In this episode, Megan and Frank explore the prophecies of Nostradamus. Nostradamus was a prophet--but what is a prophet? What should we make of his seemingly accurate predictions of major world events? Do prophetic powers imply that the future is determined? Or are we simply bound to an immovable fate? And what, if anything, does Nostradamus have to tell us about our futures? Thinkers discussed include: Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Friedrich Nietzsche, Brian Leiter, and David Foster Wallace.

Hosts' Websites:

Megan J Fritts (google.com) [https://sites.google.com/view/meganjfritts/home?authuser=0]

Frank J. Cabrera (google.com) [https://sites.google.com/view/frank-j-cabrera/research?pli=1]

Email: philosophyonthefringes@gmail.com

-----------------------

Bibliography:

Nostradamus : how an obscure Renaissance astrologer became the modern prophet of doom : Gerson, Stéphane [https://archive.org/details/nostradamushowob0000gers] (source for biographical details, anxiety vs. fear, and WWII propaganda)

The prophecies : a dual-language edition with parallel text : Nostradamus, 1503-1566 [https://archive.org/details/propheciesdualla0000nost]

Nostradamus' grim predictions for 2026 revealed [https://nypost.com/lifestyle/nostradamus-predictions-2026/]

David Foster Wallace and the Challenge of Fatalism | Blog of the APA [https://blog.apaonline.org/2019/01/24/david-foster-wallace-and-the-challenge-of-fatalism/]

Future Contingents | Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy [https://iep.utm.edu/fut-cont/]  [https://www.gutenberg.org/files/51356/51356-h/51356-h.htm]

The Birth of Tragedy, or Hellenism and Pessimism, by Friedrich Nietzsche. [https://www.gutenberg.org/files/51356/51356-h/51356-h.htm]

The Twilight of the Idols, by Friedrich Nietzsche. [https://www.gutenberg.org/files/52263/52263-h/52263-h.htm]

Brian Leiter- Moral Psychology with Nietzsche [https://philpapers.org/rec/LEIMPW]

Moral Psychology with Nietzsche | Reviews | Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews [https://ndpr.nd.edu/reviews/moral-psychology-with-nietzsche/]

Nietzsche’s Moral and Political Philosophy (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy) [https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/nietzsche-moral-political/]

Intersubjective Accountability: Politics and Philosophy in the Left Vienna Circle [https://direct.mit.edu/posc/article/28/1/35/15448/Intersubjective-Accountability-Politics-and]

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Cover Artwork by Logan Fritts

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The Prophecies of Nostradamus

In this episode, Megan and Frank investigate the Mandela Effect. Why do so many people "remember" Nelson Mandela dying in prison in the 1980s, or the Fruit of the Loom logo as containing a cornucopia, or the existence of a movie starring Sinbad as a genie? What explains these collective mis-rememberings: parallel dimensions, a government cover-up, a glitch in the matrix? Or should we just conclude that human memory is inherently unreliable? How do false memories arise, and how can we distinguish the real from the imagined? Despite our cultural obsession with preserving every memory, could there be some value in forgetting the past? Thinkers discussed include Augustine of Hippo, Friedrich Nietzsche, Edmund Husserl, and Elizabeth Loftus.

Hosts' Websites:

Megan J Fritts (google.com) [https://sites.google.com/view/meganjfritts/home?authuser=0]

Frank J. Cabrera (google.com) [https://sites.google.com/view/frank-j-cabrera/research?pli=1]

Email: philosophyonthefringes@gmail.com

-----------------------

Bibliography:

The Visual Mandela Effect as Evidence for Shared and Specific False Memories Across People [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36219739/]

The Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) Task: A Simple Cognitive Paradigm to Investigate False Memories [https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5407674/]

Understanding Memory and the Human Lifespan | Plus [https://www.thegreatcoursesplus.com/memory-and-the-human-lifespan]

Loftus & Pickrell 1995 - The formation of false memories. [https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1996-29546-001]

Loftus & Palmer 1974 - Reconstruction of automobile destruction: An example of the interaction between language and memory [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0022537174800113]

Chloe Wall - Knowing (from) me, knowing (from) you: Essays on memory and testimony [https://ourarchive.otago.ac.nz/esploro/outputs/doctoral/Knowing-from-me-knowing-from-you/9926478758301891]

