
About this episode
This episode features a discussion with Justin Khoo on the philosophy of language and its implications in the current political climate.
Justin Khoo, an associate professor of Philosophy at MIT, begins this episode with the assertion that philosophy asks the most fundamental questions we can possibly articulate—but this assertion is not innocent. Asking the most fundamental questions we can possibly articulate may come at the cost of undermining conceptual, schematic, ideological, and often disciplinary frameworks upon which scientific findings are predicated. Through discussion of code speech, political speech, philosophy of language, aesthetic objects, hypothetical epistemic advantages, and the foundations of our current political (dis)order, this episode draws attention to stubborn frameworks and axioms, not necessarily undermining them, but questioning their validity and utility. This episode at times historicizes, allegorizes, analytically analyzes, narrativizes, and outright complains about the objects we're discussing—be it the referents of language or a film or a quote by Trump or the blind-spots of a discipline. The very fact of our discussion of the so-upheld "distinctions" between various methodologies and ideological orientations demonstrates the apparent need for a division among academic…
People in this episode
Host: Talia Sherman
Guest: Justin Khoo
Topics covered
- philosophy of language
- political speech
- code speech
- epistemology
- academic disciplines
- political climate
Keywords
- philosophy
- language
- politics
- speech
- academic frameworks
- epistemic advantages
- Trump
- code speech
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: MIT
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