logo
episode-header-image
Feb 2025
1h 26m

Episode 303: Measure This

Tamler Sommers & David Pizarro
About this episode

Everyone knows Tamler hates numbers but he’s not the only one who worries about them. We talk about the philosopher C. Thi Nguyen’s excellent paper “Value Capture” which examines how the ever-increasing presence of metrics, data, indicators, rankings, and other forms quantification shape our values as individuals and institutions. Plus, VBW Does Conceptual Analysis – we’re on to the ‘S’ words now: smug. 

Nguyen, C. T. (2024). Value capture. J. Ethics & Soc. Phil., 27, 469.

Up next
Sep 30
Episode 317: For Shame
What is the psychology of shame? Is the experience of shame a human universal? How can we investigate the nature of shame across cultures? David and Tamler dive into Richard Shweder’s “Towards a Deep Cultural Psychology of Shame.” We talk about the methodological challenges of st ... Show More
1h 23m
Sep 16
Episode 316: A Four-Letter Man (Hemingway's "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber")
David and Tamler go big game hunting and explore their first Hemingway short story “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber.” We dig into his characteristic themes of courage, cowardice, shifting power dynamics in marriages, and what it truly means to live a happy life. Plus, ne ... Show More
1h 33m
Sep 2
Episode 315: Ceaseless Striving (Schopenhauer’s Pessimism)
David and Tamler tackle the topic chosen by our beloved Patreon supporters in the first VBW madness tournament – Schopenhauer. We discuss his essays “On the Sufferings of the World” and “The Vanity of Existence,” their strikingly modern perspectives on human life and behavior and ... Show More
1h 30m
Recommended Episodes
Feb 2025
Nietzsche's Five Nos
Short form episode; audio version of a Youtube release. Additional content coming on Thursday!Creating a listicle of Nietzsche's ideas is always problematic, but thankfully Nietzsche occasionally provides us with one. In his notes, collected in Will to Power, Nietzsche record ... Show More
26m 27s
Sep 2023
How I changed my mind about truth | Simon Blackburn
Can we have objective morality without metaphysics?Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimesJoin Simon Blackburn, renowned philosopher at Cambridge University, as he discusses navigating heated moral discussions, the play of perspective o ... Show More
28m 9s
Aug 2
163. The Data Sleuth Taking on Shoddy Science
Uri Simonsohn is a behavioral science professor who wants to improve standards in his field — so he’s made a sideline of investigating fraudulent academic research. He tells Steve Levitt, who's spent plenty of time rooting out cheaters in other fields, how he does it. SOURCES:Uri ... Show More
56m 25s
Jun 2025
555. How the Internet Is Breaking Our Brains | Sam Harris
Jordan Peterson and Sam Harris explore the breakdown of institutions in the digital age, and how difficult it’s become to identify what’s true and what’s not. Harris voices deep concern over the role independent media and social platforms play in amplifying misinformation, especi ... Show More
1h 35m
Dec 2023
Why? The Purpose of the Universe with Philip Goff
My guest today is Philip Goff. Philip is a philosophy professor at Durham University. He's the author of Galileo's Error and Why the Purpose of the Universe.Philip believes that science gives us objective reasons to believe that there's value in the universe and he comes at this ... Show More
1h 7m
Jul 2024
Success
Cooked, slayed, delivered, ate. In episode 108 of Overthink, Ellie and David break down what it means to succeed, and why this sneaky word pervades our society today - in everything from the ambitions of classic American stage figures, to the refined effortlessness in Zhuangzi’s ... Show More
58m 27s
Apr 2025
Schopenhauer on Ethics (Part One)
On The Basis of Morality (1840), Part III: "The Founding of Ethics," Ch. 5: "Statement and Proof of the Only True Moral Incentive." Everything up to this point in the book has been negative: Morality can't be founded on pure reason as Kant thinks, or on the idea of the good life ... Show More
1h 4m
Sep 2023
David B. Wong, "Moral Relativism and Pluralism" (Cambridge UP, 2023)
Today I talked to David B. Wong about his book Moral Relativism and Pluralism (Cambridge UP, 2023).The argument for metaethical relativism--the view that there is no single true or most justified morality--is that it is part of the best explanation of the most difficult moral dis ... Show More
1h 6m
Sep 27
167. The Secret of Humanity? It’s Common Knowledge.
Steven Pinker’s new book argues that all our relationships depend on shared assumptions and “recursive mentalizing” — our constant efforts to understand what other people are thinking. He and Steve talk about the psychology of eye contact, the particular value of Super Bowl ads, ... Show More
58m 45s
Feb 2025
110: Nietzsche Contra Peterson - Yes, We Can Create Values
This episode is a polemic. While I have addressed Jordan Peterson's misunderstandings of the "God is dead" aphorism, or his bungling of Nietzsche's view of truth, here we address one of his most often repeated distortions of Nietzsche's philosophy. According to Jordan ... Show More
1h 16m