Philosophy Fluency

This episode 4 is next Tuesday's (23rd April 2024) episode published early. It's the last episode on the theme of Experimentum Crucis. In today's episode, I discuss Shepherd's use of the term in her 1824 treatise: 'An Essay upon the Relation of Cause and Effect'. I also examine Shepherd's approach to religious themes in her philosophy. © Liba Kaucky April 2024 All Rights Reserved; Performance Rights: Liba Kaucky 20th April 2024 All Rights Reserved

In this episode, I discuss Shepherd's use of the term Experimentum Crucis in her 1827 treatise 'Essays on the Perception of the External Universe'. It's a term that's more familiar in logic, methodology and the philosophy of science. © Liba Kaucky April 2024 All Rights Reserved; Performance Rights: Liba Kaucky April 16th 2024 All Rights Reserved.

In this episode, I continue with my discussion of Shepherd on scientific methodology, Bacon and Newton by highlighting the scholarly phrase: Experimentum Crucis. © Liba Kaucky April 2024 All Rights Reserved; Performance Rights: Liba Kaucky 9th April 2024 All Rights Reserved

In this episode I continue with the philosophy of Lady Mary Shepherd but I also expand out to the topics of materialism, atheism and dissident theism.
© Liba Kaucky April 2nd 2024 All Rights Reserved; Performance Rights: Liba Kaucky April 2nd 2024 All Rights Reserved

In this episode I discuss the Fallacy of Non Causa Pro Causa which Shepherd thinks Lawrence committed. © Liba Kaucky March 2024 All Rights Reserved; Performance Rights: Liba Kaucky March 26th 2024 All Rights Reserved

In this episode, I shall examine Shepherd's thoughts on Lawrence's Lectures and how she analytically responds to his arguments. © Liba Kaucky March 19th 2024 All Rights Reserved; Performance Rights: Liba Kaucky March 19th 2024 All Rights Reserved

In this episode, I introduce my research process and that it's best to not uncritically map concepts onto your philosophical theories that don't cohere with your system of thought. Furthermore, Shepherd tells us about the importance of avoiding the problem of engrafting the errors of others into your philosophy. © Liba Kaucky March 12th 2024 All Rights Reserved; Performance Rights: Liba Kaucky March 12th 2024 All Rights Reserved

In this episode, I further my discussion of Shepherd's 1824 treatise and her emphasis on the faculty of reason, but this time through looking at her passages on Brown's philosophy. © Liba Kaucky 4th March 2024 All Rights Reserved; Performance Rights: Liba Kaucky 5th March 2024 All Rights Reserved

In this episode I discuss Hume through Shepherd's texts. I begin to discuss my interpretation of her as a philosopher who places a great emphasis on the faculty of reason. © Liba Kaucky February 2024 All Rights Reserved; Performance Rights: Liba Kaucky February 2024 All Rights Reserved

After my Valentine's Day Special Edition episode last week, in Episode 5 this week, I follow on from Episode 4 two weeks ago by continuing to contextualise Mary Shepherd's philosophy within the British and Scottish debates during the long Early Modern period. These influential thinkers and arguments are of relevance to how we analyse Shepherd's own arguments in her treatises. This episode focuses on Thomas Brown, a philosopher Shepherd specifically mentions in her writings.

In this special edition Valentine's Day episode, I highlight two quotes from Bertrand Russell on love. I discuss the importance of desire and passion in marriage. I explore the philosophy of romantic love from a phenomenological point of view by focusing on emotion and my experience of romantic love. Following on from Freedom to Marry Day a couple of days ago (12th February), I also talk about how harmful it is for LGBT+ people to remain trapped in heterosexual marriages. © Liba Kaucky February 14th 2024 All Rights Reserved; Performance Rights: Liba Kaucky February 14th 2024 All Rights Reserved

