The Dissenter (2024)

26/07/2024

#972 Susan Goldin-Meadow: Thinking with Your Hands

Dr. Susan Goldin-Meadow is the Beardsley Ruml Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of Psychology and Committee on Human Development at the University of Chicago. She has made pioneering contributions to the study of how language is created and learned, and how the gestures that go along with speech facilitate learning and communication. Dr. Goldin-Meadow is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She’s received a Guggenheim Fellowship, a James McKeen Cattell Fund Fellowship, and the David E. Rumelhart Prize. She is the author of several books, including Thinking with Your Hands: The Surprising Science Behind How Gestures Shape Our Thoughts.

In this episode, we focus on Thinking with Your Hands. We start by talking about the importance of studying gestures, the gestures of non-human animals, the functions of gestures, and their cognitive benefits. We discuss how gestures can help us learn new concepts, and their role in the classroom. We talk about nonverbal communication, and how it influences interpretation. We talk about the gestures (homesigns) created by deaf children. Finally, we discuss how the study of gestures can apply to parenting, and in the education system, by helping underprivileged children.

YouTube link: https://tinyurl.com/27m47d3b

Podcast version: https://bit.ly/4dlJvYj

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25/07/2024

#971 Philip Cohen: Does It Make Sense To Talk About Generations?

Dr. Philip Cohen is Professor of Sociology at the University of Maryland. His research and teaching concern families and inequality. He writes about demographic trends, family structure, the division of labor, health disparities, and open science. He is the author of the popular textbook, The Family: Diversity, Inequality, and Social Change.

In this episode, we discuss whether it makes sense to talk about “generations”. We start by discussing what people mean by “generation”, and how generations are arbitrarily established. We talk about how many times people do not identify with their own generation, and the stereotypes associated with the silent generation, baby boomers, generation X, the millennials, and generation Z. We discuss cohort and life course research, and the use of cohorts instead of generations. We talk about sociological factors that make people from the same generation different from each other. We discuss negative stereotypes associated with Gen Z. Finally, we talk about how generation labels can affect research.

YouTube link: https://tinyurl.com/35fxyzv5

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22/07/2024

#970 Pedro Magalhães: Democracia e Participação Política em Portugal

This interview is in Portuguese.

O Dr. Pedro Magalhães é Investigador Coordenador do Instituto de Ciências Sociais da Universidade de Lisboa. É licenciado em Sociologia pelo ISCTE e doutor em Ciência Política pela Ohio State University. Foi diretor do Centro de Estudos e Sondagens de Opinião da Universidade Católica Portuguesa entre 2005 e 2009. Faz investigação na área da opinião pública, atitudes e comportamentos políticos e instituições políticas e judiciais.

Neste episódio, começamos por falar de como se define democracia. Discutimos a relação entre estatuto socioeconómico e apoio ao status quo, assim como a relação entre desigualdade económica e apoio à democracia liberal. Falamos também do problema da polarização ideológica. De seguida, abordamos vários aspetos da democracia em Portugal, incluindo o processo de democratização após o 25 de abril, a importância da separação de poderes, contrapesos à ação governativa em Portugal, e os sistemas eleitoral e partidário em Portugal. Falamos também diferenças geracionais na participação política, assim como de diferenças de valores entre homens e mulheres jovens. Por fim, discutimos alguns dos valores culturais em Portugal e a relação entre valores culturais e atitudes políticas.

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19/07/2024

#969 Seth Robertson: Moral Realism and Anti-Realism, Confucian Ethics, and Epistemic Injustice

Dr. Seth Robertson is a Lecturer in Philosophy and Associate Director of Undergraduate Studies at Harvard University. His research interests include moral psychology, the history of ethics, early Chinese ethics, social epistemology, virtue ethics, and metaethics. Dr. Robertson’s research focuses on ways in which non-normative information should constrain our normative theorizing. He has written about the intersection of social intelligence and virtue ethics as well as situationist psychology and moral development in the context of early Confucian ethics, and is currently working on epistemic injustice and rhetorical manipulation.

In this episode, we start by talking about normative theorizing (with a focus on ethics), non-normative information, and how non-normative information should constrain our normative theorizing. We talk about a novel version of metaethical Humean Constructivism: “perspectival naturalism”. We also talk about a pluralist approach to ethics. We discuss Confucian ethics and its moral anti-realist features. Finally, we talk about different forms of epistemic injustice, and what predicts continuation for women in academic philosophy.

YouTube link: https://youtu.be/qH-l3YHZO3g

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18/07/2024

#968 Mark Rank: How Chance and Luck Shape Our Lives and the World around Us

Dr. Mark Rank is Herbert S. Hadley Professor of Social Welfare at the George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis. Dr. Rank is widely recognized as one of the foremost experts and speakers on issues of poverty, inequality, and social justice. He is the author of several books, the latest one being The Random Factor: How Chance and Luck Profoundly Shape Our Lives and the World around Us.

