Can we ever be truly alone? In episode 146 of Overthink, Ellie and David talk with philosopher Dan Zahavi about his book, Being We: Phenomenological Contributions to Social Ontology. They discuss how the increase in communication through screens has shifted what it means to be together, the decline of social bonds in political life, and what phenomenological understandings of empathy tell us about being together. How do dyadic relationships such as romantic love and friendship shape our identities? Does there need to be a conception of the self that precedes sociality? What are the different types of "we"? In the Substack bonus segment, Ellie and David get into some juicy stories about their own experiences of togetherness in the beautiful city of Madrid.

Works discussed:

Alison Gopnik, The Philosophical Baby: What Children's Minds Tell Us About Truth, Love, and the Meaning of Life

Ivan Leudar and Philip Thomas, Voices of Reason, Voices of Insanity

Sherry Turkle, Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other

Gerda Walther, Toward an Ontology of Social Communities

Dan Zahavi, Being We: Phenomenological Contributions to Social Ontology

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Chat GPT, Gemini, Meta AI, and Grok. In episode 145 of Overthink, David and Ellie talk about AI chatbots. Are relationships between humans and AI valuable? Or should we shame people for using LLMs? And what are we doing when we use these technologies: expanding or outsourcing our cognition? They explore the dangers of using chatbots as romantic partners and therapists, considering how the how the principle of ‘Yes, And…’ at the core of LLMs can lead to delusion and even what’s now called “AI psychosis.” They discuss the fatigue surrounding the predominance of AI in our everyday lives and the negative environmental effects of it. In the bonus, your hosts dive deeper into the history of AI, its benefits and drawbacks, and the relationship between AI and embodiment.

Works Discussed:

Andrea Klonschinski and Michael Kühler, “Romantic Love Between Humans and AIs: A Feminist Ethical Critique”

Gavin Mueller, Breaking Things at Work: The Luddites Are Right About Why You Hate Your Job

Matteo Pasquinelli, The Eye of the Master: A Social History of Artificial Intelligence

Michael Wooldridge, A Brief History of Artificial Intelligence: What It Is, Where We Are, and Where We Are Going

N+1 Editors, “Large Language Muddle”

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Why does falling for someone so often feel like a painful obsession? In episode 144 of Overthink, Ellie and David discuss the unspoken difficulties of limerence, or the state of falling in love. What is the difference between love and limerence, and why do we confuse them so frequently? How does social media fuel limerent reactions? And is limerence inherently selfish? They discuss how limerence can be formative to our personal identities, whether a limerent object has ethical obligations to those who obsess over them, and how modern dating norms might direct us all towards limerence rather than love. In the Substack bonus segment, your hosts get into the relationship between self-worth and limerence and whether it’s possible to have reciprocal limerence.

Works Discussed:

Tom Bellamy, Smitten: Romantic obsession, the neuroscience of limerence, and how to make love last

Stendhal, On Love

Dorothy Tennov, Love and Limerence: The Experience of Being in Love

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (2015-2019)

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Which industries should cease to exist immediately? And what ‘bullshit jobs’ should they take with them? In episode 143 of Overthink, Ellie and David explore the academic and social movement of ‘Degrowth.’ They discuss the imperial mode of living that has become normalized in the Global North, explain how it relates to the ‘iron law’ of capitalism, and detail how the degrowth movement seeks to build a communist future. In particular, they explore the pillars Kohei Saito’s degrowth communism. Why are degrowth scholars such as Saito so critical of the Green New Deal? Was Karl Marx himself a ‘degrower’? And what exactly does it mean to degrow the economy? In the Substack bonus segment, your hosts continue their discussion of the pillars of degrowth, thinking about the benefits abandoning the current division of labor and shortening work hours.

Works Discussed:

Ulrich Brand and Markus Wissen, The Imperial Mode of Living: Everyday Life and the Ecological Crisis of Capitalism

John Bellamy Foster, Marx’s Ecology: Materialism and Nature

Jason Hickel, Less is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World

Matthew Huber, Climate Change as Class War: Building Socialism on a Warming Planet

Karl Marx, Capital: A Critique of Political Economy

Kohei Saito, Slow Down: The Degrowth Manifesto

Aaron Vansintjan, Andrea Vetter, and Matthias Schmelzer, The Future is Degrowth: A Guide to a World Beyond Capitalism

Enjoy our work? Support Overthink via tax-deductible donation: https://www.givecampus.com/fj0w3v

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Why does much of the history of philosophy neglect the topic of birth? In episode 142 of Overthink, Ellie and David chat with Jennifer Banks about her book Natality: Toward a Philosophy of Birth. They think through the debate between pronatalism and antinatalism, and consider alternatives to these positions. They also discuss Hannah Arendt’s account of natality and what Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein tells us about the relationship between birth and monstrosity. What is birth, and why does it seem to defy so many of our concepts and categories? What’s the difference between being-born and giving-birth? And how would our view of ourselves change if we saw ourselves through the lens of a “philosophy of birth” (as opposed to, say, “a philosophy of death”)? In the Substack bonus segment, your hosts dive further into Hannah Arendt’s works, focusing on the link between her concept of natality and her ideas about the public/private distinction.

