Egg Timer Philosophy

Should society regulate objectionable speech?  This episode of the egg timer considers and critiques John Stuart Mill's answer to this long standing and difficult question. Send over your thoughts, questions or ideas for future episodes to: eggtimerphilosophy@gmail.com Image Attribution: By BeenAroundAWhile at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=45...

Do we have voluntary control over our beliefs?  It turns out probably not in the vast majority of cases.  This episode explains why this is the case and explore the relationship between freedom and belief. Send over your thoughts, questions or ideas for future episodes to: eggtimerphilosophy@gmail.com Image Attribution: By User:Lbeaumont based on image by Mila / Brocken Inaglory - This f...

Do the evils of the world provide evidence against the existence of God?  Listen in as this question is explored on this episode of the egg timer. Send over your thoughts, questions or ideas for future episodes to: eggtimerphilosophy@gmail.com Art Attribution: By Michelangelo - English Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Sistine_jonah.jpg, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org...

What principles of justice would people agree to under a veil of ignorance that prevents them from knowing things about themselves such as their ethnicity, gender identity, and sexual orientation? John Rawls says, the 'difference principle' and the 'liberty principle'.  This episode breaks down and discuss each of these ideas. Send over your thoughts, questions or ideas for future episodes to...

How do we create a just society? In this episode of the egg timer we take a look at how John Rawls used the idea of ignorance to provide a very inventive answer to this question. Send over your thoughts, questions or ideas for future episodes to: eggtimerphilosophy@gmail.com Image Attribution: English: Published by the Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. Photograph taken by Alec Rawls, John...

This episode of the egg timer tackles the question: what are rights?  In order to answer this question the relationship between rights and obligations is cracked open.   Send over your thoughts, questions or ideas for future episodes to: eggtimerphilosophy@gmail.com Image Attribution: By Rowland Scherman - U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Public Domain, https://commons....

If you knew every physical fact about the world but had only experienced the confines of a black and white room would you learn anything new when you see a ripe red tomato for the first time?  This episode of the egg timer considers this thought experiment and the threats to the physicalist world view that it poses. Send over your thoughts, questions or ideas for future episodes to: eggtimerp...

This episode of the egg timer delves into the depths of Nirvana through Buddha's third and fourth noble truths.  This episode is a continuation of last week's episode that explored Buddha's first and second noble truths. Send over your thoughts, questions or ideas for future episodes to: eggtimerphilosophy@gmail.com Art Attribution: By Daderot - Own work, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/...

This episode of the egg timer takes a look at Buddha's first and second noble truths.  Particular attention will be given to the idea of attachment. Send over your thoughts, questions or ideas for future episodes to: eggtimerphilosophy@gmail.com Art Attribution: By Daderot - Own work, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=41616919

How should the state be defined?  This episode of the egg timer takes a look at Max Weber's influential attempt to answer this question.  Send over your thoughts, questions or ideas for future episodes to: eggtimerphilosophy@gmail.com Image Attribution: Joseph A. Lambach, U.S. Marine Corps, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Is believing that God exists a good rational bet to place?  Blaise Pascal thought so.  This episode of the egg timer takes a closer look at this divine wager. Art Attribution: By unknown; a copy of the painting of François II Quesnel, which was made for Gérard Edelinck en 1691[réf. nécessaire]. - Own work, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12193020

This episode of the egg timer takes a look at Jean Paul Sartre's notions of bad faith and authenticity.  Many claim to value freedom a great deal but bad faith threatens to make that valuing an act of self-deception.  The roots of this self-deception are explores as well as whether authenticity offers a path to genuine freedom. Send over your thoughts, questions or ideas for future episo...

This episode of the egg timer is devoted to existential philosophy.  In particular Sartre's existential slogan that 'existence proceeds essence' will be discussed and its implications explored. Send over your thoughts, questions or ideas for future episodes to: eggtimerphilosophy@gmail.com Art Attribution: By Eexistentialcrisiss - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index....

This episode of the egg timer is devoted to Plato's infamous allegory of the cave.   Send over your thoughts, questions or ideas for future episodes to: eggtimerphilosophy@gmail.com Art Attribution: By RaphaelQS - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=65546874

Can God make a rock so big that He cannot lift it?  This episode of the egg timer explores the answer that Thomas Aquinas gave to this seeming paradox. Send over your thoughts, questions or ideas for future episodes to: eggtimerphilosophy@gmail.com Art Attribution: By Benozzo Gozzoli - The Yorck Project (2002) 10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei (DVD-ROM), distributed by DIRECTMEDIA Publishing Gm...

This episode of the egg timer explores Henry David Thoreau's 1849 essay 'Civil Disobedience' .  Thoreau's approach to civil disobedience is put in the spotlight and we see how his view compares and contrasts with that of major 20th century advocates for civil disobedience such as Gandhi and King. Send over your thoughts, questions or ideas for future episodes to: eggtimerphilosophy@gmail.com...

This episode of the egg timer continues on the theme of knowledge from last week's episode.  But a shift in focus is made toward the work of the 11th century Islamic thinker, Al-Ghazali.  As we see, Al-Ghazali masterfully demonstrated the case for epistemic skepticism roughly 400 years before Descartes is often credited with accomplishing this feat. Send over your thoughts, questions or...

What, if anything, can we know with absolute certainty?  This episode of the egg timer takes a critical look at the answer Rene Descartes gives to this question.  His answer has provided the foundation for the last 400 years of philosophical thought surrounding knowledge. Send over your thoughts, questions or ideas for future episodes to: eggtimerphilosophy@gmail.com Art Attribution: Fra...

If you could plug into in a machine that would provide you with the experience of any desire and wish that you had while all the time your brain were hooked up to electrodes running to the machine would you flip the switch and plug into the machine?  This thought provoking question posed by Robert Nozick is the topic of this week's egg timer.  And yes Nozick wrote about this idea roughly...

A podcast where philosophical ideas are scrambled up in about five minutes. From ancient philosophy to contemporary approaches and everything in between, if you are looking for accessible, interesting, and relevant philosophy served up fast then you are in the right spot. New episode weekly. Send any comments about past episodes or suggestions for new episodes to: eggtimerphilosophy@gmail.com

If we dismantle a ship one plank at a time and replace the rotting wood with new planks of wood slowly over a few decades and then wake up to find that the ship no longer has any of the original parts left is it the same ship?  This is the puzzle of the Ship of Theseus. During this episode questions about identity over time will float past ships and be applied to persons as well. Send over yo...

This episode of the egg timer explores John Stuart Mill's 'harm principle'.  Mill offers this principle to suggest when the liberty of the person can be legitimately restricted.  The basic idea is that the liberty of people can be restricted when they harm or threaten to harm others.  What exactly this amounts to will be the crux of this episode. Send over your thoughts, questions o...

This inaugural episode of the Podcast starts things off by looking at the Ancient tradition of Stoicism.  The life approach where one is ever-cautious to avoid basking too much in glory or worrying about the problems that life might hold for us in the future.  The stoic faces life as it is and refuses to become shaped and molded by that which is outside of themselves.   Send over yo...