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The Panpsycast Philosophy Podcast

The Panpsycast Philosophy Podcast

Jack Symes | Andrew Horton, Oliver Marley, and Rose de Castellane

An 'informal and informative' philosophy podcast inspiring and supporting students, teachers, academics and free-thinkers worldwide. All episodes are available at www.thepanpsycast.com.
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Top 10 The Panpsycast Philosophy Podcast Episodes

Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best The Panpsycast Philosophy Podcast episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to The Panpsycast Philosophy Podcast for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite The Panpsycast Philosophy Podcast episode by adding your comments to the episode page.

There’s great pleasure to be found in make-believe. Instantly shifting our perspectives and belief systems gives rise to new possibilities – possibilities that are unavailable to the serious and sober-minded. Yet, as time passes, so does our desire to play. Adults – and, perhaps more so, philosophers – are instructed to ‘grow up’, to build their lives and views on sensible grounds, and leave their disposition for laughter, disruption, and mischief in the playground. For C. T Nguyen – Professor of Philosophy at the University of Utah – this is a foolish mistake.

C. T Nguyen is one of the most innovative aestheticians of our time. As well as being published across philosophy’s leading journals, Nguyen’s work – which focuses on art, games, and agency – has earned him several notable prizes, including the American Philosophical Association 2021 Award, for his book Games: Agency as Art.

In this episode, we’ll be speaking to Nguyen about intellectual playfulness. For Nguyen, playfulness should be understood as a virtue and not a vice. When we explore philosophical ideas through our usual perspectives, we close ourselves off from a rich set of alternative possibilities, and risk re-directing good-faith inquiry into bad-faith results. Playfulness, however, allows us to escape these traps in our thinking, and open ourselves up to the possibility of creativity.

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. The Ideal Thinker

Part II. Further Analysis and Discussion

Links

C. Thi Nguyen, ‘Playfulness Versus Epistemic Traps’ (paper)

C. Thi Nguyen, Games: Agency As Art (book)

C. Thi Nguyen, website

C. Thi Nguyen, X (Twitter)

John Gierach, Fly Fishing Small Streams (book)

Natasha Dow Schüll, Addiction by Design: Machine Gambling in Las Vegas (book)

Monster Train (game)

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The Panpsycast Philosophy Podcast - Episode 56, ‘Utopia for Realists’ with Rutger Bregman (Part I)
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03/10/19 • 51 min

Rutger Bregman is a historian and author, best known for his bestselling book, Utopia for Realists: and how we can get there. Arguing for new utopian ideas such as a fifteen-hour work week and universal basic income, Utopia for Realists has been translated into over 30 different languages, making headlines and sparking movements across the world.

Despite the fact we’ve never had it better, says Bregman, here in the Land of Plenty, we lack the desire and vision to improve society. The crisis of our times, of our generation “is not that we have it good, or even that we might be worse of later, but that we can’t come up with anything better... Notching up purchasing power another percentage point, or shaving off our carbon emissions; perhaps a new gadget – that’s about the extent of our vision.”

At best, Bregman provides us with a desirable and achievable vision of human progress; a world with no borders, 15-hour work weeks and a universal basic income for everybody. At worst, Bregman wakes us up from our dogmatic slumber, encouraging us to ask important questions about 21st-century life. In his own words:

“Why have we been working harder and harder since the 1980s despite being richer than ever? Why are millions of people still living in poverty when we are more than rich enough to put an end to it once and for all? And why is more than 60% of your income dependent on the country where you just so happen to have been born?”

Part I. Utopia for Realists.

Part II. Further Analysis and Discussion.

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The Panpsycast Philosophy Podcast - Episode 129, Talking about Existence (Part I - Out of Nothing)
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04/21/24 • 63 min

‘The clouds are grey, the sun obscured and you are walking through the countryside in the overcast of winter. Passing from field to woodland, the trees shed coats of frosty bark to celebrate the passing of another icy season. It feels too early for spring, but echoes of swallows in the canopies sing songs of new beginnings. You pause to catch a glimpse of your woodland companions. With effortless precision, your eyes track the birds as they zip between empty branches and, combining countless neurons, you forecast the birds’ trajectory each time they fall out of view.

You walk on, emerging from the trees, and return to the open fields. You look back, appreciate the woods and see a river flowing into the trees from the east. Where does the river begin? Escaping the clouds, the sun will soon be free of the sky altogether; if you want to discover the river’s source, you had better get walking.’

