Philosophy For Our Times
441 episodes - English - Latest episode: 5 days ago - ★★★★ - 260 ratingsPhilosophy for our Times is a free philosophy podcast bringing you the latest talks and debates from the world’s leading thinkers. We host weekly episodes on today’s biggest ideas in news, society, culture, politics, science and arts. Subscribe today to never miss an episode.
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Episodes
A Politics of Hope | Owen Jones
April 13, 2017 19:07 - 38 minutes - 35.3 MBLooking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes Where are the alternatives to injustice and uncertainty? Author of The Establishment Owen Jones makes the case for an end to despair and a new era of politics. There are thousands of big ideas to discover at IAI.tv – videos, articles, and courses waiting for you to explore. Find out more: https://iai.tv/podcast-offers?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=shownotes&utm_campaign=a-politics-of-hope See Priv...
Gravity | Laura Mersini-Houghton, Erik Verlinde, Frank Wilczek
April 06, 2017 19:45 - 40 minutes - 37.4 MBLooking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes We all think we know what gravity is. But where gravity comes from stumped Newton, and 300 years later we are no closer to an explanation. We don't even have a mathematical account of gravity that applies in all situations. Why is a force so central to the universe so elusive in its character? Theoretical physicist Laura Mersini Houghton, Nobel Prize-winner Frank Wilczek and string theorist Eric Ve...
Beyond Experience | Tara Shears, Hilary Lawson, Alison Milbank
March 28, 2017 12:31 - 46 minutes - 43 MBLooking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes We think we know what is real and what is not. Yet strangely we can't even agree what reality is made of - everyday things, particles and energy, or language and thought. Is reality essentially incomprehensible because it is beyond us? Or do we just need time and patience to uncover the truth? CERN physicist Tara Shears, author of Closure and post-postmodern metaphysician Hilary Lawson, and theolo...
The Emperor's New Genes | Dennis Noble, Anne Bowcock, Rupert Sheldrake
March 21, 2017 18:23 - 46 minutes - 42.6 MBLooking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes The $3bn Human Genome project to uncover the genetic cause of disease was billed as ground breaking. Despite frequent positive newspaper headlines, critics argue we have uncovered almost nothing about disease. Will it eventually prove useful or are genes not the blueprint for life we had imagined? Author of The Science Delusion, Rupert Sheldrake, Imperial College geneticist Anne Bowcock, and author...
The Limits of Freedom | Claire Fox, Julian Le Grand, Theodore Dalrymple
March 14, 2017 14:24 - 33 minutes - 30.5 MBLooking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes Freedom is a goal we all endorse. Yes as neuroscience shows and history suggests, we are less content when we have more choice. Is too much freedom paradoxically debilitating? Do we need constraints to thrive, and might our chains be key to our freedom? Or is this a dangerous conceit of the privileged and free? Psychiatrist Theodore Dalrymple, Blair's former Senior Policy Advisor Julian Le Grand a...
The Illusion of Sense | Hilary Lawson, Rupert Read, Ophelia Deroy
March 07, 2017 10:54 - 46 minutes - 42.8 MBLooking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes From bats to beetles, animals sense the world differently in order to survive. Yet we think seeing and feeling tell us how things really are. Might our senses be radically limited? Are science and logic routes to escape our sensory limitations, or is feeling the rain on our skin the closest we get to truth? Cognitive neuroscientist Ophelia Deroy, philosopher and author of Philosophy for Life Ruper...
A Tribal World | Julie Bindel, Brendan O'Neill, Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, Simon Glendinning
February 28, 2017 10:52 - 46 minutes - 42.3 MBLooking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes We see community and society as good. Yet communities are also fortresses of privilege and conformity, as migrants know only too well. Is the tribe, from the football team to the nation, to be feared and contained? Or is finding our place in a larger group the core of what it is to be human? Author of Exotic England Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, editor of Spiked Brendan O'Neill, journalist Julie Bindel an...
Madness and Wisdom | Richard Bentall, Patricia Casey, Robert-Rowland Smith
February 21, 2017 10:04 - 42 minutes - 39.3 MBLooking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes Madness is understood as the opposite of reason. Yet as Van Gogh and Nietzsche attest, madness can also be an inexplicable source of insight. Might madness be a strange form of wisdom rather than its diseased opposite? Or is this to make light of a condition that requires treatment? Author of Madness Explained Richard Bentall, psychiatrist Patricia Casey, and philosopher and author of Death Drive ...
