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This episode of In Our Time examines the French philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty's influential work, particularly his Phenomenology of Perception. Guests discuss his groundbreaking rejection of René Descartes' mind-body split, arguing for the inseparable connection between our physical body and how we perceive and interact with the world. The discussion also covers his concept of the "lived body," its role in shaping consciousness and rationality, his political evolution, and his lasting impact on fields from cognitive science to existential thought.
This episode explores Plato's accounts of Socrates' last days, focusing on his refusal to escape prison in the Crito out of respect for the law, and his embrace of death in the Phaedo as the soul's liberation from the body. Guests discuss Socrates' unwavering philosophical inquiry, his arguments for the soul's immortality, and how his principled death cemented his reputation as an inspirational figure.
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Austrian-British economist Friedrich Hayek's The Road to Serfdom (1944) in which Hayek (1899-1992) warned that the way Britain was running its wartime economy would not work in peacetime and could lead to tyranny. His target was centralised planning, arguing this disempowered individuals and wasted their knowledge, while empowering those ill-suited to run an economy. He was concerned about the support for the perceived success of Soviet centralisation, when he...
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the most significant philosophers of the twentieth century, Philippa Foot (1920 - 2010). Her central question was, “Why be moral?” Drawing on Aristotle and Aquinas, Foot spent her life working through her instinct that there was something lacking in the prevailing philosophy of the 1950s and 1960s which held that values could only be subjective. Could there really be no objective response to the horrors of the concentration camps that she had seen on newsre...
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the idea that some kind of consciousness is present not just in our human brains but throughout the universe, right down to cells or even electrons. This is panpsychism and its proponents argue it offers a compelling alternative to those who say we are nothing but matter, like machines, and to those who say we are both matter and something else we might call soul. It is a third way. Critics argue panpsychism is implausible, an example of how not to approach this p...
The discussion delves into Condorcet's life, from his early education to his revolutionary ideals. It highlights his innovative application of mathematics to social problems, particularly in judicial systems and voting, alongside his passionate advocacy for women's political rights and the abolition of slavery. The episode also examines his vision of human progress and representative government, exploring how his ideas continue to influence political and social thought despite his personal tragedy during the Terror.
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the most influential work of Thorstein Veblen (1857-1929). In 1899, during America’s Gilded Age, Veblen wrote The Theory of the Leisure Class as a reminder that all that glisters is not gold. He picked on traits of the waning landed class of Americans and showed how the new moneyed class was adopting these in ways that led to greater waste throughout society. He called these conspicuous leisure and conspicuous consumption and he developed a critique of a system th...
Melvyn Bragg and guests delve into Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, defining Eudaimonia, or human flourishing, as the ultimate good achieved through ethical and intellectual virtues. The discussion traces Aristotle's philosophical lineage from Socrates and Plato, highlighting his unique contributions, including the 'doctrine of the mean,' the necessity of practical wisdom (phronesis), and the profound importance of friendship. The episode also critically examines Aristotle's hierarchical views and his lasting impact on contemporary virtue ethics.
In 1956 Oxford University awarded an honorary degree to the former US president Harry S. Truman for his role in ending the Second World War. One philosopher, Elizabeth Anscombe (1919 – 2001), objected strongly. She argued that although dropping nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki may have ended the fighting, it amounted to the murder of tens of thousands of innocent civilians. It was therefore an irredeemably immoral act. And there was something fundamentally wrong with a moral philosophy th...
This episode explores Solon, Athens' influential Archon from 594 BC, who reformed a city on the brink of civil war and tyranny. Guests discuss his radical economic measures, like debt cancellation, and groundbreaking political reforms, including opening the assembly to all male citizens. Solon's poetry, unique decision to leave Athens, and lasting legacy as a "Lawgiver" are examined, highlighting how his actions profoundly shaped Athenian democracy and broader political thought for centuries.
