The Popperian Podcast
Jed Lea-Henry
Subscribe
Interviewing academics, professionals and other experts, The Popperian Podcast is a monthly podcast where Jed Lea-Henry looks into the philosophy and life of Karl Popper.
Available episodes
Newest first
Oldest first
Feb 12, 2023
The Popperian Podcast #24 – Nimrod Bar-Am – ‘The Life and Philosophy of Joseph Agassi’
This episode of the Popperian Podcast features an interview that Jed Lea-Henry conducted with Nimrod Bar-Am. They speak about the life of the philosopher Joseph Agassi (1927-2023), where his work continued from and diverged from that of Karl Popper, Agassi’s historiography of Science, the important and central role that Agassi gave to metaphysics in understanding scientific development, how ethics should be understood as a direct implication of individual autonomy and critical rationalism, and how critical rationalism can help us to make sense of various issues such as mental illness and nationalism.
Nimrod Bar-Am is a senior lecturer of logic and rhetoric at the Communication department of Sapir academic college, Israel. He is the author of In Search of the Simple Introduction to Communication (Springer 2016), and of Extensionalism: The Revolution in Logic (Springer 2008), as well as various papers on the history of logic and the philosophy of communication.
*** Nimrod Bar-Am’s resume and publications can be found at: Nimrod Bar-Am | Sapir Academic College - Academia.edu
*** Nimrod Bar-Am’s books can be found at: Books by Nimrod Bar Am | Book Depository
*** Joseph Agassi’s resume and publications can be found at: Prof. Joseph Agassi (tau.ac.il)
*** Joseph Agassi’s books can be found at: Books by Joseph Agassi | Book Depository
*** The Popperian Podcast #18 – Joseph Agassi – ‘Karl Popper’s Hopeful Monsters’ The Popperian Podcast: The Popperian Podcast #18 – Joseph Agassi – ‘Karl Popper’s Hopeful Monsters’ (libsyn.com)
*** The Popperian Podcast #19 – Joseph Agassi – ‘Rules of the Game’ The Popperian Podcast: The Popperian Podcast #19 – Joseph Agassi – ‘Rules of the Game’ (libsyn.com)
Support via Patreon – https://www.patreon.com/jedleahenry
Support via PayPal – https://www.paypal.me/jrleahenry
Shop – https://shop.spreadshirt.com.au/JLH-shop/
Support via Bitcoin - 31wQMYixAJ7Tisp773cSvpUuzr2rmRhjaW
Website – The Popperian Podcast — Jed Lea-Henry
Libsyn – The Popperian Podcast (libsyn.com)
Youtube – The Popperian Podcast - YouTube
Twitter – https://twitter.com/jedleahenry
RSS - https://popperian-podcast.libsyn.com/rss
*** Underlying artwork by Arturo Espinosa
playlist_add
Dec 4, 2022
The Popperian Podcast #23 – Paul Levinson – ‘W.W. Bartley and Pancritical Rationalism’
This episode of the Popperian Podcast features an interview that Jed Lea-Henry conducted with Paul Levinson. They speak about the philosophy of W.W. Bartley, the history of comprehensive rationalism, Karl Popper’s critical rationalism, why Bartley thought that all such theories were inadequate and unnecessarily opened the door for irrationalism, and how Bartley’s own theory of pancritical rationalism corrected these errors.
Paul Levinson is an American author, singer-songwriter, and professor of communications and media studies at Fordham University in New York City. His novels, short fiction, and non-fiction works have been translated into sixteen languages. He is frequently quoted in news articles and appears as a guest commentator on major news outlets. He is also a songwriter, singer, and record producer.
