Brain in a Vat

Should we remove offensive monuments at the cost of erasing history? Is there an unacceptable cost to open borders? And what would a just tax system look like? Hosts: Mark Oppenheimer and Jason Werbeloff Producer: Jimmy Mullen

Are moral facts baked into reality, the way facts about socks or rocks are? Or should we think about morality in a more pragmatic way: that it doesn’t matter whether ethics are ‘in the world’ – only that ethics guide our actions effectively?    Andrew’s Book, ‘Pragmatist Quietism’: https://www.andrewsepielli.com/book-pragmatist-quietism Presenters: Mark Oppenheimer and Jason Werbeloff  Editor and Producer: Jimmy Mullen  Brain in a Vat bookshop (Shopify): https://smarturl.it/BrainShop Brain in a Vat bookshop (Amazon): https://smarturl.it/BrainAmazonShop

Why should we punish the guilty? Is it because they’ve done something wrong, to remove them from society, or to dissuade others from wrongdoing? Presenters: Mark Oppenheimer and Jason Werbeloff  Editor and Producer: Jimmy Mullen

Thaddeus Metz, expert in African Ethics, discusses its potential as a superior moral framework. Topics include prioritizing loved ones in moral choices, the importance of communal relationships, the difference between shame and guilt, harmony in various contexts, and the ethics of mocking foolish beliefs.

Could we be systematically mistaken about the world around us? Would we be wrong about everything if we turned out to be a brain in a vat, a mind manipulated by an evil demon, or born into a virtual simulation? Presenters: Mark Oppenheimer and Jason Werbeloff  Editor and Producer: Jimmy Mullen

Is lying ever justified? Is it permissible to kill one innocent person to save many others? Learn more about the views of one of the greatest philosophers of the 20th Century. Presenters: Mark Oppenheimer and Jason Werbeloff Editor and Producer: Jimmy Mullen Philosophy as Dialogue: https://www.amazon.com/Philosophy-as-Dialogue-Hilary-Putnam/dp/0674281357/

Is racial profiling always wrong, even if used by an AI to decrease crime? Should we use AI to judge criminal cases,  recommend sentences for the guilty, or decide parole for prisoners?

Do reporters have special moral obligations? Is it ever justified for governments to shut down newspapers? Should private companies like Paypal be allowed to deplatform journalists? Presenters: Mark Oppenheimer and Jason Werbeloff  Editor and Producer: Jimmy Mullen

Dan Shahar defends the view that eating meat is permissible, even though meat farming is not. Is this a coherent position?   Presenters: Mark Oppenheimer and Jason Werbeloff  Editor and Producer: Jimmy Mullen

Is gender a social construct? Is gender distinct from sex? And can you be wrong in your beliefs about your own gender? Presenters: Mark Oppenheimer and Jason Werbeloff Editor and Producer: Jimmy Mullen