Philosophy Bites Again

244 Pages·2014·1 MB·English

by  David Edmonds

PHILOSOPHY BITES AGAIN
PHILOSOPHY
BITES AGAIN
DAVID EDMONDS &
NIGEL WARBURTON
Great Clarendon Street, Oxford, OX2 6DP, United Kingdom Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It
furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a
registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries © David Edmonds and Nigel Warburton
2014
The moral rights of the authors have been asserted First Edition published in 2014
Impression: 1
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and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press 198
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2014936064
ISBN 978–0–19–870269–6
ebook ISBN 978–0–19–100725–5
Printed in Great Britain by Clays Ltd, St Ives plc
PREFACE
Philosophy Bites Again is the third volume of interviews based on our popular
audio podcast ‘Philosophy Bites’. We are still amazed and delighted by the
number of enthusiastic listeners this series has worldwide.
As with the earlier books, Philosophy Bites and Philosophy Bites Back, these
are not verbatim transcripts of audio: in collaboration with the interviewees,
we’ve adapted the interviews so that they work on the page. For some
interviews, this has resulted in only minor tweaks; for others, the interviewees
have suggested significant changes.
Philosophy Bites Back focused on the ideas of great dead philosophers, from
Socrates to Derrida. This book returns to the format of the first, with topic-based
interviews grouped under various themes.
We’ve opened with a compilation of responses to the question, ‘Who is the
most impressive philosopher you’ve met?’ We sprang this question on our
unsuspecting interviewees while making the series: these answers too have been
edited for the book.
We launched Philosophy Bites in 2007, and since then we’ve made five spin-
off series:
▪ Ethics Bites <http://www.open.edu/openlearn/whats-on/ethics-bites>;
▪ Bioethics Bites <http://www.neuroethics.ox.ac.uk/bio-ethics_bites>;
▪ Multiculturalism Bites <http://www.open.edu/openlearn/history-the-arts/multiculturalism-bites>;
▪ Free Speech Bites <http://www.freespeechbites.com>; and
▪ Social Science Bites <http://www.socialsciencebites.com>.
We would like to thank the Open University for permission to use the Nancy
Fraser and Sue Mendus interviews, which first appeared in the Multiculturalism
Bites series. The Jeff McMahan interview is from Bioethics Bites, for which we
received a grant from the Wellcome Trust.
But Philosophy Bites is parent to them all. At the time of going to press, we
have conducted around 260 interviews and have had 21 million downloads. That
success is largely down to the high quality of our contributors. For us, at least,
the series continues to be both hugely enjoyable and educational. It’s been a
privilege to meet so many of the world’s leading philosophers, and to receive
what amounts to private individual tuition on such a broad range of topics. Most
of the people we have interviewed have been inspirational not just in the content
of what they say, but in their contagious enthusiasm for thinking and ideas.
We have conducted many of our interviews at The Institute of Philosophy,
part of London University—thanks to Shahrar Ali and Barry Smith for arranging
that. For a few of our interviews we have used office space at Oxford’s Uehiro
Centre for Practical Ethics, and would like to thank Rachel Gaminiratne, Nailya
Nikitenko, Deborah Sheehan, and Miriam Wood, and the Director, Julian
Savulescu. We would also like to thank Charles Styles, Hannah Warburton,
Mollie Williamson, and Katrina Woolley for transcribing the interviews, and
Hannah Edmonds for performing her traditional proofreading role. At the time of
writing, Philosophy Bites the podcast series is self-funded; we are extremely
grateful for donations that have come in via our website at
<http://www.philosophybites.com>, which have allowed us to keep on releasing
episodes on a fortnightly basis.
Thanks to our partners Anna Motz and Liz Edmonds for putting up with our
obsession with Philosophy Bites. The last time we dedicated a book in this series
it was to three children. Another one has appeared on the scene. So this book is
for Hannah, Joshua, Saul, and Isaac.
David Edmonds and Nigel Warburton
<http://www.philosophybites.com>
<http://www.twitter.com/philosophybites>
CONTENTS
The most impressive philosopher I’ve met …
JOY AND PAIN
1. Thomas Hurka on Pleasure
2. Michael Tye on Pain
3. Noël Carroll on Humour
MORALITY
4. Jeff McMahan on Moral Status
5. John Mikhail on Universal Moral Grammar
6. Raimond Gaita on Torture
7. Gary L. Francione on Animal Abolitionism
MIND, SELF, AND IMAGINATION
8. Ned Block on Consciousness
9. Patricia Churchland on Eliminative Materialism
10. Frank Jackson on What Mary Knew
11. Galen Strawson on the Sense of Self
12. Alison Gopnik on the Imagination
FREE WILL, RESPONSIBILITY, AND PUNISHMENT
13. Daniel Dennett on Free Will Worth Wanting
14. Fiery Cushman on Moral Luck
15. Nicola Lacey on Criminal Responsibility
16. Victor Tadros on Punishment
17. Philip Pettit on Group Agency
POLITICS
18. Susan Mendus on Toleration
19. Hillel Steiner on Exploitation
20. Rae Langton on Hate Speech
21. Nancy Fraser on Recognition
22. C. A. J. Coady on Dirty Hands in Politics
METAPHYSICS, MEANING, AND REASON
23. Kit Fine on What is Metaphysics?
24. Dan Sperber on the Enigma of Reason
25. Stephen Neale on Meaning and Interpretation
26. Susan Wolf on Meaning in Life
27. Samuel Scheffler on the Afterlife
Notes on Contributors
Further Reading
THE MOST IMPRESSIVE PHILOSOPHER I’VE
MET …
Tim Bayne: The philosopher who’s had the greatest impact on my
development is my PhD supervisor David Chalmers. He has a wonderful ability
to come into a debate and see the conceptual structure of it, and present it
extremely clearly. One has the sense immediately on reading his work of what’s
going on. Very impressive.
John Campbell: Michael Dummett: the sense of depth and seriousness and
intellectual power that he brought to the subject was unparalleled.
Noël Carroll: the late Arthur Danto: a man of exceeding rigour, but also
incredibly imaginative, as anybody who has ever read any of his wonderful
thought experiments, like the exactly nine red paintings in his book The
Transfiguration of the Commonplace, will immediately recognize.
Tim Crane: Bernard Williams is probably the most impressive philosopher
I’ve met in terms of his brilliance, his breadth of knowledge, and his ability to
say interesting things about so many different topics in philosophy.
Roger Crisp: I am fortunate, being in Oxford, to have met a lot of impressive
philosophers. None of them was more impressive than Derek Parfit. Arguing
with him can be a rather disturbing experience because it’s quite clear that once
the argument starts he’s about three steps ahead of everybody else.
Fiery Cushman: The two philosophers that I’ve learnt the most from are both
named Josh: Josh Greene and Josh Knobe. Each in his own way has been a huge
source of insight.
Jonathan Dancy: Gareth Evans was terrifying. He was so quick, and his
thought seemed to be so rich. Other people are less immediately impressive, but
still at the same level. John McDowell I think of as like that. Gareth was all up