20th Anniversary Quiz Night

Josh Landy
What did Thomas Hobbes say was the mother of philosophy?

Ray Briggs
Which famous actor played Aristotle in a movie?

Josh Landy
What thinker’s name can be anagrammed as “Ok Jazz Elvis”?

Ray Briggs
Welcome to Philosophy Talk, the program that questions everything…

Josh Landy
…except your intelligence. I’m Josh Landy.

Ray Briggs
And I’m Ray Briggs. We’re coming to you via the studios of KALW San Francisco Bay Area.

Josh Landy
Continuing conversations that begin at Philosophers Corner on the Stanford campus where Ray teaches philosophy, and I direct the philosophy and literature initiative.

Ray Briggs
Today, it’s a special edition of the program. We’re starting our third decade on the air by listening back to the 20th anniversary Quiz Night we held last fall.

Josh Landy
Back in November, longtime listeners and first-time fans join members of the Philosophy Talk team—

Ray Briggs
Including Josh and me!

Josh Landy
…at KALW’s popup event space in downtown San Francisco.

Ray Briggs
There they were treated to a philosophical quiz administered by our fearless Director of Research, Laura Maguire.

Josh Landy
Today, you’re gonna get the chance to answer those questions too. And so will our old friend and host emeritus John Perry. He’s going to join us as our on-air contestant.

Ray Briggs
You can follow along by heading over to the blog at philosophytaljk.org, where we’ve posted the slides from the night of the quiz.

Josh Landy
But first, let’s meet the eight teams who filled the room that night in San Francisco to question everything…

Ray Briggs
…except their philosophical trivia knowledge. Take it away, Laura!

Laura Maguire
If you’re a table without a philosopher, grab one of them and come up with a name for your team. And then we’re gonna go table by table and get your team name, so why don’t you start right there, Devon.

Claire Yoshida
Our team is are the Hypatians.

Devon Strolovitch
All right. What is your team name?

Josh Landy
We are the Freudian Slippers.

Know-Nothings
What is your team name?

Adrian Daub
The Categorical Imps.

Laura Maguire
Okay, what’s the next team name, Devon?

Ian Shoales
We are Team Agon.

Laura Maguire
Avon? Oh, I tell you like the Avon lady. I was like what? Okay, next team, right.

Devon Strolovitch
What is your team name?

Ray Briggs
The Dream Team.

Laura Maguire
Dream Team!

Know-Nothings
All right. What is your team name?

The Know-Nothings.

Devon Strolovitch
Oh, fine history there.

Have we got all the teams?

The Path
We are The Path.

Devon Strolovitch
Oh, ominous.

Laura Maguire
Okay. Are you ready for this quiz?

Josh Landy
Indeed we are. Because we’re joined now by the man who co created this radio show about 20 years ago along with his friend and colleague, Ken Taylor. John Perry, welcome back to Philosophy Talk.

John Perry
Well, thanks. Happy to be here.

Ray Briggs
So John, what have you been up to since you were last on the show?

John Perry
Well, I sit in my study at home and read philosophy, write philosophy. I have a little international group that meets every Monday and talks about things via zoom. And I’m working on a book probably the same one I was working on when I was still on the show on freedom and determinism. Turns out to be a rather complicated topic.

Josh Landy
Just just a tad. But let’s get started with the quiz. John. Round One of the quiz was a picture round. So not so great for the radio, I think we should just jump straight to round two. And John, the team that won this round got five points, you’re going to have five to beat.

Laura Maguire
So round number two is movie trivia. It’s worth a total of 10 points. There are five questions with two parts each. Okay, let’s go. Number one who directed the 1948 movie whose main characters were inspired by Nietzsche is Superman. What was the movie called? Number two, who directed the 1967 movie based on a 1942 French novel of the same name? Who wrote the novel? Number three, who directed the 2009 movie about an Egyptian philosopher who played the role of the philosopher number four, who directed the 1993 movie Vidkun Stein, who wrote the original screenplay it was based on Okay, in the last question, five who plays the role of the old Ptolemy A in the 2004 film Alexandria, who plays the role of Aristotle. Now, it’s really important that it’s the old Ptolemy because he’s depicted by a number of different actors. So it’s the old Ptolemy, and I’ll give you guys a clue. Both of these actors are famous actors. So if you don’t know, just guess.

Ray Briggs
Okay, so number one, John, what do you think?

John Perry
Alfred Hitchcock, The Rope?

Ray Briggs
That is absolutely right. Yes.

Josh Landy
That was one of the few questions I actually got. Right. That was based on Leopold and Loeb, right, the real life murderers. Okay, number two, John.

John Perry
Thank you. To Alfred Hitchcock. Stranger, ooh, who

Josh Landy
wrote that? Sorry. The other one, the handsome one. Come? Oh, yes. All right, we’re gonna give you the point for kemu. The director was actually viscounty. Little, of course, for indeed a movie adaptation of the stranger.

Ray Briggs
All right, so number three,

Josh Landy
that Egyptian philosopher from the fourth century see. Your additional clue is that he was a female philosopher.

John Perry
Well, I think it’s a little late for Cleopatra. I give up. This was

Josh Landy
a movie about Hypatia. And it was directed by Alejandro m&r bar. It’s it’s sort of not bad, although it gets the history of astronomy pretty badly.

John Perry
But I had no idea who she was. Number four, dissected the 1993 movie vixen stuff. No idea.

Ray Briggs
So the movie was directed by Derek Jarman. And the play was written by Terry Eagleton. No, I

John Perry
have heard of victim Stein.

Josh Landy
I think I knew German, like somewhere in the deepest recesses of what Vic and Stein would have denied was my unconscious. Maybe

Ray Briggs
one a better luck with number five.

John Perry
Is a role All told, in 2004? Yes,

Josh Landy
yeah. So on the night, John, Laura gave what she thought was a helpful clue, which is that these two are both famous actors. Yeah. And another clue that it’s the the old Ptolemy, not the young Ptolemy. I, for one, found that these clues did not meet.

