Should we think of morality in terms of objective truth or social consensus? Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes Once the fashion of a postmodern age, moral relativism has always had its detractors, many of them religious. But now a new breed of atheist celebrity thinkers, from Sam Harris to Peter Singer, are making claims for the existence of absolute moral truths. Critics argue that like authoritarian moralists of the past, they use so-call...
Mar 14, 2023•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast Is it time to abandon the search for reality? Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes Nietzsche famously declared 'God is dead' in the late nineteenth century. Outspoken critic of philosophical realism Hilary Lawson observes that today we have replaced God with ‘reality’. He urges us to abandon this elusive and unattainable concept, offering an alternative view which embraces observation and reason while abandoning reality for good. There ar...
Mar 07, 2023•31 min•Transcript available on Metacast Is human-like AI a pipe dream? Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes A future with human-like AI is no longer limited to the pages of sci-fi, it’s now the dream of Big Tech too. But is this just a pipe dream? Join philosopher of perception Mazviita Chirimuuta as she argues that human-like AI is and will remain a fantasy. There are thousands of big ideas to discover at IAI.tv – videos, articles, and courses waiting for you to explore. Find out m...
Mar 01, 2023•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast Is it time for the English-speaking world to move on from analytic philosophy? Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes Focusing on logic and the meaning of words, analytic philosophy sought to put philosophy on a scientific footing. Yet a century on and critics argue the core questions about the relationship between language and the world have been largely abandoned as insoluble, while the focus on logic and the aping of science is out of sync wi...
Feb 21, 2023•46 min•Transcript available on Metacast Should we see art as a means of getting closer to the essence of what it is to be alive? Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes Art is most often seen as an adornment to everyday life. An entertainment, a delightful distraction perhaps, but not an uncovering of the essential character of the world. To uncover reality, we instead focus on accurate description and the discovery of facts. Yet these descriptions frequently do not settle the matter a...
Feb 14, 2023•48 min•Transcript available on Metacast Is knowing oneself even possible? Listen to find out. Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes From the self-help industry to the contemporary focus on mental health, the ancient Greek maxim ' Know Thyself ', is very much in fashion. But many would argue it is an impossible dream. We can't catch sight of ourselves, and the attempt to do so often leaves us lost and confused. What's more, from the notorious serial killer Ted Bundy to dru...
Feb 07, 2023•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast Should we all engage in a radical cull? Listen to find out. Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes We are attached to things. Our dwellings are packed with items we rarely throw out. Things have traditionally given us comfort but they also give us status. The wealthy often collect things for no other purpose than to own them. But in an age when the great majority of us have too much, when cupboards are full of clothes we do not wear, shelves wit...
Jan 31, 2023•41 min•Transcript available on Metacast Must we give up on our current ideas of the self and identity? Listen to find out! Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes We laugh at the medieval view that disease is due to an imbalance in the four humours. Instead we see infectious illness as an attack by something external. But this can't be the whole story. After all, not everyone got Covid or suffered from it equally. There are mounting challenges to the standard attack-defence account of ...
Jan 24, 2023•45 min•Transcript available on Metacast What are the moral limits today? Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes We think we should be concerned for the well being of farm animals and those used in experiments. But where should we draw the line? Mosquitoes? Plants? Rivers? Join philosopher and bestselling author Peter Godfrey-Smith as he argues we should draw new limits for our moral consideration. Peter Godfrey-Smith is professor in the School of History and Philosophy of Science at t...
Jan 17, 2023•33 min•Transcript available on Metacast Can we change the world? Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes Camus and Kafka have both been central to 20th century writing and thought. Both wrote about the relationship of the individual to society. But they had very different visions. Camus saw the individual as having the power to change and influence society. While Kafka honed in on the limitations of the individual to change anything and the power of the state and social organisation. W...
