Very Bad Wizards

Paul Bloom joins us to talk all things villainous -why we sometimes root for the bad guys, why we admire them even when we don't, why they are much more compelling than some of our heroes. Then more evidence that we're really a movie podcast at heart: we list our top 5 villains and antiheroes from TV and film. Plus, more on the benefits of religious rituals and how to make a sitcom about Himmler. Our Top 5 Villains Paul Bloom Todd Alquist (Breaking Bad) Barney Stinson (How I Met Your Mother) The Joker (The Dark Knight) Bridgette Gregory (The Last Seduction) Agent Smith (The Matrix) Tamler Sommers Daniel Plainview (There Will be Blood)/Tony Montana (Scarface) Willie (Bad Santa) Tommy (Goodfellas) Alonzo Harris (Training Day) Go-Go (Kill Bill Vol. 1) David Pizarro Tom (Tom & Jerry) Keyser Soze (The Usual Suspects) Vic Mackey (The Shield) Harry Lime (The Third Man) Hal 9000 (2001 A Space Odyssey) Clips: "You need people like me. The bad guy." "I'm sorry Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that." From 2001: A Space Odyssey [youtube] "Come on Mr Ed. Let's see it." From The Last Seduction [youtube] "A good narcotics agents loves his narcotics." From Training Day. [youtube] "I loved a woman who wasn't clean." "Mrs. Santa?" "No, her sister." From Bad Santa [youtube] "He showed these men of will what will really was." From The Usual Suspects. [youtube] "Funny how?" From Goodfellas [youtube] Special Guest: Paul Bloom. Support Very Bad Wizards

Tamler and David get bullied into talking about "anti-natalism," (the view that it is unethical to bring a being into existence), and to defend our ethical position as "breeders." Well, one of us defends it, at least. The other one? Well, you'll have to judge for yourself... Along the way we discuss how much pleasure you would need to equal the pain and suffering you've experienced, the joy of pooping (especially while on E), and Tamler explains why he calls David a Kantian, and why he thinks it's such an insult. For those who have missed the arguing, it's back on this one. Links Anti-Natalism [wikipedia.org] Ecclesiastes 4:2-3 [usccb.org]: And those now dead, I declared more fortunate in death than are the living to be still alive. And better off than both is the yet unborn, who has not seen the wicked work that is done under the sun. "No Life is Good" David Benatar. [Philosopher's Magazine] Don't Have Any Children, by David Benatar [moreintelligentlife.com] David Benatar Radio Interview (MP3) on 702.co.za Every Conceivable Harm: A Further Defence of Anti-Natalism by David Benatar [squarespace.com] Baumeister, R. F., Bratslavsky, E., Finkenauer, C., & Vohs, K. D. (2001). Bad is stronger than good. Review of general psychology, 5(4), 323. [Thanks to listener Brian Erb] Support Very Bad Wizards

Dave and Tamler take a shot at answering the question: what is an evolutionary psychologist? Is it just a psychologist who believes in evolution? (No.) Is it a psychologist who embraces a computational, modular theory of the mind? (No. Well, maybe…we're not sure.) Are they psychologists who are part of a cult that fanatically endorse evolutionary explanations for every aspect of human judgment and behavior? (No! Well, most of them aren't, anyway.) So what are they? And why do they generate so much hostility? Plus, we go back to Genesis (the real story of how we evolved) to offer another thought experiment: what is it like to be Adam and Eve before eating the forbidden fruit? What is it like not to know good and evil? And we give our aspiring playwright listeners a perfect idea for a one-act play: Abraham and Isaac walking down the mountain after the aborted sacrifice. Links The Tree of the Knowledge of Good & Evil [wikipedia.org] The Leviathan [wikipedia.org] E.O. Wilson [wikipedia.org] Sociobiology [wikipedia.org] Burke, D. (2014). Why isn't everyone an evolutionary psychologist? Evolutionary Psychology and Neuroscience, 5, 910. Making birds gay with science!: Adkins-Regan, E. (2011). Neuroendocrine contributions to sexual partner preference in birds. Frontiers in neuroendocrinology, 32(2), 155-163. Just-so stories [wikipedia.org] Waist-hip ratio [wikipedia.org] "A natural history of rape: Biological bases of sexual coercion" by Thornhill and Palmer [wikipedia.org] Buss, D. M., Larsen, R. J., Westen, D., & Semmelroth, J. (1992). Sex differences in jealousy: Evolution, physiology, and psychology. Psychological science, 3, 251-255. Satoshi Kanazawa [wikipedia.org] Support Very Bad Wizards