John Perry
Okay, old old Ptolemy. That was Gabby Hayes. Aristotle, Charlton Heston, great

Ray Briggs
guesses, but old Ptolemy was Anthony Hopkins, and Aristotle was Christopher Plummer.

John Perry
You guys know who Gabby Hayes is. I don’t know who Gabby Hayes is. It was Roy Rogers sidekick. That’s great.

Josh Landy
I like the idea of Charlton Heston being in that and saying your you get your fry this my metaphysics out of my cold, dead hands.

John Perry
So how did I get right? So you got three points, though. I didn’t get five. But that’s a whole team that got five. Exactly.

Josh Landy
It’s totally unfair. Yeah, you got Hitchcock, you got rope and you got Khemu. The winner of that round was a categorical imps with a total of five points out of a possible 10 said

Ray Briggs
three out of 10 Eight bad. Let’s move on to the next round. Round

Laura Maguire
three is who said what? Okay. So this is a total of 20 points, you will get 10 sentences. Each one will have a blank so you have to fill in the blank and name who said it okay. The blank in every case is a single word. So I need the exact word and again, surnames for the philosopher is fine. Okay, let’s go. Number one, to be is to be blank. To man is condemned to be blank. I expect a lot of you to get this one. Number three, blank is the mother of philosophy. Yeah, make it up. If you don’t know you might just guess correctly. Number four, entities should not be blank unnecessarily. Number five, the cost of Liberty is less than the price of blank. Number six, blank is not an ideal of reason, but of imagination. Number seven, we aim at blood think and hope for truth. Number eight, philosophy is at once the most sublime and the most blank of human pursuits. I mean, you can guess this one if you don’t know. Number nine, good and evil reward and punishment are the only motives to a blank creature. And the last one number 10. Blank, the mark and even the pose of the educated mind.

Josh Landy
Okay, John, question number one

John Perry
to be is to be

Josh Landy
Would it help if I give you the lesson?

John Perry
Just from Latin. To be is to be conceived? Oh,

Ray Briggs
you’re so close. It’s perceived. Oh,

John Perry
then it’s Barkley. Yeah,

Josh Landy
exactly. Next question. Question two man

John Perry
has condemned to be free. Can you help? You got it? You said it. John Paul Sartre. Indeed.

Josh Landy
All right, you’re rocking it onto Question three.

John Perry
Welder have crazy fluids.

Josh Landy
It’s not Margaret Thatcher.

John Perry
It’s not Margaret Thatcher. Lack of sleep.

Ray Briggs
Possibly the truth, but not what the person said. Okay.

Josh Landy
Almost the opposite of that.

John Perry
What did they say? leisure? Oh, leisure is the mother of philosophy. And he gets I don’t, I don’t have any idea.

Ray Briggs
So that was Thomas Hobbes Jesus. No, he would have said

Josh Landy
he said something else I think about the meek or something like that.

Ray Briggs
So on to Question Four.

John Perry
entities should not be well postulated or believed and or feel

Ray Briggs
like that’s the spirit

John Perry
or something like that. Very close. postulated unnecessarily good mathematical operations. Added necessarily multiplied beyond necessity.

Ray Briggs
Yes, there you got it. And he said it. Oh, awesome.

John Perry
Yes.

Josh Landy
Yeah, John. So John, on this rounds, the best team the best two teams of that round categorical imps and Freudian slippers each got seven points. So you’re cruising to beat them if you can keep the pressure. Onto question five.

John Perry
The cost of Liberty is less than the price of tyranny. Right

Ray Briggs
Thought not quite the word.

John Perry
There was the Liberty is less than the price of eggs.

Josh Landy
These days? The The right answer is actually repression. Can you guess who the philosopher was? John Locke? No. It was WEB DuBois. Onto question six.

John Perry
Ethics is not ideal of reason. But of imagination. It’s

Josh Landy
a very good guess. It’s not the correct answer. What’s

John Perry
the right answer?

Ray Briggs
The right answer is happiness.

John Perry
Happiness.

Josh Landy
Can you guess who the philosopher is? Not

John Perry
an ideal of reason but of imagination. Jesus.

Josh Landy
Now again, that was the meek one. Hume Oh, so close close. It was Kant got one Hume work from his dogmatic slumbers well be in his dogmatic slippers. All right, on to number seven.

John Perry
The aim at reason and hope for truths. Now they’re good

Ray Briggs
guests, but not quite.

Josh Landy
Turns out. It’s simplicity. We aim at simplicity and hope for truth.

John Perry
And who said it? Who were Who the hell would have said that? 20th

Josh Landy
century American philosopher,

John Perry
William James. Good guests, but

Ray Briggs
it was Nelson Goodman, philosopher of science,

John Perry
and Goodman. All

Josh Landy
right. You can get it back. John, you’re still in with a shout for winning this round. Let’s go to number eight.

John Perry
Philosophy is at once the most sublime. And the most. He should have said ridiculous. Probably. Probably not what he said. It’s

Ray Briggs
not the word but it’s not far off.

John Perry
I don’t know and the most fragile reveal reveal. And who said that?

Ray Briggs
Give you a hint it was somebody you guessed before an American philosopher, William

John Perry
James. Yes. Pretty good hint.

Josh Landy
John, you are tied with already with the winning score for the round at seven points. I have two more questions if you only need one other remaining full points to pull into the lead on the round. Let’s go to question on. Good

John Perry
and Evil reward and punishment are the only motives to a rational creature. Correct. He said in some idiot

Ray Briggs
probably not a very rational creature show but our good guests but no, it was luck. John will always love

one more question, can you extend your lead over the winning team even farther number 10.

John Perry
Mark and even though pose of the educated mind, wow philosophy,

Josh Landy
more specifically.