*** Paul Levinson | Paul Levinson | Fordham
*** Amazon.com: Paul Levinson: Books, Biography, Blog, Audiobooks, Kindle
*** In Pursuit of Truth: Essays on the Philosophy of Karl Popper on the Occasion of His 80th Birthday In Pursuit of Truth: Essays on the Philosophy of Karl Popper on the Occasion of His 80th Birthday: Levinson, Paul: 9780391026094: Amazon.com: Books
Support via Patreon – https://www.patreon.com/jedleahenry
Support via PayPal – https://www.paypal.me/jrleahenry
Shop – https://shop.spreadshirt.com.au/JLH-shop/
Support via Bitcoin - 31wQMYixAJ7Tisp773cSvpUuzr2rmRhjaW
Website – The Popperian Podcast — Jed Lea-Henry
Libsyn – The Popperian Podcast (libsyn.com)
Youtube – The Popperian Podcast - YouTube
Twitter – https://twitter.com/jedleahenry
RSS - https://popperian-podcast.libsyn.com/rss
*** Underlying artwork by Arturo Espinosa
playlist_add
Nov 13, 2022
The Popperian Podcast #22 – Elyse Hargreaves – ‘The Open Society and Its Enemies, and Happiness’
This episode of the Popperian Podcast features an interview that Jed Lea-Henry conducted with Elyse Hargreaves. They speak about chapter 10 of Karl Popper’s The Open Society and Its Enemies, the nature and often well-meaning origins of totalitarianism, the fall of Athens to Sparta, the betrayal of Socrates and Athenian democracy by Plato and the oligarchical class, and the one factor that Popper had neglected until then in his analysis – happiness, specifically the tyrannical dangers of trying to make people happy.
Elyse Hargreaves is an ardent student of Popper, passionate about advancing the cause of the open society; for freedom, rationality and humanitarianism. Upon finding Popper in her early 20’s, she has since been determined to popularise his ideas in whatever medium she can. Since then, she has released a free audiobook version of Popper’s Conjectures and Refutations on YouTube which you can find here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtUn6tOI13ZF4iEhzYM0Dvg and has recently released an audiobook version of Rafe Champion’s Guide to the Open Society and Its Enemies which you can find on Audible here: https://www.audible.com/pd/A-Guide-to-the-Open-Society-and-Its-Enemies-Audiobook/B0BF2MZ4FJ?qid=
Support via Patreon – https://www.patreon.com/jedleahenry
Support via PayPal – https://www.paypal.me/jrleahenry
Shop – https://shop.spreadshirt.com.au/JLH-shop/
Support via Bitcoin - 31wQMYixAJ7Tisp773cSvpUuzr2rmRhjaW
Website – The Popperian Podcast — Jed Lea-Henry
Libsyn – The Popperian Podcast (libsyn.com)
Youtube – The Popperian Podcast - YouTube
Twitter – https://twitter.com/jedleahenry
RSS - https://popperian-podcast.libsyn.com/rss
*** Underlying artwork by Arturo Espinosa
playlist_add
Sep 30, 2022
The Popperian Podcast #21 – James Kierstead – ‘The Paradox of Tolerance’
This episode of the Popperian Podcast features an interview that Jed Lea-Henry conducted with James Kierstead. From The Open Society and Its Enemies, later essays, and private letters, they speak about the meaning behind Karl Popper’s ‘paradox of tolerance’: “Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them…We should therefore claim, in the name of tolerance, the right not to tolerate the intolerant.”
James Kierstead is a Senior Lecturer in Classics at Victoria University and a Research Fellow at the New Zealand Initiative. Together with Michael Johnston he co-hosts Free Kiwis!, a podcast dedicated to issues to do with freedom and free speech in a New Zealand context. He tweets @Kleisthenes2
*** The Limits of Toleration The Limits of Toleration - Open Inquiry
*** Free Kiwis! (James Kierstead - YouTube).
*** You can follow James Kierstead’s ongoing work at: James Kierstead | Victoria University of Wellington - Academia.edu and James Kierstead Profile | Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington (wgtn.ac.nz)
Support via Patreon – https://www.patreon.com/jedleahenry
Support via PayPal – https://www.paypal.me/jrleahenry
Shop – https://shop.spreadshirt.com.au/JLH-shop/
Support via Bitcoin - 31wQMYixAJ7Tisp773cSvpUuzr2rmRhjaW
Website – The Popperian Podcast — Jed Lea-Henry
Libsyn – The Popperian Podcast (libsyn.com)
Youtube – The Popperian Podcast - YouTube
Twitter – https://twitter.com/jedleahenry
RSS - https://popperian-podcast.libsyn.com/rss
*** Underlying artwork by Arturo Espinosa
playlist_add
Aug 14, 2022
The Popperian Podcast #20 – Susan Blackmore – ‘Memes - Rational, Irrational, Anti-Rational’
This episode of the Popperian Podcast features an interview that Jed Lea-Henry conducted with Susan Blackmore. They speak about her book The Meme Machine, and David Deutsch’s anti-rational meme hypothesis from his book The Beginning of Infinity.
