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Conversations with Tyler / episode intelligence

Kwame Anthony Appiah on Pictures of the World

31 Jul 2019 29 published claims 2 attributable people
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Speakers in the public record

Tyler CowenKwame Anthony Appiah

Claim mix

belief 16evaluation 8prediction 2recommendation 1uncertainty 1preference 1

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The useful parts, with receipts.

29 published records

02 / belief

There’s about a third, I think. So obviously that means that in graduate school, there’s probably about a third women to start with, but again, more of them leave, so clearly, we’re doing something wrong because it isn’t that women are not equally interested in the subject, as they arrive.

“There’s about a third, I think. So obviously that means that in graduate school, there’s probably about a third women to start with, but again, more of them leave, so clearly, we’re doing something wrong because it isn’t that women are not equally interested in the subject, as they arrive.”
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03 / belief

I believe in the standard deliverances of modern genomics, but I suspect that we’re going to learn lots and lots of stuff in there that we now believe is not quite right.

“I believe in the standard deliverances of modern genomics, but I suspect that we’re going to learn lots and lots of stuff in there that we now believe is not quite right.”
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04 / belief

I know it’s conventional now to prefer Gwen John, but I still think that the best Augustus John paintings are pretty amazing, and I’m not sure that I think that about anything of Gwen John’s.

“I know it’s conventional now to prefer Gwen John, but I still think that the best Augustus John paintings are pretty amazing, and I’m not sure that I think that about anything of Gwen John’s.”
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06 / belief

What people seem to think, currently, is the most plausible way of reconciling them strikes me as (a) incredibly difficult to understand — string theory, and (b) something that a reasonable person might doubt. But if you ask me what I think the best current physical theory is, I’m going to say string theory, but with a sort of confidence that’s probably below half.

“What people seem to think, currently, is the most plausible way of reconciling them strikes me as (a) incredibly difficult to understand — string theory, and (b) something that a reasonable person might doubt. But if you ask me what I think the best current physical theory is, I’m going to say string theory, but with a sort of confidence that’s probably below half.”
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10 / belief

Always, in the end, what I’m doing, even when I’m answering those questions, is figuring out what I think, which is the only way I know how to make a contribution, just to figure out the best answer you can come up with, in the available time, to the question that presents itself to you.

“Always, in the end, what I’m doing, even when I’m answering those questions, is figuring out what I think, which is the only way I know how to make a contribution, just to figure out the best answer you can come up with, in the available time, to the question that presents itself to you.”
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15 / belief

I think that the answer is that the best jollof rice in West Africa may not be in either Ghana or Nigeria, but I’ll stick with my own preference for Ghanaian, but that’s probably just a question of what you’re used to.

“I think that the answer is that the best jollof rice in West Africa may not be in either Ghana or Nigeria, but I’ll stick with my own preference for Ghanaian, but that’s probably just a question of what you’re used to.”
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18 / belief

I think of myself as someone whose main contribution is to notice things of interest in philosophical work and draw them to the attention of a public that’s wider than the public that already knows about them, the philosophical world that already knows about them.

“I think of myself as someone whose main contribution is to notice things of interest in philosophical work and draw them to the attention of a public that’s wider than the public that already knows about them, the philosophical world that already knows about them.”
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19 / belief

For the letter writers, of course I don’t give advice that I think will do them any harm, but I’m not usually feeling that the advice I’ve given them is either (a) very different from what they would have done without my advice, or (b) really, truly satisfactory because if I were in the business of advising, as opposed to writing an advice column, which is not being in the business of advising, I would want to know more in almost every case about their situation.

“For the letter writers, of course I don’t give advice that I think will do them any harm, but I’m not usually feeling that the advice I’ve given them is either (a) very different from what they would have done without my advice, or (b) really, truly satisfactory because if I were in the business of advising, as opposed to writing an advice column, which is not being in the business of advising, I would want to know more in almost every case about their situation.”
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20 / evaluation

Questions about confidentiality, loyalty, the balancing of interests, what difference your relationship with a person makes to what you owe to them — these sorts of things, which I think philosophy has a lot to say about, and it’s useful for people to think about, whether or not they’re currently facing a question of that kind.