John Perry
Oh, I know philosophy of literature, the market and even the pose of

Josh Landy
the I mean, that is, that would be the real answer. I agree with you. The actual answer is skepticism. Oh,

John Perry
really?

Josh Landy
Which pragmatists are that will be jammed or doing?

John Perry
I’m not sure which which

Josh Landy
is famous for a library system. Doing that is correct. Yes. Sir John, with a tiny bit of help from the judges, you scored nine points.

John Perry
on that. Tiny bit of help.

Ray Briggs
You are listening to Philosophy Talk. Today we’re celebrating two decades on the air by revisiting our 20th anniversary quiz night with our old friend and host emeritus John Perry.

Josh Landy
Coming up, it’s another set of trivia rounds, including use your noggin and Moji Books and Authors and anagrams.

Ray Briggs
more from our philosophical pub quiz when Philosophy Talk continues.

Josh Landy
Welcome back to Philosophy Talk. Today we’re revisiting the 20th anniversary quiz night we held last fall in downtown San Francisco. I’m Josh laddie.

Ray Briggs
And I’m Ray Briggs. Our guest is Philosophy Talk co founder John Perry, who’s joining us now to take the quiz along with you our radio and podcast audience.

Josh Landy
So John feeling good?

John Perry
Well, you know, considering I’ve got I’ve got 10 days left for I’m 81 Oh, I’m

Josh Landy
feeling good about the quiz. You just aced. Round three is

John Perry
feeling good about the feeling okay about the quiz, I guess. All right, let’s

Josh Landy
get back to our Quizmaster Director of Research, Laura McGuire, as she and the eight teams get set for round four.

Laura Maguire
This round is called Use Your noggin. Because we’re testing not just your knowledge of philosophy, but how well you reason. It’s an important part of philosophy. So this round has four puzzles of increasing difficulty, you will get one point and one minute for the first two minutes, two points for the second three for the third for for the fourth. Is that clear? Now I want to emphasize these are not trick questions. There’s no ambiguities. There’s no funny business. They’re just straightforward puzzles that have a logical answer. No philosophical knowledge required. For this round. Let’s see how this changes the scores. Number one, you roll a five sided pencil on the table. HB pencil is written on one side only, what is the chance that this side ends up straight on top? Number two, there are three light bulbs in your attic. All of them are turned off and their switches are installed downstairs. You can play with the switches as much as you want. And after that you can visit the attic just once. How can you find out which switch corresponds to which bulb? Oh, everyone’s whispering it on anyone else to hear on the other teams. Number three, you have nine balls, eight of which weigh the same. The ninth ball is heavier. You can use a balanced scale one of these these ones to compare weights to find the heavier ball. How many measurements do you need to do it? So I’m looking for the smallest number. Obviously, you could do many, many measurements. But what’s the smallest number of measurements? You need to figure out which of the nine balls is the heavy one? Okay, the last one number 410 people are given the following challenge. They will be arranged in the line so that each of them faces the back of the one in front. Then either a black or red hat will be put on their heads. They will be asked one at a time what color their hat is starting from the back. If someone guesses correctly, they win $100,000 I’m not saying this about the answer to this. If I One can only see the hats have those in front of them. What strategy should the group use to win at least $900,000?

Josh Landy
Okay, John, puzzle number one.

John Perry
How about one in five?

Ray Briggs
So that looks plausible, but it’s not the answer. So if it’s a five sided pencil, like what does it look like when you look down at it?

John Perry
I’m taking five sided to not include the top and the bottom.

Ray Briggs
Oh, so if you look at a cross section of it, it’s a pentagon? Yeah,

John Perry
I think the answer is no chance.

Josh Landy
That is correct. Yes. John, how did you figure that out?

John Perry
Well, the fact that wasn’t one in five was the main clue.

Josh Landy
It’s the correct answer. Because for a five sided pencil to land with a particular side facing up towards the ceiling, it would be sitting on an edge. Yes. And it would just fall over.

Ray Briggs
We’ll give you the point for that one, John. All right.

John Perry
Are you being more generous with me than you are with the undergravel?

Ray Briggs
Yes. Okay. Well, you should be question two.

John Perry
Okay, find out which which corresponds to which pulled up just as much as you visit the attic just once?

Ray Briggs
Yeah, the suggestion from the question is that you can do it and I am going to sign on to that suggestion, you can do it?

John Perry
Well, I don’t think you can. John, I’m

Josh Landy
gonna give you a clip. Okay. When you turn on light bulb, the light bulb generates light. What else? Does it generate? Heat? Correct. Does that help you answer the question? Well,

John Perry
I suppose you could leave the switches on for various amounts of time and then see which one was warmest. But

Ray Briggs
yeah, so you got it partly right, you can turn one on for a while until it warms up, then you can turn it off. And then you can turn another on. And then you see which light is on which light is warm and which light is neither on nor warm. And that will tell you which one each of the switches controlled.

John Perry
Okay? What was your dissertation on Ray,

Ray Briggs
my dissertation was on the philosophy of

John Perry
probability. Yeah, and light bulbs,

Ray Briggs
not on light bulbs, I don’t even know how many philosophers it takes to change one.

Number three,

John Perry
nine ball eight of which weigh the same, the ninth ball is heavier, how many measurements you need to find the heavier ball I would say three,

Josh Landy
that’s what I thought too. But it turns out it’s actually two because what you can do is this It take two sets of three balls and weigh them against each other. If they weigh the same, you know that the odd ball out is in the other set of three the third set of three balls if they weigh different, you know that the heavier ball is in the you know the the scale that goes down the further so now you now you have a set of three bowls and you know of which you know that they have your bowl is one and then you do the same thing by weighing one ball against another bowl of those three balls do the same thing again, if they were the same, then the oddball out is the one that remains and if they weigh different whichever one is the heavier is the oddball out

John Perry
okay.