In this episode, we focus on The Random Factor. We discuss what “randomness” means, how ancient people thought about chance and luck, the role of change in biological evolution, and whether randomness is studied in the social sciences. We talk about chance in human history; scientific discoveries and technological innovations; the lottery of life; the role of gender, race, and social class in life outcomes; poverty and economic inequality; and careers, marriage, and professional success. We discuss why many people dismiss the role of chance and luck in their lives, how individual agency fits into the picture, why politicians should keep randomness in mind when designing social policy, and reframing meritocracy.

YouTube link: https://tinyurl.com/nps28wpj

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15/07/2024

#967 Channa Prakash: Gene Editing in Plants, GMOs, Organic Agriculture, and Environmental Activism

Dr. Channa Prakash is Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Tuskegee University (USA). His research expertise is on genetic improvement of food crops of importance to developing countries and training of scientists and students in plant biotechnology. Dr. Prakash has also been actively involved in enhancing the societal awareness of food biotechnology issues around the world. He has earlier served on the USDA's Agricultural Biotechnology Advisory Committee and the Advisory Committee for the Department of Biotechnology for the government of India. He is a Fellow of the American College of Nutrition (FACN).

In this episode, we start by talking about gene editing techniques in plants, how they compare to GMOs, the goals of gene editing in plants, and its challenges. We discuss misconceptions surrounding GMOs, how the European Union deals with GMOs, the failed promises of organic agriculture, and the negative consequences of its adoption in Sri Lanka. Finally, we talk about environmental activism.

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12/07/2024

#966 Patrick Hassan: Nietzsche's Struggle Against Pessimism

Dr. Patrick Hassan is a Lecturer at the School of English, Communication and Philosophy at Cardiff University. His primary areas of interest are moral and existential philosophy. Currently, he works on 19th century philosophy (particularly Nietzsche and Schopenhauer), ethics and its relation to aesthetics, and environmental philosophy. He is the author of Nietzsche's Struggle against Pessimism.

In this episode, we focus on Nietzsche's Struggle against Pessimism. We start by talking about pessimism and its varieties, and also a bit about its history. We discuss pessimism in the 19th century, with a focus on Schopenhauer. We talk about Nietzsche’s first engagement with pessimism, and the questions we grappled the most with. We discuss pessimism in “Human, All Too Human”, and a psychological critique of pessimism. We talk about the relationship between pessimism and nihilism. We discuss hedonism, and the value of suffering. Finally, we talk about Nietzsche’s antidotes to pessimism.

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08/07/2024

#964 Steve Keen: Rebuilding Economics from the Top Down

Dr. Steve Keen is former Associate Professor of Economics at University of Western Sydney, and former Professor and Head of the School of Economics, History and Politics at Kingston University in London. He is now an independent researcher in Economics, as well as a Distinguished Research Fellow at the Institute for Strategy Resilience & Security at University College London. He is the author of several books, the latest one being Rebuilding Economics from the Top Down.

In this episode, we focus on Rebuilding Economics from the Top Down. We first discuss what economics is and its role in society, and the main tenets of mainstream economics, with a focus on supply and demand. We also discuss why these ideas are mainstream, and its real-life consequences. We talk about the 2008 economic crisis and how it should have been dealt with. We talk about an alternative approach to economics based on complex systems theory, and explore the example of how employment rates and wages evolve over time. We also discuss debt, inflation, how prices are determined, how money is created, and the role of banks. We talk about what GDP is, and the differences between financial capitalism and industrial capitalism. Finally, we discuss the risks associated with climate change, and economic solutions to it.

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05/07/2024

#963 Abraham Newman - Underground Empire: How America Weaponized the World Economy

Dr. Abraham Newman is a Professor at the School of Foreign Service and Government Department at Georgetown University. Known for his research on the politics generated by globalization, he serves as a frequent commentator on international affairs, appearing on news programs ranging from Al Jazeera to Deutsche Welle and NPR. He is a 2022–2023 Berlin Prize winner and his work has been published in leading outlets like the New York Times, the Washington Post, Nature, Science, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Harvard Business Review, and Politico. His latest book, together with Henry Farrell, is Underground Empire: How America Weaponized the World Economy.

In this episode, we focus on Underground Empire. We first discuss in what ways the US is an (underground) empire. We talk about the development of the global banking system and the role played by the internet. We discuss the US government’s response to 9/11. We talk about how the US can make use of global networks to cut entire countries out of the global economy. We discuss the influence of the European Union and China on the global stage, and the political relationship between the US and China. We talk about the benefits and vulnerabilities of globalization. Finally, we discuss how we can leverage the global networks to better serve the interests of the global population.