Total recall: the people who never forget | Memory | The Guardian [https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/feb/08/total-recall-the-people-who-never-forget]

Nietzsche: 'On the Genealogy of Morality' and Other Writings [https://www.google.com/books/edition/Nietzsche_On_the_Genealogy_of_Morality_a/Hx6YEVvHjgkC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=To+shut+the+doors+and+windows+of+consciousness+for+a+while%3B+not+to+be+bothered+by+the+noise+and+battle+with+which+our+underworld+of+serviceable+organs+work+with+and+against+each+other%3B+a+little+peace,+a+little+tabula+rasa+of+consciousness+to+make+room+for+something+new,+above+all+for+the+nobler+functions+and+functionaries,+for+ruling,+predicting,+pre+determining+(our+organism+runs+along+oligarchic+lines,+you+see)+%E2%80%93+that,+as+I+said,+is+the+benefit+of+active+forgetfulness,+like+a+doorkeeper+or+guardian+of+mental+order,+rest+and+etiquette:+from+which+we+can+immediately+see+how+there+could+be+no+happiness,+cheerfulness,+hope,+pride,+immediacy,+without+forgetfulness&pg=PA38&printsec=frontcover]

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Cover Artwork by Logan Fritts

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Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):

https://uppbeat.io/t/simon-folwar/neon-signs

License code: OEYM6IYHOOWN8GSB

The Mandela Effect

In this episode, Megan and Frank discuss the alternative medicine practice known as "Reiki," a kind of touch energy healing. What is Reiki, and how is it supposed to work? Is there scientific evidence of Reiki's effectiveness, or is it all just a placebo? And if so, would that really be a problem?

Hosts' Websites:

Megan J Fritts (google.com) [https://sites.google.com/view/meganjfritts/home?authuser=0]

Frank J. Cabrera (google.com) [https://sites.google.com/view/frank-j-cabrera/research?pli=1]

Email: philosophyonthefringes@gmail.com

-----------------------

Bibliography:

Frontiers | Does Reiki Benefit Mental Health Symptoms Above Placebo? [https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.897312/full]

What is Reiki? Energy Healing and Chakra Work — Lisa Kern [https://www.healthyholistichappy.com/blog/what-is-reiki]

Does Reiki Work? - The Atlantic [https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/04/reiki-cant-possibly-work-so-why-does-it/606808/]

Evidence and explanation in Cicero's On Divination [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0039368119301451]

Tylenol Is Popular and Safe, Yet Nobody Knows How It Works | Scientific American [https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/tylenol-is-popular-and-safe-yet-nobody-knows-how-it-works/]

Siegel - Predictive Analytics, Revised and Updated [https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/predictive-analytics-revised/9781119145677/]

The Phantom Pattern Problem - Gary Smith; Jay Cordes - Oxford University Press [https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-phantom-pattern-problem-9780198864165?cc=us&lang=en&]

A radical new hypothesis in medicine: give patients drugs they know don’t work | Vox [https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2017/6/1/15711814/open-label-placebo-kaptchuk]

The weird power of the placebo effect, explained | Vox [https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2017/7/7/15792188/placebo-effect-explained]

The Power of Mind over Body | Plus [https://www.thegreatcoursesplus.com/the-power-of-mind-over-body]

Placebos Work—Even Without Deception | Harvard Medical School [https://hms.harvard.edu/news/placebos-work-even-without-deception]

Hume, David: Causation | Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy [https://iep.utm.edu/hume-causation/#H5]

Researchers are still working to prove that antidepressants are more effective than placebo [https://qz.com/1212804/researchers-are-still-working-to-prove-that-antidepressants-are-more-effective-than-placebo]

Medical Nihilism - Jacob Stegenga - Oxford University Press [https://global.oup.com/academic/product/medical-nihilism-9780198747048?cc=us&lang=en&]



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Cover Artwork by Logan Fritts

-------------------------

Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):

https://uppbeat.io/t/simon-folwar/neon-signs

License code: GAXUNUBZXURBJU22

Reiki & Alternative Medicine

In this episode, Megan and Frank examine the Apocalypse. How should we define "the apocalypse"? How does religious apocalyptic thought apply in a secular context? What are the dangers of apocalyptic thinking? And why do we always seem to be in the end times? This episode pays special attention to the book Apocalypse Without God: Apocalyptic Thought, Ideal Politics, and the Limits of Utopian Hope by Ben Jones. Other thinkers discussed include: Machiavelli, Hobbes, Engels, and Rawls.