Susan Blackmore is a psychologist, lecturer and writer researching consciousness, memes, and anomalous experiences, as well as a Visiting Professor at the University of Plymouth. Her full resume and publications can be found at Home - Dr Susan Blackmore
*** The Meme Machine The Meme Machine : Susan Blackmore : 9780192862129 (bookdepository.com)
*** The Beginning of Infinity The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations that Transform The World : David Deutsch : 9780140278163 (bookdepository.com)
Support via Patreon – https://www.patreon.com/jedleahenry
Support via PayPal – https://www.paypal.me/jrleahenry
Shop – https://shop.spreadshirt.com.au/JLH-shop/
Support via Bitcoin - 31wQMYixAJ7Tisp773cSvpUuzr2rmRhjaW
Website – The Popperian Podcast — Jed Lea-Henry
Libsyn – The Popperian Podcast (libsyn.com)
Youtube – The Popperian Podcast - YouTube
Twitter – https://twitter.com/jedleahenry
RSS - https://popperian-podcast.libsyn.com/rss
*** Underlying artwork by Arturo Espinosa
playlist_add
Jul 31, 2022
The Popperian Podcast #19 – Joseph Agassi – ‘Rules of the Game’
This episode of the Popperian Podcast features an interview that Jed Lea-Henry conducted with Joseph Agassi. They speak about the place for argument and debate, how criticism should and should not look, why so much of this energy is futile and why we have such high hopes for debate/argument/criticism regardless, as well as wonderful asides such as lessons in how to brainwash people and how to avoid being a victim of it.
Joseph Agassi is Emeritus Professor at Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv, and York University, Toronto. He studied under Karl Popper at the London School of Economics and has authored over twenty books and 600 articles. His full resume and publications can be found at Prof. Joseph Agassi (tau.ac.il)
*** Joseph Agassi’s books can be found at: Books by Joseph Agassi | Book Depository
*** The Popperian Podcast #18 – Joseph Agassi – ‘Karl Popper’s Hopeful Monsters’ The Popperian Podcast: The Popperian Podcast #18 – Joseph Agassi – ‘Karl Popper’s Hopeful Monsters’ (libsyn.com)
Support via Patreon – https://www.patreon.com/jedleahenry
Support via PayPal – https://www.paypal.me/jrleahenry
Shop – https://shop.spreadshirt.com.au/JLH-shop/
Support via Bitcoin - 31wQMYixAJ7Tisp773cSvpUuzr2rmRhjaW
Website – The Popperian Podcast — Jed Lea-Henry
Libsyn – The Popperian Podcast (libsyn.com)
Youtube – The Popperian Podcast - YouTube
Twitter – https://twitter.com/jedleahenry
RSS - https://popperian-podcast.libsyn.com/rss
*** Underlying artwork by Arturo Espinosa
playlist_add
Jun 29, 2022
The Popperian Podcast #18 – Joseph Agassi – ‘Karl Popper’s Hopeful Monsters’
This episode of the Popperian Podcast features an interview that Jed Lea-Henry conducted with Joseph Agassi. They speak about Joseph’s background as a student of Karl Popper, his life and his philosophy, his interactions with people such as Imre Lakatos, Paul Feyerabend, John Watkins, and Thomas Kuhn, and most importantly Joseph’s criticisms of various aspects of their philosophy.
