59:28 Is World War III on the Horizon?



Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com


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Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/robinson-erhardt/support

Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7



Sean Carroll is Homewood Professor of Natural Philosophy at Johns Hopkins University and fractal faculty at the Santa Fe Institute. He is also the host of Sean Carroll’s Mindscape, a podcast about science, society, philosophy, culture, arts, and ideas. This is Sean’s fourth appearance on the show. He appeared with David Albert of Columbia University on episode 106, which covers the Many-Worlds theory of quantum mechanics, Boltzmann Brains, and the fine-tuned universe. He was also on episode 118 with Slavoj Žižek on quantum physics, the multiverse, time travel, and a whole lot more, and then episode 200 with Daniel Dennett and Steven Pinker on AI, parapsychology, and consciousness. This episode is coming out in advance of Sean’s next book, Quanta and Fields: The Biggest Ideas in the Universe (Penguin, 2024), which will be released on May 14, 2024. Sean and Robinson discuss many of the topics and themes of Quanta and Fields, including the books’ namesake subjects, as well as more decides, like scientific realism, free will, the simulation hypothesis, and the end of physics. If you’re interested in the foundations of physics—which you absolutely should be—then please check out the JBI, which is devoted to providing a home for research and education in this important area. Any donations are immensely helpful at this early stage in the institute’s life.



Sean’s Website: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com



Sean’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/seanmcarroll



Quanta and Fields (The Biggest Ideas in the Universe): https://a.co/d/gfMDLQo



The John Bell Institute: https://www.johnbellinstitute.org



OUTLINE

00:00 Introduction

5:00 The Biggest Ideas in the Universe

9:38 Do Physicists Understand Physics?

15:51 What Is the Role of Philosophers in Physics?

18:24 The Measurement Problem and Quantum Field Theory

20:24 Scientific Realism and the Standard Model of Particle Physics

25:11 What Is the Wave Function?

34:46 What Is Quantum Field Theory?

37:45 What Is the Fundamental Layer of Reality?

41:01 What Is the Standard Model of Particle Physics?

45:42 What Are the Fundamental Objects in the Standard Model of Particle Physics?

47:39 How Do We Test the Standard Model of Particle Physics?

49:38 What Are the Weaknesses of the Standard Model of Particle Physics?

54:41 Will We Ever Find a Theory of Everything?

56:19 Is String Theory the Final Theory of Physics?

58:14 String theory and the Fine-Tuning Problem

01:00:18 Is Quantum Gravity the End of Progress in Physics?

01:06:12 What is Philosophical Naturalism?

01:08:05 On Naturalized Epistemology

01:10:24 On the Philosophy of Mathematics

01:19:08 On Naturalizing Morality

01:22:33 The Myths of Quantum Entanglement

01:29:53 Is There Only One Electron?

01:34:09 Are Atoms Mostly Empty Space?

01:36:51 Are We Living in a Simulation?

01:39:58 Is Infinity a Problem for Quantum Mechanics? 

01:41:59 The Mysteries of Quantum Mechanics



Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com



Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, and everyone in-between. 


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Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/robinson-erhardt/support

Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7

Slavoj Žižek is international director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities at the University of London and a senior researcher at the University of Ljubljana’s Department of Philosophy. He was also the guest for episodes 109—on psychoanalysis, wokeness, racism, and a hundred other topics—and 118, where he appeared with Sean Carroll to discuss quantum physics, the multiverse, and time travel. Lee Smolin is a founding and senior faculty member at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, and the author of a number of bestselling books, including The Trouble with Physics (Mariner, 2006). He was the guest for episode 148, in which he and Robinson discussed presentism, the foundations of mathematics, and the philosophy of quantum mechanics. In this episode, Robinson, Slavoj, and Lee discuss time, space, superposition, and other concepts at the core of physics, as well as postmodernism, the big bang, problems with democracy, and much more. Lee is also an Honorary Fellow of the John Bell Institute for the Foundations of Physics. If you’re interested in the foundations of physics—which you absolutely should be—then please check out the JBI, which is devoted to providing a home for research and education in this important area. Any donations are immensely helpful at this early stage in the institute’s life.

Lee’s Website: ⁠http://leesmolin.com⁠

The Trouble with Physics: https://a.co/d/eJZPWaE

OUTLINE
00:00 Introduction
06:26 Breaking the Copenhagen Interpretation
11:55 On Sabine Hossenfelder 
21:11 On Monads, Atoms, and Democritus
30:18 Is the World a Game of Physics?
38:46 On the Big Bang
45:26 On European Immigration and Populism
53:09 A Few Jokes


Robinson’s Website: ⁠http://robinsonerhardt.com⁠

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.


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Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/robinson-erhardt/support

Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7



Nick Bostrom is a Swedish philosopher who was most recently Professor at Oxford University, where he served as the founding Director of the Future of Humanity Institute. He is best known for his book Superintelligence (Oxford, 2014), which covers the dangers of artificial intelligence. In this episode, Robinson and Nick discuss his more recent book, Deep Utopia: Life and Meaning in a Solved World (Ideapress, 2024). More particularly, they discuss the alignment problem with artificial intelligence, the problem of utopia, how artificial intelligence—if it doesn’t make our world horrible—could make it wonderful, the future of technology, and how humans might adjust to a life without work.



Nick’s Website: https://nickbostrom.com



Deep Utopia: https://a.co/d/b8eHuhQ



OUTLINE

00:00 Introduction

02:50 From AI Dystopia to AI Utopia 

9:15 On Superintelligence and the Alignment Problem

17:48 The Problem of Utopia

21:14 What Are the Different Types of Utopia?

28:04 AI and the Purpose of Mathematics

38:59 What Technologies Can We Expect in an AI Utopia?

43:59 Philosophical Problems with Immortality

55:14 Are There Advanced Alien Civilizations Out There?

59:54 Why Don’t We Live in Utopia?



Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com



Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between. 


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Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/robinson-erhardt/support

Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7



Philip Goff is a professor of philosophy at Durham University in the United Kingdom, where he researches consciousness and the philosophy of mind. He is the best known proponent of a view about consciousness known as panpsychism, which takes mentality to be fundamental in the world rather than something that either emerges out of complex structures or exists parallel to physical objects (as an immaterial property of things like souls). In this episode, Robinson and Philip discuss the major camps in the debate over consciousness, including physicalism, dualism, and panpsychism, touching on both their strengths and weaknesses. They then turn to a few questions raised in Philip’s most recent book, Why? The Purpose of the Universe (Oxford, 2023), in which he seeks to find a middle ground between atheism and deism.



Why? The Purpose of the Universe: https://a.co/d/2cqj5Us



Philip’s Website: https://philipgoffphilosophy.com



OUTLINE

00:00 Introduction

04:41 Philip’s Interest in Consciousness

8:11 What Is Consciousness?

14:36 Is Consciousness a Spectrum? 

19:42 On Dualism About Consciousness

31:37 On Physicalism and the Mind

46:56 What Is Panpsychism?

53:27 The Best Arguments for Panpsychism

57:11 Panpsychism and the Combination Problem

1:02:20 On Panpsychism and Parapsychology

1:07:06 On Panpsychism and Free Will

1:13:04 On the Fine-Tuning Problem



Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com



Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between. 


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Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/robinson-erhardt/support