Very Bad Wizards

We hit the jackpot with this one! Economist Robert Frank (you may remember him from such episodes as The Greatest Books Ever Written) joins David and Tamler to talk about his new book Success and Luck: Good Fortune and the Myth of Meritocracy. What role does pure chance play in making or breaking our careers and lives? Are effort and talent enough to succeed, or does the ball need to bounce our way? Where do we get our will-power and talent--is that ultimately a matter of luck as well? And what happens when we reflect on the lucky breaks we've received in our lives? Does it make us happier and more generous? Or do we feel like our accomplishments have been taken away? Plus a brief discussion of the Frank's revelatory 1988 book Passions Within Reason, and of some recent studies about how we convey our commitment to cooperate.

• Robert Frank [johnson.cornell.edu]
• Robert Frank interviewed on Fox News by Stuart Varney [video.foxbusiness.com]
• Ronald Coase [wikipedia.org]
• Everett, J.A.C., Pizarro, D. A. & Crockett, M.J., (in press). Inference of Trustworthiness from Intuitive Moral Judgments. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. [papers.ssrn.com]
• Passions within Reason by Robert Frank [amazon.com affiliate link]
• Frank, R. H., Gilovich, T., & Regan, D. T. (1993). The evolution of one-shot cooperation: An experiment. Ethology and sociobiology, 14, 247-256.
• Desteno, D., Breazeal, C., Frank, R. H., Pizarro, D., Baumann, J., Dickens, L., & Lee, J. J. (2012). Detecting the trustworthiness of novel partners in economic exchange. Psychological science, 23, 1549-1556. [pdf from davedesteno.com]
• Frank, R.H. (2016) Success and Luck: Good Fortune and the Myth of Meritocracy. [amazon.com affiliate link]

Special Guest: Robert Frank.

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We know that criminal punishment has consequences, both good and bad, and that many people think that offenders deserve it. But what does punishment mean? What is society trying to express in the way it punishes criminals? And since people from all sides of the political spectrum agree that the prison population is way too big, is there a way to convey that meaning with alternative forms of sanctions? David and Tamler discuss Yale Law Professor Dan Kahan's classic paper "What do alternative sanctions mean?" that addresses these questions. But first, Tamler gets sanctimonious about other people being sanctimonious about guns on campus. At the risk of angering "that student," we "go there."

• University of Houston Faculty Devises Pointers on How to Avoid Getting Shot by Armed Students by Elliott Hannon [slate.com]
• A PowerPoint Slide Advises Professors to Alter Teaching to Pacify Armed Students by Rio Fernandes [chronicle.com]
• Kahan, D. M. (1996). What do alternative sanctions mean? The University of Chicago Law Review, 63(2), 591-653. [law.yale.edu]
• Moskos, P. (2013). In defense of flogging. Basic Books. [amazon.com affiliate link]

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Philosophers can be funny and funny movies can be philosophical. David and Tamler welcome frequent VBW guest and arch-enemy of empathy Paul Bloom to discuss their five favorite comic films with philosophical/psychological themes. Groundhog Day was off-limits for our top five (we would've all chosen it) so we start by explaining why it's the quintessential movie for this topic.

[all movie links are to imdb.com]

• Paul's Top 5
  • The Big Lebowski
  • Shaun of the Dead
  • The Man with Two Brains/All of Me
  • Stranger than Fiction
  • Being There
• Tamler's Top 5
  • Defending Your Life/Lost in America
  • Modern Times
  • Seven Psychopaths/In Bruges
  • Barton Fink/Sullivan's Travels
  • Purple Rose of Cairo
• David's Top 5
  • Office Space
  • Dr. Strangelove
    • Pinker, S. (1999). "The Doomsday Machine" in How the mind works. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 882(1), 119-127.
  • Brazil
  • Trading Places
  • The Princess Bride

Special Guest: Paul Bloom.

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David and Tamler talk about the perils of trying to step outside of your own perspective in ethics, science, and politics. What do Rawls' "original position" thought experiment, Pascal's Wager, and Moral Foundations Theory have in common? (Hint: it involves baking.) Plus, what movies (and other things) would serve as a litmus test when deciding on a potential life partner? What might liking or not liking a certain film, book, or TV series tell you about a person, and whether or not the relationship would work? And what sexual position is it rational to choose under the veil of ignorance? (It's a night episode...)

• Part 1: Litmus Tests
  • The Bad News Bears (1976) [imdb.com]
  • A Confederacy of Dunces [wikipedia.org]
  • Drive [imdb.com]
    • Every Frame A Painting--Drive: The Quadrant System [youtube.com]
  • Ferris Bueller's Day Off [imdb.com]
  • The Far Side [wikipedia.org]
  • Frank [imdb.com]
  • Hustle and Flow [imdb.com]
  • Jackie Brown [imdb.com]
  • Key and Peele [imdb.com]
  • Miracle of Morgan's Creek [imdb.com]
  • The Office (UK) [imdb.com]
  • Pulp Fiction [imdb.com]
  • Spaghetti Western [wikipedia.org]
    • ADR (Automated Dialogue Replacement/Dubbing) [wikipedia.org]
  • Sullivan's Travels [imdb.com]
  • Spellbound [imdb.com]
  • Slapshot [imdb.com]
  • What We Do in the Shadows [imdb.com]
• Part 2:
  • Williams, B. (1981). Rawls and Pascal's Wager. Moral Luck, 94-100. [verybadwizards.com]
    • Moral Luck [amazon.com affiliate link]
  • Moral Foundations Questionnaire (30-item) [moralfoundations.org]

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David and Tamler continue their series of breaking down a classic essay/article in their fields. For this installment, David assigns Tamler Anthony Greenwald's fascinating 1980 review article "The Totalitarian Ego." What do totalitarian regimes, scientific theories, and your own cognitive biases have in common? As it turns out, quite a bit. Why do egos rewrite our memories, preserve our beliefs in the face of contradictory evidence, and make us think we're way more important than we are? And how does Thomas Kuhn fit into all this? Plus, we read a few of our favorite iTunes reviews.

