The Argument Ninja Podcast

The Argument Ninja podcast is dedicated to helping you improve your skills at rational persuasion. Let philosopher Kevin deLaplante introduce you to a unique approach to critical thinking, inspired by martial arts training principles, that combines logic and argumentation with the latest research on the psychology of persuasion and belief.

038 - Tribal Literacy and Emotional Intelligence 10/31/2020

037 - 3 Honest Updates: On Failure, Living With a Stutter, and Accepting My Comfort Zone 04/05/2020

036 - Understanding Complex Social Phenomena: More Theories of the Causes of Social Polarization 08/28/2019

035 - Updates and a Street Epistemology Interview 04/17/2019

034 - Understanding the Causes of Polarization (Part 1): Depolarization Initiatives 03/06/2019

033 - Critical Thinking About Conspiracies 01/11/2019

032 - When Tribalism Becomes Pathological 12/19/2018

031 - New Cartoon Videos Plus a Fall 2018 Update 12/11/2018

030 - Behind the Scenes of My New Video Course 09/10/2018

029 - How to Raise a Critical Thinker 08/03/2018

028 - Tribalism Isn't the Problem 06/12/2018

027 - Updates: Finances, Projects and Plans 05/08/2018

026 - Feminism, Marxism, Postmodernism and Jordan Peterson: Sometimes the Only Winning Move is Not to Play 03/26/2018

025 - Why Tribal Literacy? 03/01/2018

024 - How Commerce Became a Tool For Getting Outside My Head 01/10/2018

023 - The Argument Ninja Difference: Why Critical Thinking is a Martial Art 10/31/2017

022 - Thinking Clearly About Critical Thinking: Interview with Kevin deLaplante 09/11/2017

021 - What if Sam Harris and Scott Adams Had a Baby? 09/04/2017

021 - What if Sam Harris and Scott Adams Had a Baby? On this episode I use a recent episode of Sam Harris's podcast (#87 - "Triggered: A Conversation With Scott Adams") as a springboard for exploring a variety of topics related to critical thinking and persuasive communication. When it comes to critical thinking and rational persuasion, half of my brain thinks like Sam Harris, and the other half thinks like Scott Adams. Each gets something right that the other doesn’t. I’m interested in identifying what each of them gets right, as a step toward creating something that is better than each of them separately, by integrating their strengths and avoiding their weaknesses. In other words … I want the super-powered love child of Sam Harris and Scott Adams! In This Episode: (0:00 - 6:00) Introductory remarks (6:00 - 10:15) Introduction to Sam Harris and Scott Adams (10:15 - 15:30) Summary of Sam's interview with Scott on the Waking Up with Sam Harris podcast (15:50 - 16:30) Why this is relevant to the Argument Ninja Academy (17:00 - 20:15) What I Like About Sam: Intellectual virtues (20:15 - 24:50) What I like about Sam: Critical thinking values and democracy (24:50 - 30:10) What I like about Scott: The performative dimension of persuasion (30:10 - 31:55) What I like about Scott: The language of "filters" (31:55 - 39:00) Why both must be part of the foundational skill set for critical thinking and rational persuasion (39:10 - 45:30) Introducing the "rhetorical triangle": ethos, pathos and logos (45:30 - 51:18) Speech act theory and communication strategy (51:18 - 58:00) Sam vs Scott: analyzing the conversation (58:00 - 60:00) Speech act theory and Scott's defense of Trump (60:00 - 67:00) The accusation of sophistry: Sam Harris and the Very Bad Wizards (David Pizarro and Tamler Sommers) on Scott Adams (67:00 - 77:40) The philosopher-sophist spectrum, and the persuasion challenge that Scott Adams faces (77:40 - 90:00) Diving deeper: Scott Adams, the illusion of reality, and how persuasion masters can reshape the Matrix /episode/index/show/argumentninja/id/5914183