Astrology

Overthink

Ellie Anderson, Ph.D. and David Peña-Guzmán, Ph.D.

Philosophy, Society & Culture, Education

4.7 • 549 Ratings

🗓️ 17 August 2021

⏱️ 61 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Astrology. Dangerous pseudoscience? Comforting salve in a cold capitalist world? Subjugated knowledge? It's all fun and games when you're looking up your Co-Star horoscope, but according to philosopher Theodor Adorno, even a playful belief in astrology encourages submission to the status quo--and promotes fascist thinking. In this can't-miss episode 32, Ellie and David discuss the psychological appeal of astrology, which is experiencing a huge resurgence today. They also dive deep into the history and science behind the practice. Did you know Johannes Kepler was an astrologer? Or that your star sign is...probably not actually your sign? The episode also gets into the Barnum Effect, and some surprising similarities between astrology, weather forecasts, and personality tests.

Works discussed:

Theodor Adorno, The Stars Down to Earth
Nicholas Campion, History of Western Astrology
Roger Beck, A Brief History of Ancient Astrology
Thomas Kuhn, The Copernican Revolution
Alexander Boxer, A Scheme of Heaven: The History of Astrology and the Search for our Destiny in Data
Silvia Federici, Caliban and the Witch
Colin Koopman, How We Became Our Data
Bertram Forer, "The fallacy of personal validation: A classroom demonstration of gullibility"

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Transcript

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0:00.0	We're so excited to share today's episode with you. Before we get started, we just wanted to share with you that David was traveling while we recorded this episode, so you may find his audio a little funkier than usual. All the same, we love this episode, and can't wait to overthink with you.
0:19.5	Hi, I'm David Pena Guzman.
0:23.0	And I'm Ellie Anderson.
0:24.6	Welcome to Overthink.
0:26.3	The podcast were two friends, who are also professors,
0:29.9	Put philosophy in dialogue with the everyday.
0:33.0	Because big ideas are within everyone's reach.
0:44.5	Thank you. big ideas are within everyone's reach. David, what's your sign?
0:46.5	I am a Sagittarius.
0:49.0	Ooh, okay.
0:50.3	I have no idea what that means,
0:52.0	except that you were born between November 22nd and December 21st.
0:57.4	You're like, I don't know anything about it except all of the following hyper-specific details.
1:03.2	No, the reason that I know that Sagittarius is between November 22nd and December 21st is because I am currently on a horoscope website, that of renowned astrologer
1:13.0	Jessica Lanyadu, who's based in San Francisco.
1:16.1	And I'm going to read you your horoscope for this week.
1:19.1	Oh, please do.
1:21.1	Okay.
1:21.7	Are you ready?
1:22.6	Let's do it.
1:23.6	What you don't know or yet understand is not evidence of things being bad.
1:28.6	If there's something you need to grieve, then give yourself the gift of honoring those emotions.
	...

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