Love Story | Helen Croydon, Naomi Goulder and Anders Sandberg
February 14, 2017 19:05 - 35 minutes - 32.2 MBLooking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes We want "I love you" to mean forever. But neuroscientists claim three years into a relationship and romantic activity in the brain has ceased. Can love only be known in short doses? Should we accept romance as fleeting and abandon long term commitments, or can we outwit evolution and make love last? Screw the Fairytale author Helen Croydon joins Oxford transhumanist Anders Sandberg and Philosopher...
The Known, The Strange And The New | John Ellis, Robert Rowland-Smith, Janne Teller
February 07, 2017 11:14 - 47 minutes - 43.6 MBLooking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes From Aristotle to Einstein humans have tried to make sense of the world. Yet despite huge advances a final explanation looks ever distant. What makes our lives and the world so puzzling and inexplicable? Is it the limitation of the human brain or is language not able to describe reality? Or is it too soon to give up on finding light in the darkness? Eminent CERN physicist John Ellis joins philosop...
E31 | The Known, The Strange And The New | John Ellis, Robert Rowland-Smith, Janne Teller
February 07, 2017 11:14From Aristotle to Einstein humans have tried to make sense of the world. Yet despite huge advances a final explanation looks ever distant. What makes our lives and the world so puzzling and... Philosophy for our Times features debates and talks with the world’s leading thinkers on today’s biggest ideas. This live recording podcast is brought to you by the Institute of Art and Ideas – described by Total Politics as “Europe’s answer to TED” and host to the annual philosophy and music festiva...
Dreaming The Future | Natalie Bennett, Phillip Blond, Roger Scruton
January 24, 2017 12:13 - 46 minutes - 42.9 MBLooking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes We all want a better world, and we seemingly make progress, with more technology and less prejudice. Yet ideals and utopias are strangely difficult to imagine, let alone achieve. Is it that we just lack imagination or are leaders inherently corrupt? Or is there something impossible in the very idea? Philosopher and author Roger Scruton, former Green Party Leader Natalie Bennett and MP and ResPubli...
Thinking Dangerously, Living Differently | Angie Hobbs, Adrian Moore, Mark Vernon
January 17, 2017 10:44 - 45 minutes - 41.7 MBLooking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes Philosophy as therapy is an ancient idea. Endorsed by Wittgenstein and popularized by self-help books. But isn't philosophy about understanding even if the insights are uncomfortable? Can philosophy be a dynamic force changing how we think and what we can do? Or does it serve only as a guide to everyday life? Oxford philosopher Adrian Moore, former priest and author of Wellbeing Mark Vernon and Pl...
Sisters and Sisterhood | Myriam Francois, Margaret Heffernan, Kimberlé Crenshaw
January 10, 2017 13:05 - 46 minutes - 42.2 MBLooking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes More women MPs, more women CEOs, women it would seem are on the move. Yet the gap between successful women and the rest is growing. Might feminism's success paradoxically harbour the end of the sisterhood as we swap one inequality for another? Or are female care workers and CEOs still on the same side? American civil rights advocate Kimberlé Crenshaw joins Wilful Blindness author Margaret Hefferna...
The Future of Human Enhancement | Anders Sandberg, Richard Morgan, Nicky Ashwell
January 03, 2017 14:24 - 28 minutes - 26.2 MBLooking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes Designer babies and human enhancement were once confined to fiction. Now biotechnology allows designer genetics, and many already choose the sex of their children. Where will this technology lead the human race? Should we be nervous of the ability to enhance ourselves or embrace an exciting new future for humankind? Science fiction author Richard Morgan, founder of Humanity+ David Pearce, and bebi...
Owning our Bodies | Anne Phillips, John Harris, Brooke Magnanti
December 20, 2016 00:00 - 28 minutes - 25.7 MBLooking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes If we have rights and ownership of anything it is surely of our own body. Yet we cannot dispose of it as we please, intoxicants are outlawed, and selling our body for sexual pleasure or organ donation is restricted. Is our body strangely not our own after all? Should we insist on our rights and freedom or do we need to be protected from ourselves? During this panel Belle de Jour blogger Brooke Mag...
