Our practices of holding people morally and legally responsible for what they do rests on causal relationships between our mental states and our actions – a desire for revenge or a fear for one’s safety may cause a violent act. In either case, John Campbell argues, there is a psychological causal process that leads from the motivating mental state to the act ... Show More
Jan 10
Kenneth Aizawa, "Compositional Abduction and Scientific Interpretation: A Granular Approach" (Cambridge UP, 2025)
How do scientists reason when they posit unobservables to explain their observed results? For example, how did Watson and Crick reason that DNA had a double-helix structure when they observed Franklin’s image 51, or how did Hodgkin and Huxley reason that sodium ions carried the c ... Show More
1 h
Dec 16
Mariana Ortega, "Carnalities: The Art of Living in Latinidad" (Duke UP, 2024)
How can habits of racialization be affected by art, in its reception and its creation? How can a carnal aesthetics help us understand Latinx life? What if we listen to photographs? How might they undo us? Can we be undone? In Carnalities: The Art of Living in Latinidad (Duke UP, ... Show More
1h 16m
Nov 10
Amie Thomasson, "Rethinking Metaphysics" (Oxford UP, 2025)
The word “metaphysics” conjures up thoughts of very hard questions about reality and deep, perhaps unresolvable, metaphysical mysteries. But is that the right way to think about the subject matter of metaphysics? According to Amie Thomasson, very clearly no. In her new book, Reth ... Show More
1h 3m
Apr 2023
What the World of Psychology Gets Wrong About Men
<p>Several years ago, the American Psychological Association issued a set of guidelines for psychologists working with boys and men. Guideline #1 says: "Psychologists strive to recognize that masculinities are constructed based on social, cultural, and contextual norms." Guidelin ... Show More
54m 29s
Dec 2020
RU121: Dr Vanessa Sinclair On Violence, Rendering Unconscious, Why War, Freud, Einstein
On this episode of Rendering Unconscious Podcast, I discuss violence in an array of forms including intimate partner and gun violence, and read excerpts from On Psychoanalysis and Violence: Contemporary Lacanian Perspectives (Routledge, 2018), Rendering Unconscious: Psychoanalyti ... Show More
1h 10m
May 2023
Crowds, obedience and the psychology of group behavior, with Stephen Reicher, PhD
What happens when people gather in crowds – whether for political rallies, protests, football games or religious pilgrimages? Stephen Reicher, PhD, of St. Andrew’s University in Scotland, discusses why “mob mentality” is a myth; other misconceptions about crowd behavior; the role ... Show More
48m 26s
Nov 2023
Thoughts Behind Vulnerable Narcissistic Behaviors
Cluster B
This show aims to educate the audience from a scientifically informed perspective about the major cluster B personality disorders: narcissism, histrionic, borderline, and antisocial.
References:
Kealy, D., & Rasmussen, B. (2012). Veiled and Vulnerable: The Other Side ... Show More
19m 18s
<p>We all like to throw around terms that describe human behavior — “bystander apathy” and “steep learning curve” and “hard-wired.” Most of the time, they don’t actually mean what we think they mean. But don’t worry — the experts are getting it wrong, too.</p><p> </p><ul><li><str ... Show More