In this episode, I explore the web of ideas and philosophy surrounding the Scottish Philosopher Mary Shepherd, with a focus on the Scottish Enlightenment. In particular, I introduce two philosophers Shepherd mentions: Thomas Brown and Dugald Stewart. Stewart was greatly influenced by Francis Hutcheson, a key figure in the Scottish Enlightenment. He is perhaps best known for his Moral Sentimentalism and the importance he placed on emotion in moral philosophy. © Liba Kaucky 6th February 2024 All Rights Reserved; Performance Rights: Liba Kaucky 6th February 2024 All Rights Reserved

In this episode, I introduce some more famous thinkers in Shepherd's Early Modern era who have since fallen out of the mainstream canon. I explore their relevance as a backdrop to Shepherd's soft materialism and how her views took shape as she compared their perspectives with her own.
© Liba Kaucky January 2024 All Rights Reserved; Performance Rights: 28th January 2024 All Rights Reserved

In this episode, I expand on the 18th century British Philosopher and medical doctor David Hartley, whose book 'Observations' was very influential on dissidents such as Priestley, James Mill and JS Mill who Shepherd knew. I argue that these philosophers show that we cannot make the historical error of jumping to the unfounded conclusion that the history of philosophy is sharply delineated into before and after the 20th century. History is nuanced and there have always been a mirad of perspectives within which religious, non-conformist religious and non-religious philosophers coexist, giving rise to many types of theist and non-theist materialists.
Do join me later in the week for more segments to this episode in which I continue my discussion of Shepherd and Early Modern materialism and dissent. © Liba Kaucky January 23rd 2024 All Rights Reserved; Performance Rights: Liba Kaucky January 23rd 2024 All Rights Reserved.

In this first episode of Season 8, I continue my discussion of the philosopher Mary Shepherd where I left off in Season 6.

© Liba Kaucky January 16th 2024 All Rights Reserved; Performance Rights: Liba Kaucky January 16th 2024 All Rights Reserved

This episode concludes the mini-season 7 on Margaret Cavendish.

© Liba Kaucky January 2024 All Rights Reserved; Performance Rights: Liba Kaucky January 7th 2024 All Rights Reserved

In this episode, I explain what Set Theory has to do with Fictional Characters and possible worlds in relation to my interpretation of Margaret Cavendish. I unpack the terminology within the fields of Logic and the Philosophy of Maths.

© Liba Kaucky December 31st 2023 All Rights Reserved; Performance Rights: Liba Kaucky December 31st 2023 All Rights Reserved

In this episode, I discuss the philosophical schools of: Realism, Actualism, Actualist Realism, Genuine Realism. I explain why using modern tools in Logic helps us understand what Cavendish wanted us to take away from her philosophy: she wasn't trying to write nice creative writing, she wanted us to explore philosophical ideas.
© Liba Kaucky December 23rd 2023 All Rights Reserved; Performance Rights: Liba Kaucky December 24th 2023 All Rights Reserved

This episode is the first in a Special Edition mini-season on Margaret Cavendish, to mark both 350 years since her premature death and the 400th year since her birth. In this episode, I discuss how I arrived at my three pronged methodological approach to my philosophical interpretation of Cavendish. I then explain what possible worlds are; how they relate to the topic of Conditionals and Counterfactuals; summarize the importance of Saul Kripke and David Lewis in this area of philosophy and say why use possible worlds as a philosophical tool.

© Liba Kaucky December 2023 All Rights Reserved; Performance Rights: Liba Kaucky December 20th 2023 All Rights Reserved

In this episode, I analytically examine and analyse Canon Laws on Baptism and say why it's important. I relate it to my life experiences and argue that it's vital that non-religious beliefs and lifestyles are just as respected as religious ones. I discuss why I think religion has overstepped the mark of freedom of speech, belief and worship, for instance, when incorrectly insisting on performing sacraments and when evangelising becomes harassment.
© Liba Kaucky 6th-13th December 2023 All Rights Reserved; Performance Rights: Liba Kaucky 13th December 2023 All Rights Reserved

In this episode, I talk about the Chanukah versus Christmas debate, and make links between this episode and the last three, which contrast religious and non-religious philosophy. I also recount my life to set the record straight and correct any false narratives claiming that I'm a Catholic when I'm not. I'm a secularist, Humanistic Jew who is an agnostic (in a panentheistic way).