Hosts' Websites:

Megan J Fritts (google.com) [https://sites.google.com/view/meganjfritts/home?authuser=0]

Frank J. Cabrera (google.com) [https://sites.google.com/view/frank-j-cabrera/research?pli=1]

Email: philosophyonthefringes@gmail.com

-----------------------

Bibliography:

Ben Jones - Apocalypse without God [https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/apocalypse-without-god/2220F11048E39FA16B150EA9EF2E24C9]

Revelation 1 NIV - Prologue - The revelation from Jesus - Bible Gateway [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation%201&version=NIV]

The Rapture Was Predicted to Happen Today. TikTok Has Some Advice. - The New York Times [https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/23/us/rapture-tiktok-sept-23.html]

AI 2027 [https://ai-2027.com/]

Opinion | An Interview With the Herald of the Apocalypse - The New York Times [https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/15/opinion/artifical-intelligence-2027.html]

Lectures on the History of Moral Philosophy — Harvard University Press [https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674004429]

Roland Boer - Revelation and Revolution: Friedrich Engels and the Apocalypse [https://www.religjournal.com/pdf/ijrr06002.pdf]

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Cover Artwork by Logan Fritts

-------------------------

Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):

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The Apocalypse

In this episode, Megan and Frank continue their discussion of the Illuminati. Here, the focus is on the afterlife of the Bavarian Order. How did conspiracy theories involving the Illuminati arise? Why is so much pop culture full of Illuminati imagery? And are there any good reasons to believe in such conspiracy theories? Thinkers discussed include: Dostoyevsky, Kierkegaard, and Maarten Boudry.

-----------------------

Hosts' Websites:

Megan J Fritts (google.com) [https://sites.google.com/view/meganjfritts/home?authuser=0]

Frank J. Cabrera (google.com) [https://sites.google.com/view/frank-j-cabrera/research?pli=1]

Email: philosophyonthefringes@gmail.com

-----------------------

Bibliography:

Michael Taylor- Illuminati in the US - American History Hit | Acast [https://shows.acast.com/american-history-hit/episodes/the-illuminati-in-the-us]

The Secret School of Wisdom: The Authentic Rituals and Doctrines of the Illuminati [https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Secret_School_of_Wisdom.html?id=e-_VzQEACAAJ] (Primary source documents)

CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Illuminati [https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07661b.htm]

Kierkegaard - The Crowd is Untruth [https://www.ccel.org/ccel/kierkegaard/untruth/files/untruth.html]

The Grand Inquisitor, by Feodor Dostoevsky [https://www.gutenberg.org/files/8578/8578-h/8578-h.htm]

Barruel - Memoirs Illustrating The History Of Jacobinism [https://archive.org/details/BarruelMemoirsIllustratingTheHistoryOfJacobinism]

From Thomas Jefferson to Bishop James Madison, 31 January 1800 [https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-31-02-0297]

Did an Illuminati Conspiracy Theory Help Elect Thomas Jefferson? - POLITICO [https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/03/29/illuminati-conspiracy-theory-thomas-jeffersion-1800-election-152934]

Nesta Webster - World revolution; the plot against civilization [https://archive.org/details/worldrevolutionp00webs]

Zionism versus Bolshevism - Churchill [https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Zionism_versus_Bolshevism]

Boudry, Maarten - Why We Should Be Suspicious of Conspiracy Theories. A Novel Demarcation Problem  [https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/21097/]

[Reddit] why do the large shadow organizations leave clues that could lead to their downfall? [https://www.reddit.com/r/AskScienceFiction/comments/11sbcyc/general_conspiracies_why_do_the_large_shadow/]

Megan Fritts & Frank Cabrera, Fake News and Epistemic Vice: Combating a Uniquely Noxious Market [https://philpapers.org/rec/FRIFNA]

Are Republicans and Conservatives More Likely to Believe Conspiracy Theories? - PMC [https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9307120/]

The psychological and political correlates of conspiracy theory beliefs [https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-25617-0#:~:text=We%20found%20that%20the%20psychological,of%20beliefs%20in%20conspiracy%20theories.]

