Philosopher's Zone
243 episodes - English - Latest episode: almost 2 years ago - ★★★★★ - 155 ratingsThe simplest questions often have the most complex answers. The Philosopher's Zone is your guide through the strange thickets of logic, metaphysics and ethics.
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Episodes
The ecology of torture
March 31, 2019 06:30 - 28 minutes - 26 MBWho is responsible for acts of torture? Individual perpetrators, certainly. But focusing on the guilt of individuals can lead us to miss the significance of context - social, political, cultural, the "ecology" of complex circumstances within which practices of torture occur.
Techne-logy
March 24, 2019 06:30 - 28 minutes - 26.1 MBThe ancient Greek root of our word "technology" is techne, which means "craftsmanship" or "art". In a world where technology today is thought of in mechanistic terms - consumer items that simply appear in our lives and perform certain functions - is it time we rediscovered the techne behind its development?
Are we enlightened?
March 17, 2019 06:30 - 28 minutes - 26 MBMost of us think of the European Enlightenment as a historical period during which society cast off the shackles of mythic thinking. Today, mythic thinking is alive and well in the era of neo-liberal capitalism - at least that's according to the analysis of critical theory, a mode of philosophy deeply rooted in the dynamics of history. Critical theory comes to us via Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno, whose 1944 work Dialectic of Enlightenment is stil...
Free speech crisis on campus?
March 10, 2019 06:30 - 28 minutes - 26.1 MBWith freedom of speech at Australian universities currently under governmental review, we explore the notion of free speech on campus. Should what gets said at universities - and who gets to say it - be regulated? And is the supposed "free speech crisis" just a front for the culture wars?
Existentialism and crisis
March 03, 2019 06:30 - 28 minutes - 26 MBExistentialism entered the popular consciousness after World War 2, and for many it still has a mid-century ring to it. But how does it look look today, especially in an age where the unfolding environmental crisis calls for something more than radical humanism?
On the way
February 24, 2019 06:30 - 31 minutes - 28.8 MBJohn Kaag is a philosopher who travelled to the Swiss Alps with the aim of putting into practice some of Nietzsche's recommendations for "becoming who you are". In his memoir Hiking With Nietzsche, what he finds is that following in the footsteps of the great German thinker requires big shoes.
Walter Benjamin: multimedia prototype?
February 17, 2019 06:30 - 31 minutes - 28.6 MBAs an intellectual oddball in the early 20th century, Walter Benjamin appears to have been a precursor of the cross-disciplinary hybrid thinkers we celebrate today. Was he the first multimedia journalist?
Ageing
February 10, 2019 06:30 - 52 minutes - 48.4 MBGetting older: comedy or tragedy? Martha Nussbaum and Saul Levmore—co-authors of Aging Thoughtfully: Conversations About Retirement, Romance, Wrinkles and Regret—talk about older bodies, intergenerational resentment, and a certain Shakespearean geriatric.
Devotion, democracy and Duterte
February 03, 2019 06:30 - 28 minutes - 26 MBIs religious language incompatible with democratic politics, as philosopher Richard Rorty believed? Not in the Philippines, where religion and democracy are working together as close allies—with troubling implications for justice and human rights.
Disability and dignity
January 27, 2019 06:30 - 28 minutes - 26 MBPhilosophers have been slow to address disability - which is odd, because disability raises a host of fascinating and challenging issues around justice, rights and fairness.
Steve Fuller on post-truth
December 16, 2018 06:30 - 25 minutes - 23 MBFor many of us, 'post-truth' means a culture where appeals to prejudice and emotion trump rational policy discussion. But for Steve Fuller, post-truth is just a by-product of the institutionalisation of knowledge—including scientific knowledge.
Reparation
December 09, 2018 06:30 - 25 minutes - 23 MBWhen individuals and communities today still suffer the consequences of past wrongs — slavery, dispossession, invasion, the theft of land and resources — what exactly is owed to them, and who should pay?