Works Discussed:

Hannah Arendt, The Human Condition

Jennifer Banks, Natality: Toward a Philosophy of Birth

Alison Stone, Being Born: Birth and Philosophy

Dean Spears and Michael Geruso, After the Spike: Population, Progress, and the Case for People

Marjolein Oele, “The Dissolution of the Pregnant City: A Philosophical Account of Early Pregnancy Loss and Enigmatic Grief”

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Tradwives, the divine feminine, and “that girl” on social media. In episode 141 of Overthink, Ellie and David discuss femininity. They look to Simone de Beauvoir’s famous claim that one is not born but rather becomes a woman, and discuss how the process of feminization is crucial to this becoming. They explore the association between femininity, mystery, and docility. Is the return to traditional gender roles an attempt to move away from capitalism? How do contemporary beauty standards shape women’s self-understanding. And is there such thing as “feminine writing”? In the Substack bonus segment, your hosts discuss 90s cultural feminism and spirituality, and question whether it is possible to find liberation through the divine feminine image.

Works Discussed:

Sandra Bartky, “ Foucault, Femininity, and the Modernization of Patriarchal Power”

Pierre Bourdieu, La domination masculine

Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex

Hélène Cixous, “The Laugh of the Medusa”

Manon Garcia, We Are Not Born Submissive

Support the show

Substack | overthinkpod.substack.com

Website | overthinkpodcast.com

Instagram & Twitter | @overthink_pod

Email | dearoverthink@gmail.com

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Performative males, hustle bros, sissies, and manfluencers. In episode 140 of Overthink, Ellie and David discuss masculinity. What does it mean to be a man, and how has the concept of masculinity changed over time? They look at the male loneliness epidemic, the current influx of male influencers spreading right-wing rhetoric on the manosphere, and some of the main features of masculinity. Is masculinity rooted in violence and homophobia, or is it possible to have a healthy model of masculinity? In the Substack bonus, your hosts get into the mythopoetic men's movement and the connection between haircuts and masculinity.

Works Discussed:
Robert Brannon and Deborah Sarah David, The Forty-nine Percent Majority: The Male Sex Role
Pierre Bourdieu, La domination masculine
R.W. Connell, Gender and Power
James W. Messerschmidt, Hegemonic Masculinity
Joseph Pleck, The Myth of Masculinity
Todd W. Reeser, Moderating Masculinity in Early Modern Culture
Frans de Waal, Chimpanzee Politics: Power and Sex Among Apes

Support the show

Substack | overthinkpod.substack.com
Website | overthinkpodcast.com
Instagram & Twitter | @overthink_pod
Email | dearoverthink@gmail.com
YouTube | Overthink podcast

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What does it mean to love thy neighbor? And who counts as a neighbor in the first place? In episode 139 of Overthink, Ellie and David talk about neighbors. They think through the parasocial relationships that hold between us and those who live near us, how the values of our neighbors affect our lives, and how neighborly relations blur the public/private distinction. They use the French philosopher Emmanuel Levinas’s philosophy of the neighbor as “the Other” to think about the experience of moral responsibility. And they consider how our relationships with neighbors differ from other relationships? To what extent do we choose our neighbors? How do wealth and class shape our experience of living-with-others? And what actually makes a neighbor a neighbor? In the Substack bonus segment, your hosts question whether we have specific ethical obligations to our neighbors and discuss cultural differences in how people view their neighbors.

Works Discussed:
Mark Granovetter, “The Strength of Weak Ties”
Emmanuel Levinas, Otherwise than Being
Hannu Ruonavaara, “The Anatomy of Neighbour Relations”
Anna Strhan, “And Who is My Neighbour? Levinas and the Commandment to Love Re-examined”

Support the show

Substack | overthinkpod.substack.com
Website | overthinkpodcast.com
Instagram & Twitter | @overthink_pod
Email | dearoverthink@gmail.com
YouTube | Overthink podcast

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.