Josh Landy
Come on, don’t you feel your neurons rewiring your your mind expanding your your spirits soaring?

John Perry
No, I just kind of remember all logicians I’ve known since I’ve gotten into philosophy, and all of them, I think, should have gone into math or probability if they’d done the decent thing.

Josh Landy
Yeah, I’m getting high school flashbacks.

Ray Briggs
Question for

John Perry
10 people are given the following challenge.

Ray Briggs
Yeah, so each person gets one hat and it’s either black or red. What

John Perry
strategy should the group use to win at least $900,000? Well, each person should see what the ratio of hats in front of him is. And then guess the color of the lower ratio.

Ray Briggs
So not sure how that’s gonna work. But there’s a nearby strategy that works. So you can have the last person look and they’ll see nine hats. So there’s either going to be an odd number of red ones or an odd number of black ones. And so if there’s an odd number of red, they can guess red. And if there’s an odd number of black, they can guess black. And then the next to us person can guess their hat color. Based on how many red and black they see. So if there’s an odd number of red then And they see an even number of red, then they’ve got to be wearing last Red Hat. And if they still see an odd number of red, then they’ve got to be wearing a black hat. And so on. John,

Josh Landy
you got a total of one point in that round due to the kindness of the judges. So how did the other groups do? The winning team? In this round? was a team called the path and they scored nine points out of a possible 10. Yeah,

John Perry
they weren’t philosophers, logicians.

Ray Briggs
Well, John, this next round is a visual one, but we’re gonna adapt it for radio.

Laura Maguire
So we’ve got books and authors. Okay, so what this round is, you will get an emoji for the title of a book, you have to figure out the title of the book and the author. There’s 1010 of these one point each. So if you get some words wrong in the book, like in for two, we’ll ignore that. We just want the big words of the book. But those big words must be correct. And again, surnames fine. Okay, so let’s begin.

Ray Briggs
So, John, this is question one. And what we’re seeing is an emoji of

a whale. Yes. So what what book is that?

And who is it by?

John Perry
Well, I suppose it’s Moby Dick. Because that wasn’t written by a philosopher.

Josh Landy
Right? I mean, it was that’s not a philosophy, but it has some philosophy. And there is a reference in the Bible to a well, and this word is used as the title of a very famous book of philosophy from the 17th century.

John Perry
I mean, something so famous, I might have read it, or at least read they

Josh Landy
might indeed, have heard of it. So

John Perry
I give up what is it?

Ray Briggs
Book is Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes?

John Perry
Well, Leviathan, it is yeah,

Josh Landy
in the book of Job. All right, John, onto question two. So we’re now looking at an emoji for embarrassment. We got somebody putting their hand over their mouth and they’re blushing.

John Perry
And this, again, is a philosophy book. It is, like get to know the century,

Josh Landy
fourth century BC.

John Perry
Does it look like the Republic? You’re on the right track?

Josh Landy
You might think of it as Plato’s Oopsie. So he

John Perry
wrote the Republic. And he wrote all those Socratic dialogues.

Josh Landy
This is this is the dialogue where Socrates is presenting his defense to the court in Athens.

John Perry
Yeah, it had a name, but it

Josh Landy
did have a name.

John Perry
I give up what was

Ray Briggs
Plato’s apology? Apology? Question three. So this is a picture of a Christian cross. And then three of those blushing hand over the mouth emojis, and the

Josh Landy
winning team John, and this round was the dream team, which scored eight points, so you can still just about catch them up. Okay,

John Perry
cross with three embarrassed people. So,

Josh Landy
John, when you’ve done something wrong, you’ve been a naughty boy. And you go to church, what do you do when you get there?

John Perry
I don’t know. krytus slip out. when nobody’s looking.

Josh Landy
My son. How long has it been since your last

John Perry
confession? Okay, yeah.

Josh Landy
What’s the book we’re looking for? Confessions

John Perry
of somebody or other

Ray Briggs
confessions of St. Augustine.

John Perry
That’s funny. I used to teach that and I’ve actually read it. So that’s, that’s

Ray Briggs
one point for the title, none for the author. Question for

Josh Landy
what we’re looking at here. John is two emojis. One is a painter’s palette, so a bit a little bit of wood with some paint splotches on it. And then a second is a pair of crossed swords.

John Perry
This is a philosophy book. It is.

Josh Landy
I mean, many people consider it to be one. What’s the first emoji here?

Ray Briggs
palette? Something more abstract?

Josh Landy
What do you make? If you have that? What can you make?

John Perry
Well, you could make a painting or a mess or

Josh Landy
what kind of thing is a painting? Art?

John Perry
Yes. So art and a couple of swords? What

Josh Landy
can you do if you got some swords? Like

John Perry
art fight?

Ray Briggs
Getting their

John Perry
art duel,

Ray Briggs
but bigger

John Perry
art war? Now you need the art of war by that Chinese guy that

Josh Landy
is correct. Do you remember the name? The Chinese gang cinza or sin son to sometimes project

John Perry
something like that? Yeah. Give me a half point for that maybe

Josh Landy
give you like an eighth of a point.

Ray Briggs
Question five. So we have here, these three little emoji people with sitting in the lotus position. Give me a century. This is second century see?

Josh Landy
What are these good people doing them? Well

John Perry
showing off a side so it first comes to mind. They’re sitting there sitting in kind of a yoga position. Contemplating meditation. Three meditations. You’ve almost

Josh Landy
got it. John, we’re gonna give you half the point for meditations. And for the other half point, who wrote a book called meditations was not Rene

John Perry
Descartes. Oh, Marcus Aurelius. Yes. So you get the whole point for that. Really? Yes. Well, that’s pretty generous.