• Audience video of Society for Personality and Social Psychology 2016 Session on Moral Purity with Kurt Gray, Jon Haidt, David Pizarro (courtesy of Kate Johnson) [youtube.com]
• Greenwald, A. G. (1980). The totalitarian ego: Fabrication and revision of personal history. American psychologist, 35, 603. [verybadwizards.com]

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David and Tamler take a break from their main jobs as TV critics to talk about a masterpiece in political philosophy: "Two Concepts of Liberty" by Isaiah Berlin. While they both celebrate the style and substance of this classic essay, in a startling twist Tamler praises conceptual analysis and David expresses a few misgivings about his Kantianism. What is the elusive idea of positive liberty, and how can its pursuit lead to totalitarian rule? When is it more important to buy boots than read Russian poetry? And why is David still so depressed by pluralism? Plus, coddling in Wisconsin? And another famous set of social psych studies is accused of biting the dust.

• In Wisconsin, Efforts to End Taunting at Games Lead to Claims of Coddling By Mike McPhate [nytimes.com]
• Take my Breath Away by Berlin [youtube.com]
• Cortex Podcast Episode #20 [relay.fm]
• Amy Cuddy "Your Body Language Shapes Who You Are" TED Talk [ted.com]
• "The Power of the Power Pose: Amy Cuddy's Famous Finding is the Latest Example of Scientific Overreach" By Andrew Gelman and Kaiser Fung [slate.com]
• Berlin, I. (1958) "Two Concepts of Liberty." In Isaiah Berlin (1969) Four Essays on Liberty. Oxford: Oxford University Press. [verybadwizards.com]
• Positive and Negative Liberty [plato.stanford.edu]
• Freedom: Block Distractions

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Hello, listener. Hello, listener? That's lame. Maybe I should give you a name, but that's a slippery slope. You're only in my head. Or maybe we're in your head. Are you listening to this with headphones?

Shit. It's actually happened, I'm talking to imaginary listeners.

What I'm about to tell you is top secret, a conspiracy bigger than all of us. There's a powerful group of people out there that are secretly running the world. I'm talking about the guys no one knows about, the guys that are invisible. The top 1% of the top 1%, the guys that play God without permission. That's right, it's the Partially Examined Life guys. And now I think they're following me.

Special guest Yoel Inbar joins us to talk about the best show of last year. Warning: This episode is full of spoilers. Do not listen until you've seen Season 1 of Mr. Robot.

• Mr. Robot
  • IMDB
  • Wikipedia

Special Guest: Yoel Inbar.

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It's our last episode on campus protests and political correctness for a while, we promise! But it's a fun one. David and Tamler welcome two guests on the opposite side of the debate spectrum. Recent Yale Alum, cognitive scientist, freelance writer, (and writer of novel-length emails) Vlad Chituc joins both of us to defend the Yale protests, provide some context, and explain why the good people at FIRE are hypocritical about free expression. In the middle segment, Tamler talks with his notorious stepmother and "factual feminist" Christina Hoff Sommers (author of "Who Stole Feminism?" and "The War Against Boys"). They argue over whether the new political correctness poses a serious threat to campus climate, whether it is even "new," and over whether one is obligated to smoke weed on Joe Rogan's podcast. Plus, Tamler gets all huffy about the panic over terrorism, and we read some email responses to VBW Episode 78 ("Wizards Uprising"). Oh, and we have a recording a date set for the Mr. Robot episode!

Vlad Chituc [vladchituc.com]

Christina Hoff Sommers [aei.org]

"Fear in the Air, Americans Look Over Their Shoulders" [nytimes.com]

The Coddling of the American Mind [theatlantic.com]

Who Stole Feminism by Christina H. Sommers [amazon.com affiliate link]

The War Against Boys by Christina H. Sommers [amazon.com affiliate link]

"CDS Appropriates Asian Dishes, Students Say" [oberlinreview.org] (ht/@brittanyepage)

Special Guests: Christina Hoff Sommers and Vlad Chituc.

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Special guest Valerie Tiberius joins us to talk about values, well-being, and friendship. What role should reflection play in the good life? What about emotion? How can we make our values more consistent and sustainable? Do we know our friends better than we know ourselves? Plus, are philosophers experts? Experts of what? What are the boundaries of our discipline? And what motivates a gay Mormon to stay in the Church? In the first segment, David and Tamler list a few things they're grateful for on Thanksgiving, including you, the listeners (awwwwww...)

• National Thanksgiving Turkey Presentation [wikipedia.org]
• Valerie Tiberius personal website [sites.google.com]
• Tiberius, V. (2012) Cell Phones, iPods, and Subjective Well-Being. In Brey, P., A. Briggle & E. Spence (Eds.). The good life in a technological age. Routledge. [verybadwizards.com]
• Desire theories of well-being ( from Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on Well-Being) [plato.stanford.edu]

Special Guest: Valerie Tiberius.

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David and Tamler return to the minefield of campus politics and talk about recent events at Yale, Missouri, and Amherst. Are the protests are long overdue response to systematic oppression and prejudice? Or is this new generation of students coddled, hypersensitive, and hostile to free speech? A little bit of both? Can our hosts get through this episode without fighting?

• The New Intolerance of Student Activism by Conor Friedersdorf [theatlantic.com]
• President Peter Salovey's statement to Yale community [news.yale.edu]
• 2015 University of Missouri Protests [wikipedia.org]
• Amherst College Uprising (with list of demands) [amherstuprising.com]
• Vlad Chituc (@vladchituc) [vladchituc.com]

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Special guest Eric Schwitzgebel joins David and Tamler to discuss the moral behavior (or lack thereof) of ethicists. Does moral reflection make us better people, or does it just give us better excuses to be immoral? Who's more right about human nature--Mencius or Xun Zi? What did Kant have against bastards and masturbating? Plus, we talk about jerks, robot cars, and killing baby Hitler. (Godwin's Law within 1:42--might be a new record for us).

