Philosophy For Our Times

Is metaphysics back in fashion? Or is philosophy getting increasingly lost? Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here:  https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes The twentieth century began with a revolutionary new approach to philosophy. The great arguments about the nature of reality and human experience were deemed empty and meaningless. A new philosophical broom, in the form of analytic ph...

How does panpsychism clash with fundamental physics? Does it? Can we find a theory that supports science AND philosophy to finally explain consciousness? Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here:  https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes In this episode Philip Goff responds to recent critiques of panpsychism by theoretical physicists Sean Carroll and Sabine Hossenfelder, and then explores so...

How do we make decisions regarding our children in an impossibly complicated digital world? Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here:  https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes Technology is changing parenthood. From children raised by smartphones, to making choices about gene-editing and enhancement, Melanie Challenger asks what it means to be a parent in a technological age. Melanie Challen...

Is the abandonment of ritual a contemporary mistake? Listen to what our experts have to say. Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here:  https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes From greetings and introductions, to love and relationships, church services and dances, formality and ritual were once a central part of our lives. But form and ritual have been in retreat for more than a century. Ma...

How wrong was Descartes exactly? Listen to find out! Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here:  https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes Professor of Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience Anil Seth explores the ultimate mystery of our consciousness experience. In this interview, Seth discusses the misconceptions surrounding the difference between consciousness and intelligence, the link b...

Can morality lead society down dangerous roads? Listen to how our speakers deconstruct our idea of right and wrong. Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here:  https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes Many would argue that for at least a century we have been moving away from the moral certainties of traditional Christianity. Yet, a new form of moral certainty is now reappearing, with much of...

Free will? Nah... Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here:  https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes Do we have free will? Are we exercising our agency or following our predetermined destiny? How would we structure our society if we believed that individuals are not responsible for their actions? Or maybe we already do? In this interview analytic philosopher Galen Strawson discusses free wi...

Does life have meaning or is it time to embrace nihilism? Listen to find out! Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here:  https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes Humans have always sought meaning beyond themselves in stories about the gods and the “beyond”. Yet today contemporary culture and thought has left many alone with only human, and contradictory, perspectives on the universe. In the...

Can AI really help us reach our human potential? How reliant should we be on technology? Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here:  https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes We all know that the world of AI is rapidly changing. What is less obvious are the ways in which we change with it. In this talk, complex systems expert and pioneer of the world’s first empathic technology, Fotini Markopo...

Can language ever truly capture reality? Is there anything unsayable? Listen to what the experts have to say. Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here:  https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes "What we cannot speak about we must pass over in silence", famously claimed the philosopher Wittgenstein. He primarily had in mind the relationship between language and the world, and more generally t...

Have you ever wondered how animals, robots and even aliens think? Listen to find out! Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here:  https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes How do non-human minds think? Acclaimed science writer Philip Ball provides a whistle-stop tour of the kinds of minds that might exist in the universe and how these might be similar to and different from our own. Philip Ball...

Is there a universal moral code? Or are we lying to ourselves? Listen to find out. Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here:  https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes Absolute moral claims are making a resurgence along with demands for action in response. Yet at the same time many proclaim the value and importance of upholding diverse cultural outlooks with sometimes radically different mora...

Is it time to shift our perception of the universe? Listen to what the experts have to say. Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here:  https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes Since the 1970s we have understood the world through the lens of the Standard Model and its account of the forces and particles that make up the universe. But a series of deep puzzles have emerged. And now, even more s...

What is wrong with truth? Can we find a solution? Listen to find out. Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here:  https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes There are many varied voices who see the attack on objective truth as the root cause of all that is wrong in today’s society, including recently Tom Stoppard, UK Cabinet member Liz Truss, and Pope Benedict. But philosopher and renowned...

Is there a connection between philosophy and psychoanalysis? A place for discussing children in philosophy? Listen to find out. Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here:  https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes Psychoanalysis and philosophy share a deep interest in what it means to be human and what it means to be in the world. At the heart of both philosophical and psychological investigat...

There is hope for academia after all. Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here:  https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes We need a revolution. Universities are turning into corporations, students, academics and the culture at large is damaged as a result. Cambridge academics Michael Hrebeniak and Isabelle McNeill lay out their vision of how to revolutionise education by removing neo-liberal...

Is consciousness independent from our bodies? Or is it just a hallucination? Listen to find out. Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here:  https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes Somehow, within each of our brains, billions of neurons work to create our conscious experience. How does this happen? Why do we experience life in the first person? After over twenty years researching the brain,...

Why do Flat Earthers believe the world is flat even when confronted with scientific evidence? Why don't anti-vaxxers "trust the science"? Listen to find out. Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here:  https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes Dallas Campbell is one of the most celebrated science television presenters in the UK. He has been communicating complicated ideas to the nation for yea...

Have you ever wondered if birds talk to each other like we do? Listen in to find out whether we are really all that different. Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here:  https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes Many think language makes us uniquely human. Are humans no different in principle from other animals and plants? Or is language profoundly different from all other forms of communicat...

Have you ever wondered if you are a "good" person? Are any of us actually morally good? Listen in to find out. Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here:  https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes From fervent socialists to devout Christians, many have sought to live by a strict moral code. Yet from the gulags to the Inquisition it has often been those with the strictest codes who have pe...

How much risk is too much? Listen to find out! Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here:  https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes In a Covid world we have been focused on safety. Yet almost all of us choose to engage in activities, from swimming in the sea to driving a car or having a bottle of wine, that carry risks. In fact, more died globally last year from alcohol than Covid. So how do...

Was Planck wrong or was he into something? Our experts discuss. Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here:  https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes Most of us, scientists included, see physics as an attempt to provide an objective description of the world independent of human subjectivity and consciousness. Yet, Max Planck, one of major scientific figures of the twentieth century and the fou...

Could this be the end of modernity? Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here:  https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes Whether it's the discussion on rising sea levels or nuclear waste, islands have gravitated to the epicentre of the geopolitical zeitgeist. But why are we more interested in islands than ever before? Professor at the Centre for the Study of Democracy, David Chandler explores...

Should narratives reflect or escape reality? Our panellists discuss. Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here:  https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes From fairy tales to Harry Potter, from Avatar to James Bond, we love fantasy and expect our books and films to take us there. Yet at the same time we want our poems and plays, novels and movies, to reflect life and reality. Should our narrat...

Are humans beyond nature? Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here:  https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes Humans are unlike anything else in the universe. We're the only part of existence that can observe and reflect on being itself, that can choose to destroy or repair our own habitat. Or so Raymond Tallis argues in this deep dive interview into what it means to be human. Watch to find...