Very Bad Wizards Tamler Sommers & David Pizarro

Here’s an episode with something for both of us – a healthy serving of Kantian rationalism for David with a dollop of Marxist criminology for Tamler. We discuss and then argue about Jeffrie Murphy’s 1971 paper “Marxism and Retribution.” For Murphy, utilitarianism is non-starter as a theory of punishment because it can’t justify the right of the state to inflict suffering on criminals. Retributivism respects the autonomy of individuals so it can justify punishment in principle – but not in practice, at least not in a capitalist system. So it ends up offering a transcendental sanction of the status quo. We debate the merits of Murphy’s attack on Rawls and social contract theory under capitalism, along with the Marxist analysis of the roots of criminal behavior.


Plus – the headline says it all: Blame The Brain, Not Bolsonaro, For Brazil’s Riots.
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BetterHelp: You deserve to be happy. BetterHelp online counseling is there for you. Connect with your professional counselor in a safe and private online environment. Our listeners get 10% off the first month by visiting BetterHelp.com/vbw. Promo Code: VBWReThinking with Adam GrantSupport Very Bad Wizards
Links:
What Neuroscience Tells Us About Insurrections | EssayMurphy, J. G. (1973). Marxism and retribution. Philosophy & Public Affairs, 217-243.Psych (with Paul Bloom and David Pizarro)

David and Tamler get lost in the world of Susanna Clarke’s "Piranesi," a hauntingly beautiful and thrilling novel with echoes of Borges, Plato, C.S. Lewis, and even Parfit. The first part of our conversation is spoiler-free so you can listen to that section if you haven’t read it yet. (But seriously read this book! We both read it in a few days.)


Plus, watch out ladies - Sydney the Bing chatbot is coming to steal your man.
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BetterHelp: You deserve to be happy. BetterHelp online counseling is there for you. Connect with your professional counselor in a safe and private online environment. Our listeners get 10% off the first month by visiting BetterHelp.com/vbw. Promo Code: VBWSupport Very Bad Wizards
Links:
Why a Conversation With Bing’s Chatbot Left Me Deeply Unsettled - The New York TimesKevin Roose’s Conversation With Bing’s Chatbot: Full Transcript - The New York TimesFrom Bing to Sydney – Stratechery by Ben ThompsonPiranesi by Susanna Clarke [amazon.com affiliate link]Piranesi (novel) - WikipediaThe meditative empathy of Susanna Clarke’s Piranesi - Vox — Carla Baricz’s reading of Piranesi through the Romantics, at PloughsharesPiranesi’s Disenchanted WorldSusanna Clarke’s Fantasy World of Interiors | The New Yorker

Tamler’s earlier self committed to doing an episode on Parfit, and David holds his current self to that promise, which shows how unconvinced David was by Parfit’s skepticism about personal identity. Or something like that. We argue about the value of Parfit’s sci-fi thought experiments and the implications of believing there’s no clear sense of “me.” Plus, we talk about a recent article on aphantasia – the inability to conjure images in your mind – and the question that pops into everyone’s head when they hear about this condition.
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BetterHelp: You deserve to be happy. BetterHelp online counseling is there for you. Connect with your professional counselor in a safe and private online environment. Our listeners get 10% off the first month by visiting BetterHelp.com/vbw. Promo Code: VBWSupport Very Bad Wizards
Links:
Aphantasia - WikipediaCan't See Pictures in Your Mind? You're Not Alone. - The New York TimesThe Vividness Of Visual Imagery Questionnaire (the “aphantasia Test”)Break Music | Backslide by peezHow To Be Good | The New Yorker (Profile on Derek Parfit by Larissa MacFarquar)Parfit, D. (1971) Personal Identity, The Philosophical Review, 80, 3-27.

It’s the episode that Tamler has been waiting for – a long deep dive into Andrei Tarkovsky’s mysterious masterpiece "Stalker." A writer and professor are led by their guide (Stalker) into a cordoned off “zone” that may have been visited by a meteorite (or aliens) a couple of decades earlier. Their destination – a room in the zone that according to legend grants people their deepest desire, the one that has made them suffer the most. We gush over Tarkovsky’s filmmaking, his use of sound and music, and the richness of the questions this movie raises about meaning, art, delusion, desire, science, and faith.


Plus, does having a small penis make you want to buy a sports car? Pre-crisis social psychology is back!
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BetterHelp: You deserve to be happy. BetterHelp online counseling is there for you. Connect with your professional counselor in a safe and private online environment. Our listeners get 10% off the first month by visiting BetterHelp.com/vbw. Promo Code: VBW: GiveWell searches for the charities that save or improve lives the most per dollar. We recommend a small number of charities that can do an incredible amount of good. Your donation can make a meaningful difference for some of the poorest people in the world. First-time donors will have their donation matched up to $100 (until funds last). Promo Code: Very Bad WizardsSupport Very Bad Wizards
Links:
Richardson, D. C., Devlin, J., Hogan, J. S., & Thompson, C. (2023). Small Penises and Fast Cars: Evidence for a Psychological Link.Stalker (1979 film) - Wikipedia

David and Tamler dive into Seneca’s “On the Happy Life” and stoicism, the topic selected by our beloved patreon supporters. Why is stoicism so popular today? What does Seneca actually think about Epicureanism? Can Seneca's philosophy be reconciled with his life as a wealthy Roman aristocrat? Are stoics too cold and detached or is that an unfair caricature? And why can’t David and Tamler fully embrace this undeniably wise approach to life?


Plus the return of… GUILTY CONFESSIONS and some favorite things from 2022.
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: GiveWell searches for the charities that save or improve lives the most per dollar. We recommend a small number of charities that can do an incredible amount of good. Your donation can make a meaningful difference for some of the poorest people in the world. First-time donors will have their donation matched up to $100 (until funds last). Promo Code: Very Bad WizardsBetterHelp: You deserve to be happy. BetterHelp online counseling is there for you. Connect with your professional counselor in a safe and private online environment. Our listeners get 10% off the first month by visiting BetterHelp.com/vbw. Promo Code: VBWSupport Very Bad Wizards
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Why Stoicism is one of the best mind-hacks ever devised | Aeon EssaysSeneca--On the Happy Life

David and Tamler wind their way through another Borges story - "The Immortal"- about a Roman soldier who seeks the secret of immortality and, much to his horror, finds it. Plus some thoughts on the utterly shameless ChatGPT.
Sponsored By:
BetterHelp: You deserve to be happy. BetterHelp online counseling is there for you. Connect with your professional counselor in a safe and private online environment. Our listeners get 10% off the first month by visiting BetterHelp.com/vbw. Promo Code: VBW: GiveWell searches for the charities that save or improve lives the most per dollar. We recommend a small number of charities that can do an incredible amount of good. Your donation can make a meaningful difference for some of the poorest people in the world. First-time donors will have their donation matched up to $100 (until funds last). Promo Code: Very Bad WizardsSupport Very Bad Wizards
Links:
The banality of ChatGPT - by Erik HoelThe Immortal (short story) - WikipediaImmortal by Jorge Luis Borges – მატიანე