Condensed Matter Podcast
1) 37: "Why Being Necessary Really Is Not the Same As Being Not Possibly Not", Dana Goswick
Modality (possibility, necessity and related phenomena) is central to philosophy both as a topic of inquiry and as a methodological tool. There are many controversies about the nature of possibility a...Show More
2) 36: "The Singularity: A Philosophical Analysis", David Chalmers
Recently, there has been frenzied interest in artificial intelligence and, in particular, in the issue of AI safety; there have been “open letters” signed by some of the biggest names in the tech busi...Show More
3) 35: "There is no measurement problem for Humeans", Chris Dorst
The measurement problem highlights a deeply puzzling feature of quantum mechanics: nature seems to obey one law when not measured and a completely different law when measured. But how does nature "rec...Show More
4) 34: "The Limits of Modality", Sam Cowling
This episode is about Sam Cowling's "The Limits of Modality" published in the Philosophical Quarterly in 2011. Are all true propositions either contingent or necessary? Cowling argues that if we ...Show More
5) 33: "Biochemical Functions", Francesca Bellazzi (deep dive featuring the author!)
In the episode, I talk with Francesca Bellazzi about her paper "Biochemical Functions", which is forthcoming in the British Journal for the Philosophy of Science. We discuss the distinction between fu...Show More
33: "Biochemical Functions", Francesca Bellazzi (deep dive featuring the author!)
37:04 | Dec 22nd, 2022
6) 32: "Substance", Donnchadh O'Conaill (deep dive featuring the author!)
In this episode, I ask Donnchadh O'Conaill about themes from his book "Substance" which is forthcoming with Cambridge University Press as part of the Cambridge Elements in Metaphysics series. We ...Show More
7) 31: "Biological Individuality and the Foetus Problem", Will Morgan (deep dive featuring the author!)
In this episode, I talk to my Bristol MetaScience colleague, Dr Will Morgan, about his recently published paper in which he argues that if we accept the physiological approach to biological individual...Show More
8) 30: “How Skeptical is Quine’s “Modal Skepticism”?”, John Divers
Was Quine really a modal sceptic--someone who thought that modality was unintelligible or paradoxical? Divers thinks he is better cast as a non-sceptical modal anti-realist. Here's a link to the ...Show More
9) Ep. 29: "Modal Conventionalism", Ross Cameron
The focus of this episode is Ross Cameron's "Modal Conventionalism" published in The Routledge Handbook of Modality in 2021. Here is a link to the paper, but these handbooks are insanely expensiv...Show More
10) Ep. 28: "Panpsychism", Thomas Nagel (CM classic!)
The focus of this episode is Thomas Nagel’s “Panpsychism”, published by Cambridge University Press in his “Mortal Questions” anthology. This isn’t a recent paper, it was first published in 1979. But i...Show More