Max Deutsch, “The Myth of the Intuitive: Experimental Philosophy and Philosophical Method” (MIT, 2015)
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Welcome to the New Books and Philosophy channel of the New Books Network. My name is Robert Talise, I'm professor of philosophy at Vanderbilt University. I co host the channel with Carrie Figder. Carrie is associate professor of philosophy. At the University of Iowa. Today my guest is Professor Max Deutsch. His new book is titled The Myth of the Intuitive Experimental philosophy and philosophical method. It has just been published by MIT Press. Deutsch is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Hong Kong. There's a movement in contemporary philosophy known as experimental philosophy. Or X Fi for short. It proceeds against the backdrop of a critique of contemporary analytic philosophy. According to the X Fi critique,
Analytic philosophers rely too heavily on an unsound method to It's a method that involves arguing. for philosophical conclusions. From premises whose force is said to rest solely in what philosophers find to be intuitive. were obvious. Using polling and survey methods, experimental philosophers endeavor to show that claims that philosophers often take to be intuitive are in fact not commonly held among non philosophers. And that individual's sense of what's obvious. Very. According to factors such as ethnicity, geography, age, and gender. In light of this, exfiles claim that analytic philosophy is doomed. for it treats philosophers' intuitions as evidence in favor of philosophical claims. But the variability of intuitions, they say, shows that these intuitions have no evidentiary weight.
Now, in the myth of the intuitive Max Deutsch defends analytic philosophy against the X Fi critique. He shows that in fact analytic philosophers do not treat intuitions as evidence. Drawing upon careful readings of the text that are the central targets of the X Fi critique. Deutsch shows that analytic philosophers rarely appeal to intuitions as if these intuitions provided evidence for anything. The myth of the intuitive is a lively and rigorously argued book about a central debate. among philosophers about methodology. Let's turn to the interview. Hello, Max Deutsch.
Hi, Bob.
How are you
doing
today?
Yeah, I'm doing great. Happy to be doing this interview.
Well great. Thank you so much for joining us.
Thanks for inviting me.
And thank you, listeners, uh, for uh tuning in. My guest is Max Deutsch, and we're going to be talking about his new book. It's titled The Myth of the Intuitive Experimental Philosophy and Philosophical Method Uh the book is just published by MIT Press. Um, I recommend the book highly to all philosophers. Um, mainly because it's uh a book about philosophical methods. Um And it proposes uh a powerful rejoinder. to what is an increasingly popular and influential methodological movement.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–7:38
2
What is experimental philosophy and why does it challenge analytic philosophy?
7:38–12:12
3
How does Max Deutsch argue that analytic philosophers don’t treat intuitions as evidence?
12:12–31:24
4
What is the distinction between the ‘state’ and ‘content’ senses of intuition?
31:24–46:28
5
Why are Gettier‑type cases central to the debate over philosophical intuitions?
46:28–54:14
6
How does Kripke’s Girdle case illustrate the use of intuitions in philosophy of language?
54:14–1:04:05
7
What are the main criticisms Max Deutsch raises against the negative experimental‑philosophy program?
1:04:05–1:12:35
8
How does the book propose a ‘no‑theory’ of intuition to move beyond the debate?
1:12:35–1:19:05
Speakers
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