Is the way we interact with technology moving us towards a cyborg future? In episode 164 of Overthink, Ellie and David take a closer look at Donna Haraway’s seminal essay, “A Cyborg Manifesto,” in which Haraway critiques the increasing technologization of everyday life and questions what it means to be a feminist and a socialist in the age of informatics and cybernetics. They discuss her critique of identity politics, her notion of the “homework economy,” the increase of miniaturization in technology, and her appeal to pleasure and responsibility. Why should we discard the assumption that technology has deepened mind-body dualism? And what might the theory of the cyborg look like in light of the rise of generative AI? In the Substack bonus segment, your hosts discuss how the cyborg can be found in popular media like Severance and Crimes of the Future, and how the cyborg differs to Frankenstein’s monster.

Works Discussed:

Donna Haraway, “A Cyborg Manifesto”

Dave Yan, “Posthuman Creativity: Unveiling Cyborg Subjectivity Through ChatGPT”

Enjoy our work? Support Overthink via tax-deductible donation: https://www.givecampus.com/fj0w3v

Join our Substack for ad-free versions of both audio and video episodes, extended episodes, exclusive live chats, and more: https://overthinkpod.substack.com/

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Can Buzzfeed quizzes, Myers-Briggs Types, and Enneagrams tell us anything valid about who we are? In episode 163 of Overthink, Ellie and David discuss personality. They talk through the Big Five personality test and its legitimacy, the history of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator test (MBTI), and how the concept of personality emerged out of abnormal psychology. Why did the concept of personality replace using literature to understand the self? How does the concept of personality presuppose a fixed concept of the self? And what is the connection between MBTI and World War II? In the Substack bonus segment, your hosts think about how personality tests might be susceptible to the Barnum effect and their reduction of the self to egos.

Works Discussed:

Theodor Adorno, The Authoritarian Personality

Merve Emre, What's Your Type? The Story of the Myers-Briggs, and How Personality Testing Took Over the World

Colin Koopman, How We Became Our Data: A Genealogy of the Informational Person

Enjoy our work? Support Overthink via tax-deductible donation: https://www.givecampus.com/fj0w3v

Join our Substack for ad-free versions of both audio and video episodes, extended episodes, exclusive live chats, and more: https://overthinkpod.substack.com/

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

To what extent is drug addiction voluntary? In episode 162 of Overthink, Ellie and David chat with philosopher Hanna Pickard about her book, What Would You Do Alone in a Cage with Nothing but Cocaine? A Philosophy of Addiction. They discuss how the “broken brain model” of addiction emerged to combat the moral model of addiction and explore the consequences of both of these models. What drives some people into addiction? What does it mean to say that addiction is a brain disease? How should responsibility and blame fit into our understanding of this condition? And how do we identify when somebody’s patterns of drug use have crossed the threshold into addiction? In the Substack bonus segment, your hosts think about the temporality of addiction and what it means to hold an “addict identity.”

Works Discussed:

Alan Leshner, “Addiction Is a Brain Disease, and It Matters”

Gabor Maté, In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction

Hanna Pickard, What Would You Do Alone in a Cage with Nothing but Cocaine? A Philosophy of Addiction

Enjoy our work? Support Overthink via tax-deductible donation: https://www.givecampus.com/fj0w3v

Join our Substack for ad-free versions of both audio and video episodes, extended episodes, exclusive live chats, and more: https://overthinkpod.substack.com/

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What does it mean to be spontaneous? In episode 161 of Overthink, Ellie and David get spontaneous. They look at Aristotle’s theory of spontaneous generation, at spontaneity’s role in politics, and at the dark side of spontaneity. How do different cultures and physical spaces enable or inhibit spontaneity? What is the relationship between spontaneity and human freedom? And is Lenin correct in arguing that leftists need to resist spontaneity in political organizing? In the Substack bonus segment, your hosts think through the relationship between spontaneity and habit, how spontaneity plays into the recording of Overthink episodes, and the habitual spontaneity of those with Tourette’s Syndrome.

Works Discussed:

Aristotle, Physics

Lucy Cooke, The Truth About Animals

Jonathan Gingerich, “Spontaneous Freedom”

Immanuel Kant, Critique of Pure Reason

Vladimir Lenin, What is to Be Done?

