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Insert Philosophy Here

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The world needs more philosophy. More to the point, we all need to engage with the world with a more philosophical attitude. My name is Douglas Giles, I am a philosopher by trade and temperament. I understand that philosophy is an active search for concepts on which we can build a better life. Long fascinated by ideas, I am motivated by an earnest desire to bring philosophy out of its insular ivory tower and into everyday life where it can be put to good uses. As a university philosophy prof ...
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show series
 
The concept of “Christian” nationalism has been in the news lately. That’s understandable given how often and how much certain groups are pushing the belief that America is a Christian nation and even that it should be an exclusively Christian nation. At least, that’s what they say on their external packaging.…
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Both Hitler and Trump are pathetic and delusional. Both are far right authoritarians. But their movements have different motivations and goals. Calling Trump a fascist may seem like a convenient shorthand description, but it masks the depth of the real movement behind Trump. The truth is difficult but important to understand.…
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Philosophy of Election 24 Series #5 Freedom is a word many people use, but few people have any substantial understanding of the meaning of the concept. To mention that fact isn’t cynical or disparaging. The concept of freedom, like all significant philosophical concepts, is deep, complex, multidimensional, and nuanced. It is beyond simplistic defin…
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Some say that a week is a lifetime in politics, and last week showed how true that is. Now the election can turn to focus on Trump. I've been busy the past two months finishing my new book, Why Trump? Why Some People Support Him—How the Rest of Us Can Respond. I read from the first chapter, Chapter 1. Framing the Issue. https://amzn.to/3Y3NeFm http…
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What’s right and wrong about the Columbia protests and what’s right and wrong about political action. Can we have an intelligent conversation about what’s going on at Columbia University? Probably not. I’ll try anyway, although a conversation requires willing and sincere participants. Referenced in this episode: Ethics of Dissent and Protest Left W…
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There’s an important difference between them. This episode is a follow-up to Episode 12, "What Lurks Behind Conspiracy Theories." The subject of conspiracy theories is of great interest, probably because 2024 is an election year in many countries. In this episode, I respond to a comment made by several listeners and explain the difference between a…
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My long-term slightly scientific study of fluffpreneurship. We are now in the Epoch of the Memeocene in which things are oversimplified and vapid. It is an age in which society recognizes facile imitation more than substance. Not surprisingly, the snake oil merchants have adapted to the times. What they sell and how they sell it has been pared down…
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Scottish philosopher David Hume in the 1700s changed Western philosophy with his strong critique of science. Hume showed that science is based on three assumptions that have no rational basis. Hume's critique so impressed Immanuel Kant, that it led Kant to develop his critiques of reason that revolutionized philosophy and science. Today. Hume's arg…
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For the last seven years, I’ve had quite a few people here in Europe ask me to explain Trump and his MAGA sycophants. Their incredulous questions are understandable. What’s in MAGA minds? How could they believe such things? Why are they so full of hate? I reference two books in this episode: The Rise of Victimhood Culture and Rethinking Misrecognit…
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Spoiler Alert: I will divulge as little as possible about the specifics of the movie as I talk about the real-life implications of its philosophical ideas, but, obviously, some content of the movie will leak out. Yes, Barbie is a surprisingly philosophical movie. I had low expectations for Barbie. I’ve never been a fan of corporations or dolls, and…
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Much will be said and written about the latest set of indictments handed down against former President Trump. I will leave it to the legal analysts to dissect the minutiae and details of the indictment. I'm a philosopher. So, I want to talk about what is behind all of this, what's really going on with all of this? What are the fundamental principle…
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Dr. Eve Poole is my honoured guest to talk about her latest book Robot Souls. Two of the biggest design problems in Artificial Intelligence are how to build robots that behave in line with human values and how to stop them ever going rogue. One under-explored solution to these alignment and control problems might be to examine how these are already…
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A subject that has been in the news quite a lot lately as a political issue is diversity, equity, and inclusion, (DEI) and this is a topic that's dear to my heart as a philosophy professor. We need DEI programs, and I am very concerned about the efforts to try to reverse DEI initiatives in higher education. Plus, I am also aware of how part of that…
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We truthfully tell students about the importance of education, but all of the students are being shortchanged and overcharged for their experiences in higher education. Tuition is rising, but the money isn’t going toward education. The reasons are the three wrong priorities now dominating higher education.…
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Much has been made and certainly much more will be made about Joe Biden’s age after he announced he is running for president. Some people suggest that he is too old to run for president. It is prejudice to assume that age makes one unqualified for any role, including the President of the United States. Being in one’s 80s does not in and of itself m…
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In recent years, there has been concern about the role of the digital world in movements and forces that could be considered to be anti-democracy. But what, if anything, has the online world changed in the public sphere and democracy that could potentially contribute to anti-democratic behavior? To address this broad question, I bring together seve…
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This week marks the one-year anniversary of this podcast, but more importantly, it is the one-year anniversary of Putin's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. In this week's episode, I focus on two questions: why do some people who claim to be anti-war refuse to be against Putin's war, and what factors led them to hold such a hypocritical position. Supp…
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What are UFOs? It is a surprisingly emotional subject. A large percentage of people who come across this article will read very little of it, having already assumed their preferred conclusion, and not take seriously the argument I am presenting. I hope that does not include you, dear reader. I wrote this to try to have a discussion about the issues…
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I welcome your comments, Contact me at InsertPhilosophyHere.com. Much of the defense of capitalism takes the positives of free enterprise and incorrectly attributes them to capitalism and much of the condemnation of capitalism incorrectly includes free enterprise in that condemnation. To have a fruitful, honest discussion, we need to get past error…
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The words “woke” and “wokeness” have recently entered the political lexicon. These words puzzle me as to what they mean and why people use them. “Woke” and “wokeness” are used mostly, if not exclusively, as an insult. They are used mostly, if not exclusively, by the Right. In our current memeocene epoch, the “woke” insult is often attached to an at…
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To “go vegan” is a legitimate dietary choice, but I am about to become a heretic in the vegan evangelists’ eyes, because I will dare to question the vegan dogma. There are multiple fallacies in the vegan ideology but for brevity, in this article, I will concentrate on the “veganism will save the planet” claim. It’s about the climate crisis. Veganis…
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How We Are and How We Got Here: A Practical History of Western Philosophy ISBN: 978-1-7358808-8-4.e-book: https://amzn.to/3I42f1S. Paperback: https://amzn.to/3Wz78V9. A fresh and original presentation that is easy for students, instructors, and general readers to use. This well-written, insightful history of philosophy is basic enough to be underst…
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This year has seen a number of important and contentious elections: Sweden, Italy, United States, Brazil, and Israel, among others. By its nature, politics is agonistic--a process of contention among people--but today it is an antagonistic process in which politicians actively exhort the public to misrecognize and even hate other politicians.…
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