philosophy bites

Nicola Lacey on Criminal Responsibility

What is criminal responsibility? How does the criminal law relate to morality? Is criminal responsibility a timeless concept, or is it tied to historical circumstances, part of a social practice? Nicola Lacey addresses these questions in this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast.

Listen to Nicola Lacey on Criminal Responsibility

Philosophy Bites is made in association with the Institute of Philosophy

Alain de Botton on Atheism 2.0

Is religion ridiculous? Many atheists think that it is. Alain de Botton is an atheist, but he believes there is much that atheists can learn from religion.

Listen to Alain de Botton Atheism 2.0

 Philosophy Bites is made in association with the Institute of Philosophy

 

Kit Fine on What is Metaphysics?

Metaphysics is the philosophical study of reality. But what does that mean? Philosopher Kit Fine explains what metaphysics is and what it can tell us in conversation with Nigel Warburton in this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast.

Listen to Kit Fine on What is Metaphysics?

Philosophy Bites is made in association with the Institute of Philosophy

Michael Dummett (1925 - 2011)

Michael Dummett, whom we interviewed for Philosophy Bites in 2010, died yesterday.

Read Adrian Moore's obituary of Michael Dummett

Listen to Michael Dummet on Frege (and on meeting Wittgenstein)

Brian Leiter on the Analytic/Continental Distinction

Many philosophers self-identify as 'analytic' or 'continental' philosophers. But does this sort of label make sense? Brian Leiter, who, amongst other things, is an expert on Nietzsche, is sceptical of the value of the terms as typically used. In this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast he explains why. 