The vice of fear
December 02, 2018 06:30 - 25 minutes - 23 MBIs fear such a bad thing? Nobody likes to experience it, but fear can be a spur to virtuous action, and overcoming fear is the essence of courage. But not everyone takes such a benign view.
Plato, Buddhism and storytelling
November 25, 2018 06:30 - 25 minutes - 23 MBAt a glance, Platonic philosophy and Buddhism might seem to have little in common. But their ideas on moral development and "turning the soul" towards reality have fascinating congruences.
Are we getting anywhere?
November 18, 2018 06:30 - 25 minutes - 23 MBIs philosophy more about questions than answers? Not necessarily. It all depends on how you conceive of philosophy in the first place, particularly with regard to its institutional setting.
Playing around
November 11, 2018 06:30 - 25 minutes - 23 MBVideo games helps us to engage philosophically with issues of ethics, identity and more. This makes them potentially useful as a classroom learning tool — but what about all that violence?
Think global
November 04, 2018 06:30 - 29 minutes - 27.4 MBWriting a global history of philosophy is a tricky business - but that hasn't stopped this week's guest from taking it on.
Learning Confucius
October 28, 2018 06:30 - 25 minutes - 23 MBHow's your Confucianism? If the answer is "a little rusty", then you're not alone. Confucianism and Chinese philosophy are niche subjects in Australia, even among students of Chinese background.
alt-Nietzsche
October 21, 2018 06:30 - 25 minutes - 23 MBFew serious Nietzsche scholars today regard him as having been any sort of proto-Nazi. But that hasn’t stopped alt-right extremists today from "rediscovering" Nietzsche and claiming him as a philosophical ally.
Hospital ethics
October 14, 2018 07:30 - 25 minutes - 23 MBWhat happens when doctors and ethicists get together – particularly when the patient under discussion is a young child? And how can philosophy help?
African philosophy and the West
October 07, 2018 07:30 - 25 minutes - 23 MBHow do you articulate African philosophy in a Western academic environment? And what gets lost in the project of “translating” the former into the categories of the latter?
Evolution is evolving
September 30, 2018 07:30 - 25 minutes - 23 MBFor 160 years now, Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection has been baffling and blowing minds - and it’s not done yet. Evolution is still evolving, carrying us into an age of post-intelligent design – which brings danger as well as opportunity.
Forgiveness
September 23, 2018 07:30 - 25 minutes - 23 MB“To err is human, to forgive divine” – a popular notion, but what are we really doing when we forgive? Operating at the highest level of human sensibility? Or denying the wrongdoer an opportunity for valuable self-reflection? This week we’re picking at one of the less-interrogated areas of ethics.
Dignity and enhancement
September 16, 2018 07:30 - 36 minutes - 50.5 MBHuman dignity is one of those ideas that seem to have been around for as long as humans themselves, and few people would take issue with it. But like most ideas, human dignity has a philosophical pedigree, and there are in fact those who say we should abandon the notion—or at least modify its invocation.
Proof and beauty
September 09, 2018 07:30 - 25 minutes - 23.8 MBMathematicians routinely refer to complex proofs in aesthetic terms, citing their 'elegance' or 'beauty'. This has partly to do with the social aspect of such proofs—far from being a hermetic or exclusively cerebral practice, mathematics has never strayed too far from its roots in dialogue and debate.
Keeping them out
September 02, 2018 07:30 - 26 minutes - 24.1 MBMost people agree that nation states don’t have any moral right to control the movement of citizens within their borders, or to prevent citizens from travelling beyond those borders. If states do see a need to exclude entry to refugees and immigrants, the reasons often appeal to a need to 'preserve' national values. But those arguments may not be so robust.
Women, autonomy and social justice in China
August 26, 2018 07:30 - 25 minutes - 23 MBWomen in China have better access to education and job opportunities than ever before—yet a woman’s identity and value is still strongly linked with her role in the family, as wife and mother.