Joseph Agassi is Emeritus Professor at Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv, and York University, Toronto. He studied under Karl Popper at the London School of Economics and has authored over twenty books and 600 articles. His full resume and publications can be found at Prof. Joseph Agassi (tau.ac.il)
*** The book we primarily speak about in this interview is The Gentle Art of Philosophical Polemics. Along with Joseph’s other books it can be found at Books by Joseph Agassi | Book Depository
Support via Patreon – https://www.patreon.com/jedleahenry
Support via PayPal – https://www.paypal.me/jrleahenry
Shop – https://shop.spreadshirt.com.au/JLH-shop/
Support via Bitcoin - 31wQMYixAJ7Tisp773cSvpUuzr2rmRhjaW
Website – The Popperian Podcast — Jed Lea-Henry
Libsyn – The Popperian Podcast (libsyn.com)
Youtube – The Popperian Podcast - YouTube
Twitter – https://twitter.com/jedleahenry
RSS - https://popperian-podcast.libsyn.com/rss
*** Underlying artwork by Arturo Espinosa
playlist_add
May 5, 2022
The Popperian Podcast #17 – Rafe Champion – ‘Karl Popper’s Social Turn’
This episode of the Popperian Podcast features an interview that Jed Lea-Henry conducted with Rafe Champion. They speak about the social (institutional) theme within Karl Popper’s philosophy of science as well as his approach to politics. Popper argued that objectivity in science does not come from the impartiality of scientists, but rather from the social/institutional aspect of the scientific method. This is a theme that has been largely overlooked by Popper scholars (and even by Popper himself), but which was brought to life by the later scholarship of Ian Jarvie and Gordon Tullock.
Rafe Champion grew up on a dairy farm in the far northwest of Tasmania and studied Agricultural Science at the University of Tasmania followed by post-graduate research in Adelaide. He moved into the social sciences in Sydney but did not achieve an academic career and spent most of his professional career in policy, planning and research on health and welfare issues. His main interest after he encountered Popper’s ideas on critical rationalism, objective knowledge & etc. was to explore and explain their implications and applications. His first wife (Kilmeny Niland 1950-2009) was a talented and versatile artist and she created the beautiful Rathouse website to provide a platform for Rafe’s interpretation of the work of Popper, Bartley III, Hayek and others including the great psychologists Karl Buhler and Ian D. Suttie.
*** The Rat House - Karl Popper, Hayek, and Mises' philosophies.Insights by Rafe Champion. (the-rathouse.com)
*** Popper’s Institutional Turn (4) POPPER'S INSTITUTIONAL TURN FINAL | Rafe Champion - Academia.edu
*** Reason and Imagination: Some thoughts of Karl Popper and William W Bartley Reason and Imagination : Rafe Champion : 9781507512111 (bookdepository.com)
*** The Organization of Inquiry by Gordon Tullock Organization of Inquiry : Charles K Rowley : 9780865975330 (bookdepository.com)
*** The Republic of Science by Ian Jarvie The Republic of Science : Ian C. Jarvie : 9789042015159 (bookdepository.com)
Support via Patreon – https://www.patreon.com/jedleahenry
Support via PayPal – https://www.paypal.me/jrleahenry
Shop – https://shop.spreadshirt.com.au/JLH-shop/
Support via Bitcoin - 31wQMYixAJ7Tisp773cSvpUuzr2rmRhjaW
Website – The Popperian Podcast — Jed Lea-Henry
Libsyn – The Popperian Podcast (libsyn.com)
Youtube – The Popperian Podcast - YouTube
Twitter – https://twitter.com/jedleahenry
RSS - https://popperian-podcast.libsyn.com/rss
*** Underlying artwork by Arturo Espinosa
playlist_add
Feb 6, 2022
The Popperian Podcast #16 – Michael Ignatieff – ‘Finding Consolation in Truth’
This episode of the Popperian Podcast features an interview that Jed Lea-Henry conducted with Michael Ignatieff. They speak about Michael’s new book On Consolation: Finding Solace in Dark Times, and the important role that truth plays in consolation.
Between 2006 and 2011, Michael Ignatieff served as an MP in the Parliament of Canada and then as Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada and Leader of the Official Opposition. He is a member of the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada and holds thirteen honorary degrees. Between 2012 and 2015 he served as Centennial Chair at the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs in New York. Between 2014 and 2016 he was Edward R. Murrow Chair of the Press, Politics and Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School. Michael Ignatieff was until recently the Rector and President of Central European University in Budapest. He stepped down at the end of July 2021, to stay as a Professor in the History Department.