Josh Landy
on to Question six. All right, John. Now here we’re looking at three emojis. The first is a an emoji with a halo on some kind of saints. Angel,

John Perry
a devil

Josh Landy
Angel, a devil and then

Ray Briggs
a skeptical person, a skeptical

John Perry
person that a skeptic

Josh Landy
or an angel or a devil and someone looking askance, someone looking quizzically or skeptically. Oh,

John Perry
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. I don’t think that’s a philosophy book, though. isn’t?

Ray Briggs
It’s not? Okay.

Josh Landy
It’s your clue here is if we didn’t say that the first two images were angel and devil. What other words could we use?

John Perry
Well, good and bad. Holy and evil. Oh,

Ray Briggs
yeah. Yeah. Okay, God, you got both of them in there. You’re there. You’re almost there.

John Perry
Good. Anyone good anyway, who the hell wrote that good and evil. There’s,

Ray Briggs
there’s one more word one more word yesterday by the the askance looking emoji. Okay, so it’s something good

John Perry
and evil. Well, it sounds like Nietzsche. It is.

Ray Briggs
You got it. We got the author. But what’s the title is something good and evil by nature?

John Perry
Give me a letter. What’s the letter the letter B? was the birth of good and evil? Not quite the bosom of good and evil. No.

Josh Landy
Nietzsche is so over it. He so overall this talk of good and evil. He wants to get drumroll please.

John Perry
Beyond Good and Evil, well beyond the good and evil.

Josh Landy
Okay, so you got a half a point for that one.

Ray Briggs
Question seven. So here we have a guide dog. And then we have some emojis where one is kind of looking thoughtful and a little puzzle then one is looking kind of sad, a little puzzle. And one has an eyebrow up and eyebrow down and a mouth that’s kind of flat across. So what’s what’s going on with this guide dog and then this leg kind of thinking emoji this kind of man not sure emoji and then this eyebrow up eyebrow down emotion kind of?

John Perry
Well, the guide. You’re on the right track guides a human emotion? No. I

Ray Briggs
think they’re all experiencing a particular emotion.

Josh Landy
And with a cognitive state. Yeah.

John Perry
unsatisfactory sex.

Josh Landy
The title of the book is in fact, the Guide for the Perplexed. It’s a 12th century thinker.

John Perry
Okay, so not Spinoza he’s too late.

Josh Landy
You’re in the right tradition. John. This is a 12th century rabbi and philosopher,

John Perry
my rabbi. Something with an M? Yes. Yes, Maimonides? Yes.

Ray Briggs
We get we get a point for my monitors. I think I think John did not get Guide for the Perplexed. I think it’s one point, John,

Josh Landy
you have scored a grand total of a giant two points for the rounds of arbitrary questions still together. We’re moving on now to question eight. So okay, what we’re looking at here, John, it’s a little a little sticker ginger, then you got a carrot. Then you’ve got something looks like a rutabaga or it’s a sweet potato, sweet potato maybe. And then you’ve got three fingers pointing different directions finger pointing left finger pointing straight to us and our finger pointing to the right.

John Perry
This is a philosophy book. It is

Josh Landy
it is okay, so here’s so here’s the trick behind this one John. You what you want to do is take those first three emoji the the ginger, the carrot, and the sweet potato and think about what kinds of thing they are. Slightly more specific.

Ray Briggs
What part of the plant are they? Roots?

Josh Landy
Yes. Now you have a an important word in the title.

Ray Briggs
The other important word has something to do with that pointing this pointing emoji is right

Josh Landy
if you point at something, what would what might a philosopher Say you are doing

John Perry
you point at something. And you say, Oh

Ray Briggs
that thing there.

John Perry
Oh routes of reference. That is correct. By Quine.

Josh Landy
That is correct. Yeah, true. You get the whole point.

Ray Briggs
Question Nine. So we have a scroll emoji. Then we got a bunch of emojis of people with different professions and races, and then we got emojis of two trees, that

John Perry
it was an artichoke in a tree. But

Josh Landy
all right, John, what do the four characters the four people have in common? Humans? They are indeed. And what do the two trees have in common? Plants?

Keep broadening out.

John Perry
What’s more broad than plant?

Josh Landy
What kind of

Ray Briggs
environment are plants part of Earth? trees

Josh Landy
and flowers and fish and laborers,

John Perry
flora and

Ray Briggs
fauna, flora and fauna.

John Perry
What nature? Yes.

Ray Briggs
Ah, yes. There

John Perry
you go. Okay, scroll of human nature. Almost.

Ray Briggs
What might you write on a scroll?

John Perry
Oh, the Treatise of human nature? Yes. By David Hume. David, you?

Ray Briggs
Yes.

Josh Landy
All right. Good job. So final question in this round question. 10. We’re looking at five emoji here. The first is a winners medal. A gold medal says number one on it. The second is an eggplant which we Brits like to call aubergine. Then you have a finger pointing to the right then you have a silver medal. Second place metal the two on it. And finally you have a peach. The youth today use the eggplant emoji and the peach emoji in flirtatious contexts flirtatious because they remind people of certain parts of the anatomy and

John Perry
this is the title of a philosophy but it is it is yes. It

Josh Landy
is a famous work of 20th century feminist philosophy by an existentialist existentialist

John Perry
woman. 20th century I give up what was the

Josh Landy
right answer was Simone de Beauvoir as the Second Sex,

John Perry
Simone de Beauvoir. So you got four points, which

Josh Landy
is pretty good. The the winning team for that round dream team got eight points and there were a big team. That’s

John Perry
generous. Onto round

Ray Briggs
six, Mr. nags. It’s

Laura Maguire
anagrams okay. So, we have 10 names. The names are going to go by fast I will read them out, but then you will have time at the end to finish them. So let’s begin. Number one, Lennon attended L e n i n a t t e n d E d they’re all philosopher names. Lenin attended. Number two horrid music H O R R i d music horrid music. Number three is deterrence A S S D e t e r r e n c e s deterrence. Now the names may be associated with the philosopher in some way or maybe not. For enters gripe e n t e r s G R I P E enters gripe number five gliding beforehand. G L i d i n g b e f o r e h a n d gliding beforehand six n n hand ear A N N T H H A N D E A R n n hand your number seven coarsest C O A R S E S T number eight Madam ji lemon m ADAMGLE m o n Madam ji lemon number nine jaded acquirers je a dy EDACQUIR e P r s, jaded acquirers and the last one number 10. Okay Jas Elvis. Okay. JAZZELBI s okay jazz Elvis

Ray Briggs
question one John.