“Questions about confidentiality, loyalty, the balancing of interests, what difference your relationship with a person makes to what you owe to them — these sorts of things, which I think philosophy has a lot to say about, and it’s useful for people to think about, whether or not they’re currently facing a question of that kind.”
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23 / evaluation

This is the cosmopolitan attitude to these things, and that of course states — as with all cosmopolitan obligations — states play a central role in ensuring that they’re met. And so each state has responsibility for the stuff in its territory, but it doesn’t have special rights to determine what happens to things just because they happen to be in its territory, any more than the Italians have any special right to decide that Etruscan stuff is bad, and therefore we’re going to not care for it.

“This is the cosmopolitan attitude to these things, and that of course states — as with all cosmopolitan obligations — states play a central role in ensuring that they’re met. And so each state has responsibility for the stuff in its territory, but it doesn’t have special rights to determine what happens to things just because they happen to be in its territory, any more than the Italians have any special right to decide that Etruscan stuff is bad, and therefore we’re going to not care for it.”
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24 / prediction

In Africa, I think, on the one hand, that most contemporary sub-Saharan Africans do have a sense of themselves as belonging to a kind of Black African world. But if you ask them to do something practical about it, like take down borders or do more political integration, I don’t know that that is going to go anywhere anytime soon, which I regret because I think, for lots of reasons, it would be .

“In Africa, I think, on the one hand, that most contemporary sub-Saharan Africans do have a sense of themselves as belonging to a kind of Black African world. But if you ask them to do something practical about it, like take down borders or do more political integration, I don’t know that that is going to go anywhere anytime soon, which I regret because I think, for lots of reasons, it would be .”
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25 / prediction

If that were to take off, it would be a big change. It would have downsides as well as upsides — as these changes often do — because there’s a reason why, in the Muslim case, the tradition says that while you should do this, you shouldn’t, for example, be too nosy about what other people are doing because then the balance would shift too far in the other direction.

“If that were to take off, it would be a big change. It would have downsides as well as upsides — as these changes often do — because there’s a reason why, in the Muslim case, the tradition says that while you should do this, you shouldn’t, for example, be too nosy about what other people are doing because then the balance would shift too far in the other direction.”
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26 / evaluation

I think one of the most interesting is that, because most of what’s now in Ghana, at least west of the Volta — lake, once river — was at one point or other within the ambit of the Ashanti Empire, which is something that goes back to the 18th century, and which radiated trade out from Kumasi in central southern Ghana for hundreds of years.

“I think one of the most interesting is that, because most of what’s now in Ghana, at least west of the Volta — lake, once river — was at one point or other within the ambit of the Ashanti Empire, which is something that goes back to the 18th century, and which radiated trade out from Kumasi in central southern Ghana for hundreds of years.”
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27 / evaluation

I think that is the result of political learning, watching what happens when you do things with coups, and discovering that it doesn’t get much better if you do it that way, and deciding to go with the patience that’s required for democracy.

“I think that is the result of political learning, watching what happens when you do things with coups, and discovering that it doesn’t get much better if you do it that way, and deciding to go with the patience that’s required for democracy.”
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28 / preference

I’m not the kind of cosmopolitan who’s opposed to national identity, and that’s an important part of the answer because the kind of cosmopolitan who does want to drag people away from their roots has, I think, got no chance of persuading most people.

“I’m not the kind of cosmopolitan who’s opposed to national identity, and that’s an important part of the answer because the kind of cosmopolitan who does want to drag people away from their roots has, I think, got no chance of persuading most people.”
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29 / evaluation

Maybe the continuity of political institutions through the colonial period — so that the king of Ashanti is still in place in the middle of the Republic of Ghana — maybe that’s another thing that helps to explain the existence of a stability that’s independent of the formal state because he’s recognized by the state.

“Maybe the continuity of political institutions through the colonial period — so that the king of Ashanti is still in place in the middle of the Republic of Ghana — maybe that’s another thing that helps to explain the existence of a stability that’s independent of the formal state because he’s recognized by the state.”
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