Episode 51: Music - Socializing, and Thinking: talkPOPc Resident Philosopher Ian Olasov & talkPOPc Guest Participant Eva Pilay on Art as Cognition

Resident Philosopher Ian Olasov and talkPOPc Participant Eva Pilay discuss how art and philosophy can both allow people to re-emerge from the pandemic, allowing people to be united and socialized: objects of shared attention. But Eva points out that propaganda does the same thing; Olasov agrees and then says if it's attention to something good then it's good socializing but not so much is fascist propaganda! Sometimes, he points out, people are fans of someone just as a short-cut for communication, like saying that "I'm a fan of Drake", and then that is a pretext for conversation. They agree that Drake has cool street style, an emotional style - his displayed feelings of vulnerability - and that people agree on that. They then switch into a discussion of how much music unites us, and how often people listen to music from other cultures. Olasov discusses friends of his who live in Trinidad, and the fact that they listen to music from Venezuela, and how that overlays the political issues of migration of people fleeing the chaos of Venezuela and the xenophobia that rears its head with any refugee situation. The last part of the conversation switches to issues of cognition, with RP Olasov wondering how different art media do philosophy - whether it's just "solving the problem" of previous styles or in some other way. Philosophy is often about redefining terms, and art really often does the same thing.Support the showWebsite: talkpopc.orgInstagram: @talkpopcEmail: [email protected]