Enjoy our work? Support Overthink via tax-deductible donation: https://www.givecampus.com/fj0w3v

Join our Substack for ad-free versions of both audio and video episodes, extended episodes, exclusive live chats, and more: https://overthinkpod.substack.com/

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What does it mean to say that the good life is a life of pleasure? Although you might think of champagne and caviar, Hellenistic philosopher Epicurus actually considered the good life to be more about appreciating the simple things in life and letting go of the things that bring us only temporary pleasure but lead to pain in the long run. Why has Epicureanism so often been misrepresented, and what did Epicurus really say? In episode 160 of Overthink, Ellie and David investigate the teachings of Epicurus in The Epicurus Reader. They explain his four-part cure on how to life a better life, including why we shouldn't be worried about death. They also offer critiques on his view of justice and its lack of application to political life. How can attaining ataraxia lead us to achieving eudaimonia and living the good life? In the Substack bonus segment, your hosts elaborate on whether or not Epicurus’s argument that we should not fear death is convincing.

Works Discussed:

Brad Inwood and Lloyd P. Gerson, The Epicurus Reader: Selected Writings and Testimonia

Enjoy our work? Support Overthink via tax-deductible donation: https://www.givecampus.com/fj0w3v

Join our Substack for ad-free versions of both audio and video episodes, extended episodes, exclusive live chats, and more: https://overthinkpod.substack.com/

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What does it mean to be ill? In episode 159 of Overthink, Ellie and David discuss illness. They explore how illness has been mythologized, how it may alienate us from our bodies, and how it impacts social relationships. Is science the solution to the mythologization of illness, or is the scientific model of illness its own form of mythology? How should we conceptualize illness? Is it as a “deviation” from a norm? And if so, what norm? Finally, what can we learn about illness from a phenomenological approach that centers the patient’s first-person experience? In the Substack bonus segment, your hosts think about the distinction between the mental and the physical in connection to illness and the intersection between mind and body in illness. 

Works Discussed:

Georges Canguilhem, The Normal and the Pathological

Havi Carel, Illness:  The Cry of the Flesh,

Susan Sontag, Illness as Metaphor

SK Toombs, The Meaning of Illness: A Phenomenological Account of the Different Perspectives of Physician and Patient

Enjoy our work? Support Overthink via tax-deductible donation: https://www.givecampus.com/fj0w3v

Join our Substack for ad-free versions of both audio and video episodes, extended episodes, exclusive live chats, and more: https://overthinkpod.substack.com/

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Why does talking about politics so often feel useless? In episode 158 of Overthink, Ellie and David speak with Sarah Stein Lubrano, author of Don’t Talk About Politics: How to Change 21st-Century Minds, about why discourse is not the solution to political polarization. They discuss the problems with thinking about political opinions as a "marketplace of ideas," why public debates don't change our political views as much as personal relationships, and how social atrophy weakens citizenship. What is the value of political protests? How does the ideal of debate perpetuate politics as war? And should we re-imagine social media platforms like X to encourage productive dialogue, or log off of them completely? In the Substack bonus segment, your hosts dive deeper into the politics of digital spaces and question where podcasting fits into Lubrano’s critique of how we discuss politics.

Works Discussed:

Sarah Stein Lubrano, Don't Talk About Politics: How to Change 21st-Century Minds

Enjoy our work? Support Overthink via tax-deductible donation: https://www.givecampus.com/fj0w3v

Join our Substack for ad-free versions of both audio and video episodes, extended episodes, exclusive live chats, and more: https://overthinkpod.substack.com/

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Should we be sympathetic towards manipulators? In episode 157 of Overthink, Ellie and David talk about manipulation. They discuss what makes up a manipulative personality, why manipulators see social interaction as inherently combative, and what you can do when you find yourself entangled with a manipulator. They also explore what Niccolo Machiavelli tell us about the role of manipulation in politics. Should political leaders always be kind? Or, as Machiavelli says, do they need to learn to “be bad”? And what can we say about manipulation outside of politics? Does manipulative behavior require awareness and intention? Are all forms of manipulation inherently bad? And where do we draw the line between manipulation and other types of social influence? In the Substack bonus segment, your hosts discuss how manipulators perform on the ultimatum game and whether philosophy is the only form of non-manipulative discourse.

