Electric Agora (archive)

Tag: Robert Gressis

  • Rules of the (Discursive) Road

    by Robert Gressis ___ Imagine that the rules of the road were the following: [1] In general, you’re allowed to drive wherever you want, though some places are off-limits, either because they’re not public roads, or because you don’t have money for the toll, or because they’re temporarily closed. [2] Similarly, you must follow the…

  • Assessing Richard Hanania’s Conservatism

    by Robert Gressis ___ In this episode, Robert Gressis (philosophy, California State University, Northridge) and David Leitch (political science, California State University, Northridge) discuss the work of aspiring conservative public intellectual, Richard Hanania. 01:01 – Let’s talk about sex, baby! 04:44 – Hanania’s master idea—give the right a policy program. 15:57 – Wokeness and civil…

  • Kant and Bad Parking

    by Robert Gressis ____ Today, I was dropping my son off at school when I saw a desirable parking spot. Like just about every parking spot near my son’s school, it required parallel parking. So, I rolled past the spot, put on my turn-indicator, and waited for the cars behind me to clear so that…

  • Endgame

    E. John Winner ___ This essay is a response generally to an article Dan Kaufman posted here at EA [https://theelectricagora.com/2021/10/14/some-cranky-thoughts-on-philosophers/], and in some ways also to some implications embedded in comments on that article by Robert Gressis, which extend the problems Dan noted beyond philosophy departments to include the whole of the Humanities and even…

  • Two Kinds of Diversity: Identity and Ideological

    by Robert Gressis ___ Libertarians, like Robert Nozick, care most of all about negative freedom, i.e., freedom from interference. If you have little money, but the appropriate agency protects you from force and fraud, then you have negative freedom, even if you find yourself unable to do much of what you want to do. Consequently,…

  • What’s Money?

    by Robert Gressis ____ David Dick (of the University of Calgary) and Robert Gressis talk about the differences between American and Canadian universities (as usual, the Canadians use funny words); what it’s like to teach in a business school (David often has to sprinkle ethics on papers); David’s research in the philosophy of money (does…

  • TEACHING PHILOSOPHY AT THE US NAVAL WAR COLLEGE

    by Robert Gressis ____ In this episode of Everyday Philosophers, I talked with Yvonne Chiu (US Naval War College) about what it’s like to teach at a military institution (no, you can’t make your students do push-ups) and her research on the unsustainability of soft authoritarianism. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eSouHxnkqg&feature=youtu.be 0:03:29​ The US Naval War College: “where is…

  • Philosophy, Critical Thinking, and community college

    by Robert Gressis ____ I talked with Alberto Mendoza-Larreynaga (Adjunct Professor of philosophy at Antelope Valley College) about what it’s like to teach philosophy in a community college, as well as writing an ever-changing textbook addressed to community college students. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sKSWNQyKjM&t=2s&ab_channel=ElectricAgora 01:59​ The students at Antelope Valley College 08:06​ How do you teach students academic…

  • Evolution, belief, and manipulation: A discussion with Hugo Mercier

    by Robert Gressis ____ In this dialogue, Hugo Mercier (French National Center for Scientific Research, Not Born Yesterday) and I discuss how human belief and manipulation work, and Hugo’s research about why people aren’t as manipulable as we sometimes think. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NcMWlU6jzA&list=PLFBaXJ7yNOYERObvjSkJfoDOgtMWVhWse&index=2&ab_channel=ElectricAgora 01:24​ Hugo’s thesis: When it comes to communication, people are not easily manipulated, but…

  • The Grade Economy

    by Robert Gressis and Kevin Currie-Knight ____ Robert Gressis and Kevin Currie-Knight have a wide-ranging conversation about the (fraught?) relationship between schooling, learning, and A-F grading. The discussion centers around an essay Currie-Knight wrote called Against the Grade Economy: https://theelectricagora.com/2020/12/26/against-the-grade-economy/ Streaming Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OK-zUSFJ4Uc&list=PLFBaXJ7yNOYHdqzsJXrJD0aoiCD9H4iJS&index=2&t=16s&ab_channel=ElectricAgora 00:02:36​​ Rob and Kevin make small talk 00:07:01​​ Kevin describes and laments…