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss how, between the 16th and 18th centuries, Europe was dominated by an economic way of thinking called mercantilism. The key idea was that exports should be as high as possible and imports minimised. For more than 300 years, almost every ruler and political thinker was a mercantilist. Eventually, economists including Adam Smith, in his ground-breaking work of 1776 The Wealth of Nations, declared that mercantilism was a flawed concept and it became discredited. Howev...
This episode explores the life and groundbreaking contributions of Tycho Brahe, the pioneering Danish astronomer. Working before the invention of the telescope, Brahe achieved unprecedented observational accuracy, challenging the long-held Aristotelian belief in an unchanging cosmos with his observations of a new star and comets. He established Uraniborg, a sophisticated observatory, and developed a unique geoheliocentric model of the universe. Though he faced personal and professional challenges, including a loss of royal patronage, his meticulous data later enabled Kepler to discover elliptical orbits, cementing Brahe's enduring legacy as a father of systematic empiricism.
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss A Theory of Justice by John Rawls (1921 - 2002) which has been called the most influential book in twentieth century political philosophy. It was first published in 1971. Rawls (pictured above) drew on his own experience in WW2 and saw the chance in its aftermath to build a new society, one founded on personal liberty and fair equality of opportunity. While in that just society there could be inequalities, Rawls’ radical idea was that those inequalities must be to...
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Plato's account of the once great island of Atlantis out to the west, beyond the world known to his fellow Athenians, and why it disappeared many thousands of years before his time. There are no sources for this story other than Plato, and he tells it across two of his works, the Timaeus and the Critias, tantalizing his readers with evidence that it is true and clues that it is a fantasy. Atlantis, for Plato, is a way to explore what an ideal republic really is, a...
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss ideas of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770 - 1831) on history. Hegel, one of the most influential of the modern philosophers, described history as the progress in the consciousness of freedom, asking whether we enjoy more freedom now than those who came before us. To explore this, he looked into the past to identify periods when freedom was moving from the one to the few to the all, arguing that once we understand the true nature of freedom we reach an endpoint ...
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Czech educator Jan Amos Komenský (1592-1670) known throughout Europe in his lifetime under the Latin version of his name, Comenius. A Protestant and member of the Unity of Brethren, he lived much of his life in exile, expelled from his homeland under the Catholic Counter-Reformation, and he wanted to address the deep antagonisms underlying the wars that were devastating Europe especially The Thirty Years War (1618-1648). A major part of his plan was Universal ...
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the idea of charismatic authority developed by Max Weber (1864-1920) to explain why people welcome some as their legitimate rulers and follow them loyally, for better or worse, while following others only dutifully or grudgingly. Weber was fascinated by those such as Napoleon (above) and Washington who achieved power not by right, as with traditional monarchs, or by law as with the bureaucratic world around him in Germany, but by revolution or insurrection. Drawin...
The discussion centers on the Arthashastra, an ancient Indian text on statecraft, exploring its historical context within the Mauryan Empire and its sophisticated portrayal of early Indian society and economy. Guests analyze its authorship, the structure of an ideal state, the complex relationship between virtue and ruthlessness, and the detailed role of espionage. The episode also compares the Arthashastra to Machiavelli's The Prince, highlighting its unique contributions and enduring relevance as a guide for effective, albeit sometimes morally ambiguous, leadership.
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the most celebrated thinkers of the twentieth century. Walter Benjamin (1892-1940) was a German Jewish philosopher, critic, historian, an investigator of culture, a maker of radio programmes and more. Notably, in his Arcades Project, he looked into the past of Paris to understand the modern age and, in The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, examined how the new media of film and photography enabled art to be politicised, and politics to beco...
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Plato's Gorgias, a pivotal dialogue where Socrates critiques rhetoric as a knack for flattery, not a true art seeking justice. The conversation delves into Plato's personal motivations, stemming from Socrates' death, and his broader philosophical interests in ethics, epistemology, and metaphysics. The episode highlights the dramatic confrontation with Callicles, who champions natural law and the idea that might is right, contrasting sharply with Socrates' pursuit of truth and the care of the soul. The discussion concludes by exploring the dialogue's profound and lasting influence on thinkers like Nietzsche and Hannah Arendt.