• Eric Schwitzgebel publications. (Has links to all the discussed papers).
• Why Self-Driving Cars Must be Programmed to Kill [technologyreview.com]
• Bonnefon, J. F., Shariff, A., & Rahwan, I. (2015). Autonomous Vehicles Need Experimental Ethics: Are We Ready for Utilitarian Cars? [arxiv.org]
• Mencius [wikipedia.org]
• Xun Zi [wikipedia.org]
• "The Philosophical Problem of Killing Baby Hitler." [vox.com]
• Why it's Unethical to Go Back in Time and Kill Baby Hitler. [forbes.com]

Special Guest: Eric Schwitzgebel.

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David and Tamler list three things they've changed their minds about in their careers. (This episode was recorded before Episode 75, but that one was way too long already.) What does Tamler think about X-phi these days? Has Dave lost his faith in the power of reason? What the hell is 'non-cognitivism'? Plus, Dave disagrees with John Hodgman about the metaphysical property of a hot dog. And a couple of listener shout-outs, including giving credit to a listener for giving us a topic idea we discussed without realizing she had suggested it in an email weeks ago.

Links

• Ethical Expressivism (Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
• Moral Anti-Realism (Stanford Encylopedia of Philosophy)
• John Hodgman on the hot dog/sandwich debate. (NY Times Mag)
• "Perspectives on P.F. Strawson's "Freedom and Resentment." (Really good introduction by Michael McKenna and Paul Russell.)

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Dave and Tamler celebrate their 75th episode by welcoming six BFFs of the podcast and asking them to share the biggest thing they've changed their minds about in their professional careers. You'll hear Dan Ariely on our moral duty to take science into the real world, Laurie Santos on the the role of neuroscience in explaining psychological findings, Yoel Inbar on what it means to do good science as a psychologist, Eric Schwitzgebel on his metaphysical epiphany about materialism, Nina Strohminger on breaking-up with priming research, and Sam Harris on Artificial Intelligence and its perils, and his recently changed views about vegetarianism. (Sadly, we had a technical glitch with the audio when we recorded our most-frequent guest Paul Bloom, but we'll bring him on again soon.) Plus we play some hilarious mash-ups, raps, and voicemails sent in from listeners.

• Dan Ariely
• Laurie Santos
• Yoel Inbar
• Nina Strohminger
• Eric Schwitzgebel
• Sam Harris

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Special Guests: Dan Ariely, Eric Schwitzgebel, Laurie Santos, Nina Strohminger, Sam Harris, and Yoel Inbar.

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David and Tamler return after an end of summer hiatus to finally talk about the ethics of deception….eventually. But first they break down a recent article in the journal Science documenting an attempt to replicate 100 recent psychology experiments. What does it mean that just over 1/3 of the studies were successfully replicated? Is social psychology in crisis or is this just how science works? Will David somehow try to pin the blame on philosophers?

Plus--a brief and almost certainly regrettable foray into the Ashley Madison hack, the neuroscience of lying to your kids about Santa, and we announce a new way to contact us to help celebrate our 75th anniversary.

• Authors, Shitload of (2015) Estimating the reproducibility of psychological science, Science, 39.
• The Bayesian Reproducibility Project post by Alexander Etz [alexanderetz.com]
• Harris, S. (2013). Lying. Four Elephants Press. Buy on Amazon
• Bok, S. (2011) Lying: Moral choice in public and private life. Vintage, 2011. Buy on Amazon
• Santa on the Brain by Kelly Lambert [nytimes.com]
• James Randi (aka "The Amazing Randi") [wikipedia.org]
• An Honest Liar [anhonestliar.com] (Available on Netflix in the U.S.)
• The Honest Truth about Dishonesty [amazon.com affiliate link]
• (Dis)Honesty – The Truth About Lies [thedishonestyproject.com]
• Exit Through the Gift Shop [wikipedia.org]
• F for Fake [imdb.com]

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In what is possibly our most repugnant first segment ever, David and Tamler break down the ethics of zoophilia and investigate the true nature of consent. In the second segment we answer some listener emails and address our first question in our new capacity as International Ethics Experts.™ If your family is religious, how honest should you be with your children about your non-belief? Do the comforting aspects of religious belief outweigh the fears and anxieties? What's the deal with Christians and hell?

Plus, sex-ed from a female perspective, a brief nostalgic trip to The Electric Company, and David overcomes his horror of self-promotion to thank some people for praising the podcast.

• Top 25 Podcasts for Men [hiconsumption.com]
• People Behind the Science podcast episode featuring David [peoplebehindthescience.com]
• Radio Tatas! Episode 37: "In a Row?!?" (their review of VBW starts at around the 30:00 mark) [radiotatas.libsyn.com]
• Cecil the Lion [wikipedia.org]
• New York Court: Chimps Are Still Property, Not People [npr.org]
• The Electric Company Intro [youtube.org]

Suggestions for our listeners for the next podcast episode:

• Santa on the Brain by Kelly Lambert [nytimes.com]
• James Randi (aka "The Amazing Randi") [wikipedia.org]
• An Honest Liar [anhonestliar.com] (Available on Netflix in the U.S.)
• The Honest Truth about Dishonesty [amazon.com affiliate link]
• (Dis)Honesty – The Truth About Lies [thedishonestyproject.com]
• F is for Fake [imdb.com]

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It finally happened: David and Tamler welcome special guest Joshua Weisberg to the podcast to talk about Turing machines, Chinese Rooms, and AI. What does it mean for a machine to acquire intelligence? What is the proper test? How much processing power would it take? Do computers shed light on how human beings think? Why is John Searle trapped in a Chinese room, anyway? Plus, a spoiler-filled discussion (beginning at 58:20) of the recent movie Ex Machina. David tries to assert his feminist bonafides but Tamler takes Eva's side, proving once again that he is the real feminist. And we have a quick 5-minute discussion of Mr. Robot Episode 4 (beginning at 1:24) and respond to a couple of emails from the authors of the Inside Out article we discussed in our previous episode.