*** On Consolation: Finding Solace in Dark Times On Consolation : Michael Ignatieff : 9781529053784 (bookdepository.com) and On Consolation : Michael Ignatieff : 9781529053777 (bookdepository.com)
Support via Patreon – https://www.patreon.com/jedleahenry
Support via PayPal – https://www.paypal.me/jrleahenry
Shop – https://shop.spreadshirt.com.au/JLH-shop/
Support via Bitcoin - 31wQMYixAJ7Tisp773cSvpUuzr2rmRhjaW
Website – The Popperian Podcast — Jed Lea-Henry
Libsyn – The Popperian Podcast (libsyn.com)
Youtube – The Popperian Podcast - YouTube
Twitter – https://twitter.com/jedleahenry
RSS - https://popperian-podcast.libsyn.com/rss
*** Underlying artwork by Arturo Espinosa
playlist_add
Jan 24, 2022
The Popperian Podcast #15 – Jagdish Hattiangadi – ‘Defending Baconian Induction’
This episode of the Popperian Podcast features an interview that Jed Lea-Henry conducted with Jagdish Hattiangadi. They speak about the induction of Francis Bacon, why Karl Popper and Thomas Kuhn rejected it, how this rejection was based on a misunderstanding/misreading of Bacon, and importantly how this rejection of induction opened a space for “the belittlers of science” to “undermine the social acceptability of scientific research.”
Jagdish Hattiangadi is a Professor of Philosophy at York University, Toronto.
*** Jagdish Hattiangadi’s forthcoming book is tentatively titled: ‘Skeptical Knowledge: The Theory and Craft of Breaking Through in Science’
*** Popper and Kuhn: A Different Retrospect Popper and Kuhn: A Different Retrospect - Jagdish Hattiangadi, 2021 (sagepub.com)
*** Jagdish Hattiangadi’s academic profiles Jagdish Hattiangadi (yorku.ca) and Jagdish Hattiangadi - Academia.edu
Support via Patreon – https://www.patreon.com/jedleahenry
Support via PayPal – https://www.paypal.me/jrleahenry
Shop – https://shop.spreadshirt.com.au/JLH-shop/
Support via Bitcoin - 31wQMYixAJ7Tisp773cSvpUuzr2rmRhjaW
Website – The Popperian Podcast — Jed Lea-Henry
Libsyn – The Popperian Podcast (libsyn.com)
Youtube – The Popperian Podcast - YouTube
Twitter – https://twitter.com/jedleahenry
RSS - https://popperian-podcast.libsyn.com/rss
*** Underlying artwork by Arturo Espinosa
playlist_add
Dec 20, 2021
The Popperian Podcast #14 – Anthony O'Hear – ‘Whiffs of Induction’
This episode of the Popperian Podcast features an interview that Jed Lea-Henry conducted with Anthony O'Hear. They speak about Anthony’s book ‘Karl Popper: The Arguments of the Philosophers’, and its central claim that: “Popper’s attempt to dispense with induction is unsuccessful. We have found that inductive reasoning, removed from one part of the picture, crops up in another.”
*Induction (definition): “the doctrine of the primacy of repetitions” – Karl Popper
Anthony O'Hear is a Professor of Philosophy at the University of Buckingham, the former Head of the Department of Education, and the former Honorary Director of the Royal Institute of Philosophy. Anthony has served as a special adviser to the British government, was prominent and influential during the Prime Ministerships of Margaret Thatcher and John Major, and in 2018 was awarded an OBE.
*** You can find Anthony’s books on Karl Popper, the philosophy of science, and much more at: Results for anthony o'h…
playlist_add
Oct 24, 2021
The Popperian Podcast #13 – Ken Gemes – ‘Karl Popper vs. Friedrich Nietzsche’
This episode of the Popperian Podcast features an interview that Jed Lea-Henry conducted with Ken Gemes. They speak about the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche, how that philosophy intersects and diverges with the philosophy of Karl Popper, what both men got right and what they got wrong, how the philosophies and legacies of both men will continue into the future, as well as looking into Ken’s own thoughts on the philosophy of science.
