Philosophy Talk

Does life have a meaning? If we were created by a powerful God, would that give our lives meaning? Who gave God’s existence meaning? What if we were created by a crazy scientist wholly for the purpose of irritating their spouse? John and Ken search for meaning with Howard Wettstein from UC Riverside.

We shouldn’t be mean to animals. Is that because animals have rights, like people do? Or is it just because people care about animals? Is it intrinsically worse to step on dog than on a spider? John and Ken play nice with Lori Gruen from Wesleyan University, author of Ethics and Animals: An Introduction.

Is there a right and a wrong way to speak English? Is there really something wrong with saying, “Hopefully, we’ll have a good century,” or “Where is the library at?” or “There is no way to correctly split an infinitive”? Is grammatical purity just snobbism? John and Ken don’t hold their tongues with linguist and NPR commentator Geoff Nunberg.

What can we learn from baseball? Are the passions we have for our baseball teams and heroes irrational?  If so, what makes passions for families, cities, countries, universities, or radio stations more rational? Are all allegiances and loyalties ultimately arbitrary?  Eminent Kant scholar and baseball fan extraordinare Allen Wood visits.

How is taxation different from stealing? What right does the government have to take some of our money? No taxation without representation? What difference does representation make? John and Ken pay their dues with Barbara Fried from the Stanford Law School.

Is the conscious mind just the brain or something more? Can science explain consciousness? How does Ken know that John is a conscious being and not just an automaton programmed to act like a conscious being? Or is John just an automaton? John and Ken consciously welcome David Chalmers from the Australian National University, author of The Conscious Mind: In Search of a Fundamental Theory.

What is humor? What makes some jokes funny? Why did the chicken cross the road? Tune in for deep thoughts and big laughs as Ken, John and guest Ted Cohen, author of Jokes: Philosophical Thoughts on Joking Matters, discuss the philosophical aspects of humor.

Has science replaced religion? Can one be religious and maintain a scientific viewpoint? Does belief in evolution undermine morality or belief in God, or vice versa? Ken and John take on the big questions with George Ellis from the University of Cape Town, author of On the Moral Nature of the Universe.

Nietzsche. Ken and John and Übermensch-at-large Brian Leiter discuss everyone’s favorite syphilitic philosopher. Was he a mysogynistic Nazi-supporter, or an artistic visionary who sought to set us free from our moralistic chains? Boring radio is dead.

Does the free market provide incentives for behavior that is problematic from a moral perspective? Or does the free market punish morally problematic behavior? Is respecting the free market itself moral, insofar as respecting the free market is also respecting individual freedom of choice? John and Ken enter the marketplace of ideas with Elizabeth Anderson from the University of Michigan, author o...

When is genetic manipulation morally permissible? For health? Beauty? Wit? What sorts of animals is it acceptable to clone? Should we ban stem cell research? John and Ken discuss cloning and the ethical issues surrounding genetic engineering with Hank Greely from the Stanford Law School.

Does America’s drug problem rest on confused philosophy? Ken and John discuss the philosophical issues underlying arguments for and against the legalization of drugs with Peter De Marneffe from Arizona State University, co-author of The Legalization of Drugs.

Ken and John debate (use?) the insanity defense. What difference does it make if the person who commits a crime is, in one way or another, mentally ill? Does this make punishment illegitimate? Why is punishment, rather than therapy, ever legitimate? Which sorts of mental illness should exempt a criminal from punishment? Inability to know right from wrong? Inability to resist compulsion? Irrational...

Patriotism versus Comopolitanism: Is your loyalty to America and Americans more important than the common humanity you share with everyone on the globe?

With what right does the state say who can and cannot marry? The state has, at various times, said that people of different races cannot marry, that people of the same sex cannot marry, that no one can marry more than one person at at time. But with what legitimate authority can the state make such prohibitions? John and Ken welcome Richard Mohr from the University of illinois at Urbana-Champaign,...

Is race a discredited pseudo-scientific category? Or a real dimension of difference among humans? Or a socially constructed reality? What difference does it make? John and Ken question the category of race with Anthony Appiah from Princeton University.

Pick your favorite age. You are healthy, career thriving, family intact (at least pretend!). Would you like to live forever at that age, in that health, with those friends and family members also living forever with you? Immortality, on earth? How about an extra fifty or one hundred years or two hundred beyond your present life expectancy? Yes! Think of all I could get done! No. I would be bored!...

What is the difference between mere aggression and preemptive self defense?  Can you really permissibly “defend” yourself against an attack that hasn’t even begun?  How does preemptive self defense differ from preventive war, from humanitarian intervention? John and Ken do not pre-empt their questions to George R. Lucas Jr., Professor of Ethics and Public Policy at the U.S. Naval Academy.

Many philosophers have been tempted to condemn lying as an absolute evil. The problem is that as soon as you articulate some absolute principle such as “Never lie!” you can almost immediately think of circumstances in which lying seems the better course.

What is terrorism? Is terrorism morally worse than other forms of warfare. Was Truman’s decision to drop the A-bomb and act of terrorism? Is the US a terrorist State? Is terrorism an insult the powerful use to deligitimate the only means of resistance open to the disempowered?

Will Computers someday be able to have humanlike consciousnes and intelligence? Will they someday outstrip the thinking of humans? Would it matter if they did? Or is Artificial Intelligence on fundamentally the wrong track?