Ethics and absolutes in the classroom
August 19, 2018 07:30 - 25 minutes - 23 MBThe trouble with morality is that reasonable people keep disagreeing on what’s right and wrong. The science, as they say, isn’t settled. So that being the case, how can we argue for fixed moral standards to which everyone should sign up? And how should we introduce kids to this vexed field of inquiry?
The Pragmatists
August 12, 2018 07:30 - 25 minutes - 22.9 MBShould philosophy be the attempt to articulate truth? If you’re a pragmatist, the answer is No. William James wrote of truth as a subset of expediency, and of truth’s 'cash value'. Richard Rorty saw truth—philosophical, moral, even scientific—in terms of contingent 'vocabularies'. At a time when The Washington Post reports that the leader of the free world has made over 3,000 false claims since becoming US President, pragmatic scepticism about truth c...
Telling the story
August 05, 2018 07:30 - 25 minutes - 23 MBPhilosophy is usually thought of as the province of ideas and abstract thought. But this week’s guest is taking philosophy in a slightly different direction, yet makes perfect sense. US academic Barry Lam is the creator and host of Hi-Phi Nation, a podcast that bringing together philosophy and storytelling—the results are rather wonderful.
Remembering Stanley Cavell
July 29, 2018 07:30 - 25 minutes - 23 MBStanley Cavell, who died on June 19, was one of the world’s foremost contemporary thinkers, yet he always considered himself something of a philosophical outsider. His work ranged across the philosophy of language, aesthetics, ethics and epistemology—but also literature, cinema, and music. And his 'ordinary language' style and interest in questions of quality and value could be about to experience a renaissance.
When work stops working
July 22, 2018 07:30 - 25 minutes - 22.9 MBWhy do we work? According to Judaeo-Christian tradition, work is the result of a divine curse—and for many people in today’s labour market that comes as no surprise. And as more and more jobs become automated, fewer and fewer people will have them. An ideal future is a 'post-work' world where everybody has access to a universal basic income—but maybe there's an even better way.
On Evil
July 15, 2018 07:30 - 25 minutes - 23 MB'Evil is one of those words that seem to convey moral clarity—we all feel we know evil when we see it. But there was once a time when 'evil' simply referred to mundane mischance or wrongdoing; its transformation into something almost metaphysical is a relatively recent turn.
No laughing matter
July 08, 2018 07:30 - 25 minutes - 23 MBPhilosophers tend not to be funny—Nietzsche is a notable exception, and Plato had his moments—but philosophy can have a humorous side.
Backyard ethics: defending the NIMBY
July 01, 2018 07:30 - 25 minutes - 23 MBSuppose a new hospital or drug rehabilitation centre needs to be built. If you’re a NIMBY, then you’ll be fine with the project—as long as it doesn’t negatively affect your property value. NIMBYism is often touted as the scourge of suburbia, but maybe there’s more to it than meets the eye.
Guilty or not guilty
June 24, 2018 07:30 - 25 minutes - 23 MBSecond in a two-part series on Indian philosophy. Buddhism teaches that the self is an illusion—so what do we do with self-conscious emotions like guilt and shame, which can put useful brakes on ethical misconduct? If there’s no self to be ashamed of, how should we understand the emotion? The answer lies in an ancient series of Indian Buddhist texts: the Abhidharma.
The oblivion of India
June 17, 2018 07:30 - 25 minutes - 23 MBIndian philosophy has thousands of years of history behind it, yet Western philosophers have largely ignored it—and their assumptions about Indian philosophy may have influenced the Western philosophical canon.
Knud Loegstrup and The Ethical Demand
June 10, 2018 07:30 - 29 minutes - 27.2 MBDanish philosopher Knud Loegstrup was a contemporary of Sartre, Arendt and Levinas—but his influence outside the world of Nordic philosophy has been limited. Scott Stephens speaks with Loegstrup’s two English translators about his masterwork The Ethical Demand, and about some unexpected resonances with English moral philosopher Iris Murdoch.
