Dylan Casey

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1,538 appearances 12 recordings 1 series first heard Jun 2026 last heard 5d ago

Dylan Casey’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 12 in all, peaking in Aug 2026 with 4.

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The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast · Ep. 400: Dennett Rejects Qualia (Part Two) · 21 Sep 2026 podcast

Okay.

So something can suffer, but it can't understand that that suffering entails the shortening of its lifespan or its inability to achieve its goals of sending its offspring to Beaverdam college or whatever it is that it's okay to just beat the shit out of it.

Anybody who thinks that is a sadist fucking lunatic.

All right.

So I mean, Dennett is a big part of what Dennett is saying here in this book is we are afraid to let go of the idea that there is a self that

of the sort that we need because we're afraid of moral agency.

And it sounds that we're afraid of losing the ability to attribute moral judgments to actions.

Like, oh, you're not an agent.

You're just the story you tell yourself, whatever.

And that feels to me like the kind of thing that says, you know, like without God, everything is permitted.

And I'm like, that is the stupidest fucking thing I've ever heard.

No, I've heard a lot of stupid things.

So I'm not gonna say that.

I'll call it the third stupidest thing.

But the reality of the situation is,

and this goes back to Tomasello and this goes back to a variety of other things, is that even things that don't have the narrative capacity to create selves that are capable, that have some, that have a complex of sensory apparatus and experience and are capable of suffering, are capable of feeling empathy, are capable of understanding the emotional states of other things of the same species and different species.

Now, they can't necessarily...

sympathize, meaning they can't represent mentally what's causing the pain and the other thing in order to try and alleviate that suffering or change the circumstances.

But empathy is just part of what it is in even the animal kingdom.

And that's a strong enough basis for moral agency and accountability and all that.

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