Skip to content

Episode 344: Philosophy as Dialogue

November 10, 2026 · 1 h 17 min

Show notes

David and Tamler model philosophical conversation for their listeners by discussing Drew Hyland's excellent essay "Why Plato Wrote Dialogues." What possibilities does the dialogue form open up for Plato? Could his ideas be captured in a more straightforward treatise or essay? Or does philosophy involve more than just propositions and arguments? Plus, Blexas and the midterms, and a new study on how golfers perform in a group with people on the other side of the aisle.

Golf lesson: Study shows political polarization hurts performance at work (golf study press release) [haas.berkeley.edu]

Sels, T., & Kovács, B. (2026). Political heterogeneity and societal polarization impair individual performance: Evidence from random assignment in professional golf. Management Science, 72(7), 5653-5680. [pubsonline.informs.org]

Hyland, D. A. (1968). Why Plato wrote dialogues. Philosophy & Rhetoric, 1(1), 38-50. [jstor.org]

All episodes of Very Bad Wizards

Settings

Display

Language

Decides which stations you see first on the home page.

History

Recently played stations and episodes and your latest searches are only stored in this browser.

Notifications

A short notice when a podcast you follow has a new episode. Turn off single podcasts with the bell on their page.

Account

Save favorites – in the app and on the website.

Keyboard shortcuts

/
Open search
Space
Play or pause
← →
In the player: back 15 s, forward 30 s (episodes) · in a row: next tile
↑ ↓
In a row: target within the tile
Home / End
In a row: first or last tile
Esc
Close window or menu
?
This overview
Now playing

Go to station page

Play next

    Add episodes with “Play next” – they play after the current episode.