• Turing Test [wikipedia.org]
• Chinese Room thought experiment [wikipedia.org]
• Artificial Intelligence [wikipedia.org]
• Weisberg, J. (2009). It stands to reason: Skynet and self-preservation. In Irwin, W., Brown, R., & Decker, K. S. (Eds.) Terminator and philosophy: I'll be back, therefore I am (Vol. 13). John Wiley & Sons.
• Ex Machina [IMDB.com]

Special Guest: Josh Weisberg.

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David and Tamler go deep into the best TV show of the summer, "Mr. Robot. They talk about the moral ambiguity of its central character, the distorted vision of reality it portrays, and play a round of "Real or Not Real" with all the main characters. Plus, what the swooning critics ignore about Pixar's "Inside Out"--its irresponsible failure to reference the relevant literature in cognitive science and philosophy of mind.

Two philosophers explain what Inside Out gets wrong about the mind [vox.com]

The James/Lange theory of emotion [wikipedia.org]

Mr. Robot [IMDB]

Unreliable Narrator [wikipedia.org]

Shoot the Dog Trope [tvtropes.org]

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Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens, papers by Williams and movies from Sweden. Long graphic novels that celebrate being. These are a few of our favorite things. Dave and Tamler offer some moral psych-themed recommendations to help you get your summer off to a good start. Plus, is porn bad for you now that it doesn't come in brown paper packages tied up in string?

Links

• Pornucopia by Maria Konnikova [aeon.com]
• Maria Konnikova on Twitter [twitter.com]
• Zhana Vrangolova [zhanavrangolova.com]

Books

• Daytripper by Fabio Bá and Gabriel Moon [amazon.com affiliate link] [comixology link]
• Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro [amazon.com affiliate link]

Movies

• Force Majeure [imdb.com]
• Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter [imdb.com]

Academic Papers

• Kahane, G., Everett, J. A., Earp, B. D., Farias, M., & Savulescu, J. (2015). 'Utilitarian' judgments in sacrificial moral dilemmas do not reflect impartial concern for the greater good. Cognition, 134, 193-209.
• Williams, B. A. O., & Moore, A. W. (2006). Philosophy as a humanistic discipline. Princeton University Press. [verybadwizards.com]

TV Shows

• Mr. Robot [usa.com]
• Louie [imdb.com]
• Deadwood [imdb.com]
• The Americans [imdb.com]
• Sherlock [imdb.com]

Podcast (David's Extra)

• Robot or Not? Podcast [incomparable.com]

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Dave and Tamler try to figure out what we talk about when we talk about objectivity. In past episodes we've claimed that logic and science (when it isn't fraudulent) are objective. Tamler has claimed repeatedly that "Louie" is an objectively better TV show than "Jessie." Dave is constantly claiming that Kant is objectively the best philosopher. But to be honest, we say these things without being exactly sure what we're saying. Today we try to be sure--only to get more confused.

Plus, we get into a big fight over trigger warnings, the Kipnis affair at Northwestern, and other related issues. (The infamous Episode 45 was an ecstasy-fueled love fest in comparison.) However, we have spared our listeners the drama, and have only included a few lowlights. If you listen closely, you can even hear Tamler apologize.

• Sexual Paranoia Strikes Academe by Laura Kipnis [chronicle.com]
• Laura Kipnis Is Cleared of Wrongdoing in Title IX Complaints [chronicle.com]
• Title IX [wikipedia.org]
• For Tamler's views on the campus climate and the Kipnis fiasco, check out his comments on this post. [leiterreports.typepad.com]

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Dave drags Tamler into the nerd abyss by making him watch an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation ("Tapestry," from the 6th season. It's available on Netflix instant in the US, and likely worldwide on many sites of varying legality). We talk about the themes of the episode: regret, risk aversion, the arrogance of hindsight, and the dream of living your past "knowing what you know now." What are the things that shape our character? Should we embrace our mistakes or would we change something if we could? How should we think of our lives--as one long continually unfolding story or as a series of unrelated episodes?

And speaking of regret, we reflect on our comedy episode and some listener dissatisfaction (we agree with much of it) and talk about yet another fraudulent study with sexy results. Plus, Dave finally learns what 'chuchma' means.

• "Science Retracts Troubled Gay Marriage Study." [retractionwatch.com]
• "Michael Lacour Responds to Critics." [latimes.com]
• "The Strangest Thing about Lacour's Response" (nymag.com)
• Star Trek: The Next Generation. "Tapestry" [en.memory-alpha.wikia.com]
• Best Episode Ever #30: Star Trek: The Next Generation [craveonline.co.uk]
• Patrick Stewart on Extras [youtube.com]

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Dave and Tamler break the cardinal rule of comedy by trying to analyze it. What are the origins and functions of humor? Can a theory explain what makes us laugh? Is humor entirely subjective? Why would anyone find Mr. Bean funny? Plus, we lose some geek cred by confessing some iconic comedians that we never liked, and ask why the American Psychologist Association loves to torture people.