Contents

Part I. Out of Nothing

Part II. Further Analysis and Discussion

Links

Philosophers on God: Talking about Existence (book)

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Alongside life and liberty, the Declaration of Independence marked the pursuit of happiness as the foundation of American democracy. Yet, as the history of philosophy has taught us, understanding happiness is no easy task. Pursuing happiness as the cessation of desire, a feeling of perpetual pleasure, or as a state of human flourishing are very different projects...so, which conception of happiness did America’s Founding Fathers take to be an ‘inalienable right’?

In this episode, we’ll be exploring the nature of happiness with Professor Jeffrey Rosen, President and CEO of the National Constitution Center. According to Rosen, in tracing the Founding Fathers’ intellectual development – inspired by Greek and Roman philosophy – we see that the Founders understood happiness as a pursuit of moral excellence rather than immediate gratification.

No doubt, Western understandings of happiness have shifted...today, happiness means something closer to feeling good than being good. Our question is whether this cultural shift was a mistake. In carving out our futures, ought we look to the past? In defining the purpose of our lives and the destination of our states, should we turn to America’s Founding Fathers and their ancient teachers?

Contents

Part I. The Founding Fathers

Part II. Further Analysis and Discussion

Links

Jeffrey Rosen, Twitter

The National Constitution Center, Website

Jeffrey Rosen, The Pursuit of Happiness: How Classical Writers on Virtue Inspired the Lives of the Founders and Defined America (Amazon)

Jeffrey Rosen, The Pursuit of Happiness: How Classical Writers on Virtue Inspired the Lives of the Founders and Defined America (Simon & Schuster)

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Co-founder of Humanity+, formerly known as the World Transhumanist Association, David Pearce is a leading figure of the transhumanist movement. David is perhaps best known for his 1995 manifesto, The Hedonistic Imperative, in which he argues that we can, and will, abolish suffering throughout the living world. Following The Hedonistic Imperative, David has published extensively on topics surrounding utilitarianism, veganism, abolitionism and transhumanism; culminating in his most recent 2017 collection of essays, Can Biotechnology Abolish Suffering?

Alongside his careful philosophical thinking, David’s captivating writing-style has inspired philosophers across the world to look forward into the ‘philosophy of the future’. A world as David hopes, that is free from suffering, ageing and stupidity.

Contents

Part I. Transhumanism.

Part II. Further Analysis and Discussion.

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The Panpsycast Philosophy Podcast - Episode 60, Albert Camus’ The Fall (Part II - The Plot)
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05/05/19 • 48 min

Hello good sir! If you do not mind me saying, you look as if you’re in limbo.

Lost? It might please you to know that most of the tourists, and the locals for that matter, don’t know where they’re heading in these parts.

If I could be so bold as to make an assessment, I would take you for the sophisticated type but with a little bit of an edge? Your smile says it all. Nothing wrong with indulging in the simple things in life every now and then.

Do you see that bar over there? Yes, the one with the peculiar name. Mexico City, here in Amsterdam. You’ll likely find one or two characters in that place; the brute who runs the place for instance. On a good night, you can end up in the type of conversation which only drunken stranger can have – putting the world to rights. On an even better night, you might learn something about yourself.

Intrigued? I knew you were an adventurous sort the moment I lay eyes on you. Enjoy your time here in Amsterdam. No better place in the world for a bit of escapism! The only problem some have is not being able to escape the thought of it after they visit! What? Oh, I meant nothing by it. A slip of the tongue.

Before you leave, can I make one final suggestion? I’d take the coat off if I were you. This place can get a lot hotter than limbo if you catch my drift...

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The Panpsycast Philosophy Podcast - Episode 59, God and Suffering: Live in Liverpool

Episode 59, God and Suffering: Live in Liverpool

The Panpsycast Philosophy Podcast

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04/21/19 • 49 min

Believe it or not, humans have been debating questions concerning God for as long as couples have been discussing what they fancy for dinner. Does God exist? Is God all-power, all-knowing and all-loving? Shall we try that new Mexican restaurant on Bold Street?

In this episode, we’re going to be discussing the existence of God in relation to the problem of evil, more specifically, on what has come to be known as ‘the evil-god challenge’. Roughly stated, our question is as follows: why is belief in a good-god significantly more reasonable than belief in an evil-god?

Contents

Part I. For God’s Sake: Paradise and the Snake.

Part II. Weighing the Scales of Evil: How Heavy is God’s Heart?

Part III. Audience Questions, Further Analysis and Discussion.

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The Panpsycast Philosophy Podcast - Episode 54, Why Buddhism is True with Robert Wright (Part I)
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01/27/19 • 48 min

Currently Visiting Professor of Science and Religion at Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York, Robert Wright’s work in journalism, psychology and philosophy has been deeply influential. Robert is the author of many best-selling books including ‘The Moral Animal: Why We Are the Way We Are: The New Science of Evolutionary Psychology, ‘Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny, ‘The Evolution of God, and most recently, ‘Why Buddhism is True: The Science and Philosophy of Meditation and Enlightenment’.