When Time Stands Still | Lee Smolin, Michael Duff, Eleanor Knox
December 13, 2016 00:00 - 30 minutes - 27.9 MBLooking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes We structure our lives on the flow of time. Yet physicists since Einstein have argued that all time, past, present and future, is like space provided in a single block. Is the flow of time an illusion? Are we deceived when we feel time passing, or is it time to strike the strangeness from our science? Author of Time Reborn Lee Smolin, live from Ontario, joins Imperial theoretical physicist Michae...
The Good, Bad, & Controversial | Naomi Goulder, Brendan O'Neill, Sameer Rahim, Sam Roddick
December 06, 2016 00:00 - 51 minutes - 47.6 MBLooking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes We all want to do the right thing. But from suicide bombers to Catholic priests, we have never been able to agree on what the right thing is. Should we give up on morality and see it as a fiction designed to justify beliefs? Or, despite our disagreements, is it still the most important tool we have to measure human behaviour? Spiked Online Editor Brendan O'Neill joins NCH philosopher Naomi Goulder...
Dancing With The Devil | Simon Baron-Cohen, Rebecca Roache, Peter Dews
November 29, 2016 00:00 - 44 minutes - 40.6 MBLooking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes We think we've grown out of the belief in evil. It's not in our genes and people don't get possessed. But across media and culture, from Star Wars to Isis, evil still holds us strangely captive. Why does the devil seem to have the best tunes? Is the battle between good and evil an essential part of being human after all? Cambridge psychologist Simon Baron-Cohen joins philosopher Rebecca Roache and...
Is objective news an illusion? | John Lloyd, Hilary Lawson, Jonathan Calvert
November 22, 2016 00:00 - 33 minutes - 30.3 MBLooking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes We want news to accurately reflect the real world. But in an age when competing channels with different perspectives are instantly available should we recognise this goal as an illusion? Should we accept that journalists set the world's agenda with their own fictions and fantasies, or is there a framework of objectivity we should require and demand? Editor of The Sunday Times Insight Jonathan Calv...
Missing Evidence | Tara Shears, Rupert Sheldrake, Massimo Pigliucci
November 17, 2016 00:00 - 47 minutes - 43.8 MBLooking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes We think science is based on facts and evidence. But from gravity to dark matter, string theory to parallel universes, its theories are curiously bereft of hard evidence. Is evidence less important than we think and conjecture alone capable of leading to greater understanding? Or has science dangerously drifted into fantasy? New York philosopher Massimo Pigliucci, CERN physicist Tara Shears and aut...
How Men And Women Think | Gina Rippon, Simon Baron-Cohen, Helena Cronin
November 10, 2016 00:00 - 32 minutes - 29.9 MBLooking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes Many neuroscientists believe disorders of the mind will be solved when we understand the differences between the male and female brain. Yet is is frequently argued that men and women are not born but made. Are mental differences between the sexes real? Or is this just sexism dressed up as science? Cambridge psychologist Simon Baron-Cohen, Darwinian philosopher Helena Cronin and eminent neuroscient...
March Of The Machines | Roger Penrose, Nigel Shadbolt, Warren Ellis
November 03, 2016 00:00 - 43 minutes - 39.9 MBLooking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes Evil artificial intelligences are luckily confined to fiction. Yet leading scientists claim that intelligent machines are 'the most serious threat facing mankind'. Are they right or could a mind free from human prejudices create a better world? Or is all talk of artificial intelligence a deluded fantasy? Physicist Roger Penrose, computer scientist Nigel Shadbolt and novelist and digital age icon ...
Love Incorporated | Catherine Hakim, Mark Salter, Richard Coles
October 27, 2016 00:00 - 50 minutes - 46.6 MBLooking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes As Romeo and Juliet showed, love is a wild and unpredictable force even when faced with reason and control. But we join online dating sites to increase our probability of finding it. Are emotions and intimacy rational choices that can be measured and explained, or is this the sort of reductionist thinking that love seeks to escape? Broadcaster and priest Richard Coles, Erotic Capital theorist Cath...