• Report Claims American Psychological Association Secretly Supported Torture Policy [time.com]
• The philosophy of humor [iep.utm.edu]
• Key and Peele: Gay Wedding [youtube.com]
• Key and Peele: Awesome Hitler Story [youtube.com]
• Goodfellas: How the Fuck Am I Funny? [youtube.com]
• Steven Wright: Birthday Present [youtube.com]
• Hannibal Burress: Pickle Juice [youtube.com]
• George Carlin on Fat People [youtube.com]
• Jerry Seinfeld on Airport Security [youtube.com]
• Louis CK: Pig Newtons [youtube.com]
• Curb Your Enthusiasm: Rash [youtube.com]
• Eddie Murphy: Barbecue [youtube.com]
• Bill Burr on Trying to Buy a Pumpkin [youtube.com]

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Special guest Yoel Inbar (author of Hitchcock's Women: From Margaret Sullivan to Tippi Hedren) joins us to talk about Hitchcock's long take masterpiece/gimmick Rope. Based loosely on the case of Leopold and Loeb, Rope tells the story of two young men who have read Nietzsche and decide to murder a schoolmate in order to cement their Übermensch status. Did they read Nietzsche correctly? Is conventional morality nothing but a construct to keep the inferior masses in line? Are professors accountable for what they teach? (Please God, no.) Plus, we delve deeper into Julie and Mark's motivation, and Yoel plays a round of "Does the government deem this trademark scandalous?"

• Yoel Inbar [yoelinbar.net]
• Very Bad Wizards Episode 22: An Enquiry Concerning Slurs and Offensiveness [verybadwizards.com]
• Rope [IMDB.com]
• Leopold and Loeb [wikipedia.org]
• Leopold and Loeb's Criminal Minds (Smithsonian Magazine)
• The Leopold and Loeb Trial Page (UMKC Law)
• Paul Gauguin [wikipedia.org]
• The Moon and Sixpence by W. Somerset Maugham [wikipedia.org]
• Nietzsche's Moral and Political Philosophy [plato.stanford.edu]
• Damasio, A. "Remembering When," Scientific American, 2002. [antonellapavese.com]
• What's the matter with a little brother sister action? by Tamler Sommers [psychologytoday.com]

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Holy crap, it's the apocalypse!!!!

...for philosophy. Maybe. Has this 2500 year old discipline become too technical, too disconnected from the real world? Is it just a handmaiden to the sciences? (Which would make Tamler Dave's handmaiden.) And what the hell is conceptual analysis? Plus, a short excerpt of Tamler's interview with Simon Blackburn, and definitive proof that worms have free will (sorry Sam). And only one more week to buy our t-shirt!

• Free Will? Analysis of worm neurons suggest how a single stimulus can trigger different responses [sciencedaily.com]
• Strawson, P. F. (1962). Freedom and resentment. [princeton.edu]
• Doomen, J. (2015). The end of philosophy. Think, 14(39), 99-109. [verybadwizards.com]
• For a Non-Ideal Metaphysics by Justin Smith [jehsmith.com]
• Concepts [plato.stanford.edu]
• Harry Frankfurt says Philosophy is in the Doldrums [http://leiterreports.typepad.com]
• Simon Blackburn's Website [phil.cam.ac.uk]

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Dave and Tamler talk about the human tendency to believe in a just world. Why do we have the belief? Does it make us less motivated to fight injustice? How does it connect to our beliefs about free will and punishment? Plus, the SAE incident—a case where the twitter mob did some good? And Tamler changes his mind about Harmony the Hamster.

• As Two Oklahoma Students Are Expelled for Racist Chant, Sigma Alpha Epsilon Vows Wider Inquiry [nytimes.com]
• Just World Hypothesis [wikipedia.org]
• System Justification [wikipedia.org]
• The Future of The Culture Wars is Here, and it's Gamergate [deadspin.com]
• Lerner, M. J., & Simmons, C. H. (1966). Observer's reaction to the "innocent victim": Compassion or rejection? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 4(2), 203–210. [MIT.edu]
• Clark, C. J., Luguri, J. B., Ditto, P. H., Knobe, J., Shariff, A. F., & Baumeister, R. F. (2014). Free to punish: A motivated account of free will belief. Journal of personality and social psychology, 106(4), 501. [sharifflab.com]
• Sommers, T. (2007). 4 The Illusion of Freedom Evolves. Distributed Cognition and the Will: Individual Volition and Social Context, 61.
• Pizarro, D.A. & Helzer, E. (2010). Freedom of the will and stubborn moralism. In Baumeister, R.F., A.R. Mele, and K. D. Vohs (Eds.) Free will and consciousness: How might they work? (pp. 101-120) Oxford University Press. [peezer.net]
• Sartre is Smartre [vimeo.com]

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Sam Harris gets back in the VBW ring for another round on moral responsibility, ethical theories, and the grounds for our obligations to other people. Are we at a genuine stalemate when it comes to blame and desert? Is Tamler a closet consequentialist? Is Sam a closet pluralist? Why is Dave such a big Wagner fan? Plus, Twitter shaming: what is it good for? Settle in, get comfortable, pour yourself a drink, you're in for the long haul on this one.

• How One Stupid Tweet Blew Up Justine Sacco's Life [nytimes.co]
• The Moral Landscape by Sam Harris [samharris.org]
• Value Pluralism [plato.stanford.edu]
• Bill Burr vs. Philly [youtube.com]

Special Guest: Sam Harris.

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Dave and Tamler discuss a new study that, according to Tamler, offers decisive support for restorative approaches to criminal punishment (the only problem is he didn't read past the introduction). And speaking of justice, we talk about "White Bear"--the most disturbing episode of the UK series Black Mirror that doesn't involve sex with a non-kosher animal. (Note: Massive spoilers for this episode of BM--watch before listening. Available on netflix, amazon prime.)

• Black Mirror, "White Bear" episode [imdb.com]
• Ultimatum Game [wikipedia.org]
• Justice Porn [reddit.com]
• Fehr, E., & Gächter, S. (2002). Altruistic punishment in humans. Nature, 415(6868), 137-140.
• FeldmanHall, O., Sokol-Hessner, P., Van Bavel, J. J., & Phelps, E. A. (2014). Fairness violations elicit greater punishment on behalf of another than for oneself. Nature Communications, 5.