Listen to Brian Leiter on the Analytic/Contintental Distinction

Philosophy Bites is made in association with the Institute of Philosophy

Philosophy Bites: Links to the First 168 Interviews

1. Simon Blackburn on Plato's Cave

2. Mary Warnock on Philosophy in Public Life

3. Stephen Law on The Problem of Evil

4. John Cottingham on The Meaning of Life

5. Miranda Fricker on Epistemic Injustice

6. Barry Smith on Wine

7. Alain de Botton on The Aesthetics of Architecture

8. Anne Phillips on Multiculturalism

9. Edward Craig on What is Philosophy?

10. Roger Crisp on Mill's Utilitarianism

11. Adrian Moore on Infinity

12. Anthony Grayling on Atheism

13. David Papineau on Physicalism

14. Timothy Williamson on Vagueness

15. Jonathan Wolff on Disadvantage

16. Simon Blackburn on Moral Relativism

17. Brad Hooker on Consequentialism

18. Peter Adamson on Avicenna

19. Mary Warnock on Sartre's Existentialism

20. Jonathan Rée on Philosophy as an Art

21. Tim Crane on Mind and Body

22. Anthony Kenny on his History of Philosophy

23. Quentin Skinner on Hobbes on the State

24. Onora O'Neill on Medical Consent

25. Stewart Sutherland on Hume on Design

26. Angie Hobbs on Plato on Erotic Love

27. Alain de Botton on Philosophy Within and Outside the Academy

28. Myles Burnyeat on Aristotle on Happiness

29. Henry Hardy on Isaiah Berlin's Pluralism

30. Susan James on Spinoza on the Passions

31. Julian Baggini on Thought Experiments

32. Barry Stroud on Scepticism

33. G.A. Cohen on Inequality of Wealth

34. Mark Vernon on Friendship

35. Barry Smith on Wittgenstein's Conception of Philosophy

36. Angie Hobbs on Plato on War

37. Richard Bourke on Edmund Burke on Politics

38. Richard Norman on Humanism

39. Stephen Mulhall on Film as Philosophy

40. Richard Tuck on Free Riding

41. Hugh Mellor on Time

42. A.C.Grayling on Descartes' Cogito

43. Anthony Appiah on Cosmopolitanism

44. Thomas Pink on Free Will

45. Melissa Lane on Plato and Totalitarianism

46. Derek Matravers on the Definition of Art

47. Raimond Gaita on Torture

48. Janet Radcliffe Richards on Men and Women's Natures

49. Peter Millican on Hume's Significance

50. David Miller on National Responsibility

51. Richard Reeves on Mill's On Liberty

52. Chandran Kukathas on Hayek's Liberalism

53. Peter Singer on Using Animals (originally on Ethics Bites)

54. Jonathan Wolff on Marx on Alienation

55. Michael Sandel on Genetic Enhancement in Sport (originally on Ethics Bites)

56.  Anthony Kenny on Aquinas's Ethics

57. Mary Warnock on the Right to Have a Baby (originally on Ethics Bites)

58. Donna Dickenson on Body Shopping

59. Tim Scanlon on Free Speech (originally on Ethics Bites)

60. Jennifer Hornsby on Human Agency

61. Will Kymlicka on Minority Rights

62. John Dunn on Locke on Toleration

63. Robert Rowland Smith on Derrida on Forgiveness

64. John Broome on Weighing Lives

65.  Melissa Lane on Rousseau on Modern Society

66. Matthew Kramer on Legal Rights

67. Peter Adamson on Plotinus on Evil

68. Quentin Skinner on Machiavelli's The Prince

69. Alex Neill on the Paradox of Tragedy

70. Clare Carlisle on Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling

71. Aaron Ridley on Nietzsche on Art and Truth

72. MM McCabe on Socratic Method

73. Ray Monk on Philosophy and Biography

74. Barry C. Smith on Neuroscience

75. Adrian Moore on Kant's Metaphysics

76. Peter Cave on Paradoxes

77. Christopher Janaway on Nietzsche on Morality

78. Anthony Appiah on Experiments in Ethics

79. Roger Crisp on Virtue Ethics

80. Raymond Geuss on Real Politics

81. Alexander Nehamas on Friendship

82. Christopher Shields on Personal Identity

83. A.C. Grayling on Bombing Civilians in Wartime

84. Anne Phillips on Political Representation

85. Wendy Brown on Tolerance

86. Don Cupitt on Non-Realism About God

87. Raymond Tallis on Parmenides

88. M.M. McCabe on The Paradox of Inquiry

89. Chandran Kukathas on Genocide

90. Kate Soper on Alternative Hedonism

91. David Papineau on Scientific Realism

92. Keith Ward on Idealism in Eastern and Western Philosophy

93. Sebastian Gardner on Sartre on Bad Faith

94. Julian Savulescu on Yuk

95. Raymond Tallis on Assisted Dying

96. Terence Irwin on Aristotle's Ethics

97. Thomas Hurka on Pleasure

98. Walter Sinnott-Armstrong on Moral Psychology

99. Allen Buchanan on Enhancement

100. Michael Sandel on What Shouldn't Be Sold 

101. Paul Snowdon on Persons and Animals 

102. Luciano Floridi on the Fourth Revolution

103. Marilyn Mcord Adams on Evil

104. Ben Rogers on Blaise Pascal

105. Sabine Doring on Emotion

