Philosophy Talk

Science is, on the one hand, a huge enterprise funded to a great extent by the government and by industry.  On the other hand, science is supposed to be the dispassionate, objective search for truth.  What happens when the search for truth conflicts with the needs and desires of the funders?  Should those funders be allowed to censor the science they pay for?  Should scientists be free to publish...

Philosophers call a person autonomous if she is responsible not just for what she does but also for the principles and rules that guide her. But does this really make sense? Aren’t we all just products of culture, education and genes? Join John and Ken as they investigate the nature of autonomy with John Christman from Penn State University., author The Politics of Persons: Individual Autonomy and...

Freedom of speech tells us the government shouldn’t restrict the journalist.  But should anything restrict the journalist?  Should the duty to inform be limited by the duty not to betray national security, not to injure the innocent, not to corrupt the jury pool, and similar considerations?  How do we draw the line?  John and Ken welcome Dale Jacquette from Pennsylvania State University to delve i...

Humans are conscious, billiard balls are not, and computers aren’t either.  But all three are just collections of molecules, aren’t they?  What is consciousness, and does it go beyond what science can explain?  John and Ken probe the limits of scientific accounts of consciousness with Joseph Levine UMass Amherst, author of Purple Haze: The Puzzle of Consciousness.

On this special pledge-week episode, John and Ken open the phones and the inbox to their listeners, answering questions about art, politics, proof, and philosophy itself.

Various forms of skepticism play important roles in the history of philosophy.  Do we really know there are external objects?  That there are other minds?  That there is a distant (or even a not-so-distant) past?  All the evidence we have for these things seems consistent with our being in a world in which they don’t exist.  What does this tell us about life?  About philosophy?  Our hosts discuss...

Many religions contemplate some form of personal continued existence after death: reincarnation in another body, or continued being in some vastly different place like Heaven or Hell. Do any of these conceptions make sense? If so, is there any evidence for any of them? And why do people want continued existence, even immortality? Wouldn’t it be a bore? John and Ken welcome back Anne Ashbaugh of Co...

People have strong but divergent opinions about the nature of animals’ minds.  Do dogs make plans?  Do they remember specific events?  Do they dream?  Do cats recognize their owners as unified wholes, or just as collections of parts, some warm, some capable of providing food.  Could it be that whales, dolphins, elephants, and various kind of monkeys have mental lives that approach — or surpass — t...

The Austrian/British philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein exercised enormous influence over philosophy in the middle third of the last century, and his view and his life continue to fascinate thinkers around the world.  What are the basic tenets of Wittgenstein’s philosophy, and what is their enduring legacy?  Join John and Ken as they investigate the ideas and implications of one of the great philosop...

In many democracies, the judiciary is protected, to one degree or another, from the voters.  Our federal judges, for example, though appointed by elected officials, then have lifetime tenure.  In more local venues, however, many judges are directly elected.  What is the role of the judiciary in a democracy, and how much protection from democratic processes is needed?  John and Ken probe the judici...

In the Early Modern period many philosophers took ideas to be mental images of the objects they stood for.  During the 20th century, that notion fell into considerable disrepute.  Yet recent cognitive science has revived the idea that at least some of our mental representations are highly imagistic in character, not just mental representations tied to vision and perception generally.   Join John,...

Everywhere we look — in the media, in our political campaigns, in the hallowed halls of the academy — we are confronted with an endless stream of BS, spin, propaganda, half-truths, and even outright lies.  Yet for centuries, philosophers have argued that the pursuit of truth is both intrinsically good and instrumentally useful.  But if truth is really both good and useful, then why is there so muc...

Lawyers are often thought to be hardly better than hired guns, who, in the words of Plato, are paid to “make the weaker argument the stronger” — like the sophists of old.  In fact, lawyers are legally and morally bound by stringent codes of ethics.  Noted philosopher of law David Luban of Georgetown University is the guest as Philosophy Talk explores the ethical obligations of lawyers to their cli...

Does the hijacking of words by political forces tell us something interesting about the nature of language and meaning?  Would liberals by some other name smell sweeter, or are they really tax-raising, latte-drinking, sushi-eating, Volvo-driving, New York Times-reading, body-piercing, Hollywood-loving, left-wing freaks?  Ken and John welcome back Philosophy Talk favorite Geoff Nunberg, author of T...

John and Ken welcome their special guest, noted scientist and entrepreneur, Craig Venter.  From the mapping of the human genome, to the patenting of synthetic life forms, to bio-prospecting for genetic gold in the depths of the oceans and the deepest reaches of the world’s rain forests, Craig Venter has been at the forefront of a revolution in genomics.  Join the hosts and their guest as they expl...

Despite the crass commercialism that drives the production of many movies, there’s no doubt that film is a distinctive and distinctively powerful art form.  Cinematic representations move us in ways that few others do.  Film has also proven to be an outstanding vehicle for conveying philosophical ideas.   Join John and Ken as they explore both the philosophy of film and philosophy within film.

Philosophers have always been concerned with the mind.  What is consciousness? Representation?  Emotion?  Now that neuroscience is making headway on these same questions, we should ask: how should philosophy and neuroscience relate?  John and Ken discuss this question and more as they delve into neuroscientifically-minded philosophy with Patricia Churchland from UC San Diego, author of Neurophilos...

Pragmatism is perhaps America’s most distinctive contribution to philosophy.  Developed by Pierce, Dewey, and James in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, pragmatism holds that both the meaning and the truth of any idea is a function of its practical outcome.  The pragmatists rejected all forms of absolutism and insisted that all principles be regarded as working hypotheses that must bear frui...

Back in the middle ages, people thought of children simply as little adults. Modern psychology has destroyed that theory.  But then, what is a child?  How are their minds different?  And what are the moral implications of these differences for how we should treat them?  Join John and Ken as they reflect on the nature of childhood.

A scary dream brings all the fears that a scary real situation can, and a happy dream can make us feel truly happy. But what are dreams? Where do they come from? And why do they feel so real? Thinkers from Descartes to Freud have been fascinated by dreams and their philosiphical significance. Join John and Ken as they explore one of the mind’s greatest mysteries.

In America, there’s not just one governing body, there are three: executive, legislative, and judicial. You might think that separating those powers is just less efficient.  But the founding fathers put a lot of philosophical thought into coming up with a system of checks and balances.  In this episode, John and Ken discuss the separation of powers with Stanford law professor Kathleen Sullivan in...

Some have argued that there aren’t any good arguments for believing in God. Is belief in God just an act of faith without reason? Plenty of philosophers would disagree. Why are philosophers so divided on the matter? In this episode Ken and John discuss the rational arguments for believing in God with Philip Clayton from the Claremont School of Theology.

You might think our thoughts simply determine what we say. But maybe the language we speak is what really determines the thoughts we can have. As Wittgenstein famously wrote, “The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.” And Benjamin Lee Whorf held that the language you speak has a systematic influence on how you think about and interact with reality. John and Ken wrestle with the relat...

Karl Popper is a landmark figure in the philosophy of science.  His notion of “falsifiability” endures to this day and even appears in arguments about creation versus evolution.  But what does it mean for a theory to be falsifiable? And where does the idea stand in contemporary philosophy of science?  John and Ken test a few ideas on Popper and falsifiability with their Stanford colleague Denis Ph...

Rabbis and Talmudic scholars have spent centuries puzzling over theology, texts, and life.  In the process they came up with many philosophical ideas that have inspired the work of more recent philosophers such as Martin Buber and Emmanuel Levinas.  Who or what is God?  By what rules should people live?  And what does Maimonides have to say about diets and bathing? John and Ken investigate the pas...