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Dave and Tamler take a break from blame and responsibility to tackle a much easier subject: meaning in life. We discuss Susan Wolf's new book "Meaning in Life and Why it Matters," and play some excerpts from Tamler's recent discussion with her. Plus, we list some of our favorite listener-suggested drinking game ideas so far. (The contest for the free T-shirt is still open--send in your ideas before the next episode!)

Meaning in Life and Why it Matters by Susan Wolf [amazon.com affiliate link]

Billie Pritchett on the Sam Harris and Free Will discussion. [bpritchett.blogspot.com] (Highly recommended!)

The Heaven's Gate Cult [wikipedia.org]

Special Guest: Susan Wolf.

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Dave and Tamler argue some more about the role of emotion and intuition in blame judgments, and then offer some moral psychology-related recommendations for your New Year's viewing and reading pleasure. Plus, can you turn listening to VBW into a good drinking game? Offer some suggestions and win a free Very Bad Wizards T-shirt!

• Tamler's early defense of free will skepticism:
  • "Darrow and Determinism" [naturalism.org]
  • "No Soul? I Can Live with That. No Free Will? AHHHHH!!!" [psychologytoday.org]
  • "Free Will Skepticism in Action" [naturalism.org]
  • Tamler's interview with Galen Strawson [believermag.org]
  • The Objective Attitude [philpapers.org]
• Daniel Miessler on Sam Harris vs. Very Bad Wizards [danielmiessler.com]
• The Sceptic by David Hume [econlib.org]
• Paul Russell's Free Will, Art, Morality [verybadwizards.com]
• Locke [imdb.com]
• The Subjective Effects of Nitrous Oxide by William James [erowid.org]
• Kahan, D. M., Peters, E., Dawson, E. C., & Slovic, P. (2013). Motivated numeracy and enlightened self-government. Social Science Research Network. Available: http://ssrn. com/abstract, 2319992.
• Black Mirror [imdb.com]
• Snowpiercer [imdb.com]
• Snowpiercer-Left or Right [everyframeapainting.tumbler.com]
• Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth [amazon.com affiliate link]
• Meaning in Life and Why It Matters by Susan Wolf. Princeton University. Press, 2010. [amazon.com affiliate link]

Support Very Bad Wizards

Bestselling author and friend of the podcast Sam Harris joins Tamler and Dave for a marathon podcast. (Seriously, pack two pairs of astronaut diapers for this one). We talk about the costs and benefits of religion, dropping acid in India, and the illusory nature of (a certain kind of) free will. Then we go at it on blame, moral responsibility, hatred, guilt, retribution, and vengeance. Sam thinks these are antiquated responses based on a belief in spooky metaphysics, Tamler thinks they are important components of human morality, and Dave just wants everyone to get along and be reasonable (like that nice Kant fellow).

Time markers (roughly)

0:00-47:00 Intro and costs and benefits of religion

47:00-77:30 Drugs, the self, free will

77:30-- Blame, guilt, vengeance, moral responsibility, desert.

• Sam Harris [samharris.org]
• Waking Up: A guide to spirituality without religion by Sam Harris [amazon.com affiliate link]
• Daniel Dennett reviews "Free Will" by Sam Harris [naturalism.org]
• Sam Harris responds to Dennett's Review of "Free Will" [samharris.org]

Special Guest: Sam Harris.

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Film critic, VBW regular, and social psychologist Yoel Inbar joins David and Tamler to talk about Spike Lee's controversial 1989 film, Do the Right Thing, a movie about a day in the life of a small Brooklyn community on the hottest day of summer, and how the day's events lead to a race riot. Which characters in the film deserve our sympathy? (Maybe all of them?) Who was Spike Lee criticizing with his depiction of the characters in this community? Why did Mookie start the riot at Sal's? Was his action justified? Was starting the riot the "Right Thing" that Spike Lee was referring to in the title? Twenty five years after its release, how much have things changed? [Please note: we recorded this episode before the Ferguson verdict, which is why--despite some parallels--we don't refer to the verdict or the aftermath.]

• Do the Right Thing [imdb.com]
• Do the Right Thing Scene: Insults [youtube.com]
• Do the Right Thing Scene: RIP Boom Box [youtube.com]
• Do the Right Thing Scene: Just Off the Boat [youtube.com]
• When Spike Lee Became Scary by Jason Bailey [atlantic.com]
• The Boondocks [wikipedia.org]
• Uncle Remus [wikipedia.org]
• Lyrics to Black Korea by Ice Cube [rapgenius.com]
• Do the Right Thing and Night of the Hunter Side by Side [youtube.com]
• The movie ends with the following two quotes:

Violence as a way of achieving racial justice is both impractical and immoral. It is impractical because it is a descending spiral ending in destruction for all. The old law of an eye for an eye leaves everybody blind. It is immoral because it seeks to humiliate the opponent rather than win his understanding; it seeks to annihilate rather than to convert. Violence is immoral because it thrives on hatred rather than love. It destroys a community and makes brotherhood impossible. It leaves society in monologue rather than dialogue. Violence ends by defeating itself. It creates bitterness in the survivors and brutality in the destroyers.

- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

I think there are plenty of good people in America, but there are also plenty of bad people in America and the bad ones are the ones who seem to have all the power and be in these positions to block things that you and I need. Because this is the situation, you and I have to preserve the right to do what is necessary to bring an end to that situation, and it doesn't mean that I advocate violence, but at the same time I am not against using violence in self-defense. I don't even call it violence when it's self-defense, I call it intelligence.

- Malcolm X

Special Guest: Yoel Inbar.

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David and Tamler talk about a new study that links your belief in free will to the fullness of your bladder. How do our bodily states influence our metaphysical commitments? What's the best way to measure beliefs about free will? Can you get your prostate checked without having someone stick something in your private areas? Plus, an exclusive look at the shocking truth about social psychology experiments.

• The Philosophical Implications of the Urge to Urinate by Dan Ladkin, Scientific American
• Ent, M. R., & Baumeister, R. F. (2014). Embodied free will beliefs: Some effects of physical states on metaphysical opinions. Consciousness and Cognition, 27, 147-154.
• Free Will and Determinism Scale (Rakos, Laurene, Skala, & Slane, 2008, Behavior and Social Issues).

