Closereads: Philosophy with Mark and Wes cover art

Closereads: Philosophy with Mark and Wes

Closereads: Philosophy with Mark and Wes

By: Evergreen Podcasts
Listen for free

About this listen

 Reading through difficult philosophy texts line-by-line to try to figure out what’s really being said.Mark Linsenmayer and Wes Alwan 2024 Philosophy Social Sciences
Episodes
  • Peter Railton's "Moral Realism" (Wrap Up)

    Peter Railton's "Moral Realism" (Wrap Up)
    Aug 22 2025
    Concluding our treatment of Peter Railton's "Moral Realism" (1984). This is our eighth discussion of this reading, but don't worry if you haven't listened to the paywalled parts. This discussion can serve as a standalone summary of not only Railton's view, but of our efforts to actually figure out what a plausible naturalistic, empirical account of ethics could amount to. Read along with us, starting on PDF p. 42. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
    Show More Show Less
    57 mins
  • Peter Railton's "Moral Realism" (Part Four)

    Peter Railton's "Moral Realism" (Part Four)
    Jul 22 2025
    What? Part Four? Yes, we're jumping back into a 1984 paper that we began a couple of years ago in light of our recent PEL activity on contemporary ethics. You should be fine just starting here, but all three previous parts have been made public on our Patreon page, which is where you'll eventually find parts 5, 6, and possibly more. So far, Railton has been giving us an account of our objective individual interests: What you would want for your current you if you had all the relevant knowledge. He had given an example of a dehydrated person who wants and enjoys milk, even though milk does not help with dehydration in the way that water does. If he had the relevant knowledge, he would water. More precisely, he would want his current self in the state of dehydration to want water, because who knows what such an all-knowing person would even be like or what his wants for himself would be? We're still picking at the complexities of this as we resume progress in this essay; it's not until the end of this hour that we can even predict where he's going in terms of setting up actual morality, beyond mere objective self-interest. Read along with us, starting on PDF p. 15. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
    Show More Show Less
    1 hr and 2 mins
No reviews yet
In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.