John Perry
There’s a philosopher his name, right? Yes. This is the name of a philosopher. And the word linen is no more hint than anything else.

Josh Landy
No. Philosophers name 20th century.

John Perry
What is

Josh Landy
John the first name is Daniel.

John Perry
The first name is Daniel Daniel Dennett.

Ray Briggs
Yes. half a point. Question to

John Perry
French guy.

Ray Briggs
It’s not a guy actually. And not

Josh Landy
French. But apart from that.

John Perry
Yeah. First Name? Iris. Murdoch. Iris Murdoch.

Ray Briggs
It’s correct. Question three.

John Perry
Terrence. Somebody. Maybe? No. It would be it would be too easy wouldn’t.

Josh Landy
The first name is in fact, Rene. Rene

John Perry
Descartes. Yes. Is that an anagram for Descartes D.

Ray Briggs
So as deterrence is an anagram of Rene Descartes.

John Perry
It really is I don’t really question for.

Well, it’s not Paul Grice because there’s no C. Sorry, because there’s no A.

Josh Landy
Okay, first name on this one. John is Peter. Peter. But he’s Australian. So I should say Peter, famous for thinking about a child drowning in a pond. Thanks,

Ray Briggs
Peter Singer. Oh, question five. Oh,

John Perry
God gliding before and that’s a lot of letters there.

Ray Briggs
So there are three names in here. First Name, Last Name and a little word in between.

Josh Landy
And then the word is of someone of somewhere.

John Perry
So this isn’t 20th century. No, it is not somebody up somewhere. And it’s a philosopher, medieval

Josh Landy
mystic. Hildegard of Hildegarde

John Perry
Where the hell is Hildegard from? I give up.

Ray Briggs
Hildegard of being in in Germany. Question six.

John Perry
Can’t be Anthony injured. No. Why? Nope.

Ray Briggs
She was a 20th century philosopher. 20th

John Perry
century lousy. It’s not Anscombe it’s not Philip afoot. Name

Ray Briggs
his first name Hannah.

John Perry
Hannah Arendt

Ray Briggs
is correct. Questions seven.

Oh, there’s only one name here. So we can’t give a first

Josh Landy
name and this was a fifth century BCE philosopher.

John Perry
Oh fifth century Oh, well, of course. Yes.

Josh Landy
In Athens, some the origin of it is

John Perry
oh, it is Socrates.

Josh Landy
It is

Ray Briggs
it is Socrates. Question Eight.

John Perry
Madame G limited.

Ray Briggs
No relation of Liz Lemon. Much more serious feminist than Liz Lemon, I would say

John Perry
sure is feminist.

Josh Landy
The first name here is Mr. Mo

John Perry
Legolas da M E. L?

Ray Briggs
The answer is Emma Goldman. Alright, two

Josh Landy
more to go on the anagram round Question Nine jaded

John Perry
acquirers thesis.

Josh Landy
Johnny Cisely because the anagram is JD requires that it is not. J did acquire.

John Perry
Yeah, that’s,

Devon Strolovitch
that is your clue.

Ray Briggs
First name is Jacque.

John Perry
What? Chakra so? No, just jump century 20.

Josh Landy
You will deconstruct you.

Ray Briggs
Dairy dies Yes. Correct. Yes. Jacques Derrida. Last one. Question 10.

John Perry
Okay, Jad elven will twosies how many philosophers have two seasons are named indeed? Phil Rizzuto? No, he was he was a baseball player.

Josh Landy
This is another living philosopher. Still living still living. He’s from Slovenia. His name

Ray Briggs
gives it away but first name is Slava way. We’re

John Perry
the same as what Slava way I don’t know

Unknown Speaker
who this lovely jack. So

Josh Landy
John, you got a total of three points for that round, which is a decent score Freudian slippers and high patients both got seven points.

Ray Briggs
You’re listening to Philosophy Talk. Today we’re listening back to our 20th anniversary quiz night and testing philosophy talks host emeritus John Perry.

Josh Landy
Coming up, we’ll make some New York Time star connections and we’ll hit the lightning round more philosophical

Ray Briggs
trivia plus commentary from Ian Scholes, The 62nd philosopher when Philosophy Talk continue

Josh Landy
Welcome back. I’m Josh Landy and this is philosophy Top Questions everything except

Ray Briggs
your intelligence. I’m Ray brakes and we’re celebrating two decades on the air by revisiting our 20th anniversary quiz night with our old friend and Philosophy Talk co founder, John Perry. Let’s

Josh Landy
return to K Al W’s pop up space in San Francisco. And Quizmaster, Laura McGuire, as she and our eight teams prepare for round seven.

Laura Maguire
This is based on the New York Times game connections. Is anyone familiar with this game? Okay, great. So for those of you are not familiar with the game, on the on the New York Times version, you get 16 words, and you have to figure out four groups of four. There’s only one way to break it down into four groups with four members each. Okay, so we’re gonna play a version of this game. But instead of words, we’re going to have philosophers names. And you have to figure out four groups with four members each. There’s only one way this breaks down. So here it is. Okay, I’m gonna help you a little bit. Now, you might think, oh, obviously, there’s one group that’s really easy. Ken Taylor, John Perry, Jocelyn and Ray Briggs. What do they have in common? That too damn handsome Philosophy Talk hosts. So I’m going to help you out. This is not a category that’s too easy. Still easy. Okay, so forget about that one. Joking to read to you. So I read them out. Okay, David Hume, Dennis dinero. George Barkley, Friedrich Nietzsche, Michel de Montaigne, John Perry, Josh Landy, Judith Butler, Ken Taylor, Mary Astor. I still we have difficulty that that pronunciation. Mary Shepard, Mary Wollstonecraft, three Mary’s where’s the fourth? Paul Draper, Plato. Philippa foot, Ray Briggs.

