Episode 8: Equivocating and other ways to lose

When is a door not really a door? When it's ajar! That old joke equivocates on two meanings of "ajar" In this episode we look at how equivocation can impact our reasoning, like when we ask, When is a doctor not really a doctor? We explore a few other ways that reasoning can go wrong and force us to lose in a debate. And listen until the end to hear what's planned for Episode 9.April 11, 2026: This is a revised version of the original podcast. The episode now includes spoken credit for Kevin MacLeod’s music, “Brittle Rille,” which I use for the show.Sources:Matthew Dasti and Stephen Phillips, The Nyaya-sutra: Selections with Early Commentaries, Hackett Publishing, 2017. https://www.hackettpublishing.com/new-forthcoming/the-nyaya-sutraMuch Ado About Religion adapted from the Csaba Dezsö translation in the Clay Sanskrit Library, New York: NYU Press, 2005. https://nyupress.org/9780814719794/much-ado-about-religion/Definition of "doctor" fromMerriam-Webster Onlinehttps://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/the-history-of-doctorOED"doctor, n." OED Online. Oxford University Press, December 2020. Web. 20 December 2020.Clips:Good Morning America, December 15, 2020"Women rally behind Jill Biden after WSJ op-ed asks her to drop 'Dr.'"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJHm2rzMJ-Q%200:49“Hair-raising hare” (Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies, 1946)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnPRB00xgoQ"Expertise" (Sutras (and stuff) Season 1, Episode 6)https://anchor.fm/dashboard/episode/edfmbjBilly Madison (Universal Pictures, 1995)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ec7rCsNFn30Music:“Brittle Rille,” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Sounds:Monastery Bellhttps://freesound.org/people/florianreichelt/sounds/440606/Buzzerhttps://freesound.org/people/qubodup/sounds/211103/ by qubodup