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Following up their discussion of moral villains, Dave and Tamler argue about what makes a moral hero. Tamler defends Sharon Krause's view that honor values can motivate heroic behavior. Dave accuses Tamler of being inconsistent (nothing wrong with that) and slightly Kantian (NOOOOOO!!!). In the final segment, we're back on the same page fawning over Susan Wolf's paper "Moral Saints." Plus, are drunks more likely to be utilitarians? And why does Dave hate Temple Grandin?

• The Cold Logic of Drunk People by Emma Green [theatlantic.com]
• Duke, A. A., & Bègue, L. (2015). The drunk utilitarian: Blood alcohol concentration predicts utilitarian responses in moral dilemmas. Cognition, 134, 121-127. [sciencedirect.com]
• Wolf, S. (1982). Moral saints. The Journal of Philosophy, 419-439. [verybadwizards.com]
• Krause, S. R. (2002). Honor and democratic reform (Ch. 5) [verybadwizards.com]. In Liberalism with honor [amazon.com affiliate link]. Harvard University Press.

Support 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.

Paul Bloom

1. Todd Alquist (Breaking Bad)

2. Barney Stinson (How I Met Your Mother)

3. The Joker (The Dark Knight)

4. Bridgette Gregory (The Last Seduction)

5. Agent Smith (The Matrix)

Tamler Sommers

1. Daniel Plainview (There Will be Blood)/Tony Montana (Scarface)

2. Willie (Bad Santa)

3. Tommy (Goodfellas)

4. Alonzo Harris (Training Day)

5. Go-Go (Kill Bill Vol. 1)

David Pizarro

1. Tom (Tom & Jerry)

2. Keyser Soze (The Usual Suspects)

3. Vic Mackey (The Shield)

4. Harry Lime (The Third Man)

5. 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.

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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.

• 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]

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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.

• 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]

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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?

• 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]

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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.

• 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.

• 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]

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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.

• 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.

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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?

• 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?

• 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]

• 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.

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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.

• 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.

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A British tabloid article about kids, brains, and spatial skills somehow provokes the biggest argument ever on the podcast. Dave and Tamler get into it about gender, toys, properly rounded brains, and balanced "play diets." Is Dave a sanctimonious toe-the-line academic liberal? Is Tamler a Fox-News watching, mysoginist genetic determinist? Do they actually disagree about anything?

Plus Dave takes Tamler back after his fling with Partially Examined Life, and we discuss whether the new documentary The Unbelievers the atheist version of God is Not Dead?

• The Partially Examined Life podcast, and Tamler's Precognition of Ep. 93. [partiallyexaminedlife.com]
• Girls and boys DO have different brains – should they have different toys? by Rachel Carlyle [express.co.uk]
• The Unbelievers [unbelieversmovie.com]
• My Growing Disappointment with the New Atheist Movement: A Review of the The UnBelievers. Ami Palmer. [missiontotransition.blogspot.com]
• Nosek, B. A., Banaji, M. R., & Greenwald, A. G. (2002). Math= male, me= female, therefore math≠ me. Journal of personality and social psychology, 83, 44. [briannosek.com]
• Cvencek, D., Meltzoff, A. N., & Greenwald, A. G. (2011). Math–gender stereotypes in elementary school children. Child development, 82, 766-779. [washington.edu]

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David and Tamler argue about the use of autonomous robots and drones in warfare. Could it lead to less suffering during wars and afterwards? Would nations be motivated to design robots that behave ethically on the battlefield? Can David get through an episode without mentioning Star Trek? Plus, Tamler distances himself from the villainous philosophy professor in the new movie God is Not Dead and David complains about the growing number of porn journals.

• Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) [kipp.org]
• God's Not Dead [imdb.org]
• Arkin, R. C. (2010). The case for ethical autonomy in unmanned systems. Journal of Military Ethics, 9(4), 332-341.
• Kahn, P. W. (2002). The Paradox of Riskless Warfare. Philosophy & Public Policy Quarterly, 22(3), 2-7. [yale.edu]
• Singer, P. W. (2009). Wired for war: The robotics revolution and conflict in the twenty-first century. Penguin. [amazon.com affiliate link]
• "A Taste of Armageddon" Episode 23, Star Trek (The Original Series) [wikipedia.org]

Moral Machines in the Military Sphere by Dr. Paul Bello. http://robotsandyou.eucognition.org

Bio: Paul Bello joined the Office of Naval Research as a Program Officer in the Warfighter Performance and Protections Department in May of 2007.

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Dave and Tamler talk about a recent study that seems to support the view that "justice is what the judge had for breakfast" (or at least how long ago the parole board had breakfast), and that makes Tamler question his position on widening judicial discretion in criminal justice. In the second segment David tries to work out his guilt about manipulating consumers into buying stuff for whatever shadowy organization employs him (BEWorks!), and we discuss the ethics of nudges in government and consumer marketing. Should the government frame issues like organ donation in ways that will benefit society? How much of a threat are nudges to our autonomy? Should Apple take steps to ensure that people can control themselves when making in-app purchases? Tamler even comes up with a "theory," which means that there must have been something wrong with him. Please note that portions of the audio during the second segment are little spotty, likely due to a hex or poltergeist in one of the microphones. We'll have that worked out for the next episode. Enjoy!

(For the handful who have asked--if you like the music David makes for the podcast, you can listen/download to your heart's content at www.soundcloud.com/peezismyname).