John Perry
Well, let’s say David Chu, Denis Diderot, George Berkeley, and Frederick Nietzsche all dead.

Ray Briggs
It’s true. So was Mary Wollstonecraft and Philippa foot.

John Perry
Philippa foot was a colleague of mine at UCLA. I was a colleague of mine at UCLA. Can’t find two more though.

Josh Landy
So you want you want a category that fits only for these people?

Ray Briggs
So for example, do you have anything in common with Hume?

John Perry
Whom?

Josh Landy
What kind of philosophy did these people write? What kind of books is John Perry written? dialogues?

Ray Briggs
Who I think some others on the list may have written dialogues as well. Yeah,

John Perry
Plato, John Perry, David Hume and George Barkley being

Ray Briggs
you’ve got a group of four. So you can eliminate those four names and look at what the others have in common. Think

Josh Landy
about provenance. Where people where people are from,

John Perry
wherever people are from well, Ken Taylor’s from Ohio. Philippa foot from

Ray Briggs
England. Anyone else from England?

John Perry
Mary Wilson craft, maybe?

Josh Landy
Oh, they’re by any chance any other English people on the list? John? Man, let me help you. I said all that by any chance. Are you from England?

Ray Briggs
He is his accent has softened but he is he is a third person on that list. Okay,

John Perry
you just

Josh Landy
need a fourth.

John Perry
About Mary astral

Josh Landy
is correct. So now you can eliminate those four as well. category involves not thinking about the philosophy, but just thinking about people’s last names. Judith

John Perry
Butler, her last name is a position minute in a larger state Butler. Very good. Ken Taylor. Yep. That’s another occupation. Yes, it is. Paul Draper. I suppose draping is an occupation? 100%. That’s three and shepherd. Mary Shepherd. Yes. Yes,

Ray Briggs
that that is the third group. So now we have four remaining. And I had a lot of trouble guessing what they had in common. I don’t think anybody had the question. I got this. They are

Josh Landy
a brick array breaks Friedrich Nietzsche, Denny De Niro, and Michel de Montaigne. And the answer is that they all wrote about something. But nobody at the quiz got this.

John Perry
Briggs Nietzsche Draper, including Ray

Josh Landy
even even Ray didn’t know the answer to this Montagnier Ray brakes Friedrich Nietzsche didn’t add row Michel them on 10. The

Ray Briggs
answer is that we all wrote about monsters

John Perry
would have taken me a long time to get But that wouldn’t take me forever.

Josh Landy
So, John, I got good news for you. Categorical amps won this round with a score of three. You got a score of seven? Well,

John Perry
with some help, okay. All

Ray Briggs
right, John. Here we are Round Eight, the last round the lightning round and

Josh Landy
your score to beat John is 14 points, you got 20 points to get and if you can get 14 Or better, then we owe you a drink.

Laura Maguire
20 questions for 20 years, all answers are names. Are you ready? Okay, here we go.

Josh Landy
Question one who said that meaning is just eaten ahead. Vidkun Stein now I’m sorry. It was Hilary Putnam. Question two

Ray Briggs
What philosopher wrote on liberty. David Hume. Nope. John Stuart Mill. Question

Josh Landy
Three which 17th century philosopher said, Without God, nothing can be conceived. Barkley it was Spinoza question

Ray Briggs
four who said life must be understood backward, but it must be lived forward.

John Perry
Got me. Kierkegaard question

Josh Landy
five who wrote in 1940. Humility is attentive patience.

John Perry
Why?

Josh Landy
It was Simone V. Question

Ray Briggs
six, which 13th century philosopher and theologian wrote summer Theologica.

John Perry
St. Thomas Aquinas, yes. Got one right click.

Josh Landy
Which philosopher wrote the 6094 book a serious proposal to the ladies

John Perry
don’t know. Mary Estelle.

Ray Briggs
Question eight, which philosopher was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1950. Short? Nope. Bertrand Russell, Question

Josh Landy
Nine John, who wrote to the 1962 book how to do things with words. John

John Perry
Austen is correct. Question

Ray Briggs
10, who formulated the principle known as the identity of indiscernible

John Perry
liveness? Yes.

Josh Landy
Question 11 Who invented the thought experiment that became known as the trolley problem?

John Perry
I don’t know. Philippa foot.

Ray Briggs
Question. 12 who coined the term trolley problem? Oh, Judith Jarvis Thompson. Question

Josh Landy
13 who coined the term category mistake?

John Perry
No, no.

Josh Landy
Gilbert Ryle? Question

Ray Briggs
14. Which philosopher asked what it’s like to be a bat.

Nagel? Yes. Question.

Josh Landy
15 who first used the Duck Rabbit optical illusion to think about perception? Vidkun Stein? It’s not correct. Actually. It was Joseph Jastrow. I know.

Ray Briggs
Question 16 who introduced the swamp man thought experiment in 1987?

John Perry
Maybe that was Putnam? No, that

Ray Briggs
was Donald Davidson.

Josh Landy
Question 17. John, who identified four kinds of causes material formal, efficient and final.

John Perry
Aristotle is correct.

Ray Briggs
Question 18. who proposed the veil of ignorance is a device for thinking about Justice

John Perry
John Rawls Yes, correct.

Josh Landy
Question. 19 who used the tele transport as a thought experiment to question personal identity? Me, Derek Parfit.

Ray Briggs
Question 20 who coined the term paradigm shift?