Experience Machines, Chinese Rooms, Original Positions, and Ice Buckets. ("I don't know what you have in mind for this evening Homer, but count me out!") Dave and Tamler continue their discussion on thought experiments--how they can be effective, the difference between their use in philosophy and psychology, and how they can spin out of control like deadly viruses and become the disease they were trying to cure. Plus, do our motives matter when it comes to raising money for charity? Links Chinese Room thought experiment [wikipedia.org] Turing Test [wikipedia.org] Ice bucket challenge [alsa.org] Weird Al Yankovic does the Ice Bucket Challenge [youtube.com] Flight of the Conchords "Pro-Aids" [youtube.com] Rawls' Original Position [plato.stanford.edu] The Veil of Ignorance [wikipedia.org] Press Your Luck "No Whammies!" [youtube.com] Behaviorism [wikipedia.org] Logical positivism [wikipedia.org] Support Very Bad Wizards

Episode Audio Dave and Tamler talk about the value and purposes of thought experiments in philosophy and science. Does the trolley problem tell us more about moral psychology than how people make judgments in trolley problems? Can an imagined scenario about two balls refute an almost two thousand year old theory of falling objects? When young virgin Dave learned all the physical facts about sex, did he learn anything new when it finally happened? All this and more in Part One of our two part episode on this topic. Links The experience machine [wikipedia.org] Mary the color scientist [wikipedia.org] Zombies [wikipedia.org] Qualia [wikipedia.org] The Violinist from "A defense of Abortion" [wikipedia.org] The Ship of Theseus [wikipedia.org] Newcomb's Paradox [wikipedia.org] Ring of Gyges [wikipedia.org] Peter Singer's thought experiment [wikipedia.org] Veil of Ignorance [wikipedia.org] Galileo's Balls [philosophical-investigations.org] Tamler's Zombie Paper Support Very Bad Wizards

Dude, do you ever think about how, like, we could be all be in the Matrix? Seriously, no no, dude, I'm being serious. It's like, none of this might be real, you know? Actually we don't know. We honestly can't believe we made it to 50 episodes, so we must be brains in a vat. But we play along and celebrate with...a movie episode! We list our five favorite films about the subjective or questionable nature of reality. Our only rule: we couldn't choose The Matrix. Listen to this episode--your Mom says it's psychologically taut. Links Kramer, A. D., Guillory, J. E., & Hancock, J. T. (2014). Experimental evidence of massive-scale emotional contagion through social networks. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Rashomon (David) [imdb.com] Exit Through the Gift Shop (Tamler and David) [imdb.com] Banksy on "Life Remote Control" (clip, youtube.com) Paul Bloom on art and forgery [ted.com] Spirited Away (Tamler) [imdb.com] My Neighbor Totoro (David) [imdb.com] Mr. Snuffleupagus [wikipedia.org] Adaptation (Tamler) [imdb.com] Donnie Darko (David) [imdb.com] Stories we Tell (Tamler) [imdb.com] Waking Life (David) [imdb.com] Robert Solomon [wikipedia.org] Mulholland Drive (Tamler) [imdb.com] Tamler's Honorable Mentions Primer Dark City Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind Memento The Truman Show Rosemary's Baby The Shining Purple Rose of Cairo The Conversation Shutter Island Some SPOILER ALERT Links Tim Minchin summarizes Donnie Darko in song [youtube.com] Everything you were afraid to ask about Mulholland Drive by Bill Wyman, Max Garrone, and Andy Klein [salon.com] Support Very Bad Wizards

Special guest Walter Sinnott-Armstrong joins the podcast to explain how his theory which desperately needs a new name ("contrastivism") can dissolve most of the fundamental problems and paradoxes in philosophy. We also talk about psychopaths--what they are and what we can do about them. But first we read and respond to an angry piece of fan mail (ok, maybe 'fan' is not the right word) from Sam Harris, trashing us--mostly Tamler--for our comments on VBW 45 about the new atheists. Links Sam Harris debates Andrew Sullivan [samharris.org] Richard Dawkins on the harm of fairy tales (read until the end) [telegraph.co.uk] Walter Sinnott-Armtrong's Home Page [duke.edu] Sinnott‐Armstrong, W. (2008). A contrastivist manifesto. Social Epistemology, 22(3), 257-270. Sinnott-Armstrong, Walter. (2006) It's not my fault: Global warming and individual moral obligations. Advances in the Economics of Environmental Resources 5, 285-307. The Memory of Jurors: Enhancing Trial Performance by Anders Sandberg, Walter Sinnott-Armstrong, and Julian Savulescu. Special Guest: Walter Sinnott-Armstrong. Support Very Bad Wizards

Dave and Tamler take a mulligan and try to resolve their conflict about restorative justice. Do restorative processes lead to more just outcomes than other approaches? Is it more vulnerable to instances of prejudice and bias? Is revenge a form of restorative justice? Also, on this episode: can being sexist get you killed in a hurricane? Are replication attempts a form of bullying? And why is Dave hoarding gefilte fish in his pantry? Links Ed Yong on Hurricane Study [phenomena.nationalgeographic.com] Scatterplot blog on hurricane study [scatter.wordpress.com] Simine Vazire on "Repligate" [sometimesimwrong.typepad.com] Restorative Justice online [restorativejustice.org] "Restorative Justice in Texas: Past, Present, and Future." by Mark Levin [texaspolicy.com] Bridges to Life [bridgestolife.org] Michelle Anderson The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness [amazon.com] Support Very Bad Wizards

