PD Episode 12 - Hedonism and the Experience Machine

Episode 12 of the podcast is now available for download here. You can also subscribe on iTunes here.

This episode discusses hedonic utilitarianism and Nozick's experience machine argument. The diagram below provides an overview of the four versions of the experience machine discussed in the podcast. Other relevant links are available below.

Tim Mulgan's book Understanding Utilitarianism


Antti Kaupinnen's post on Experimental Philosophy

Podcast Episode 11 - The Future Like Ours Argument

Back by popular demand....(download here)

Not quite. I actually recorded this over a month ago, but I added a new bit at the start and hope to do some more over the coming weeks. This one is about Don Marquis famous future like ours argument, which is generally considered to be the most significant secular argument against abortion. Should be of interest to anyone looking at applied ethics or, more generally, at the structure of philosophical argumentation.

The Tooley-Marquis dialogue that I refer to during the podcast is here.

Podcast Episode 10 - The Open Society and the Doctrine of Hell

It's been a long time, but finally the wait is over! A brand, spanking new episode of the podcast. Available for download here.

In this episode I begin by looking at an argument from the Catholic intellectual Fr. Thomas Crean. Crean's argument challenges certain aspects of the New Atheist agenda. I follow this by looking at Karl Popper's open society argument and then consider its implications for what Crean has to say.

The inspiration for this episode came entirely from articles I read in Philosophy Now.

Here are the formal versions of the arguments discussed in today's episode.

Crean's First Argument

Crean's Second Argument

The Open Society Argument

Episode 9 - Divine Evil

Episode 9 of the podcast is available for download here. In this episode I discuss the article "Divine Evil" by David Lewis (and Philip Kitcher) which appeared in the collection Philosophers Without Gods.

You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes.


Some relevant links:

Stanford Encyclopedia entries on David Lewis, and David Lewis's Metaphysics

Neil Sinhababu's paper on Possible Girls

Episode 8 - The Foundations of Religious Liberty

Episode 8 of the podcast is available for download here. In this episode I take a look at Brian Leiter's article "The Foundations of Religious Liberty: Toleration or Respect".

This diagram represents the spectrum of moral attitudes that I discuss in the episode.

Episode 7 - A Simple Argument Against Design

Sorry things have been a little quiet over the past week and they will probably remain so for the next week. To make up for it, here is a podcast I recorded. It covers Dan Moller's article "A Simple Argument against Design".

Here are links to some of the other papers I mention during the podcast:

Dougherty and Poston "User's Guide to Design Arguments" -- This paper details the tension between fine-tuning arguments and arguments from biological design. To put it succinctly, a fine-tuning argument only works if the probability of life given the observed cosmological parameters is high; contrariwise, a biological design argument only works if the probability of life given the observed cosmological parameters is low.


McGrew, McGrew and Vestrup "Probabilities and the Fine-Tuning Argument: A Skeptical View" -- This paper covers the normalisability problem and its relevance to the FTA.

Note: The sound quality is bad for the first couple of seconds of this but, fortunately, it improves thereafter.

Episode 6 - The Absurd

The sixth episode of the podcast is available for download here. In this episode, I compare and contrast the views of Thomas Nagel and William Lane Craig on the absurdity of life. Prepare to embrace absurdity with a little bit of irony.

Apparently, the practice of hat-tipping is part of accepted internet etiquette. I therefore duly doff my cap in the direction of Steve Maitzen who gave me the idea for this one.

You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes.

Episode 5 - Transcendence Without God

Episode 5 of the podcast is available for download here. In this episode, I discuss the article "Transcendence without God" by Anthony Simon Laden. The essay appears in the collection Philosophers Without Gods.

Not much to say about this one -- apart from what is said in the podcast itself.

Episode 4 - Theology and Falsification

Episode 4 of the podcast is available for download here. In this episode, a classic contribution to 20th century philosophy of religion is analysed. The contribution in question is the symposium in which Antony Flew's short paper "Theology and Falsification" was presented and discussed.

You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes.

It's been awhile since I read Flew's paper and re-reading it for this podcast made me realise how many important issues it, and the symposium accompanying it, raise. This is all the more impressive given how short and relatively devoid of formal argumentation the original papers are. Admittedly, I may be getting more out of it thanks to my reading in the interim. I will also confess that I have adopted a favourable interpretation of Flew's work.

The original paper, along with the responses of R.M. Hare and Basil Mitchell can be found here.

Horsburgh's critique of Hare's notion of bliks is available here.

Finally, I prepared some notes to accompany the show.

Flew's Argument

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Hare's Argument

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Mitchell's Argument

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Flew's Responses

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Horsburgh on Hare

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Edit: Almost forgot to include this. It's William Lane Craig talking about the role that evidence and argument play in his religious faith. A nice illustration of what Mitchell's argument can lead to:

The Podcast - Episode 3: A Semantic Attack on Divine Command Metaethics

Episode Three of the podcast is available for download here. In this episode I cover the article "A Semantic Attack on Divine Command Metaethics" by Steve Maitzen.

I think I am gradually improving my style. You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes.