Ken Gemes is a Professor of Philosophy at Birkbeck, University of London. His primary interests are Friedrich Nietzsche and the philosophy of science. Ken earned his PhD from the University of Pittsburgh in 1990 with a dissertation in the philosophy of science working with Clark Glymour and Wesley Salmon. He taught at Yale University for ten years before moving to Birkbeck in 2000. Ken is also the editor (with Simon May) of Nietzsche on Freedom and Autonomy and (with John Richardson) of The Oxford Handbook of Nietzsche.
*** You can access the article…
playlist_add
Aug 31, 2021
The Popperian Podcast #12 – Jonathan Rauch – ‘The Constitution of Knowledge’
This episode of the Popperian Podcast features an interview that Jed Lea-Henry conducted with Jonathan Rauch. They speak about Jonathan’s books Kindly Inquisitors: The New Attacks on Free Thought and The Constitution of Knowledge: A Defense of Truth, the Popperian influence within them both, where (and how) the message of Karl Popper remains resonant and important today for the societies we live in, how Popperian epistemology can and should be stretched into the social sciences and humanities, the problem of institutional arrangements and how Popper overlooked this aspect of knowledge creation, and importantly how we can build on this (through Madisonian epistemology) to create a more robust system of turning disagreement into truth – The Constitution of Knowledge.
Jonathan Rauch is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, is the author of eight books and many articles on public policy, culture, and government. He is a contributing writer for The Atlantic and re…
playlist_add
Jul 28, 2021
The Popperian Podcast #11 – David Edmonds – ‘Wittgenstein's Poker’
This episode of the Popperian Podcast features an interview that Jed Lea-Henry conducted with David Edmonds. They speak about David’s book Wittgenstein's Poker: The Story of a Ten-Minute Argument Between Two Great Philosophers. Blurb: “On October 25, 1946, in a crowded room in Cambridge, England, the great twentieth-century philosophers Ludwig Wittgenstein and Karl Popper came face to face for the first and only time. The meeting -- which lasted ten minutes -- did not go well. Their loud and aggressive confrontation became the stuff of instant legend, but precisely what happened during that brief confrontation remained for decades the subject of intense disagreement.”
David Edmonds is a multi-award winning presenter/producer at the BBC and the host of The Big Idea. He is the author of many books, including Would You Kill the Fat Man? and (with John Eidinow) the international best-seller Wittgenstein’s Poker. His latest book (co-written with Hugh Fraser), is a children’s book…
playlist_add
Jun 24, 2021
The Popperian Podcast #10 – Richard Landes – ‘Deutsch's Theory of the Pattern - The Widespread Compulsion to Legitimise Hurting Jews’
This episode of the Popperian Podcast features an interview that Jed Lea-Henry conducted with Richard Landes. They speak about the history of antisemitism, its unique characteristics and intensity throughout centuries and millennia, the strange ability of ordinary people to uncritically accept nearly any claim against the Jews (no matter how farfetched it is), the lethal narratives that are told about the Jews and how they are consistently used as a projection for the moral failings of their enemies, and importantly how all this hatred is best explained by The Pattern which David Deutsch describes in his upcoming book as the need to preserve the legitimacy of hurting Jews… simply for being Jews.
Professor Richard Landes was trained as a medievalist at Princeton University (MA 1979, PhD 1984). His work focused on apocalyptic beliefs and millennial movements (Heaven on Earth, 2011), initially around the year 1000 (Peace of God, 1986; Relics, Apocalypse and the Deceits of History, 1996…
playlist_add
Jun 14, 2021
The Popperian Podcast #9 – Jeremy Shearmur – ‘Karl Popper, Friedrich Hayek and the Future of Liberalism’
This episode of the Popperian Podcast features an interview that Jed Lea-Henry conducted with Jeremy Shearmur. They speak about the time that Jeremy spent working with Karl Popper at the London School of Economics, the seeds of classical liberalism within Popper’s epistemology, the role for free markets as constant feedback mechanisms for the consent of people, the failure of politics to achieve this level of responsiveness, how Friedrich Hayek’s views differ from Popper’s and where Popper was influenced by Hayek, the problems/challenges that face classical liberalism, and the future direction of classical liberalism.