Jan 11, 2023•42 min•Transcript available on Metacast Opening a path towards more enlightened societies with Rebecca Roache. Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes Philosophy is not just about armchair thinking. It can help us live better lives and find meaning. In this talk philosopher of mind Rebecca Roache shows us that philosophy can be the key to creating better lives, and more enlightened societies. Rebecca Roache is Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at Royal Holloway, University of L...
Jan 03, 2023•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast An interview with CosmisSkeptic Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes What is scepticism? How do we deal with our own coginitive dissonance? Can veganism ever be justified purely by reason? These are just some of the questions that Alex O'Connor, AKA CosmicSkeptic, has been grappling with on his youtube channel, viewed by over 40 million people, for the past few years. In this interview, Alex O'Connor sits down with the Institute of Art and Ide...
Dec 27, 2022•34 min•Transcript available on Metacast Should we go back to a world before civilisation? Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes With high rates of infanticide, senicide and disease, not many of us pine for the era before human civilization, farms and nations. Yet anthropologists Yuval Harari and Jared Diamond have called the agricultural revolution a"trap"and humanity’s "worst mistake”, arguing hunter gatherer life was more leisurely and free, as humans were not tied down to private ...
Dec 20, 2022•45 min•Transcript available on Metacast Neuroscience?! Quantum Physics?! Is new data on the horizon? Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes We are uncovering a new science of consciousness. A theory that is getting closer to solving the problem of the self once and for all. Or at least so claim leading neuroscientists. Some argue the reality we perceive is a controlled hallucination as a best guess to how the world really is. Others that quantum mechanics or multiple levels of brain o...
Dec 13, 2022•53 min•Transcript available on Metacast How do we know if a story is worth telling? Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes In this interview, award-winning writer and author of 'How I Live Now', Meg Rosoff, provides an insight into her writing philosophy. She discusses her origins in advertising, why the theme of adolescence fascinates her, and how a passion for horse-riding inspired the idea of 'throughness' which encapsualtes the relationship between the conscious and unconscious mi...
Dec 06, 2022•11 min•Transcript available on Metacast Should we give up the dream of certainty? Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes We look for certainty to know where we are, to feel safe. Descartes founded modern Western philosophy on the search for certainty. And in our daily lives we have institutions to create the illusion of certainty, marriage in the precarious world of relationships, schools and universities in the world of knowledge. For psychologists tell us that uncertainty is one of ...
Nov 29, 2022•43 min•Transcript available on Metacast Can science and religion coexist? Listen to find out! Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes In this interview, Alister McGrath, the Andreas Idreos Professor of Science and Religion at the University of Oxford, explores the relationship between science and certainty. He charts his path from atheism to Christianity, and discusses how his faith is consistent with his scientific beliefs. McGrath asserts that reason is not a universal concept, but r...
Nov 22, 2022•13 min•Transcript available on Metacast Have mundane setbacks become catastrophic? Our experts discuss. Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes Trauma was traditionally associated with events such as war, assault and natural disasters. Now it is increasingly used to describe everyday experiences like personal criticism or romantic rejection, and of becoming an empty therapeutic buzzword. Some psychologists argue that we risk undermining diagnoses of serious disorders by treating the mu...
Nov 15, 2022•45 min•Transcript available on Metacast Beyond right and wrong? Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes Politicians, scientists, experts, specialists and even philosophers frequently claim to be right and to have understood how things ultimately are. Yet at the same time they know this can't plausibly be the case. In the history of humankind there is no theory that has been shown to be definitive, no claim that cannot be disputed. Nor can we imagine a time when such dispute will come t...
Nov 08, 2022•51 min•Transcript available on Metacast Are we right to abandon objective truth? Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes It has been forty years since postmodernism swept through the academy changing the character of the arts and social sciences, impacting everything from literary criticism to anthropology, art history to sociology. Soon after it invaded culture generally and technical terms such as 'deconstruction' became widespread. Yet now its critics, including members of the Briti...