Making differences
June 03, 2018 07:30 - 25 minutes - 22.9 MBWe're all keen on diversity these days—as long as it stays within proper boundaries. When it comes to moral values though, diverse perspectives can make us uncomfortable—so how do we manage it, and how can we do better?
Morals and the market
May 27, 2018 07:30 - 25 minutes - 22.9 MBNeoliberalism and human rights are often portrayed as standing in opposition to each other, with the fat cats at the big end of town pulling the economic levers. But neoliberalism and the discourse of modern human rights can actually be seen as close philosophical cousins.
Rewilding
May 20, 2018 07:30 - 25 minutes - 22.9 MBMost of us feel the itch of the primitive from time to time—to run without shoes, try a paleo diet, or just ditch the smartphone. The primitivist ideal exerts a seductive pull in tech-obsessed contemporary western society, but is the ideal based on a highly questionable set of philosophical assumptions?
The freedom of the City
May 13, 2018 07:30 - 25 minutes - 22.9 MBMay 1968 was a watershed moment in political philosophy, and its ripple effect continues. We follow the long trajectory of May '68—from the universities and streets of Paris fifty years ago, via the work of pioneering feminist Luce Irigaray, all the way to the 'New Municipalism' that’s transforming the political and social landscapes of cities around the world today.
The fate of the Common Good
May 06, 2018 07:30 - 25 minutes - 22.9 MBThe idea of the common good drove some of the most important social developments of the 20th century. Today, nations seem to be losing faith in the idea.
Who are you?
April 29, 2018 07:30 - 25 minutes - 22.9 MBThe question of exactly what constitutes identity is an old and much-contested one. Is personhood located in a community? A culture? A race? Or is it something singular and immanent, located somewhere in the deepest recesses of the individual?
The beauty imperative
April 22, 2018 07:30 - 25 minutes - 22.9 MBWhat does it mean when beauty moves from aesthetic choice to ethical ideal? The age-old belief that true beauty lies within is ever harder to sustain today. It was once sidelined as a 'women’s issue' but beauty is now taking its place as a subject for serious philosophical scrutiny.
Martin Luther King: political philosopher
April 15, 2018 07:30 - 25 minutes - 22.9 MBWe don’t routinely think of political figures as philosophers, but when but comes to Martin Luther King maybe we should. King was a deep thinker with a remarkably coherent vision of the moral life and a bracing take on some of the fundamental questions of political philosophy.
Heads up for a philosophy event—Thinking Out Loud
April 09, 2018 06:00 - 5 minutes - 4.66 MBThinking Out Loud: The Sydney Lectures in Philosophy and Society aims to bring a leading international thinker to Western Sydney University annually to present a series of public lectures. This year Rosi Braidotti will present The Human in the Age of Technology and Climate Change. The idea of ‘human’ is undergoing rapid change. Some have termed this the age of the ‘post-human’, and it might appear a moment of great promise and liberation. Yet an under...
The shadow of eugenics
April 08, 2018 07:30 - 25 minutes - 22.9 MBEugenics is a science that seems to belong back in the darkest days of the 20th century. But today, 'newgenics' has people worried, as reproductive technologies make it increasingly possible to filter out certain genetic disorders. How does this colour our notion of what constitutes a 'desirable' or 'undesirable' human subject?
Oh, the Humanities
April 01, 2018 07:30 - 25 minutes - 22.9 MBWe often hear that the academic Humanities and social sciences are in crisis—underfunded, out of touch with the job market, hamstrung by political correctness and moral relativism. So why study philosophy? And could a good dose of scientific method help to solve the problem—if indeed there is one?
Thinking small
March 25, 2018 06:30 - 25 minutes - 22.9 MBUnderstanding the human condition has been the province of many disciplines, but you wouldn’t necessarily expect microbiology to be among them. Think again!