Thinking About Modality, Philosophy of Mind, Miracles, Etc. with Graham Oppy

Chat with philosopher over at Monash University Graham Oppy.

I hope everybody who finds this finds something of value here. I tried to ask things I hadn't heard Graham talk about much before.

I know the audiovisual stuff probably isn't that great, did the best with what I had. (Yes, I know, the OBS stuff is plainly in view - I'm sorry)

And yes, I noticed I fiddled with my glasses a lot as I was reviewing this.

Thanks to Graham for agreeing to this interview.

And if you'll allow me some vanity, I'm not really in love with my hair here. Normally I like it left to flow all around, but it got in my eyes and was distracting, so I had it behind my ears here. Looks a lot worse that way, in my estimation.

Note: There are times I reference other philosophers' works and I run by them pretty quickly. I understand this does not give the full view of that philosopher. For instance, when I mention Nielsen, he himself makes some of the points Graham does in the essay I was referencing. He says it would be silly of Marxists to posit that the sole social function of religion is to act as an opiate, but that the Marxist diagnosis nevertheless has value. I ran by important nuances like this for the sake of conversational simplicity. If you're upset that I underexplain something someone says, I understand. I thought it was probably better to just get a point on the board than to get stuck explaining the intricate details, though.

Rough Works Cited:

Kai Nielsen - Is Religion the Opium of the People? Marxianism and Religion

David Papineau - Explanatory Gaps and Dualist Intuitions

Elliot Sober - A Modest Proposal

Graham Oppy - Hume and the Argument for Biological Design

Susana Monso and Kristin Andrews - Animal Moral Psychologies

Joe Schmid (Majesty of Reason Blog) - So You Think You Understand Existential Inertia?

Duncan Pritchard - Recent Work on Radical Skepticism

Stephen Law - The X-Claim Argument Against Religious Belief

Brian Cutter and Dustin Crummett - Psychophysical Harmony: A New Argument For Theism


Timestamps -

Modality - 2:00

Identity Theory - 20:18

Simplicity - 58:50

Miracles - 1:02:43

Hume on Biological Complexity, Can Kicking, Whatever - 1:12:35

External World Skepticism - 1:17:45

Empty World - 1:22:34

Existential Inertia - 1:27:11

Animal Ethics - 1:34:06

Religion as Societal Good - 1:38:45