Descartes Before the Horse

Do you want to approach the world like a philosopher? To be both curious and rational? Dr Luke Zaphir and Dr Liam Miller show you how! Together they discuss issues in contemporary philosophy such as the conspiracy theories, the value of monogamy, and whether zombies walk among us. Sometimes silly, sometimes profound, always rigorous. Have a topic or comment? Or a topic you'd like to see covered? Email us at horsedescartes@gmail.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episodes

S02E2 - A trolley full of werewolves

July 20, 2025 • 58 mins

How many people would you sacrifice to save a loved one? Liam puts his moral consistency to the test in Luke's oddly bloodthirsty version of the trolley problem. It's not trolleys that Liam has to contend with though - it's werewolves!

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S201 - I just Kant deal with this Cave

October 17, 2024 • 68 mins

On this new season of Descartes Before the Horse, Dr Liam Miller takes on the role of dungeon master and throwing an unwitting Dr Luke Zaphir up against Plato's Cave. Can he escape the cave and gain true knowledge of things? And while role playing as the folksy Immanuel Kant no less! It's a tough job to escape the Cave to perceive the truth of the universe while still maintaining his rigid morality? Or will he throw Plato out of a...

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EP14 - Should we welcome our new AI overlords?

April 24, 2023 • 42 mins

Should we be worried about ChatGPT? What is it good at? What should we let it do? Should we let AI make decisions for us?

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EP13 - Which personality tests work?

January 2, 2023 • 54 mins

In order to how we can best discover ourselves, Dr Zaphir and Dr Miller explore a variety of psychological and philosophical tests and their value for self-reflection.

The mini IPIP test for the big five personality traits everyone has (Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, Neuroticism, Openness to Experience, Extraversion)

The Myers-Briggs test for 16 personalities

The RIASEC career and personality test

The Kinsey Scale for sexual or...

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EP12 – does the alt-right make any good points about men?

December 5, 2022 • 69 mins

What is masculinity anyway? Is gender identity is under siege from an onslaught of feminist propaganda? We take a charitable look at Jordan Petersen, Andrew Tate, Matt Walsh, Ben Shapiro – and examine the stated beliefs and rhetoric of some of the most influential speakers in the conservative movement. Where is it that men should go from here?

To see the sources used in this episode:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5jN8c8...

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Ep11 - Should we be teaching students how to protest?

November 8, 2022 • 57 mins

Should we be teaching students how to protest? Should a teacher get involved in political discussions with students and reveal their biases? Is it better to teach practical skills that will be of immediate tangible benefit to students? Or perhaps it’s better to teach controversy, not values? All of these ideas, good and bad are discussed with Dr Peter Ellerton from the Critical Thinking Project.

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EP10 - Are we required to love our families?

October 21, 2022 • 40 mins

Luke and Liam explore what love is. Are we obliged to love our parents? Must declarations of love be met with actions of love? What do we owe to our children? To our parents? Must we be grateful for being born? We didn’t ask for it after all.

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EP9 - Being a zombie is underrated

September 19, 2022 • 46 mins

Dr Peter Ellerton joins Luke and Liam in this discussion about zombies, both literal and philosophical. Is it possible for a human to be alive and functioning but without consciousness? What about dogs? Are mushrooms the next evolution in human development and should we bow to their fungal supremacy?

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EP8 - Should we use gendered pronouns?

September 7, 2022 • 39 mins

Liam and Luke explore whether there are any good reasons to (not) call someone by their preferred gender pronouns.

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EP7 – Is it immoral to be rude?

September 7, 2022 • 41 mins

Luke and Liam look at whether disobeying social etiquette is a form of unethical behaviour. They explore some philosophically dense and problematic questions such as ‘are we bad people if we don’t return a shopping trolley to the corral?’, ‘are we obligated to delete someone’s search history?’, and ‘is it rude to leave our headphones on to discourage talking to people?

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EP6 – Is it okay to laugh at racist jokes?

June 14, 2022 • 53 mins

Luke and Liam are joined with UQ’s Professor Deborah Brown as they discuss the philosophy of humour. Is it alright to laugh at cringeworthy anti-feminist humour? What makes a joke humorous in the first place? Should anyone find Borat funny? And is the toilet the location of all our best work as a culture?

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EP5 - Is monogamy still relevant today?

May 18, 2022 • 44 mins

Liam argues that it’s still best in contemporary societies to have one partner. Luke argues that polyamory is the way of the future. Both agree that the Brady Bunch and the 6 people from FRIENDS were polyamorous relationships.

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EP4 - No one should be able to own capital goods

April 28, 2022 • 37 mins

Liam takes a stand against capitalism in this episode, arguing that no one should be able to own the means of production, and that we should eat the rich.

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EP3 - Humans should be bred in birthing pods

April 28, 2022 • 29 mins

Luke argues that we should take the human element out of pregnancy and breed babies in specially made robot wombs, solving any number of social, health and gender issues.

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EP2 – Have aliens been with us for centuries?

April 28, 2022 • 42 mins

Luke and Liam wonder whether Roswell and Area 51 were cover ups, if all sea life and crabs are in fact aliens, and whether biblical encounters with angels were actually close encounters of the third kind.

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EP1 - Was the moon landing faked?

April 28, 2022 • 31 mins

Luke and Liam look at the evidence against the moon landing occurring, question whether we even had the technology to do so, and question whether President Nixon would’ve lied about it to look strong for the Russians.

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