Philosophy For Our Times

Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here:  https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes Constrained by our genes, manipulated by technology and the cultural zeitgeist, there seems little space left for individual freedom. Should we conclude that the very idea of freedom was a mistake? Or is this a madness that threatens our personal lives and the culture on which the West was built? In this epis...

Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here:  https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes Identity politics has become ever more influential. Does our desire to belong to one tribe or another make conflict with others inevitable? Could we do away with tribal allegiances and see ourselves as part of the same human family? Or are group identities based on class, race, sexuality or nationality the on...

Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here:  https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes Although most of us are critical of gender stereotypes, few deny the existence of two discrete biological sexes. Yet biology itself shows dozens of combinations of human sex chromosomes. Could biological sex itself then be an illusion, constructed from human categories? Or is this a futile attempt to deny the...

Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here:  https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes As we explore the planets of the solar system and look out at those beyond, researchers hope they will find evidence of life. But would it be like life on earth? Or is the wish to find other life forms a science fiction fantasy that serves Hollywood well but has little to do with reality? In this episode of P...

Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here:  https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes An ever growing number of people are being treated for mental illness. Some blame the modern world, yet critics warn that psychiatrists and big pharma have an interest in describing normal human behaviour as an illness or disorder. Might we do better to give up the notion that mental distress implies illness?...

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 now a new form of moral certainty is reappearing, with much of our culture seemingly gripped by a focus on virtue and a tightly policed sense of right and wrong. Should we welcome...

Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here:  https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes Fifty years ago we landed on the moon, and imagined that in 2001 we would be travelling vast distances through space. But the fantasy died, and we went nowhere. Now a new age of space exploration is underway - this one driven by companies, billionaires, and new players like China and India. Is it an essential...

Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here:  https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes For much of human history, nature was our god. Yet now science and technology, which once we used to tame nature, are increasingly seen as plundering the planet and wrecking the climate. Were the ancients right, and nature the source of all things and that which we should guard most closely? Or should we inst...

Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here:  https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes Ever since the discovery of DNA, we have fanstasised about creating new species of animals, or even 'improved' humans. But it is only in the last few years that a new gene editing technology, CRISPR, has made this a reality. Many claim it is already unstoppable, that we will always demand solutions to disease...

Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here:  https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes Should we seek to eradicate offence? Last year Ireland voted to get rid of its blasphemy laws, and most applauded the new right to offend the Catholic Church. Yet to avoid giving offence, student campuses are introducing no-platforming and safe spaces. Should we seek to eradicate offence to create a more tole...

Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here:  https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes In a world obsessed with Trump, alternative facts have not had a great press. But it is a century and more since Nietzsche claimed 'there are no facts, only interpretations' - and fifty years since Thomas Kuhn argued that facts were theory dependent. Is an insistence on 'the facts' the dogmatic prejudice of b...

Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here:  https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes Seeing is believing, yet cognitive scientists seem to have uncovered these views as incorrect. Evolution led us to perceive what is best for survival and it turns out this has little to do with what we call 'reality'. Is reality then a creative construct that helps us to live but doesn't reflect the world? In...

Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here:  https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes The brutal mechanism of natural selection gave rise to all life on our planet. Or so the Darwinian story goes. But from mice to great whales, it now appears that animals inherit socially acquired characteristics. Is the theory of natural selection a Victorian relic, about to be replaced by a new science of cu...

Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here:  https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes In this episode of Philosophy for our Times, Saul Kripke and Timothy Williamson discuss why language has come to dominate their field, why logic matters, and what the future for the Anglo-American tradition looks like. There are thousands of big ideas to discover at IAI.tv – videos, articles, and courses wait...

Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here:  https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes Many philosophers have concluded that morality is a subjective human invention. Should we then simply encourage and argue for acts we support and do without morality altogether? Or is the authority of morality the tenuous thread that holds society together? In this episode of Philosophy for our Times, Justin...

Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here:  https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes We admire achievers, from James Watt to Mandela, Marie Curie to Emmeline Pankhurst. Yet many spend their lives waiting for weekends and holidays. And does not play, both as sex, drugs and rock and roll, and as creative and physical endeavour provide us with the most memorable events in life? In this episode o...

Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here:  https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes Talk of other universes has become fashionable amongst physicists and string theory alike. Should we recognise ours as the only universe and give up on others as fantasy science? Or is slipping through a worm hole into another universe a credible reality rather than a Hollywood fairytale? In this episode of P...

Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here:  https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes Language is widely seen as the critical tool which has set our species apart. We assume that it is successful because our words are able to describe reality. Yet from Wittgenstein to Derrida, no satisfactory theory has been able to support this intuition. Might the problem be not with our theory of language,...

Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here:  https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes 'Love conquers all' is a motto central to our culture and its Christian heritage. Yet Buddhists think love an obstacle to enlightenment. Nietzsche went further and called love barbaric ‘for it is practised at the expense of all others’. Is love for all an illusion? In this episode of Philosophy for our Times,...

Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here:  https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes The self is an illusion, our passions a by-product of the brain. Or so neuroscientists and philosophers would have us believe. Is dismissing the self a mistake driven by the desire to uphold a purely material universe? In this episode of Philosophy for our Times, author of A Field Guide to Reality Joanna Kave...

Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here:  https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes We tend to think of physical, material things as the ultimate stuff of the universe. Yet contemporary physics has largely abandoned physical things in favour of energy and fields. Should we give up on our conviction that physical stuff is the bedrock of the world, or is such talk ivory tower nonsense? In this...

Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here:  https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes We may condemn tyrants and abhor serial killers, but we are obsessed with evil and violence. Are we fascinated by evil, violent characters because they make life more exciting? Or because they express our real nature? Should we look to end this morbid obsession, or accept it as a feature of humanity? In this...

Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here:  https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes Reason was traditionally seen as the Enlightenment’s great legacy and the origin of our success. Yet reason is increasingly derided as just the rhetorical bluster of the educated elite, typically powerful and male. Is rationality just the prejudiced claim of those who are sure they are right? In this episode...

Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here:  https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes Many see the search for universal truths about the world as the noble aim of philosophy. Yet our universities largely dismiss non-Western philosophy, and critics argue that British students are taught a narrow analytic approach. Are great ideas independent of time, place and tradition? Do African conceptions...

Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here:  https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes Past and future are worlds we can never inhabit. We live of necessity in the present. But physicists and philosophers with very different outlooks, from Einstein to Derrida, claim that the present is an illusion. Are we deluded by experience into imagining the present is real? In this episode of Philosophy fo...