The Dark Side of the Universe | Erik Verlinde, Michael Duff, Massimo Pigliucci
October 20, 2016 11:08 - 45 minutes - 41.6 MBLooking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes Nearly twenty years have passed since scientists first proposed a mysterious force, Dark Energy, pushing our universe apart. Yet there is no direct evidence for it or any idea what it might be. Might our theories of the universe be profoundly mistaken or is an explanation of Dark Energy around the corner? M-Theorist Michael Duff, Philosopher Massimo Pigliucci and String Theorist Erik Verlinde chas...
Eternal Tales | Stanley Fish, Joanna Kavenna, Barry Smith
October 13, 2016 00:00 - 42 minutes - 38.9 MBLooking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes While the world turns we think ideas, right or wrong, are eternal. Yet meaning changes over time and context. Should we conclude that, like the material world, ideas are transient and knowledge and morality passing stories? Or is the eternal in our grasp after all? New York Times columnist and author of The Trouble with Principle Stanley Fish, philosopher of language Barry C. Smith and award-winni...
Everything We Know Is Wrong | Lawrence Krauss, Kenneth Cukier, Steve Fuller
October 06, 2016 00:00 - 39 minutes - 35.8 MBLooking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes At a time of uncertainty and doubt, we often suppose that science alone can uncover the truth. Yet a recent paper found that 90% of scientific studies are not reproducible. Should we see science as a flawed method and look elsewhere for our truths, or is it the only direct line to reality we’ve got? Outspoken philosopher of science Steve Fuller, Economist Data Editor Kenneth Cukier and bestselling...
The Crisis of the West | Gita Sahgal, Philip Collins, Kwasi Kwarteng
September 29, 2016 00:00 - 50 minutes - 46.4 MBLooking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes Western values have been extraordinarily successful. Yet now we seem on the back foot, unsure of ourselves and sometimes embarrassed at our own past. Beset with postmodern doubts, do we need to revive belief in the values and importance of our ideals? Or is the age of the West at an end? Eminent Indian activist Gita Sahgal, Tony Blair's former Chief Speechwriter Philip Collins, and Conservative po...
Doing Right And Feeling Good | Anders Sandberg, Simon Baron-Cohen, Peter Dews
September 22, 2016 00:00 - 46 minutes - 42.8 MBLooking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes We think empathising with others is the route to a better world. But studies show that empathy encourages us to help one named child over ten anonymous others. Is morality perhaps not about empathy at all? Does the moral way to act have more to do with thinking than feeling, or is empathy a vital force for good? Zero Degrees of Empathy author Simon Baron-Cohen, philosopher Peter Dews and Oxford Tr...
Playing Dice With The Universe | Chiara Marletto, Michael Duff, Peter Cameron
September 15, 2016 00:00 - 48 minutes - 44.5 MBLooking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes 'God does not play dice with the universe' Einstein famously argued. Yet contemporary physics embeds just such dice playing at the core of its account. Is the universe really unknowable even to itself? Or as Einstein implied is this misguided and its secrets remain to be uncovered? Oxford Constructor theorist Chiara Marletto, mathematician Peter Cameron and string theorist Michael Duff untangle ca...
The Dance Of Life | David Chalmers, Susana Martinez-Conde, Peter Hacker
September 13, 2016 00:00 - 42 minutes - 38.8 MBLooking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes Our life is made up of experiences. But what experience is remains a mystery. Heidegger thought it inexplicable and neuroscientists cannot find its location. Do we just need a better theory to uncover its secrets? Or is experience somehow both all that we have and yet not part of this world? Formulator of the hard problem of consciousness David Chalmers, Oxford philosopher Peter Hacker and New Yor...
Capitalism And Anarchy | Aaron Bastani, Stephen King, Deirdre McCloskey
September 08, 2016 11:05 - 39 minutes - 36.4 MBLooking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes Few take anarchism and the abandonment of organised government as a viable political goal. Yet in economics, capitalism is just such a leaderless anarchic system. Might a radically decentralised political system be more credible than we think? Or is centralised government necessary in politics if anything is to be achieved? Senior economic advisor at HSBC Stephen King, author of Bourgeois Dignity...
Unnatural Laws | Nancy Cartwright, John Ellis, Rupert Sheldrake
September 07, 2016 00:00 - 43 minutes - 40.2 MBLooking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes From Newton's laws to E=mc2, we think we have uncovered the secrets of the universe. But some claim these laws evolve and others point to their human and cultural origins. Might eternal natural laws be human hubris? Or is the mind of God in our grasp? CERN physicist and coiner of the term "Theory of Everything" John Ellis, author of The Science Delusion Rupert Sheldrake and American philosopher of...