© and Performance Rights: Liba Kaucky December 4th 2023 All Rights Reserved

In this episode, I discuss the British Society for the History of Philosophy's annual lecture I attended last Thursday and the late philosopher Maria Rosa Antognazza it is now named after. I relate Professor Peter Adamson's paper assessing Rosa's forthcoming book publication to Susan James's epistemology in the Upton Lecture she gave a week earlier (see previous 2 episodes for a discussion of this talk and question time). I aim to highlight some of the key directions scholarship in contemporary epistemology is currently going and how this furthers the standard epistemology accounts commonly taught at university. This is also relevant background information for Lady Mary Shepherd (this season's overall theme), given that she was an epistemologist who wrote at length about topics in this branch of philosophy.

© Liba Kaucky 26th November 2023 All Rights Reserved; Performance Rights: Liba Kaucky 28th November 2023 All Rights Reserved

In this episode, I continue with my tips on how to navigate academic philosophical etiquette when asking a question to a philosopher after they've presented their paper. I outline the different types of answers and approaches you might encounter, depending on what type of philosopher they are or which style of answer they wish to give, such as a contra, a counterargument or a more indirect, non-contra, informative response that enlarges on their paper. I also discuss what criteria means and how it differs in technical, philosophical meaning and usage from enumerating features and characteristics.

© and Performance Rights: Liba Kaucky 21st November 2023 All Rights Reserved

In this episode, I share my latest research on the philosopher Lady Mary Shepherd and explore my main hypothesis that she was a theist soft materialist, similar to Priestley. Nevertheless, I maintain that we cannot completely rule out the possibility that, when it came to her private beliefs, she could have held agnostic views or been only very mild Christian, because it was common for thinkers to tone down their more atheistic views and arguments simply to avoid accusations of blasphemy. © Liba Kaucky 2022; 2023 All Rights Reserved; Performance Rights: Liba Kaucky November 7th 2023 All Rights Reserved

In this episode, I read my first abstract on Mary Shepherd, look briefly at her concept of God and her similarities to other philosophers I research such as Spinoza and Hume. © Liba Kaucky October 2015, 2023; Performance Rights: Liba Kaucky October 30th 2023 All Rights Reserved

After a slight pause to conduct additional research, this episode picks up on the theme of Hate Crime Awareness Week in the UK and relates it to the drastic increase in anti-Semitic hate crimes, incidents and rallies ever since the 7th October attack on Israel. I argue that the philosophy of emotion and hate is central to understanding a range of seemingly different phenomenon that are all more linked together than we previously thought, from lower level prejudices, tropes and biases to high level terror incidents. © Content: Liba Kaucky October 2023 All Rights Reserved; Performance Rights: Liba Kaucky October 23rd-24th 2023 All Rights Reserved

As mentioned on the Instagram account for this Philosophy Fluency podcast, season 6's topic of Mary Shepherd has been postponed. In this episode I recount my reaction to finding out about the situation in Israel and then factually discuss the political situation, drawing on Arendt's book 'Eichmann in Jerusalem'. © Liba Kaucky October 2023 All Rights Reserved; Performance Rights: Liba Kaucky October 15th 2023 All Rights Reserved

In this episode, I discuss my longstanding feminist interest in researching women in the past and how it's inevitable that this sometimes includes women who happen to be somewhat Christian. This is not to be confused with any personal interest in Christianity on my part, otherwise you'll misunderstand my interpretation of past philosophers. I'm an agnostic/atheist, Humanistic Jewish philosopher (and a hard atheist about Christianity) so any Christianity that strays into my research has nothing to do with personal interest. I'm merely stating what is and isn't objectively in the historical text in an unbiased way. Mary Shepherd is an example of this and an example of how I nevertheless select women philosophers who, like her, are not very religious and do not discuss religion or doctrine in depth (or advocate right wing politics) in their texts. The purpose of this episode is to set out such essential background information before I go on to analyse Shepherd's philosophical ideas more closely in future episodes. In this way, I aim to shed light on my interpretation of Shepherd (and perhaps indirectly other past philosophers too). © Liba Kaucky 2nd October 2023 All Rights Reserved; Performance Rights: Liba Kaucky 3rd October 2023 All Rights Reserved