• Danziger, S., Levav, J., & Avnaim-Pesso, L. (2011). Extraneous factors in judicial decisions. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108(17), 6889-6892. [pnas.org]
• "Prisoners of our own resources" by Jonathan Levav, TEDx Rio de la Plata [youtube.com]
• Capestany, B. H., & Harris, L. T. (2014). Disgust and biological descriptions bias logical reasoning during legal decision-making. Social neuroscience, 1-13. [tandfonline.com]
• Asymmetric Dominance (Decoy Effect) [wikipedia.org]
• Opting-in vs Opting-out of organ donations [nytimes.com]
• The evil stuff people do with in app purchases and games [ibtimes.com]

Support Very Bad Wizards

Can a fully determined creature deliberate? How big a role does conscious reasoning play in moral judgment and everyday life? Are we responsible for our thoughts and actions? Paul Bloom rejoins us against his better judgment to discuss his book "Just Babies" and his recent article in The Atlantic that set the internet on the fire and riled up the likes of Sam Harris and Jerry Coyne. Plus, what's the difference (if any) between getting into a Star Trek transporter and getting an axe to the head, and why does David know so much about boy bands?

• Just Babies by Paul Bloom [amazon.com-vbw affiliate link]
• The War on Reason by Paul Bloom [theatlantic.com]
• Jerry Coyne replies to Paul Bloom's Article [whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com]
• Bloom replies to Coyne [whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com]

Tamler is the only one who realized he has a face for radio.

Special Guest: Paul Bloom.

Support Very Bad Wizards

Dave keeps trying to explain to Tamler that we're not a movie podcast, but somehow they're doing another podcast about movies. This time they each list their top 5 movies featuring moral dilemmas. Also, Tamler tries to rationalize the Woody Allen controversy, Ozymandias from Watchmen says "screw you Paul Bloom," Dave confuses Maggie Gyllenhaal with Droopy, and for the second time ever we have to censor something one of us (Tamler) says. Put on your astronaut adult diapers, folks, it's a long one.

• Dylan Farrow's Story [nytimes.com]
• Woody Allen Speaks Out [nytimes.com]
• The Woody Allen Allegations: Not So Fast [thedailybeast.com]
• "It's shockingly easy to create false memories" by Cara Laney [thedailybeast.com]
• Elizabeth Loftus [wikipedia.org]
• Watchmen Graphic Novel [wikipedia.org]
• The Vengeance Trilogy [wikipedia.org]
• Droopy Dog [wikipedia.org]
• Maggie Gyllenhal looks like Droopy Dog [cheezeburger.com]
• "Hard Determinism, Punishment, and Funishment" by Saul Smilansky [philosophycommons.typepad.com]

1. The Third Man
2. Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance
3. In Bruges
4. La Femme du Boulanger (The Baker's Wife)
5. Gone Baby Gone

1. The Dark Knight
2. Watchmen
3. Minority Report
4. 3:10 to Yuma
5. Executive Decision

• Oldboy (Park Chanwook's not fucking Spike Lee's).
• Mother
• The Maltese Falcon
• Seven

• Solaris
• Shutter Island

• Beast of the Southern Wild.
• 3:10 to Yuma
• The Dark Knight
• Casablanca
• The Insider
• Donnie Brasco
• Maltese Falcon
• Shane
• Do the Right Thing
• Princess Mononoke

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Jesse Graham joins us for part 2 of our discussion on the nature of morality, and his recent paper on Moral Foundations Theory. He highlights the key components of MFT, defends himself against our accusations of weaseling out of the normative implications of MFT, champions "Synechdoche, New York" as one of the greatest films ever made, and comes out of the closet as a rationalist. Also in this episode, Tamler begins to defend Sam Harris (you read that right) from Dan Dennett's criticisms of Harris' Free Will--and then we pull back and realize that we need to devote a whole episode to Dennett's review.

• Dan Dennett's review of "Free Will" by Sam Harris [naturalism.org]
• Free Will by Sam Harris [amazon.com affiliate link]
• Jesse Graham's lab website [usc.edu]
• Moral Foundations Theory: The Pragmatic Validity of Moral Pluralism by Jesse Graham et al.
• Synechdoche, New York (RIP Phllip Seymour Hoffman!)

Special Guest: Jesse Graham.

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Dave and Tamler bounce back this week after having to trash the last episode. Does morality ultimately boil down to a single principle (such as harm or justice), or is there more to ethical life than is dreamt of in the minds of philosophers? We settle this question once and for all in the first of a 2-part episode in which we discuss Jesse Graham et al's recent paper on Moral Foundations Theory. (Jesse Graham himself will join us for part 2). Plus: how liberal is this podcast? We'll give you the precise percentage after taking a Time.com quiz that purports to measure political leanings, (and which includes that perennial litmus test of political preferences: is it OK to come home and find your partner watching porn?)

• Can TIME predict your politics? [science.time.com]
• Moral Foundations Theory: The Pragmatic Validity of Moral Pluralism Foundations Theory (in press, Advances in Experimental Social Psychology) by Graham, J. et al [usc.edu]
• Old School [imdb.com]
• "Boy, I've Put You in a Really Tough Spot, Haven't I?" by Woody Allen [onion.com]

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Who is the real you? What happens to your identity when your body gets cloned or reconstituted with all the same memories and character traits? Does society construct our true selves or repress them? Can we ever escape our pasts and become different people? Dave thinks conceptual analysis and arousal measuring devices can solve all these problems but allows Tamler his dream of temporarily becoming the host of a movie podcast. They list their top 5 favorite movies about personal identity. Plus, do they have to eat still more crow--this time from Sam Harris?

Personal Identity [plato.stanford.edu]

Google Glass [youtube.com]

5. Fight Club 4. A Clockwork Orange 3. Infernal Affairs 2. Moon 1. A History of Violence

5. Blade Runner 4. Vertigo 3. Looper 2. Groundhog Day 1. Back to the Future

• Solaris (Russian version)
• Being John Malkovich
• Memento
• My Fair Lady
• All of Me
• Zelig
• One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest
• Spirited Away
• The Prestige
• Shutter Island
• Unforgiven
• Side Effects
• Any Star Trek Movie

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