As I mention in the podcast, Steve develops a lengthy formal argument to supplement the more informal points that I discuss. I promised to provide a full map of that argument in this post so here it is. It comes in two parts and I recommend looking at them after listening to the podcast.


Part 1: Divine Command Metaethics is not Compatible with Traditional Theism

This argument is relatively straightforward. The only questionable premises are 2 and 4. Premise 2 is defended by arguing that a tautology cannot provide enough information to make a difference to a religious or theological claim about God. Premise 4 is supported by the considerations given in the podcast.


Part 2: Divine Command Metaethics is only true if Moral Nihilism is True

This argument is a little trickier. Premise 11 is the key, but it requires further elaboration and defence. Roughly as follows:

• Moral nihilism is the claim that there is no moral truth. 
• This implies that moral nihilism is false if there is at least one moral truth. 
• Proponents of DCM claim that facts about the will of an agent explain all moral truths.
• Specifically, facts about the will of a Supreme Being are what explain all moral truths.
• The Supreme Being is the God of traditional theism.
• So, proponents of DCM need traditional theism to be true.  
• This implies that if there is at least one moral truth and if DCM is true, traditional theism must also be true.

Premise 11, then, is an accurate reflection of what proponents of DCM want to be the case. But because we have established that DCM is incompatible with traditional theism (in part 1 of the argument) we end up with the unappetizing conclusion that DCM can only be true if moral nihilism is true.

The Podcast (Index)

This will serve as an index to all the episodes of the podcast. You can subscribe on itunes, if you wish.


1. Sceptical Theism and Divine Lies
Description: Discusses Erik Wielenberg's argument that sceptical theists cannot rule out the possibility that God is lying to them in sacred texts. This, it is suggested, can have devastating consequences for our understanding of revelation and religious experience.


2. Cosmic Fine-Tuning and the Goodness of Life
Description: Discusses Neil Manson's argument that those who think fine-tuning demands an explanation must be doing so on the assumption that life is an intrinsic good.


3. A Semantic Attack on Divine Command Metaethics
Description: Discusses Steve Maitzen's argument that a Divine Command Metaethics is tautologous and theologically vacuous.


4. Theology and Falsification
Description: Discusses Antony Flew's classic symposium piece "Theology and Falsification" as well as the various responses to it. I conclude that Flew's piece remains a significant challenge to the cogency of religious belief.


5. Transcendence Without God
Description: Discusses Anthony Simon Laden paper on "Transcendence without God" from the collection of papers Philosophers without Gods.


6. The Absurd
Description: Compares and contrasts the views of William Lane Craig and Thomas Nagel on the absurd. Craig argues that life without God is without ultimate meaning or significance; Nagel argues that the very concept of ultimate meaning is incoherent.


7. A Simple Argument against Design
Description: Discusses Dan Moller's paper "A Simple Argument Against Design". As the name suggests, Moller offers a simple, likelihood-based objection to design arguments.


8. Foundations of Religious Liberty
Description: Discusses Brian Leiter's paper "Foundations of Religious Liberty: Toleration or Respect?". Leiter argues that, when properly understood, there are no good grounds for (legally) respecting religion.


9. Divine Evil
Description: Discusses David Lewis' paper "Divine Evil" from the collection Philosophers without Gods. Lewis argues that one of the most disturbing aspects of traditional theistic belief is the evil it attributes to God.

10. The Open Society and the Doctrine of Hell
Description: Discusses Popper's Open Society argument and its implications for the toleration of religious beliefs and practices.

11. The Future Like Ours Argument
Description: Discusses Don Marquis's famous "Future like ours"-argument and David Boonin's critique of it. Marquis' argument is one of the best known secular arguments against abortion.

The Podcast - Episode 2: Cosmic Fine-tuning and the Goodness of Life

Episode Two of the podcast is available for download here. In this episode I cover a short paper by Neil Manson entitled "Cosmic Fine-tuning, Many Universe Theories and the Goodness of Life". You can download a copy of the paper at Neil's webpage.

I received some feedback for my previous effort. Most was positive and no doubt the naysayers kept quiet. One person suggested that my voice was a little dry, and I would have to agree. I've tried to liven things up in this episode and I personally think it is an improvement. Let me know if you disagree.

I'd be happy to receive comments or suggestions, particularly suggestions for topics or papers you would like me to cover in the future. My only ground rule is that the papers must be short enough to cover in about 20 mins.

Enjoy.

Philosophical Disquisitions - The Podcast

In a momentary lapse of my otherwise sound judgment, I decided to record a podcast. The podcast is really just an audio version of what I'm already doing on the blog. It provides a summary and commentary on the various book chapters and articles that I've been reading.

It is intended to complement rather than replace the written summaries that I am already providing. There won't be any overlap between the two and the podcast will only be an occasional addition to the menu here at Philosophical Disquisitions.

The first episode is available for download here. It covers Erik Wielenberg's recently published article "Sceptical Theism and Divine Lies".

This is very much a trial run. I am hoping to improve my style and delivery over time and I would be happy to receive feedback -- constructive or otherwise -- in the comments section. I'm particularly concerned with how easy or difficult it is sustain concentration for the full duration of the podcast (24mins), particularly given my somewhat placid voice.

Anyway, let me know what you think.