106. Walter Sinnott-Armstrong on Morality Without God 

107. John Armstrong on What You Can Do With Philosophy

108. Brian Leiter on Nietzsche Myths 

109. John Campbell on Berkeley's Puzzle

110. Tony Coady on Dirty Hands in Politics 

111. Richard Bradley on Understanding Decisions 

112. Jeff McMahan on Killing in War

113. Catalin Avramescu on the Idea of Cannibalism

114. A.C. Grayling on Bertrand Russell on Descriptions

115. Don Cupitt on Jesus as Philosopher

116. Tzvetan Todorov on the Enlightenment

117. Thomas Pogge on Global Justice

118. Robert B. Talisse on Pragmatism

119. Jerrold Levinson on Music and Eros

120. Jonathan Wolff on John Rawls

121. Galen Strawson on the Sense of Self

122.  Susan Neiman on Morality in the 21st Century

123. Ned Block on Consciousness

124. Robert Stern on Hegel on Dialectic

125. Raymond Geuss on Realism and Utopianism in Political Philosophy

126. David Chalmers on the Singularity

127. Jeff McMahan on Vegetarianism

128. Patricia Churchland on Eliminativism

129. Susan Wolf on the Meaning of Life

130. Stephen Neale on Meaning and Interpretation

131. Hillel Steiner on Exploitation

132. Peter Singer on the Life You Can Save

133. Joshua Knobe on Experimental Philosophy

134. Cynthia Freeland on Portraits

135. Daniel Everett on the Nature of Language

136. Michael Dummett on Frege

137. Alex Voorhoeve on Inequality

138. Gideon Rosen on Moral Responsibility

139. What is Philosophy? (Various Contributors)

140. Nicholas Phillipson on Adam Smith

141. Helen Beebee on Laws of Nature

142. Philip Pettit on Group Agency

143. Martha Nussbaum on the Value of the Humanities

144. Paul Russell on Fate

145. Michael Sandel on Justice

146. Cécile Fabre on Cosmopolitanism and War

147. Jonathan Glover on Morality and Personality Disorder

148. Hugh Mellor on Frank Ramsey on Truth

149. Sarah Bakewell on Michel de Montaigne

150. Catherine MacKinnon on Gender Crime

151. Nöel Carroll on Humour

152. Pascal Bruckner on Happiness

153. Paul Russell on David Hume's Treatise

154. Simon May on Love

155. David Eagleman on Morality and the Brain

156. John Mikhail on Universal Moral Grammar

157. Alison Gopnik on the Imagination

158. Victor Tadros on Punishment

159. Peter Singer on Henry Sidgwick's Ethics

160. Luc Bovens on Catholicism and HIV

161. Nick Bostrom on the Simulation Argument

162. Frank Jackson on What Mary Knew

163. Philip Pettit on Consequentialism

164. Dan Sperber on the Enigma of Reason

165. Jonathan Glover on Systems of Belief

166. Paul Boghossian on Moral Relativism

167. Sean Kelly on Homer on Philosophy

168. Tim Crane on Animal Minds

 

Melissa Lane on Plato and Sustainability

What can the ancients teach us about sustainability? According to Melissa Lane of Princeton University, author of Eco-Republic, quite a lot. She discusses the relevance of Plato to modern environmental problems in this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast.

Listen to Melissa Lane on Plato and Sustainability

Listen to an earlier Philosophy Bites interview with Melissa Lane on Rousseau and Modern Society

Listen to an earlier Philosophy Bites interview with Melissa Lane on Plato and Totalitarianism

Philosophy Bites is made in association with the Institute of Philosophy.

Tim Crane on Animal Minds

What sort of thoughts can animals have? Tim Crane discusses the intriguing issue of what apes and monkeys are capable of thinking about in this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast.

Listen to Tim Crane on Animal Minds

Listen to an earlier Philosophy Bites interview with Tim Crane on Mind and Body

Philosophy Bites is made in association with the Institute of Philosophy

Sean Kelly on Homer on Philosophy

Is Homer, the great poet of antiquity, relevant to philosophy? If so how? Sean Dorrance Kelly (co-author with Hubert Dreyfus of All Things Shining) addresses these questions in conversation with Nigel Warburton in this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast series. 

Listen to Sean Dorrance Kelly on Homer on Philosophy

Philosophy Bites is made in association with the Institute of Philosophy

 

Paul Boghossian on Moral Relativism

Is moral relativism a tenable position? Does it matter? Paul Boghossian argues that it isn't and that it does matter in this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast.

Listen to Paul Boghossian on Moral Relativism

Read an article 'The Maze of Moral Relativism' by Paul Boghossian from the New York Times. Read Stanely Fish's response. Read Paul Boghossian's response to Fish 'Does Philosophy Matter - It Would Appear So'.