Tamler and David leech off of their listeners and dedicate an episode to their favorite comments, questions, and criticisms from the past few weeks (but not before Tamler goes on a rant about bicycle helmets). Included in this episode: Does doing research on hypothetical moral dilemmas actually say anything about how people would act in real life? Do people make different moral judgments in their native language than in a more recently acquired language? Do Tamler and David only appeal to intuitions when it's convenient for the view they are defending? Do they hold "barbaric" views about justice and revenge? Does doing philosophy make your life better? And, perhaps most importantly, why do we seem to mention porn on every episode? Links Bicycle helmet effectiveness [wikipedia.org] Tamler's appearance on The Partially Examined Life podcast [partiallyexaminedlife.com] Axons and Axioms podcast [axonsandaxioms.com] Spacetime Mind podcast [spacetimemind.com] A valuable site if you're interested in putting together your own podcast: Dan Benjamin's Podcasting Handbook [podcastinghandbook.co] If you like the music we use, you can listen/download here: soundcloud.com/peezismyname Pea Soup Blog [peasoup.typepad.com] Qualia [wikipedia.org] Judith Jarvis Thomson's "A Defense of Abortion" [wikipedia.org] Entranced by Reality by Ian Corbin (Review of "A Life Worth Living: Albert Camus and the Quest for Meaning" by Robert Zaretsky). [theamericanconservative.com] Iranian killer's execution halted at last minute by victim's parents by Saeed Kamali Dehghan [theguardian.com] Academic Articles Mentioned Bartels, Daniel M. (2008), "Principled Moral Sentiment and the Flexibility of Moral Judgment and Decision Making," Cognition, 108, 381-417. [uchicago.edu] Costa, A., Foucart, A., Hayakawa, S., Aparici, M., Apesteguia, J., Heafner, J., & Keysar, B. (2014). Your Morals Depend on Language. PloS one, 9(4), e94842. [plosone.org] Gold, N., Colman, A. M., & Pulford, B. D. (2014). Cultural differences in responses to real-life and hypothetical trolley problems. Judgment and Decision Making, 9, 65-76. [sjdm.org] Special thanks to listeners (in order of question-appearance) Jakub Maly, Mark Ellis, Derek Leben, Jennifer Cohen, Rob Sica, Larson Landes, Billie Pritchett, Dave Herman, Otakar Horak, Monique Oliveira, Paul Bello, and Dag Soras. Support Very Bad Wizards

May I have your attention please? Will the real Josh Knobe please stand up? Will the real... [you know what, screw this--we're just dating ourselves.] X-phi phenom Josh Knobe rejoins the podcast to talk about the true self, naked people, gay preachers, and the Talmud. Plus, what happens when Tamler takes a sleeping pill by mistake in the afternoon and goes on Facebook? Why do you have get so drunk on Purim? And Dave discovers a Google-assisted loophole that allows you to be an immoral shit your whole life and get away with it. Links Joshua Knobe's home page [yale.edu] XXX: 30 Porn-Star Portraits by Timothy Greenfield-Sanders [amazon.com affiliate link] Gray, K., Knobe, J., Sheskin, M., Bloom, P., & Barrett, L. F. (2011). More than a body: mind perception and the nature of objectification. Journal of personality and social psychology, 101, 1207. [yale.edu] Moral Scrupulosity [wikipedia.org] Newman, G. E., Bloom, P., & Knobe, J. (2014). Value Judgments and the True Self. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 40, 203-216. [verybadwizards.com] Frankfurt on the Hierarchical Will: Frankfurt, H. G. (1988). Freedom of the Will and the Concept of a Person (pp. 127-144). Humana Press. [verybadwizards.com] "Tarred and Feathered" episode of "This American Life," covering a man who started a support group to keep pedophiles from victimizing children. [thisamericanlife.org] Purim [wikipedia.org] Simchat Torah [wikipedia.org] Pizarro, D.A., Uhlmann, E., & Salovey, P. (2003). Asymmetry in judgments of moral blame and praise: The role of perceived metadesires. Psychological Science, 14, 267-272. [peezer.net] Cohen, A. B., & Rozin, P. (2001). Religion and the morality of mentality. Journal of personality and social psychology, 81, 697. [upenn.edu] Newman, G. E., Lockhart, K. L., & Keil, F. C. (2010). “End-of-life†biases in moral evaluations of others. Cognition, 115, 343-349. [yale.edu] Stupid Sexy Flanders! Special Guest: Joshua Knobe. Support Very Bad Wizards