Nov 01, 2022•44 min•Transcript available on Metacast Are we incarcerating the innocent? Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes Note: this episode was recorded live at our philosophy festival HowTheLightGetsIn. Some argue behaviour is a product of our genes. Others that upbringing and environment play the primary role in determining who we are. So do we carry no responsibility for our actions? Courts have on occasion made judgments in this light. In 2006 Bradley Waldroup was acquitted of murder bec...
Oct 25, 2022•44 min•Transcript available on Metacast Is it bad if we are? Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes From the evening news to the latest films and novels - we are attracted to crises and the trials and tribulations of life. The pandemic brought stories of human suffering, whether from illness, isolation or joblessness, which we readily consumed. But the healthiness of this fascination with misery is questionable, potentially leaving us with a distorted picture of the state of affairs a...
Oct 18, 2022•47 min•Transcript available on Metacast How did consciousness come into existence? Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes 'Steven Pinker and Sam Harris have argued "the emergence of consciousness is simply incomprehensible". While recent neuroscientists have concluded "there is no convincing function to be found for consciousness". But if so, why are we conscious? Is consciousness an accurate description of what's happening to us, a sort of internal dashboard of the current state of a...
Oct 11, 2022•52 min•Transcript available on Metacast Do we need suffering to lead a meaningful life? Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes From the plots of Hollywood movies to the roots of Christianity, many see value in adversity and suffering. Be it in character building boot camps or overcoming the trials of a difficult childhood or adult life. Yet the great majority of us do our very best to avoid suffering in our own lives. Should we conclude that the value of adversity and suffering is an ...
Oct 04, 2022•46 min•Transcript available on Metacast Is language capable of communicating experience? Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes We think sharing experience is essential to being human. At an individual level, we share experiences to get to know others and understand them. Yet from the taste of an apple to giving birth, we know we cannot fully describe the experience to someone who has not already had it. Many now also maintain that it is impossible to communicate the experience of dis...
Sep 27, 2022•44 min•Transcript available on Metacast Can empirical observation lead us to the truth? Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes From Newton to Darwin, Curie to Einstein, science has been built on empirical observation. Now the very idea of neutral observation is under threat. In a postmodern world it is claimed all observation is perspectival, everything we see influenced by what we already think. The founder of quantum mechanics, Heisenberg went further arguing that observing reality ...
Sep 20, 2022•45 min•Transcript available on Metacast Is pantheism more radical than atheism? Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes Pantheism is the radical belief that reality and god are one and the same thing. Why has it been so feared for 400 years? Philosopher and author of Strange Wonder, Mary-Jane Rubenstein shows how the idea threatens much more than just religion. Mary-Jane Rubenstein is Professor of Religion at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, USA. Her book Worlds Without End: The Man...
Sep 13, 2022•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast Are 'facts' a tool for manipulation? Listen to find out! Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes Facts and reason are essential if we are to make progress and create a better world. At least that's how it used to be. But now it seems everyone has their own 'facts'. Our political leaders have 'alternative' facts, but so, it is also claimed, do the liberal elite and the mainstream media. Meanwhile, reason has been derided by many as a typically mal...
Sep 06, 2022•45 min•Transcript available on Metacast Can we be sure there is a physical reality? Our philosophers and scientists debate. Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes No-one who has ever stepped on a Lego brick could doubt the reality of physical objects. Yet from Heraclitus to George Berkeley, many philosophers claimed to have disproven the existence of things. Now even high-energy particle physicists are inclined to agree and describe material stuff as energy, or even as mathemati...
Aug 30, 2022•45 min•Transcript available on Metacast Does nature always know best? Yuval Noah Harari and Slavoj Žižek debate. Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes Most think of nature as good, while humans and human interventions are often seen as problematic and even on occasion evil. From eradicating e-numbers from our diets to refusing vaccines, many are motivated by the idea that nature knows best. Yet malaria is natural, the malaria vaccine is not. Crop failure, hurricanes, tsunamis - all a...
Aug 24, 2022•46 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