Jeremy Shearmur was educated at the London School of Economics, where he also worked as Popper’s assistant. He subsequently taught philosophy at Edinburgh, political theory at Manchester, and was Director of Studies at the Centre for Policy Studies in London. He then worked as a Research Associate Professor at the Institute for Humane Studies at George Mason Univ…
playlist_add
May 31, 2021
The Popperian Podcast #8 – James Kierstead – ‘New Zealand and the Authoritarianism of Plato’
This episode of the Popperian Podcast features an interview that Jed Lea-Henry conducted with James Kierstead. They speak about Karl Popper’s work The Open Society and Its Enemies, the years that Popper spent in New Zealand writing this book, what Popper thought about his adopted country, Popper’s attack on Plato for his “unmitigated authoritarianism”, how valid this attack was, the controversy surrounding the book and how we should examine it today in light of new scholarship, and the importance of freedom of speech and freedom of expression for the Open Society.
James Kierstead was born into a Canadian army family and grew up in Canada, Germany, and England. He got the chance to learn Greek and Latin at Sherborne School in Dorset after winning a scholarship and subsequently studied classics (Literae Humaniores) at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and ancient history at King's College London. After that, James moved to California, where he studied political theory and wrote a…
playlist_add
May 23, 2021
The Popperian Podcast #7 – Oseni Taiwo Afisi – ‘Karl Popper and Africa’
This episode of the Popperian Podcast features an interview that Jed Lea-Henry conducted with Oseni Taiwo Afisi. They speak about Karl Popper’s book The Open Society and Its Enemies, the ideas and history behind the work, the place for the Open Society and Popper’s epistemology within the African context, how the communalism and collectivism in traditional Africa does not make it analogous to the repressive and totalitarian societies that Popper argued against, the difficult line between group rights and individual rights, the question of tribalism and Africa’s development, Popper’s concept of piecemeal social engineering in the African milieu, and the challenges of multiculturalism and heterogeneity to the Open Society in postcolonial Africa.
Oseni Taiwo Afisi is the current Head of the Department of Philosophy, Lagos State University, Nigeria. His areas of competence include critical thinking, logic, political philosophy and Philosophy of science with a special interest in K…
playlist_add
Apr 11, 2021
The Popperian Podcast #6 – Steve Fuller – ‘Karl Popper vs. Thomas Kuhn’
This episode of the Popperian Podcast features an interview that Jed Lea-Henry conducted with Steve Fuller. They speak about Steve’s book Kuhn Vs. Popper: The Struggle for the Soul of Science, how Karl Popper and Thomas Kuhn each regarded the scientific method, the differences between these two conceptions, the significance of the arguments involved and how they defined both science and public opinion (and continue to do so), the history of science and how it should be understood, the moral implications and responsibilities associated with each man’s theory, how the disagreement played out over time, and what happened at the infamous 1965 Popper-Kuhn debate at Bedford College, University of London.
Steve Fuller holds the Auguste Comte Chair in Social Epistemology in the Department of Sociology at the University of Warwick. He is the founder of the research program of social epistemology, is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, the UK Academy of Social Sciences, and the European…
playlist_add
Mar 30, 2021
The Popperian Podcast #5 – Maarten Boudry – ‘Diagnosing Pseudoscience - Why the Demarcation Problem Matters’
This episode of the Popperian Podcast features an interview that Jed Lea-Henry conducted with Maarten Boudry. They speak about how we distinguish between science and pseudoscience (otherwise known as the demarcation problem), Karl Popper’s famous solution involving falsifiability, why the demarcation problem persists and remains a live issue and how Popper’s solution might be inadequate, Maarten’s alternative solution that naturalises the problem and focusses on what pseudosciences have in common and how they operate, the epistemology of conspiracy theories, the limits of science and what constitutes scientism, the interesting question of when is it rational to accept falsehoods, and why the demarcation problem still matters today.