Is Conspiracy Theorising Irrational? - Neil Levy [https://social-epistemology.com/2019/10/09/is-conspiracy-theorising-irrational-neil-levy/]

Predictors of belief in conspiracy theory [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0191886921000209]

Conspiracy theory and cognitive style: a worldview [https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00206/full]

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Cover Artwork by Logan Fritts

-------------------------

Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):

https://uppbeat.io/t/simon-folwar/neon-signs

License code: ZILRIT8XNZAA6LYZ

The Illuminati: Conspiracy Theories

In this episode, Megan and Frank investigate the Bavarian Order of the Illuminati, a secret society founded in 1776 by the Enlightenment philosopher Adam Weishaupt. This conversation covers who the Illuminati were, what they believed, and how they attempted to bring about a "new world order." Thinkers discussed include: Adam Weishaupt, Rousseau, Kant, Hegel, Marx, Mencius, and Alasdair MacIntyre.

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Hosts' Websites:

Megan J Fritts (google.com) [https://sites.google.com/view/meganjfritts/home?authuser=0]

Frank J. Cabrera (google.com) [https://sites.google.com/view/frank-j-cabrera/research?pli=1]

Email: philosophyonthefringes@gmail.com

-----------------------

Bibliography:

The Secret School of Wisdom: The Authentic Rituals and Doctrines of the Illuminati [https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Secret_School_of_Wisdom.html?id=e-_VzQEACAAJ] (Primary source documents)

CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Illuminati [https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07661b.htm]

Illuminat [https://referenceworks.brill.com/display/entries/DGWO/DGWE-175.xml?srsltid=AfmBOopAaYHwbehWO9WUIpwNOf-C9zJP8Z3qojnH_n5fQnfH8-cgFWX0]en - Dictionary of Gnosis & Western Esotericism [https://referenceworks.brill.com/view/db/dgwo]

Perfectibilists | Independent Publishers Group [https://www.ipgbook.com/perfectibilists-products-9780977795383.php]

Kant. What is Enlightenment [https://www.columbia.edu/acis/ets/CCREAD/etscc/kant.html]

Hegel - Philosophy of Right [https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/hegel/works/pr/philosophy-of-right.pdf]

After Virtue - A Study in Moral Theory - Alasdair MacIntyre [https://epistemh.pbworks.com/f/4.+Macintyre.pdf]

How Mengzi came up with something better than the Golden Rule | Aeon Ideas [https://aeon.co/ideas/how-mengzi-came-up-with-something-better-than-the-golden-rule]

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Cover Artwork by Logan Fritts

-------------------------

Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):

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License code: CUCILUBPXFZKKTOP

The Illuminati: Bavarian Order

In this episode, Megan and Frank investigate the Enneagram. Is the Enneagram a legitimate science of personality? What even is personality? And how much of our lives does personality determine? Join them as they examine the classic book, "Discovering Your Personality Type: The Essential Introduction to the Enneagram" by Don Richard Riso & Russ Hudson. Other thinkers discussed include: Aristotle, Friedrich Nietzsche, Karl Popper, Thomas Kuhn, and John Doris.

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Hosts' Websites:

Megan J Fritts (google.com) [https://sites.google.com/view/meganjfritts/home?authuser=0]

Frank J. Cabrera (google.com) [https://sites.google.com/view/frank-j-cabrera/research?pli=1]

Email: philosophyonthefringes@gmail.com

-----------------------

Bibliography:

Don Richard Riso & Russ Hudson - Discovering Your Personality Type [https://www.harpercollins.com/products/discovering-your-personality-type-don-richard-risoruss-hudson?variant=39939412525090]

Empirical Approaches to Moral Character (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy) [https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/moral-character-empirical/#BigFive]

Pseudoscience and the Demarcation Problem | Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy [https://iep.utm.edu/pseudoscience-demarcation/]

Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Nietzsche [https://www.gutenberg.org/files/4363/4363-h/4363-h.htm]

Situationism, Moral Improvement, and Moral Responsibility | The Oxford Handbook of Moral Psychology [https://academic.oup.com/edited-volume/41278/chapter-abstract/351588064?redirectedFrom=fulltext]

Virtue Ethics | Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy [https://iep.utm.edu/virtue/]

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Cover Artwork by Logan Fritts

-------------------------

Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):

https://uppbeat.io/t/simon-folwar/neon-signs

License code: O6ZNDALO7DL2LNHE

The Enneagram

In this episode, Megan and Frank investigate the strange phenomenon of past life memories. Are past life memories evidence for reincarnation? Is what we remember a good guide to who we are? And how might a single identity span different lifetimes? Thinkers discussed in this episode include Plato, Pythagoras, Thomas Reid, J.M.E. McTaggart, and Michael Sudduth.