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the author and philosopher Iris Murdoch (1919 - 1999). In her lifetime she was most celebrated for her novels such as The Bell and The Black Prince, but these are now sharing the spotlight with her philosophy. Responding to the horrors of the Second World War, she argued that morality was not subjective or a matter of taste, as many of her contemporaries held, but was objective, and good was a fact we could recognize. To tell good from bad, though, we would need t...
This episode explores Immanuel Kant's revolutionary philosophical insight, akin to Copernicus's astronomical shift, proposing that our understanding of the world is shaped by the innate structures of our minds. It delves into the historical debate between rationalism and empiricism, positioning Kant as a reconciler who found a way for substantive knowledge (synthetic a priori) to be possible. The discussion also covers critical concepts like appearances versus "things in themselves," how Kant opened room for faith, and his profound, ongoing impact on philosophy and the concept of objectivity.
This episode explores the life and philosophy of Marcus Aurelius, often called the "philosopher-king" and last of Rome's Five Good Emperors. Guests delve into his Stoic principles, his personal struggles with the demands of empire, and the profound Greek influence on his thinking and writing. The discussion covers the delayed recognition and eventual widespread impact of his Meditations, highlighting how his work has shaped ideas of leadership, self-control, and virtue, continuing to resonate in modern society.
The philosopher Mary Astell (1666 – 1731) has been described as “the first English feminist”. Born in Newcastle in relatively poor circumstances in the aftermath of the upheaval of the English Civil War and the restoration of the monarchy, she moved to London as a young woman and became part of an extraordinary circle of intellectual and aristocratic women. In her pioneering publications, she argued that women’s education should be expanded, that men and women’s minds were the same and that no w...
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the idea that God created the universe and then left it for humans to understand by reason not revelation. Edward Herbert, 1583-1648 (pictured above) held that there were five religious truths: belief in a Supreme Being, the need to worship him, the pursuit of a virtuous life as the best form of worship, repentance, and reward or punishment after death. Others developed these ideas in different ways, yet their opponents in England's established Church collected th...
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ideas of Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) on the education of children, as set out in his novel or treatise Emile, published in 1762. He held that children are born with natural goodness, which he sought to protect as they developed, allowing each to form their own conclusions from experience, avoiding the domineering influence of others. In particular, he was keen to stop infants forming the view that human relations were based on domination and subordinatio...
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the French philosopher Henri Bergson (1859-1941) and his ideas about human experience of time passing and how that differs from a scientific measurement of time, set out in his thesis on 'Time and Free Will' in 1889. He became famous in France and abroad for decades, rivalled only by Einstein and, in the years after the Dreyfus Affair, was the first ever Jewish member of the Académie Française. It's thought his work influenced Proust and Woolf, and the Cubists. He...
Delving into the multifaceted concept of authenticity, this episode traces its evolution through philosophical thought from Aristotle to Sartre. It discusses whether authenticity is about fulfilling an innate self or a continuous act of self-creation, and critically examines its tension with societal obligations, universal morality, and potential narcissism. The discussion highlights perspectives from Augustine, Rousseau, Kierkegaard, Kant, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Sartre, and Beauvoir, exploring the challenges of living an authentic life in a complex social world.
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the remarkable achievement of Aristotle (384-322BC) in the realm of biological investigation, for which he has been called the originator of the scientific study of life. Known mainly as a philosopher and the tutor for Alexander the Great, who reportedly sent him animal specimens from his conquests, Aristotle examined a wide range of life forms while by the Sea of Marmara and then on the island of Lesbos. Some ideas, such as the the spontaneous generation of flies...
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the philosophy of hope. To the ancient Greeks, hope was closer to self-deception, one of the evils left in Pandora's box or jar, in Hesiod's story. In Christian tradition, hope became one of the theological virtues, the desire for divine union and the expectation of receiving it, an action of the will rather than the intellect. To Kant, 'what may I hope' was one of the three basic questions which human reason asks, while Nietzsche echoed Hesiod, arguing that leavi...