Works discussed:

Anne Barnhill, “How philosophy might contribute to the practical ethics of online manipulation”

Robert Greene, 48 Laws of Power

Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince

George Simon, In Sheep’s Clothing: Understanding and Dealing with Manipulative People

Enjoy our work? Support Overthink via tax-deductible donation: https://www.givecampus.com/fj0w3v

Join our Substack for ad-free versions of both audio and video episodes, extended episodes, exclusive live chats, and more: https://overthinkpod.substack.com/

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

How do new forms of social control under capitalism foreclose the possibility of social critique? In episode 156 of Overthink, Ellie and David take a deep dive into Herbert Marcuse’s 1964 classic, One-Dimensional Man. Marcuse analyzes how 1950s conformism narrows the private space of human thinking, turning us into one-dimensional beings. Your hosts talk about Marcuse’s diagnosis of life under capitalism, and his assessment of how analytic philosophy’s obsession with formal logic encourages conservatism and prevents us from subversive thought. In the Substack bonus segment, your hosts discuss what freedom looks like for Marcuse and how critical Marcuse would be of Overthink.Works Discussed:

Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man

Stephen Whitfield, “Refusing Marcuse: 50 Years After One-Dimensional Man”

Paul Mattick, "One Dimensional Man In Class Society"

Enjoy our work? Support Overthink via tax-deductible donation: https://www.givecampus.com/fj0w3v

Join our Substack for ad-free versions of both audio and video episodes, extended episodes, exclusive live chats, and more: https://overthinkpod.substack.com/

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Do we ever have a duty to commit treason? In episode 155 of Overthink, Ellie and David talk about “the crime of crimes.” They look at the emergence of this legal concept and its evolution over time, and discuss some of the most important historical cases involving treason: Benedict Arnold, Aaron Burr, and John Brown. Can we say that treason is always bad when America's founding itself depended on an act of treason? Who is capable of committing a treasonous act? And is treason ever morally permissible? In the Substack bonus segment, your hosts discuss how treason is seen in Hobbes’ political philosophy and whether we need to recover insurrection as a political possibility.

Works Discussed:

Neil Cartlidge, “Treason,” The Cambridge Companion to Medieval Law and Literature

Cécile Fabre, “The Morality of Treason”

George P. Fletcher, “The Case for Treason”

Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish

Phyllis Greenacre, “Treason and the Traitor”

Leonard Harris, “Honor and Insurrection or A Short Story about why John Brown (with David Walker’s Spirit) was Right and Frederick Douglass (with Benjamin Banneker’s Spirit) was Wrong”

Lee McBride, “Insurrectionary Ethics and Racism”

Enjoy our work? Support Overthink via tax-deductible donation: https://www.givecampus.com/fj0w3v

Join our Substack for ad-free versions of both audio and video episodes, extended episodes, exclusive live chats, and more: https://overthinkpod.substack.com/

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Content warning: this episode extensively discusses rape, sexual violence, and incest.

In episode 154 of Overthink, Ellie and David talk to philosopher Manon Garcia about her book, Living with Men: Reflections on the Pelicot Trial. They discuss the rape case of Gisèle Pelicot and how the subsequent trial of her husband and fifty additional men sheds light on the normalization and acceptance of sexual violence in what is known as 'rape culture.' In what ways is the current understanding of consent as ‘permission giving’ harmful? How is heterosexual love often tied to objectification? Why does the ‘boys will be boys’ mentality make it difficult for us to rely on the criminal justice system? And how do we live with men knowing that cases such as these are incredibly common? In the Substack bonus segment, your hosts discuss the politics of language and the risk of eroticization in recounting stories of sexual violence, and they think through where we should go from here in terms of sexual and romantic attachments to men.

Works Discussed:

Manon Garcia, Living with Men: Reflections on the Pelicot Trial

Simone de Beauvoir and Gisèle Halimi, Djamila Boupacha

Enjoy our work? Support Overthink via tax-deductible donation: https://www.givecampus.com/fj0w3v

Join our Substack for ad-free versions of both audio and video episodes, extended episodes, exclusive live chats, and more: https://overthinkpod.substack.com/

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.