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Hosts' Websites:

Megan J Fritts (google.com) [https://sites.google.com/view/meganjfritts/home?authuser=0]

Frank J. Cabrera (google.com) [https://sites.google.com/view/frank-j-cabrera/research?pli=1]

Email: philosophyonthefringes@gmail.com

-----------------------

Bibliography:

Timaeus by Plato [https://classics.mit.edu/Plato/timaeus.html]

Diogenes Laërtius: Pythagoras [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diogenes_Laertius/Lives_of_the_Eminent_Philosophers/8/Pythagoras*.html]

The Next Dalai Lama: Preparing for Reincarnation and Why It Matters to India [https://carnegieendowment.org/research/2024/11/the-next-dalai-lama-preparing-for-reincarnation-and-why-it-matters-to-india?lang=en&center=india]

Claire White, Robert M. Kelly & Shaun Nichols, Remembering Past Lives [https://philpapers.org/rec/WHIRPL-2]

Thomas Reid, Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man [https://philpapers.org/rec/REIEOT-19]

Children Who Report Memories of Past Lives - Division of Perceptual Studies [https://med.virginia.edu/perceptual-studies/our-research/children-who-report-memories-of-previous-lives/]

The Case of James Leininger_ An American Case of the Reincarnation Type [https://med.virginia.edu/perceptual-studies/wp-content/uploads/sites/360/2017/04/REI42-Tucker-James-LeiningerPIIS1550830716000331.pdf]

Jim Tucker - Response to Sudduth’s “James Leininger Case Re-Examined” [https://med.virginia.edu/perceptual-studies/wp-content/uploads/sites/360/2022/05/Tucker-JSE-Response-to-JL-crit-2487-Article-Text-12829-1-10-20220522-1.pdf]

The Science of Reincarnation—VIRGINIA Magazine [https://uvamagazine.org/articles/the_science_of_reincarnation]

The Philosophy of Dr. McTaggart. [https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4187&context=ocj]

S2, Episode 6: The Self and Survival (Mar. 27th, 2018) – Hi-Phi Nation [https://hiphination.org/complete-season-two-episodes/s2-e6-the-self-and-survival/]

New evidence shows false memories can be created | UW News [https://www.washington.edu/news/2001/06/11/i-tawt-i-taw-a-bunny-wabbit-at-disneyland-new-evidence-shows-false-memories-can-be-created/]

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Cover Artwork by Logan Fritts

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License code: ZMHYPZTDWFJ3QXU2

Past Life Memories

In this episode, Megan and Frank discuss the philosophical dimensions of prehistory. What and when is the “prehistoric”? How was prehistory "discovered", and what explains our fascination with it? Is ancient archeology safe from our biases? And how did archaic man’s meaning-making differ from our own? Thinkers discussed include: Colin Renfrew, Hegel, Charles Taylor, Mircea Eliade, and Wittgenstein.

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Hosts' Websites:

Megan J Fritts (google.com) [https://sites.google.com/view/meganjfritts/home?authuser=0]

Frank J. Cabrera (google.com) [https://sites.google.com/view/frank-j-cabrera/research?pli=1]

Email: philosophyonthefringes@gmail.com

-----------------------

Bibliography:

Prehistory: The Making of the Human Mind - Colin Renfrew [https://books.google.com/books/about/Prehistory.html?id=ckAxZZuYiRMC]

Hegel's Lectures on the Philosophy of History [https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/hegel/works/hi/hiconten.htm]

Cave of Forgotten Dreams - Official Trailer | HD | IFC Films [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmMUlNeLApU]

Bewitched by an Elf Dart: Fairy Archaeology, Folk Magic and Traditional Medicine in Ireland - Dowd [https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/cambridge-archaeological-journal/article/bewitched-by-an-elf-dart-fairy-archaeology-folk-magic-and-traditional-medicine-in-ireland/7EF2D9BD63A34CAA405A42E120C4D421]

A Secular Age — Harvard University Press [https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674026766]

Theory and Observation in Science (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy) [https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/science-theory-observation/]

From things to thinking: Cognitive archaeology - Currie & Killin [https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/mila.12230]

Cognitive Archaeology and the Minimum Necessary Competence Problem - Killin & Pain  [https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13752-021-00378-7#:~:text=Cognitive%20archaeology%20involves%20selecting%20a,different%20minimum%20necessary%20competence%20results.]