Philosophy Bites is made in association with The Institute of Philosophy

'The Power of the Voice in the Age of the Internet'

 Nigel Warburton will be giving a talk 'The Power of the Voice in the Age of the Internet'  at 5.30 p.m. on 1st November in Cambridge University Library. Further details here.

Jonathan Glover on Systems of Belief

Beliefs are important. Wars are fought over them. How can and should we deal with conflicting belief systems? Jonathan Glover discusses this question with Nigel Warburton in this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast. 

Listen to Jonthan Glover on Systems of Belief

Listen to an earlier Philosophy Bites interview with Jonathan Glover on Personality Disorder

Philosophy Bites is made in association with The Institue of Philosophy

Dan Sperber on the Enigma of Reason

Why have we evolved with a capacity for reason? One answer might be because reason is a good way of getting at the truth, and truth is valuable for self-preservation. But reason is often fallible. It isn't on it's own a reliable route to truth. Dan Sperber, who with Hugo Mercier, has researched this issue extensively, explores the question of why we have reason in this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast. Their research suggests that reason has a social function.

Listen to Dan Sperber on the Enigma of Reason

A pdf of Hugo Mercier and Dan Sperber's paper on why humans reason is available  from Dan Sperber's website here. Hugo Mercier provides a very useful overview of their research on the  Argumentative Theory of Reason (together with further links, including extensive press coverage).

Philosophy Bites is made in association with the Institute of Philosophy

Philip Pettit on Consequentialism

Is consequentialism in ethics a form of moral opportunism? Is torture always wrong? What about punishing the innocent? Philip Pettit, who recently gave the 2011 Uehiro Lectures on 'Robustly Demanding Values', discusses some common criticisms of consequentialism in conversation with Nigel Warburton in this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast

Listen to Philip Pettit on Consequentialism

Listen to an earlier Philosophy Bites interview with Philip Pettit on Group Agency

Philosophy Bites is made in association with the Institute of Philosophy

A Little History of Philosophy by Nigel Warburton

A Little History of Philosophy, Nigel Warburton's latest book, is now available in the UK.

Read Julian Baggini's review of A Little History of Philosophy

Frank Jackson on What Mary Knew

Frank Jackson is responsible for one of the most famous thought experiments in the philosophy of mind, one that was intended to show that qualia, the 'feely' aspects of our exprience can't be explained by physicalism. This is sometimes known as The Knowledge Argument. In this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast he talks about the thought experiment and explains why he has changed his mind about it.

Listen to Frank Jackson on What Mary Knew

Philosophy Bites is made in association with the Institute of Philosophy

Nick Bostrom on the Simulation Argument

Nick Bostrom doesn't rule out the possibility that he might be part of a computer simulation. Find out why in this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast.

Listen to Nick Bostrom on the Simulation Argument

Listen to Nick Bostrom on Status Quo Bias on the Bioethics Bites podcast

Philosophy Bites is made in association with the Institute of Philosophy

Luc Bovens on Catholicism and HIV

Luc Bovens of the London School of Economics, maintains that the Catholic church should permit condom use for discordant heterosexual couples (those where one partner has HIV and the other doesn't) on grounds of consistency with other doctrines, such as that of Double Effect.

Listen to Luc Bovens on Catholicism and HIV

Philosophy Bites is made in association with the Institute of Philosophy

Peter Singer on Henry Sidgwick's Ethics

In this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast Peter Singer explains why the Victorian philosopher Henry Sidgwick, who died in 1900, is so important to the utilitarian tradition.

Listen to Peter Singer on Henry Sidgwick's Ethics

Philosophy Bites is made in association with the Institute of Philosophy

 

National Portrait Gallery 'Picturing Philosophers' a free tour

Nigel Warburton will be leading a free tour of portraits of philosophers at the National Portrait Gallery, London at 7.30 pm on Thursday 14th July and Friday 29th July. View further details and download a pdf of the booklet accompanying the tour.