Our focus for this episode is Robert Wright’s latest book, Why Buddhism is True. In a word, Wright defends the Buddhist view that ‘the reason we suffer is because we don’t see the world clearly’. The reason we don’t see the world clearly, says Buddhism, is because our perception of our own minds and ‘the outside world’ is impaired by illusions. Viewing Buddhism through the lens of evolutionary psychology, Wright argues that we have good reason to think that this Buddhist claim (that suffering is caused by illusion) is true, and that Buddhism also holds the answer to how we can alleviate ourselves from illusion and suffering.

Part I. Why Buddhism is True.

Part II. Further Analysis and Discussion.

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The Panpsycast Philosophy Podcast - Episode 51, Simone de Beauvoir (Part III - The Second Sex)
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12/02/18 • 57 min

Simone de Beauvoir was a pioneer for the second-wave feminist movement and one of the most famous philosophers to have lived. Strikingly, Beauvoir did not label herself as a philosopher, since she never attempted to provide an original treatise which aimed to fully encapsulate the truth of the world or the human condition. Instead, she considered herself as a writer, commentator and novelist. Beauvoir’s identification should not, however, discredit her as a philosopher. Jean-Paul Sartre’s work on existentialism is heavily indebted to Beauvoir’s careful eye and scholarly expertise, and her book The Ethics of Ambiguity, is considered by many as one of the most significant texts in moral philosophy and existentialism; the ethical text which Sartre promised, but never produced.

Simone de Beauvoir’s most famous text is The Second Sex; a detailed examination on what it means to be a woman through the lens of existentialism. The Second Sex was highly controversial at the time of its publication; receiving backlash from certain areas of male-dominated academia and the press. Nevertheless, it is still considered to be one of the greatest works in feminist philosophy.

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Get 20% How The Light Gets In Festival 2018 using the discount code “PANPSYCAST20” at the final checkout page! Visit: https://hay.htlgi.iai.tv/?utmsource=panpsycast. Our Patreon page: www.patreon.com/panpsycast. Everything you could need can be found at www.thepanpsycast.com! Please tweet us your thoughts at www.twitter.com/thepanpsycast.

Broadly speaking, the term 'religious language' refers to statements or claims made about God or gods. Many problems arise in the field of religious language, but our principal focus in this episode will be the problems that arise within the Abrahamic religions (that is, Judaism, Christianity and Islam). Simply put, it is unclear how one could use human-made language, to talk meaningfully about something infinitely powerful, infinitely knowledgeable and infinitely loving. This problem is worrisome to believers as it has the potential to undermine their traditions; if we cannot speak meaningfully about God, then the texts and teachings of Abrahamic faiths can only be deemed unintelligible (i.e. impossible to understand). In his Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, the 18th Century Scottish philosopher David Hume alluded to the problem as follows: “But when we look beyond human affairs... when we carry our speculations into the two eternities, before and after the present state of things; into the creations and formulation of the universe; the existence and properties of spirits; the powers and operations of one universal Spirit existing without beginning and without end; omnipotent, omniscient, immutable, infinite and incomprehensible: We must be far removed from the smallest tendency to scepticism not to be apprehensive, that we have here got quite the reach of our faculties.” In Part I we’re discussing ‘the via negativa’, in Part II, Thomas Aquinas and Ludwig Wittgenstein, in Part III, the verification and falsification principles, and in Part IV we’ll be engaging in some further analysis and discussion.

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FAQ

How many episodes does The Panpsycast Philosophy Podcast have?

The Panpsycast Philosophy Podcast currently has 337 episodes available.

What topics does The Panpsycast Philosophy Podcast cover?

The podcast is about Mind, Society & Culture, Ocr, Marxism, Courses, Podcasts, Education, Consciousness, Philosophy and Ethics.

What is the most popular episode on The Panpsycast Philosophy Podcast?

The episode title 'Episode 73, Plato’s Phaedo: The Death of Socrates (Part II - Arguments for the Soul’s Immortality)' is the most popular.

What is the average episode length on The Panpsycast Philosophy Podcast?

The average episode length on The Panpsycast Philosophy Podcast is 49 minutes.

How often are episodes of The Panpsycast Philosophy Podcast released?

Episodes of The Panpsycast Philosophy Podcast are typically released every 7 days.

When was the first episode of The Panpsycast Philosophy Podcast?

The first episode of The Panpsycast Philosophy Podcast was released on Aug 1, 2016.

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