In this special edition episode marking the first anniversary of very first episode of Philosophy Fluency (published a year ago to the date) I discuss the why and wherefore of how I founded this podcast. © Liba Kaucky September 2023 All Rights Reserved; Performance Rights: Liba Kaucky September 2023 All Rights Reserved

In this episode I examine whether gender critics are negatively impacting on our understanding of LGBT+ statistics, with a particular focus on the total lack of official statistics of trans deaths in the UK. I end on remembering the tragic loss of Brianna Ghey: may her name never be forgotten. © Liba Kaucky September 2023 All Rights Reserved; Performance Rights: Liba Kaucky September 12th 2023 All Rights Reserved

This episode marks the 50th episode of Philosophy Fluency and constitutes Part 1 of this episode 10 of Season 5. Stay tuned for Part 2! © Liba Kaucky August-September 2023 All Rights Reserved; Performance Rights: Liba Kaucky September 5th 2023 All Rights Reserved

I've been brief here and only attempted to follow on from last week by relating it to Kathleen Stock's appearance on LBC radio in 2021. I'll extend and flesh out this episode in the next one (episode 10). © Liba Kaucky August 2023 All Rights Reserved; Performance Rights: Liba Kaucky 29th August 2023 All Rights Reserved

In this episode, I discuss the Grainger criteria used in Employment Law in the UK to assess whether a view amounts to a philosophical belief. Since philosophical beliefs are protected by the Equality Act 2010, it is relevant to cases deciding whether discrimination at work has been committed or not. I analyse this in relation to rulings about whether a gender critic's views amount to a protected philosophical belief, if they have been discriminated against and whether their behaviour is also protected by the Equality Act or not.

© Liba Kaucky 22nd August 2023 All Rights Reserved
Performance Rights: Liba Kaucky 22nd August 2023 All Rights Reserved

In this episode, I raise the issue that gender critical ideology contains the same and similar concepts, definitions and arguments about gender to far-right ideology. This can be seen by the way even extremist far-right groups identify with gender critical ideology and so attempt to join forces to express hate and protest at pride events, such as the incident seen at Pride in Watertown, Wisconsin this year. I argue that this makes the contents of gender critical ideology socially ethically and politically toxic and dangerous since it is repeating mistakes we should have learnt after WWII and Nazis history. © Liba Kaucky August 2023 All Rights Reserved; Performance Rights: Liba Kaucky 15th August 2023 All Rights Reserved

In this episode, I argue that Gender Critical Ideology conflates different meanings of the word and concept of gender. In this contra, I further argue that arguments rooted in biological sex are actually historically sexist, not feminist. © Liba Kaucky August 2023 All Rights Reserved; Performance Rights: Liba Kaucky 7th August 2023 All Rights Reserved

In this episode, I briefly explore a further aspect of Warburton's recent article on bigotry, free speech and gender critics. Are gender critics as bigoted as they seem?
© Liba Kaucky July-August 2023 All Rights Reserved
Performance Rights: Liba Kaucky August 2nd 2023 All Rights Reserved

In this episode, I discuss an aspect of Freelance Philosopher Nigel Warburton's June 2023 article on bigotry in the New European. My focus today is on whether gender critics are really the injured party that they claim to be in the free speech issue surrounding public debate on gender identity.