Maarten Boudry is a postdoctoral fellow of the Flemish Fund for Scientific Research (FWO) and current holder of the 'Etienne Vermeersch Chair' at Ghent University. In 2011, he defended his dissertation on pseudoscience, Here Be Dragons. Exploring the…
playlist_add
Feb 21, 2021
The Popperian Podcast #4 – Robin Attfield – ‘Pre-echoes of Popper - Xenophanes and Parmenides’
This episode of the Popperian Podcast features an interview that Jed Lea-Henry conducted with Robin Attfield. They speak about the life and work of the pre-Socratic philosophers Xenophanes and Parmenides, how Xenophanes in particular has been unjustly disparaged and misunderstood over the years, how Karl Popper rehabilitated Xenophanes’ image and his philosophy, the place of both Xenophanes and Parmenides as earlier exponents of Popper’s critical rationalism and falsificationism, the method used by Popper to interpret Herodotus in support of his conjectures about Xenophanes, whether it is possible to consider Xenophanes and Parmenides as ‘Popperian’, and whether Popper’s own study of Xenophanes is strictly ‘Popperian’.
Robin Attfield is Professor Emeritus at Cardiff University where he taught philosophy from 1968. He is the author of 'Environmental Ethics: A Very Short Introduction' (Environmental Ethics: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions): Attfield, Ro…
playlist_add
Jan 27, 2021
The Popperian Podcast #3 – Nicholas Maxwell – ‘More Popperian than Popper’
This episode of the Popperian Podcast features an interview that Jed Lea-Henry conducted with Nicholas Maxwell. They speak about Karl Popper’s scientific method, what Maxwell’s disagreements with Popper are, the difference between bare and dressed falsificationism, the problems presented by the apparent unity of knowledge and the preference within science for unified theories, as opposed to infinitely more available dis-unified ad hoc theories, the place for metaphysical assumptions within the testable framework of science, and importantly what is Maxwell’s theory of Aim-Oriented Empiricism and how it represents an improvement on Popper’s falsificationism.
Nicholas Maxwell is an emeritus reader in philosophy of science at University College London, where he previous taught philosophy of science for nearly thirty years. He is the author of What’s Wrong With Science? (Bran's Head Books, 1976), From Knowledge to Wisdom (Blackwell, 1984), The Comprehensibility of the Universe (O…
playlist_add
Jan 5, 2021
The Popperian Podcast #2 – Matteo Collodel – ‘Karl Popper vs. Paul Feyerabend’
This episode of the Popperian Podcast features an interview that Jed Lea-Henry conducted with Matteo Collodel. They speak about the role that Karl Popper and critical rationalism played in the intellectual development of Paul Feyerabend, the nature of the Feyerabend-Popper relationship, the Popperian ‘School’ that formed at the London School of Economics and the strained relationships that developed within this group, the differing accounts of the members and the controversies that arose, where and how Feyerabend’s philosophy broke with Popper’s, and whether or not Feyerabend should be considered a Popperian.
Matteo Collodel earned his diploma di laurea (BA+MA) and his PhD in Philosophy from the Ca’ Foscari University of Venice (Italy), with the philosophy of science as his main area of specialization and historically-oriented dissertations on the development of Mary B. Hesse’s thought (2001) and of Paul K. Feyerabend’s idea of incommensurability (2007), respectively. Ma…
playlist_add
Nov 29, 2020
The Popperian Podcast #1 – David Deutsch – ‘Karl Popper and the Beginning of Infinity’
This episode of the Popperian Podcast features an interview that Jed Lea-Henry conducted with David Deutsch. They speak about the history of humanity and philosophy, epistemology and the problem of discovering truth, failed attempts to solve this such as with empiricism and induction, Karl Popper’s solution to this problem (conjecture and refutation), and how this animates and leads us to the Open Society.
David Deutsch is a Visiting Professor of physics at the Centre for Quantum Computation, the Clarendon Laboratory (Oxford University), an Honorary Fellow of Wolfson College (Oxford), and the author of The Fabric of Reality and The Beginning of Infinity. David works on fundamental issues in physics, particularly the quantum theory of computation and information, and constructor theory.
**** Link to David Deutsch’s personal website: http://www.daviddeutsch.org.uk/
Support via Patreon – https://www.patreon.com/jedleahenry
Support via PayPal – https://www.paypal.me/jrleahenry…
playlist_add