YouTube link: https://tinyurl.com/3cdyshkc

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04/07/2024

#962 Lydia Moland: The Abolitionism and Feminism of Lydia Maria Child
Dr. Lydia Moland is a Professor of Philosophy at Colby College in Waterville, Maine, where she teaches courses on moral philosophy, aesthetics, and the history of modern philosophy. For most of her career, she has written on nineteenth-century German philosophy. She is the author of Lydia Maria Child: A Radical American Life (2022).

In this episode, we focus on Lydia Maria Child. First, Dr. Moland tells us about what got her interested in abolitionism in the US, and we then get into Lydia Maria Child’s early life, her intellectual path, how she got into abolitionism, women’s rights activism, and Native American rights. We discuss what it means to be an intellectual/academic, what kind of intellectual Lydia Maria Child was, and what there is to admire about her.

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01/07/2024

#961 Mauro Silva Júnior: The Evolutionary Psychology of Interpersonal Relationships

Dr. Mauro Silva Júnior is Professor in the Department of Basic Psychological Processes at the Psychology Institute at the University of Brasilia. He works on interpersonal relationships, especially the traits of individuals and their social partners – such as s*x differences, differences between parents and friends, and the use of technology as a mediator of social interactions. Moreover, he investigates the cognitive and memory aspects of the relationships with maternal and paternal parents, and friends; as well as levels of emotional and time investment.

In this episode, we talk about the evolutionary psychology of interpersonal relationships. We go through the main factors that play a role in parent-offspring relationships, friendships, and romantic relationships. We talk about the role of personality in interpersonal relationships. We discuss what explains homos*xuality in humans. We get into the role of socios*xuality in romantic relationships, how it relates to mating strategies, and how its risk-taking aspect played out during the COVID-19 pandemic. Finally, we talk about mating systems in human societies: monogamy, polygyny, and polyandry, and we discuss whether polyamory is a distinct mating system.

YouTube link: https://tinyurl.com/mwz54zzv

https://bit.ly/4copcZZ

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28/06/2024

#960 Grace Blakeley: Vulture Capitalism

Grace Blakeley is an author, journalist, and political commentator. She attended University of Oxford where she graduated with a first-class honors degree in philosophy, economics, and politics. She has written for the Guardian, Tribune and the New Statesman among others, and appears regularly on television and radio, including on ITV Good Morning Britain, TalkTV and Jeremy Vine on Channel Five. She is the author of Stolen (Repeater), The Corona Crash (Verso), and her latest book, Vulture Capitalism: Corporate Crimes, Backdoor Bailouts, and the Death of Freedom.

In this episode, we focus on Vulture Capitalism. We start by talking about the most common misconceptions people have about how capitalism works. We then discuss how businesses are planned, the importance of labor movements, how companies get state support, and how countries from the global North exploit countries from the global South. We discuss what “freedom” means, and how people can democratize institutions and take back control. Finally, we talk about the current state of the world, and reasons for being optimistic.

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27/06/2024

#959 Edgar Dubourg: The Psychological Foundations and the Cultural Evolution of Fiction

Edgar Dubourg is a PhD candidate in cognitive science at the Département d’Études Cognitives at the École Normale supérieure (ENS-PSL). He uses insights from both the natural sciences (behavioral ecology, evolutionary psychology, cognitive neuroscience) and the humanities (literary theory, literary history, cultural studies), and both computational and experimental methods, to explain the psychological foundations and the cultural evolution of fictions.

In this episode, we talk about the psychological foundations of fiction. We start by discussing what fiction is, and how old it is in human societies. We talk about evolutionary precursors to fiction. We discuss whether is it an evolved adaptation. We talk about the cognitive mechanisms behind fiction, and its (social) functions and signaling functions. We discuss two hypotheses to explain fiction: the entertainment hypothesis, and the information hypothesis. We talk about why so many people are fascinated by imaginary worlds, and how that might be explained by inter-individual differences in exploratory behavior. We also discuss how to approach the study of fictional genres, and cross-cultural differences in fiction. Finally, we settle an old One Piece debate.

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24/06/2024

#958 Robin McKenna: Non-Ideal Epistemology

Dr. Robert McKenna is Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Liverpool. Most of his work is in epistemology, but he is also interested in philosophy of language, philosophy of science and ethics. Within epistemology, he is increasingly interested in applied epistemology, feminist epistemology and social epistemology more broadly. Current topics of interest include the epistemology of persuasion, the epistemology of climate change denial (and of "dysfunctional epistemologies" more broadly), epistemic injustice and social constructivism. He is the author of Non-Ideal Epistemology.