The People's Champion | Owen Jones, Michael Howard, Phillip Blond
September 07, 2016 00:00 - 42 minutes - 38.7 MBLooking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes We believe democracy leads to a fairer world. Yet almost all governments claim to be democratic including China, Russia and Syria. And 50 years after the abolition of hanging, UK polls still show a majority in favour. Is democracy illusory and troublingly incoherent? Or is an ideal democracy yet to be fully realised? Author of The Establishment Owen Jones, ResPublica director and author of Radical...
Rethinking Capital | Paul Krugman, Stephen Dorrell, Alex Callinicos
September 06, 2016 00:00 - 44 minutes - 40.3 MBLooking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes As China and Russia adopt their own variants, the reign of capitalism seems absolute. Yet there are many who wish for an alternative and some who claim a final crisis is in the making. Is there a radical alternative that we have not yet discovered? Or is the reality that capitalism is the only viable economic system? Former Secretary of State for Health Stephen Dorrell, Nobel Prize-winning economi...
Time, Space And Being | Michela Massimi, Julian Barbour, Huw Price
September 05, 2016 00:00 - 46 minutes - 42.3 MBLooking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes We think space and time are the structure of the universe. Yet Einstein argued 'space and time are modes by which we think and not conditions in which we live'. And philosophers, Kant and Heidegger, saw space and time as the framework of thought not the world. Are space and time just a human fantasy? Physicist and author of The End of Time Julian Barbour, Cambridge metaphysician Huw Price and phi...
The Word And The World | Paul Boghossian, Joanna Kavenna, Ray Monk
September 04, 2016 00:00 - 48 minutes - 44.2 MBLooking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes The power of words is a wonder, and language perhaps our greatest skill. Yet the gap between the sound of a bell and its description is huge. Are the limits to language so profound that the big questions of science and philosophy are beyond us? Or can everything be said if we try hard enough? Director of the New York Institute of Philosophy Paul Boghossian, Wittgenstein biographer and philosopher ...
In Search Of The Self | Simon Blackburn, Mary Midgley, Colin Blakemore
September 03, 2016 00:00 - 40 minutes - 37.3 MBLooking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes There is no self, no 'I', only a flickering illusion. So claim many neuroscientists and philosophers. Yet for the rest of us, the denial of the self feels like a bitter pill to swallow. Is the self a fantasy? Or is it essential to our being and consciousness? Cambridge and NCH philosopher Simon Blackburn, neuroscientist Colin Blakemore, philosopher and author of Are You an Illusion? Mary Midgley s...
Mind, Myth And Madness | Richard Bentall, Simon Baron-Cohen, Dinesh Bhugra
September 02, 2016 00:00 - 47 minutes - 43.8 MBLooking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes From schizophrenia to depression we assume our psychiatric diagnoses are real. But as the mental health epidemic turns global, the categories now seem like the cause. Is it time to abandon our biological account of mental illness? Or is it the best strategy we've got? Polly Toynbee interrogates Cambridge psychologist Simon Baron-Cohen, author of Madness Explained Richard Bentall and Professor of M...
Matter And Mind | Markus Gabriel, Ray Brassier, Eva Jablonka
September 01, 2016 00:00 - 47 minutes - 43.9 MBLooking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes Neuroscience has enabled us to explain how the brain affects the body. Yet there is no theory to explain how the matter of the brain creates thought and experience. Is consciousness inexplicable because it is not part of the material world? Or is it somehow physical after all and within our grasp? German philosopher Markus Gabriel, philosopher and author of Nihil Unbound Ray Brassier, and evolutio...
After the End of Truth | John Searle, Hilary Lawson, Hannah Dawson
August 31, 2016 00:00 - 43 minutes - 39.5 MBLooking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes A generation raised on Foucault and Derrida has learned to distrust claims to objective truth. Yet the mantra that 'there is no truth' is a paradox. Do we need a new conception of fantasy and reality to free us from the tyranny of truth makers and the paradoxes of postmodernists alike? American philosopher John Searle, post-postmodernist Hilary Lawson and Historian of Ideas at KCL Hannah Dawson un...