Justin Clarke-Doane is a professor of philosophy at Columbia University, whose interests span metaethics, epistemology, and the philosophy of logic & mathematics.
In this thought provoking-discussion, Justin and I go deep into topics that are typically neglected by most mathematicians and scientists, namely the philosophy of mathematics and morality. Justin has contributed to both these areas via his book Morality and Mathematics, which takes the view that the standard position of being both a mathematical realist and moral antirealist is incoherent. Perhaps the most novel aspect of Justin’s work is the treatment of the philosophy of mathematics and morality side-by-side, showing how these two topics, which are usually thought of as being unrelated, in fact have strong analogies. Along the way, we discuss many other foundational topics in epistemology and ethics, with elements of set theory, metaphysics, and logic sprinkled in.
Great conversation, I’m left wanting more! I’ve been wanting to read Clarke-Doane’s book for a while, now that it had a paperback release I have ordered it.
I think a possible alternative strategy when speaking to philosophers may be to just start at the end with the main argument of the book and work backwards as needed to any distinctions and table setting and sub-arguments. Otherwise it ends up being easy to unintentionally spend most of the time on setting out various extant positions and not having much time left for the main original contribution of the work.
either way, I really enjoyed the conversation.
BR: Thank you for the feedback and glad you enjoyed the conversation!