Merleau-Ponty and Perception

Summer Reading List 2026

The Philosophers talk to the authors of recent and forthcoming books that speak to our dangerous times: * Christopher Star from Middlebury College, editor of How to Face the End of the World: An Ancient Guide for Apocalyptic Times * Christian Miller from Wake Forest University, author of The Honesty Crisis: Preserving Our Most Treasured Virtue in an Increasingly Dishonest World * Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, author of The Mattering Instinct: How Our Deepest Longing Drives Us and Divides Us

Jean-Paul Sartre

Jean-Paul Sartre was one of the first global public intellectuals, famous for his popular existentialist philosophy, his works of fiction, and his rivalry with Albert Camus. His existentialism was also adopted by Simone de Beauvoir, who used it as a foundation for modern theoretical feminism. So what exactly is existentialism? How is man condemned to be free, as Sartre claimed? And what’s so hellish about other people? John and Ken speak in good faith with Thomas Flynn from Emory University, author of Sartre: A Philosophical Biography.

What Is Gender?

Gender is a controversial topic these days, but people can’t seem to agree about what gender is. Is it an inner identity, a biological fact, or an oppressive system? Should we respect it or resist it? Should it even be a thing? Josh and guest-host Blakey Vermeule question gender with regular co-host Ray Briggs, co-author of What Even Is Gender?

Merleau-Ponty and Perception

For French philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty, everything we perceive takes the form of a shape. You don’t just see green and splotches: you see a tree. Even before your rational brain gets its motor running, your body has a sense of what’s out there, and indeed what’s useful—or dangerous—for your life. But what happens when you wake up in the middle of the night and can’t make sense of your visual field? And how much work is really being done with your body, as opposed to your rational mind? Josh and Ray organize their senses with Taylor Carman from Barnard College, author of Merleau-Ponty (Routledge Philosophers).

What's So Special About Humans?

Human beings share the planet with many different organisms with vastly diverse ways of life. We like to think we’re a higher form of intelligence. But are we really that unique? How different are we as a species when it comes to language, thought, and culture? Where does our specifically human form of consciousness come from? And if other animals are so similar to us, should we stop eating them? The Philosophers walk the Earth with Peter Godfrey-Smith from the University of Sydney, author of Living on Earth: Forests, Corals, Consciousness, and the Making of the World.