The next event leading up to the fifth season of Hi-Phi Nation is tomorrow at June 10, 1pm ET, 6pm British time, and features a distinguished panel discussion on whether and when we have duties to our past and past selves. It is free, and there is a special invite-only “Green Room” discussion where you can speak “face to face” with the panelists. Just register to get the Zoom link, and put “Hi-Phi Nation” in the “Affiliation” category to get the VIP Green Room link. Do that here: https://marcsandersfoundation.org/duty/

Scholars call them “Ulysses contracts.” They are when people decide to take away their own freedom in the future when they think they aren’t in a position to make a good decision. An alcoholic may ask a rehab center to kidnap her and force herself back to rehab should she relapse, a sufferer of bi-polar disorder may require family and doctors to force medication in the event of an episode, those who anticipate dementia may even request physician-assisted suicide in some countries. On an even larger scale, cultures and countries sometimes hold themselves to the visions of their founders and past people even at the expense of current ones, out of feeling of obligation to the past and to vindicate past sacrifices. These kinds of practices are not without problems, and detractors. The next event leading up to the fifth season of Hi-Phi Nation is June 10, 1pm ET, 6pm British time, and features a distinguished panel discussion on whether and when we have duties to our past and past selves. It is free, and there is a special invite-only “Green Room” discussion where you can speak “face to face” with the panelists. Just register to get the Zoom link here, and put “Hi-Phi Nation” in the “Affiliation” category to get the VIP Green Room link. https://marcsandersfoundation.org/duty/

In the run-up to the release of Season 5 this fall, I am doing a series of panel discussions, free and open to the public on May 27th, 5:30pm Eastern Time. The first in the series is posted below. I’d love to see Hi-Phi Nation listeners there!

Event Description:

We live in a time when structural injustices and systemic problems abound, in public health, race relations, gender relations, and more. Policymakers and activists propose structural solutions targeting systems as a whole, like a sugar tax, liability insurance for police, school desegregation, or paid family leave. Policy solutions seldom include suggestions that moral and psychological traits of individuals are at fault or should be the focus of change, like moral education, empathy cultivation, or prejudice and bias reduction. Is there a role for interventions targeting individual moral character or psychology to address at least some of the “structural” problems that we face? Register to receive the Zoom link at https://marcsandersfoundation.org/icsi/

Panelists include:

• Sally Haslanger, Ford Professor of Philosophy and Women’s and Gender Studies, MIT
• Jorge LA Garcia, Professor, Boston College
• Nancy Snow, Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Institute for the Study of Human Flourishing, U. of Oklahoma
• Alex Madva, Associate Professor of Philosophy at Cal Poly Pomona and Director of the California Center for Ethics & Policy

Hosted by Barry Lam, Associate Director of MSF and host of Hi-Phi Nation podcast.

Barry is the featured guest on this week’s episode of Five Questions, philosopher Kieran Setiya’s podcast where he interviews philosophers about themselves. https://anchor.fm/kieran-setiya

For those of you who wanted, but were unable to attend our event Protesting Police and Policing Protest, the video of the event has now been posted here:

https://marcsandersfoundation.org/protesting-police-and-policing-protest/

This season, patrons of the show received an invitation for an after-show discussion and Q&A with myself and a philosopher talking about the issues from the episode in more detail. Our final event featured philosopher Gregg Caruso who is publishing a book arguing against retributive justice. I am making that event available to everyone here. Please consider becoming a patron of the show, where as a little as $1 a month can support the making of Season 5 of Hi-Phi Nation. Just go to patreon.com/hiphination

Hello blogreaders, the season finale of the show is out now, and it ties the entire series today with the question, why punish? This one is very philosophical, with a rigorous examination of the reasons for and against retributive justice.

Now that Season 4 is complete, I want to put out a message to all philosophers and philosophically curious journalists that I am taking pitches for Season 5, not just ideas for shows, but story-driven philosophy for the show that you would like to make yourself, and I can serve as editor. If you have an idea or are interested, email me at hiphination@gmail.com.

Please join me this evening from 6-7pm eastern time as I host the panel discussion on Protesting Police and Policing Protest. The Zoom link below will give you live admission. We have set it up so attendants can ask questions thru chat, but only panelists and hosts will appear visually on screen. Zoom link unc.zoom.us/j/92605495441

Our event has now been finalized. You may register at this URL, https://ppesociety.org/protesting-police-and-policing-protests/, but a subscription to this blog will get you the link on Wednesday morning.