An Ape's View of the Oldowan - Wynn & McGrew [https://www.jstor.org/stable/2802697]

Neuroscience, evolution and the sapient paradox - Colin Renfrew [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18292058/]

Sapient paradox: Why humans got stuck in prehistory -Gossip Trap- Big Think [https://bigthink.com/the-past/sapient-paradox-prehistory/#:~:text=The%20sapient%20paradox%3A%20With%20brains,hypothesis%3A%20%E2%80%9Cgossip%20traps.%E2%80%9D&text=If%20modern%20human%20intelligence%20evolved,not%20develop%20until%2010%2C000%20BC%3F]

The Myth of the Eternal Return | Princeton University Press [https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691182971/the-myth-of-the-eternal-return?srsltid=AfmBOorJ5DlsvkkTyleC5y11ncXNzVohhv8u1bUch8oSh9YZTCylM70A]

Eliade_Mircea_The_Sacred_and_The_profane_1963 [https://monoskop.org/images/b/b1/Eliade_Mircea_The_Sacred_and_The_profane_1963.pdf]

Wittgenstein - Notebooks, 1914 - 1916, 2nd Edition | Wiley [https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Notebooks%2C+1914+-+1916%2C+2nd+Edition-p-9780631124993]

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Cover Artwork by Logan Fritts

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Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):

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License code: AAO0Q7IZMGVTLFJH

Prehistory

In this episode, Megan and Frank examine astrology. What is astrology, and why do people practice it? What are the strongest objections to astrology? Should astrology count as a science? If not, why not? What can the case of astrology teach us about the role of science in a democratic society? And why does the ancient practice of reading the stars prompt us to ponder the deepest aspects of human experience? Thinkers discussed include: Aristotle, Cicero, Ptolemy, Karl Popper, Thomas Kuhn, Imre Lakatos, Paul Feyerabend, Carl Sagan, Ian James Kidd, and Massimo Pigliucci.

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Hosts' Websites:

Megan J Fritts (google.com) [https://sites.google.com/view/meganjfritts/home?authuser=0]

Frank J. Cabrera (google.com) [https://sites.google.com/view/frank-j-cabrera/research?pli=1]

Email: philosophyonthefringes@gmail.com

-----------------------

Bibliography:

Philosophy of Science and the Occult | State University of New York Press [https://sunypress.edu/Books/P/Philosophy-of-Science-and-the-Occult] (first section is an invaluable resource, containing the 1975 manifesto, Feyerabend's critique, and articles summarizing statistical studies disconfirming astrology)

Cabrera - Evidence and explanation in Cicero's On Divination [https://philarchive.org/rec/CABEAE-5]

LacusCurtius • Ptolemy — Tetrabiblos [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Ptolemy/Tetrabiblos/home.html]

LacusCurtius • Cicero — De Divinatione: Book I [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/thayer/e/roman/texts/cicero/de_divinatione/1*.html]

A double-blind test of astrology | Nature [https://www.nature.com/articles/318419a0]

Readings in the Philosophy of Science: From Positivism to Postmodernism [https://www.amazon.com/Readings-Philosophy-Science-Positivism-Postmodernism/dp/0767402774] (See for short selections from Popper, Kuhn, and Lakatos)

Ian James Kidd - Why did Feyerabend Defend Astrology? Integrity, Virtue, and the Authority of Science [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02691728.2015.1031851] (An excellent paper that very much informed our discussion of the science & society question)

M. Pigliucci  - Was Feyerabend Right in Defending Astrology? A Commentary on Kidd [https://social-epistemology.com/2016/05/02/was-feyerabend-right-in-defending-astrology-a-commentary-on-kidd-massimo-pigliucci/]

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Cover Artwork by Logan Fritts

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Astrology

A couple of philosophy professors, Megan Fritts and Frank Cabrera, try to prove that you can do philosophy about almost anything. Join them as they explore the philosophical dimensions of topics on the outskirts of the academy. From Bigfoot to birthday parties, they take a Socratic approach to phenomena strange and mundane, asking listeners the question: What if we did philosophy on the fringes?

Frank Cabrera

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