In this episode, we focus on Non-Ideal Epistemology. We first discuss ideal epistemology, and then get into what non-ideal epistemology is. We talk about its ethical and political aspects, the example of feminist epistemology, and epistemic agents as deeply socially situated. We address the problem of the identification of expertise, and intellectual autonomy. We discuss how we can construct a better epistemic environment. We talk about how we can deal with public ignorance about important political and scientific issues. We discuss our responsibilities as inquirers, and how they depend on our social situation. Finally, we talk about motivated reasoning and skepticism.

YouTube link: https://tinyurl.com/2bwfwnyf

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21/06/2024

#957 Adam Toon - Mind as Metaphor: A Defence of Mental Fictionalism

Dr. Adam Toon is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Exeter. He works in philosophy of science and philosophy of mind, especially on topics that relate these two fields. He is also interested in the sociology of scientific knowledge. Much of his work focuses on the nature of representation—both how our minds represent the world and how we use other forms of representation, such as scientific models. He is the author of Mind as Metaphor: A Defence of Mental Fictionalism.

In this episode, we focus on Mind as Metaphor. We start by talking about folk psychology, and how people think about the mind. We go through several different approaches to the mind, like the mind as a machine, eliminativism, behaviorism, instrumentalism, and Daniel Dennett’s approach to the mind. We then get into mental fictionalism, and discuss whether the mind exists, how to approach causality and behavior through the lens of fictionalism, self-knowledge, and the concept of mental representation. We talk about the extended mind thesis, and 4E cognition. Finally, we discuss the implications that fictionalism would have for epistemology, and how we think about the nature of human knowledge and inquiry.

YouTube link: https://tinyurl.com/465hbzr2

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20/06/2024

#956 Edward Watts - Hypatia: The Life and Legend of an Ancient Philosopher

Dr. Edward Watts is presently the Vassiliadis Professor of Byzantine Greek History at the University of California, San Diego, where he was formerly Co-Director of the Center for Hellenic Studies. His research interests center on the intellectual and religious history of the Roman Empire and the early Byzantine Empire. He is the author of several books on ancient history, including Mortal Republic: How Rome Fell Into Tyranny, The Eternal Decline and Fall of Rome: The History of a Dangerous Idea, and Hypatia: The Life and Legend of an Ancient Philosopher.

In this episode, we focus on Hypatia. We first get into the social, political and historical context where Hypatia lived, and the intellectual life in Alexandria. We then talk about her early years, how she became a philosopher and the head of a philosophy school, her main intellectual contributions, her political life and public service, and her tragic death and its aftermath. We also discuss her intellectual legacy, how she has been portrayed by artists, and what she symbolizes for modern people.

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17/06/2024

#955 Elizabeth Pillsworth: The Anthropology of Partner Choice, Mating Systems, and Gender

Dr. Elizabeth Pillsworth is Professor of Anthropology at the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at California State University, Fullerton. Her research questions include patterns of mate preferences, mate choice, s*xuality, gender, romantic love, and reproduction. Her research projects include studies with U.S. populations and 15 years of fieldwork with an indigenous hunter-horticultural population in Amazonian Ecuador.

In this episode, we explore the evolutionary anthropology of partner choice, parenthood, mating systems, and gender. We start by talking about the Shuar people in South America, and we explore topics like their gender norms and how they have changed over the past few decades; partner choice and marital practices; parent-offspring conflict in partner choice; and the influence of female choice and parental choice in the evolution of mate preferences. We then talk about the evolution of paternal investment and the role of fathers. We discuss coupling and human mating systems. Finally, we talk about the difference between s*x and gender, and how gender roles change across time.

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14/06/2024

#954 Jonathan Matheson: Why It's OK Not to Think for Yourself

Dr. Jonathan Matheson is a Professor of Philosophy at the University of North Florida specializing in epistemology. His primary research interests concern the epistemic significance of disagreement. He also has research interests in ethics, metaphysics, and philosophy of religion. His latest book is Why It's OK Not to Think for Yourself.

In this episode, we focus on Why It’s OK Not to Think for Yourself. We start by discussing where the idea that people should think for themselves comes from, and social epistemology and the wisdom of crowds. We talk about who we should rely on, how to identify the experts, why we cannot properly evaluate all kinds of information by ourselves, and how we need to rely on other people and on accumulated knowledge. We go through the main objections to Dr. Matheson’s thesis, namely the autonomy objection, the free-rider objection, the Socratic objection, the objection of epistemic vulnerability, the understanding objection, and the intellectual virtue objection. Finally, we discuss epistemic responsibility, and cases where it is not OK to not think for yourself.

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