John Perry
Philosopher science. Maybe Hampel? Nope,

Ray Briggs
it was Thomas Kuhn.

Laura Maguire
And that is it folks hand up your answer sheets. Well, John,

Josh Landy
you got eight points on that round, which is incredibly impressive. I think so the winning team got 14. But again, we’re talking about a team of seven or eight people. So John, what

Ray Briggs
are you thinking now?

John Perry
Oh, I I’m thinking how brilliant the current Philosophy Talk team is.

Josh Landy
Listening. Flattery will not get you more points.

Ray Briggs
I’ll take it. Thanks so much for taking the quiz. John. You’re very

Josh Landy
welcome. Be sure to check out the slides and all of Laura’s visuals from our 20th anniversary quiz night at our website Philosophy Talk dot o RG. Now

Ray Briggs
the captain of Team Aegon and a man always ready for a lightning round. It’s in shows the 62nd philosopher in

Ian Shoales
Ian Shoales… Money has always been of secondary importance to philosophers, judging by the paltry evidence I will now present.  Socrates walked around barefoot, covered in dirty sheets, and never washed his hair.  Which probably didn’t help him when he passed the hat, if he even had a hat, nobody had hats back then, who had money for hats?  Isaac Newton and Leibniz.  Newton wound up being in charge of English money, maybe he even rolled around in it, like Scrooge McDuck.   History has averted its eyes, or her eyes, I suppose.   Leibniz, on the other hand, was always looking for a patron, always scrambling for a buck.  Both men wore wigs, which I imagine were not cheap, and Leibniz wound up his days dressing in finery twenty years out of date, perhaps because his budget precluded new outfits.  Also, Newton HATED Leibniz.  Newton had accused Leibniz of stealing calculus from him.  Leibniz denied that, but he often came across as what we now call “inauthentic.”  While Newton was intimidating, powerful and well-connected, and also a prickly paranoid nasty kind of person.  Leibniz though smarmy, was smart as hell, as smart as Newton–  I mean they both came up with calculus at the same time, unless you think Leibniz stole it.  Really?  You going with that answer?  Neither of them got rich.  On to the 20th Century.  Wittgenstein, he who said, “what we cannot speak about we must pass over in silence,” which seems a bit tautological, but hey, look who’s talking, came from one of the wealthiest families in Austria, but what wasn’t grabbed by Nazis, he gave away in a fit of secular monkishness.  No money there either.  Seems to me philosophers have it easy now.   Some of them even have tenure!  Used to have to know Latin and Greek, and even French, if you were ever invited to court, which happened a lot.  Who needs that?  It can lead to death, as with Socrates, or bizarre feuds, as with Newton and Leibniz, or trying to avoid Nazis, as with Wittgenstein.  On the other hand, one can’t escape the nagging feeling that unless it’s related to quantum physics, philosophy doesn’t have the panache it once did.  Programs like Philosophy talk, it’s true, depend on money to keep going, but only occasionally does the begging bowl get trotted out, just before funding requests, or during public radio pledge weeks.  Socrates prided himself on knowing nothing.  He would find the meaning of a concept such as virtue, or duty, by interviewing an expert who doesn’t know what he’s talking about.  Eventually the Greeks got so annoyed they killed him.  Wittgenstein gave his money away, and threw philosophy out the window.  Today philosophy is safely back in the house.  Nazis are in disguise, and don’t really care what philosophers think, unless they’re Jordan Peterson or some damn podcaster.  Unless you poke them with the yardstick of common sense, they’ll probably leave you alone, after they cut off your funding, of course.  But the question is on the table, or at least my table, what do philosophers know, and when do they know it?  Certainly philosophers can lay claim a lot of stuff.  History, science, art, poetry, drama, politics, psychology- all have intersected with philosophy at one time or another.  Surely, there is a way- beyond tenure, which is becoming problematic I heard- to monetize the vast trove of useless knowledge inside every philosopher’s brain.  Trivial Pursuit has often led to admiration of those who pursue the knowledge wedges that are the markers of victory.  But there is no money in it.  TV’s JEOPARDY rewards knowledge, but only if you can put it in the form of a question.  Pub quizzes show great promise as a path to monetization, especially if the questions all center around how many women Schopenhauer shoved down a flight of stairs, for instance.  As you have just heard, in their first pub quiz outing, the hosts and guests of the program crowned themselves with glory.  And beer.  And pizza.  There were no losers, though some were more correct than others.  All we need now is an endowment, a venue with a happy hour, and enhanced memorization skills, to own the pub quiz and bring it kicking and screaming into the 21st Century.  A quick scan of the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy and an eidetic memory, and we are golden my friend, golden.  Remember what Socrates said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” Though, I don’t know, how do you prove a claim like that?I gotta go.

Josh Landy
Philosophy Talk is a presentation of KAL  local public radio San Francisco Bay Area, and the trustees of Leland Stanford Junior University, copyright 2024.

Ray Briggs
Our Executive Producer is Ben Trefny. The Senior Producer is Devon Strolovitch. Laura Maguire is our Director of Research.

Josh Landy
Special thanks to James Kass, Jon Carroll, Oakland United Beerworks, and Escape from New York pizza.

Ray Briggs
Support for Philosophy Talk comes from various groups at Stanford University, from subscribers to our online community of thinkers, and from the members of KALW San Francisco Bay area where our program originates.

Josh Landy
The views expressed (or mis-expressed) on this program do not necessarily represent the opinions of Stanford University, or of our other funders.

Ray Briggs
Not even when they’re true and reasonable!

Josh Landy
The conversation continues on our website, philosophytalk.oth, where you can become a subscriber and collect philosophical trivia from our library of nearly 600 episodes. I’m Josh Landy.

Ray Briggs
And I’m Ray Briggs. Thank you for listening.

Josh Landy
And thank you for thinking.

Regis Philbin
Come on, let’s do it. Let’s play “Who Wants to Be a Millionnaire?”