Performance Rights: Liba Kaucky 25th July 2023 All Rights Reserved
© Liba Kaucky July 2023 All Rights Reserved

In this episode, I look at the complications of defining drag in the popularistic sense which only accounts for drag queens. I explore the wide range of drag acts and people who perform drag and suggest that they can all contribute to an important social purpose of drag: to convey a genderpunk, anti-patriarchy and anti-toxic masculinity statement that colourfully explores gender expression.
© Liba Kaucky July 2023 All Rights Reserved
Performance Rights: Liba Kaucky July 2023 All Rights Reserved

In this episode, I discuss my views on gender and my philosophical objections Gender Critical Theory/Ideology through exploring:

Why LGBT+ Pride beyond June?
Why is raising awareness of non-binary people important?
Why is religion intolerant towards gender expansive people despite non-binary genders and intersex people being clearly mentioned in ancient religious texts?

© Liba Kaucky July 2023 All Rights Reserved
Performance Rights: Liba Kaucky 12th July 2023 All Rights Reserved

In the first of the new format episodes of Season 5, I briefly discuss the Pride in London slogan, bullying trans allies encounter and relate it to free speech. I end with several philosophical questions to mull over.
© Liba Kaucky 4th July 2023 All Rights Reserved
Performance Rights: 5th July 2023 All Rights Reserved

To mark the last day of Pride Month, I discuss the particular problems intersex people encounter and suffer.

© Liba Kaucky 2021; 2023 All Rights Reserved
Performance Rights: Liba Kaucky 31st June 2023 All Rights Reserved

In this episode, I discuss the complexities of defining 'Lesbian' and finding additional terms for describing the differing perspectives and experiences within the Lesbian+ Community. I also explore other Sapphic sexualities, especially pansexuality. I highlight that there does not appear to be any term for lesbians who do not cross off some non-male non-binary people and have a pansexual approach to their lesbian relationships, without being pansexual. © Liba Kaucky June 2023 All Rights Reserved

In this episode, I discuss how the field of LGBT+ research is rapidly and ever expanding in exciting ways and why it matters. In particular, I begin to explore how to define 'lesbian'. I suggest that we need a broader, more gender inclusive term: the lesbian+ community (much as the bisexual community is called bi+) in order to prevent erasure and start to fully understand and appreciate the diversity and differing perspectives within the lesbian community.

© Liba Kaucky June 2023 All Rights Reserved; Performance Rights Liba Kaucky 16th June 2023

In this episode, I discuss the American Psychological Association's website article subtitle (March 2023) which gives a definition-like description of transgender. I highlight the discrepancy between WHO's declassification of so-called 'Gender Identity Disorder' and transgender identity so it is no longer considered a mental illness and how America and the UK still discuss trans identity. However, America and the UK will not come in line with this declassification and cease to officially classify being trans as a mental disorder until 2026 in the UK and either 2025 or 2027 in America. I agree with those who argue that psychology should not conflate social identities (such as being trans) with mental disorders or illnesses. I show how many descriptions/definitions of trans identity do not work: they are either too narrow or too broad, both of which bring their own set of problems.
© Liba Kaucky June 2023 All Rights Reserved
Performance Rights: Liba Kaucky 7th June 2023 All Rights Reserved

In this episode I give an analysis of Izzard's claim that trans are better placed to act both male and female roles. I suggest that the term trans needs to be more narrowly defined as opposed to being used as a broad umbrella term because it confuses issues and debates. © Liba Kaucky May 2023 All Rights Reserved; Performance Rights: Liba Kaucky June 1st 2023 All Rights Reserved

In this episode, I continue with Chapter 2 of my ebook Research Thoughts on... Spinoza Volume 3. © Liba Kaucky 2019; 2023 All Rights Reserved; Performance Rights: Liba Kaucky 23rd May 2023 All Rights Reserved

Following on from the coronation of King Charles III (in the UK) I share my philosophy research on Spinoza's analysis of monarchy and the line of succession. I read chapter 2 from my Volume 3 ebook Research Thoughts on...Spinoza volume 3 which contextualise a quote I gave from this chapter in last week's episode. © Liba Kaucky 2019;2023 All Rights Reserved Performance Rights: Liba Kaucky May 2023 All Rights Reserved